Doggie Cookies!

I get so annoyed with the prices of pet treats, ESPECIALLY dog treats. My dogs don't even chew the small treats, let alone taste them! Since Sam had known food allergies as a puppy, I've always been skeptical about home-making anything for him. Now that he's older and we've tested a few different foods treats that we KNEW he'd had reactions to before, I know what he can and can't tolerate. (Go figure, I pick the dog with health issues. Apple, Tree....?!) I'd found a bunch of recipes online, but so many of them called for either off-the-wall ingredients that I wasn't about to purchase (or knew I couldn't find), OR they called for garlic (dogs shouldn't have garlic) or corn, which is one of his triggers. So...after much searching, I'd found a handful of recipes I wanted to try. I was planning on doing a couple of them, but I didn't realize that we were out of a couple of things I thought we'd had, and we only go to the store every 2 weeks after payday (except for essentials that run out, i.e. milk). So, I planned on making these cookies I'd seen that sounded simple. I'd bought cute dog cookie cutters at Michael's a while back, but hadn't used them yet. I didn't use one of them with these, but I did use the bones, dogs, and paw prints. I chose to leave out the dog houses. The only thing we struggled to find was carob, which I'd been searching for for months. Last weekend, I thought, what if a "health food store" had it, since it's "vegan?" We went to Whole Foods and found carob chips in with the bulk items that you bag yourself. WOOHOO! However, it was somewhat pricey. The only issue I had with making these nummies was, I'd microwaved the chips after baking the cookies, as the recipe said to, BUT it turned really thick and oily...almost like molasses, but worse. It wouldn't stick to the cookies. I'd wasted a whole cup of those babies. :( Jim melted them on the stove over boiling water, and that worked MUCH better. The pups LOVED them. It was funny...as I was making them (they STINK, btw. If you're a nurse, you know what I'm talking about when I say that the fragrance of molasses made my stomach roll. haha), they were sitting patiently right behind me and under my feet, which they don't usually do when I'm baking or cooking, unless something was dropped on the floor. They gobbled these up! I just stuck them in a big ziplock bag....I'm not sure on the proper storage. I suppose they should go in the fridge or freezer at some point if not eaten soon. I don't see that happening with our mutts. :) P.S. It didn't make as many as I thought it might, BUT I may have made them a little thick. Not sure.

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Bake-Sale Blues

Jim and I have been working hard to help out the school with the bake sale. Since we both work a lot and our weekend is pretty packed, we had to bake our items this week. We were up until almost 1am one day, and I was up again until midnight the next night...and we both had to work during the day! (Remember, I get up at 5am and work until around 8pm...so don't judge!) Anyway, here's what we made!

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AJ's 7th Birthday Party-Justin Bieber style!

Yes, I made these, after being inspired by eBay. $2 a piece? Kiss. My. Butt.

Trial cupcakes...Bieber-style. We wanted to make microphones, but it didn't work out too well. :)

Cupcake stand-first time used! Bought on clearance! :)

All ready for her Justin Bieber birthday party! :)

Yes, I let her have blue hair for the day. :) I'm the coolest stepmom ever. :) Just ask her.

Head table. :)

Turned out pretty good. :) Found the Bieber add-ons on eBay. :)

I just like her face in this pic...right after she blew out her candle. ;)

 Very Justin Bieber purple. :) Lots of compliments. :) Thanks, guys! :) <3

It's party time!

Every year, Jim's sister and brother-in-law have a costume party. People really get into it. This year, I was a football player (but I forgot my football at home. boo!) and Jim was a blind referee. :)

I'm no cake boss...

Okay, so I've been wanting to start making the birthday cakes for the kids' birthday parties for years, but in the interest of saving time and my sanity, we would end up buying a cake instead. However, the last few cakes that we have had have been extremely disappointing, especially since one of them came from Cake Gallery, which is supposed to be one of the best bakeries in Omaha. I decided I wanted to try to make a Michigan jersey cake for Kyle this year. I found a recipe for marshmallow fondant and made my own from scratch. To save time, since I was simply wanting to practice fondant, as I can make cakes from scratch without difficulty, I used a boxed cake. BIG MISTAKE! It fell apart as it cooled. So, needless to say, it showed once the fondant was on, despite my buttercream frosting I used to put it back together. You'll notice that the fondant is green and yellow. Well, I'd forgotten to save some for blue, so I ended up with green WHOOPS! Anyway, I'm not too crazy about making fondant...it's very time-consuming, EXTREMELY messy, and very temperamental. 

Jim asked me to try to do buttercream instead. I didn't want to, as it doesn't look as sleek as fondant...well...maybe it would look better than MY fondant, but you get my point. :) I made a buttercream frosting from scratch and attempted again. Here is what I did with the cake after it cooled. Nevermind one of the sleeves is backwards...this was just my trial cake. :) 

 Here is my buttercream frosting that I made. I split it up so that I wouldn't accidently color all of it the same color. :) 

 Once it was colored, I used one of my Wilton bags and a small tip to decorate. 

This was very hard to frost. I realized midway that a butterknife is very helpful with buttercream! I decided to make his jersey Number 11 since that's his birthday age. 

Jim liked the buttercream better, and I was surprised by the yummy taste, so we decided to go with that instead of fondant....this year. :) However, Michigan changed their jerseys this year, so he asked me to follow suit. I did not, however, make stripes on the sleeves. :) I'm still a newbie at this! Here is the actual birthday cake!

I realize the M has some issues, but I did this after working a 14 hr shift, I was also on-call at this time, and it was at least midnight. We finished around 2 am. I was a bit tired and stressed out. :) 

Christmas Cookies for Santa!

Look at how stiff this stuff is! 

The mixer was about to start smoking! 

I think Santa will like them. They're too cream cheesy for me, but they're pretty! 

Shedding For the Wedding! lol

Jim asked me to make him a black forest cake for his birthday. Well...after working all night, coming home and sleeping for three hours, then making this cake for about 5 hours....it is complete. I apologize for the cheezy smiley face on it...I went to toss the LITTLE BIT of extra frosting, and Jim's chin began to quiver, so I used it all up instead. It was actually really freaking good! Messy as hell, but good! 

It's all over my hands! 

Showing off the 3 layers of chocolate cake, cherries, and frosting. mmm