Happy Father's Day

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to the amazing Father's I have in my family. My Dad and my husband! And Happy Father's to all those out there!

Being a Father is an incredible job and not always easy. Like Bill Cosby said, "Even though your kids will consistently do the exact opposite of what you're telling them to do, you have to keep loving them just as much."

Father's brought many images to my mind.....here are some that I decided to make to honor my Father's in our family. 

I found the rainbow on Pinterest and had to make one. I love Pinterest, but the only thing is that sometimes when you try to find the source of a picture or what you are pinning, a valid one does not exist. Such is the case with this. Unfortunately I can't tell you where I got this idea from!

I found the sun on Glorious Treats website here. They made me smile when I made them --- and they also made me think of DAD. 

Dad's bring lots of sunshine and rainbows to the world of a child. That is what my Dad and my husband have done and are doing each day. 

Some golf cookies in honor of my husband.....this being his latest hobby. I loved the idea of making a little golf scene using a circle cookie cutter. I found that inspiration on Sugary Sweet Things Blog here.

Doesn't every Dad or Father like Beer? At least in my house they do.....I'm all about raising our glasses in honor of Pat and my Dad on Sunday! Cheers!

T-shirts are hard for me to do...they are still a work in progress....but it still sort of looks like something a Dad might wear!

We all know that the TIE is a symbol of Father's day...but do you know the background? 

As early as 1920, the custom of giving ties to fathers was symbolic of love and a joke. A man was often teased for his ugly tie that his wife gave him, as it was common for her to have no sense of taste. And poor Dad was left wearing an ugly tie in order not to hurt his wife's feelings. It still remains today that the tie if the traditional and classic Father's Day gift. 

Read more about Father's Day history on Browinelocks.com here.http://www.brownielocks.com/fathersday.html

Happy Father's Day to 2 very important Father's in my life. My Dad and my husband. You are the best Dad''s I could ask for. 

"Any man can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad." - Author Unknown. 

Happy Baking, 

Jen

Welcome to the world Baby Boy!

There is nothing more special in this world than the birth of a child! A beautiful friend that I met clear back in grade school had her first child recently. I simply had to make something to celebrate this wonderful occasion. I really enjoyed making these to welcome baby Samuel into the world. Just a small token I could send the family to let them know how happy I am for them! 

Welcome Baby Samuel! You have been born into the most wonderful and loving family and have parents that are going to take such good care of you!

I looked through many websites to gather ideas for some fun baby cookies and came up with quite a few I think! The baby ducks I found on A Dozen Eggs bake Shoppe website here. I think the polka dots are just adorable for a little baby.

 I didn't have an elephant cookie cutter (guess I need one, right?) but really wanted to try to make one so I did this freehand after looking at a few different designs. With freehand you get a something just a bit different each time. Not bad for my first attempt!

I found these sweet baby faces made from a flower on Facebook - on Icings by Ang's page. I think they look so peaceful!

My baby bottle idea came from browsing through many pictures on Yahoo. I can't really give credit to any one person - I sort of combined what I saw. A simple design that I think is pretty neat.

Thanks to Ali Bee's Bake Shop for giving me the idea for this sweet baby face. She has so many cute ideas. I combined a few and made a few changes to what she did but want to give her credit.

My cookies are going in the mail and I hope they arrive safely and in one piece! 

Congrats to my friend and her family. 

"A baby will make love stronger, days shorts, nights longer, bankrolls smaller, homes happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for."

Happy Baking, 

Jen

Yummy Treats

 I haven't posted anything in a few weeks! I've actually taken a bit of a break and have been able to get some deep cleaning done around the house. I've also been busy with sports games and practices for Trevor. 

But here are a few yummy treats I have to share with you!

These CARMELITAS are super good! 

Gooey, yet wonderful. I found them on this blog. Click Here for the recipe. I did my own variation on this which includes caramel squares, oats and chocolate chips. I used low fat caramel sauce and white chocolate chips instead. Super good substitutions in my opinion!

These White Chocolate Blondie Brownies I found on a website I use all the time - All Recipes. Click Here. I'm a "blondie" fan and am always trying to find something that I really, really like. This is pretty tasty. My own variation was to use butterscotch chips on top instead of white chocolate chips since that was already inside. I left this a bit underdone to get more of a dense taste instead of cake like - just my preference! This was pretty tasty too.

Happy Baking!

Jen

Spidey!

 What says Happy Birthday to a little boy more than SPIDERMAN?

I'm not sure of much else! Hope the little boy that these cookies were

 made for has a wonderful Birthday!

Happy Baking, 

Jen

Happy Mother's Day

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

I hope you have a great day celebrating your Mom or any mom! Moms are such a wonderful thing and make so many sacrifices in their lives. I never knew the full meaning of that until I had my own child. I would do almost anything to make Trevor's world a better place. And I know for a fact that my Mom did that my whole life...and continues to do that for me and now for my son. I can't say thank you enough to her for everything! Being a Mother has been the best job I could ask for.

