You’ll need the follow items:

spring themed cookie cutters  (I used a butterfly and flower cutter.)

flour tortillas

olive oil

cumin and chili powder

your favorite tostada toppings!  (My favorites include refried beans, cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, lettuce, avocados and some salsa or pico de gallo.)

Cut out your tortillas to make little bite sized spring shapes and place on your cookie sheet.  (Who said cookie cutters were only for cookies?)

Mix 1/4 tsp. cumin and 1/4 tsp. chili powder into 3 tablespoons of olive oil and brush lightly onto the tortillas.

Cook them for about 350F for approximately 10 minutes, until they are toasted and slightly browned on the edges.

Load them up with all your toppings and enjoy your your bite sized spring tostada bites!  I like having them this way because everyone can make their own individual ones based on what they like on their tostada.

Just make the cookies following the instructions.  Immediately after scooping them onto your parchment paper (I used a cookie scoop for this) use the back of the cookie scoop to make a little indent.  This squishes it just enough to allow a small crater, perfect for little jelly beans.  All I had on hand were jelly beans, though next time I’d probably do the little Cadbury chocolate eggs, then you’d have peanut butter AND chocolate (plus of course a few Reeses peanut butter eggs for my husband)!  If you have a hard time getting them to stick, use a little peanut butter and glue to the cookie.  (Peanut butter works to glue your tongue to the roof of your mouth and it also works well as edible glue!)  Hope everyone had an enjoyable Easter weekend!  See you tomorrow for Tutorial Tuesday!

Gather the following supplies and ingredients:

2 pints strawberries

4 cups white sugar

1 box Sure Jell Fruit Pectin

4-5 Plastic storage containers (washed and dried)  This can be Gladware or a similar product

1 potato masher

You’re Sure Jell will look like this, it’s about the size of a Jello Box:

Make sure you get the regular and not the low sugar or no sugar variety.  While those ones are good, I’ll be using the recipe from the standard Sure Jell.

Start by washing and cutting your strawberries.  **Be sure they are room temperature!  If they are chilled you might wind up with gritty jam…yuck!

Use your potato masher to mash them up.  If you have children that would love to help this would be a great job for them!  Be sure to wear an apron so the strawberry juice doesn’t squirt you!

It will look like this when it’s done.  I usually do batches of squishing and mashing….it’s easier to do a little at a time instead of all at once.  (Even though the recipe says 2 pints, sometimes it’s a little more or a little less so doing a few at a time makes sure that you don’t squish more berries than you have to!)  Empty into a measuring cup until you get to EXACTLY 2 cups of strawberry mash.  It’s very important in this recipe for everything to be exact or the pectin might not set and make your jam!

Pour this into a large bowl and add in the 4 cups of sugar.  (Yep a whole 4 cups to your 2 cups strawberries…I never claimed this was a healthy recipe, but it IS delicious!)

You’ll let the bowl sit for 10 minutes and stir occasionally.  This is helping to break up some of the sugar granules.  When you’ve got about 2-3 minutes left on the timer start your pectin mixture.

Your pectin will be mixed with 3/4 cup water in a small pot on the stove.  I usually add in the pectin a little at a time with a wire whisk.  It clumps really easily so if I’m adding and whisking at the same time I get less lumps I have to work on. Bring it to a boil on high heat and stir constantly.  Boil for 1 minute, continuing to stir the whole time.

Remove from heat and immediately add it to your strawberry mixture.

Now, hope that your arm muscles will hold out!  You’ll mix the pectin and strawberry mixture together until all sugar crystals are dissolved.  It usually takes about 3 minutes.  Doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re vigorously stirring for the entire time it goes by super slow!  I usually call in a helper to take turns with the stirring so your arm doesn’t fall off.

Isn’t it looking good?  After the granules have dissolved, pour into your containers, being sure you leave enough space at the top for them to expand when they freeze.  Let stand on your counter without touching them for 24 hours to set.  Put in your freezer and take out as needed!

See, that wasn’t too bad, was it?  If you don’t have this recipe handy when it’s time to make your jam, don’t worry.  Every box of Sure Jell has a recipe inside of it, and it also has variations for both jam and jelly with different types of fruit like peach, mango (which I haven’t tried yet, but really want to), apple jelly, etc.  Make sure you follow the recipe for the Freezer Jam, not cooked jam.

Enjoy!

Close up of the swirl…oh so pretty!

How cute are they?  After they had cooled I stuck them in little lollipop bags and tied the ends with raffia.  So simple and pretty!

The first thing I decided to make was dipped Oreos, but I wanted to make it easy to decorate them.  I made royal icing flowers the night before.  They were super easy and turned out really well!  They were so tiny and cute!

Royal Icing Using Meringue Powder:

4 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons meringue powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 – 3/4 cup warm water

Mix all ingredients in an electric blender and beat until stiff peaks form.  Put into icing bags and use various tips to make different shaped icing designs.  I spread out a sheet of parchment paper and just went to town making flowers!  It made soooooo much that I just put the leftovers in a bag to use later.  I think that as long as they are kept dry they will last quite a while!

The next day, I used some Wilton Candy melts and dipped half the Oreo’s in the melted white candy melts and placed upright on the parchment.  I immediately added one little flower to each.

Let set, harden, and you’re good to go!  Yum!  (Hint:  The tray that they are on is just my small cutting board, covered in white cardstock and an organza ribbon tied around it.  I left all the beautiful serving trays in storage when we moved for my husband to attend grad. school.  Our current apartment is too small for all of it so I just made do with what I had!)

by libraryman

While most of the summer here in Chicago has been VERY mild, the last few days have been in the 90’s and without air conditioning in our apartment it’s gotten a little warm!  I decided to whip up a quick frozen treat to help my husband and I cool down.  I thought I’d share with you this simple recipe for making your own Frozen Limeade Pie!

Frozen Limeade Pie

Ingredients:

1 graham cracker pie shell (or make your own)

1 8oz. container Cool-Whip (I use the Lite or no fat one, it works fine for this recipe)

6 oz. container frozen limeade concentrate

2 1/2 cups vanilla ice cream

Here are the super difficult instructions:

Mix up the cool-whip, ice cream, and limeade concentrate, pour into the shell and freeze for about 5 hours.  That’s it!!  (OK, so it’s not difficult at all, you know how I love projects that don’t take long to complete!)  I also added a bit of green food coloring, since the limeade isn’t really lime colored.

*Tip-Try replacing the limeade concentrate with different types of frozen juice concentrates!  I think that a berry mix or passion fruit one would be delicious!  So would cranberry in the fall!

YUM!

by toadstool ring

The Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream the butter with the sugars using an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy (approximately 30 seconds). Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract for another 30 seconds. In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture at low speed for about 15 seconds. Stir in the espresso coffee powder and chocolate chips. Using a 1-ounch scoop or 2-tablespoon measure, drop cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough with the back of a spoon to spread out into a 2-inch circle. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned around the edges. bake a little longer for a crispier cookie. Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Well, there it is….now for my notes on the recipe:
First of all, I don’t drink coffee so I think that it would be fine to omit the espresso coffee powder. Second of all, yes, do put them about 3 inches apart on the cookie sheet. These are huge cookies, I’d say that they are about 4″ in diameter when they are all done…They are pretty good, although the recipe has very similar ingredients to a lot of other chocolate chip cookie recipes I’ve seen…so anyway, ENJOY!! Erin