Party Prep

 So.  I'm behind.  As always.
Still posting pics from Makenna's birthday, a week ago.

But, we had so much fun in the kitchen, prepping for her party, that I had to share.

One of the girls' favorite "accessories" is sprinkles.
I have to admit, I love them too!
They make everything so festive and sparkly :)

So we gave our little birthday glasses a makeover.

A little icing . . .



A little roll in the sprinkles . . .
 

Ta-Da!

Party-ready cups!
 

Remember my Heart-Shaped Yogurt Treats? 
These little heart-shaped ice cube trays have come to the rescue again!
{Thank you, Target!}

Pureed strawberries, frozen in heart-shaped molds . . .
 

Make the perfect little addition to Lemonade, or Punch, or Sprite or . . .
Whatever!
 

 

 

 

 How do you accessorize your party? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Baking

 I swear, I could bake every day.

Before I got married and had lotsa babies, my older sister and I {half} joked that we'd open our own bakery one day.  I'll be honest, I still dream about it from time to time.

My favorites are hand-held desserts ;)

Cookies, Bars, Brownies . . .
and a new favorite:

Hand Pies.

Seriously delish, y'all.

I looked all over for a recipe that didn't seem too time consuming {I don't have a lot of extra time, don'tcha know}, and every crust recipe I found seemed so overly fussy.  I don't like fussy.

So I kinda just made my own.

I took:

2 sticks of butter {I used sweet cream, everyone else uses unsalted, apparently}
2 1/2 cups of flour
2 Tbsps. Sugar
1 tsp. Salt
2 tsps. Cinnamon
1/2 cup Buttermilk



I cut the butter into a million pieces and combined with the remaining ingredients, leaving the buttermilk for last.  It took awhile to combine to my liking.
Then I sprinkled flour on my counter, rolled out the dough, and cut a bunch of circles with a biscuit cutter.  Then I rolled those circles a little thinner {'cuz they were teeny tiny}.  I set those aside, preheated my oven to 375 degrees, and got to work on the fruit filling.

We had about 425 million apples lying around after making cider, so I peeled, cored, and diced some of those, mixed in a few Tablespoons of sugar, sprinkled on some cinnamon, and even drizzled a little sweetened condensed milk on top.

I wanted a variety of pies, and had some blackberries left over from summer blackberry picking, so I tossed some of those in a bowl with a sprinkling of sugar as well.

Next, I spread some filling on the dough . . .

 

And then I folded them over, sealed with a fork, and sprinkled with decorative sugar crystals.
 

 

 

 Would you believe I didn't get a picture of them when they were finished?  You would if you'd tasted them. They were so delicious, we ate 'em all up!

Don't judge, but the last time I went grocery shopping, I picked up some pre-made pie dough, and I thought I'd try them using that.  How quick and simple would that be?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minis

Okay, baby is on the brain pretty much night and day right now.  So . . .bear with me.  {I won't cry too much if you click away.}

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While we wait {and wait} for Miss Lovey Poo to make her appearance, {and while we are stuck inside enjoying more rain}, we've been trying to come up with fun ideas to keep us occupied.

The other day Sierra brought out her American Girl Tiny Treats book and we found some really cute {and simple!} ideas.

Like these miniature s'mores:

Cute, right?

You just need a handful of chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, and Golden Grahams.

Arrange chips on 1/2 of the grahams, marshmallows on the other half, and microwave for about ten seconds.  Then smoosh 'em together.



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Next we made mini donuts.

We used Honey Nut Cheerios.




And chocolate syrup, powdered sugar .  .  .



. . . . and, of course, sprinkles!  I think I've mentioned before that sprinkles really do make food much happier.



And our finished product:



A little messy, but super fun!

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So, talk to me about what you do to keep the littles occupied in crummy weather :)