Hawaiian Bread Is Here!

For those of you out there who love Kings Hawaiian Rolls but hate how much they cost this post is for you! (For those of you who have never tried Kings Hawaiian Rolls I pity you and your sad sad lives). I tried these out on the family this past Easter Sunday and they went over pretty well. Jon thinks the pineapple is too strong, but he's wrong. I found the recipe somewhere online and-as is my wont-messed around with it a bit. I'll probably change it up a little next time because I'd like it a little more airy, but they're still D-lish!

For the recipe

Chocolate Easter Eggs

Okay, these are super easy. The funnest part is that they're hollow! You could fill them with candy (skittles would be fun), a charm/bracelet, money, or-do what I did-and just put a nice quote or scripture printed in a pretty font and tied with a ribbon.

For directions

Our House-Finally

 

The first fruits of our little garden this year. Christopher wanted to plant radishes. He thinks he likes them, but he never really eats them. It was a fun thing to plant because they come up so quickly, but now we have loads of radishes to get rid of. Oh well. 

I decided I'd post the pictures of our house today for those of you who asked about it when we moved in. I know what you're thinking..."But Mindy, it's only been 6 months. Aren't you a couple of years early?" All I can say is that I'm working on not putting things off any more. Crazy huh. Yesterday I even got out the paints and brushes and did some touch-up work around the house. I dunno. Maybe I'm coming down with something. In the meantime, maybe a few projects will get finished.

So, to see the pics

Eat, or do not eat, there is no try!

A cake for my nephew's birthday. The green stuff around the bottom was me playing around with sugar. It's just 1 1/4 c sugar, 2/3 c water and a few drops of food coloring heated to hard crack stage and poured over a tray full of ice cubes. It hits the ice and freezes in funny shapes. Really easy and works great for swamp weeds, lava, coral etc depending on which colors you use. Yoda's head, hands, and legs are rice crispy treat, the rest is cake. He's covered in marshmallow fondant that I shaped with toothpicks and a few other tools. Didn't take as long as I thought it would and I must say, I'm pretty proud of the little guy.

Bacon Ice Cream and Other Important Things

I know what you're thinking. Bacon ice cream?Mindy's really lost it.  That's exactly what Jon thought. He made that scrunched up 'you are crazy woman' face right up to the moment he actually tried it. Then he ate two bowls. I'm telling you, it's delectable.

The recipe I used is from David Lebovitz blog living the sweet life in Paris. So many fun recipes on there I'm going to try. I really enjoyed the candied bacon all on it's own. I suggest making double what he calls for because I PROMISE you will be snacking on the stuff. If you don't want to go to the trouble of making your own ice cream you could always just mix it into a tub of maple ice cream or even just a good vanilla. David uses all half and half which I find is a bit too much for me. I think the next time I make it I'll use whole milk instead. I've really always preferred it that way anyway.

As for the 'other important things' part of the post.....

I read an article by Geneen Roth recently in Good Housekeeping that I HAD to share. It's about food and body image. While that's important, I also think a lot of what she had to say translates really well into how we interact with others and how that can be improved so I'm posting it here. If you get a chance you should really check out some of her books. The woman makes a lot of sense. Anything I added is red and in parenthesis.

Student Cakes February 2011 and Baby Shower Cupcakes

Yep, it's been forever since I posted anything. I'll try to do better Gram, what can I say. =P

The cake above is by me. It's a one-person mini cake for Chelsea's birthday. The shoe and flower are made of chocolate. Fun huh? It was about 5 inches tall counting the shoe and 4 inches wide at the base. The flash makes the black look a little funny, but it turned out cute. Especially when you consider it was the second one I made since Ethan ate the first one for breakfast that morning before I woke up. He wasn't alone in his sneaking though. His little protege grabbed a measuring cup of sugar off the counter when I went to answer my phone.

His only response to getting caught was: More? More sugar? He's such a cute little monster.

The rest of the cakes are by my latest group of cake class students. They did such a great job!

At the end is a picture of some cupcakes I made for a baby shower. Click on the "read more" link for instructions on how to assemble them.