 "Being a full-time Mother is one of the highest salaried jobs...since the payment is pure love."

I got pretty ambitious this week with my Mother's Day cookies. Saw several blogs lately that had some fun things to make - but they were all very detailed!

Lady Bugs always remind me of summer....so I thought I could "spring" them up and use some bright colors! They are happy little bugs to me!

One of my favorite places to get ideas is from Cookie Crazie. She posted these basket cookies here this past week. She does a step by step process on her blog which is so helpful. I thought they turned out pretty neat. Lots of little details with the flowers but they look like Mom to me!

I've always struggled on my butterflies and haven't been real happy with my designs yet. With all the other detailed cookies I was doing this week I opted for a simple butterfly and thought this one that The Painted Cookie had was nice.

I got the idea for these potted violet cookies from Sugarbelle here. I thought it was a neat idea to use the cupcake cookie cutter to make a flower pot! The only thing I didn't venture to try from this tutorial were some flower transfers. I just ran out of steam this week as I had taken on so many different designs and had a lot going on. I will definitely have to try them soon as the flowers Sugarbelle makes are so pretty.

I give Glorious Treats the credit for the Morning Glory Cookie design from their website. It was harder than I thought to make the vines look as neat and realistic as they did. I definitely need more practice on that. Cake Central was my inspiration for the flower scene. Such a simple, yet pretty cookie.

 Another beautiful idea from Sugarbelle. Gorgeous Marigolds with a great tutorial here. The marigold petals were made in stages to get the layering affect. You place one layer, let it dry, then go to the next. I think they turned out pretty good and really enjoyed making these.

I used petal dust in the center of the cookie which is a very fun detail to add.

 

What says Happy Mother's Day like a whole assortment of flowers! 

And one more dessert I made for Mother's Day. Bailey's Irish Cream Cupcakes! I found them on All Recipes.Com posted here. And I always have Bailey's on hand so thought they would be something different to try! Following the recipe exactly and they turned out delicious! I put a simple buttercream frosting on top. Definitely a cupcake to make again.

Cookies, cupcakes and ice cream. What could be better, right?

 

 Our main course for Mother's Day dinner was Cranberry Chicken. YUMMY. And so simple to make. Here's the recipe on this link. Only 3 ingredients - french dressing, a can of whole cranberries and a package mix of onion soup. You place chicken in a baking dish and toss those 3 things on top (mix them up a bit). Then bake in the oven. The link I found puts them all in the crock pot which would be easy as well. But I baked it for about 35 minutes (or until the chicken was done). A fabulous flavor and you have a wonderful sauce for the chicken as well. This was great to have for company since there was so little prep work!

 I had a wonderful Mother's day celebration with my Mom (on the right in blue), my husbands Mom, Kathy (in the middle in gray) and my son. The best thing is just spending time with family!

 Happy Baking to all. 

And hope you have a great Mother's day~

Jen

Over the weekend I made some yummy things for a Cinco De Mayo party

 I thought I would share with you! 

Lime Squares made with a Pistaschio Graham Cracker Crust - does that sound like

heaven to anyone else??? 

It did to me when I saw this recipe.

And Martha made them on this website.

They were very tasty and easy to make and had a very strong lemon flavor!

 These Chipolte Chicken Cups were a hit. You can find them here. Super easy to make. The cups are made from wonton wrappers that you bake first. Then add chicken, cheese, bell peppers, salsa and chipolte powder. By the end of the night these were all gone. A very yummy appetizer or finger food!

 

Back to planning my Mother's Day dinner!

Happy Baking,

Jen

Cinco De Mayo

Happy Cinco De Mayo! I'm all ready for my Girls Night Out at my house. Should be a great time! And would a party at my house be complete without some cookies? Heavens no! Especially on Cinco Dy Mayo!

 I had some fun with these cookies and had some new cookie cutters to use. 

Brightly colored Chile peppers and cactus!

Yummy lemons, limes and Margarita's!
And we are all ready for the real thing here too!

Delicious Pineapple!

And my trade mark sun I've many several times.

Lily's Cookies inspired my sombrero's this year found here. 
I thought they were so fun and colorful.

 

 While I was at it, I thought I would try some Strawberry Daiquiri Cupcakes. Sounded perfect for my Cinco De Mayo party! I found the recipe here. Made with lime, rum and strawberry cake. Yummy. I added the strawberries and umbrellas to be more festive!

 

 I almost forgot my cute sunglasses for the cupcakes! How could I forget the most important thing? I tried to use the frosting that was on the same website as the cupcakes but that bombed. So my frosting came from Cupcakes by Wendy on this site.