Colorful Halloween Candy Monsters

Hi everyone, it's October! Woohoo! 

Which means it's Halloween.  Which also means it's Monster Season! 

I have some super easy ones for you too.  

And most are made with everyone's favorite candy - well at least my kids' favs - Kit Kats!

Make a bunch of candy Halloween monsters with the kiddos.  Super fun for everyone because the messier the better!

Check out all the details here over at sheknows

PS. You can also make them with sugar wafer cookies.  See these Sugar Wafer Monsters!

Happy October and THANKS for stopping by! 

Matcha Shortbread Cookies - 2 Ways

Since St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner I figured I'd add to all the green foods that show up this time of year.  

And believe it or not I've never made shortbread before even though shortbread cookies are one of my favs.  The dough is so simple to make - butter (and lots of butter), flour, sugar, salt and to green it up I added some matcha.  Matcha is green tea powder and if you like green tea then you'll LOVE matcha.  Plus it gives everything a neat green color.

I used small cookie cutters to cut out the little flower shapes but also added some of the dough to my madeleine pan.

Bake shortbread about 12 -15 minutes but don't over bake or the cookies will be too brown and you definitely want to see the color matcha gave them! (You can see my madeleines are a bit too browned when they came out of the pan - newbie move!)

I added a little matcha to some vanilla buttercream and slathered a bit between 2 of the cut out cookies.  A big green sprinkle added makes them look like little happy flowers.  

Or drizzle with some melted green candy wafers and other sprinkles and you have a neat green treat for St. Patrick's Day.  Enjoy with a cup of green tea or coffee!

Have an awesome weekend and thanks for popping by!

The matcha shortbread recipe can be found here on Martha Stewart

marbled loaf and mini heart shaped cakes...!

So I'm celebrating my 3 year Blog Birthday this month!! Woohoo!! It's kinda hard to believe it's been 3 years already but as I look back at all 189 posts from February 2010 it surely has been 3 years.  Crazy!

I was going to do a fancy birthday cake but decided I'm totally not feeling too fancy these days and I'm all about comfort and simplicity this year-but definitely not plain and boring, it still needs to be fun!  

If you read the blog you probably know I have a thing for colors.  I love swirled colors, contrasting colors, or rainbow colors, and I really love the look of marbled loaf cakes.  They may not be the fanciest of cakes, but the colors always look so pretty swirled together and the flavor is usually so cakey and buttery and totally what I'd pick for a dessert.  And it doesn't even have icing on it (I know sacrilege!) but it really doesn't need it with all the butter loaded inside.

I also have a thing for matcha too and have used it a few times like here and here and here.  Firstly, it's green (one of my fav colors) and secondly, it's green tea flavored (another fav of mine!).

When I saw this matcha and chocolate marbled loaf cake over at Pass the Sushi, I knew it was a definite pin for me and it has been on my to do list for ages.

I knew I wanted to do 3 colors for this so I did 1 and 1/2 times the recipe.  The colors by no coincidence match the blog colors! Once you have the batter mixed up, separate into 3 bowls (I eye-balled it to try to get it even into 3 bowls), then add the cocoa powder to 1, green tea matcha powder to the 2nd bowl, and the last I left plan but tinted the batter just slightly pink with food gel).

To swirl, add the green tea batter first (use whatever flavor you want more prominent as this is kinda the base of the loaf), then add some chocolate batter and pink batter, then more green.  I just plopped some in and then using a butter knife, swirled the batters together.  Don't over swirl because you can start mixing the colors too much and you lose the nice big marble'y look you want (and you can get a yucky brown color for your loaf).

The marbled loaf came out great BUT I knew I wanted to fancy it up a bit too, since it is for a birthday after all.  After cutting a slice and singing happy birthday to the blog, I just cut the rest into slices and used a heart shaped small cookie cutter to cut some cute little hearts out.

Aren't they super cute??! And don't worry the scraps most definitely did not go to waste.

I probably could have eaten the entire batch, but decided to bring them along for others to enjoy too and just plopped them into some mini cupcake liners.

A cool tri-colored marbled loaf AND marbled mini heart cakes? Yep that's totally me!

