Bento Giveaway

Hey - go check out BentoBloggy!

There's an awesome giveaway going on - not that I want you to enter, because I want to win, but you should go check it out!    Hehehe :o)

She's giving away one of these awesome sets, sponsored by Allthingsforsale, either pink or blue, to one BentoBloggy reader - so cool!

Homemade Easy Tiramisu

Here's a recipe for a very quick and easy Tiramisu - surely not authentic, but tasty!

1 loaf of poundcake - sliced

8oz cream cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 small tub of cool whip

2 tbsp rum

cold coffee/espresso

cocoa powder (for garnish)

Blend cream cheese and powdered sugar until well mixed.

Add rum and mix well.

Fold in Cool Whip.

Layer sliced poundcake in bottom of pan.

Drizzle with cold coffee.

Top with 1/3 of cream mixture.

Repeat layers until out of cream mixture.

Sprinkle with cocoa powder.

Store refrigerated.

Enjoy!

This is my first time using a pie platter - I usually make this in a glass loaf pan so that the layers can be seen, but I couldn't find my glass loaf pan last night!

Lots of Bentos!

I'm behind in posting these... it was busy around here!

Here's Boo's Tuesday Preschool lunch -

A doggie wrapped in cresent roll with cheese, bowl of oranges (using up the last of the bowls), a small slice of leftover cake, strawberries and some wafer cookies with a yogurt and a drink - (also using up the last of the drinks)

And the Hubby's Tuesday lunch - he keeps complaining that his lunch isn't "cute", so he got bunny shaped turkey and cheese sandwiches!  Along with some cucumbers, crackers, cheesy balls and of course a kit-kat... oh, and there's a yogurt hiding off to the side, as well.

Hubby had a free lunch celebration at work on Wednesday, so I got a day off from making lunches!!

So here's Boo's Thursday Lunch

Cheese tortellini, more oranges, another slice of a different cake (!!!), some fishies and another drink.

That's it for last week!  I don't do lunches on Friday for various reasons... and I made a Hubby lunch for today, but trust me, leftover Swiss Steak over pasta isn't pretty, so I didn't take a photo!!  :O)  He enjoyed it though!

I'm planning on switching the juices over to reusable bottles as soon as these are gone.  And, using reusable containers for the fruit and yogurt, as well... but, alas, there was a big Costco shopping trip right before I started the whole waste-less bento thingy... so... have to use up what I have, right?  :o)

Monday Bento for Hubby

A yummy Bento for Hubby's Monday lunch

Left-over Taco Casserole with tortilla, shredded lettuce & cherry tomatoes with a little tub of jalepeno's, some yummy red grapes and sliced cucumber.

All packed up in an Easy Lunch Box - have you ordered yours yet?  They're sold out right now, but if you order anyway, you'll get a free cooler bag as a Thank You for your patience!  These are really great lunchboxes, I love them!

More Bento Fun!

Hi there!!

Here are a few more Dee-Style Bentos that I made this week, enjoy!

This was Hubby's lunch on Wednesday - he's got a bacon sandwich (with a little bottle of "brown sauce"), some cherry tomatoes, pears, popcorn and yogurt.. with a sweet dessert.  He came home and complained, though... he said he got a boring sandwich and next time I need to cut it into fun shapes - it's bacon!  I guess I could have cut it into a fun shape, but it would have fallen apart when he picked it up!

Here's my little guys lunch from Thursday - He got the shaped sandwiches!  LOL!  He's got PB&J Dinosaurs, star cheese, goldfish, jello, yogurt and a caprisun.  According to his preschool teacher, his lunch was a big hit!

And Hubby's Thursday lunch - He's got a salami and cheese roll-up, pretzels, cucumbers and grapes.

No lunches around here on Fridays, so.... 

Have a great weekend!!

Bentos for Tuesday

I received my Easy Lunch Boxes today!  Yay, Happy Mail!!

So, I've made lunches for Hubby, Daughter and Son for tomorrow.

