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Battle of the Mint Shakes
I couldn’t let St. Patrick’s Day pass by without indulging in a mint shake. I searched Pinterest for recipes and found a homemade version of McDonalds Shamrock Shake. Never having tasted a Shamrock Shake I realized I’d have no way of knowing if it was close to the real thing. So, I decided to hold a giant mint shake taste test with three judges: me, Eric and Arielle. When Eric walked through the door after a week in St. Louis I hugged him and said “Suprise! I’m cooking for the blog again… try this!” Even though he’s not really a fan of mint flavoring I think the fact that he hadn’t seen…
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Sparkly Cake Balls for St. Patrick’s Day
I’m usually pretty good at resisting dessert temptation. Usually. Turns out these cake balls have a power over me that I can’t resist. I don’t know whether it was sheer joy that they actually were tasty, the spider cake balls I made for Halloween were a tad on the nasty side, or if it was their small size. I’d pop one in my mouth and then feel as though a few hundred more wouldn’t hurt me. When I reheated the morning’s leftover coffee after preparing the milk chocolate dip – I knew I was in trouble. It wasn’t long before I was walking around the house holding my stomach wondering just how many…
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Sparkly Bites of Joy
Day five of my St. Patrick’s Day Extravaganza. Whew! I made it. I feel as though I’ve spent the past five days in a very unnatural habitat – my kitchen. Here’s a quick recap of the recipes. Day 1: Day 2: Day 3: Day 4: And last – at least for a few days… My own creation (kind of but not really) cake pops pot of gold. I combined two recipes. I took the pot of gold cookie pot and tried it in a regular sized cupcake tin. It worked! Then I made the cake pops from Bakerella‘s recipe and added yellow chocolate to make them look like gold. I’ll call them…
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Beer Fondue
Day four of my St. Patrick’s Day Extravaganza… Fondue! Every January fifth Eric and I can be found at the Melting Pot enjoying our anniversary fondue. It’s one of my favorite foods. I even tried to have a fondue party when I was in high school many, many years ago. It ended with a group of us girls dumping a pot full of half melted cheese in the woods. Silly us, we thought the cheese had to be cooked in the fondue pot over the little can of sterno. Yeah, kind of embarrassing to admit. This recipe is cooked on a stove and is almost as good as the Melting Pot’s…
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Chocolate Mint Eclair
Day 3 of St. Patrick’s Day Extravaganza! Today I learned a very important lesson… read the entire recipe carefully the night before or the morning of baking. No, I didn’t forget any ingredients. I had that checked off my list two days ago. What I didn’t realize was that this recipe needed 2 hours in the refrigerator. Ooops. And I discovered I had to add those two hours to my baking time just as I remembered Kai’s orthodontist appointment that I also didn’t make time for in my day. Ooops again. What I thought was going to be a quick dessert turned out to be hours in the kitchen… after the orthodontist…
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Shepherd’s Pie – Lower Fat
Today is day 2 of my St. Patrick’s Day extravaganza.Yesterday’s pot of gold was a big hit with the high school crowd and today’s shepherds pie received two thumbs up from Arielle and Eric. I believe I heard Arielle say, “You’re keeping the leftovers in the fridge… right?” And Eric replied with, “Yeah but this is a get up in the middle of the night and sneak some dish.” My heart smiled. It’s nice to know my cooking skills are improving. Even though last night Kai told me the Food Network had the perfect show for me – America’s Worst Cooks. Anyone who lives with teens has to be tough.…
