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Orange Blossoms (a favorite recipe)

By KariV on April 25, 2013 in Dessert, Favorite Things, Recipes

We have four beautiful orange trees and today they were calling to me. One of my favorite things is to enjoy the fruit from our CITRUS trees here in Arizona. We have a new lemon and lime tree, too, and I’m hoping soon they will produce! But now, it’s time to harvest the rest of these sweet oranges and MAKE something. I went to pick some low hanging fruit and came in with a basket just full of oranges ready to juice, zest, and slice.

Aren’t they beautiful!? Of course, we love our fresh-squeezed orange juice, but today I’m thinking my very favorite orange cookies: Orange Blossoms. My sister, who lives in Utah, made these the other day and sent me a picture…she said “These cookies always remind me of you!” So thank you, dear sister, for the inspiration!

I will warn you now: this post has a lot of pictures! I couldn’t help it…these darlings made such a photogenic subject and I got a little carried away. I even got my husband in on the picture taking (you will see his picture at the end of the post).

I love the simple ingredients: oranges, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, brown sugar, eggs, butter, and buttermilk. We just happened to have some buttermilk on hand that I needed to use up, but if you don’t have buttermilk you can add a little lemon juice to regular milk (see how to do this here).

{Have you used one of these microplane zesters? It’s one of my favorite tools in the kitchen, especially when I’m working with citrus!}

Mix up the ingredients and drop by tablespoons onto a cookie sheet. Today, I made them regular sized, but if I’m having a ladies’ lunch or tea party, I will make them half this size. And they turn out so cute!

Bake them up and while they are baking, make the orange glaze. It’s a simple mixture of butter, powdered sugar, orange zest, and orange juice. You will want to frost these cookies while they are still warm because the frosting melts and enrobes the cookies a little bit.

I love these little cookies. They are more cake-like and when you bite into them it is just. like. heaven.

Can you see the bits of orange zest in the frosting? There is zest in both the cookie dough AND the frosting, which adds up to a great citrus-y kick of flavor!

Doesn’t this make a pretty picture? It screams luncheon (or tea party) to me! Or the next best thing: which is to wrap them up pretty and take them to some of my favorite people.

OK. That orange slice (out of felt!) and printable is so cute for this little gift! Click here to get instructions on how to make it AND get the free printable!

This is the fantastic photo my husband captured with all the prettiness and citrus colors! I love it.

So, will you go try this recipe and just see if you love these delicious Orange Blossoms as much? And then let me know what you think! Enjoy!

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Easter Surprise Rolls

By KariV on March 28, 2013 in Dessert, Easter, Holidays, Recipes

These Easter Surprise Rolls are simple to make and delicious! I made these growing up and I think since they are SO easy to make, we actually made them more often than just Easter time! They take only minutes to put together, and are so fun to make with kids (I know, I made them when I was a kid!)

First gather the simple ingredients: Crescent Rolls, Marshmallows, Cinnamon Sugar, Melted butter.The next steps are super easy, and I will show you how to assemble them in pictures:

Seal those crescent rolls well…you don’t want the marshmallow to escape! Dip just the bottom of the roll in butter and place it in a muffin tin. Now just bake them at 375 for 10-12 minutes! But be sure to put a cookie sheet underneath your muffin tin. The marshmallows tend to seep out a bit and they like to drip. {You will thank me later!} While the rolls are baking, prepare the glaze.

Just 3 simple ingredients: powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. I used my Watkins vanilla for this one. (Read the vanilla taste test here). After I made the glaze, I realized that I could have used my CLEAR vanilla and it would have kept the glaze a nice white color.

Allow the rolls to cool a bit, then drizzle on the glaze.

The surprise comes when you bite into one of the warm rolls and find they are EMPTY! What happened to the marshmallow?!

Easter Surprise Rolls

1/4 c. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
2 pkg. crescent rolls (refrigerated)
16 large marshmallows
1/4 c. melted butter

Dip large marshmallow into melted butter and roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture. Place in wide end of crescent roll, fold corners over and roll to point. Seal edges well. Dip point side into butter and place down in greased muffin tin. Place pan on cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Remove rolls from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. Glaze while warm.

