Hot Pad and Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe!

You know what makes me feel old?  Attending the wedding of two of my former students.  Sure, sure, they were a young bride and groom, and it's not like I taught them when they were in kindergarten or anything, but there you have it.  I'm old.  Don't know why former students having babies didn't have the same effect on me.

So anyway, I was torn, because I wanted to make something, but I also love giving off the registry, especially when a couple is just starting out and they have a lot better idea about what they need than I do.  Not that I wouldn't have PLENTY of advice for them in this category after looking at said registry (KIDS!  Register for the pyrex with a LID that costs a few dollars more!  Believe me!), but I feel like I never know what they already have so sticking faithfully to a registry appeals to me.   

Luckily, I love baking, and there were several baking-related registry items that I could group together for an affordable gift, and supplement with a cute handmade potholder.  Best of both worlds!  

I made my potholder using this tutorial from The Crafty Cupboard, and it came out great.  I added an extra layer of the insul-brite to the top-hand section (the piece that actually handles the hot pot) after reading in a different tutorial that one layer might not do it.  I can't remember if the tutorial specifies, but I used single-fold bias tape for my trim since that was all I had in a color that matched. I was able to make it out of scraps from my insulated casserole project, and I must say I do love this fabric for anything kitchen-related; plus the fact that it's not too girly makes it work well for a wedding gift (this potholder is for you TOO, Groom!).

Also doubles as a puppet.

For the lining, I found a yard of this cute vintage fabric in my stash.  It came from my grandma ages ago.  

And finally, I included my all-time winner peanut butter cookie recipe.  It's been gradually adapted by me from a recipe on the Jif jar.  And lucky for you, I will give it to you too, reader, even though you maybe didn't invite me to your wedding.

Beth's Best Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

3 Tb milk (I usually use 2% but whatever you have on hand is fine)

1 Tb vanilla (if you've got it, Mexican vanilla really really makes a difference.  So. Good.)

1 egg

1 3/4 cup flour

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking soda

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees f

1. Combine peanut butter, shortening, brown sugar, milk, and vanilla in a large bowl.  Beat at medium speed until well blended.

2.  Add egg, beat until just blended.

3.  In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking soda.

4.  Add dry ingredients to peanut butter mixture gradually at low speed.  Mix until just blended.

5.  Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls (I use a cookie dough scoop) about 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet (I swear by the airbake sheets.)  Flatten slightly in a criss-cross pattern using the tines of the fork, if you are a peanut butter cookie traditionalist like I am.

6. Bake at 375 for 7-8 minutes.  Cookies should be slightly underbaked when you pull them out.  Let cook for at least two minutes on the baking sheet before carefully moving them to a wire rack to cook (I use a spatula since the cookies are still pretty tender at this point).  This will help them stay chewy!

Makes about 3 dozen.  

Let me get those for you!

Kale Berry Smoothie Recipe

My son loves vegetables.  He will eat pretty much everything we put in front of him.  A short period in his toddlerhood withstanding, he has always been a really good eater--and thank goodness for that, because when he never slept easily for the first two years of his life, we could console ourselves by saying, "Well, at least he's a good eater."

My daughter?  Not so.  If there's a hint of something green on her plate, that's an excuse for her to avoid eating anything at all.  She has been known to pull a stray piece of parsley out of her mouth from a bite of some otherwise inoffensive pasta, declaring, "Not this."  I have had to be verrrry sneaky about getting vegetables in her system, and this yummy smoothie is one way that I do it.

I start by putting the kale in the blender--I find that it gets smoother and more hidden when it's at the bottom.

The bananas go on top of that, broken into chunks, then I dump in the frozen berries. You could use fresh too, but I like the bit of iciness that the frozen berries add.

Although, I usually microwave the berries for about 30 seconds before putting them in, because if they are frozen solid I end up with big chunks of frozen berry in there.  Not as big of a problem as big chunks of unblended kale, but still not ideal.

I like to throw in a tablespoon of flax seed meal, because it's healthy for anyone with the added bonus of reducing constipation in the girl--big shock that it's an issue, given that all she wants to eat is bread and cheese, right?

Anyway, I top the whole thing off with apple juice, blend until smooth, then pour into glasses and drink.