Here is Hubby's

Left over taco quesadillas, jalapenos, cherry tomatoes, grapes, whole grain crackers and a hard boiled egg.  Also,  little tubs of sour cream and salsa.  I did add some dried cranberries to the grapes, because Hubby said he liked those today.

Here's Daughters

Left over taco quesadillas, sour cream, cheesy popcorn, grapes and goldfish crackers.  She'll be eating this at home before she gets on the bus for afternoon kindergarten, so it will be nice to have it all ready to just pull out of the fridge.

Here's Sons

Left over cheese tortellini, goldfish crackers, cheesy popcorn, hard boiled egg, chick shaped ham and cheese, mandarin oranges and a Caprisun.  He is at all day preschool, so he'll need snacks throughout the day as well, hence the large amount of food for such a little guy!

I'm going Bento!

I've been reading about Bento Box lunches online and I love the utter cuteness of them!  I was thinking that they would be great for my preschooler to take to lunch on his 2 days a week, but then I got to thinking that if I'm making 1, I might as well make 4, right??  So, I can make one for him, one for my Hubby to take to work, one for my daughter to eat before her Kindergarten bus comes by and one for me to eat as well!

So, here is my very first Bento Box Lunch, which I made for Hubby's lunch today

We've got some leftover sausage/egg casserole from breakfast yesterday, topped with some cute heart cheese shapes, a few cherry tomatoes, some grapes with a few dried cranberries thrown in for variety, some multi-grain crackers and a hard boiled egg.

I really need to get some of those super cute egg molds and more cookie cutters, but I thought this was pretty darn cute for my first one!

I did make the kids each an "at-home" bento for lunch today, but it was pretty basic and boring - just some grapes, sliced ham and cheese and teddy bear graham crackers.

Tomorrow is preschool for my son, so I'll be making more bentos tonight!

Enjoy!  Oh, and I'm adding a Bento Blog list to my sidebar, so if you're interested in learning more about bentos, you can find all the blogs that I've been researching there! 

Have Fun!

Cranberry-Port Fudge Brownies

  I found this recipe in my June/July 2010 issue of Taste of Home magazine and thought I'd give it a try.  

Unfortunately, I gobbled them all up (and sent a few to a friend) before I could take a picture!  You'll have to take my word for it that they were super yummy, incredibly rich and a definite "make again"!!

Cranberry-Port Fudge Brownies

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup butter, cubed

1-1/2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup tawny port wine

In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate and butter; stir until smooth.  Remove from the heat, stir in sugar and vanilla.  Add eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition.  Stir in flour and salt just until blended.  In a small saucepan, combine cranberries and wine.  Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook until liquid is reduced to a thin syrupy consistency (about 3 minutes).  Stir into the batter.

Transfer to a greased 9-inch square baking pan.  Bake at 325 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (do not overbake!)

Cool on a wire rack.

Prep: 25 minutes

Bake: 30 minutes + cooling

Yield: 16 servings

Taste of Home, June/July 2010, page 83 "High Tech Bake Sale"

Flowers!

All the flowers I've been working on over the past 3 weeks are finally being presented on this beautiful cake!!

I've made Daisies, Victorian Roses, Daffodils, Pansies, Violets, Chrysanthemums, Rosebuds, Apple Blossoms, and Primroses!

We also learned how to use Color Flow icing and made the cute little birdie!  

And, we learned the basket weave technique and the rope border.

 Such a fun time I had in Course 2!!  I've already signed up for Course 3, which is all about Fondant.. and I'm looking forward to it!

Thanks for stopping by!!  Would you like a piece of cake?

Course 2, Class 2

Hiya!!

Sorry I didn't post about last weeks class - we didn't do much.  We introduced ourselves to our new classmates and browsed through our new "text" book.  We did some practicing of shells and reverse shells and learned how to make a rosebud and mums.  It was a fun class, but I just didn't come home with anything to "share"!

This week, though - I have a photo of some flowers.  We only make 1 cake during this course, and that is our finale cake on week 4.  And, let me tell you, it's a stunner of a cake and I can't wait to make it!!

So, this week we made Apple Blossoms, Violets, Violet leaves and we made some colorflow birdies.  I was really excited about the birdies!  They are so cute!!  We made all of these out of Royal Icing, so they are dry and being saved to use on the finale cake.

