DIY pomander ball

Here is a sneak peek of one of my tea party decorations. An easy, make ahead project for the tea table.

It's never to early to start preparing. May will be here before we know it!

Have a beautiful day!

candy bar meets pie

Can you believe this candy bar, peanut butter cheesecake, ganache topped pie recipe was filed away years ago and never tried!?! I am not sure how it slipped through the cracks. If it hadn't been for a conversation I had with some friends a couple weeks ago about their favorite Snickers Pie, in all likelihood, it would not have been on my radar and probably never discovered in my recipe box.

However, as fate would have it, the old recipe which was cut out of the local newspaper and attached to a recipe card with tape caught my attention. Of course, upon discovery I could not resist the urge to make a tester pie ASAP and promptly went out to buy the key ingredient ~ Snickers candy bars.  Saturday I made the pie and also 2 mini gluten free versions as well. My taste testers came back to the house for dessert after we all went out for pizza and tried the new dessert.

It was a hit!

I would still like to try the restaurant version again to see if this is anywhere near the same but even if not, this Snickers Pie recipe is a keeper.

Happy Monday!

Scones { bakery style }

Last Sunday I discovered a scone recipe that I had clipped from the newspaper years ago. It sounded like something we would like so I gave it a try this morning. 

Fortunately I had just enough blueberries in the freezer to make the trial batch. Since they were frozen blueberries the batter seemed a bit wet but I pressed on. 

Once the crumb topping was sprinkled over the top it was ready for the oven.

In spite of the moist texture they turned out beautiful

and tasted amazing! I now know that frozen blueberries work great although I look forward to using fresh pick blueberries this summer. Either way we loved these scones. I actually tried two new recipes today. The other is a dessert and I even made a gluten~free version so everyone will be able to try it. I am hoping to have taste testers here tonight and/or tomorrow to give me their opinion. If all goes well I can post it in the next couple days. 

♥ ♥ ♥

PS...Thought I would add last Saturday's treats as well. 

We had another Coffee Klatch at my sisters house which is always a good time.  Our parents and we three sisters make up the core group, the guys join us if the can and the kids are hit and miss. We chat it up for several hours while we drink coffee and eat treats. What could be better? I like to bake something to take so this time I made raspberry streusel muffins, lemon scones and I had a request for cinnamon rolls. My sister was thinking ahead to St. Patricks day and made a batch of Irish Soda Muffins which were delicious and very festive.

Have a great weekend!

March Camellias

We were blessed with a day of sunshine yesterday!

Today we are back to rain.

Happy Spring!

New Recipe Night

Have you ever discovered a new recipe that is a bit out of the ordinary, comes with a list of amazing ingredients and a mixture of interesting flavors which puts it on the top of your must try list? Well, this recipe fit the bill. It seemed like a really good idea at the time however, looking back, I should have known that it would be a hard impossible sell in this family.

The first red flag....mushrooms. I love mushrooms but Papa Bear is not fond of them to say the least and can detect the smallest piece no matter how well disguised. Not sure what I was thinking. Then there is the fact that it is meatless which is strike two. Squash in lieu of poultry, meat or seafood? Uh, no. Again, I should have known. But last Tuesday night I had the house to myself for a few hours and knowing that I had purchased all the recipe ingredients a few days before I decided the time was right and convinced myself that, just maybe, I could win the guys over with this new recipe. It is, of course, from a very popular restaurant here in Portland, that we really like, so how could I go wrong? I thought,  it will be fabulous and will instantly become a new family favorite. So with that in mind I started. 

First I gathered all the nutritious vegetables and herbs that needed to be prepped. Clearly I had not paid much attention to how many ingredients there actually were { 25 ingredients to be exact } until I started chopping. Eleven of the twenty five items had to be chopped or minced but that was fine. I chopped away until I had little piles of veggies all over my cutting board. Then it was onto cooking, rolling and baking the enchiladas. The entire process took about two hours, not counting the hour it took to cook the butternut squash which I had done a couple nights before. On a week night two hours is a bit longer than I ordinarily spend on preparing meals however on this night time was no problem. 

So I made the butternut squash filling and 

the spicy peanut sauce, assembled and baked the enchiladas. 

The house was filled with all sorts of wonderful spicy smells. As luck would have it the timing was right and the guys arrived just as the enchiladas came out of the oven. Unfortunately, as hard as I tried I could not convince them to be adventurous and give them a try so I was the sole taste tester.  Surprise, surprise! So, for what it's worth, I thought they were pretty good and I liked the spicy peanut butter sauce although I felt they were fairly rich. Since I couldn't eat all twelve I put the leftovers in the freezer and hope to get Miss E's opinion on them the next time she is home. 

Have a lovely day!