Red Velvet Cake Balls

I whipped up these little balls of heaven over the weekend to bring to our family reunion picnic. If you haven't tried them yet, stop what you're doing right now and head on over to Bakerella for a step by step demonstration on how to make these delicious little treats! They're so easy and so worth it!

Chewy No Bake Granola Bars

I started looking for a granola bar recipe a few months back when my daughter took a huge liking to the store bought ones. I didn't like all of the nasty ingredients in the store bought ones, not to mention the price tag, so the hunt began.

I tried a few that required baking and turned out more cakey that anything else. They tasted good, but just weren't what I was looking for. Then I came across this recipe and fell in love! I didn't follow the recipe exactly because I didn't have everything on hand, so I changed it up a bit and thought I would share my altered recipe here.

Chewy No Bake Granola Bars

2.5 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 1/4 cups Rice Krispies
3/4 cup sun flower seeds
1 cup dried fruit (I used mango)
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
3 Tbsp butter
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Mix oats, rice krispies, sunflower seeds and dried fruit in a large bowl. Line 9x13 baking pan with parchment paper. Bring brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla and kosher salt to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly. Pour mixture over oats and stir to combine well, making sure to evenly coat the oats mixture. Press firmly into parchment paper lined baking pan. Place in the freezer 10 minutes or until firm. Cut and serve.

This recipe is so tasty and I just love that I know exactly what's going into my daughter's tummy. What's even better is that you can switch it up depending on your mood. In the mood for chocolate? Substitute chocolate chips. Like nuts? Toss them in. The possibilities are endless as long as you keep the dry/"wet" ratio the same.

Enjoy!

Handmade Christmas Part 3

Yes, dear readers, while the rest of the world has moved on to reflecting on 2009 and moving forward to blogging about Valentine's Day crafts, I'm still stuck on Christmas. The nice thing though, is these gifts aren't limited to Christmas - they also make great house warming gifts.

So, without further hesitation, I bring you Handmade Christmas Part 3 - gifts for friends and family. I gave a trio of gifts with a common theme revolving around hunkering down on a cold winter night in front of a fire.

First, a set of tumbled tile coasters. These were made with tumbled
marble tiles found at Home Depot I stamped them with Staz-on ink
which is completely waterproof and needs no sealing. Stick some cork pads
on the bottom to protect furniture, wrap with a pretty ribbon and your done.
Easy peasy!

Then, to fill the cups resting on the coasters, I made the following
hot chocolate recipe from Little Birdie Secrets packaged in pretty tins

Hot Cocoa Mix Recipe

10 cups dry milk powder
4 3/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/4 cups powdered non-dairy creamer (I used Hazel Nut)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Store in a jar or airtight container. Yields 15 cups (enough for 15 of the small jars pictured here). To make the cocoa, stir 3 heaping Tablespoons into 3/4 c. hot water or milk. I always advise topping it off with whipped cream as well, but that's just me (and my sweet tooth).


And of course, I had to add something to munch on so I made the following
candied nuts recipe from Blissfully Domestic , also packaged in pretty tins.

Sugar and Spice Candied Nuts
Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen

• 2 pounds nuts (I used pecans)
  
• 2 egg whites, room temperature
• 2 tbsp water
• 2/3 cup dark-brown sugar
• 1 1/3 cup white granulated sugar
• 3 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper (you could use paprika if you're a scaredy-pants, but the cayenne works well)
• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees. Add nuts to large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg whites and water until frothy. Pour over nuts and stir to coat all the nuts. In a separate bowl, mix together the sugars, salt, cayenne pepper, and cinnamon. Pour over nuts and stir to coat. Spread nuts in a single layer on a parchment (or wax paper) lined baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove from oven and separate nuts if they are stuck together. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store in an airtight container.
If you decide to try out any of these gift ideas, I would love to hear how it they turned out. If you're family is anything like mine, they'll be begging you for the roasted nuts recipe. :)

Homemade Peach Ice Cream

What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon than making fresh homemade peach ice cream? My husband recently expressed interest in making his own ice cream after watching a very in depth episode on the subject on the food network. So yesterday when my dad came to visit with the kiddos he surprised us with our very own old fashioned ice cream maker along with all of the ingredients to make the first batch!

Of course, we had to put it to use immediately and got right to work peeling, slicing and pureeing peaches and mixing ingredients. Once we got everything mixed up, we spent the next few hours doing this:


Then we spent another hour or so waiting for it to thicken up in the freezer. And after all of those hours of labor we were generously rewarded with 6 quarts of this:

Yum.

The texture of the ice cream is just amazing and it's, dare I say, healthier than the store bought stuff. As if ice cream can really be healthy in the first place, but at least it's not loaded with tons of preservatives and fillers and you know exactly what you're eating with this stuff. Not to mention, it's simply d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s!

Here is the recipe that we used in case you have the urge to try it yourself:

• 6 eggs, beaten
• 3 1/2 cups white sugar
• 10 fresh peaches, pitted and chopped
• 4 cups heavy cream
• 2 cups half-and-half cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

1. In large bowl, mix together eggs and sugar until smooth; puree peaches in blender or food processor and stir 5 cups of puree into egg mixture. Stir in cream, half-and-half, vanilla and salt and mix well.
2. Pour mixture into freezer canister of ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.

I would love to hear if you try this recipe yourself and how yours turns out. You may consider throwing an ice cream party if you make the full recipe.

I'm not quite sure what we're going to do with 6 quarts of ice cream, but it's so good I have a feeling we might not have a problem devouring it ourselves! I'll start working on losing the baby weight next week. :)