Baked Crab Rangoon

What a strange name, I am never sure if I am saying it right, lol. This is my favorite appetizer to get at our little local Chinese food restaurant, I found a recipe on the Kraft web site and decided to give them a try. I made them to take to a Girls Night Out that I went to. It was a lot of fun, and they turned out pretty good :)

Baked Crab Rangoon
Ingred;
6oz crab meat
4 oz cream cheese
2 green onions sliced
1/4c. mayo
12 wonton wrappers

Heat oven to 350. Mix first 4 ingred. Spray 12 muffin cups with pam, line each with a wonton wrapper. Fill with the crab mixture. Bake 18-20 minutes until wontons are golden and filling is heated through.

I used my mini muffin pan, to mix the ingred. I put them all in a lg zip baggie, with a little asian seasoning, then squished it all together. Then a cut off a corner of the baggie and squeezed the filling into my cups. Clean up was easy :)
I wanted to sprinkle a little Mrs. Dash on these but I'm either all out or it's hiding in my cupboard somewhere, oh well :) :) :)

More Mochi, More 'Shrooms and 5 Words from Willoughby

I made a Pumpkin Mochi Cake, I got the recipe from Allrecipes, there are quite a few Mochi recipes on there. Just type Mochi in the search box and check them all out! The picture isn't all that great but it was definitely a hit here at my house.

Pumpkin Mochi

Ingred;
2-1/2c. mochiko
2t. baking powder
2c. sugar
4 eggs
1- 30 oz can pumpkin
1- 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1c. melted butter
2t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan.
Sift together the mochiko, baking powder, and sugar in a large bowl. Mix together the eggs, pumpkin, milk, butter and vanilla. Stir this mixture into the dry mixture. Pour into the pan.
Bake for 1 hour, cool before serving.

I enjoy pumpkin desserts, and I really liked this but I think the Lemon Mochi is my favorite still :) :) :)


I made some 'shrooms tonight, they got a little overdone but were still tasty. I used the Parmesan puff filling I had leftover from yesterday in them, it worked really well. I wouldn't have overbaked them, they smelled so yummy I knew they were done, but I was distracted by a giant spider in my kiddos game cupboard. Yuck.

I received 5 words from Willoughby to play along in a Game.
If anyone else wants to play let me know and I can give you five words.

#1-Cold, I like the cold, not freezing cold exactly just chilly cold. My Mom has always called me a heater, because from the time I was really small I was always very, very warm blooded. As a Teen my family always made me keep my bedroom door closed because I liked to keep my windows open year round, even in winter. I grew up in Montana remember so it got pretty chilly in there at times.

#2-Light, I am a big fan of natural lighting. I like to leave the lights in my house off until it's almost too dark to see because I don't like the fake light. Hubby thinks I'm strange, so I tell him it only looks so dark because he is getting old, lol.

#3-Painting, I wish I could paint. Landscapes, Seascapes ( anything with escape in it sounds good to me :) I even took painting classes once a week for almost a year. And I still can't paint, I gave up the day I realized Miss B's paintings looked better than mine.

#4-Change, as most of you know I am not a big fan of change. I would like it if things stayed the same, and never changed :)

#5-Inspire, My children are my biggest inspiration. Everyday they inspire me to be better, I am constantly amazed by how giving and sweet they are to each other and those around them. They Inspire me everyday.

A beautiful Lemon Dessert and a Duo of Beautiful Awards

I have had this recipe stuck to my fridge for at least 2 months, I don't know why it took me so long to make it was actually pretty quick and easy. Which makes it a perfect one for me, I am going to use this as my base and see how many different flavors I can turn it into : )

Lemon Pots de Creme
Ingred;
2c. cream
1 whole egg
3 egg yolks
1/3c. sugar
2t. lemon extract

Heat oven to 350, place a 9x13 pan in the oven to heat. Start a tea pot up to get some water boiling.
Place cream in a heat proof bowl, microwave for 4-5 minutes until it starts to boil. While that is heating whisk together the all the eggs and the sugar, when the cream is ready whisk in a small amount to temper your eggs. Then whisk the eggs into the hot cream. Whisk in the extract.
Pour into 6 small ramekins, place in your heated 9x13 pan and set in the oven. Pour the boiling water into the 9x13 pan until the water reaches half way of the sides of your ramekins. Cover loosely with tin foil. Bake for 30 min. remove from pan, cool, chill in the fridge overnight. Sprinkle with powder sugar before serving.




Purple Hoodie Chick very sweetly awarded a couple of awards the first one is the
BINGO Award.I got the B for beautiful and I for Informative, Thanks P H Chick!
This award was started by Bookin With BINGO and
here are the rules: This "B-I-N-G-O" BEAUTIFUL BLOG AWARD
means that this blog is...