Again happy blog birthday to me! It's been so fun coming up with fun stuff to share over these past 3 years.  I had been doing it mainly for my kids and family and friends and it still amazes me that there are so many of you that come back to visit, to encourage me and to ask questions or share your warm thoughts and feedback.  I've also made some great friends over these years that I've never met before in real life-but really are friends.  The blogging community is such a amazing group of people.  And finally I do this for me and it's one part of my life that is all mine.  I work full-time, and have a great husband and 3 amazing kids but as with a lot of us, life is hectic and nuts at times and the responsibilities are always competing.  It's been so therapeutic to have something that I do just for me.  So THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for continuing swing by this part of the blogosphere every so often.  I truly appreciate it.

Thank you for indulging the "blog birthday" post (which is actually more fun than my real birthday!) and I certainly do hope life is good and that you have an awesome weekend!

Tidy Mom's I'm Loving It

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a whole bunch of fudge...!

so although i really wanted to start 2013 off with a healthy treat...i haven't gotten to that yet!...so you get a whole lotta fudge to kick off the year....

this is from the holiday season and made for all the kid's teachers....i think i was making fudge every other nite for all of December!...good thing they were all really simple to make....

cranberry: 1 can (14 ounces) of sweetened condensed milk, heat on stove top and add 1 bag of white chocolate chips (12 ounces), and dried cranberries (add about 1/2 cup of dried cranberries in a food processor and chop nice and fine); add cranberries to fudge while it's still warm, pour into 8X8 baking pan, let harden and cut into shapes.

lemon: super simple, 1 can of store bought lemon frosting added to 1 package of melted white chocolate chips (12 ounces); add to pan and let set and cut

cinnamon: 1 can of store bought vanilla frosting to 1 bag of cinnamon chips

red velvet: 1 can of store bought chocolate frosting, 1 bag of chocolate chips, 2 tablespoonfuls of red coloring gel (ok yeah it's really just chocolate fudge, but i cheated and called it red velvet!)

pumpkin spice: 1 can of sweetened condensed milk (14 ounces), heat and add 1 bag of pumpkin spice hershey's kisses (unwrapping them was the longest part!)

mint chocolate: 1 can of store bought chocolate frosting to 1 bag of mint chocolate chips (added some green tree sprinkles on top for fun!)

green tea: 1 can (14 ounces) of sweetened condensed milk, heat and add 1 bag of white chocolate chips and 3 tablespoonfuls of green tea matcha

fruit loop: 1 can of store bought vanilla frosting to 1 bag of white chocolate chips; add in 1 cup of crushed fruit loop cereal, and some rainbow non pareils on top

...since i made mine ahead of time, i wrapped and froze each large square of fudge and took them all out the day before i was making the treat boxes to cut and divide them up....

.....go get your treat boxes on sale post the holiday season!...the fudge made with frosting is very sweet and my kids loved this kind (surprise surprise!)...the fudge made with sweetened condensed milk is also sweet but also more creamy in texture....my kids are mint chocolate fans so that was their fav but if i had to pick one it would probably be the green tea or the cranberry....!

the cranberry would even be great to make for this valentine's day....maybe cut out some cute little hearts...right??

...and you get some super simple to make fudge in a bunch of flavors--for some very special teachers and staff at the kids' school....i can't say enough about how much our teachers do each and every day for our kids, and a little treat here and there to say thank you is the least i can do....

...hope your 2013 is off to a great start! I'm sure all the Valentine's Day stuff will be showing up soon....i think i spotted some candies already in stores, so get ready!

Have an awesome week and thanks for stopping by!

Tidy Mom's I'm Loving It

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matcha and cherry chip cookies....!

....so i almost forgot about these cookies since i made them around the holiday rush time....!...but they were really simple and very good...totally post worthy....

....awhile ago i saw these homemade matcha chips and cookies here from une deux senses (beautiful pics on her blog too!)....and since i love anything green tea/made with matcha...knew i had to give them a go....

....i had sweet matcha powder leftover from this post...and added about 1/4 cup to about 2 cups of vanilla candy wafers....(just melt candy wafers or vanilla chips in the microwave until all melty...then dump in the matcha powder and mix well)....

