Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes

I followed this gal's recipe to a "T".

So just click on the link and do what she says. :)

http://www.bigmamashomekitchen.com/2010/10/mini-pineapple-upside-down-cakes.html

Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cake

A General Update

The large florescent light above our kitchen island has been replace by these little lovelies! Zach installed three pendant lights that we picked out over Christmas break. The pendants are tan and brown with a kind of stoney looking pattern and the fixture is a darker bronze. We like more of a brushed nickel look but none of the other fixtures in the house look like that. :) Trying to keep it simple and neutral around here since it's not technically our house.

Travis' 17th Birthday was January 3rd. Hard to believe he's 17... I still remember his chunky body and spikey, mushroom cut blonde hair as a toddler - hence he got the nickname Spike for awhile. Travis had quite a few nicknames in his life, (Trav, Travie, T-man, T, TJ-My-Buddy, and Bumblebee) the most common being T.J. Since he was the first son to my parents he got my dad's name for a middle name, Travis Jeffrey (T.J.). He got called that for A LONNNNNNG time. Now it's just Travis or Travie. :) Whichever we feel like yelling to him when we see him.

Love it when he really smiles.

We went to an AGR wedding a few weeks ago in Livonia so we made a weekend out of it by staying Friday and Saturday night at a hotel in Novi. We made a quick trip to Twelve Oaks Mall on Saturday morning before the wedding and got a down comforter for our bed. At first I was slightly disappointed at how thin it was, thinking there's no way it was going to keep us warm at night. I was completely wrong. That thing is stinkin' hot! We have to turn the furnace WAYYYY down at night to keep from sweating under it! But is super soft and cozy and it's never going to leave our bed - except maybe in the summer when we can't turn the heat down... I got way off topic. Anyways, Zach got to talk with a lot of former housemates and AGR alum and it was a good catching up time.

Matt, Zach, Dave, & Will

It's been really great getting together with our small group again after a break during the holidays. We've been going through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace series and it's been incredibly helpful, challenging, and encouraging for all of us. The last week, our group's dinner theme was Thanksgiving - main dish was turkey, sides were stuffing, salad, corn, etc. and we signed up to bring dessert. I wanted to make something pumpkin-y but not quite an original pumpkin pie so I made pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I added some white sugar sprinkles and mini chocolate chips on top for decoration.

They were delicious! Fall inspired but not totally typical Thanksgiving dessert. You can find the exact recipe I used by clicking here.

That's all for now. Parent Teacher Conferences are just around the corner again so I'm off to work on report cards. Oh happy day. It'll be okay. Later in the day we're going to hang out with some friends at their family cottage. I see games and cocktails ahead!

Love,

Sarah

Cake Balls & Other Things

Oh man! These things are SOOOOOO good! And they yield more than a plain 'ol cake cut into slices. I forgot to count, but I think I got about 36 cake balls from one batch.

You'll never want to make a regular cake again....

I don't.

Cake Balls

(Warning: This recipe is easy, but part of it needs to be in the freezer OVERNIGHT, so allow yourself enough time! I always hate it when I start a recipe then realize it takes more than one day....)

Ingredients:
1 box of cake mix (I used Funfetti but you can use any flavor you like)
1 can of frosting (I used vanilla)
1 package of candy making chocolate
sprinkles

Directions:

1. Bake the cake according to the package directions. It doesn't even matter what kind of pan you bake it in because after the next step, you won't even know.

2. Allow cake to cool, then crumble into a large bowl.

3. Add entire can of frosting to crumbled cake. Mix until cake is moist.

4. Use a spoon (or your hands) to form small balls.


5. Place the balls on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer overnight.

6. Melt the candy chocolate (according to the package directions) in a small but deep dish - either a glass pyrex measuring cup or even a coffee mug works too.

7. Dunk the cake ball into the melted chocolate and place back on the cookie sheet. This is the trickiest part of the whole process. I dropped the balls in and used a spoon to roll it around in the chocolate then fish it out.

8. Top with sprinkles (or anything else for that matter) immediately or else the chocolate hardens and nothing sticks. :)

9. Once the chocolate hardens, the cake balls are ready to eat! You could put them back in the freezer if you wish to keep them firm. Just take them out shortly before serving.

The combinations for these are pretty much endless... peanut butter cake and chocolate frosting, carrot cake and cream cheese frosting, red velvet cake and whipped frosting....

MMMMM! I'm going to go eat another one right now! Maybe not. Maybe later.

Hope you're all having a great weekend! We just got back from cleaning out our new house! We didn't buy a house, just renting again, but it's a great little house! It's cute. And blue. And it's a farm. We did lots of vacuuming (the whole house is carpet) and took all the nails and screws out of the walls (they liked to hang things up!). The carpet is getting cleaned professionally sometime next week then we can start moving boxes and furniture over after that. We won't need to do any painting, only spackling? spacking? a few holes leftover from all the nails and a touch up of paint over that and we'll be good to go.