B: Beautiful - Goes to Willoughby, she always has such beautiful thoughts and pictures. She is such a genuinely beautiful person inside and out :) And because I know Willoughby has already recieved this award I also want to give this to Holly- because she leaves me such beautiful comments :) This stop Willoughby
What are we going to Eat?
I: Informative -Here I had a tie, I hopes that's ok, Luis and 5th Sister always post such great info, I always come away from their blogs a little bit more informed :) Muddy Runner 5th Sister

N: Neighborly - Betty always leaves me such sweet neighborly comments, I feel like I could walk out my front door walk across the street and tell her all my woes and she would take care of me :) A Corgi in Southern California

G: Gorgeous - Goes to Monica and Brandi for the absolutely gorgeous Cakes and Desserts they post :) Lick the Bowl Good Cakes-a-nonymous

O: Outstanding - Chicago Mom is such an outstanding on the ball Gal, she always has a great menu planned out every week. Recipes too! I always know where to look when I am trying to figure out what to make for dinner :) What's for Dinner?



This reward I have had before so I am going to link you to my other post Honestly Me

And I want to pass this award to-
1-Chicago Mom
2-Lee at I want to make that!
3- Mini Baker
4-Stephanie
5-kyslp
6-Betty
7- My Hubby

The rules can be found on my previous post along with my 7 things about me!

Thanks again Purple Hoodie Chick!

Parmesan Puffs and Focaccia

I have been trying to use some of the recipes from my Allrecipe collection that I keep adding to, every time I go on there I end adding at least 2! I will never get caught up at this rate :)

The two I just tried are-
Parmesan Puffs
Easiest Focaccia Recipe

Tonight I am making a pizza casserole recipe from there, that will make my total for today 3 I am slowly making headway, I will keep you posted on that one :)

So here is the Focaccia Bread, it didn't brown up very well but it was pretty good. I think next time I will double the sugar and add a little salt to the dough, we'll see what that does. Because as the recipe stated it's "Extremely easy, fast and cheap" see it's right up my alley :)

Easiest Focaccia Recipe

Ingred;
1t. sugar
2-1/2T. yeast
2/3c. warm water
2c. flour
olive oil
salt
toppings

Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water, let stand until creamy. Mix in the flour, stir until well combined. Knead for a few minutes, I let my Kitchen Aid do that for me :)
Place dough in a bowl that has been lightly oiled and let raise for about 30 min. Heat oven to 475, pat dough in to a rectangle drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with your topping. I used chopped green and black olives. Bake for 10 minutes for chewy bread or let bake 20 min for a bit crisper bread.

Now this next recipe I altered a bit and came up with a couple of tasty appetizers.


Parmesan Puffs

Ingred;
1/2c. water
1/4c. butter
1/2c. flour
2 eggs
3/4c. parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 375, lightly grease a baking sheet.
Bring the water and butter to a boil, whisk in the flour until it forms a ball. Remove from heat and dump into your mixing bowl, beat in the eggs one by one. Then beat in the cheese. Scrape sides, using a small scoop- scoop into small balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 15 min. until puffed and golden brown.

Now there are a few things you can do with these, the original recipe suggest dipping in marinara sauce. I made a butter garlic sauce to dip them in while they were warm, which was tasty. Then I dipped the tops of the remaining puffs in the butter and let cool then I filled them with a yummy cream cheese crab mixture-

Parm Puff Filling

Ingred;
4oz cream cheese
1/4c. immatation crab
1/4c. chopped olives
1/2t. salt

Blend all together with a food processor and pipe into the center of the puffs, refridgerate any leftovers.

Now mine are a little big because I haven't been able to find my small scoop since we moved, so I had to use a big one. But with the small one these would be such cute little appetizers! They were very tasty : )

I just got a Letter.....

Actually it was more of a package really, a package full of treasures! When I went out to get my mail today there it was in my box, the girls and I opened it up and look, LOOK at my treasures!

These are from my Sweet big Sister B,
Candied French Violets
Candied Rose Petals
lots of Lavender

I am so excited! I will have to find something special to make with these, any ideas?

I have a recipe that I begged Sister B for all week, it requires the use of these-

aren't they pretty?

Here look again-

They look wonderful, don't they.......
Well, as we all know, looks can be deceiving! These little fuzzy fibbers were half brown on the inside! I was totally disgusted. So instead of making 2 pies we only made one, cause that's all I got out of them.

Aunt B's Vanilla Custard Peach Pie
Ingred;
1 deep dish pie crust
5 med. peaches
8 oz sour cream
3 large egg yolks
1c. sugar
1/4c. flour
2t. vanilla or buttershots

1/4c. butter
1/2c. flour
1/4c. sugar

Peel & slice peaches, arrange in the bottom of pie shell. In medium pan whisk together the next 5 ingredient until smooth & pour over peaches. Bake at 425 for 30 min.
Prepare the remaining ingredient. as a struesal topping, sprinkle over pie and return to the oven at 400 for another 30 min.
Garnish with unpeeled peach slices and a sprig of mint.

