...jennydoll

These were the devil to make!  Really, they weren't too hard to make.  I was asked to make deviled eggs for Easter this year.  My first thought was, "okay, how?". I have never make these before so Dave and I scoured the internet for an easy recipe and directions on how to boil eggs.  We found both and these turned out great! At least, that's what my family told me and my official taste tester, Dave. I do not eat deviled eggs.  Never have and never will.  I really don't like eggs except every once in a while I will eat scrambled eggs and they have to be dry and starting to brown .  I know, weird.  These looked prettier once I had sprinkled the paprika on them.  I didn't have any so I had to wait to put it on at my mom's house.     

Happy St. Patrick's Day! (Yes, I realize I am late!) ;-) When I was young I had always wished I had more Irish heritage than I thought especially when it came to St. Patty's Day.  In grade school everyone wore green for fear of being pinched and it seemed everyone was Irish.  I knew there was a tiny bit of my heritage that was Irish but not much.  I was wrong.  I found out that I have more Irish heritage that I thought.  I have for the past 8+ years been researching my families genealogy.  It is been an amazing puzzle.  There is so much information out there and I have learned more about my family than I had ever known.  I have even located family that my parents didn't know existed!  It is a very time consuming hobby but one that I truly enjoy.  I sometimes wish that I had taken an interest in it when my grandparents were still with us.  They would have been a treasure of knowledge!  If you have ever thought about trying to...

In a previous post I declared my love for Captain Morgan so I thought it only fitting that I also shared my love for Malibu.  Like I said I am not a huge drinker and I had a few years previous tried a Pina Coloda while vacationing in Destin, FL. Good stuff! Feeling a bit adventurous I thought. "let's try strawberry pina coloda cupcakes".  In theory it sounded good but these just didn't have the flavor I was looking for.  I made from scratch the strawberry cupcake with frozen berries.  Not enough strawberry flavor came through and the icing was a bit too sweet for the cupcake.  I think the next time I will make a coconut based cupcake and the icing will have fresh strawberries mixed in along with the Malibu Rum. The picture looks inviting though! ;-)  If it weren't 7:15 am, I would be asking where's the blender and the pool?  Enjoy the sun today!

I have really fallen behind on my blogging as this one is about four months late.  Eeks!  My mom's birthday was in March! I made this Boston Creme Pie Cake for her dessert.  Nothing super fancy but it was rather tasty.   I made the butterflies out of dark chocolate and orange colored white chocolate.  It is a butter yellow cake with homemade chocolate icing and custard is layered between the yellow cake. My mom is a great woman.  She always made us feel special growing up with a special cake on our birthdays.  Even though we have grown up and moved out she will still make us a special birthday treat.  So, saying that, I make her one every year on her birthday so that she knows her day is special to us too!  Love you lots, Mom!

Summer HAS arrived! Rum Buttered Pecan Cupcakes. Yum, is all I have to say.  For those who know me I am not a huge drinker but I do have a few favorites.  Captain Morgan is my favorite pirate!  So, what better than to incorporate it into the cupcakes. These are butter pecan cupcakes with rum infused buttercream icing.  Delicious! So, as I said above I am not a huge drinker but if I am to drink something with rum it must be Captain Morgan's.  I think back to summer evenings over at Dennis' house where the gang (Anne, Tricia, Eric, Jason, Dennis, Paco, and some of the exchange students that Dennis' family hosted each year) would experiment with summer fruits and what sort of daiquiris we could whip up.  Captain Morgan was what we used and thus so began my love affair with this liquor.  We made strawberry, peach, banana, kiwi, watermelon, and maybe pineapple.  It was a long time ago! :-)  Jason and Dennis made some pretty tasty drinks....

Homemade Pizza and Sausage Cups For those of you who know me well know that....I LOVE PIZZA.  Dave says I could it every day and never tire of it.  He might be right. ;-)  Growing up my brother and I loved making Chef Boyardee Pizza for dinner.  I still like them but have opted to using the JIFFY brand pizza crusts.  They are easy and cheap.  I also use the store brand jar pizza sauce.  Yes, I could make my own but I don't.  I have never made my own sauce because I'm lazy.  My cousin makes a delicious homemade pasta sauce so maybe I should enlist her help in making my own pizza sauce.  We'll see what the summer brings to tackle that project.  So, I usually "doctor" up the sauce and/or the dough.  I sprinkle basil, oregano, rosemary, etc on the crust and prebake it.  Then I add the sauce along with the toppings of choice.  I usually use hamburger that I have browned with sweet basil, oregano, and garlic and it gets ex...

Organic Trail Mix = YUM! Dave and I are big fans of granola and were constantly buying the pre-made kind.  We started really paying attention to the labels. Wow, they have alot of sugar in them!  I decided to make our own to combat the sugar intake.  We used a box of Wild Harvest Organic Honey Flax Granola cereal. We then paired it with organic dried cranberries (which is hard to find without added sugar), dried unsweetened blueberries, unsweetened dried banana chips, raw cashews and almonds, unsweetened flaked coconut and some mini chocolate chips.  I would recommend the Trader Joe's chocolate chips.  This was a fantastic mix of flavor and easy to make.  Just dump everything into a mixing bowl and stir.  We packaged into little plastic containers that were great for the "always-on-the-go" people we are!