Rhonda's Rants, Ravings and Cravings

Been Missing in Action!!

2011-11-29T15:38:00.001-07:00

Well its' been 9 months since my last post! Had lots going on in my life this year, but I won't go into all the details here. I just need to start keeping up with my blog...so here are the only goodies that I've done since February.

This is a cake that I did for my daughter last March. I have a tutorial for the inside of the cake on the Sugar Teacher's Blog. Don't laugh at how much filling is in the middle of this cake!!!! It was an eggless recipe that didn't work very well...so there!

I made a mint grasshopper pie for my birthday last March. Way too green but it was very good!

Did a ton of cookies for a school function last April.

Wedding cake that I did in July. I got the colors mixed up though, but they were okay with it and loved it anyway. Wheeeeeew!!!

First time making lilies like this!!

Wedding cake that was done last August. Hope they liked it because I never heard anything from them.

My Carlee girl's birthday cake!! I was so ready to do a castle cake! She changed her mind about a week before her birthday and insisted on a Star Wars cake. She is so into Star Wars!!! The Death Star is made out of white chocolate that was sprayed silver. The cake is really all rice krispy treats and the we had eggless cupcakes with kind of dumb looking light sabers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There ya go for the goodies. I'll be back to share some other things that have been going on later!

Our Valentine's Goodies for 2011

2011-03-05T16:19:00.000-07:00

Wow!! I need to get on the ball and get this blog updated!! Where the heck does the time go!!

Here's some of the goodies I made for February.

Here is a strawberry cupcake that I did just because it sounded soooooo good!!! And you know what? It was! I posted the recipe on our Sugar Teacher's Blog. You can find it here...

Below are some chocolate hand dipped Oreo's that the grandkids, Kaitlyn and I made.

These heart Oreo's are made using a Wilton cookie mold. They're kind of tricky to make! I had to put the red in, making sure I didn't fill it too much, then I put them in the freezer to harden. I put a very thin layer of the chocolate (white or brown) and let the harden in the freezer for a few minutes. Then I run the melted chocolate down the sides and let harden again. I tried to do it like the directions say on the mold, but it would never look nice!! Go figure!

Next we made dipped pretzel rods. These are yummy! I love the sweet and salty taste these have. I think the pictures are pretty self explanatory. If you want more details, let me know!!

Just make sure you put the sprinkles on before the chocolate hardens!!!

We had a Valentin's party over at my daughter's house.

Here's her table set up and the one below is for Carlee and Kailey

We had heart shaped pizza, salad and cake pops for dessert!!

Birthdays, Cookie Parties and Fun

2010-12-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

My daughter has a really good friend who has a daughter (Kailey) that was having a birthday! This is the cake that I made for her. It was pretty fun to make.

Kailey had a princess party, so here is Princess Carlee and Princess Kailey. They had tons of fun!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Earlier this month was the Festival of Trees in Arco. The elementary school children all sing on the first day of the Festival. Here is Collin's second grade class singing their Christmas songs. He's in the middle with the red and white stripped shirt. They were all so cute and sang very well!!

Carlee had a great time listening to all the singing. Of course she was dancing all over the place!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well looky here!! Collin has finally lost his first tooth!! WooHoo!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kami hosted a Cookie Exchange Party at her house.

This is the table of all the cookies and candies that were brought!! What a fun time!!

Deliciously Fun, Flavored Popcorn

2010-12-07T12:43:00.000-07:00

Well...I can't make this anymore!! I loved it so much, that I ate most all of it! It's so easy to make and the flavors are many!

Here is all you need to make Jello Popcorn:

8 cups popped popcorn

1/4 cup butter

3 tablespoons corn syrup or honey

1/2 cup sugar

1 3oz box jello, any flavor (don't use sugar-free)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Line a jelly roll pan with foil and spray lightly with a non-stick spray and set aside. Place popcorn in a very large mixing bowl.

Place the butter and corn syrup in a sauce pan on medium heat, stirring until the butter is melted.

Add the sugar....

...and jello and stir to combine.

Increase heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat so it just simmers. Continue simmering for 5 minutes. The mixture will start out thick and will stay somewhat thick although will become a little more liquid.

After the sugar mixture cimmers for 5 minutes, immediately pour over the popcorn, being careful to not touch the hot syrup!! It's very hot! Mix right away, stirring so that all the popcorn gets well coated.

Spread out the popcorn evenly onto the prepared pan. Put it in the oven for about 10 minutes. Some jello flavors have more mix in them then other, so if one flavor is more liquid, it may need another minute or two in the oven. Remove the pan and let cool. Break the mixture into pieces and store in an airtight container.

You could also leave them soft and gooey and you could make them into balls, but if you are going to pack them up for giving it's better if it's been baked to give it that crunch!

Here are lime, raspberry, orange and lemon flavors. I want to try some more flavors, but I know that I would eat them all!!!

My First Cheesecake!!

2010-12-03T21:59:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that this recipe came out really scrumptious!!! Even my very picky son-in-law loved it. Now I just need to learn how to cut it. It stuck to the knife, so please add your thoughts on this!

I'll give you two different crust recipes. I had to use the graham cracker crust because we have too many nut allergies and haters in this family.

Crust recipe 1:

1/4 cup finely chopped pecans

1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

1/4 cup finely chopped almonds

3/4 cup finely crushed vanilla wafers

2 tablespoons melted butter

Mix all the nuts and wafers with melted butter and press into buttered 10" springform pan, trying to line sides as much as possible, about 1 1/2" up the sides of the pan. Place in freezer until filling is done.

Crust Recipe 2:

1 1/2 cups graham crackers crumbs

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup melted butter

Combine the graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Mix in butter.

Press the crumbs into a 10" springform pan. You can line the bottom and sides of pan with parchment paper, but I found it tedious and only lined the bottom. Use a drinking glass to press the crumb mixture into the bottom of the pan and about 2/3 the way up the side. Put into the freezer until the filling is done.

Filling ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs cream cheese
1 1/3 cups sugar
5 large eggs
16 oz. sour cream
1/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons lemon juice

All of the filling ingredients should be at room temperature. Beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy with an electric mixer set on low.

With the mixer still set to low, add the sugar a little at a time and continue beating until creamy.

Add one egg at a time and beat after each egg. Add flour, vanilla and lemon juice, mixing well. Add the sour cream and beat well again.

Pour cream cheese mixture into the springform pan.

Place on cookie sheet in the middle of a 325 degree preheated oven. Pour some water into the cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I forgot to add foil around the outside bottom of the springform pan!

When the timer goes off, turn off oven and prop the oven door and let cheesecake set for one more hour.

Remove from the oven and let cool. Refrigerate for 24 hours to season the flavors. It is so worth it!!

Sweet Potatoes with Apples and Cranberries

2010-12-02T01:00:00.001-07:00

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite size pieces

1 medium Granny Smith apple, cored and diced

2 tablespoons dried cranberries

1 1/2 tablespoon butter

1 rounded tablespoon brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine and stir all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl. Cook on full power in the microwave for 8 -10 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are tender. If needed, continue to microwave at 30 second intervals. Allow to stand for 1 minute before handling. Carefully remove and serve.

Makes 4 very delicious servings.

Gobble, Gobble...Turkey Cupcakes

2010-12-01T06:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick, cute way to make some turkey cupcakes. We enjoyed these at our Thanksgiving dinner this year.

To make the cupcakes, I used a simple, quick, eggless recipe so that Carlee can eat these instead of pumpkin pies.

Just mix one spice cake mix and one 15 ounce can of pumpkin together.

If the batter is too thick, you can add 1/4 cup milk.

I used a large cookie scoop to fill the cupcake lines. If you put the scoop in and leave it, this is how the cupcakes will turn out.

If you use the back of a spoon to move the batter to the sides.....

...the cupcakes will come out more uniform.

Now...using red icing, I used cream cheese icing, make ruffles with a #104 petal tip most of the way around the outer part of the cupcake.

Again with a #104 tip and orange icing, make a ruffle inside the red ruffle.

With yellow icing, use a #103 tip to make the final ruffle.

Tip #7 and brown icing was used to make the turkey neck. Start at the bottom, letting the icing build up and then move the tip up through the yellow icing.

Using orange and tip #3, make a beak. With another #3 tip make the waddle.

White and a #3 tip was also used to make the eyes.

Add brown dots in the center of the white with a tip #2.

