A Delightful Concoction

I am not sure who invented the "Scotch-a-roo" but I am quite certain they deserve some sort of award.  These delightful treats combine sugar, chocolate and peanut butter to create one amazing food experience.  If you haven't ever tried one...you probably don't live anywhere near the Salt Lake Valley and I highly recommend whipping up a quick batch. If you have enjoyed a scotch-a-roo before, this is a pleasant reminder that they are simple to make and a joy to eat!

The Recipe:
1 c. karo syrup
1 c. sugar
1 c. peanut butter
*Stir ingredients together in heavy sauce pan until sugar is dissolved- don't overcook or they will be too hard
*Stir in 6 c. corn flakes
*Press in to greased 9X13 pan
*In microwave, melt together 1 c. of chocolate chips and 1 c. of butterscotch chips.
*Spread on top of cornflake mixture
*Allow to cool then cut apart into squares and enjoy

A Delightful Concoction

I am not sure who invented the "Scotch-a-roo" but I am quite certain they deserve some sort of award.  These delightful treats combine sugar, chocolate and peanut butter to create one amazing food experience.  If you haven't ever tried one...you probably don't live anywhere near the Salt Lake Valley and I highly recommend whipping up a quick batch. If you have enjoyed a scotch-a-roo before, this is a pleasant reminder that they are simple to make and a joy to eat!

The Recipe:
1 c. karo syrup
1 c. sugar
1 c. peanut butter
*Stir ingredients together in heavy sauce pan until sugar is dissolved- don't overcook or they will be too hard
*Stir in 6 c. corn flakes
*Press in to greased 9X13 pan
*In microwave, melt together 1 c. of chocolate chips and 1 c. of butterscotch chips.
*Spread on top of cornflake mixture
*Allow to cool then cut apart into squares and enjoy

A Classic Valentine

With Valentine's Day coming up tomorrow, I've been hard at work making my traditional treat for all my loved ones.  I've spent years perfecting the perfect sugar cookie recipe.  If you love soft and fluffy cookies, this is your recipe.  I've also included my special tips and tricks for getting the perfect cookie every time.  Be sure to follow the instructions carefully.  Each step is important for a great result.

Recipe (makes 24 thick 3" cookies)
1/4 c. softened butter
1/4 c. softened margarine
1/4 c. sour cream
1 c. sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
*Cream these ingredients together until well blended and fluffy
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
*mix these ingredients together and then mix into wet ingredients.
*blend until incorporated

At this point, dough will be quite sticky. Place dough in freezer bag and chill several hours or if possible overnight.

On a lightly floured board, roll out your dough to desired thickness.

 I like mine about 1/3" thick.

Use a cookie cutter to cut shapes into dough. 

If possible, do not re-roll scraps.  The more the dough is rolled, the harder the cookie will be.

Place cut dough on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Place sheet in freezer for 2 minutes before baking.

This will prevent the cookies from spreading out and losing their shape.

After a few minutes in the freezer, place the cookies in a

preheated 400 degree oven for 7-8 minutes.

Be careful not to overcook the cookies. When the cookies are done, they should have all of the following characteristics:

Full and puffy (not sunken in the middle)

Light cream color on tops-no brown on tops

Light golden color on bottoms

Remove cookies from sheet with a spatula and cool them on a wire cooling rack.

Buttercream Frosting Recipe:
1 cube of softened butter
1/2 c. cream cheese
2 T. cream or milk
1-2 t. vanilla
1 t. lemon juice
Powdered sugar to desired texture
*Cream together all ingredients except powdered sugar. Then add powdered sugar until it is a thick but spreadable consistency

Add food coloring as desired 

 My traditional Valentine cookie is a heart with pink frosting and a cinnamon jelly heart in the center.  Oooh! Delicious!

A Classic Valentine

With Valentine's Day coming up tomorrow, I've been hard at work making my traditional treat for all my loved ones.  I've spent years perfecting the perfect sugar cookie recipe.  If you love soft and fluffy cookies, this is your recipe.  I've also included my special tips and tricks for getting the perfect cookie every time.  Be sure to follow the instructions carefully.  Each step is important for a great result.

Recipe (makes 24 thick 3" cookies)
1/4 c. softened butter
1/4 c. softened margarine
1/4 c. sour cream
1 c. sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
*Cream these ingredients together until well blended and fluffy
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
*mix these ingredients together and then mix into wet ingredients.
*blend until incorporated

At this point, dough will be quite sticky. Place dough in freezer bag and chill several hours or if possible overnight.