I need some more practice, so I will be playing with these some more and will probably have new and better ones to use on my finale cake.  Especially the birdies - I really think I can do better on those.

In the photo, I started to play with making an earth using color flow icing.  I have an idea to make Earth Day cupcakes in April, so I was just playing around to see if I could "design" an earth, it doesn't look too bad, but I think I'll use a darker blue and of course green, which I just didn't have made at the time.

So - enjoy the photo!

Next week we're making Victorian Roses, Primroses, Daisy's, and a few other flowers!  Should be a busy night!

Happy Baking!

Roses!

Whew!  Course 1 is all done!  Last night was our last Wilton Course 1 cake class!   Our Finale cake is a basic white cake with a 7-petal Wilton Rose bouquet, a shell border and a few sweet peas.  I was afraid of the roses at first, but I think with practice (lots and lots of practice!) I will have them down pat!  

I made this cake for Emily.  She had surgery this weekend to have her appendix removed after we spent hours in the ER trying to figure out why her tummy hurt so bad!  She was such a brave little girl, I am so proud of her!  I asked her what color flowers she wanted and she picked pink and purple, so that's what she got!  She loves her cake and so do I!

Again, I bake a Butter Recipe Golden cake (Duncan Hines) and filled it with a layer of cream cheese filling and a layer of cherry filling.  It's yummy!

Next Tuesday, I start Course 2 - we'll be working on Flowers and we only have one cake to make on the last class.  I'm sure I'll have photos of flowers to share with you, though, so check back!  :)

Clown Cake

Last night I had my 3rd cake decorating class and we made clowns!

I struggled with my cake at home, when I was frosting it, I had some unruly crumbs and the whole thing ended up being pretty crumby.  I could have put another layer of frosting on once the first layer was set, but I was in a hurry to get to class on time and then I figured I could just cover it with decoration!

So, this week we learned all about "building up" the frosting by making a couple of clowns.  And we learned how to make polka dots without "pimples".  We also practiced making face (with frosting!) and we worked more on our Wilton Rose practice.   I need to work more on my roses before next week!

So, here's my finished cake!  It's a Butter Recipe Golden cake with a layer of cream cheese filling and a layer of cherry filling (might be the reason for the crumbs, I had to cut the cake in thirds to get the fillings in.)  Hubby chose the filling flavors!

 

(this picture, you can really see the crumbs along the side - pooh)

I added Bradley's name and age to this cake, because Emily's was on last week's cake.

I think it turned out pretty good - and I just enjoyed a slice of cake and it was quite yummy!

Rainbow Cake

Cake Class #2

Tonight we got to make a rainbow cake!  We learned about piping stars, lines and letters.  And we learned how to do an image transfer using piping gel.

So, I took my prefrosted cake (French Vanilla flavor) and I had all my colors mixed and ready to use.  I had all my new tools in my new tool box and everything else that was on our list.  I was ready to go!

We had too much fun!  

Here's my finished cake

 

The sample cake had another name, of course, but Emily really liked the picture of the rainbow cake I was going to make, so I put her name on mine.  She loves it and can't wait to have a piece tomorrow before school!

My hand is sore from making all those little stars, but, man, it's so much fun!

Check back next week, we'll be making clowns!  :o)  

New Cake Decorating Class!

Hi there! 

I just wanted to share with you my experience at my first Wilton cake decorating class last night.  What a blast it was!  Even if we didn't actually "do" anything, I had so much fun learning the terminology and techniques. 

It reminded me of my childhood days, when I would sit silently (yes, I can do silent, if I have to!) at the kitchen table and watch my Mom decorate cakes.  This was something that Mom enjoyed doing while my brother and I were young.  She would make wedding cakes and birthday cakes for friends and friends of friends.  I remember there was a set of twins that she would always bake birthday cakes for.. one cake stands out in my mind.  During the "Cabbage Patch" doll craze, these little girls really wanted a Cabbage Patch birthday, so Mom decorated a cake to look just like a cabbage patch, and she used 2 plastic doll heads (because they were twins!) and it was just awesome!  One of these days I need to go spend some time at Mom and Dad's and try to find Mom's photo album with all of her cakes in it!