Here's my sweet girl enjoying something that she can eat from the dessert table at Thanksgiving.

October Catch-up

2010-11-30T12:31:00.000-07:00

I'm behind again!! We'll start with Carlee's birthday...

My baby girl turned a big whopping 5 this year!! She asked for a scary cake also. But I knew I couldn't really go evil scary with her, so I came up with a girly skull cake for her. She loved skeletons this year!!

Of course this grandma had to give her something pink too!

We also gave her a pack of Littlest Pet Shop characters. Carlee loves animals!

Her she is showing them to her Grandma Jensen and Collin.

Here's Dee, Collin and Mark playing XBox. Had a hard time getting them to stop!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now on to Halloween.

These pictures are from the school Fall Festival. It was so cold out, but we had lots of fun.

Here's Carlee and Kailey getting ready for the activities.

Kami was in charge of the ring toss game.

Carlee and Kailey in front of the maze.

The girls milking their "cows" so that they can get a chocolate milk!

This water trough had bunnies and guinea pigs in it. Carlee couldn't stay away from them. I had to catch some of them so that she could pet them.

My handsome gangsta boy Collin!

Carlee and Collin could have had a ride on this cute little burro, but they were too chicken!!!

What a silly!!

Inside the maze.

Carlee made the rat bit her finger every time she walked by it.

Gangsta poses.

I think Collin has this one!!

Whew! What a day!

Here are the gangsters that were already caught and in jail!! lol

Hazelnut Shortbread Cookies

2010-11-28T21:39:00.001-07:00

These rich hazelnut shortbread cookies are great with a cup of coffee or a cup of hot cocoa!! They would also be great if you're having a cookie exchange party. We will be having one soon!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What you will need:

1 cup whole hazelnuts, toasted, divided*

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon double-strength vanilla

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cups Nutella (chocolate-hazelnut spread)

1 square unsweetened chocolate for baking, chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a small sheet pan with parchment paper, allowing 1 inch to extend past the sides; set aside. Grate 3 tablespoons of the hazelnuts with a rotary grater or finely chop in a food processor. Place butter, powdered sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl, beat on medium speed of electric hand mixer until creamy. Gradually add flour and grated hazelnuts. Mix on low speed until dry ingredients begin to blend with butter mixture. Increase speed to medium=high and beat just until mixture forms into a dough.

Distribute dough over the bottom of prepared pan. Roll using a lightly floured rolling pin to create an even thickness. Bake 43-45 minutes or until deep golden brown. Remove pan from oven to a cooling rack. Coll 10 minutes. Invert pan onto a cutting board and remove parchment and immediately cut warm shortbread lenghtwise into eight rows and crosswise into sixths to make 48 small rectangles using a very long knife. Spread rectangles apart slightly and cool completely.

Coarsely chop remaining hazelnuts using a food chopper and place in on a plate or tray. Place hazelnut spread and chocolate in a small microwave safe bowl. Microwave, uncovered, on HIGH 60-70 seconds or until melted and smooth, stirring after 1 minute. Dip one end of each shortbread rectangle into chocolate mixture and roll in nuts, coating all sides. Place on parchment-lined surface to set. If chocolate mixture begins to thicken, return to microwave 10-15 seconds or just until it thins but is not hot.

Store cooled, finished shortbread in an airtight container with parchment paper between the layers for up to one week.

*To toast the hazelnuts, spread over a cookie sheet in a single layer and bake at 350 degrees for 8-16 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and fragrant.

S'mores Cups

2010-11-08T18:48:00.000-07:00

Are you missing your favorite summertime camp goodies? Well with this recipe, you can have s'mores all year round!! No messing with any fires either!!

You will need:

7 whole graham crackers (1 cup finely crushed)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

6 tablespoons butter, melted

4 bars (1.55 oz.) milk chocolate candy, divided

12 large marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place graham crackers into a large resealable plastic bag. Finely crush into crumbs using a rolling pin. Combine graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar and the butter in a bowl.

Using a small scoop or a tablespoon, place a scant scoop of crumb mixture in each cup of a mini muffin/cupcake pan. Press crumbs to form a shallow cup. Bake 4 - 5 minutes or until edges are bubbling. Meanwhile, break two candy bars into rectangles. Remove pan from oven; place one rectangle into each cup.

Cut marshmallows in half using scissors that have been dipped in cols water. Place one marshmallow half, cut-side down, into each cup. return to oven for 1-2 minutes or until marshmallows are just slightly softened. Remove pan from oven to a cooling rack; cool for 15 minutes. carefully remove cups from pan. Cool completely.

Break remaining candy bars and place into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on HIGH 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until smooth, stirring every 30 seconds. Dip the top of each marshmallow in the melted chocolate. turn top-side up and let stand until chocolate is set, around 40 minutes. Or set in refrigerator for a few minutes if you have a hard time waiting!

Store at room temperature for 1 week.

Are you Looking?

2010-09-10T09:45:00.001-06:00

Tremendous company! Fantastic product! Joe and I are in this for life! We're staying healthy and we're in this to make a difference in others lives.

Check out my MonaVie website for more details!

About MonaVie:

Introduced in January 2005, MonaVie develops and markets scientifically formulated, premium quality nutritional products, specifically for person-to-person distribution.

MonaVies mission is to change and improve lives around the world by introducing unique nutritional products, offering a rewarding business opportunity, and by giving back through our charitable initiatives.

Products with a Purpose: MonaVies extraordinary products feature a delicious blend of the Brazilian açai berry and 18 other body-beneficial fruits from around the world. MonaVies premier açai blends are products with a purpose. From powerful antioxidant support to joint and heart health, each formula delivers key nutrients to help you maintain a healthy and active lifestyle. More to come!!

August Weddings

2010-09-08T08:27:00.000-06:00

Here are a couple of wedding cakes that I did in August. This first one was for a friend, Samantha and Jordan. It was a strawberry/kiwi cake with buttercream and fondant. Putting purple luster dusted drapes is a bugger!! Smeared purple onto the white fondant as I draped it! Have to think of another way to do it next time.

This wedding cake was for Taunee and Steve. It's a vanilla cake, raspberry filling, buttercream and chocolate fondant. The teal brushed embroidery was done with royal icing. I also made 100 cupcakes to go along with this, but I forgot to take a picture of them! Hope I get a pic from the wedding!

Matt's in the Army!

2010-09-06T13:35:00.001-06:00

Just a quick little cake I did for Matt's going away party. It was chocolate with cookies and cream filling, covered in buttercream.

Collin's 7th Birthday

2010-08-06T16:59:00.000-06:00

We were over run by ZHU ZHU's!! Collin had to have a Zhu Zhu's for his birthday and TOLD me that I had to make him a Kung Zhu type cake. Decided to make the cake look some what like the battle arena for the little critters. Oh and he insisted on a lime cake!

Here's the little darlin'!

I was glad to have Mark home with me that day. I had little miss Carlee, so Mark kept her busy so I could work on the cake. Mark also made the little pets to go on top and I just painted them.

PRESENT TIME!!

A ninja guy from his cousin Alec.

A Bakugan from Mark.

Pikachu from Carlee.

This grandma gave Collin 4 Kung Zhu pets and one battle armor. I wrapped each one separate and put each of them in another box and then put the box in a gift bag. Collin started cracking up when he saw all the boxes inside the other box.

More Zhu Zhu stuff from his mom and dad.

Sweet little Carlee and her "sister". (one of their neighbors)

Collin and Alec. They are both growing up so fast!!

Here's some of the Zhu Zhu frenzy!

Kaitlyn's Birthday 2010

2010-08-01T14:53:00.001-06:00

Kaitlyn turned the big "13" this past July 4th! I thought that she needed to have a more girly cake and do away with the patriot stuff just because she was born on the 4th of July. I asked her what colors and flavors that she wanted and that's all. She didn't know what kind of cake she was getting! She wanted a chocolate cake with cookies and cream filling and the colors of purple, pink and orange.

Kaitlyn

I have seen some cake boards with a lined groove in them and have been trying to figure out how they made them. So here's my version of it.

I first covered my cake board with fondant. This was a 16 inch wide 1/2 inch particle board.

Trim off excess.

Find the middle of board. Using a very large skewer, I just pressed it into the fondant, going all the way around. It was kind of hard to keep it centered.