It makes about one large glass and two little ones.  You can always slightly increase your amounts if there will be two grown-ups drinking these.

And then here's where I get really sneaky...

I make the leftovers into popsicles! I always feel like an evil genius when I serve kale for dessert, am I right?

This recipe is totally adaptable--you can add yogurt, mix up the fruits, use spinach instead of kale, add carrots, use a different kind of juice or substitute water, etc, but here is a good general recipe for a kale smoothie in which very discerning toddlers cannot taste the vegetables.

Kale Berry Smoothie:

Note--I measured my ingredients this time to make sure it came out the right consistency and everything, but usually I just throw in the amounts that look good!  It's a very forgiving recipe.

Ingredients:

2 cups kale, stems and stalks removed, broken into small pieces.
2 ripe bananas (also a good use for over-ripe bananas)
2 cups frozen berries, slightly defrosted in the microwave
1 Tbs flax seed meal (optional)
1 cup apple juice

Directions:

Place kale in the blender and add banana chunks.  Pour in the berries and a tablespoon of flax seed meal if desired.  Top with apple juice and blend until smooth.  Pour into cups, then pour remaining smoothie into popsicle molds and freeze.

Wait, is this thing good for me?  Blech!

THE BEST Rhubarb Custard Bars--my version

These bars are my favorite summer treat. I started making them when my mother-in-law supplied me with rhubarb from her garden, and they quickly became a staple.  Every time that I bring them somewhere, people ask me for the recipe--or, they just ask me to bring them again next time.  

There are three main components to this dessert: 

Shortbread Crust

Rhubarb Custard Filling

Whipped Cream Cheese Topping

I mean, how can you go wrong?  And despite having three distinct parts, they really come together very easily.  You do have to plan ahead a bit, because the crust/custard have to come to room temp before you put on the topping, and then the whole thing should chill for an hour or so before serving, but actually making them is pretty simple.  Believe me, because I do not go in for complicated desserts--why should I, when there are so many easy ones that are fabulous?

These are adapted (barely) from a couple of different recipes.  I don't remember where I found the original one, but when I found another version from Cooking Light, I mixed and matched the lightened version and the original to come up with something in-between that worked for me.  My main complaint with the Cooking Light version was that it used Cool Whip, whereas I require real whipped cream for most things in life.  But I did like that it cut down on the butter without really changing the crust, and that it used lightened cream cheese and milk in the other parts of the recipe.  

Made in a 9x13 pan

Here goes--the recipe!

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/8 tsp salt

9 Tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

cooking spray or additional butter

Filling:

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups 1% milk (you can use whatever you've got--I've been successful with 2% and fat-free, as well)

3 large eggs

5 cups (1/2 inch) sliced rhubarb, fresh or frozen (no need to thaw it)

Topping:

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup (8 oz) reduced fat cream cheese (1 block)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Whipping cream (about 1/2 cup in liquid form, it will be about 1 cup once you whip it--and a little extra never hurt this recipe), with about a tsp of vanilla and a tablespoon of powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

Crust:  Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt in a bowl.  Cut in butter with a pastry knife or two knives until mixture resembles course meal.  You can also do this with a food processor if you think that washing a food processor is less work than cutting in butter--I go back and forth on that one.  Press mixture into a buttered (or cooking-sprayed) 9"x13" pan and bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until crust is golden.

Filling:  While the crust is baking, wash and chop your rhubarb.  Then combine 1/3 cup flour and 1 1/2 cups sugar in a large bowl; add milk and eggs, stirring with a whisk until well blended.  Stir in rhubarb.  Pour mixture over baked crust.  Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until set.  Cool to room temperature.

Topping:  Whip your cream with a little vanilla and powdered sugar to taste.  You can do with a mixer, or I like to use my co-2 whipped cream canister (pictured below).  Can I take a minute to tell you how much I love this thing?  I just fill it with a pint of whipping cream, a spoonful of powdered sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla, screw on the top, shake it up, put in the co-2 cartridge, shake it again, and I have the most beautiful whipped cream.  Then I just squirt out a cup's worth (or a bit more) when I'm ready for it in the recipe, and I have more whipped cream leftover for whatever I want.  Okay, sidetrack over.  Back to the recipe.  Place 1/2 cup sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla in a bowl, beat with mixer at medium speed until smooth.  Gently fold in whipped cream; spread evenly over baked and cooled custard.

