raspberries

there is a wonderful place called rosby farm here in the cleveland area. they grow my favorite fruit, and we are allowed to pick them for really cheap. we ate several right off the bat, i froze 2 gallon freezer zip bags full of them {so i can enjoy them during hibernation time here}, made 8 jars of freezer jam, and made some yummy cupcakes for a friend's baby shower.

anne's cupcake recipe {here}

picking 'em with super baby in tow

some really cute raspberries

when life gives you lemons...

m a k e

when i was visiting my mom, she said that she could really go for these cookies, so i've had them on my mind ever since. when she came out last october we found this recipe on food network and tried them out. they were scrumptious! i decided that i needed to make them again for my stampin' up party tonight. i adjusted the recipe a bit b/c the original recipe had some crazy ingredients that i couldn't find at the grocery store...and this worked out great! this is a PERFECT treat for spring time or summer. matt says they "awaken his mouth."

For Cookies

• 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp butter at room temperature
• 1 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest {about 1 lemon}
  
• 2 x large egg yolks
• 1 x whole large egg
• 1 1/4 cups sour cream
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

For Icing

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar sifted
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice {or more depending on desired consistency & tartness}
  
• 3 tbsp butter {if you want it to be thinner, then melt the butter}
  

To Assemble

1. For cookies, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy and stir in lemon zest. Beat in egg yolks and whole egg until fully incorporated. Stir in sour cream until smooth. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to wet ingredients and stir just until blended. Chill batter for 30 minutes, just to set butter a little.
2. Preheat oven to 325 °F. Spoon tablespoons of batter onto a greased cookie sheet, leaving 2 inches between cookies. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, just until the bottoms of the cookies turn golden brown. Allow to cool before icing.
3. For frosting consistency: beat powdered sugar & room temp butter until mixed, then add lemon juice until you reach desired consistency. Then frost the cookies with a knife. For icing consistency: stir powdered sugar into lemon juice until smooth. Stir in melted butter (this will thicken the icing a bit). Dip the tops of the cookies into icing, and place on a cooling rack, so excess icing can drip off. Let cookies set 1 hour before removing, and store in an airtight container, with layers of parchment between the cookies to prevent sticking.

lollipop, lollipop

for the kids' valentine parties at school, we wanted to do something a little special. we normally love to make these hard candy lollipops for christmas, but i was no where near the kitchen or crafting at that "baby-growing" time of my life. so for v-day, we put a little spin on our usual lollipops. we decided to make pencil pops. we found these great heart molds and pencil pop tops {i put the links below in the recipe}. we tried 3 different flavors: strawberry, watermelon, and lemonade. we normally love strawberry flavored things, but it ended up being our least favorite flavor. after we made the pencil pops, we got out my new valentine stamp set from stampin' up. J & G had tons of fun making their own homemade valentines. we spent a good portion of our day on this project. J wrote his name on all of his valentines, and G did about 10 and then got "way too exhausted" to do any more. J helped her finish. it was so much fun to watch them get so excited about this. i LOVE valentine's day. i have ever since i was a little girl b/c it means my birthday is close by. all my parties as a girl revolved around hearts...and i loved it. i still get giddy inside around this time of year!

Old Fashioned Lollipops

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup light corn syrup

¾ cup water

1 tsp candy oils

¼ tsp Liquid Food Coloring

Candy Thermometer

lightly spray heart sheet mold {i used 3 molds to make 15 suckers} with cooking spray and insert pencil pops into your molds. in large saucepan, mix together sugar, corn syrup and water. stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. bring mixture to a boil without stirring. this syrup gets very hot. hook a candy thermometer on the edge of the saucepan to measure the temperature. children must watch the next steps from afar! when syrup temperature reaches 260°F, add the coloring. DO NOT STIR; boiling will incorporate the coloring into the syrup. remove from heat at 300°. watch closely from 260° to 300°, the temperature will rise quickly. remove from heat. when boiling has stopped, stir in flavoring. then CAREFULLY pour the mixture into a heat proof ceramic pitcher or glass batter bowl. this makes it easy to pour into the molds. It also allows you to be able to slightly reheat the mixture in the microwave if it cools too quickly. immediately pour syrup into the molds. after lollipops have cooled they may be removed from the molds. stick pencil in pencil pop.

here is a cute sample card my stampin' up demonstrator, teri, made with the valentine kit i got...too cute! for all my ohio friends you can have all this cute stuff too b/c i'm having a party on march 26th...so you'll have to come see all the other great stamps and sets you can't live without!!! {he, he}

"mommy-made oreos"

so for jack's preschool get-together i was assigned to bring a "fun dessert". i thought i'd ask jack what he wanted me to make...knowing full well this is what he'd pick. he loves "mommy-made oreos" {not the ones in the package he clarifies}. this has been jack's favorite "mommy-made" treat since i can remember. a little over a year ago i had a beautiful platter of these yummy cookies sitting in the middle of my counter, all ready to take to a BBQ, and when i came back into the kitchen after getting ready, i found evidence of the top ten missing cookies on jack and gracie's face and hands. i'm sure many of you have at least had a variety of these...aka {cake mix cookies}. we just add frosting. so go make some "mommy-made" oreos today!

*1 box chocolate cake mix {just the powder}
*1/2 C. oil
*2 eggs
*1 tsp. vanilla

Mix all together. Spoon cookie dough onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake @ 375 for 7-10 min. After completely cool, frost with:

Vanilla Butter Frosting:
*3 C Powdered Sugar
*1/3 C softened butter
*1 & 1/2 t vanilla
*2 T Milk

Mix pwd sugar and butter. Stir in vanilla and milk. Beat until smooth.

varieties:
*use mint extract instead of vanilla and add green food coloring for mint oreos
*use cream cheese instead of butter for cream cheese frosting
*use a tub of vanilla frosting from the store if you must {i'm such a frosting snob! i only like homemade!}

{for those of you who didn't read the comments, my friend heather said for the fall she likes to use spice cake mix for the cookie part, and adds pumpkin to the frosting: YUM!!!! thanks heather!}