The middle doesn't look great, but it was going to be covered anyway! I let it dry for a few days before adding any cake.

I then made flip flops. I just cut a shoe shape, added the little flowers and pressed a patterned mat on the top.

I then poked the holes, rolled out a strip of fondant/gum paste and gave it some stitching. I folded it in half and rounded the middle between my fingers a bit and put it in the first hole at the toe of the flip flop.

Then take some plastic wrap and put on the flip flop. Take the ends of the straps over the plastic wrap and break the excess strap off where the other holes are, rounding the ends a little to fit into the hole. I added the little flower in the middle just for and extra touch. Let dry for a few days.

When it was time to make the chocolate cake, I used a 12" x 18" pan to bake the cake. I cut it into fourths and stacked with cookies and cream filling in between the layers. The top half was carved to make it rounded and the sides where angled some. Pink fondant covered the whole cake. White fondant was added over the pink and the stitching effect was used on the edges and straps. I made a simple cord strap to the purse.

I'm also testing products for Melissa Dotson over at Decorate the Cake. I used her Studded Oval Buckle to make the buckle on this purse. The buckle was made from gum paste and I let it dry for a few days. Silver luster dust was then painted on it. The purse strap was threaded through the buckle.

You can find the buckle on her site here.

I also used Melissa's 5 Petal Blossom mold. They are really quick and easy to make. Just dust a little cornstarch or luster dust onto the mold, add the gum paste or fondant, press the molds together and voila! Easy peasy!!

You can find this mold here.

This gift bag was made from another 12" x 18" pan cut in half and layered with filling. It's covered with purple fondant and stamped with a regular stamp using a deeper purple luster dust and lemon extract.

Nail polish bottle is all gum paste painted with sparkle dust on the bottom and luster dust on top.

This was a fun cake to make!!

4th of July Weekend 2010

2010-07-29T09:46:00.000-06:00

Woowee!!!

I am so far behind in posting again! July has been a very busy month!!

Here are pictures of our Independence Day fun. We started in Arco with the 4th of July Parade.

Okay...let's get this show on the road!!

Kami, Collin and Carlee waiting some what patiently for the parade to start.

The kids really could wait for the candy that the parade participants throw out to them. It's the only reason they want to go!!!! The parade was very short. It's too bad that more people don't enter this parade like they do for Atomic Days, but it is a holiday and I'm sure a lot of people leave town.

We are now in Idaho Falls to watch the BIG fireworks that evening. We have to camp our all day to keep our spot. The kids had tons of fun and they were very good through the whole thing.

Getting in the spirit!!

Sweet!!!

Of course there were lots of things to buy and play with.

Grandma Tina came later for the fireworks. Collin loved see how huge the fireworks were up close, but Carlee was scared of the loud noises and made herself fall asleep! That's her way of shutting things out.

It was so worth going to though, except for getting out of the crowd and where we parked. Took a good hour of bumper to bumper cars and we were just a block away from the road we needed to get on to go home!! Whew!!

Collin and Carlee's Father's Day Cake 2010

2010-06-21T15:00:00.001-06:00

Here's Collin and Carlee's uhummm....Father's Day cake. We just let them do what came naturally!

This is the first time we let Carlee try to ice the cake.

Just look at that concentration!

Collin mainly did the top of the cake and some on the side.

This was Carlee's side.

She was pretty happy with what she did!

What goofballs!!!

Eggless Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

2010-06-15T18:26:00.000-06:00

This is a huge recipe!! Recipe said that it makes 8 dozen, but I got a lot more out of it than that!! We made these for a family party and at first when they found out they were eggless, they didn't want to try them. They soon found out that they were really good!

Ingredients:

4 sticks butter, soft

4 cups light brown sugar, packed

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 tablespoons water

4 tablespoons vinegar

5 cups flour

6 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoons salt

4 cups quick cooking oats

2 cups raisins, rolled in flour

2 cups chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream together sugars and butter. Add vanilla, water, and vinegar; mix well.

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and soda, and salt. Combine the two mixtures together. Add raisins, oats and nuts.

Roll dough in small balls and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes

Cookies won't look quite done, but let rest on cookie sheet for a few minutes before removing. Also eggless cookies tend to go hard after a day or two, so eat them fast!

We also made these to take to the party and they were a big hit!!

Mame's Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies Recipe is on the Sugar Teachers Blog!

You can tell that Collin loved them! What a stinker!

Had to include this pic of Collin swiping all the change out of my car today. He was being too cute!

Kendall and Katelyn's Wedding

2010-06-14T18:10:00.000-06:00

This is my nephew Kendall and his lovely new bride, Katelyn. They are such and cute couple!! On Friday, June 11th, they were married at 7:30 am in the beautiful Salt Lake Temple. Joe and I didn't make it down for the wedding ceremony because I was doing their cake. I sure would have loved to have been there!!

The day was rainy of and on and really picked up later that afternoon, before the reception. Rain on your wedding day is supposed to bring good luck and a happy marriage. It rained from Tremonton to the reception location. Fun, fun!! Joe forgot to cover the bottom tier of the cake when he took it out of the car, so it had rain spots on it. :o( Just had to go with it!!

This is Kendall's parents, Ted and Carol. Ted is my hubby, Joe's, brother.

Now for some of the food that they served. And just so you know, I just made the cake only! Didn't have anything to do with anything else. This was the only thing that was served that I could eat. They were yummy.

Sorry that this is a little blurry, but this looked so...ummm....mmmmm-mmmm!!! Chocolate cups filed with some kind of pastry cream!! I would love to try and make something like this!

Dang it!! I couldn't resist this one! They were only like two inches, so they couldn't have been that bad, right!! They were sure delicious!!

Luscious Lemon Bars! Drool......

Okay! Here's my cake. It's a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing and covered in marshmallow fondant with fresh flowers.

The cake cutting.

Not sure what to do?!! They were nice about it though. My camera didn't go fast enough to catch them feeding each other.

I loved here dress!!!

Getting ready to throw the bouquet.

Garter time! I think Kendall was really nervous about doing this! heehee!!

Awww....sweet!!!

Easy Vegan Pancakes

2010-06-07T12:13:00.000-06:00

Thought I would try out another eggless for our little Carlee. I didn't eat them, but hubby says they were good! I did make some changes that will be at the end of the recipe.

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups soy milk or water

Dash of cinnamon (optional)

Directions:

Lightly mix all ingredients in a fairly large bowl. It's important to only mix the batter long enough to moisten. Over mixing will make pancakes tough. Leave 5 minutes to rise. Gently fold down. Leave to raise for another 5 minutes will you get your pan ready. Cook on medium to medium-high heat on an oiled skillet until golden brown. Serve immediately.

Serves 4

First off...this recipe would feed more then 4! Hee hee!! Okay here are the changes that I made to the recipe:

~I used 1 cup all purpose flour and 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour.

~Used splenda in place of the sugar.

~Needed another tablespoon oil and had to use 3 cups water.

I froze the leftovers for Joe to use for his breakfasts on days that he works.

Hope this helps someone with egg allergies!

Swan Lake

2010-05-20T10:31:00.001-06:00

My son Mark, invited us to come with him to see the ballet, Swan Lake. Of course we couldn't pass this up! Kami and I thought that the kids need to be exposed to some different cultures and experiences.

Pictured above is Beth Moore who played Princess Odette

This is Princess Odette as a swan

The dancers at the royal ball

Picture above are the swans on the lake.

Collin's ballet response. He said that he kind of like it!!

Collin play acting. Good thing he brought his Pokemon!!

Carlee pretending to be a dancer. She absolutely love the dancing. She was trying to do some of the ballet moves while sitting on my lap! I kept getting head banged by all her bouncing around.

Carlee trying out some ballet moves of her own.

After the ballet, Kami wanted to go to Wally World. I saw a little pink dance outfit that I just could resist buying for Carlee!! Here she is dancing on my bed!!

Carlee with ballet clothes of her own.

Carlee beginning her debut in front of a mirror.

More personal dance moves invented.

Wow! I'm a dancer.

Yea, this is so much fun!

Dancing can be so exhausting!

Alec's Birthday 2010

2010-05-19T15:13:00.001-06:00

My oldest grandson, Alec, had his 7th birthday on the 12th. I went over to visit Alec, JoMax and Liz. I made a Bakugan logo cake for him. I'm glad he really liked it. For presents, he received Bakugan toys, dragons, a coloring set, a basketball, a kite and balloons. I think he had more fun playing with the balloons!! We had a great time, but I wish I would have had my camera with more to take pics of him!!