My hero

 Cover and chill for at least an hour.  Cut into squares.  Devour.

Om nom nom nom I'm going to need another one of these right now.

So of course, the last time I made these, I decided I had to have a cute little insulated carrier of my own to tote them to book club.  Have I mentioned how much I love coordinating prints?

Casserole Carrier Tutorial found at 2 Little Hooligans

This time I added the little utensil holder--so cute!

How much do I love this poppy print?  I hope I have enough of it left to make something cute for Little Sister!

The only thing I did differently than the tutorial for this carrier was to only sew the two panels together on the short sides, leaving the long sides open in case I wanted to slip an ice pack or heated rice bags in there to add to the insulating properties of the Insul-Brite lining.  Genius, no?  Hmmm, maybe it would be even more genius to sew one of those long sides down and add a little velcro to the open side, so the heating/cooling element wouldn't slip out...something to think about.  I'm always thinking.

The DIY Owl Party--Whooo's turning Two?

She's been two for a whole week, so we thought it was time to have another owl party!

The good news is, Little Sister was feeling much better, so we were able to have Little Sister's buddies over for her "kid party" a week after the family celebrated.  And we needed the extra week--we had lots of fun projects we did together to get ready for the party!

Look whooooo's two!

I made a bigger owl cake, and based on The Boy's suggestion Little Sister decided she wanted her owl to be brown this time.  No arguments from me, as the chocolate frosting I used for decoration last time was SO GOOD--so this time I got to use it for the whole cake! 

I tried this recipe for the cake, and I felt like the results were pretty similar to the first cake that I made--good, homemade tasting, but still not fluffy enough for my taste.  I had such high hopes, too, because this recipe required me to whip the butter for FOUR WHOLE MINUTES before adding the sugar, then add the sugar in 1/4 cup increments, whipping for another full minute after each addition!  That was the fluffiest dang butter/sugar mixture I'd ever seen, but it didn't really pay off for me.  For this cake, I made a 1.5 recipe and baked it in a 9x13 pan, then after chilling it I cut it into two layers.   If I do that again, I will divide it into two pans and bake it for less time--I think it was too thick to bake properly.

For the shape, I cut a curve out of the top of the rectangle to make the owl tufts, then used the cutout to add feet to the bottom.

Note--the chocolate frosting recipe makes A TON.  I made a full recipe plus a third, but pulled out a bunch of frosting before adding the chocolate to use for decorating (so I just used the recipe amount of chocolate).  I frosted the cake and used frosting plus seedless jam for the filling between layers.  And I have enough left over to AT LEAST frost a batch of cupcakes.  I guess that means I'm going to have to make cupcakes.  Oh bother. 

Close up of the shape I cut out of the top of the rectangle

Side view of my fancy wing decoration.  Made by putting frosting in a ziploc bag and cutting
off the corner (obviously I cut a bigger hole in the bag for pink frosting.)

 You sure can't go wrong serving birthday cake to kids though.  They will always make you feel like you did a good job.  Even if you use box cake.  Which may be what I do next time.

These "owl glasses" were one of the favors--I picked them up at Party City for 10 cents each.  I actually bought a pair a while back and used it for the photo I put on the invitation, but then the dog chewed up the glasses.  They look like they'd be tempting to a dog, right? 

Another favor was the beanbag owls that I made using this tutorial.  The only difference is that I sewed the eyes and beak to the front piece of fabric before attaching the back and stuffing, rather than gluing them on afterwards. And I used fabric paint for the pupils.   I kept it simple by just using white thread for all of the beanbags, and learned after the first couple to keep the opening as big as possible at the bottom--SO much easier to get the beans in.  I used pinto, because they were cheapest.

Bonus points if you recognize any of these fabrics from other projects on this blog!

Each kid got a beanbag owl, and I made a few extra to keep around the house.  I made this "owl's nest" beanbag toss from an old cardboard box and wrapping paper, with grocery bag "nests."  Lots of duct tape was involved.  I didn't take photos of this process, but it turned out that a few extra strips of cardboard secured by duct tape were necessary for internal support, so keep that in mind before you recycle the part of the box you didn't use for the basic structure.