....add to a zip lock bag...snip off an end and "pipe" out the matcha chips.....you may need to re-heat the mix in the microwave if it starts to get to stiff....

....let them set for about 20 minutes or so....and you get a bunch of green tea matcha chips....!...so easy....i'm thinking of doing these "homemade" chips with some other stuff...like other teas or powders....

....mix these in with your favorite cookie batter (i used the original toll house cookie recipe)....

....and the cherrry chips i already had....

....and you get some yummy cookies with homemade matcha chips and not so homemade cherry chips...!

....you definitely get the green tea flavor coming through in these....and if you like green tea you must make these!...and the cherry chip cookies were good too...i kinda liked the red/green thing for christmas time....but i ate many more of the green tea chip cookies than the cherry chip ones...

...can't wait to see the flurry of valentines day goodies coming up....fun stuff....and thanks as always for stopping by....have an awesome week!

Tidy Mom's I'm Loving It

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fall whoopie pies!

...so decided to give whoopie pies a try, since they are the new "cupcake" or was that macarons?....anyway, tried 3 different types....classic aka chocolate, pumpkin (since it is fall and all and pumpkin must be in the repertoire), and green tea (well...because i heart green tea and the green color looked good with the others....!).....

....did them all in one day, so i'm a bit whoopie pie'd out....but it was fun all the same.....aren't they really just inside out cupcakes anyway?....

.....the chocolate were filled with a marshmallow fluff buttercream and the other two with cream cheese buttercream......both perfect fillings for these flavors......

....decided to go with the plastic baggie method so they would be more uniform...but some people just like to spoon them onto a baking sheet.....

...the green tea batter was doctored a little....used more matcha powder (about 2 tablespoonfuls) and 1/4 cup of buttermilk in place of the milk....it was still a little thinner than the other batters and spread more and didn't rise as much as the others.....

....they were still very tasty though (if you like green tea) and very moist.....the pumpkin batter was pretty thick, and actually kept the swirl when they were piped and baked......i have to say they were very yummy, like little pumpkin cakes, and moist as well....


....the chocolate recipe was the winner around here and almost exactly like a devil dog...so it can't get much better than that....well if you love devil dogs that is.......they baked up perfectly too....this recipe is from the marshmallow fluff site and is super simple....it doesn't even use butter.....the biggest "kid" in the house loved them so much they were requested as a birthday cake.....can't beat that for a thumbs up.....!

I heart bloghops! Linking up to:

Mouthwatering Monday's

What do you do when life is nuts? I guess bake!

When did life get so crazy and hectic anyway? Is this what getting old is about? (because I'm not liking it so much!) But, I got my first request for a cake for our neighbor's son's birthday. I was going to do the kid's whole name but it was getting late, so decided the H was good enough. He's a Mets fan so *tried* to go for their logo. It was a hit so that was pretty cool. I am getting some mileage out of the ball pan!

Some more miscellaneous cupcakes from the past couple weeks....these are actually brownies

...and these are red velvet with green tea frosting.....

mini chocolate & green tea cupcakes

For Jack's international day at school this week...being half chinese I thought I'd bring in something kinda asian....I was going to do all green tea cupcakes with green tea cream cheese frosting, but my un-even oven decided to burn half the batch. Luckily the dunkin hines double chocolate cake mix was still hanging around. Either way both kinds were really tasty! Here's the recipe for the cake and icing. This recipe uses matcha green tea which is a powdered green tea used in making green tea ice cream, japanese desserts, and tea of course (it makes a great green tea latte).

The chinese symbol says "friendship" (at least according to google translator it does!) which I thought was apropos for his last year at the school he's in now since he won't see some of these kids in his new school next year. It's just melted chocolate candy wafers, that was piped onto parchment paper over a copy of the symbols.

I like green tea and the flavor was not over powering to me, although Jack said he didn't like the frosting (the same kid who when I told him I was bringing in cupcakes for his party pretty much yelled, "no more cupcakes mommy"...obviously I didn't listen to him.)