Mother's Day 2010

2010-05-18T15:49:00.000-06:00

Awwww....Mother's Day!!!

I picked up some mugs for the kids to make their mommy (Kami).

They really loved coloring them! Collin, of course, picked out the best rub-ons first!

Here's another pic of their creations!

Sunday afternoon was spent making mexican food and watching the movie that Kami bought me. Loved it!!

Kami also bought me this book!!

I also called my mom, and got a call from Mark!

Peach Trifle...for Joe's B-Day

2010-05-17T10:44:00.000-06:00

My hubby Joe, just loves trifles. We usually make this with strawberries, because it tasted the best, but we made it Carlee friendly. She didn't even eat some anyway, so next time it's back to strawberry!!

I used mostly sugar free products in this trifle. I don't really recommend it though! Everything was too soft and runny. It's best to use real stuff for best results.

In a trifle bowl, layer cake of your choice. Here I used a cake mix with one can of diet soda, so that it would be egg-less and less calories for Joe and I. the best cake to use for this is a pound cake or angle food cake. Cut it into cubes and layer some on the bottom of the bowl.

Next you can add jam if you would like, but I didn't. Then you layer some almost set up jello. I used peach jello. Use any flavor you wish!

Add your fruit on top of the jello. Any fruit will do, but strawberries and bananas are scrumptious!!

On top of the fruit, you will add some pudding. I just used vanilla here.

Top the pudding off with a layer of whipped cream. I used the fat free Cool Whip, but...it's better with real whipping cream!!! Mmmmm!

You then add one more layer of each ingredient and top with a fruit design or just whipped cream. I sprinkled the top with a little nutmeg. We usually put slivered almonds on top, but some people around here don't like nuts! Sheesh!! We did add them to our own serving though. Anyway, I hope you try it! Enjoy!!

Happy Easter 2010

2010-04-04T12:33:00.000-06:00

Wishing everyone a very Happy Easter Sunday!!

Here are some cupcakes that I did for Joe to take to work with him on Saturday.

Saturday before Easter is the day my family has always celebrated the Easter bunny so that Easter Sunday can be worshiped in the true meaning of Easter. Kami, Collin and Carlee came over for an egg hunt and the Easter bunny left Collin and Carlee's Easter baskets here at my house! Imagine that!!! They had a great time looking for 66 plastic eggs full of candy and money!! Wish I didn't forget to take pics of it though!! Sunday was spent watching conference, and going to Kami's for Easter dinner.

Here is a beautiful slide show video of Christ.

I also made this cake for a friends little boy that turned 5 years old. It was a really fun cake to do!!

For the Non-Twilight Fan

2010-03-30T12:27:00.001-06:00

Not the typical Twilight cake, but it wasn't my idea, but I went with it anyway!! I don't know if my son will be embarrassed that I did this kind of cake for him! LOL!!! My daughter and her hubby's cousin decided on the theme of the cake, but I had to put the dragon on there to represent my son.

My daughter Kami and Dee wrote this saying on the cake! Worked for Mark!!

This cake kind of fell in the middle, but it's a caramel cake with vanilla buttercream and marshmallow fondant. I did take a tiny bite of it and it was yummy!!

For the Hunter

2010-03-15T12:55:00.000-06:00

Okay...we're not into hunting...but when I was asked to do a cake for a 40th birthday, and they wanted something to do with hunting or camo, I was excited to to something I hadn't done yet!!

This is a carrot cake with cream cheese icing and covered in fondant to look like birch tree bark. I made the leaves with a fondant/gumpaste mix. I made a mold from a real bullet and then made these bullets out of chocolate and painted them with edible luster dust. The antlers were formed with wire and then dipped in white chocolate. I hate to write on cakes because my writing is so terrible, but I think it worked for this cake! I just used a brown luster dust to do this! This cake was very fun to do!!

Sweet 16!!

2010-03-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a simple cake that I did for a friends daughters 16th birthday. It's a white, almond, sour cream cake with buttercream and marbled marshmallow fondant. The bow and the numbers are made out of a fondant/gumpaste mix.

Kami's Birthday 2010

2010-03-08T09:48:00.001-07:00

This past weekend was my daughter, Kami's....u-hum....29th again birthday!!

When she bought a pair of leopard shoes last month, I knew I had to make a pair of shoes like it!! I really did want to make a shopping cake with shopping bags, purse, shoes, nighty or a bra, pearls and makeup and have it say "Shopping....Take me away!" on it but that didn't pan out, and besides, that would be way too much cake to deal with for us! So here is what I ended up with. Shopping bag, shoe box, shoes and one present. I forgot to make the bow for the present!! What else is new!! Anyway, Kami and everyone else loved the cake! That's what counts, right?!!!

Close up of the shoe. I used my friend, Jacque Benson's shoe tutorial to make this shoe.

A Caramel Brule Cupcake

2010-03-02T01:00:00.005-07:00

I have been wanting to try this combination cupcake for a long time!! It was really easy and all that ate them, loved them!! YEA!!!

Start out with any basic white cake recipe, either from scratch or mix, substituting Coffee-Mate Creme Brule liquid for the liquid in your recipe.

When your cupcakes are cool, cut a hole in the middle of the cupcake with a sharp paring knife, cutting at an angle.

Remove the plug.

I filled the cupcakes with Nestle's La Lechera Dulce de Leche caramel.

Then replace the plug and squish down to even out the top

I made my icing with half butter and half shortening, some vanilla extract, a pinch of salt, and of course powdered sugar. For the liquid, I used the Creme Brule coffee creamer again, heating it up until very warm, but not boiling. I don't have exact measurements because I didn't measure! Sorry!! I just mix it until it's light and fluffy!!

I added the icing swirl and drizzled with caramel ice cream topping.

Cookies!

2010-03-01T17:29:00.000-07:00

Here are just some of the recent cookies that I've done lately.

My favorite cookie decorator blog is Cookie Crazy!! You have to go and check out her blog! I would love to be able to make cookies like Pam does!! They are just so nice and neat and....well....just fantastic!! I look up to her for inspiration and ideas! Go and check out her blog!!

Catching Up Again!!

2010-02-02T16:53:00.001-07:00

Here we are at December and January. Seems like some crazy, busy times, but it really was that I had a touch of walking pneumonia and couldn't do much at all for the whole month of December. I didn't get any of my Christmas goodies made, which was very disappointing to me! Well I won't get that way again!!

In Arco the first weekend in December, is a Festival of Trees. The Elementary children come in at different times to sing for the people coming to the festival. Here is Carlee's (she's in the middle) preschool class on stage, singing....kind of!! They mostly just moved back and forth to the music and once in a while you can see a mouth moving. The class did a few songs and then did one dance. Sure was cute!!

Santa was there to greet them as the class walked out the door to go back to the bus. Carlee is with her teacher, Mrs. Snyder. This is the first year Carlee wasn't afraid of Santa!! Yeah!!

Collin is in the first grade. Here they combined other the first grade classes. Darn it!! Can't see Collin at all!! He's right behind Belle...the girl in the polka dot dress.

The second weekend, Kami had a cookie exchange party. Cute invitation!!

We each brought five dozen cookies to share. It was a lot of fun!!

This is one of my favorite pictures that I took from my back window this winter.

I never did get any pictures of our Christmas party or Christmas morning! Sheesh!! I was also hoping that Kami would upload her pictures for me to borrow, but they are still in her camera. She's way behind in blogging too!

These are the cupcakes that Collin and I made for the Christmas Eve party! He's really getting good at making swirls!!

For News Years Eve we had our usual get together at Kami and Eric's house with lots of people, kids and food!! I tried to make my first cake balls, but I didn't like how they came out looking! So I took the ones I had left over and fixed them up some.

These are the ones I did later. I love how they look this way. I did a blog on how to make them here!

January is always bridal show month. I only did one this year.

This is me, Courtney and Amy in our booth at the Red Lion in Idaho Falls.

I love how this turned out!! I didn't put a topper on it, but I'm still going to make one with roses. I'll take pics of it again then.

I brought the cake the I took to the Eastern Idaho Sugar Art Show last September.

And I made a winter snowflake cake. It's a redo of the pink daisy, stucco cake that I did last year.