Official move in date is October 1st. I'm excited because the kitchen is HUGE and it's closer to town so that means a shorter drive in the morning for me. (5:45AM wake up time has not been good to me this week....)

Here's one teaser photo. I'll post more some other time.

Okay, two. I can't resist showing you the kitchen! I'm done.

Dad's football team got smoked again last night. Final score: Ashley 47, CCA 14. It's hard to see them lose so much... The game was a blowout but ALMOST my whole family was home!

Amy, Travis, Rachel, Justin

We were just missing Katie. Plus it was Amy's 19th birthday yesterday! Happy Birthday, AMY LEIGH!

Love,

Sarah

Candace's Berry Brownies

And nowwwww the moment you've all been waiting for ------ Candace's berry brownie recipe! I don't know why it's taken me so long to post this, but it's here now. Hope you enjoy this easy summer dessert!

Candace's Berry Brownies

Ingredients:

1 box of brownie mix (I use Betty Crocker Fudge Brownie Family Size - for 13x9 pans)

1 row of oreos (or any knockoff brand works too)

1 can vanilla frosting

1 container blueberries

1 container strawberries

1 container blackberries

Directions:

Mix up the brownies according to the package directions. Zach always makes the brownies in our household so he did all this part. I don't even remember the last time I made brownies...

Open the package of oreos and take out one row of cookies. Use a cookie sheet & cup to crush into tiny pieces. Well, I suppose you could use a blender or food processor.

Add crushed oreos to brownie mix.

Bake brownies according to the package directions.

When brownies are COMPLETELY COOL, frost with lots and lots of frosting. Use the whole can, pretty much.

Wash the berries and cut the strawberries. Top the frosted brownies with the berries. I didn't really have any rhyme or reason to my berry placement. Trust me, it will look great no matter what you do.

EAT!

Love,

Sarah

Yesterday I Lived in the Kitchen

Yesterday I lived in the kitchen. Well, kinda. After I got home from a swiss ball workout class in town, I set up camp in the kitchen with my laptop, some CDs, and a few recipes I wanted to try out. The first thing I did was to throw some ingredients for pizza dough into the bread machine and got that going for dinner later. Then I got started on Pumpkin Pie Squares. I had about 1 1/2 cups of pumpkin puree leftover from when I made pumpkin bread & muffins last week that needed to get used up. I know it's summer and pumpkin is usually a fall-ish type flavor, but they just sounded good and who can let good food go to waste!? Plus, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and pumpkin pie is the best part of the meal.

Pumpkin Pie Squares
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. quick oats
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. pecans (I didn't have any so I didn't use them)
3/4 c. butter or margarine
1 15-oz can pumpkin puree
1 12-oz can evaporated milk
2 eggs
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cloves (or pumpkin pie spice is what I used)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine flour, oats, brown sugar, and pecans. Cut in margarine until mixture forms coarse crumbs. Reserve 1 cup for topping. Press remaining oat mixture into bottom of ungreased 13x9 in pan. I used an 8x8 pan because I like them thicker. Bake 15 minutes.


Combine pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, ginger & cloves (or pumpkin pie spice); beat well. I used a stand mixer but a hand mixer or a whisk works just as well.


Pour pumpkin mixture over crust; bake 20 minutes. Sprinkle reserve oat mixture over top; bake 15-20 minutes longer or until filling is set. Thanks to my little brother, Michael for this SWEET pan that he got me for Christmas. It comes with that little contraption to cut perfectly sized desserts.


Serve with cool whip and vanilla ice cream, which I didn't have unfortunately.

Makes 12 squares.

Well, after my pumpkin pie bar endeavor, I turned my attention back to the pizza dough in the bread machine. To my dismay, it was a soupy mess.... I forgot to put in one of the cups of flour. Ugh. I dumped the sloppy, sticky mess into a bigger bowl and added flour and kneaded until it looked like pizza dough. Then I let that rise for another hour or so before squishing it out into a pizza crust. I topped it with pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, pepperoni and ham on the whole thing. Since our tastes differ, I put onions on Zachs' half and mushrooms on my half. :) When Zach walked in the door at 5:30 he said, "Something smells GOOD in here!" Success.


Zach didn't have to work today! Yay! And he got home at a normal hour last night too. We had homemade pizza and salad for dinner then went for a bike ride around the neighborhood. Canadian Lakes is PACKED with vehicles, boats, people, grills, and fishing tackle during 4th of July weekend. Then we watched Disney's "Tangled" and ate the Pumpkin Pie Squares for dessert. Great night! Today he was up and at 'em wayyyy before me this morning so he went off to the farm for a few hours. When he came home he mowed the lawn which actually has some grass growing in it now! I've been entering this blog and doing laundry. Zach is now eating mac & cheese right out of the pot as I write this. Ha ha.

We're off to a wedding in an hour and I've got to go get ready.

Love,
Sarah