Home made Granola

My oldest Jordan is in love with Granola. She could eat bags and bags of granola. After paying $5.00-$7.00 for a pound of Granola at the store,I decided that there has to be a cheaper and better way to give her something that she loves to eat.

After searching the web for hours, I was able to find about 1000+ recipes for granola. Each one had some different element to it. They were all basic with a twist. I took something from the ones I loved and developed my own just for her.

My son's teacher also love granola so we shared a bag with her and she was hooked. This lead to the granola being share with other teachers and now I have a list of people wanting granola.

Funny how something so simple to make causes a such a huge stir.

Home made Granola

6 cups of oats
2 bags of shredded coconut
2 bags of unsalted sunflower seeds
2 large bags of slivered almonds
6 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
4 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoon pure maple syrup
4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 cups mixed dried fruit (raisins,cranberries,blueberries) I uses raisins,cranberries.
2 large bags of chocolate chunks
2 large bags of chocolate chips(semi-sweet or dark)
2 large containers of banana chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Mix first 4 ingredients together in large bowl;set aside.
Mix next 7 ingredients together in another bowl. Mix well.
Pour wet mixture over the first 4 ingredients. Combine until every things is covered in wet mixture. May have to use your hands for this.
On large baking sheets that have been lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Spoon mixture on to cookies sheets until it is just covered. Bake in oven until Oats are lightly toasted. I always turn mine with spatula to make sure both sides are getting lightly brown. This process could take up to 10 different baking to light brown the whole batch of oat mixture.
Take the light browned oats out of oven and place on another cookie sheet to cool.
Once all the oats are cooled place in another large bowl and being adding your last 4 ingredients. MIX WELL!!
Store in air tight container for up to 4-6 weeks. (no worries it never last that long)
This makes 4 large Ice cream buckets full of Granola. You can reduce this recipe to your needs.

Should I or Shouldn't I

I have been given a great opportunity to make a wonderful cake for some wonderful people. My nephew and his fiance have asked me to make their wedding cake. I was thrilled with the prospect of making the cake and the process of being creative and getting to do what I love most. Then reality hit and well it took the wind right out of my sail.
First big down fall is when they are planning the wedding, SUMMER.. Anyone who bakes cakes in Florida can tell you the weather here during SUMMER is not ideal for cake making. HUMIDITY is a huge issue and NOT TO mention the HEAT or the chance of RAIN! July is a great month for a beach wedding. So I can't say I blame them for wanting to do it then.
Second they choose to have the reception in a hotel ball room. I am not a license baker so I am not to sure that the Hotel will allow me to bring in the cake. I have asked them to check on this but no word yet from them on what the rules are. I will for sure need a cool room to place the cake in and a place to set the cake up at for the reception. I have read the laws and know what I can and can not do here in the this state. And I for sure don't want to be fined for bring it into a hotel. I just hope they let me know something soon.
Third the task at hand is overwhelming all in it's self. I am worried about getting there, worried about the amount of stuff I will have to buy just to make this cake. And then the set up and the transporting of the cake it's self. IT'S very scary to think about but, really exciting that they would ask me to make the cake.

The bride and the groom have gone through about 60 cake ideas that I sent to them and have picked 3 that they really like.

They really like this one and the way it is set up but they want it in a square shape and they want different flavors per cake. They also want to room the shells and add ribbon and flowers.



I think they are leaning more towards this set up with the square cakes.


I am hoping it all works out and I will for sure keep everyone updated.

Happy 3rd Birthday Serenity

It's so hard to believe that she is just three years old with the year we have had. Seems has if a whole life time of stuff has happen to her in the three short years she has been with us.

We had real reason to celebrate this year and real reason to be grateful for all that has happen and all that we can slowly put behind us. Just two short days before her birthday we were told by her GI doctors that she looked great. That her labs had come back all in healthy range and that she was finally right at the correct weight for her age and height. She was no longer showing signs of flair ups and she seems for once to have her colitis and crohn's disease under control. That was like music to my ears, it had to be right up there with the day she was born and we heard her first cry.

I made a huge cake for a big BBQ and we had tons of family over for her big day. She loved every minute of the all the attention she got. She loves to be the center of the attention. She got tons of barbie's and dress up stuff, a tea party set and clothes. Everything a little girl could ever want.

The BOSTON CREAM PIE is Rob's Birthday cake. He turned 39 this past week as well.

How with the old and in with the new

Seems like 2009 just drug and drug right along. I can't say I have ever been so happy to see a year over with as I was last year. It's seemed there were more things wrong with last year then there was right.

This year I am hoping to have a better year. I have never been good at making resolutions for what I want out of the new year. I have always felt those are just huge promises you make to yourself that you never really keep and then at the end of the year you are let down again. So instead of lying to myself from the get go, I just take each day as the come and embrace whatever happens and keep on moving. I can't say that I don't get down or get mad about things because that would be huge lie. I just try not to dwell on it.

