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Thursday, July 21, 2011

Brownie Cheesecake Swirl and Slumber Party Fun


My step-daughter was having her first ever sleepover with my friend's cute little princess...

A sweet friend Peggie gave me an idea that she knew I would dive into and tweak to my taste {and boy did I}. So hours before Sam came over I whipped up a brownie cheesecake! What is a BROWNIE CHEESECAKE? Only the sweetest slice of heaven you could have on your taste buds {of course}



How does one make a brownie cheesecake? Well, I'll tell you!


What You Need:
Brownie Recipe {or box mix}
Cheesecake Recipe
Springform Pan
Food Gels / Color


First Things First... The Brownie Recipe

One Bowl Brownies
Ingredients:
4 squares Unsweetened Baking Chocolate
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) Butter

2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup AP flour

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350F
Grease pan
Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl for 2 minutes or until butter is melted.

 Stir chocolate until it is melted.
Stir sugar into the chocolate mix, until well blended. 
Mix in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour until well blended.

Pour into pan and bake 30- 35 minutes. 

(If you want a thinner layer of brownie, you may want to pour only half into the spring form pan and decrease the time until it is chewy- do not over cook!)

You can pour left overs into a prepared pan and make a side of brownies. Or if you want a thinner cheesecake brownie, divide into two spring form pans... I just made one massive one. ;)


lil man "walked" his fingers across the cooling brownies, lol
While the brownies are baking, make your cheesecake. Click the link below to see this entire recipe (including my cheesecake filling)!


Now the fun part. Divide your mix into separate bowls- one for ever color you are using. I did one for pink, purple, and white {no coloring needed for the white}.  I then spooned on the colors to the top of the cooked and cooled brownies.  Then I baked as directed. Your cheesecake should have a little jiggle to the middle, but not be runny. Let it cool for about 4 hours, this helps it to finish setting.  Then run a smooth blade along the inside rim of the spring form pan and unlatch.  

You are ready to now serve and enjoy! Be as creative with your colors as you want. Since this was a girl's sleep over I chose their favorite colors. But this crafty mama did hers for the 4th of July



Back to the sleepover... The girls played games, the power flickered out a few times due to a massive storm, and then we decided to make crafts... GIRLIE CRAFTS!

Inspired by a  picture off of Very Jane, we decided to make ROSETTE cuffs and matching headbands!



All we needed was a little hot glue, fabric of our choice, stretchy lace, scissors, and buttons for the centers...

Cut into 2-3" thick strips, the length will vary depending on the size of rosette you want. Then twist and glue. 

Cut the lace 1" longer than wrist and glue to the back of the rosette. 


Glue the center button on.


Same rosette process for the headbands... but one headband wasn't the right color so we wrapped and hot glued a fabric strip around it, attached the FLOWER, then attached the button. 

The girls loved making them and wearing them. Now I need to make me a few for me! :D








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Sunday, July 17, 2011

BananaRama




Yeah so, today I was on a BANANA kick...

I made banana nut muffins


Just doctored up a Martha White mix bag with fresh 'nanners and coloring {b/c my lil man will not eat a tan muffin- haha}.

Then I made some Platanos Maduros... Cuban style fried sweet plantains. 



You have to let your plantains ripen to a nice black- the darker the more sweet... if not they will be starchy and unsweet like a potato. Slice at an angle, about 1/4 - 1/2 inch each. Heat up canola oil and fry until carmalized- turning over. Set them on a paper towel to absorb the oil. Eat as is- no need for sugar they are sweet enough!

And then I also made banana pudding! :D



Just the basic recipe, you can find on any box- only I used 1 3/4 cup of milk per box - used 2 boxes banana pudding, and then I mixed 8 oz cool whip with it... Layered, topped with crumbs my lil man smashed for me {*STEPHEN SMASH!* said in the Hulk's voice}.

So yeah, I'd say we are on a banana kick today!

Hope you enjoyed your Sunday!




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Friday, July 8, 2011

Earrings & Randomness

Just wanted to say HELLO out there... We've been enjoying our summer, hope you have too! 

Right now, I am just sitting here, on campus, at my desk, looking out the window as the rain pours down and cools off our SUMMER heated hills. 


I have no craft to share today... it has been busy and I have missed my me time- BUT kids time is SO much more fun! This past Saturday I had a couple of friends over {one with her daughter and baby niece} for TEA with my step-daughter. We were celebrating my Eli's birthday, and it also happened to be my friend's daughter's birthday... so we had a girlie day while our men and boys joined forces. I did try my hands at making SCONES and they came out pretty good for a first timer... I will have to post the recipe I used later. 


After tea, we went out to see Monte Carlo and let me just say that it is not every day that I see a good, non-corny {yet appropriate/ family OK'd} movie that is not a cartoon. We loved the movie, though the men folk were spared and themselves enjoyed Cars 2. ;) For the 4th we had a great time at the zoo and then watching the new Transformers movie. The kids loved it, even if we ended up watching the fireworks from the car on our 2 1/2 hour ride home. 

Other than that its been cookouts with friends, water play with the kids, and fire fly catching! 

I do want to share the SUPER CUTE earrings I purchased today from Very Jane


Aren't they cute?! Right now they are on SALE for $4, so I could not pass that up! I bought two; the ruby red and the white pairs and cannot wait for them to find their way to ME!


Well. that is me, my life right now...



But wait... I did want to show my hooker toes off! Well, not really, but what is summer without a pedi! 

Oh, and if you haven't already, please find and "like" me on Facebook

Hope you all have a great Friday... and weekend. :)



My friend, my CP Destiny, sent me this today...
I thought I'd share this as I end this blog post.
God Bless!