Anyway, back to my class.  Our teacher, Greta, has been decorating cakes for 37 years (sheesh, I'm not even 37 years old!) and she has a Masters Degree from Wilton!  She is super sweet and funny and crazy talented!  Just like Mom, she makes those Wilton roses look so easy!  We each had the chance to hold a piping bag (ok, I've done that once or twice!) and use the flower nail to make the rose base.  It's harder than you'd think, but with practice it becomes second nature.  We also learned how to fold the parchment triangle into a piping bag.  Now, this was an accomplishment for me!  While watching my Mom, I was always amazed at how quickly she would turn that sheet of paper into a bag!  It was something that I could never actually get the hang of, and have always used the disposable bags!  But, guess who was one of the first ones in class to get it done?  Yup, Me!  All those years of watching Mom payed off!

I am super excited for next week!  I have a lot of supplies to gather up between now and then - and living in a "limited" area isn't helping much!  I don't have time to order off the internet, so I hope I can find everything I need in time!  I have to bake a cake, and frost it with light blue frosting.  Then I have to make 6 frosting bags in red, blue, yellow, green, light blue and white.   Have you guessed it?  We'll be making a rainbow!  :o)  We will be learning how to do a pattern transfer and piping stars and letters.

I will definitely be back next week with pictures of my "creation"!  For now, I'm off to practice my piping skills and rose base building!

Happy Baking!

Emily's Birthday Cake

Just a quick post to share a photo of the cake that I made for Emily's 5th birthday!

I used boxed mixes to make the cakes, only because I'm trying to use up all the mixes that I have in the cupboard so they don't go to waste.

I did make the frosting from scratch though.  I used my Mom's recipe for her Decorator Frosting.

For the cake shape, I used the Big Top Cupcake pan that my Best Friend sent me for Christmas.  I had the idea to turn the cupcake shape into a big dress for a Barbie doll.  Emily was positive that she wanted a Barbie birthday this year.  So my Mom had a Barbie top from her cake decorating days that she sent over to me.

This was my first ever attempt at decorating a cake!  I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out!

Emily really, really loved it!

I had so much fun decorating this cake for her!  I've even signed up to take a cake decorating class in February!  I'm so excited to start!  :)  More cakes and decorating to come!

Yellow Birthday Cupcakes

I made cupcakes for Bradley's 2nd birthday party.

I used a recipe out of my new book:

Yellow Cupcakes:
 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk, at room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350 - place liners into muffin pan
2. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl to aerate and combine; set aside.
3.  In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter until creamy, about 2 minutes.  Add sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl once or twice.  Beat in vanilla extract.  Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down after each addition, allowing each egg to be absorbed before continuing.  Add the flour mixture in 4 additions, alternately with the milk.  Begin and end with the flour mixture, and beat briefly until smooth on low-medium speed after each addition.
4. Divide batter evenly among cupcake wells.  Bake for about 18 minutes , or until a toothpick inserted in the center shows a few moist crumbs.  The center should also spring back when lightly pressed.  The cupcake might color a bit around the edges, but they will not brown.
5.  Cool pan on rack for 5 minutes , then remove cupcakes to a cooling rack to cool completely.

I frosted them with the Classic Confectioners' Sugar Frosting out of the same book:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces.
1 box confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup milk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter until creamy, about 2 minutes.  Add 1 cup confectioners' sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down bowl once or twice.  Add  more cup of sugar and about half of the milk and beat until smooth aand creamy.  Add 1 more cup of sugar and remaining milk, and beat well, scraping down sides of the bowl.  Add remaining sugar and vanilla extract and beat on high speed until very light and creamy, about 4 minutes.  Assess texture.  If it is too soft, add a portion or all of the remaining sugar.
2. At this point you can continue beating the frosting, if you like, which will make it lighter, creamier, and a little airier.  you want it to be as smooth as possible.  Frosting is ready to use.  (Bring to room temperature and rebeat after storing)