Who's that Girl?

I hardly even know who I am anymore. I have always tried to stay far away from making yeast breads. There was just something a little intimidating about it. I have made a few attempts in the past and decided it just wasn't for me. Last week I decided to give it another try. My mom gave me her bread maker so I started there. I was really pleased with the first couple of loafs that I made in the bread maker but after the first day they weren't too good except for toasting. Since then I have experimented a little more and I am so excited! I have made two batches of the best cinnamon roll I have ever tasted, a wonderful honey wheat bread that is just perfect for sandwhiches, a french baquet, and some cinnamon raisin bread. I just let the bread machine do the work and when it is all kneaded I take the dough out, shape it and let it rise again and then bake it in the oven. Everything I have made this way has turned out perfect!!! The real downside to this is that I am afraid I am going to gain back the 15 pounds I have lost since January. :( Bread is definately a weakness.

Teacher's gifts

I always prefer to make something for my kid's teachers. To me it just makes it more personal. I found this cute idea of dressing up large candy bars. It's quick, easy, super cute and I know they will be yummy! We just carefully took the wrapper off of the candy bars and traced it onto our favorite papers. We then cut out the pretty paper and wrapped the candy bar. For a final touch we used some clear glitter to accent the paper and tied it up with some valentine ribbon. The tag reads "A Sweet For A Sweetie" . The heart print in the middle is made with my children's thumb prints. Too, too cute!!!!

Valentines treats

I made these for Lauren's class party. I think they are super cute but I don't know if they were worth the time. All you do is cut little circles from a pound cake. I used Sarah Lee's frozen pound cake and to cut the circles I used a lid from one of my hair products. It was the perfect size (no worries...I washed it first). Then you microwave your frosting in 15 sec. intervals, stirring each time, until it is the right consistency for dipping in the cakes. I colored mine pink, red, and white. Then you take a fork and stick into each cake and dip the cake in the frosting and then using another fork slide the cake off and onto wax paper to dry. Add the sprinkles while the frosting is still warm so that they will stick. My kids loved helping me make these. They were able to eat the scraps after cutting the circles and they loved putting on the sprinkles. Another added bonus that my 5 year old really appreciated was that the frosting made everyone's tongues really pink.
Overall I think this is a very cute recipe and this really cuts down on the amount of sugar the kids will consume at the party. They would have to eat atleast a half dozen of these to equal 1 cupcake. Altough I would only recommend this if you are not trying to save time. You would think with store bought cake and canned frosting this would be pretty quick and easy. Anytime you have to dip small pieces of anything you should know better.

Boy Valentines

I wanted to make something that wasn't feminine for my son to give out to his classmates. I found this idea and I think it is perfect for Andrew. He loves dinosaurs! I love the way they turned out!