I am hoping to get better at baking this year. I really want to start making better quality cakes. I also want to make more from scratch and stop using so many store bought items. I have been working on cutting our budget down at the grocery store. I don't know that I am really making head way there but I am truly trying.

I do need to work on me but I am not going to get hung up on that or worry about it if it doesn't happen. I need to loose weight. I have needed to do that for years. Sometimes I lose a little and then I stay there but for the most part I have stayed the same weight for 4 yrs. So I am pretty comfortable with the weight I am. Not that it's a healthy weight or that it's something I want to stay at. I just don't worry about it or get all hung up on exercising or eating things that taste like cardboard. We eat pretty healthy and I don't over eat and I try hard not to stress eat. I drink lots of sweet tea and diet Dr. pepper and very little water. So I am sure if I cut those things out and maybe walk a mile or two I would be fine. I'll just play by ear and see what happens.

So far this year in the baking department I am off to a busy start.

January 6th- I am making a cake for Logan's teacher. It's her birthday and she loves Chocolate,cheesecake,strawberries. So she will get my Cheesecake stuff chocolate cake with butter cream frosting and chocolate covered strawberries on top.

January 9th- I am making a ton of cupcakes for my niece's baby shower. She is doing a black and white theme for her shower. I will be adding a little pink since her baby is a girl. We are super excited for her arrival and I can't wait to make the cup cakes.

February 1st- Is Logan's birthday. I have not clue on the cake as of yet but it will be fun. Also cupcakes for his class.
February 1st- Is my mom's birthday. I want to make her a nice cake and have her over for dinner. She rarely does anything on that day and her husband doesn't push her to do stuff. So I am wanting to do something great for them.
February- My Mom and Step dad both turn 50 this year. We are having a big party for them. So that is another cake.

March 14th is my Anniversary and I will make some kind of fun cake for that.

April 4th Easter and I am hoping to host an Easter egg hunt and make a ham and cake and some other great goodies for that.
April 14th- Rob's birthday and I am going to make him a boston cream pie(cake)
April 17th- Serenity will be turning 3. So that is another cake with lots of pink.

May 9th- I will host my mom and my MIL over for a brunch. I am hoping to do a small desert of some sort for them.

June 20th- Father's day. Not to sure if anything will happen that day.

July 4th- I am sure we will cook out and I'll make a flag cake or something like that.
July 27th- Jordan's 14th birthday. WOW (tear tears and more tears) I have no clue on the type of cake or if she will even want one. Teenagers are so funny.

That is as far as I have gotten with my baking and party plans. I am sure the details and plans will all fall into place and things will work out nicely.

Hope everyone has a Happy and healthy and a blessed 2010.

Cooked out..

I think I have reached a time where I am just all cooked out. I don't want to anymore at all. I hate the idea of making dinner every night and I hate even more trying to decided what to make.

Here it is Grocery shopping time again and I don't have a clue of what to buy or what we will eat for the month. I shop by the month to cut down on trips to the store. I normally would have my menu done and ready to post on the fridge but I just can't get in the mood to do it.

I feel like all we do is eat the same things over and over again. The many reason is because everyone here is so picky. Rob won't eat baked meat or boil meat. He hates the taste of it and would rather have it sauteed or pan seared or fried or cooked in olive oil. Jordan won't touch fruit and a few veggies. Logan hates tomatoes, so that rules out a lot of foods that are easy to make. Serenity she eats very little, she won't touch ground meat of any kind. I will eat just about anything, cooked any way. But then again I was brought up to eat what was in front of me or starve. So not how I brought my kids up. (Maybe I should have and I wouldn't be sick of cooking)

It's also hot here now and that makes the whole idea of standing in the kitchen for an hour cooking a meal that we may or may not eat not so appealing. My kids tend to eat a lot less during the summer and would much rather be allowed to snack all day long.

I am just so over it.. I need a chief for a month to come and make my family happy.

My new desert creation

I don't have a name of it as it has many things in it.
I'll list all the ingredients and maybe some of you can come up with a good name for it.
2- 8 inch chocolate round cakes
1 crust less cheese cake
4 sliced strawberries
butter cream frosting
chocolate dipped strawberries
and hard chocolate shell

So I started out with on of the chocolate rounds on the bottom. I place a little butter cream down on top of that layer. I then took the cheesecake and placed it on top of that. I then sliced the strawberries and placed them on top of the cheesecake and the place a little butter cream on the top of that.I then placed the second round on top of that,gave it a crumb coat of frosting.Placed it in the freezer for a bit and then covered with a clean coat of butter cream. I used a bakers dipping chocolate to dip the strawberries. I used the same chocolate to top the cake with. After pouring the chocolate on the cake I placed the dipped strawberries on a pillow of butter cream to hold them in place. I then placed the cake in the freezer to firm up the chocolate and to keep it all together. After about 10 minutes in the freeze I kept in the refrigerator until time to serve.


