Ice Cream Cone Treats for a Birthday Party

I just noticed this blog post that I never posted from June 19, 2013, well over a year ago so I am sharing this now just like I made these treats yesterday!

Wow, It has been a long time! Lots of changes, good changes, and less free time. A few weeks back, my nephew Jason, reminded me that I have a blog and I have I have been ignoring that blog! Guilty as charged!

Last month our youngest grandson, Ivan, turned 4! We headed north for his birthday party but I always feel the need to take something special to share. Here are some quickly shot, random pictures of the treats I made. They aren't that great. I was using my ipad and they needed a flash. I got word that there were 27 kids in his class, and amazingly, I ended up with 27 treats! I was releaved when they all turned out!

A funny story - Ivan's teacher confessed to my daughter that one of the kids was absent that day. She had put his treat into his desk so he could have it the next day. On her way out at the end of the day, she went to the little boys desk, opened it up and took that treat right out of his desk! She took it home for herself! She couldn't resist!! 

Too Funny!! 

Back to reality...

Here we are October 2014 and I found photos of birthday treats I made for Wiley quit some time ago! This is the last time I made cone treats. Big kids and little kids seem to love anything in a cone!

I poke holes in the empty cone boxes so that I can stand them up until they are firm.

To make these, I pick a flavor/color cake mix that I think the kids will like. You you bake the cake according to directions in a 9x13 pan. Let it cool completely. When cool, crumble all the cake into a large bowl. Sounds strange doesn't it! Next you mix about 1/2 a tub of frosting into the cake crumbs and start stirring. Continue with this process until all the cake crumbs are moist with frosting. It usually takes about 3/4 tub of frosting or to your preference. You don't want it to be to wet because it will make the dipping very difficult as they will soften too fast. Trust me, I learned this by trial and error.

Before you start the next phase, I would suggest having all your ingredients and tools out and ready to use. Have all your candy melts in bowls, ready to melt when you are ready for them. Now you will need an ice cream scoop to scoop out balls of cake mixture and place the cake balls on a baking tray or trays lined with wax paper or parchment paper so they wont stick. Place them in the freezer for about 1-2 hours or until very firm to the touch. If you use too much frosting, the cake balls will melt when you dip them into the warm candy melts. 

When the cake balls are completely frozen, one at a time, dip the cones in melted Wilton candy melts in what ever color/flavor suits your fancy. Place the cake balls onto the cones and let them cool in the cones in the upright position until the melts have hardened and the cake ball is firmly attached to the cone. (This is where I use the cone boxes.) This works best if the temperature in the area you are working in is cool, not warm because the cake balls will be wanting to melt.  Continue until all the cones you are making are dipped and have a cake ball on top. At this point, I usually place the cones on a small tray and keep them in the refrigerator to keep them cool. I then take out a couple at a time to dip into the next color.

Now you are ready to do the next dip. Use the picture above as a guide. You want to dip your cone into the next color, leaving as much of the melt on the cone as possible. Put them in the refrigerator until they are all completely firm and to keep them firm until you are ready to do the last dip.

After your last dip, you will want to add your sprinkles or gumdrop or what ever you want on top so that it can cool and be attached to the top. That's about it! I like to put mine in bags so they are easy to transport. These can be made over a period of days or hours. They aren't hard to make but they do take time. I don't keep them in the refrigerator once they are all finished unless your home is very warm. 

Have fun making a little someones day a bit more special!

Enjoy!

Our Favorite Go-To Treat

This is the best treat ever! Sometimes you just need (want) a little something sweet or chewy or crunchy. This recipe won't satisfy your need for a crunchy treat but it definitely works when you want a little something sweet but healthy at the same time. That is why this treat is the best! It has no added sugar, no flour, no egg, no butter, no dairy! It mixes together in 5 minutes or less. You don't even need to measure if you don't feel like it. Just guesstimate! I can have these mixed up and scooped out on a cookie sheet by the time the oven reaches 350!


The base for this recipe is the lovely banana. It's adds the sweetness, the thickener, the stabilizer, etc. I don't know of any other fruit that is this versatile. You can add whatever you want to the banana /oatmeal mixture. Your favorite spices, flavorings or add-ins. You are going to love these!

Before baking

Healthy Banana Treats

Ingredients:

3 mashed ripe Bananas, mashed

A big spoonful of Fresh Ground Peanut Butter, approx 1/3 to 1/2 cup, more or less (you can use store bought)

About a teaspoonful of Vanilla, more or less

A heaping teaspoonful of Cinnamon, more or less

About 2 cups Rolled Oats,  more of less

About 1/2 cup of Dark Chocolate, more or less

About 1/4 cup Coconut, Almond or Hazelnut Milk, I have used them all

In a bowl, mash your bananas. 

Add the peanut butter and stir the two together until they are completely mixed. 

Add the vanilla and cinnamon and stir well.

Add the rolled oats and stir until they are completely coated.

 Stir in the chocolate. 

Add enought of the coconut/nut milk until it makes a good scooping texture. 

Scoop the mixture out on a parchment covered baking sheet or you can scoop them into lined cupcake pans to make them muffin style.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. Baking time varies from the size scoop you use.

After baking

I let them cool and then I store them in the refridgerator or the freezer.

This recipe doubles very well and is a very forgiving recipe. You can add just about anything you want to the base and it will turn out well. Don't add too much liquid because you don't want the dough to be soupy or wet. 

I have also used Greek yogurt as the emulsifier in place of the milk. 

You can leave out the peanut butter but make sure your batter isn't too moist before you scoop it on to your baking sheet. I would suggest letting it sit on the counter for a few minutes before scooping. That gives the oatmeal a chance to soak up the extra liquid.