A dear friend (Dorothy) asked if I would make a small wedding cake for her hubby's cousin.

It's a carrot cake with buttercream and Dorothy did fresh flowers on top.

On the 30th, I did this cake for some friends. It's a FBCT, but I had so much trouble doing the princesses!! I had to do them twice because the first ones looked like a two year old did them!

So here it is. The princesses have big mouths and I left a letter out!!! DANG IT!!!

Collin also had his first Pinewood Derby on the 30th also. Of course no pictures!! He came in first place and was very proud and I think all of the boys had a good time!!

I'm Still Here!!

2010-01-21T16:58:00.000-07:00

I bet everyone is thinking that I have fallen off the face of the earth!! I haven't blogged since early October!! Wow!! I need to get my act together. It's just been a very hectic last few months.

Here is just a little of what has been going on for the months of October and November.....

After we had Carlee's birthday, Joe and I went to Milwaukee for a Team Leadership Convention. I was one of the most worthwhile things that we have ever done!! We have the greatest leaders on Team that are top rated and are there to always help guide and direct us in all aspects of our lives. Have you ever heard of any millionaire that would teach you their secrets of how to become like them?!! You won't find that anywhere!! I'm really looking forward to going to the Leadership convention in St. Louis in February!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now it's back to family time!! Here everyone is carving their pumpkins for Halloween. We had mexican food to eat and then on to the carving!! We always have a blast when we get together.

I kind of had trouble carving my pumpkin and gave up. I picked a design that was too intricate. Oh well I still had fun and that was more pumpkin seeds for me!!

Can't go without the Halloween cookies!!

This Halloween Kami and Carlee dressed as sailor girls and you can tell what the guys are!

Tina and I dressed up as the Ghostly or Ghouly Grannies. Blaaaa!! Now I know what I'll look like with gray hair!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In November, I did a wedding cake for Cayd and Brinn. Cayd grew up in our area, so I have known him since he was a wee one. I was so happy that they asked me to do their wedding cake!

Aren't they so cute!!

The cake was all chocolate with Dulce De Leches filling and cookies and cream filling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is a cake that I did for my niece's 1st birthday. It's a frozen buttercream transfer. If you would like to know how to do one, click here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I don't have any pics from Thanks giving!! We had a house full at Kami's place of course. Lots of food, playing games, and just having fun being around each other. I do have my cake picture though!

I have always wanted to do a roasted turkey cake! So here is my first one. It's okay, but I now know what to do to make the next one better!! Here is how I made it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Until next time!!!!

Carlee's 4th Birthday 2009

2009-10-14T21:40:00.000-06:00

It's so hard to believe that my little Carlee is growing up! This is how her day went.

Eric is making it a tradition to make his kids special pancakes for their birthday breakfast!!

Cute huh!!!

Carlee was so happy...

...and ate them all!!

Since Carlee is into horses lately, we went for a horsey theme.

It's made with chocolate cake, cookies and cream filling, covered in buttercream. The barn and hay bales are chocolate crispy cereal covered with chocolate clay. The horse and fence are chocolate clay. I didn't use fondant at all.

Can I eat it now?!!!!

She was impatient waiting for grandpa Jensen and her daddy to come in, so she started sneaking pieces of the fence off and eating them.

See...I ate them!! Little stinker!!

Present time!! She received a dress up doll from Kaitlyn.

A stuffed horse from Grandma J.

A movie from Grandma C.

That came with the movie! B.O.B

And then she got a stick horse from her mommy, daddy and Collin!

So that's it for the family birthdays this year!!

Zesty Oat Groats-Black Bean Chili

2009-09-30T11:47:00.000-06:00

This rib-sticking chili offers a hearty mix of oat groats, beans, peppers and onion. You can also substitute wheat berries for the oat groats. I made my own black beans and measured accordingly.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 large yellow bell pepper, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons chili poweder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed
1 14-ounce cans no salt added diced tomatoes, undrained
1 small can chopped jalapeno peppers
2 cups vegetable broth
2 teaspoons brown sugar (I didn't add this)
2 cups cooked oat groats
Juice of 1 lime
1 avocado, diced
1/2 cup fresh cilantro

Preparation

Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper, garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally until tender, about 5 minutes. Add beans, tomatoes, jalapenos to taste, broth and brown sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes.
Stir in cooked oat groats and heat through, about 5 minutes more. Remove from heat. Stir in lime juice. Garnish each bowl with avocado and cilantro.

Makes 6 servings. 1 1/2 cups each

Around 386 calories per serving

Ashly and Justin Stuart's Wedding Reception

2009-09-29T16:45:00.004-06:00

I have known Ashly for quite some time now. Can't really remember when they first moved to our area. Ashly has always been special to me! She is always sweet, kind and tender-hearted. Here are pictures that I took at Ashly and Justin's wedding reception.

Love the shoes!!

Here is the cake that I made for Ashly and Justin.

As a cake decorator, I was totally bummed that this cake had so many problems. First off, the doweling that I put in it wasn't cut straight, so when I stacked it, it started tipping. So that led to catching it before it falls, totally messing up the smooth buttercream and smashing the cake on one side. Then the layers started to shift. Had to take the whole cake apart, smooth the icing as best I could, re-stacked it and iced it with a large basket weave tip!! Since I know that it wasn't my best work and not the design I had planned on, I was really disappointed in myself. I should have known better!! Everyone reassured me that the cake was beautiful and tasted great! So I am happy that they liked it!

I was very happy with the Calla lilies that I made. This is the first time making them in different colors.

Cake faced!!

Opening presents.

I was so happy to see Ashly and meet Justin for the first time!! He seems like the right choice for Ashly and they will be a very happy couple!!

Love you Ashly and Justin!!!

Wedding Entrance

2009-09-28T22:26:00.000-06:00

I totally love this video!!!

Transformers Bumblebee

2009-09-24T00:32:00.000-06:00

This is a Transformer Bumblebee birthday cake for Collin's friend Colton. Bumblebee was made using a frozen buttercream transfer (FBCT). The cake was chocolate fudge with cookies and cream filling.

More Fun at the Fair

2009-09-16T18:24:00.003-06:00

Just have to show you more pics from the fair!! Kami and the kids came to watch the cake competition but of course we had to do a few other things.

First we ate some yummy fair food. Well maybe not a big deal, but Kami and I had hamburgers, kids shared a foot long hot dog and Mark bought cajun alligator strips!! Woowee were they spicy!!!

After eating we made our way to the petting zoo. That's our favorite place to take the kids!!

Here's Carlee just wanting to hug that goat.

Mark had fun petting them too!!

Collin really had fun chasing the goats!

Then there was the cake competition. I thought that maybe everyone would get bored waiting for it to be over, but the kids had a great time!! Collin would love to enter a cake in the show! Too bad he still isn't old enough.

After the show, we were off to see the chickens. For some reason, Carlee is fascinated with them!! She loves hearing the roosters crow.

Here Carlee is looking at the bunnies wishing she could hold one!!

Ummm Eric!! Carlee wants one of these!!! She just loved the miniature horses.

But...when we went around to the other side where the big horses are...Carlee didn't want anything to do with them!! That's her usual stance when she gets scared or upset. Thumb goes in and starts scratching!!

Since we had Mark home for over the weekend, he made us some baked brie!!

This had a round of brie and some spices inside of some puff pastry.

Then you bake it and it comes out real gooey and yummy!

Tasted like a fancy cheese stick!!

This is what we did with the left over puff pastry!! Filled with vanilla custard and raspberries.

Since Joe didn't get to be at the fair with us the first day, I had to go back with him again! Oh that was so hard!! We also asked Joe's sister, Lenora, to come along with us. We had a great time!! We were able to go through all the building that we usually don't get to when we have kids with us.

We ate dutch oven ribs, potatoes and green beans and then later I bought an egg roll. Mmmmm-mmmm!

Lenora wanted to go through all the livestock buildings. I love to look at the animals too!!

This was a big 'ol boy!!

I think Joe was embarrassed to do this!! Bwaaaahahahahaha!!!

This turkey was really showing off for us!! Hmmm...now I'm wanting turkey dinner!! Is Thanksgiving coming up soon?

Now I can't wait for next year!! I love going to our fair!

My Happy Song!!

2009-09-11T12:15:00.000-06:00

My sister Jill has me hooked on this song, so now I'll do the same for you!!!

