Raccookies!

Good news! The dough in the freezer trick worked- and I was able to pop out 20 or so of these bad boys for a small golf outing that Boyf and I played in today. Charley was a big help, as always, and licked my toes while I sat at the kitchen counter and hand painted each R'coon on to it's cookie. Whew. It did get easier at the end when I had a system down, but we were both beat by the time we finished.

I have a new enemy, however. Black Food Coloring. OMG. It gets everywhere! Very, very messy indeed. Think ink pen explosion times a zillion billion. Not exaggerating. At. All.

Back to Golf. I must say- this Golf Course, Raccoon International, is a very special place indeed. We have been playing there for the last few summers and love it. It's fun, not stuffy and a good time is had by all whenever we go.

With my Raccookies, I have included a photo of a scorecard with a very special game on it. It's from the day, "Par or Picture" was invented (while playing at Raccoon). The premise is easy. If you like your score, you write it on your card. If you don't, you have the option of drawing whatever you like in the small box. It's amazing what you can fit in there, and you always move on to the next hole smiling. :)

Hit the Duck!!!!!!

it was SO hot.......in the kitchen with the oven on that I gave up baking halfway through. That, and the cookie dough recipe I was so excited about finding, well, I didn't think it was going to be exactly what I wanted. I was right.

What I was dreaming about, was a lemon flavored sugar cookie, shaped like a duck, frosted with my first ever attempt at Royal Icing. What I got instead was, two heaps of dough wrapped and put in the freezer until a later date (let's hope that works) and about 16 or so oddly decorated little ducklings. The Royal Icing put on hold- and cookies that don't taste like lemon.

I gave in and ate one today- they ARE in fact good. Just not what me and Charley Boy had in mind. They turned out to be kind of cute, in a late Easter Spring sort of way, but still disappointing.

I even made Boyf his own duckling, he commented that it looked crazy, so I added a little bit more crazy to it. I bet you can guess which one is for him if you look!!

Easter....a time for recycling. Recipes, that is!

SOOOooooooo, I made my Wibs. Wibs as in, Ribs. They were pretty darn good, the sauce was deelish and the meat Oh So Tender, "must be careful scooping from crockpot as to not remove meat from bones before sauce application..." EEeee, Boyf assited as I lifted wee meat out and placed upon smoky tasty grill.
They only need to be on the grill long enough to get a. smoky and b. the sauce gets congealed onto the previously mentioned MEAT.

I also saved enough of my Bake Sale cupcakes to serve as dessert....and of course the Easter bunneh dropped by with treats, too! Cadbury Cream Eggs anyone? I did learn today that they are filled with FONDANT! I had no idea.

I did have ONE new recipe today...a fairly easy one at that. Of COURSE My mom was the one who clued me in to this very tasty new wave potato salad:

Red Potatoes, cooked and cooled halfway (enough to feed your guests, duh)
Brown Spicy Mustard, 4 parts
Honey, 2 parts
Balsamic Vinegar, 3 parts
Green Onion Chopped, 2 parts
Bacon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (as a garnish, Yeeeeeeeeeeeah!) MANY parts.

I also decided to show off my latest gift from 1. Maren at Rowe, who got them from 2. the amazing people at Smocks! I appear to be not wearing much under said Smock- but do.not.be.fooled. I have on a dress. Sheesh. Get ur mind out of the guttah.

Charley was being very camera shy- and even with Boyf's encouragement, he still wouldn't crack a smile. Dakota, on the other hand, was primed and ready for her cameo. Koderino!!

Baaaaaaaake Sale!!!!!!

So, my friend was having a bake sale to raise money for The James, as well as an event she hosts in honor of her Dad. I mean, I usually don't ever HAVE a reason to bake, so when given one...well, yes please!!!

I made two kinds of cupcakes, both of which I have made before, so no recipes on this post! Orange Creamsicle Cake with the White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting, and the Key Lime Cupcakes with Lime Buttercream Frosting. MMMmmmmmmm.....!!!

I tried to teach Charley to have some restraint, but it only worked for about 30 seconds. He managed to nab the mini cupcake I taunted him with- paper wrapper gobbled up and all!!!

They smelled SO good.....

Boyf and I were at the grocery today and the Giant Red Grapefruits were teasing me with their overwhelming scent. As a kid, we used to pile on the sugar to make them edible...so I thought pairing the juice with piles of powdered sugar HAD to be equally as tasty in frosting form.

So, I gave it a shot, and it sort of worked. I made regular white cake cupcakes, and turned my favorite frosting into Pink Grapefruit Buttercream Frosting! The frosting tastes awesome, but ended up a bit thinner then I would have liked. Charley was curious and bugging me as usual, so i thought I would give him his first taste of Grapefruit. Judging the before and after, I would say that he didn't care for my trick. Oh Charley!

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

FINALLY!!!! My Orange emulsion came in the mail. I starred this recipe a while ago, from one of my fave blogs, Not So Humble Pie. This lady is baking up a storm every day. I reserve Sunday for my kitchen days. So here they are in all their Orange Dreamy Glory!

Charley was EXTRA curious today...and even Dakota showed up for a while!!

The recipe is here, on Ms Humble's blog...and let me tell you, it's deelish!

I had to order Orange Emulsion off of KitchenKrafts.com :)

Gummi Bears...Bouncing here and there and....

I had a guest Chef in my kitchen today, Master Chef and Candyteer, Kyle!
His idea was simple. To make Gummi Bears. We headed of to Michael's to get some supplies.
A few candy molds and some bright ideas, and we were off.
Charley at first, was a bit unsure of our guest Chef so he was sure to investigate every move carefully. He approves of Kyle!

The recipe is simple, and we made a few modifications, they are part of this recipe here:

INGREDIENTS
3 packages gelatin (each box has 4 packets in it)
2 tablespoons flavored Jello packages with
1 tablespoon Kool-Aid* (flavor to match Jello)
*each kool-aid pack was about 1/2 tablespoon, so we added sugar to make it one tablespoon
1 additional tablespoon of sugar
1/2 cup ice water
Candy molds

DIRECTIONS
Mix the gelatin with the Kool-Aid and Jello
Slowly add gelatin, Kool-Aid, and Jell-o to 1/2 of a cup of water
Mix well in a bowl, not too fast but not too slow
Allow to stand until mixture looks slushy or liquidy
Microwave the mixture on high for 1 minute and 15 seconds (or just until the top of the mixture bubbles or foams)
Carefully fill candy molds with the now liquidy mixture- we used empty bottles with a tip!
Put the molds in a freezer for 10 minutes
We have decided to let the gummi shapes 'get some air' overnight in the hopes that they firm up nicely.