Happy 4th of July

The 4th of July is my favorite holiday. I have such great memories of 4th of July parties at my house growing up with the family. Mom's potato salad, Uncle Jeff's beans, dad's brats, Aunt Candy kicking instead of hitting the volleyball, Uncle Tony's fireworks, and grandma and grandpa.


This 4th we are having neighbors over and I made a slew of all american sweets. First, I attempted to make an apple pie. I bought the crust, but I made the apple filling. It was a recipe from Bobby Flay:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/apple-pie-recipe/index.html
Kids loved taking the extra crust and making cinnamon sugar pie babies in the oven. I made a festive star pattern on top. I also made some white chocolate treats. I did red, white, and blue strawberries. This recipe is all over the internet now. I always have a problem dipping into chocolate. I have a hard time getting the excess off. They are cute, but probably will not make them next year. But, my little chocolate hang up created a whole new idea.....Chocolate Fireworks. In the leftover chocolate i mixed in a few handfuls of pretzels, and colored jimmies. Than, I spooned them onto waxed paper to dry, Voila.....fireworks!


I cannot ever recreate mom's potato salad or Jeff's bean, but I can make this holiday my own now and create memories for the kids and new memories for myself based around great neighbors, independance, and (of course) food!

Catch of the Day Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for Father's Day this year. They were adorable, but  too labor intensive. I will probably never make them again. I got the idea from a blog and it really did not look like it would have been that much work. I made 24 cupcakes from a standard box of cake mix. I used carrot cake and topped with a blue tie dyed cream cheese frosting. I also used a frosting tip to pipe it on. Now the labor intensive portion....I cut wood skewers into 2 pieces and threaded a needle with thin white thread. I poked the threaded needle through a gummy fish (from a shark fruit snack pack). Then, I tied the threaded fish onto the wooded skewer and put it on the cupcake. They looked really cute, but just too much work for one day:) A fun idea though if you have someone who likes to fish in the family.

Almost BW3

Wish I could've gotten a pic before the fam dug in!

I love hot wings! I really love BW3 boneless chicken wings (mild of course). I have had a pack of chicken drumlets from Whole Foods in my freezer for 6 months now, with the intention of finding a recipe for wing sauce similar to BW3. There is a set of cookbooks called Top Secret Recipes, where the author figures out recipes for popular food found in restaurants. In one book, I found the recipe for medium BW3 wing sauce. So, I decided to finally have them on Saturday night. I opened the lb. package to find 8 drumlets. Not enough to feed a family, so I bought some chicken breasts, cubed, breaded and baked them. The drumlets were boiled for 10 minutes and places under the broiler for 6 minutes on each side. So, they got crispy, but not fried...already healthier:) The wing sauce was super easy to make and was SO good. Tasted just the same. After it was done, I tossed the chicked pieces in it and voila!


MEDIUM WING SAUCE:
1 cup Frank's cayenne pepper sauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon granulated sugar 
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons water
2 teaspoons cornstarch
Combine all but last 3 ingrediants and bring to a boil than let simmer for 10 minutes. When mixture is off heat and cool, in a seperate bowl, mix last 3 ingrediants and add to sauce mixtures. Toss with chicken

Strawberry Breakfast Cake

Berries seem to be cheap at Sendiks this week, so yet another berry cake/bread idea. We made this last night for Sunday morning breakfast. It is a strawberry breakfast cake with mini chocolate chips. Simple ingrediants, not alot of sugar and yummy. Jackson helped me make a fruit salad to go along with it.  Here is the link for the cake. The fruit salad was one banana, 1 apple, 1 container strawberries, 1 container raspberries, 1 container blueberries, a handful of granola. You can eat this on its own or over greek yogurt.
http://batterlicker.com/2010/04/strawberry-and-chocolate-chip-buttermilk-muffin-cake/

Blueberry Oatmeal Bread

When I wanna try a new recipe these days, I go straight to Pinterest. I was looking for a recipe for blueberry bread since blueberries were on sale this week. I found this one that is also low in sugar and has added fiber with the addition of oats. It is more of a rustic bread. For me, it is perfect because it is not too sweet, but just sweet enough. If you are used to artificial blueberry baked goods, it may not be sweet enough for you. I cannot take credit for the recipe. Here is the original blog it came from:
http://blog.superhealthykids.com/2010/06/oatmeal-blueberry-bread/
I substituted canola oil for the cocount oil. The batter is really thick and lumpy, but no worries, it bakes just fine.

The Best Lasagna Ever: Mom's

5 years ago, today, my mom passed away. The day she died I was hosting a birthday party for Maddy and doing the things that she had done for me so many times before. Making and decorating a birthday cake and serving lasagna for our main dish. Today, I would like to honor my mom and the many times she had to make lasagna for my birthday dinner (I picked it every year). I make it often for my own family now. It is a recipe passed down from my mom's mom to her, now to me, and someday to my kids. My version is a little healthier than hers was, but you can substitute beef for turkey and regular cheese for lowfat cheese.


Voni's (Mom's) Lasagna
a box of no cook lasagna noodles
1 lb. ground turkey thigh
1 lb. ground beef
1 small onion-chopped fine
1 clove of garlic- chopped fine
1 16 oz. container of lowfat, organic sour cream
1 14.5 oz. can of tomato sauce (the medium size one)
1/2 bag of lowfat, organic motzorella cheese
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese
3 tbsp. italian seasoning


Mix uncooked turkey and beef mixture together, so they combine into one mixure. 
Cook combined meat mixture with onions and garlic in large pot.
When done, drain off beef and add sour cream, tomato sauce, parmesan cheese, and italian seasoning.
Let simmer till it starts bubbling and turning a little deeper shade of pinkish/orange


Now you are ready to assemble! Use a 13 X 9 inch cake pan and layer, 
from bottom to the top, as follows:


a light layer of sauce...just to lightly coat bottom
3 uncooked lasagna noodles with equal space in between them
1/3 of beef mixture
a handful of cheese and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese

3 uncooked lasagna noodles with equal space in between them

1/2 of whatever of beef mixture is left

a handful of cheese and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese

3 uncooked lasagna noodles with equal space in between them

rest of beef mixture 

a handful of cheese and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese

Cover with tinfoil and cook in 350 oven for 45 minutes. Remove tinfoil andlLet sit 5-10  minutes before cutting.

Peas, Carrots, and Mashed Potatoes

I made these cupcakes on April Fools Day this year. They are from just a boxed cake mix. But, the fun was in the decoration. For the Peas and Carrots cupcakes, I dyed the frosting green and applied green pea hard candies I found at the store and the carrots were orange starburst cut into squares. For the mashed potato cupcakes, I used the whipped frosting and piled it on high. The gravy is caramel sauce and the butter is a yellow starburst cut into a thin square.  I got the idea from this great book called Hey Cupcake.