Peanut Butter Frosting

Last week my oldest entered the realm of the double digits.  I now have a 10 year old.  I'd prefer he not keep getting older.  But, since he did anyway, we celebrated with cake.  A Reese's cake.  His favorite.  

It was a very simple, two layer 8" round cake.  Reese's miniatures circled the base and Reese's pieces were piled on top.


Please ignore the mess of frosting.  I'm sure you could do better.

He made a special request for peanut butter frosting.  I had never made peanut butter frosting before, but was sure that it could be done.  I must admit, I was not super excited about peanut butter frosting.  But, I soon discovered, peanut butter frosting is GOOD.  Lick the bowl with your finger good.  

So, in case you have a Reese's lover in your life... here's a delicious way to celebrate them.

Peanut Butter Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup to 1/2 cup milk (till you get a spreadable consistency)
1 teas vanilla

Whisk it all together in your kitchen aid (at least that's what I do).  And try not to eat it all before you frost your cake.

xoxo,

Piccadilly Pico

We pretty much live in the birth place of Tex Mex.  And thus have been spoiled with some pretty amazing food.  One of my favoritest inventions ever has to be Pico De Gallo.  It's pretty much a cross between salsa and salad.  We can get it fresh in all the grocery stores around here.  But you end up paying a pretty penny for a tiny container.  I've tried chopping up my own by hand, but don't have the time or patience to go that route very often.

Fortunately, my taste buds have been saved!  My cute husband bought me a food processor for Christmas.  I just may have hinted a few times and even circled the ad and taped it to his forehead   But, that's besides the point.  Anyways, it turns out that food processors and fabulous for making mouth watering pico.  So here is a little recipe for all my peeps:

Piccadilly Pico
Ingredient round up:
8 Roma Tomatoes
1 small bunch of cilantro
1 1/2 teas salt

1 teas minced garlic
1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice

Basically, you just dump it all in your food processor and pulse.  Couldn't be easier!  I do like to twist off the largest stems from my cilantro bunch, and wash it of course.  In fact, wash all that produce, for good measure.  Also, I like to add my tomatoes and onions last so they stay a little chunky.  

Be sure not to leave on the food processor too long or it quickly turns to mush.  I know from sad experience.
Sometimes I use fresh garlic and lemon juice, and sometimes I cheat and use the prepared kind.  It's all good.

Now go make yourself some fajitas or grab a bag of chips, and enjoy!

xoxo,

Best Orange Sugar Cookies ever!

Man I really shouldn't be writing this post right now.  Those beautiful cookies are making me hungry... and not for salad.  I made these last week before my resolution to avoid sugar began.  But, for all you smart girls out there who don't make silly resolutions to deny yourselves of life's simple pleasures, this is one recipe you really should have in your back pocket.  These cookies are super scrumptious.  They actually inspired my baby to learn a new word.  "Cookie"  Yup, he spoke it often while these were sitting on the counter.  Believe me, they weren't there for long.  Enough already!  Here's the good stuff:


Orange - iced sugar cookies


2 cups flour
1 teas baking powder
1/2 teas salt
1/4 teas baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 teas vanilla
1/4 cup sour cream


Whisk together dry ingredients and set aside.  Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla, beating well to combine.  With mixer on low, add half flour mixture followed by sour cream, then remaining flour mixture.  Mix just until combined.  Scoop onto greased cookie sheet and bake until cookies are set but not browned.  about 12 minutes.  Cool and frost.


Icing:
3 Tablespoons butter, melted
2 Tablespoons milk
2 Tablespoons Orange juice
1/2 teas lemmon zest
1/2 teas vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
2 drops yellow food coloring & 2 drops red food coloring

1/2 cup Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate chips
Melt chocolate in microwave at half-power stirring often.  Transfer melted chocolate to small Ziploc bag.  Snip on small corner off of bag and pipe a thin ribbon of chocolate back and forth across the cookies.  Let chocolate set before serving or packaging.

Try these!  You'll be so glad you did.
p.s. they freeze well too!

Little Debbie knock offs

Yesterday my eldest son got into the car after church, bragging that he got 3 Christmas tree shaped brownies in his Primary class (our church's name for children's Sunday school).  Three brownies of the Little Debbie variety and he ate them all up!  I know, disgusting on several levels.  Needless to say, he didn't each much lunch.  But, this left my four year old green with envy.  Never mind that his teacher showered his class that week with three adorable crafts.  When you're a four year old little boy, tummies are very, very important to you.  So, he asked me in a very sweet voice if we could make Christmas tree brownies when we got home.  My thoughts immediately turned to the six dozen cookies and three loaves of banana bread I'd made just days before. Do we really need brownies too!  But, that voice was so sweet and it rarely is used in such a polite way and so, I gave in and said yes.  He had to drag me from my nap to do it.  I said I was so tired, but again he wooed me by saying it wouldn't be hard.  I could just get the ingredients out and he'd put them in and do the rest.  What a sweet boy!  So off to the kitchen aid we went and made one SMALL pan of brownies from scratch.  Lucky for me, there was extra frosting already in the fridge left over from last week's cookie marathon.  And thus, surprisingly, it really wasn't hard at all.  

They turned out pretty cute don't you think?

Snow Balls

I stumbled upon this recipe last week and knew I had to try it out for my Christmas in July series. Not only are they the tastiest snowballs you'll ever come across, but they also work double time as a dessert for both the Christmas season and summer time.  Our dinner guests gave us rave reviews and I hope you'll enjoy them too.

Faux fried ice cream

1 cup sliced almonds

2 tablespoons butter

dash salt

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups shredded sweetened coconut

2 1/2 cups Rice Chex cereal, crushed

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 gallon vanilla bean ice cream

Saute almonds in butter over medium heat until lightly browned.  Salt them lightly and cool on paper towels.  Stir together cooled almonds, brown sugar, coconut, crushed Rice chex and melted butter.

Let ice cream soften slightly.  Form ice cream balls with a soop.  Roll each ball in almond/Chex mixture until well-coated and place on a baking wheet in your freezer.  When finished, cover tray with plastic wrap and keep frozen.  Ice cream balls can be prepared several hours in advance.  Serve with your favorite hot fudge or hot caramel toppings.

Christmas in a Bowl!

It's about time my Christmas in July series featured a recipe to get our taste buds prepped.  I'm telling you, the Gingerbread Pudding Cake is litterally like Christmas in a bowl. 

It's not much to look at but the  aroma that fills your home while it's baking will get your taste buds tingiling.  A warm bowl full of this topped off with some whipped cream will make you trunky for fireplaces, frosty mornings and trimming the tree.  Have I got you convinced to try it yet?  Well, without further delay, Here's the recipe as promised.

Gingerbread Pudding Cake

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt

In a mixer, cream together butter and sugar.  Mix in egg, molasses and water.  Stir together dry ingredients, then add to molasses mixture and mix well.  Transfer batter to a greased 8"x8" baking dish.

3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups hot water
5 tablespoons butter, melted

Sprinkle brown sugar over the top of the batter.  Mix together hot water and melted butter, then gently pour over the top of brown sugar (do not stir).  Bake at 350 degrees until gingerbread is cracked on top, center is set and pudding underneath has thickened, about 45 to 55 minutes.  Scoop into bowls and serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.