Welcome to Seussville

Are you loving all things Dr. Seuss too?  So many of us grew up on Dr. Seuss books, and are excited to now share them with our own children.  My kids learned to read on Dr. Seuss books, and all 3 of them are looking forward to watching the new Lorax movie.  My 15 year old even wants to go see it.  While I did not make anything special for Dr. Seuss's birthday or the opening of the movie (yet!), I did want to share a fun discovery.   Did you know that Dr. Seuss has an official website called Seussville?  It has games, activities, printables, and all of our favorite characters from the books.   Check out the fun at http://www.seussville.com/#/home

Shamrock Pretzels

After making my Leprechaun Pops, I had some leftover green chocolate.  I have noticed recently that pretzel tiny twists was similar in shape to a petal on a clover.   I thought why not try and make a clover treat with my leftover chocolate and some pretzel twists.

I dipped the pretzels a couple at a time into the chocolate

Using a toothpick, I laid them on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper, and arranged them into a clover.  I tried  both 3 leaf and 4 leaf shapes.   I filled in the holes with more chocolate and allowed it to harden.  

The family seemed to like them.  They disappeared as quickly as I had made them.


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Leprechaun Marshmallow Pops

                   I caught some leprechauns, does this mean I can keep the pot of gold?

Last year, I came up with the idea to make some Leprechaun Pops.  You can see my old tutorial here

This year I decided to try and give him a little upgrade.  I really like how they turned out.  It was hard to keep the kids away.  They were asking to eat some before I was done.

Using the 30 second method, I melted some green Wilton candy melts.  I applied it with a brush so the green chocolate did not drip all over the stick.

I then twirled the marshmallow against the back of a spoon, to give the chocolate a smooth look

I allowed them to dry in my homemade pop holder and added another marshmallow on the side for the head.   Some of the marshmallows started to slide because of gravity, so I went back and coated the bottoms with more green chocolate.

I dipped 12 mini marshmallows using toothpicks for the hats.  I placed them to dry in one of the styrofoam circles I bought at the dollar store.

I drew on green eyes and a nose with edible markers.  I added a very light coat of pink glitter gel with a toothpick to make the cheeks.  

To make the hair and beard,  I used a tube of Wilton Decorating Icing and the "hair" tip.  It worked well for the first 6-8 pops.  After that the Icing was low in the tube and hard to squeeze out.  I then took off the tip and place it in the microwave for a few seconds and was able to use the rest. If you make more than 12 pops, you will need more than one tube.  

Using small tubes of gel, I added the mouths, buttons and whites of the eyes.  Some of the pops have icing eyebrows, a few have drawn on eyebrows.  I drew them on when the icing was running low.  I also added some green gel after added the mini marshmallow hat to make it look like it had a rim. 

The Pot of Gold  makes a perfect display 

I will be linking up my Leprechaun Marshmallow Pops up at these parties here

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Pot of Gold

Today I made my very own pot of gold.  If only it were real!  It was actually quite simple and inexpensive to make.   I pulled out a small cauldron that I had from Halloween.

At the dollar store I picked up some styrofoam and glass beads.  I had some gold paint that I intended to use but my daughter thought it looked like brown.  She suggested using a brighter yellow instead.

I placed the square piece inside the cauldron and then stuffed the sides with plastic bags.  

Insert two toothpicks into the square to hold the circle piece in place.

I painted the circle piece of stryofoam, with first the gold paint, and then a light coat of yellow

I found some yellow newspaper bags, I added them on top of the white plastic bags

Once the paint was dry, I added the circle on top of the toothpicks

To make the gold, kara painted the flat back side of the glass beads.  I would have like to have found yellow ones, but at the dollar store you work with what you find.

When you turn the painted disks over, the paint shines through the bead  in a very pretty way

I love how this turned out.  It is so much fun for St. Patrick's Day.  It makes the perfect display for my Leprechaun Marshmellow Pops.  

I will be linking this up.  Check out where I like to party here


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Why I LOVE Kohls!

If you have a Kohls nearby,  I recommend you stop by this week.  Right now they are having their final clearance sale all over the store.  I found rack after rack of items that were up to 90% when you took an additional 25% off the clearance price.  I also had a 15% off my entire purchase coupon AND a $10 Kohls cash to spend.   I was hoping to find a winter coat for me to wear next year, but the only ones left were not my size.  I decided to look in the women's and juniors dept, and found quite a  bit I liked well enough to try on.

