Broken Glass Jell-O

Back when we were in the US in February. My Mother made some layered jello that was red and white. It was so yummy I wanted to make it again. But when I was looking on the internet I found this recipe and it was a bit easier and much less time consuming. Plus it taste just the same. If your kids like Jello jigglers they will probably like this.

Broken Glass Jell-O
For this Valentine's day jello, I used:1 - 6 oz (big box) of Cherry Jell-O1 - 6 oz (big box) of Peach Jell-OIf you are going for the Valentine's colors, you can use Strawberry, Watermelon (this comes out pink), or Raspberry.1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk (don't get evaporated milk)2 envelopes unflavored gelatin (that Knox stuff)

Directions: For a 4 color dessert, dissolve each 3 oz box of jello in one cup of boiling water. For this 2-color dessert, dissolve each 6 oz box of Jello in TWO cups boiling water. Pour into a container and chill (overnight is best; chill for at least 4 hours until firm). After chilling the flavors, cut each flavor into small blocks.Carefully mix the blocks in a 9 x 13 pan.In a separate bowl, sprinkle 2 envelopes unflavored gelatin into 1/2 cup cold water. After the gelatin blooms (just a few minutes), add 1 1/2 cup boiling water and dissolve. Add the can of condensed milk. Stir and cool. Pour cooled milk mixture over jello. Skim off the bubbles for a nicer finish. Chill overnight. Cut into blocks. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve! Enjoy!

Lemony White Chocolate Cheesecake

I made this cheesecake a few weeks ago for play group and again today. It was heaven in every bite. I loved the lemon flavor, you really can't taste the white chocolate though. My oven is gas so I am never quite sure what temperature I am baking at but mine took 1 hour and 45 minutes to bake even though the recipe says to bake it 65 Min's to 1-1/2 hours. If you get a chance to make it you should because it is well worth the work. I have attached the link to the recipe below, enjoy!

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Lemony-White-Chocolate-Cheesecake

Rainbow cookies

I saw these cookies on another blog and I thought they looked like lots of fun. So on St. Patrick's Day I decided to try them. Zekaia loved rolling the dough until it was different colors and in truth we had a lot of fun making them. But unfortunately they tasted terrible. Truly it was like eating playdough. The store bought kind. Even after I warned James he wanted to try one and he had to spit it out they truly were gross. But Jouette loved them. Really I think something is wrong with her tastebuds. She will not eat the delicious food I make but she ate these gross cookies. I am at a loss with what to do with her. She is beyond picky;(

Cupcakes

I have tried to make beautiful cupcakes many a time only to be sad when they are just not as pretty as I had hoped. Well this time I think I have finally found some that taste great and look pretty. I first made these cupcakes around Valentine's. I used a white cake mix and then colored part of the batter pink and then a even darker pink. But I forgot to take a picture of them. So when I was in the states a few weeks ago my Mom needed to take cupcakes to the blue and gold banquet. I thought it worked with pink why not blue and gold. So this time I used a yellow cake mix for the gold part of the cupcake then I mixed a white cake mix and colored the batter blue. Then just like the pink ones you pipe the opposite color batter into the cupcakes either with a frosting bag or a zip lock with a hole cut into it.

For the frosting I take 8oz. cream cheese, softened mix it with 1/2 c. sugar with a hand mixer, until smooth. Then add 1 t. vanilla extract and 1/2 t. almond extract. Then you add 2 c. heavy cream and beat until stiff peaks form. To do the strips in the frosting I used the pampered chef cookie press that also has cake decorating tools and after each scoop of frosting I put one drop of food coloring. Then as the frosting is squeezed out you get the swirling and stripe effect. Then we used food glitter to sprinkle on top. I was really happy with them. I plan to make them again at St. Patrick's day, and 4th of July. Let your imagination run wild with colors!!

Self Control do I have any?!?

Okay so during the Christmas Holiday I was allowing myself to indulge in all the sweet things around, you know normal Christmas stuff. Well let's just say it was getting out of hand. Really our of hand. It was like I had no self control.

I had decided that I wanted to kids and I to eat more fruit in place of the sweet since they also were eating way too much junk. So one day while at the grocery store walking around the produce I saw the pomelos and remembered that I had tasted it a few months back at a playgroup and had liked it. They are big and I knew the kids probably would not eat it but I rarely eat fruit because I want my kids to eat it. I know dumb reason not to eat some myself but I am always saving it for them. So I brought it home opened and sectioned it so that the bitter skin was no longer around it and I put it in a bowl on the kitchen counter. I told myself any time I wanted something sweet I would eat it. I had limited myself to sweets in the evening. I know a lot of people say not to eat sweets and night because then you sleep on all the fat and calories but once I take a bite of somethings sweet I can't seem to stop eating. At least if I wait until night time I go to bed and I stop.

Well after a few days of eating this pomelo I found I was not craving sweets as much, in fact I wasn't even eating my something sweet at night. I couldn't believe that I could just want to stop eating junk. Then a few nights back I mentioned this to a friend and she told me that grapefruit were suppose to curb cravings, for sweet especially. So I went home to check it out the Internet and sure enough I found this website :http://www.hhnews.com/essential_oil_grapefruit.htm

So there you have it. Pink Grapefruit, but I have found that the pomelo does just as good of a job and it is way easier to peel and section so it is easier to eat. Hope you find this helpful.

Glazed Peanutbutter Bars

For Family Night this week I made these yummy peanut butter bars and wanted to pass the recipe on to you. They were really easy to make and even easier to eat way more than you should but then it's made of oatmeal so it's healthy right? Hope you enjoy them.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Glazed-Peanut-Butter-Bars

Cards

Well this card was a technique challenge I decided to try yesterday. The point was to quilt, or make a quilt pattern with paper. This was my second go at it, my first attempt you could see then lines I drew to try and keep myself in the pattern. I also didn't make the pattern as well as this one. So I decided to give it another try and this is how it turned out. Since there are so many small pieces I used Modge Podge to glue it all together and I am and very happy with it.

Friday was my visiting teaching partners birthday and I wanted to make something for her and these are what I made. It took me all week to make the 5 cards I gave her since I don't get much time in my scrapbook room now that I have 4 kids.

I think this one is my favorite. I bought these clear buttons a long time ago but had never used them. I punched 3 flower punches and then crumpled them up and sewed them together with the button to give it some depth.

This one was time consuming since I had to cut out the flowers but in the end it was worth it.

This was the first one I made and I used a sketch that I found on line. I thought it would be really easy but it actually took me the longest of all the cards.

This card I think went together the quickest.

With this one I was a bit smarted and remembered I had some bigger oval cutters and they were just about right for the large oval punch I have so these ovals look crisp and clean unlike the card a few above.


Hope you enjoyed looking!