Now I couldn't garnish mine because of the peach shortage, so I gave my girls each a piece of the leftover pie dough and they made me some cute leaves to decorate the center.

Thank you Aunt B for the sweet gifts and for a wonderful recipe!

Volcanos and Scrubs

Body scrubs not the show Scrubs, I have never watched it.
Today I made a couple of scrubs for my Lil' Sisters B-day present, a Lemon hand/body scrub and a Peppermint Foot scrub. They both smell yummy yummy yummy!

So here we go-

Lemon Hand Scrub
1/4c. coconut oil
1/4c. almond oil
1t. liquid lanolin
1t. vitamin E oil
15 drops lemon oil
about 1c. epsom salts

Put the salt in your container, once again I am thanking Goodwill
for my 2 cute containers. Melt the coconut oil in a heat proof glass bowl or cup. I love my glass Pyrex measuring cups for this. When that is melted stir the remaining ingred. Pour slowly over the top of your salt, I used a fork to stir mine in. It's what I had handy and it worked pretty darn well :)
Close it up and label.

Peppermint Foot Scrub
1/2c. coconut oil
1/2c. almond oil
1t. liquid lanolin
1t. vitamin E oil
15 drops peppermint oil
1-1/2c. epsom salts

Follow the instructions from above. You could use all Almond oil or all Coconut oil, you could even use Olive oil ( but I hear it smells funny after a bit). You don't REALLY need the Lanolin, it's just an extra bonus for extra softness :)
You don't even need the Vitamin E oil, it does help to preserve this so it keeps longer. But if you are making small amounts or are sure it won't last long, couple weeks, I wouldn't bother with it.


I received a sweet award from Lee over at I want to Make that! Seeing all the fun things she's been making always inspires me to get crafting! Thank You Lee!For after school snack today we tried something different, it's a volcano pancake. I have never made one frankly they kind of scared me, what if it doesn't rise???? What then?
Well I finally made one and hurray! It rose just fine, I did have some tense moments early on in the cooking time but waited it out :)
I got my basic recipe from Allrecipes it's here- Volcano Pancake.
But I did a little altering (big surprise) and here is my version-


Volcano Pancake with Strawberry Sauce

Ingred;
3 eggs
1/2c. milk
1/2c.flour
pinch of salt
2T. butter
1t. rum extract

4T.strawberry preserves
4T. o.j.
1t. lime juice

Heat oven to 400, put butter in a 8x8 pan and set in oven until butter melts.
Beat together by hand the eggs, milk, flour, salt and extract.
Pour over top of the melted butter and return to the oven for 30-35 min. While its baking, whisk together the preserves, and juices. After the pancake is done cooking, let it cool a couple minutes then drizzle with the sauce and serve warm.

This was delicious, this is definately a keeper, and it has so many possible ways to change up the flavor! Good Stuff :) :) :)

Krafting with Miss K- Knitting

Miss K finished a project last night that we wanted to share, she made this

for her baby doll

I can not knit to save my life, last year my Cousin introduced me to these, they're called the Knifty Knitter Loom. I have actually knitted scarfs with it!!! This year I plan on making hats for all the kids. I have posted more about this, and sites with patterns, on my other blog.
All of my girls love these, the two older can do it without any help, Miss M needs a bit more supervision :)


Moving on, I made these last week but have been slow in posting it.
I read about lotion bars on a blog a few months ago, there was even a link to
where you could buy them. Which I bookmarked,
we all know how I bookmark everything :)
I really wanted to buy one, lol, or two, but they are 15$ each!!! Add in the shipping and there was no way I could justify spending over 30$ on 2 little lotion bars. BUT I found a site online that had instructions to make your own! How cool is that?!?!!
As you can tell I was a little excited :)
So I made my own, actually I made about 6 of them,
Christmas is coming you know!
So here are a couple of them, I still need to come up with something cute to put them in-

And here is the recipe-

Sweet Bee Lotion Bars

Ingred;
1/4c. beeswax
1/4c. coconut oil
1/4c. cocoa butter
1/2t. vitamin E
1/2t. honey

Place beeswax in a heat proof bowl and microwave for 2 minutes, works best if you break it into pieces first, then add in the coconut oil and cocoa butter. Heat it in 30 second intervals stirring after each until its all melted together. Stir in the remaining ingred. Set in the fridge for about 15-20 min to cool it down a little. Pour into your molds, I used soap making molds- because they stand up to high heat. Make sure whatever mold you use isn't going to melt, this is very hot!
Let set for about 6 hours, or overnight then unmold.

These are really nice, but the next batch I make I am going to try using a little bit more beeswax so they are a little more solid. This recipe is pretty close to perfect though :)
In place of the honey, you could use any essential oil you like, or for a cold time bar use 1 T. of Vick's vaper rub. That is my next project, cold season is coming up quick.