On a lightly floured board, roll out your dough to desired thickness.

 I like mine about 1/3" thick.

Use a cookie cutter to cut shapes into dough. 

If possible, do not re-roll scraps.  The more the dough is rolled, the harder the cookie will be.

Place cut dough on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Place sheet in freezer for 2 minutes before baking.

This will prevent the cookies from spreading out and losing their shape.

After a few minutes in the freezer, place the cookies in a

preheated 400 degree oven for 7-8 minutes.

Be careful not to overcook the cookies. When the cookies are done, they should have all of the following characteristics:

Full and puffy (not sunken in the middle)

Light cream color on tops-no brown on tops

Light golden color on bottoms

Remove cookies from sheet with a spatula and cool them on a wire cooling rack.

Buttercream Frosting Recipe:
1 cube of softened butter
1/2 c. cream cheese
2 T. cream or milk
1-2 t. vanilla
1 t. lemon juice
Powdered sugar to desired texture
*Cream together all ingredients except powdered sugar. Then add powdered sugar until it is a thick but spreadable consistency

Add food coloring as desired 

 My traditional Valentine cookie is a heart with pink frosting and a cinnamon jelly heart in the center.  Oooh! Delicious!

A Green Smoothie Girl

It's Monday morning. Have I mentioned my morning ritual...I am a green smoothie girl.  Whenever I tell people about my typical breakfast they want to know the recipe for getting 10 or more servings of good green veggies in one drink (and enjoying it). So, I thought I would post the recipe along with some pictures of the green concoction.  If you want more info or to learn some of the benefits of gulping a green smoothie every day, you can check out www.greensmoothiegirl.com.

My Recipe:
Put 1 1/2 cups of water in the bottom of a blender
Add in fresh spinach, kale or other dark leafy greens and blend until it reaches the 3 cup mark (yes, it is a lot of spinach....your body will love you!)
Add in about a cup of frozen fruit (I love strawberries, blueberries and bananas) and blend until smooth and creamy.

For an added treat I sometimes add in some organic yogurt or kefir.  This makes it light and creamy!

This recipe makes 1 quart of green smoothie for only around 150 calories! Love it!

After a few weeks of making my smoothie in a regular old blender, I upgraded to this baby.  I love my BlendTec!  You can generally pick them up at Costco for a pretty good deal.

It may look scary, but I promise, it tastes like a fruit smoothie.

I actually crave my green smoothies. They are so yummy!

A Green Smoothie Girl

It's Monday morning. Have I mentioned my morning ritual...I am a green smoothie girl.  Whenever I tell people about my typical breakfast they want to know the recipe for getting 10 or more servings of good green veggies in one drink (and enjoying it). So, I thought I would post the recipe along with some pictures of the green concoction.  If you want more info or to learn some of the benefits of gulping a green smoothie every day, you can check out www.greensmoothiegirl.com.

My Recipe:
Put 1 1/2 cups of water in the bottom of a blender
Add in fresh spinach, kale or other dark leafy greens and blend until it reaches the 3 cup mark (yes, it is a lot of spinach....your body will love you!)
Add in about a cup of frozen fruit (I love strawberries, blueberries and bananas) and blend until smooth and creamy.

For an added treat I sometimes add in some organic yogurt or kefir.  This makes it light and creamy!

This recipe makes 1 quart of green smoothie for only around 150 calories! Love it!

After a few weeks of making my smoothie in a regular old blender, I upgraded to this baby.  I love my BlendTec!  You can generally pick them up at Costco for a pretty good deal.

It may look scary, but I promise, it tastes like a fruit smoothie.

I actually crave my green smoothies. They are so yummy!

homemade bacon & eggs

Aren't these soooo clever? My friend and neighbor, we'll call her "MaryElla" has a son who is in Max's kindergarten class. Well, last Friday she made the sound treat (that is a treat that begins with the letter they are learning about that week). The letter the kids learned last week was E so she made these bacon & Eggs.

They were the cutest things. They are pretzels, white chocolate and yellow M&Ms. They were also quite yummy, you can never go wrong with chocolate and pretzels.

Again, so clever MaryElla!!!

