Black Sheep Dancing

Why be like everyone else when you can be yourself?

Category Archives: Holidays


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Some bunny’s been here

Happy Easter!

Wait.

What?

Yes, I’m a little behind the ball in life, but sometimes that is how life goes sometimes.

Easter was lots of fun. It’s a very important time, as the Easter Bunny is Santa’s helper too. He reports directly to the big man (year round) to let him know who is being naughty and who is being nice.

You have to build you bunny nest:

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And make some eggs:

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Oh, and of course you have to wear your Easter bonnet!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And eat some yummy dessert:

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I think it turned out pretty cute!

I used

Sam’s Famous Carrot Cake from Allrecipes.com

and

Half a recipe of Cream Cheese Frosting IIĀ  from Allrecipes.com.

Directions to make the bunny:
1. Bake a cake round (flavor of your choice) and let it cool. Slice in half so you have two semicircles and glue them together with frosting with the cut side down.

2. Cut a v-shape about 1/4 of the way up the top so you make a small notch to separate the head from the body.

3. Ice the cake and use shredded coconut to cover so it looks like fur. I used a marshmallow for the tail and nose thing, jelly beans for the eyes and nose nose, and toothpicks for whiskers.

4. Cut ear-shapes from paper and color with pink crayons. Place these at the top of the “head”.

5. For grass, toss shredded coconut with green food coloring until color you desire. I used chocolate eggs and jelly beans tossed around for added decoration.

6. Eat.

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Happy Birthday, Munchkin!

It’s hard to believe my munchkin is already five! How time has flown! Since this year seemed to be the first year he really knew what was going on, I finally bit the bullet and expanded the party beyond our closest family and friends to his little friends from school.

Now every party needs a theme. I asked Keeler what he wanted. He specifically said:

  1. Dragon cake
  2. watermelon
  3. tag

Well, we were able to do two of the three. I found a pattern online for the cake. Not as hard as it looks. Watermelon – yep. Ran out of time for a game of tag.

The cake, sans frosting.

 

Awaiting wings.

I used tootsie rolls for the claws, icing for the eyes and chocolate chips for the pupils and nostrils. The spine scales were crackers I made earlier this week.The cake was just a basic yellow cake I made from All Recipes and the icing was from a can. Real high tech around here.

One thing I will say, you really have to freeze the cake after assembling, and periodically freeze it while icing to make life a whole ton easier. Less crumbs get into the icing, and the finish is much smoother when you spread it when it is harder.

I had lots of grand ideas for the theme, but in the end, the entertainment was bubbles, coloring pages, blow up swords and paper crowns from Oriental Trading Company, and a garden hose. A pop up tailgate tent from CBear served as the “castle”. Everyone had a great time, and I didn’t have to break the bank to do it. Win for everyone!

We also had everyone bring a canned good instead of presents. Hopefully that helps the kids learn about giving, and less toys around the house here to trip over. We’re going to take them to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank.

Food wise, again, I kept simple. I made:

  • Fresh fruits and veggies sliced up

  • Cucumber Slices With Dill (since I have a ton of cucumbers and dill to use up!)

  • Confetti salad – a bean salad from my grandma’s recipe collection
  • Bread from the bread maker
  • Ham and PB&J for sandwiches
  • Amish Macaroni Salad (Everyone LOVES this!)

My family brought:

  • Chicken salad sandwiches
  • Orzo salad
  • Strawberry Salad with feta

Munchkin’s actual birthday is this week. I usually take the day off and we do whatever he wants to do, and we go to the toy store and he gets to pick out his own present. I’ll also take him to the food bank to deliver the food we collected. Should be a lovely day! Last year we went to the park and to the movies to see Toy Story 3. This year? Stay tuned!


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Refreshing Saturday

This is day 3 of my mega long weekend. I am so enjoying it. After a busy month, I needed to kick back and relax. I had my naps, my reading…today it was a sit on the porch kind of day…kind of. After we did everything else.

First, we went to the parade. Munchkin loved the gallons of candy he got. I’m pretty sure he ate about five pounds of tootsie rolls just during the parade, not to mention everything we took home.

Then we went to the grand opening of Columbus Commons. It was lots of fun, but I think the festivities could have been a little more clearly defined. It was hard to figure out everything that was going on without any posters or schedules. Fun, non the less. The science experiments by COSI were a highlight!