Are you hungry yet?

Here are some pictures of the finished cake


The top of the cake


The inside of the cake after being sliced


A slice of the cake

Tried yet another good recipe

This one was a surprise for me. My husband Rob never eats broccoli, he can not stand it. Hates the smell,the taste and the way it looks. So when he said he was willing to try something with broccoli in it I jumped on the chance to make it and prayed that he would love it.
After browsing other blogs I found this recipe on Amber's Delectable Delights.
Alfredo Bake
Alfredo Pasta Bake
(Source: Amber's Delectable Delights)

Ingredients:
8 oz pasta, cooked and drained
2 cups broccoli florets
1 cup mushrooms
1.5 cups chicken, cooked and shredded or diced
1 jar alfredo sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2 Tbls butter

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Coat the bottom of the two small or one medium baking dish with a thin layer of alfredo sauce. In a medium bowl, mix the pasta, broccoli, mushrooms, chicken, garlic and alfredo sauce until combined. Place mixture into baking dish and top with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cut the butter into small pieces and scatter on top of the cheese. Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is hot and bubbly.

I had to make mine a little larger. I add an extra jar of sauce and more cheese and a box and half of pasta. I used ziti for the pasta and it worked out wonderfully. I recommend trying it.
It was very tasty and the kids loved it as well as the picky husband.

My Anniversary is coming...

I want to make a special cake this year for our Anniversary. We have been married for 13 years and we really didn't do much on our 10 yr anniversary. So now I have to start thinking of something super special to do.
Rob and I both love strawberries, so I know they will end up being apart of the cake some how. I know I want at least one layer of chocolate cake (Hey I am a woman and chocolate is a much have.) and one layer will have to be vanilla or butter based cake.(he loves that) The top will have chocolate cover strawberries and plain strawberries. I think in between the layers will be a jam or maybe cream cheese(kind cheese cake like) filling with fresh strawberries sliced thinly..

Now all I have to do is fine the recipes gather the supplies and make this yummy sounding cake..

Ben 10 Omnitrix Cake

Logan wanted an Ben 10 cake and after thinking about all the ways I could make the cake. I decided that it would be easier to make him the watch the boy wears to turn into the aliens.

So here it is start to finish.
This is a layer of milk chocolate cake and simple vanilla cake layer,iced together with plain white icing. Then I started the center of the dial for the top of the watch.



I added the black to finish the dial on the top of the cake.


Here I am frosting the outer edge of the cake. (sorry about the poor looks it was 1am)

I added to pieces of cake to make the wrist band. One is milk chocolate and the other is simple vanilla cake.


Here I am working on icing the wristband. And then what they look like before I add the details to them.



All the details are done, and I am getting ready to write on the cake. (this is the part I still need to work really hard on)


The lettering is all done and here is the finish cake.



I loved making this cake for him. It may not be my best work but it was fun. I worked on this cake until 3am and it was worth every minute of it.

OMG COOKIES (almond Joy Cookies)

This Christmas I made cookies for everyone I know and made the kids cookies to take to school for their teachers.
For the last past 2 years I have made Almond Joy Cookies . I found the recipe on the web and my family fell in love with them. Everyone who eats them tells me how great they are and that they are better than sex and they should be called OMG cookies. After making about 400 of them this year I decided that I am going to change the recipe up some to add to the OMG experience next holiday season.

This recipe came form Rachelleb.com
Almond Joy Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
5 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups flaked coconut
2 cups chopped almonds

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the creamed mixture until well blended. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips, coconut and almonds. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 48 cookies.

Now for the new version that I will be making along with the old one.

Hawaiian Delight cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
5 cups White chocolate chips
2 cups flaked coconut
2 cups chopped macadamia nuts toasted
1 cup of dried pineapple (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the creamed mixture until well blended. Finally, stir in the white chocolate chips, coconut and macadamia nuts and pineapple. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 48 cookies.

Flag cake for family day

We had a huge family gathering for my mom's side of the family and I had to make a cake. I choose to make a Cake in the shape of a Flag blowing in the wind. It turned out well enough that I won a $25.00 gift card for best dish.

The fresh fruit wanted to slide right off.Mainly just the juicy strawberries.

Another yummy cupcake

So for the 4th of July I had to make cupcakes for my SIL party. I decided to make them with a yellow cake and cream cheese frosting, adding fresh blue berries and raspberries to the top of them. They were a huge hit and everyone loved them.
This month will be a busy cake month for me. I have another Cake to make on the 12 of July for a family gathering. Then on the 27th we have my oldest daughter's birthday and we will have another cake.
Here is a picture of the cupcakes