...jennydoll

More mocha please! My sister-in-law's, birthday was yesterday.  We celebrated her big day at the Lake over the weekend with family and friends. But, I had already planned on making her a special birthday treat. I had found these big polka dot sprinkles at the cake supply store and immediately thought of her.  I bought them along with bright purple, yellow and turquoise wrappers.  I made dark chocolate cupcakes with a mocha buttercream.  I remembered these being a big hit with them from when I made them for my brother's birthday.  As another birthday treat, I cut some black eyed susan daisies and lavender from my garden.  Flowers always seem to make everything a little more special to me.  When she called to thank me for the cupcakes and flowers she told me that the flowers were one of her favorites!  I did not know that at the time but I am happy they made her birthday just a little more special.  Happy Birthday!

I finally got a Trifle Dish!!   I am so excited! I have been wanting one of these for a while now.  My mother in law gave this to me for my birthday.  It came with a lid and the pedestal is not attached so you can put the dish in the refrigerator easier.  Thank you, JoMama! I could not wait to try this dish out.  Dave and I made dinner and took it to our friend's house to share.  We had a great evening of conversation and food. It was soo hot out that I wanted a cool dessert to eat.  I decided that with what I had on hand to make a quick little trifle.  I made brownies and cubed/crumbled them with fat free and sugar free chocolate fudge pudding and fat free whipped topping.  Layered it up and we had a trifle! For as simple as it was, we all loved it!  There was a small little bowl left which Dave and I promptly had for a snack later that evening.  I am excited to try something else in my fun new trifle dish!  Who kn...

This beautiful cake was my final project in my second cake decorating class.  I, honestly, didn't think I would be able to make this when I saw the picture.   But, I have a fantastic teacher and she is very encouraging.  I am looking forward to the next class with her this fall. I am really enjoying learning how to make all of the fancy cakes you see in the bakeries.  They all look so difficult and yes, some can be but they are truly not so hard.  I gave this cake to my mother to share with her friends at work.  They all loved it and I even had one lady offer to buy it to use for Mother's Day.  I was flattered!  This was a two layer strawberry cake with buttercream icing and royal icing flowers.  I made those too in class.  Those were pretty fun to create.  I really loved the pansies which you can't see in this photo.  I loved the basket weave design on the side of the cake.  I was sooo nervous about making the b...

Breakfast Casserole, anyone? This wonderful casserole was one that I took from my mother.  It is so simple and yummy! You can change it to suit your tastebuds and it won't alter a thing.  I usually make this and then package up several containers for the freezer.  It is great for those mornings you are crazing a hot breakfast but don't have the time to make one.  Just pop in the microwave for a minute and presto! This is great for a family gathering, brunch or breakfast for dinner.  One of my favorite dinners!  I am going to share this recipe with you so that you all can taste the yumminess of this dish.  Be adventurous with this dish.  I have not had a bad casserole yet! 1 lb. pork sausage or ham (I like the HOT variety of sausage) 8 eggs 3c. milk 10 slices of bread, cubed (I use whatever I have on hand and sometimes several kinds) 1-1/2 to 2 c. shredded cheese, your choice (I use swiss mainly.) 2 tbsp. melted butter 2 tbsp. dry mu...

Apple Pie.  What is it about this that we love?  Dave loves apple pie.  I never really liked it too much but over the years it has grown on me.  I love Dutch Apple Crumb.  All the brown sugar, cinnamon, and oats.  I love the way your house smells when the pie is baking.  Reminds me of  Autumn.  My favorite time of the year. We usually have good intentions of eating apples when we buy them at the grocery store.  Somehow we never eat them soon enough.  We won't throw them away we make apple crumb! I usually will just cut up the apples and toss them with some cinnamon and lemon juice.  Put them in a greased dish and top with a couple packets of brown sugar and cinnamon oatmeal and some melted butter.  After the apple crumb has baked we serve it in a small dish with some vanilla bean icecream.  Heavenly. This above pie was made with a can of sugar free apple pie filling and a leftover frozen pie crust I found in ...

I am not one to play in the dirt or for gardening.  It's just not my thing.  I do not like bugs or dirt.  Go figure.  We bought our house loving all the flowerbeds that were here and established.  I didn't think about all the work it would take to keep them looking nice.  Oh my, it is quite the task.  So, after spending a day doing yardwork I decided that my fence hangers need some new pots.  The previous ones were smashed when a tree decided to fall through our new fence and break all of them. Again.  I thought that since Dave had all of these craft paints from his early days of painting that I would make use of them.  I wanted something fun to look at in my yard.  Above is what I came up with.  They looked really cute hanging on my fence until the heat killed the flowers and yes, my lack of watering.  I always seem to forget to water them. Oops.  They looked pretty for a few months.  Guess, I should replace th...

Ricky Martin's song "Livin' la Vida Loca" was the first thing to pop into my mind when my cousin and I were trying to come up with a name for this cupcake.  This is a pineapple cupcake with lemon buttercream.  My mother had asked me to make a dessert for her to take to a girls' night dinner party.  I knew my mom likes pineapple upside down cake and thought about doing  something tropical with pineapple.  She gave me a pineapple cake mix to use and instead of using water I substituted pineapple juice.  Wow, I had not had a pineapple cupcake and this was wonderful! The pineapple flavor was amazing.  I thought with the sweetness of the pineapple that it needed something a little tart to cut it.  My sister in law gave me some real lemon extract for Christmas to use.  I love the smell and flavor of it.  Just like a fresh cut lemon!  Top it with a little shredded coconut, a lemon wedge and a tiny umbrella and bingo!  A little bit ...