Best Soup ever!!!

I am madly in love with this soup!!! I have made it twice in the past week and would willingly have it again for dinner tonight, okay lunch, why not.
I found this recipe in my Blendtec recipe book, and while I was not intrigued by the name, thankfully I tried it anyway.

Beans and Greens Soup
1 medium onion
1 clove garlic
2 cups broth (or more)
4 cups kale, ribs removed and roughly chopped
2 (15 oz.) cans white beans, drained, rinsed and divided
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp. ground cumin

Heat some oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic, cook 5 minutes or until tender. Add 1 cup broth and kale and cover. Cook until kale is wilted, about 5 minutes. While kale is cooking, add half the beans, remaining broth, and spices to a blender and puree. Pour bean mixture into the pan with the kale, add remaining beans. Simmer for 5 minutes and serve.

You will notice in the picture there are little orange jewels floating around. We had some roasted sweet potatoes that we added in, the first time. The second time we made it we added in some roasted rosemary cauliflower. While certainly not necessary it was fabulous!!!

Lego Party- Cake and Decorations

 Cake and Decorations are my least favorite aspect of party planning. I love baking. I love decorating. For some reason they always stress me out the most. I think it is because I have unrealistic expectations that I am unable to make happen.
I found a couple of super cute ideas for Lego themed cakes here and here but knew there was no way I could pull them off. So, it doesn't matter what I had planned, this is what happened. I was trying to get my cake out of the pan to cool. It slipped out and landed on the counter in pieces. I got it put back in as best I could. But this is what I had to work with:

 I decided to cut squares out of the usable parts and turn them into "cupcakes".

 Then I surrounded them with chocolate Lego bricks. Piped some colorful frosing on them.

 Put some chocolate minifigures on top and some candles and Happy Birthday skewers.

At least they tasted good and the boys were thrilled. They played with the minifigures and built with the chocolate bricks. So I am happy with it, even if it wasn't the original plan.

I won't even include a picture of decorations. Streamers and balloons. You could tell it was a party.

Lego Party- lego mold! Soap, chocolates, and gummies!

While searching for Lego party ideas I came across this tutorial for making your own Lego brick mold. I was instantly hooked. It took some talking down to decided that I didn't need to make it, I could just buy a mold. So I found these that I liked on Etsy. I got a lot of use out of them and will be happy to share the love with others.

 Lego minifigure gummies! These were so fun to make and super fun to peel out of the silicone mold. Also, they tasted great and were really chewy. I ended up using this tutorial that worked great!

 The soap was also fun and easy to make. I just melted glycerin in the microwave, colored it, scented it, and poured it into the molds. Much like these soaps I made last Christmas. Super easy.

 I love the look of glycerin, even if it doesn't lather terribly well.

Finally I bought some Wiltons candy melts and made a bunch of chocolate Legos. I also made minifigures, but didn't take a picture.

I packaged up all of these little goodies into cellophane baggies and sent them home in the goody bags.
Oh no! I also made ice but forgot to get it out at the party!

Back to School Cake Pops

I try to make a special back-to-school treat for my kids around the first day of school. This year we had a neighborhood party the day before school started. I had seen this tutorial on Skip to my Lou and knew that I had to try it. 

This was my first attempt at making cake pops, and of course I left it until the last minute. They aren't very cute, but they tasted great and were a big hit.

Brain cake

Along with Zoe's mad scientist theme for her birthday I made a brain cake. Just go with it, it is a brain okay?

Harry Potter Birthday cake

I was not feeling inspired about the cake this year. I always have great ideas that I can't execute. In fact, I am debating whether or not to continue decorating cakes for birthdays, that I am always disappointed with. I need to learn how to sculpt modling chocolate. How cute would it be to put Liam's face on a little Quiddich player?
My idea here was to make the cake look like the cover of one of the movies (which Liam carries around and plays with). I don't think it quite worked though. I had to explain it to him :(

Brown Sugar Pound Cupcakes with Brown butter frosting

I got a Martha Steward Living magazine to enjoy while in San Francisco. One of the articles was about cupcakes. Decadent cupcakes. Not one of the recipes calls for less than 2 sticks of butter in the cupcake alone, not to mention more for the frosing.

I could not resist making these, though I gave them away as fast as I could so I wouldn't consume them all. They were as delicious and evil as you would suspect.

Mine did not turn out cute, though they were tasty. So I stole Martha's picture.

Thanksgiving Pies

I just think a pie is a beautiful thing. Cherry with lattice-top.

Sour cream-apple with Struesel topping.

Another cherry, and pecan. One cherry pie is being traded for a pumpkin, from a friend.

Peach syrup

My first attempt at peach syrup. It wasn't peachy enough.
Recipe for Peach Syrup
1.Take all the peels, pits, bruised parts, anything that will be discarded after prepping peaches for canning, pies, freezing.
2. Put in a large saucepan.
3.Cover with water.
4. Boil until the essence of peach has been transferred from the peaches to the water.
5. Drain liquid from chunks. Discard chunks.
6. Measure liquid. Add equal parts sugar to liquid. 1:1
7. Boil until sugar is dissolved.
It is pretty runny. You could find a way to thicken it up.
I had problems with #4. I didn't boil it long enough. I boiled mine for an hour maybe. If you want it really peachy I would try longer.

Peach Pies

These are peach pies, and although they are lovely they were not delicious. I don't love peach pies. I think peaches should be used fresh, but I had so many and I love to make a pie. It is one thing I feel confident saying I do well. Maybe because it is the something that is recongnized by my family and talked about.
My favorite pies to make (that do taste good) are cherry and rhubarb. Yum.