Variation: Place spoonful of canned apple pie filling in crescent roll and then put a large marshmallow on top of the pie filling. Fold, roll and bake.

Glaze:

1/2 c. powdered sugar
1-2 T. milk
1/2 t. vanilla

Whisk ingredients together. Spoon over warm rolls.

Aren’t they beautiful? Enjoy!

Linking up here:

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Dose of Sunshine (and Rainbows) Monday — Rainbow Dinner Party

By KariV on March 18, 2013 in Dessert, Holidays, St. Patrick's Day

I hope you all had a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day. We had a birthday dinner celebration for my Mom’s birthday! And it turned out bright and cheerful. So for this Dose of Sunshine, I decided to share the Rainbow Dinner Party we had. I hope it brightens your day!

rainbow-skittles

I was challenged to decorate for this dinner party with only dishes I already had! (Shop for dishes much? I guess my husband thinks I have too many! What? Is that even possible?) So I started out with some rainbow skittles in mini glasses and added a bit o’luck tags…can you see the gold (rolo) at the end of the rainbow? I used the “Little Bit o’ Luck” printables from here.

The gold chargers I already had, as well as the white plates (they are the buffet plates from Crate and Barrel). Other items I already had: the silverware, goblets, vases. I did supplement with some shamrock papers for the runner (from JoAnn’s), and flowers (daffodils and carnations from Safeway). I colored the water in each flower vase in a different color of the rainbow.

I love the way the individual fruit salads turned out! Strawberries, Clementines, Pineapple, Green Grapes, and Blueberries make for a happy rainbow fruit salad. (And delicious! I made a vanilla pudding sauce to go with the fruit salad, but I found that the fruit was so sweet on it’s own that we didn’t even use the pudding sauce).

For dessert, I made Texas Sheet Cake Cupcakes (a favorite around here)! And I found these sour rainbow candies at WalMart, so we of course had to make a rainbow on our cupcakes. I used a little stabilized whipped cream (from Trader Joe’s) as the clouds, cut the rainbow sheets in half and put them into the cream. My nephews loved this part! I even let them make their own rainbows on the cupcakes.

We had some cupcakes to deliver to a friend who also has the same birthday, and so we wrapped them up in this cute cupcake box, tied with a green bow, and added a “Little Bit o’ Luck” tag to the top. I decorated only 2 of her cupcakes with the rainbows…since they are a little sour. Those chocolate cupcakes are so delicious on their own, but those rainbows are just adorable. So which one wins…adorable or delicious? I will let her decide! {Note: my nephews LOVED the sour rainbows…it might be a kid taste?}

We decorated with LOTS of flowers…a dinner party is made even more amazing with flowers! The ones on the left were a gift to my mom from a good friend (thanks, Erin, she loves them!) And I printed out the Luck printable in the frame from here.

It was a colorful and fun dinner. And I used *mostly* everything I already had on hand. I love that!

Have a happy Monday!

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Maple Pecan Waffles with Cinnamon Whipped Cream

By KariV on February 28, 2013 in Dessert, Dinner in Minutes, Favorite Things, Recipes

It’s my husband’s birthday…almost! He’s a leap year baby, and so he really doesn’t have an OFFICIAL birthday this year, but don’t worry: he figures he can celebrate for TWO days this year.

I had a different post all planned, but it just didn’t seem right on this celebratory day. So this post is dedicated to my sweetie, who helped me test out this recipe on Sunday: Maple Pecan Waffles with Cinnamon Whipped Cream! (Yum!)

My husband is the waffle-maker in our house. He loves waffles, and he has a nice collection of waffle irons. He has round, square, belgian, and farm animal waffle irons! I’m surprised we don’t yet have a Mickey Mouse waffle iron, but I’m sure we will eventually. And I’m not complaining….NO! I LOVE that he has taken over as waffle chef in our house. His absolute favorite waffle iron is one that I got him a couple years ago on super-sale and he reaches for this one the very most: Check it out here

It will make TWO belgian waffles at once and that is great when you have a lot of mouths waiting for their waffles! We love to host a waffle party…and we even sometimes eat waffles for dinner….or lunch. When isn’t it a good time for waffles?