EISF Sugar Art Show 2009

2009-09-08T17:35:00.002-06:00

Last Saturday, September 5th, was the 3rd Annual Eastern Idaho Sugar Art Show. I was able to attend all of it this year. I'm not too sure my son, Mark, liked having to sit through cake demonstrations and the petting zoo with his niece and nephew, but we did it anyway!!

Judging the cakes started at 9:00 am. We weren't allowed in or near the building while that was taking place. So I left to pick up Mark and arrived back in time to see the One Tip Challenge. (I'll post in a different post) It was so fun to watch!! There were also demos by Desi Richards on how to bake, fill, ice, and fondant cakes. She showed how to stencil, make pearl bead borders and did show some on how to do gumpaste flowers. Always fun to see how people do their art!!

Kami and the kids showed up , so we ate some good fair food and went to the petting zoo with the kids. It's so fun seeing Carlee and Collin with the animals!!

Then it was time for the awards ceremony. First up was the gumpaste flower category. The flower theme was "The Lily". I was thinking that everyone would do calla lilies or day lilies so I did a water lily. And guess what!!! I won grand champion!! Woo hoo!!

Everything on there is edible. I covered the board with a deep blue fondant, the rocks are fondant, the water is poured sugar and the water lily and lily pads are gumpaste.

Here I am receiving my ribbon and trophy. I should have known better then to go to the petting zoo in the blazing heat before the ceremony!!! Ya hear that Kami!! I'm not doing that again!! LOL!!

Below are some of the winners from the All Occasion cake category. The theme was "International Holidays". I was supposed to enter this one but I didn't finish my entry. I may still finish. We'll see!!

This is my friend Courtney's mardi gras cake!! She's only 16 and I think she did a wonderful job on her masks!!

This is my friend Chuck's cake. He did a St Patty's Day entry.

This is Paula's awesome patriotic theme. She received a blue ribbon for first place and for people's choice.

This is Lynn's grand champion cake for the all occasion entry. Can you teel that she did Chinese New Year?!!

Now on the the wedding cakes!!! This years theme was "The Wedding Dress" I loved doing this one!!!

Below are the adult beginners division:

Adult intermediate division:

I loved this one!!! Had to show a close up! She said that it took 9,000 beads to do that design!!

Adult Advanced/professional division:

Sarah Hurzeler ~ 3rd runner up

ME!!!! 2nd runner up!!

Close up of my calla lily topper.

Paula Ames ~ 1st runner up!! Gorgeous!!!!

Lynn Winters ~ Grand Champion!!

Close up of Lynn's work!

Other cakes of note!!

This is my friend Amy Marsh's entry. I think she did fantastic on her sugar work and should have placed. I thought that it was better then mine!!

This is SaraLee Lanier's entry. I've known here since she was a little girl. I think she did a fabulous job!!

Now I wish I know what next years theme was so that I could start right now and not procrastinate until next August!! Sheesh!!

Thanks for lookin'!!!

P.S. You can learn how I made my molds here!!!

This is How Collin Decorates a Cake

2009-08-24T21:15:00.013-06:00

I had leftover cake and icing from an order and this is what Collin does with it!!

'NUF SAID!!!

Collin's 6th Birthday!!

2009-08-22T14:30:00.004-06:00

I'm finally getting around to blogging Collin's Birthday!!

On the day before Collin's real birthday, Kami gave him a separate party for just kids that he wanted to invite. Collin is so much into Pokemon right now that both birthday parties that he had were centered around that theme.

These are the Pokemon Ball cookies that Kami made. Cute huh?!!

Kami also made cake balls in the shape of Pikachu and Jiggly Puff! I think they turned out really fun!!

Collin and Carlee had to have a Pikachu stuffed toy!! That's Carlee's favorite!

The next day (Collin's real B-Day) we had a party for the family. Collin requested that we have pizza. We made homemade pizza, but forgot to take pictures of it. They were really good!!

Collin also wanted a Pokemon Ball cake, so this is what I came up with. It's not real great, but Collin loved it and my father-in-law thought it was a table decoration!! Ha ha!!

The flavors are lemonade cake with lemon filling and vanilla buttercream. The huge Pokemon Ball was made with chocolate and had a small toy from Carlee hidden in the center. That was really hard to make!! The Pokemon Balls and lightning are chocolate transfers. those were easy!!

We had to remove the large Pokemon Ball because it was too heavy for the cake and was making it go lopsided!! So there is a candle up there now.

Time to break open the ball!!! It was tougher then we thought it would be!! Took quite a few whacks!! Collin thought it was lots of fun though.

Afterward we ate cake, opened presents and played games!! WE had a great family get-together!!

Lastest Cakes

2009-08-19T16:38:00.006-06:00

I know these aren't fantastical, but I'll show them anyway.

This was a surprise cake for my friend!

A cake for my friend's father.

A cake for a wedding open house.

Cake was for a friends mom.

I do have some competition cakes coming up, but can't post anything until after the show, which is September 5th. I hope I get everything done that I want to do!!

Larry's Birthday & Family Get-together

2009-07-31T23:26:00.001-06:00

On July 12th we had a big family get together!

My son Ryan came home for a long visit on the 9th and on the 12th we had a party for Larry's birthday, so it was the perfect excuse for all of us to party!!

This is a picture of Larry that I swiped from Kami's blog. He was relaxing at the Atomic Days Parade.

We had all of my kids there, (JoMax, Liz, Alec, Mark, Kami, Eric, Collin, Carlee, Ryan) and a lot of Tina and Larry's family (Tina, Larry, Grandma Brewer, Steven, Tauna, Matt, Kaitlyn, Dee)

Kami and I of course made mexican food for the meal. And of course it was yummy!! Tina made her taco soup, which is really delicious too!!

Larry is not to fond of my buttercream cakes, so we decided to make an ice cream cake. It also turned out to be a learning cake for Kami. She's been wanting to know how to do them.

You can see the flavors and how it was put together on Kami's food blog here!! Check it out!

Before, during and after the meal, Colin and Alec spent almost the whole time playing on the Wii!

My own kids love playing card games.

Here is Liz, Kami, JoMax, Ryan and Mark. Couldn't believe that they were all home at the same time!!!!

Below is a scene of the meal and sugar aftermath!! Whew! We all ate a lot of food!

Later we tried to take a family picture. Ha ha!! Yeah right! Wish we would have gone outside to do it. Joe and I are too slumped down in the couch! Oh well...!

My children!!! Kami, Mark, JoMax and Ryan!

And this is my grandchildren. Collin, Carlee and Alec. The loves of my life!!

JoMax's family. Liz, Alec and JoMax.

Kami's family. Collin, Eric, Carlee and Kami.

Mark and Ryan don't have families yet, but they will someday!!

This is Collin, Carlee, Kaitlyn and Mark going out for a walk. Later is started to get dark and I had to drive out to look for them. They ended up walking over to the park and were on their way back when I found them.

I love our family times and wish we could do it every weekend!! But then sometimes it's nice to just stay home and have a quiet weekend once in a while. But then I think I need to be over at Kami's since she is the closest to me!! What's wrong with me!! I can't leave them alone!!

Shanell and Kenny's Wedding

2009-07-29T01:00:00.004-06:00

Here's a wedding cake that I did for Shanell and Kenny. They live in Hailey but had the wedding up at Wild Horse Creek Ranch. It's very beautiful up there!

This was a yellow cheesecake-flavored butter cake with raspberry filling, vanilla cheesecake flavored icing and fondant. This picture was taken when I arrived. The cake was going to be displayed outside later, but I wasn't there to get pictures of it.

Kaitlyn's 4th of July Cake

2009-07-28T10:16:00.004-06:00

July has been such a busy month!! It's now time to play catch-up and I am so far behind in my blogging!! I will try to post a new blog every day until I'm caught up, so I hope you don't mind all the posts!!

First up is Kaitlyn's birthday. She is a friend of my family and is a cousin to Collin and Carlee on their dad's side. They have become part of my family also.

So here is the birthday cake I did for Kaitlyn. I had no time and wasn't very creative with this one. All those that were there at the party loved it and how it tasted! I even made it eggless so that Carlee can have some, but she didn't even want to taste it!! go figure!! Joe even had the nerve to say that this cake was "ugly"!!!! Well maybe he should have been around to give me his expert advice on decorating!!

Here is Kaitlyn with her cake. She is such a cutie!! The cake was a vanilla cake with cookies and cream filling and vanilla buttercream.

