Brown & Pink Baby Shower

These pictures are from the second baby shower I helped throw for my MOH.  I can't take credit for everything you see in the pictures, everyone involved worked hard on every little detail.  My work can be seen in the diaper cake, diaper wreath, clothes hanger bows and the cookies.  The shower was perfect and we can't wait to meet baby Callie! You can find the diaper cake tutorial here, diaper wreath tutorial here, smores cookies here, lemon cookies here and bow directions here.  That's a lot of heres! Enjoy!

Advice & Wishes for the Mommy to be...

I loved every minute of planning my MOH's baby shower.  I wanted to add lots of personal touches to the shower, which lead me to countless hours of online searching.  One of the things I decided to make, was this advice and wishes jar. 

Here's How: 

I bought a vase from Michael's and decorated it with ribbon and rhinestones. The rhinestones were self adhesive and I hot glued the ribbon.  I found the bottle frame in the dollar section at Target and printed out a little sign/direction.  Last, I used old scraps of scrapbook paper.  I found every pink & green piece of paper I had and cut it into different sizes.  All with enough room for guests to write a little message.  I put a small pail with pink & green pencils on the table for guests to use to write. 

Lemon Cookies

Baby Shower Recipe- The title of these cookies is Easy Lemon Cookies and that is exactly what they were.  My best friend's father loved my lemon blossoms I made over the summer, so I made these with him in mind.  We also already had cake, chocolate covered pretzels and chocolate chip cookies. So light and lemony was the perfect final dessert for the shower.  I have to admit that I'd pick chocolate over lemon any day, but these cookies were my #1 choice for the night.  Delicious!! 

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix
• 
  
• 2 eggs
• 
  
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 
  
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• 
  
• 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

1. Pour cake mix into a large bowl. Stir in eggs, oil, and lemon extract until well blended. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough into a bowl of confectioners' sugar. Roll them around until they're lightly covered. Once sugared, put them on an ungreased cookie sheet.
2. Bake for 6 to 9 minutes in the preheated oven. The bottoms will be light brown, and the insides chewy.

Tie Onesie

I've been making so much girly stuff lately, I didn't know what to do for a special little guy who was born in January.  I did what I do best and went straight to my trusty craft blogs.  I found this tutorial over at Sumo's Sweet Stuff.  I did a little more searching and found a template at Crap I've Made.  Since then I've made my own template and found out what works best for me. I love making these onesies and know many many more will be made this year! Enjoy!

Strawberry Bread

I made this recipe because we had family in town staying with us.  I needed something for breakfast that I could prepare the day before. I had bookmarked this recipe a week ago from Cookbook Jungle.   This was the prefect recipe and it left the house smelling delicious. It instantly became a new favorite recipe of mine.  I loved this bread.  It was a hit with the whole family. I will definitely be making this recipe over and over again.  The only change I made was adding some brown sugar to the top of the bread before baking.  It made the crust nice & sweet!

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 & 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten
1 & 1/4 cup veg. oil (You can lighten it by using 1 c. applesauce and only 1/4 c. oil)
2 cups fresh chopped strawberries
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
In large bowl, combine first 5 ingredients. Add egg and oil; mix well.
Stir in berries and nuts until evenly distributed - batter will be
thick. Grease & flour two 9" loaf pans and divide batter evenly into
each. Bake at 350 approx. 1 hour. Cool in pans 10 min. Invert onto
wire rack to cool completely.

Fruit Dip

Since the weather has been so gorgeous around here, we had a cook out tonight.  We've eaten out a bunch this weekend so I didn't want a heavy dessert.  I decided on fruit with dip.  I made this fruit dip from All Recipes.com.  It was pretty darn tasty.  I did make some modifications, which I noted below.   This one would be great to bring to summer cookouts! 

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (7 ounce) jar marshmallow creme

Directions

1. Using an electric mixer, blend cream cheese and marshmallow creme until mixed thoroughly.

**I folded in a container of cool whip to the mix and served.  

White Chocolate Popcorn

Baby Shower Recipe: Popcorn is one of my favorite snacks.  A few weeks ago I tried caramel corn and loved it! I had a small bowl I wanted to use for the baby shower and thought a bag of popcorn would fit perfectly.  This was an easy recipe and can be made a thousand different ways.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 bag of kettle corn popcorn
1 cup of white chocolate chips
colored sprinkles

Directions:
1.  Pop the popcorn as directed on the bag.
2.  Pour onto a cookie sheet and cool.
3.  Melt chocolate.  Heat 30 seconds, stir.  Heat another 30 seconds and it should be melted perfectly.
4.  Drizzle over popcorn.  Add sprinkles.
5.  Allow popcorn to cool completely.  Store in an air tight container until it's time to serve.

Pasta Salad

Baby Shower Recipe- I needed a side to go with the subs we had at the shower.  I love pasta salad.  Since I had to make all the dishes the night before, this one was perfect for the menu.  I loved the pasta I used and hubs and I had the leftovers for lunch and dinner.  

Ingredients:
2 boxes of cooked pasta (of your choice)
1 bottle of italian dressing
1 cup of chopped peppers (yellow, red, green)
1/3 cup sliced black olives
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Mix all ingredients together.  Chill overnight.  Serve & Enjoy!