Sonoma Gray Cords ticket price $44.00, clearance price $8.80,  final price $6.60
Apt 9 jeans, ticket price $50.00, clearance price $10.00,  final price $7.50
Gray Sonoma pants, ticket price  $48.00, clearance price $14.40, final price $10.80
Gold Apt 9 Sweater, ticket price $60.00,  clearance price $6.00, final price $4.50
Brown AB Studio top, ticket price $48.00, clearance price $9.60, final price $7.20
Purple SO thermal, ticket price $20.90, clearance price $6.00, final price $4.50
Blue Sonoma Thermal, ticket price $24.00, clearance price $7.20, final price $4.50

The subtotal came to $46.50.  That price would have been amazing as it was, . but I  was able to make it even better.
They subtracted the $10 in Kohls cash, and then  another $5.48 with a 15% off coupon.

Final price for all 7 items was only $32.88.   I saved $262.98  or 89%!!!

Mission Organization- My Baking Supplies

Having a party blog, I guess it makes sense that  have a lot of baking supplies.  I love to bake and create.  In my kitchen, I have two lazy Susan type storage areas.  While they are convenient where you can see everything, the space is not ideal for storage.  

My baking supplies are all kind of jammed into the space, and I was having trouble finding things 

I took everything out, and realized I had more than I thought I did. 

I combined like items, and removed the extra packaging 

I then organized by like items into smaller bins

I placed all of my sprinkles, toppings and icings in this cute pink bin from the Dollar Tree.  This bin is going to go in my project for this upcoming week.  

While the lazy Susan is still not the ideal space for my supplies, I can now see everything at a glance.  

Strawberry Banana Muffins

Last night  we made some strawberry banana muffins using our favorite banana bread recipe.  Our family loves this particular recipe, which also works well with bonus ingredients.   Some of our other versions have been blueberry banana bread, and chocolate chip banana muffins which are also posted on the blog

Basic Banana Bread Recipe

First mix the dry ingredients

1 3/4 cup flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Then add the wet ingredients

2-3 ripe banaas (I cut into to small chunks and mash slightly. We like the chunks of the banana in the bread)
1/2 cup softened margarine
2 Tbsp milk
2 eggs

If adding a bonus ingredient, add it at this stage. We added about 8 large strawberries, cut into small pieces

Mix ingredients well

I was able to fill 12 regular size muffins and 8 mini muffin cups

Bake at 400 degrees
The mini muffins took only 15 minutes, and the regular size muffins 20 minutes.

Let cool, and enjoy.  These muffins disappear quickly!

Cooking with Kyle

I am so excited to share this post.   This is our first day posting  "Cooking with Kyle".  Recently Kyle has acquired at new nickname in our house.  He is taking a  health class  in school, and has turned into  the food police almost overnight.  I wrote about our grocery store adventure in  my shopping with the food police post  last week.   Since he wants everyone to eat healthier, I came up with the idea that he could share a healthy kid friendly recipe each week. Today we had a snow day, so he decided to make us lunch. This is his own recipe....   Chicken Salad Surprise.

The ingredients

Chicken.. We used a can of 97% fat free Hormel chicken breast
Miracle Whip.. I did not have the lower fat version, and was not going out in the snow to get it
Green grapes
Carrots
Minced onion... you might be able to use real onion, we did not have any on hand
Garlic Salt

For the sandwich bread, we used a Crusty French Baguette that was on sale this week for only .99.  I followed the directions and cooked it at 400 degrees for 20 mins.  It cooled, while he made the chicken salad.

He opened the can of chicken and drained out the liquid.  He then placed the chicken in a mixing bowl

He added 3 tablespoons of Miracle Whip.  He did not measure it, just eyeballed it to make sure he had enough to cover the meat.

He than added a 1/2 teaspoon of minced onion and a 1/4 teaspoon of garlic salt, and mixed well

He cut up about  10 grapes into small pieces. He felt the smaller the better so picky eaters might not realize what they are eating.

I then shredded a little bit of carrot for him.  He added it to the chicken mixture, and mixed well again.

I offered to cut the bread for him, but he wanted to do it himself.  He was using a sharp knife so I was a bit nervous, but he did a great job!

He cut the baguette into sandwich size pieces.  He then placed the "secret ingredient" on each roll. Shhh, don't tell, it is a piece of spinach.  When the chicken salad is on roll, the spinach is completely hidden.

I helped him scoop out the rest of the chicken salad onto the rolls

Doesn't it look good! We added the toothpicks only for picture purposes.

The sandwiches were served with a side salad made with all the veggies I bought on sale at the Meijer Dollar Sale.

This chicken salad was delicious.  It had the right mixture of sweet and tangy. I knew that the spinach was in the sandwich, and I didn't even see it or taste it, so the surprise spinach idea  worked.   Kyle was  proud that he made something that tasted so good all by himself.    

He also had these words of wisdom, that he wanted me to share. "Busy moms can make chicken salad surprise quickly, and also get their children to eat some fruits and vegetables at the same time."

Because of the success of his first recipe, he is really looking forward to sharing another next week, on the next "Cooking with Kyle'. 

We will be linking this recipe up on these linky parties


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