The Boy got some practicing in before the rest of the guests arrived. 

Get a little closer, why don't you?
(Actually, to be fair, I made him stand so close because I couldn't get any further back with my camera :P)

And it doubles as a tunnel/hidey hole.

 

Our other party game was "Pin the owl on the tree." 

The doorknob luckily did not become an issue, even when kids were blindfolded.  Phew.

I drew the outline of a tree on a roll of paper, then the kids painted it. (Some of Little Sister's painting did end up on the tree--once she figured out how to make "dots" she was more into it.)

Working together

Once dry, I cut the tree out and The Boy glued paper leaves that I had cut out on the branches.  I drew a knot with a nest inside for the older kids to have a target, but figured hitting the tree at all might be a challenge for some of the little guys.  I printed out some little royalty-free owls on cardstock (you can see them stuck to the door to the left of the tree in this pic and the one above), wrote the kids' names on the owl tummies, and used rolled duct tape to stick the owls to the tree.  Kids who were willing to be blindfolded got a scrap of fleece hastily grabbed from my stash tied over their eyes before landing their owls.

Another favor I added to the bags were these little coloring books.  I made the cover page from cardstock and just used regular letter paper for the inside pages. I found several free downloads of owls to color in and made a little booklet.  I got the idea to make these when I saw a cute crayon roll--I didn't have time to go hunting for owl fabric for this party, but I will totally make another theme coloring book and coordinating crayon roll for the next kid's birthday party!

Open to show all the different pages

The back cover had a photo of Little Sister that I used the new "pencil sketch" feature in Picasa to create.  I have done something similar using photoshop before, but it took forever!  Granted, the background hasn't been whited out here, but this was so quick.  I could feasibly reopen this image in Photoshop and finish the job there--I still think this would save me a lot of time. 

Front and back cover of "coloring book"

My favorite part was the favor bags that we made. 

Owl favor bags

 I made a little template for the wing shape,

I let The Boy pick pieces from my wrapping paper scraps (I knew I'd been holding on to those for a reason!),

The Boy can't wait to get started.

Then cut the wing shapes out.

In the meantime, Little Sister was coloring the bags.  This step was totally optional, but it was nice to have a way for her to feel involved :) 

Nice artwork, Sis!

I had The Boy glue the wings on--it was pretty easy for him because he just had to line up the corner of the wing with the corner of the bag.

We traced a bottle top on cardstock to make the eyes, then the kids colored pupils on them.

The beaks and feet were cut out of that foam paper stuff--I got a pack of 20 multicolored half-sheets at the dollar tree ages ago for various crafts.  Luckily we had some orange left (although I'm pretty sure that real owls don't have orange beaks.) You could easily use cardstock or construction paper for this.

Cutting squares in half diagonally is an easy way to make triangles.

Glue the feet to the bottom of the bag so that they will stick out in the front.

 The Boy glued on all of the eyes, beaks, and feet too.  I think these turned out so cute!  Once we had the top folded over, The Boy used alphabet stickers to spell out each kid's name on the top.  He enjoyed deciding who would get each owl.

When can we open them up?

The favor bags were filled out with some cute owl stickers I found at Target and a sucker that looked like an egg (I couldn't find any owl treats, and it was almost Easter--hey, owls come from eggs, right?)

I feel like I'm starting to get better at this theme party thing!  Maybe next time around, I'll branch into party decorations too--so far, I'm out of ideas (or more likely, time) before I get to that point.

Oh, and I almost forgot--this is what I sent out for invitations.  

Wearing the original owl glasses that were destroyed by the dog.

I know absolutely nothing about graphic design; it's something I would really like to learn one day but have resigned myself to the fact that no amount of messing around with programs I don't understand will get me where I want to be, so I'm going to have to take some classes.  Which means leaving the house at some point, and probably not after the children have gone to bed.  Sigh.  So in any case, I ordered this customizable digital invitation from Monkey Doodle Parties on Etsy--I think she's got all kinds of printable party packs too.  Then I just had them printed as a 5x7 photo--I think Costco is the best place to do that.  Easy, and still pretty affordable--I think the customized file cost me $8 (it was one of her sale designs), then the photo printing is something like 37 cents for a 5x7.