A MOO ~ velous :: Construction Site :: Surprise Birthday Party!

It is always fun to plan a birthday party, especially a surprise party, which is exactly what Mr. Wonderful and I did. What made it extra special is we set it up early one Saturday morning at our kids new house which is going through a complete DIY makeover. This required a bit of thinking outside the box as they have not moved in yet so of course there is no furniture.  In addition, the kitchen plus one bathroom were both temporarily out of service. And, on top of that, we had also removed all of the flooring in the entire house as well as some walls so our options for set up were very limited. However, there was one small area where we had just finished the floor and painted a wall which was the perfect, and only, little spot for our surprise party. 

The baking and prep was all done at home the night before and then packed up and delivered the next morning. 

During one of our Home Improvement work days she had asked me about Carrot Cake and mentioned she had never tried it. As soon as she said that the MOO ~ velous :: Construction Site :: Surprise Birthday Party idea was conceived. 

The birthday cake was a 6” double layer dirty frosted carrot spice cake.

It was frosted with a cinnamon butter cream frosting and then a homemade caramel to drip down the sides. YUM.

And then, just for fun, I also made a dozen carrot spice cake cupcakes. 

We had planned on bringing a folding table for our little party however when we arrived we discovered we had forgotten it. Bummer. Since the kitchen is out of service we had to come up with another idea for set up and with some quick thinking Mr. Wonderful grabbed a board and four large paint buckets and made a small table. It was perfect but a bit too short to sit at however,  it worked perfect as a serving table. The chalkboard suffered some smudges during transport however it could have been worse. Thankfully I was able to tidy it up with my fingers before they arrived since I had not packed any chalk. 

We also needed a card to go with her gift so while the cake was baking I made her a birthday card. Since she mentioned she liked cows I decided to use that as the theme. I sketched a cow template and played around with some wording using my stamps.

Once everything was cut and stamped it did not take long to assemble this fun birthday Cow Card. 

The Surprise Party was ready in the nick of time as they arrived shortly after we finished setting up. It was a fun surprise and a Moo ~ velous way to start the day at the construction site!

Happy Saturday!

LINDOR Chocolate Truffle Cupcakes sprinkled with English toffee bits

It doesn’t get much better than that! 

These were cupcakes that I made to take to a Mom’s Group dinner recently. My original plan was to sprinkle the tops of the frosted chocolate cupcakes with Heath English toffee bits but as they were baking I remembered I had some wonderful Lindt LINDOR Chocolate truffles and thought those might make great cupcake toppers instead.

It was hard to decide which topping I liked better so instead of choosing I went ahead and used them both.

Needless to say, it was the right choice. 

There were no leftover cupcakes to bring home so I would say they were a hit! Especially since there were only five of us at dinner. There are, however, a few more chocolate truffles to enjoy so it was a success all around. 

Happy Tuesday!

Bake & Take :: Pork Chop Dinner

Another meal delivery. 

This time pork chops topped with onion and lemon slices and a dollop of homemade sauce with  a side of Orzo and…

…Cranberry Almond Cabbage salad. 

A batch of, fresh from the oven, homemade rolls made the menu as well. 

An Apple Cake with warm caramel topping completed this fall meal. 

Well, maybe not quite.

I had also baked a batch of peanut butter cup cookies and had plenty of extras so we packed up some of those as well.

Double the recipes and there is enough for two families.

Another fall meal baked and delivered.

And, needless to say,

we had the same thing.

 Happy Friday!

Bake & Take Dinner

This weeks meal train dinner menu seemed like the right choice for a rainy fall day. It was also easy to double which is always a bonus.

The Cornbread Pumpkin Muffins are filled with honey butter and topped with a cinnamon stick stem and celery leaf.  Before I delivered them though I changed out the cinnamon stick stems for celery stems instead so that they would be entirely edible. An easy way to add a bit of fun to the dinner. 

