A Yummy Treat for a Rainy Day Playdate!

This morning one of Leah's friends came over for a playdate.  What a fun activity for a rainy day!

Leah was SO excited to see this friend because he doesn't go to her school anymore.  The two of them quickly reconnected and were back to their old silly ways :)

After puzzles, play-doh, and two "little monkeys" jumping on Leah's bed :)  it was definitely time for a good snack!

The two friends got "bibbed-up" and sank their teeth into the banana chocolate chip bundt cake that Leah and I made yesterday.  She was very proud that she helped me bake this treat and couldn't wait for her friend to try it!

Here's how it turned out:

Leah and her play mate absolutely devoured their slices of bundt cake!  They seriously all but licked their plates!   And once they were finished, then it was "off to the races" again...these two were unstoppable! 

After re-fueling, the energetic two-some played tea party, dress-up, and had lots more fun.

Needless to say it was QUITE a busy morning....which segued into a busy afternoon as well with my active sweetie :).

So, after a fun, full day...it's time for one of my favorite times of the day: the moment when I get to sit back and relax for a minute or two and enjoy a cup of coffee and a few bites the treat that I've made...

...ok, so maybe it's more than just a few bites...but hey, this bundt cake turned out WAY too good to just have one piece!

I hope you all had a great rainy Sunday like I did and that you're all taking the time to eat a sweet or two as well!

Pops to Remember the Past and Celebrate Heritage

My latest baking endeavor was making rice krispie pops for the St. Gregory Armenian School.

My brother-in-law Shant (my sister's husband) is Armenian and my niece and nephew attend Armenian school on Saturdays to learn the culture and language.

My brother-in-law is the history teacher and gave all the students a talk and shared a presentation with them about the Armenian genocide.  This tragedy is remembered on April 24th, but was being discussed today.

My sister's family provided a lunch for all the children as part of this day of remembrance. They asked me to help out by providing rice krispie pops for dessert.  And naturally I was happy to do so.  I piped little Armenian flags on the pops and they really came out great!  

Here's a close up of the flag pops:

I had some pops displayed in flower pots:

And others out on the two-tiered pop display:

This is how the whole set up looked:

I was really pleased with how my sweets turned out and with how the display looked. 

The feedback from my oldest niece who helped out with the lunch was that everyone loved them and that all the kids went crazy for them when they walked in the room where the lunch was set up.  That was exactly the kind of reaction I was hoping for!  Mission definitely accomplished!

So, with another successful sweet under my belt, I am happily off to bed to rest up for my next endeavor.  What will it be?  You'll just have to wait for the next post to find out!

Until next time, make sure you all take the time to enjoy your sweets!

Hippity Hop Hop Happy Easter Day!

We had a very busy Easter weekend in our house, Steve's family came to stay and visit for the weekend and my parents came for Easter dinner as well.  Needless to say, there was a whole lotta bakin' goin' on in this house in the days leading up to this holiday!

When I was thinking about what sweet treats I wanted to make, I immediately wanted to try out a new cake pop.  I was going back and forth between chicks or bunnies...and decided on making the bunnies.

Here is a close up of one of my bunny cake pops...not too shabby for my first try at these babies!

At the suggestion of my dear hubby, I also decided to make some easter egg pops.  Here is a close up of one of them. I was super happy with how these pops turned out!

Here are all my Easter cake pops out on display.  The general consensus from everyone was that they were delicious...and they really were!  I LOVE cake, and cake pops are always the perfect little sweet bite   :)

Leah was SO excited to sink her teeth into one of the easter egg pops..."Mommy, I want an egg...Mommy I WANT AN EGG!"  Just look at that grin of anticipation!

Her feedback about the pops?   "Mommy, I love this!"  And naturally she devoured the whole thing! This chick eats with reckless abandon and I love it so much!  She truly takes after her mama in that regard  :)

I also made peanut butter pecan pie bars.  Pecan pie is my dad's favorite kind of pie, and my brother in law loves it as well...so making these was a no brainer.  At any holiday I feel like when you're experimenting with other new recipes, you always need a tried and true crowd pleaser too!   And, as usual, they came out wonderfully!  To quote my sweet dad, "These are seriously restaurant quality!"  (Cue chest swelling up with pride!)

Of course I made something for the paleo king as well.  I looked up some new recipes and found one that looked yummy...apricot-chocolate-pecan bars.