So, we were ready for a break, or at least I was. We were sitting on the porch eating some of my cinnamon bread when I spotted the mint and I HAD to have something with it…immediately. So I made some yummy mint simply syrup to put in some iced tea. Ah, did that hit the spot!

We topped the evening off with Tangled. Very cute, classic Disney movie. We might have to buy that one.

Mint Iced Tea

Combine 2 cups sugar, 2 cups water and approx 10-15 mint leaves (chopped) and bring to a low boil and stir until all sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let steep for 30 minutes. Strain into a jar and refrigerate.

To serve: Pour about 1/4 of glass with simple syrup. Fill glass with ice and top with iced tea. Stir and garnish with a sprig of mint.

Enjoy!


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Happy Mother’s Day – You better like it!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mommies out there, especially mine! She’s pretty alright, I guess. šŸ™‚

Mother’s Day was lovely. CBear took me out to breakfast at Bob Evans (a favorite!) on Saturday and put up with my super grumpiness due to being over worked, over stressed, tired, and not being able to breathe due to stupid allergies. Honeysuckle and I just don’t get along.

Sunday I went home. Both mom and my sister were sick with a cold, Munchkin had a tummy bug, so between allergies and colds and bugs, we were quite the bunch! But, this morning we went out to eat at Preto’s and stopped at a few tag sales where I found some new hammered aluminum and had quite a few fun conversations with the other treasure hunters. I even got to run out in the glorious, wonderful sunshine that finally has made an appearance this spring. Beautiful!

When we arrived back home, I was discussing canning blogs (How much do I love Food in a Jar!!) with my mom when she said she saw a recipe for violet jelly, and wanted to try it. So, I thought, I’ll go pick the flowers, and mom will love it!

So I headed outside and carefully picked these beautiful little purple flowers that were all over the yard. Did I mention they were little? As in super tiny? And I needed two cups!!! I finally got about a cup and went inside after about an hour of picking. We could just make half a batch.

Super tiny, super hard to pick, little purple flowers.

Mom loved it, right? Wrong. Mom did NOT want to make the jelly. She just thought it looked interesting, so suggested I make it instead. Me, who has never canned anything EVER. Blergh. I agreed to maybe. Then, a few minutes later I hear lots of talk about the flowers. Turns out my idea of little purple flowers and other people’s idea are two totally different flowers, and I had not picked violets, but some other type of flora. Doh!

So, back out I went, this time with both mom and sister in tow helping pick the correct flower. I must say, actual violets are SO MUCH FASTER to pick! I was sent home with the violets, left over pizza, canning equipment and some seedlings to plant in my garden.

Violets...what I should have picked the first time.

As soon as I got home I immediately started the jelly. Once I get my mind on doing something, I have to finish it. What do you think?

I have no idea if it will be good or not. One jar fell when taking it out of the water bath, so that one will probably need to go in the fridge. I know I heard at least five pings from the seven jars, so that is a good sign I won’t make everyone sick.

Happy Mother’s Day, mom. You better like your jelly!


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A Princess Kind of Morning

I’ll admit it. I love my celebrities and gossip magazines. I love clothing, and the now Princess Catherine combines both of those worlds. OF COURSE I took off work on Friday and got up way to early to watch the wedding. My sister came in town Thursday night, so we both prepped the food Thursday night for our little royal feast on Friday.

But, before we go any further – wasn’t her dress just gorgeous? She is so beautiful, and I am such a fan of vintage or a throw back to vintage. It was perfect!Anywho, this was our royal spread:

Orange Cranberry Oat Scones

Misc. Girl Scout Cookies

Cucumber Tea Sandwiches

Egg Salad Tea Sandwiches

Banana Muffins

Crumpets

Tea from Harrod’s

Lemon Curd

I’ve discovered I absolutely adore crumpets. I am going to have to make many more very soon.

My sister even dressed up her dog:

Poor Gracie.


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Preparing for the bunny

We have a few Easter traditions. Yes, we go to church. Yes, we have Easter baskets, but not the boring, every one looks the same. Each year I take the Munchkin to a thrift store and park him in the basket isle and let him pick out his basket for that year. This year he found a lovely basket from Bath & Body Works that was really very manly. It had red leather around the outside with pockets. Very cute!

