Goo Gone Goodness

Finally...those tough gum/candy/goo stains on our carpet are KO'ed off into oblivion. I'm so happy about this. You don't know how much it's been bothering me to walk into our home and start a stare-down competition between that darn stain and me. Oh, I WON this time! Thanks to my tag team with Goo Gone. *Queue Rocky theme song* It works. Happy Thursday to me!

Beautiful Birthday Cake

Once again my sister Sam has managed to excite me with her talents. This was the actual cake used for my youngest sister's birthday party. The first one posted under Vintage Rose Cake was a preliminary cake. Isn't this latest cake purrrrdy?! The birthday girl really likes confetti cake so that is what is layered along with pink white cake. I think we may be onto something good here. What do you think Sam? Business venture? (Thank you Monica for taking and sending me the pictures.)

Stuffed Bell Peppers with Chicken Sausage

Happy Friday Everyone! Any fun things for the weekend? Well, I'm not sure what we are doing this weekend but if the weather is good, I'd love to visit the Ren Faire. No costumes this year but maybe next year we'll go full out Clan flannel. Haha

Anyway, last night I made an almost-carb-free dinner without really knowing what I was doing. Once again I felt as if I was a contestant on Chopped (secretly love the rush of competition). I had a package of Aidells chicken sausage and some bell peppers that were sitting in the fridge just waiting for their moment of fame. So here is how it all went down.

On your marks. Get set. Go!

1 Package of Aidells Artichoke & Garlic fully cooked Chicken Sausage
3 Stalks of Green Onions
1/2 a Serrano Pepper
1/2 Red Bell Pepper, chopped
1 Large Red Bell Pepper, halved
1 Large Green Bell Pepper, halved
2 tsp of Olive Oil
4 snack size sticks of low fat Colby Jack Cheese

• Preheat oven to 350 degree

• In a food processor, mix sausage, green onions and serrano pepper. Blend well until it looks like this...

• In a nonstick pan heat oil. Once heated add meat mixture and 1/2 red bell pepper that's been chopped. Heat and stir until mixture is browned with some crispy texture.

• I parboiled my peppers but you don't have to. Spoon mixture into bell peppers and top with cheese. 

• Place peppers on lightly greased baking pan or use aluminum foil. Bake peppers for 25-30 minutes depending on how crispy or tender you like your bell peppers. 

Enjoy! One of my favorite condiment with this recipe is Ketchup. Yep yep!

Vintage Rose Cake

This cake was created by my sister Sam as a preliminary birthday cake for this weekend. She is truly talented and extremely creative when it comes to food, music and crafts. Actually, she's good with anything if she puts her mind to it except for commission-based jobs. (Here! Here sister! I stink at those kind of jobs too.)

Below is a breakdown of the cake:

Fondant: She too experimented with the Marshmallow Fondant recipe and in order to get her retro blue color she mixed 3 drops of Blue and 2 drops of Green into 8 ounces of melted marshmallow.

Flowers: The flowers are also fondant based.

Cake: White cake mixed with some almond extract and rose flavor extract.

Funny Easter Eggs

I know it's Saturday and most people don't blog on a weekend, but what the heck, a full-time wife's job is never done! :)

Here are a couple of Easter eggs I thought I'd have fun with. Thanks to my husband for mentioning how one of them reminded him of Tobias Funke from the hit show Arrested Development.

Please continue to have a great weekend.

Easter Egg Ideas

"Easter Eggs 2007" Photo by IrisDragon via Flickr Creative Commons

DIY! DIY! DIY! Hope some of these vids will inspire you to create some fun with the kids or big kids (hint hint look in the mirror). You're never too old to dye eggs. Happy Wednesday!


(via HowCast YouTube Channel)


(via Household Hacker YouTube Channel)

I'm a fan of the Panoramic Easter Egg. Here's a clip I found on how to make your own homemade panoramic egg.


(via ShopCountryKitchen YouTube Channel)

I think I may be the last person on YouTube to discover Hey Kayli's Channel. But I give this channel mucho kudos for great production value. She's pleasant to watch and I love the quality produced. Go Kayli & crew!


(via HeyKayli YouTube Channel)

Easter Cake Idea: Tower of Bunnies

This was my first time working with homemade fondant. I was inspired by the season of Spring and Easter and by a picture/link I found on Pinterest on How to Make Marshmallow Fondant.

As much as I was inspired I was also psyching myself to do well by repeating in my head, "I will not be a Cake Wreck I will not be a Cake Wreck. Must. Forge. Ahead. Quit talking to yourself. Well I'm only crazy if I answer myself. Right? Right."

What I used:
1 16 oz bag of Small Marshmallows
1 16 oz bag of Confectioners Sugar/Icing Sugar
2 12 ct. packages of each color (Pink, Yellow & Blue) of Bunny Peeps
Canned icing to glue Bunnies to cake
1/2 cup of Butter
Non stick butter spray
Wilton Roll-N-Cut Fondant mat
Wooden rolling pin
Random kitchen utensils to smooth fondant

• I used the entire bag of marshmallows, almost the entire bag of confectioners sugar, plenty of butter, non stick butter spray and whole lot of determination. Followed the instructions on Clockwork Lemon's blog.

By the time I was done with rolling and kneading fondant, my apron and house shoes were covered in powdered sugar. Here is a pic of the aftermath. Oh yeah, I also don't have the basic bakers utensils so I used a flat spatula, wooden rolling pin covered in non stick butter spray and glass bowl to smooth my fondant. Haha. Rookie, I know.

Not too bad for a first-timer, huh? 

Place bunnies onto cake by glueing them with your canned icing. Press gently as you shape Peeps around cake. And Voila!!

Cake was homemade white cake mixed with Berry Blue Jell-O powder. 

Pinterest Finds: Easter Treats

My new addiction...Pinterest. I have a board that's named "Foooooood!" and on this board and in my search for Easter treats I wanted to share a couple fun ideas and photos.

Lamb Cupcakes from Land O Lakes: Tired of the usual Bunnies, Eggs and Chicks? Try Lamb.

Easter Deviled Eggs from Realmomkitchen.com: Wow! Why didn't I think of this? I will definitely use this recipe this Easter or anytime I want to make deviled eggs with a twist, hmmm, maybe this summer perhaps.

Bird's Nest Cookies from The Art of Dessert blog: Great visual impact with only three ingredients: butterscotch morsels, chow mein noodles and egg-shaped candies. Check out Rianne's blog for more recipes. She's does an amazing job!

Jelly Bean Easter Bark from Very Best Baking: Easter without jelly beans is like Christmas without peppermint. Am I right? Yes, I am...in my little world.

Carrot Patch Cookies from Disney's Family Fun: Now this is something I've never seen and it's absolutely adorable. Makes me think of the song "How Do You Do?" from Disney's Song of the South.

I know it's random that I thought of this song but I blame my sister Julie...she started it. :) Love you Juls.