(Oh yeah, I'm all about the pecans lately!)  As I began prepping the ingredients for this treat I thought to myself, these will never be sweet enough for my standards!  And NO, I did not add sugar to help them out.  The paleo police would have come and hauled me away!  Some natural maple syrup and honey did the trick quite nicely.  They were so moist and really yummy.  Even some non-paleo family members enjoyed them.  I was so happy I was able to make something delicious for Steve!  I think I might finally be getting the hang of this paleo baking!

Finally, this is how all my sweets looked displayed out on the dessert table:

Well friends, after a weekend chock full of family, food, and an extremely excited/energetic toddler...this girl is seriously beat.  Time to put my feet up and enjoy a nice glass of wine and what else....another bunny pop!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend and that you enjoyed this latest post!

Stay tuned for my next post later on in the week and eat those sweets people!

Some Sweets for a Good Cause

Last week the Putnam Northern Westchester Women's Resource Center and The Elizabeth G. Butler Angel Foundation held a wonderful event at the Mahopac Library.  It was a ceremony celebrating local middle school students who had designed posters depicting anti-bullying messages.  As soon as I was approached about donating sweets for this event, I immediately agreed.  Bullying is such a relevant topic in today's world and has escalated to such scary magnitudes for today's youth...so much more so than when I was in school.  I thought this was just such a great cause to donate some sweets to. 

I made rice krispie pops for the event because they are always a fan favorite.  This time I decided to try a few new things to spice up my pops:


                                             Cute little flower sprinkles.  How very spring-y!

                                        A lovely lavender shade for my swirls and drizzles:

                                        Hand piped violets (I was very proud of these!):

                                             Here is the whole fleet of sweets:

                   And here they are on my new pop display my crafty hubby made for me :)

I was very happy with how my pops turned out and was even more happy when I heard what a success they were...there's even a picture of them on the resource center's website! 

I heard that event itself was also a big success, which is wonderful as well.  The messages that the posters communicated were very moving and I was honored to be a small part of this important cause.

So my friends,  as always - thank you, thank you for taking the time to read my blog...

and don't forget to eat your sweets!

Back to School...Boo Hoo!

Today is one of the last days of my March break...sniff, sniff...tear :(

Where has the time gone?!?

After thoroughly enjoying my cup of coffee on the couch this morning I decided to head to the kitchen to bake...what else would I do with my last scraps of free time?  Should I Relax!?! Don't be silly!

Now, the question of what to make? Hmmm...

I started thinking about going back to work next week:  getting up at 5:00am, hectic mornings getting an active 2 year old ready and out the door, breakfast in the car...should I go on?
Now I know what you're thinking...it all sounds VERY glamorous!  Well, don't be fooled...it's a crazy juggling act during the work week in this house.

So I wanted to make something that would help those first few back-to-work mornings potentially go a bit more smoothly.  Take some of the guess work out.  So why not bake some yummy muffins to enjoy during the morning commute?

I looked through my library of cookbooks to see what sounded good.  After flipping through several books I decided on an old favorite from Baking: From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan.  This particular cookbook has so many delicious delights - everything from muffins to cookies to decadent cakes. 

I chose to make Great Grains Muffins.  I have made this recipe many times and have never been disappointed by it. 

But as I looked at the recipe I decided I didn't want to make the same old recipe yet another time.  I wanted to switch things up a little bit and put my own spin on these muffins.  Don't worry, I'm not going all paleo on you again...but after tasting how good those paleo pumpkin muffins turned out I wanted to make my muffins sweet, delicious, and a little healthy too! 

So I added a little bit of coconut flour and raisins here, some flax seed meal and oatmeal there...and of course I HAD to add some chocolate chips for that extra sweet factor.  After all my changes to the recipe, I was so happy that I'd really made this recipe mine. 

Here's how the final product came out:

I'll be honest, sometimes when you try something new with a recipe, or create your own, it can really be a crap-shoot how it will turn out.  But, let me tell you, they really turned out well.  They are light and fluffy, and the raisin/chocolate pairing was soooo yummy.  And while I was enjoying my muffin, I felt good that they did have that healthy twist - hooray for flax seed!

Well,  I hope you all liked my latest baking endeavor and stay tuned for the next one! 

Have a fabulous afternoon and take time to enjoy something sweet today :).

Recipe Remixes!

Reeeeee-miiiiiix!

Soooo...because I can't stand not having something turn out exactly the way I want it to when it comes to baking, I decided to give two recipes from last week another shot:  my scones, and the paleo pumpkin muffins. 