Our second tradition is this – The Easter Bunny is like Santa. He travels all around the world delivering Easter baskets and gets tired, so you have to build a nest for him to sleep in during his travels. As a thank you, he leaves an Easter basket. This is normally done outside, and of course this year it was a down pour of rain. His buddy was here to help build.

This was their creation. Cute, no? I liked it was also quick. It was wet outside! However, I don’t think they minded. I think they bunny will approve.


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Fat Sunday

So, I found a recipe for Beignets last week, and had every intention of making them for Fat Tuesday. Then life happened. So, last night we made the dough and this morning we rolled it out and fried them up!

I used to be very intimidated by frying things…you gotta get the oil, heat it up, not burn yourself, find something to do with the old oil…but I found these very easy.

And even if they are a little over-fried, they’re still pretty good.

Here they are all done. Don’t they just look yummy? And they are light and don’t FEEL like fried food. That actually may not be a good thing. I don’t usually like donuts, but I liked these. (And do did everyone else.)

The recipe is from Our Best Bites, and can be found here. The only thing I changed, was instead of dusting one side with powdered sugar, I turned them over to dust both sides. Mmmmmm…sugary goodness.

 


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I heart hearts

Ah, Valentine’s Day. Love it or hate it, it comes around every year. I’m not one to really enjoy the day. I’ve had some pretty awful v-days, but you just can’t make it go away. However, anytime you have an excuse to make everything pink and with hearts, how can it be ALL bad?

 

I decided to get to baking. I made a valentine for my valentines, both at home and work. I don’t care who you are, it’s nice to know someone is thinking of you on this day.

 

I made:

 

Jam cookies:

 

 

Chocolate Cake Balls

Cupcakes, chocolate dipped pretzels, chocolate raisin candy

And heart shaped chocolate chip cookies.

 

I then packed them for work:

 

 

And for my big valentine:

I put the goodies in one of my many hammered aluminum dishes and tied with some clearance ribbon I got after Christmas (yippee for 90% off!!!) I started collecting aluminum pieces after my grandmother gave me a casserole dish she had gotten as a wedding present.

 

And my little valentine. Of course munchkin was the most excited of all. Who doesn’t love cookies for breakfast? (Just for special occasions that is)

Recipes:

Chocolate chip cookies – made from a mix and then put down cookie cutter and dropped a spoonful of dough in and smushed it down.

Emily’s Cake Balls

Ingredients

  • 1 cake mix
  • 1 can complimentary-flavored frosting
  • bag of chocolate chips
  1. Bake cake according to directions. Allow to cool completely and crumble into a bowl. Put in the fridge if still warm.
  2. Mix in some frosting until it creates a dough-like mess. Freeze for 30-60 minutes
  3. Use a scoop to scoop out balls onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Use hands to make into a more uniform ball and place back on sheet. Freeze for 30-60 minutes
  4. Melt chocolate chips in double boiler. Add in butter if necessary to make it smooth.
  5. Use a fork to dip balls into chocolate, allowing extra to drip off. Place back on parchment paper.
  6. Cool in fridge until set. I like to keep mine in there until served.

Raisin candy and chocolate dipped pretzels – I had left over melted chocolate after dipping the cake balls so I dipped some pretzels first and then mixed some raisins in the remaining chocolate and spooned into candy wraps. Refrigerate.

“Christmas Stars” (Or Valentine’s Hearts)- Allrecipe.com

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 6 tablespoons strawberry jam
  • 1/4 cup green decorator sugar (optional)

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir flour mixture into the butter mixture until well blended. Refrigerate dough for three hours.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease several cookie sheets.
  3. On a floured surface, roll out 1/2 of the dough at a time to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut dough into star shapes using a 3 to 4 inch star cookie cutter. Using a 1 to 2 inch star cookie cutter, cut a star into the center of half of the big stars. Sprinkle colored sugar on the cookies with the center cut out if desired. Put onto prepared cookie sheets about 1 inch apart, and bake for 6 to 8 minutes.
  4. After cookies cool completely, spread 1 teaspoon of preserves in the center of each cookie that does not have a star cut out in the middle. Place a cookie with a cut-out on top of the layer of preserves. Pack cookies in a covered tin to preserve freshness.