 

Cake Balls & Pops-Baby Shower

Baby Shower Recipe- This is my first try at cake pops and cake balls.  I will admit that they were a little more difficult than I had thought they would be.  I used Bakerella's basic cake pop recipe.  I used a box of vanilla cake and vanilla icing.  I cooled the cake balls over night before dipping them in the pink melted candy.  A few of my pops didn't make it through the dipping process, but it was worth it for the ones that did.  They were a hit of the baby shower! No doubt, I'll be making these again...and again!

 Why couldn't I have invented these??? Oh why oh why?

Delicious Spinach Dip

Baby Shower Recipe- I love spinach dip.  I usually buy it at the store, I've only made it once from scratch.  I didn't want to do a store bought dip for the baby shower I was throwing.  So, I set out on a search for a spinach dip with great reviews that looked simple to make.  I found the recipe I decided to make at All Recipe.com.   It had lots of great reviews and honestly, I couldn't say no to a recipe titled Best Spinach Dip Ever! And.....after making it.  I have to AGREE!  It's amazing.  Will be the recipe I'll use from here on out for spinach dip.  I'm actually eating it leftover right now.  You've got to try this recipe! 

Ingredients

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
• 1 (1.8 ounce) package dry leek soup mix
• 1 (4 ounce) can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
• 1/2 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 1 (1 pound) loaf round sourdough bread

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix together mayonnaise, sour cream, dry leek soup mix, water chestnuts and chopped spinach. Chill in the refrigerator 6 hours, or overnight.
2. Remove top and interior of sourdough bread. Fill with mayonnaise mixture. Tear removed bread chunks into pieces for dipping.

Cheese Ball

Baby Shower Recipe-I had a chip and dip bowl that I didn't want to put dip in, so I decided to go with a cheese ball and crackers.  I found the recipe on Martha Stewart's website.  This was my first cheese ball and it was pretty easy.  I know there are tons of cheese ball variations out there and I'm looking forward to making them.  Enjoy! 

Ingredients

• 1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
• 8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, finely grated (about 2 1/2 cups)
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• Ground pepper
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans

Directions

1. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat cream cheese with cheddar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and a generous pinch of pepper until well combined. Mix in 1/4 cup pecans. Cover cheese mixture with plastic wrap, and chill at least 2 1/2 hours or up to overnight.
2. Divide the cheese mixture in half, and shape each half into a ball. Spread remaining 3/4 cup pecans on a plate, and roll balls in pecans to coat completely, pressing nuts to adhere. Serve chilled.

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Cheese Ball - Martha Stewart Recipes 

Party Punch

I made this punch for a baby shower I threw.  It was the drink of the afternoon.  Everyone asked what was in it and it's so simple to make.  Enjoy! 

Ingredients: 

2 liters of Raspberry Soda

1 carton of Raspberry Sherbet 

1-2 sliced Limes

Directions: 

Pour soda into punch bowl.  Empty carton of sherbet into the bowl.  Slightly mix.  Top with slices of lime.  

Poppyseed Chicken

I found this chicken recipe a few weeks ago through a blog hop.  I immediately bookmarked it and made it last week.  It was really good.  When I make it again, I will use a little less sour cream.  I didn't add the melted butter, and didn't think anything was missing. I served it with brown rice and think some peas would compliment this dish as well. Enjoy! 

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts, skinless and boneless

1 16 oz container sour cream

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 stick crushed ritz crackers
2 tsp poppy seed

1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.

Precook chicken in boiling water until thoroughly cooked.

Remove from water and let cool.

Tear or chop chicken into small pieces and cover the bottom of a casserole dish.

Mix cream of chicken and sour cream in a separate bowl then spread over chicken.

Cover with crushed crackers.

Sprinkle poppyseeds over the top.

Drizzle melted butter on top.

Place in preheated over for 30 minutes.

Heart Cookie Cake

This is what I made for hubs for our first Valentine's Day as Mr. & Mrs.  I cheated with this recipe and used pre-made cookie dough.  I had a heart shaped pan that my mom had given me for Christmas.  I sprayed the pan and pressed the dough in.  That's pretty much it.  I baked it for 15 minutes and let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes.  I carefully flipped it over and set it on the plate I served it on.  After the cookie cooled completely, I added decorations with frosting (store bought).  I honestly never thought I could make a cookie cake this easily.  Hubs was convinced it was from the store.  It was pretty darn good. Valentine's Day dessert- accomplished.  

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Who doesn't love Bakerella?  If you haven't heard of Bakerella, you've got to check her out! I was in search for a few easy Valentine's recipes for D and I to bring to work and this is one I decided to go with.  I would call this recipe semi-homemade.  Especially since I REALLY cheated and used cream cheese icing instead of making my own.

All you need is

1 Box red velvet cake mix*

1/2 Cup butter, softened to room temperature
2 Eggs

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Mix ingredients until combined.
• Drop spoonfuls of cookie batter onto baking sheet about two inches apart.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes.
• Cool.

Cream Cheese Filling
1/2 Cup butter, softened to room temperature
1 8 oz. Package cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 1lb. Box of confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp Vanilla

• In a mixer, cream butter, cream cheese and vanilla.
• Gradually add sugar and mix until smooth.