"But the scones came out delicious", you say, "Why try them again?!"  Well, not only did I want to make something scrumptious for my dear friend Carla who is also a new mommy (I know - so many new babies!), as I said last week, I felt these scones needed more dried cranberries.  So, I wanted to give them another shot.

As I began prepping all the ingredients for this yummy recipe, I thought about what (besides more cranberries) would make them taste more fabulous than before.  And after some careful consideration, I decided that they needed a little more orange zest too...and some more sugar, and why not add some vanilla for a bit more flavor.  I also cut back the bake time by a few minutes.

The final result was even more delicious than the last!  They were moister (from the less bake time) and even more flavorful than the last batch...hooray! 

Re-mix #1 was a success...but what would happen with the next recipe?  Gulp!

OK, on to the paleo muffins...oh boy.

The muffins I made last week were very moist and "pretty good" to quote my dear hubby (love you Steve!).  But "pretty good" is NOT good enough for me!

I had a little free time yesterday, so I took another look at the recipe and thought about what I could do differently to give these babies a little more flavor. 

The spices I'd previously used had added some good flavor, but what else could be done? Since sugar is not an option, I decided that some honey and maple syrup would help out for sure...don't worry, the syrup was organic and all natural - totally acceptable by the paleo-police.  (I also decided to add a bit more cinnamon and cloves.)

As I stirred and sniffed the sweet smelling batter, I still thought that there was more I could add.  And then it hit me...Of course!  What this recipe needs is.....CHOCOLATE!   

GASP! Chocolate?!?! How can that be paleo-approved?  Relax people, it was 86% cocoa and organic, so that's as good as it gets as far as keeping paleo is concerned.

So, I chopped up some chocolate, mixed it in, and I immediately felt that this time, these muffins would be better.

20 minutes later, my hunches were confirmed - the new additions made this recipe taste great!

Here they are:

Now, don't be fooled by their appearance...paleo muffins don't come out looking as fluffy as muffins using regular flour...but they were extremely moist and very flavorful.

So, I was quite pleased with round 2 of both recipes that I tried again.

Ok, time for breakfast.  What will I have you ask?  Well, I think I'll have a scone AND a muffin, thank you very much!

I hope you all enjoyed the reeeeee-miiiiiix and that you're having a sweet morning!

Hooray for St. Patrick's Day!

Every year we go to my mom and dad's for St. Patrick's Day dinner.  While I am mostly Italian (well, Italian-American) , I am just as proud of my Irish heritage.  So I love celebrating this holiday with my family.

So, I gussied up my wee Irish lassie

and we were ready to go! (She loved her sparkly green dress! It was very "Riverdance"!)


Back to the food:

I think it's a common misconception that Irish food is boring, bland, or just revolving around potatoes.  I think over the years it has evolved and it's really so delicious!  I LOVE eating corned beef, shepherd's pie, scones, and...well...all the traditional dishes on this day!  I especially loved the selection of Irish cheeses my mom put out.  They were so creamy and good!  Cheese is my second love, right after all things sweet!

I volunteered to make the shepherd's pie, which came out AMAZING I must say.  But I also made something sweet to go along with the meal.

After considering my options...I decided to make rice krispie pops.  Everyone likes rice krispie treats and I knew that my nieces and nephew (as well as my little sweetie) would just love them!

I have been wanting to try out some new decorating tools I'd just gotten and thought this was a good opportunity to do so.  And while I was at it, I decided to get crafty and experiment with a few different designs:

What's the L for?  Take your pick: Leprechaun, Leah, Lucky, Liz...the list could go on and on!

I just thought the dots were a really cool look!  (They almost looked like white strawberries.)

Shamrocks were a natural choice, of course!  A national symbol of Ireland people!

And here's a close up of a shamrock:

 Swirls are harder than they look everyone!  But they looked pretty cool too :)

And lastly, a more traditional drizzling technique:

Here are some group shots of my little rice krispie pop army:

And here's how I displayed them on the dessert table- in some mugs:

The consensus from the whole family was that they were delicious!  I have to admit I had like 3 of them!  They were like potato chips, I couldn't just have one! And my toughest little critic loved them as well:

She was very taken in by the dots and gobbled her pop all up :).

Well my friends, after all the baking I did last week I am off to put my feet up and relax a little bit!

I hope you all liked my latest sweet creation and that you all had a fabulous St. Patrick's Day as well!

Til next time, don't forget to eat your sweets!