Next year I will have to make her a spectacular girly cake! It will be her 13th birthday!!

Fire in the Sky!

2009-07-03T21:49:00.008-06:00

Tonight as I was getting ready to wash some dishes, I glanced out my kitchen window to see this wondrous sight. With the sun setting and some rain and thunder clouds lingering in the area, it made a spectacular image.

These pictures were taken from my backyard looking towards my neighbors backyard.

Grilled Chili Turkey Burgers

2009-07-03T15:55:00.003-06:00

Summer and burgers...they just go together! This burger is lower in fat and loaded with flavor.

1 recipe Chimichurri Topping (below)

1 1/2 lbs. ground turkey burger

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

3 whole wheat pita bread rounds, quartered and toasted

grilled red peppers

Prepare Chimichurri topping. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine ground turkey, chili powder, onion powder, cumin and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Shape into 6 patties

Grill patties on the rack of an uncovered grill 10 to 13 minutes. Place each patty on top of two of the pita quarters. Top with Chimichurri Topping.

Chimichurri Topping: In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup finely snipped fresh flat-leaf parsley, 1/2 cup finely snipped fresh cilantro, 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (could do without or use regular vinegar), 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper, and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper.

OH DEER!!!

2009-07-02T11:44:00.003-06:00

Isn't this little guy so adorable!!

He had the misfortune of meeting a swather last week. This is just a stock photo of a swather. Anyway, since there has been so much rain here, the grain was very high and so are the river beds where the deer usually have their babies. The swather found 2 of the sweet little things, one was not so lucky and this one had part of his leg cut and it's broken.

As you can see, it's just a newborn and there was no way it could have survived if not taken care of. Some friends have him at their house, so we decided to take the kids over to see the baby. It's not often you can see wildlife up close like this! He is nickname is Pepper.

Feeding time!!

He wasn't scared of the kids at all.

Kami, Collin and Carlee having fun petting the deer.

He really does get around pretty well for having a bum leg. We'll have to go over there and visit it again once in a while!!

Garlic Chicken Pesto Pizza

2009-06-11T09:00:00.001-06:00

There hasn't been a food blog on here for quite a while! I'll start it out with PIZZA!! I wanted to do something totally different then what I usually do. Soooo.......here's the recipe.

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)

2 - 3/4 cups bread flour

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoons salt

1/2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2" pieces

1 small onion, halved and thinly sliced

1/2 each small green bell pepper, julienned

1 large clove garlic, chopped

1 small jar pesto

spinach leaves, torn into small pieces

1 tomato, thinly sliced

Cheese-I used a combination of mozzarella, provolone, parmesan and feta cheese

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Beat in 1 cup flour, 1 tablespoon oil, sugar and 1 teaspoon salt. Add the remaining flour; beat until combined.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 to 8 minutes. Place in a bowl coated with cooking spray, turning once to coat top. Cover and let raise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

In a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, saute the onion, pepper and garlic in a 2 teaspoons olive oil for a few minutes. I like mine to still be crunchy. Remove and set aside. In the same pan add chicken and cook until there is no longer any pink. Remove from heat and set aside.

Punch dough down; roll out dough according to your pan size; 14" round or a 15"x10" rectangle pan. I used my stone rectangle for this recipe.

Spread a tablespoon of olive oil on top of dough. Then layer some mozzarella on the dough.

Spread the jar of pesto over the mozzarella

Add some shredded mozzarella and provolone cheese, the chicken, tomato slices, sauteed veggies, torn spinach, parmesan and the feta cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes or until crust and cheese are slightly browned.

Mandy and Trent's Wedding

2009-06-10T08:37:00.047-06:00

On Friday, May 29, 2009 Mandy and Trent were married for time and all eternity!!

Mandy is the daughter of my best friends, Tina and Larry. They are also my daughter, Kami's in-laws. I have known them for almost 20 years now and they have been Kami's in-laws for almost 11 years.

Mandy and Trent decided to be married in the Draper Utah Temple with a wedding reception following that night. Tina thought it was a good idea to rent a house instead of hotel rooms because we were making a lot of the food for the reception and I have already done a cake for her son in a hotel room with unfavorable conditions!! She thought never again are we going to do that!! It was also probably cheaper for her to rent this house instead of several hotel rooms anyway. We had 15 people staying at the house!! We also had a lot of fun being all together!

Below are some of the pictures of the house that I found on the internet. I should have taken my own, but we were very busy almost the whole time!!

We didn't have snow at the time we were there!!

The foyer/front room

The TV room were Carlee and both grandpa's spent a lot of time watching cartoons

Larry and Tina stayed in this master bedroom

This is the bedroom that Joe and I had

The family room downstairs. Some of the boys slept on the giant beanbags and there was an XBox set up already!!

This is the room that Kami, Eric and the kids stayed in.

Here is the huge kitchen/dining room that we had to play in!! This is where we spent most of the time!

I really loved all the room that this kitchen had!

Here Tina, Cher and Kami are helping make the mini cupcakes. Joe was on trash duty!!

Some of the many mini cupcakes. They were chocolate fudge and lemonade with vanilla buttercream.

The view from the patio deck out back. If we had known there was a BBQ grill, we would have had the guys grill us working girls some food!!

Eric, Collin and Carlee enjoying the hot tub. I only had time to get in it once. Now we all want one!!

Grandma Brewer decided to get in on some relaxation too!

The wedding day was beautiful!! The Temple was only 11 minutes away from the house we were staying in. I was so happy to be at the ceremony!

After the ceremony, we waited outside for the happy couple. It was a little hot outside. Collin was sunburned from going golfing with the guys the day before, so I took him just inside the Temple doors so that he could cool off. I also wanted him to see how beautiful and peaceful it is inside the Temple. We found this large round seating area to rest on for a minute and to watch for Mandy and Trent. Collin was so quiet!!! I don't know if he was really taking it all in or he was exhausted! We then saw Trent's mom come out, so Collin and I went back outside to tell everyone that the newlyweds were coming.

Just outside the Temple doors.

Awwwwww!!

Even the kids had to get in on some cuddling action when they saw Mandy and Trent kissing!! Sometimes they can be so cute!!

I love this picture of Collin with his great-grandma Brewer

Mandy with her parents, Tina and Larry

The whole Jensen gang. Justin, Kami, Eric, Larry, Collin, Mandy, Trent, Tina, Carlee, Del-Leda, Levi and Cher.

After we were finished at the Temple, we headed back to the house for a little bit to do a few things before the luncheon. the luncheon was held at the Madeline in Sandy, UT. We had a choice of three different entrees. I picked steak and Joe had the salmon. We always share!!

Afterwards, we all ran back to the house to get ready for the reception. The boys went to put up the chairs and tables, Tina and some of the others grabbed the food and Kami, the kids, Joe and I stayed at the house so that I could fondant the cake and then go. BUT...someone for got to leave us the address to the park!! we eventually made it there!!

The reception was held at the Draper Historic Park. It wasn't a very large park, but it was beautiful and had a awesome huge gazebo!! It was the perfect place to hold a reception!!

Grandpa Joe helping Carlee with her corsage.

Some of the table decorations that Mandy and Tina put together.

This is the wedding cake that I did. Only the bottom tier was real. It was made with chocolate fudge cake with chocolate mousse filling. It had royal blue ribbon on each tier and the top I made with gumpaste. I did have a little help from Kami and Cher in making the leaves and the filler flowers! Thanks you two!!

First dance as husband and wife!!

The beautiful bride dancing with her daddy!!

At the end, we all sent Mandy and Trent off with a line of sparklers! The kids really enjoyed it and it was fun for all of us!

After the clean up and we were back at the house, we were all so exhausted!!! I really wanted to go to bed but Tina talked me into getting in the hot tub!! I was glad I did but I kept thinking of all the stuff we had to do to get ready to go in the morning! We had to clean up the house and wash all of the bedding and towels before we left for our 4 1/2 hour drive home...and be there ready for the open house at Kami's!! It all worked out good!! A lot of people stopped by to visit the happy couple, ate cake and chatted for quite a while. Mandy and Trent still had to go back to Salt Lake to catch a plan in the morning. They went to Cancun for their honeymoon. When they got on their plan, the airline gave them a free upgrade to first class!! SAAAAWEEEET!!!

We love you Mandy and Trent!!!