3 words: coconut fudge frosting

At least that is what the frosting tasted like, coconut and fudge. mmm... today I had a couple of Max's friends over to play. When it was time to leave one of my friends from across the street, we'll call her "Darcie" came over to pick up one of the boys and at the same time dropped off these darling and delicious chocolate bunny cupcakes.

Not only are they darling but I pretty much had to arm wrestle them away from Max and Madeline. I won the wrestle, kind of...I ate three quarters of one. Yumm-yumm

p.s. I managed to save the last one for steve-o, he was very grateful.

weekend birthday

Our family went to Idaho this weekend to celebrate Kathy's (Steve's mom) birthday! It was a wonderful fun-filled weekend full of good food (I think I gained at least 5 pounds), good company and the joy of just being with family.

We LOVE you Kathy and Happy Birthday!!! Luvs, SBMM&H

p.s. more pics to come on our family website, the above pictures are delicious desserts made by Kathy and Ana...mmm-mmm

Rozlynn's Taco Soup

Look at me post again, I knew it, I am addicted. My husband may have to put me on an episode of "Intervention" to rid me of my daily drug. I really do neglect cleaning to blog, but who can blame me? I wonder if it's bad to blog on Sunday? I won't let my kids play on Sunday so maybe I shouldn't let myself blog either???

Anyhow, on to more pressing matters. Taco Soup. Last week my sister posted a recipe for Taco soup on her blog and I made it today for Sunday lunch/dinner, linner. I didn't have corn and I drained all the beans of their juices (not realizing I wasn't supposed to) and so it looks more like taco chili than soup. But let me tell you it is delicious! And soooo easy to make. It took me about 25 minutes start to finish. I didn't put it in the slow cooker like I should, I wanted it done quick, but I did let it simmer for about 10 minutes. I can only imagine how delicious it would taste marinating in a slow cooker.

For the recipe go here, you will not regret it.

Sweet Cake Bake Shop

For Valentine's Day Steve, Max and Madeline surprised me in bed with these 6 cupcakes made here at a local bakery, Sweet Cake Bake Shop. This bakery is about 4 blocks away from our house. So we moved from amazing chocolate to amazing cupcakes.

This box contains 2 red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, 2 vanilla cupcakes with butter cream frosting and last but certainly not least, 2 dark chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

We started eating from left to right throughout the weekend. The first were the red velvet, I thought they were amazing and was sad I ate them first. Then I had a bite of the vanilla and thought they were actually better than the red velvet. On Sunday Steve whispered to me while the kids were around to go and eat the chocolate cupcake and to do it fast before he got to it, apparently he had just eaten the first chocolate and was fighting temptation.

I ate it and I had a Ratatouille moment, you know in the movie where he puts the cheese and bread together and eats it and all of a sudden fireworks go off in the sky? Well, this was my moment. I have never in my whole life eaten a cupcake like this. The frosting is fudge, I swear it is, there is no way it is just chocolate frosting. The chocolate cake is heavy and rich but incredibly moist. Wow.

Thank you universe for inventing chocolate and fudge and cupcakes. Thank you Sweet Cake for putting them all together in one delicious edible creation.

Rozlynn's Homemade Goodness

My sister Rozlynn who now lives in Alabama (boo-hoo) is one FABULOUS cook and much to my delight has started her very own cooking blog! It is called Rozlynn's Homemade Goodness. Above is just one of her many delectable delights and a Nelson family favorite, Bradford Sugar Cookies. Seriously, the best sugar cookie recipe ever!

perfect for playing

I think these felt cookies are so cute and good enough to eat! They are $10 for six and they last longer, look cuter and don't add pounds like the real thing. I think Mimi would just love these cookies to add to her kitchen play. They are from gingerblossoms who also makes other felt play food like scrambled eggs. So clever.

how does she do this?

I am still on my etsy kick, I just keep finding the cutest things on there. While perusing my friend Liz's blog I came upon cute polka dot cookies she posted and found these as well. They really are reasonably priced and perfect for a wedding, shower, party or a bit of self indulgence.

and ps...how in the world does she get that tiny and perfectly detailed little tea pot and cup on there?

delightfully deceptive...

I was looking for cupcake soaps online and found these good enough to eat handmade soaps by Annie's Powder Room on etsy. I think they just may be the cutest most clever things ever!

This cupcake and these cookies look so real I probably would accidently eat them one night while washing my hands in the bathroom...ha!