So let’s get to the “recipe.” It’s so simple (I love a simple recipe!) This comes together in minutes!

First, chop up some pecans.

Then, whip up your heavy cream (PLEASE use the real stuff! My kids are fine with the frozen whipped topping, but that just won’t do for this recipe…You need the real stuff here…believe me, you’ll thank me later)

When the cream is nearly fully whipped, instead of adding sugar to the cream, add CINNAMON/SUGAR. It is so delightful!

Now for the waffle part. Don’t laugh: my husband has found a shortcut to his waffle making secret. He uses Krusteaz waffle & pancake mix to start with! Fifteen years of trial and error and testing every waffle mix out there, and he has found this to be the best. We buy it in the giant bags at Costco! Make it using the instructions on the back. Then, add a bit of cinnamon and a bit of Mapleine.

Put your waffle mixture on your pre-heated waffle iron and sprinkle on some of the chopped pecans. Now let the waffle iron do the rest of the work. {Note: we tried this recipe two ways: one with the pecans sprinkled in the waffle batter, one with pecans sprinkled only on top. The winner: Pecans IN the batter!}

Add your Cinnamon Whipped Cream, a few more chopped pecans, maybe a strawberry or two! These waffles are amazing. When you try this recipe, let me know what you think!

Before I go, I wanted to share that this “recipe” has me giggling a bit. It reminds me of a cartoon I once saw YEARS ago (If I can find it, I will post it here). It started out with the “Dad” of the cartoon getting ready to make breakfast. The kids say “Mom says that everything tastes better when it’s made from scratch.” The Dad replies “Then that’s what we’ll do!” The next slide shows the Dad pulling a box out of the pantry, and the kids say: “What’s in the box?” He replies: “Scratch.”

Gosh, I love my husband!

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Chocolate Covered Strawberries in Minutes

By KariV on January 24, 2013 in Dessert, Holidays, Valentines

I love strawberries. And strawberries dipped in chocolate are even better! But I found that homemade chocolate covered strawberries are SO much better than any you buy in the store. And really, who wants to pay $8.00 for 4 little chocolate strawberries, anyway? (really, I checked the price yesterday while at the grocery store!)

So here’s an easy way to whip up a batch of delicious chocolate strawberries for your Valentine’s Day sweetie (or for yourself)!

First, you need strawberries. A couple large milk chocolate Symphony bars. And white chocolate chips. That’s all!

Wash your strawberries well. Put them on paper towels to dry. I usually let them air dry for a few hours while I’m working on something else. But if you get impatient like me, just take a paper towel and dry off those beauties…then set them on a dry paper towel to finish drying. Give them a few minutes. This part is important because water and chocolate DON’T mix. Believe me, it won’t be pretty.

Break up the symphony bars into a microwave-safe bowl. Put them in the microwave for just a couple minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. When the chocolate is completely melted, it is ready!

Now, just dip the dry strawberries in the chocolate, trying to get even coverage on all sides. Allow the excess chocolate to drip off, and then drag the bottom of the strawberry across the side of your bowl to remove any extra. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Repeat this process until you’ve covered all your strawberries.

I was able to cover about 60 strawberries with only 2 symphony bars.

Now, put a handful of white chocolate chips in a small ziploc bag and melt them in the microwave. Just put them in for about 30 seconds, then turn the bag over and put them in for another 30 seconds if needed. Smoosh the chocolate around in the bag to make sure it is fully melted. Then, snip of a tiny piece of the corner and drizzle the white chocolate over the strawberries.

It works best if you start to drizzle before you get to the strawberry, and allow the drizzle to keep going off the side of the strawberry. Make a few drizzles on each of the strawberries. Voila!

Now you have great looking strawberries in just a few minutes! Place the strawberries in the refrigerator to harden the chocolate before serving. Enjoy!