This is for my cake friends!! I put a tutorial for making the carnations on the Sugar Teacher's blog. You can view it here.

My Niece, Audrey's, Wedding

2009-06-09T08:15:00.017-06:00

My niece, Audrey was married to Sam on May 23, 2009.

Here are some of the pictures that I took of the wonder day!!!

This is my step-FIL Lynn, my BIL Steve (the brides dad) and my MIL Velma (Joe's Mom). They are sitting outside the Rexburg Temple waiting for the bride and groom to make their entrance into the world as a married couple.

This is the view from in front of the Temple. Indications of things to come!! Later, we did have to move the outside wedding reception to inside the church! Audrey wanted to so much have the reception outside in her parents beautiful yard.

This is my SIL Lenora, the brides Mom, talking to the photographer. Still waiting for the bride and groom to show.

Well they made their way out of the Temple finally and couldn't wait to start smooching!! Audrey is wearing her mother's wedding dress!! I thought that was so sweet!! People just don't do that anymore!!

The cute couple!!!

We went back to the house to decorate and put the cake together, but the wind was so bad, we had to move it to inside. It turned out better that way anyway!! Wish I would have taken more pictures of the decorations and things and the FOOD!!! It was great!!

Here are the culprits that decorated the bride grooms car!! I'm supposed to keep quiet about it, so don't tell!!!

The finished job!!

It's cake time!! This is the cake that I made the happy couple!! It's a chocolate, vanilla and yellow cake, covered in buttercream with fondant drapes, gumpaste daisies, calla lilies and chocolate clay twigs with ribbon that I swiped from their house!!!

This is almost the whole Newton family!!! Wendy wasn't there yet and Amy had already left.

This is Wendy and her kids. They had to come kind of late, but I was glad that they still came!!

Liz's Graduation

2009-06-05T06:00:00.001-06:00

On May 9th my daughter-in-law, Liz, graduated from Idaho State University.

Way to go Liz!!!!

This is my son JoMax with his son Alec during the ceremony.

The graduating class of 2009.

We're very proud of you Liz!!!

JoMax, Liz and Alec.

After the graduation, we all went back to JoMax and Liz's for a meal. It was great visiting with them!

Three days later was Alec's birthday. We met JoMax, Liz, Alec, Mark and some of JoMax's and Liz's friends in Idaho Falls. We went to a movie (Star Trek) and then to Johnny Carinos to eat afterward. We had a good time but we are all too full to eat any of the cake that I made Alec! He wanted a volcano cake so I came up with this:

It kind of looks like it has ketchup and mustard flowing over the top!! Alec thought it was cool anyway!! I made this cake by using the doll pan and the smoke was make by cutting out a shape from foamboard, sticking a skewer in it, place it in the cake and then icing the whole thing in swirls.

Arizona 2009

2009-06-04T13:39:00.001-06:00

YAY!! I can blog!!!

The last time I blog was right before our trip to Arizona. That's well over a month ago!! I really didn't take many pictures while I was down there!! Shame on me!!

Our drive down was not a big deal. We left after church to start driving our 15 to 16 hour drive. We spent the night in Kanab, UT and then drove the rest of the way only stopping for potty breaks and to make something to eat.

When I got to my mom's house, we were greeted by Brandy with this big collar on!! She had an ear infection and an infection on her leg. She was able to get the collar off before we left.

Most of our visit we just stayed at the house and spent time with my family. It was great to just do that!! We did go out to eat a couple of times and did a little shopping. The only big eventful thing that happened was when Joe plugged the toilet up and we had to call someone to unplug it!! How embarrassing!! The when the plumber saw how old the toilet was and that all of the inside pipes were clogged (not by Joe!) he said that the toilet needed replaced.

I had a lot of fun with my sissy's!! I miss them a lot!! That's Jill, Jody and me. I wished we lived a little closer together so that we could see each other more then once a year.

Joe tried to take a picture of this highway sign that said Jomax Road. Our oldest son's name is JoMax and Joe thought he would like to see it. But...the picture isn't clear at all.

When we got back home, we picked up Carlee so that she could stay with us while her momma and Collin went to Virginia and Washington D.C. for several days. Sure wish I could have gone too!!

It was also Joe's birthday the next day, so Carlee and I made him some cupcakes to take to work with him.

What a sweet little chocolate face!!!

Well that's about it. Now you'll get a blog everyday until I get caught up!!!

Happy 35th Anniversary to Us!!!

2009-04-18T00:25:00.000-06:00

Here's just a little tribute to our 35 years together! Thought you might have fun seeing these!!!

Joe when he was about 3 or 4 years old

Rhonda at 5 years old.

Just before Joe went on his mission in 1966

Rhonda's high school picture in 1973

Our wedding announcement.

Outside the Provo Temple

Wow! Look at all that buttercream!!

~ The wedding party~

My sister Jill, my cousin D'Ann, my friend Michelle, my sister Jody, me, Joe, our friend Wayne, our friend Ralph, my brother Ronnie.

~My Family~

My grandma & grandpa Sorenson, Joe & I, my Mom & Jill, my Dad, Jody & Ronnie

~Joe's Family~

Joe's sister Lenora, brother Daniel, Grandpa Rasmussen, his Mom and Joe and I

~Our Children~

Ryan, JoMax & his wife Liz, Kami & her husband Eric, Mark

~Our precious grandchildren~

Carlee, Alec and Collin

Here we are in 2009! Still together, still happy!!

Our Easter 2009

2009-04-17T16:31:00.009-06:00

Ever since our kids were were very small, Joe and I started a different kind of family tradition. We didn't want our children to get confused with the true meaning of Easter, so the Easter Bunny would always come a day early!

My daughter Kami has kept that tradition with her own family! Here is how our Easter weekend went!

Friday Evening Activities

The coloring of the eggs!

Poor, tuckered out Carlee! She didn't make it through to help do the eggs.

Saturday Afternoon Activities

Woo Hoo!!! Let's get this egg hunt rollin'!!

Just look at our stash!!

After the egg hunt, we made Easter cupcakes for Sunday's Easter dinner.

Collin did a pretty good job on his cupcake!!

Mmmmm!! SUGAR!!!

Easter Sunday

Aren't I cute!!!

Kami ran around and played games with Collin, Carlee and Kaitlyn. They played in the new playroom that Grandma Jensen made for the kids, played dress-up and ran everywhere in the house!!!

Collin kept eating these rolls that I made!! I think he ate about 5 or 6 of them and I don't think he was going to stop if we didn't tell him to keep out of them!!

St. Patrick's day in Carlee Preschool

2009-04-01T19:24:00.022-06:00

I can't believe it has taken me so long to post this!! Same on me!! I have a couple of blogs that are behind!!

Carlee's preschool teacher asked me if I would make a cookie bouquet for the preschool class. I had to do it of course!!

When I first arrived, Carlee was playing with the other kids.

Then I heard what the leprechauns had done to the classroom!!! Oh my!! He left footprints all over the class, dumped out toys and things all over the floor and all the kids had to clean up his mess!! Naughty leprechauns!!

Soon it was time to pass out Carlee's treat to the class, so it was time to wash up!

Carlee passed out all the cookies!!

She even ran out of the classroom to give one to Joel!!

Mmmmm Mmmmmm!!

Then they played the Hokey Pokey and then it was time to drive to their destinations. It was so cute!!

Watch them do this on the video!

The class colored some St. Paddy's Day pictures.

Carlee loved the story time book that her teacher was reading!

At the end of the day, Mrs. Snyder put the Goofy Dance music on. Watch the kids get their groove on!!

Idea for Mandy #1

2009-03-27T22:56:00.006-06:00

Today, Tina and I started working on ideas for her daughter, Mandy's wedding.

Mandy...let me know if you like the ideas or not!!

Dessert idea ~ Mini cupcakes with vanilla icing yellow sprinkles and blue royal icing flower. It's really supposed to be a violet. I can also do it with blue sprinkles and a yellow flower too. Next week I will do some small fondant flowers to show you!!

Below is a yellow and blue royal icing pansy. I made it just for the heck of it! It can be placed on larger cupcakes or desserts. All of these flowers can be made ahead of time and they are not hard to make!

Ice Cream Cake Tutorial

2009-03-17T08:54:00.003-06:00

Just letting everyone know that my ice cream cake tutorial is now up on Sharing and Caring blog!! Go check it out!!