Spinach Salad is always tasty and once it was assembled and tossed I put it in a Ziplock bag.  Next I mixed the dressing in a plastic Ball jar and delivered it in the jar so they could toss it in when they were ready to eat.

* * * *

The Pumpkin Cake looked a bit like a pie since the only disposable tin I had left, that was somewhat close to the correct size, was the pie tin. No worries though, as this Pumpkin Cake  tastes great no matter what shape the pan is. 

* * * *

To hold the Cornbread Pumpkin Muffins steady during delivery I just put them in a muffin tin which was perfect.

The Curry Apple chicken and Wild Rice were delivered warm. The Pyrex glass pie plate made a wonderful bowl for rice and needed to be returned anyway so that was convenient.

* * * *

Disposable pans make meals easy to deliver and less work for the family to keep track of who everything belongs to. 

Another Bake & Take Dinner is on our schedule so I will be back soon to share another menu idea. 

Happy Friday!

Loaded Breakfast Burritos

The last several weekends we have been on the go and busy helping our kids with some home improvement projects at their new house. It has been a lot of fun however their kitchen is temporarily out of service due to construction so I decided to make some Loaded Breakfast Burritos and a few sweet treats to get us through the morning. 

My youngest sister and her husband made some Breakfast Burritos for us back in September for an early morning work party at our parents house and we were sold. They were great and very handy so now that we have a new project and are on the go again I have made several batches over the last few weeks.

I have been loading them up with scrambled eggs, sausage and/or bacon, onions, diced red and/or green peppers and some hash browns and/or Tator Tots. That is the beauty of Breakfast Burritos. You can fill them with anything you want or have on hand. Once they are all filled and rolled I wrap them in foil and keep them in a warm oven until we are ready to leave. At that point I transfer them to a warm casserole carrier which keeps them hot until we are ready to eat. They were just what we needed and so convenient. 

Happy Wednesday!

Easy Peasy DIY Pumpkin Decorations

This has got to be the most simple little craft project ever! It is not only cute but practical too and that is exactly what inspired me. 

It all started a couple weeks ago when we were getting ready to go spend the weekend with Miss E. I thought it would be fun to take her a holiday decoration which usually means something handmade and likely seasonal.  Pumpkins were the first thing that came to mind however I had to consider the size and whether it would be disposable or something reusable that might need to be stored as space is limited. Well, these cute pumpkins fit the bill!

That is because they are

no~sew

TOILET PAPER PUMPKINS. 

Yes, toilet paper! No stuffing, glue, or stitching required and so quick and easy to make. Just fabric wrapped around a roll of TP.  The other great thing about them is when pumpkin season is over you just remove the fabric which folds flat and makes storage easy and the TP can go back on the shelf. Easy Peasy! Of course choosing the fabric is fun and so is picking out the stems and leaves. I tried cinnamon sticks for stems which was really cute and smelled good too. Then I remembered that we had a pile of branches from a tree we trimmed so I asked the hubs to cut one into some varied short lengths. They worked great also. To complete the the pumpkins I just added some silk leaves and ribbon. The variety of fabrics and embellishments make each one unique. Once I got started it was hard to stop so I ended up with plenty and gave some to each of the girls. 

For November I decided to change the fabric and dress them up a bit so used some Velvet instead which gives them a completely different look. 

It doesn’t get any easier than that!

Happy Tuesday!

Halloween Wrap Up: book page Ghost Garland

Where does the time go?  The last couple weeks flew by due to a fun and busy schedule which included just enough time for a couple of quick and easy crafts which I could not resist sharing. 

These little ghosts were fun to make and made a sweet garland to hang on one of my small chalkboards.  

To get started I sketched a small ghost on scrap paper and then traced my template on old book pages. I used a paper punch for the eyes and tried to vary the position of each pair. 

Mini wooden clothes pins were perfect for hanging them on some cotton cooking twine and gave them a little weight which was needed for swagging. 

The Ghost Garland was finished in no time, as was a Pumpkin Project which I will be back to share soon. 

Happy Monday!