Enjoy!

Monday, Monday, It's Here...

We have managed to keep our sunshine in the Pacific Northwest, but they are telling us it is ending today. Not too bad considering they originally told us the "Pineapple Express" headed our way last Friday. I have never seen a "Pineapple Express" type rain in person, but I have seen the pictures. I am familiar with torrential, pounding El Nino rain that dumps 2 inches in an hour, so I am bracing myself!

Here are a couple pics from our weekend.

It was a beautiful, warm and sunny day spent at Bauman Farms with family. I love my family!

On the way home I was taking pictures of the unusual cloud formations in the sky. All of a sudden, I watched a stream of light burst out from behind the clouds and shoot up with tremendous power into this amazing array! It was a most incredible experience that touched my soul!

Time to bring out the boots and set the sandals aside!

Have a great Monday!

Spiced Peach Jam

We love peaches!

I don't think I have ever met anyone that doesn't love peaches. This summers peaches were the best ever, according to the farmer we bought most of ours from. We used our peaches in many delicious ways but this lovely jam will remain all year. At least I hope it lasts that long. I love to share the things I make so we are down to just a couple jars (which, by the way, got rave reviews.) That's ok, we know how to make it last!

It had not canned anything since the 1980's when our kids lived at home. Somehow, in my feable mind, I was sure we still had that canner. I could still picture it and was convinced I wouldn't have given it away. I searched the garage and asked my hubby if he would look. He didn't find a canner. Ha, as if we would have packed and repacked that canner from Oregon, to Washington, from Washington to California and back to Oregon. Somehow I could picture it and was still convinced we had it packed away. I'm now convinced that I gave away all my canning supplies when we moved in away in the 90's.

When we headed out to find a new canner, I couldn't believe how many choices there are now. Back in the 70's-80's there were just a few choices. In spite of many colored jars to choose from, and several canning methods, I stuck with the clear jars as they highlight the treasures inside the best. We also bought the accessory pack so we were completely ready to tackle the peaches and several other canning projects. 

This is the first batch of jam I made this year and here is the recipe for Spiced Peach Jam. You will find complete directions from start to finish. I made another batch of vanilla peach jam and I will share that recipe another time. Costco still has peaches and we just got a fresh batch of our favorite Maryhill peaches last weekend. I might make another batch of peach jam if we don't eat the peaches first!

Canning can seem daunting if you haven't experienced it yet. It is a very easy way to preserve food. I do recommend buying a canner and the accessories. It makes everything easier. Start out small and go from there. You can preserve food all year long. It's not just a summer thing.

My Loves...

I love, love, love my family! I love my dear hubby. I love our son. I love our daughter and her husband . I love our grandsons. I love our doggies. Since they are the best part of my life I am going to share a few pictures from the past year.

Warning: there will be lots of pictures of my two grandsons and dog children!

Wiley's self portraits. It was a pleasant surprise to find these pics and about 30 more on my iPad! 

This cutie is a 7-year old 2nd grader

And now it's Ivans turn!

This little cutie is now a 5-year old kindergartener

Our doggie kids keep us laughing on a daily basis.

Miss Lucy

Who could resist that cute little face

My dear hubby and I in San Francisco last summer celebrating my 60th birthday!

A Dark-ish Day And The Smell Of Banana Bread

We had the most amazing summer here in the Northwest. It was sunny and dry the whole summer except for a couple days of drizzle and fog. Yay!!! Then about two weeks ago it changed for a few days. It got cloudy and dark-ish and it actually rained on and off for a couple days. Ohhh... I was afraid summer had packed up and gone. So I guess that gave me the bug to bake something. At first I started looking for something apple or pumpkin because, after all, it was the end of September and summer was technically over. (I have the worst time accepting fall in the Northwest! Don't get me started about winter in the Northwest!) A lot of people in the Northwest are very outspoken about fall being their favorite season so you need to be careful not to step on anyones cold toes by disagreeing out loud. I prefer year-around summer and am looking forward to enjoying year-around summer again. Until that day, I will make the best of it... which leads me back to banana bread. I noticed 4 very ripe bananas in our fruit bowl and they were begging to be used. Banana bread! I remembered I had a new banana bread recipe I wanted to try so I made it because it was cloudy and dark-ish and the day needed banana bread.

The recipe went together very well and before too long we had the smell of banana bread wafting through the house. We even opened up the windows to share the lovey smell. The bread turned out very moist and it was full of flavor. I didn't snap a pic of that loaf but you can take my word, it looked good and tasted amazing.

Fast forward to Monday of this week. Again, I noticed 4 very ripe bananas begging to be used in some way so you know what I did. I made another loaf of the amazing banana bread. This time I took a couple pictures. 

I have lined a baking pan with parchment paper maybe twice in my life, but since the recipe said to do it, I did! And I am sold on it! It takes a couple minutes but it is really worth it. There is nothing worse than trying to remove a fresh baked good out of a pan and having it crumble because it is still too warm and should have been left alone. You know what I'm talking about. I guess my rebellious side decided that I didn't need to take the time to line it lengthwise so I didn't and it worked perfectly this way too.

Look how handy that is to get the bread out.

Here is the finished product.

After it had cooled completely, I sliced it up and put together a nice platter for my hubby to share at work the next day. Our son came over later that morning to hang out with me for a while and I was happy I had saved a couple inches of the bread so that he could enjoy some with his coffee.

If I have talked you into adding this excellent banana bread recipe to your collection, here you go.

Bon Appetit Banana Bread 

My MO still seems to be making changes to recipes. I just can't help myself. I only made a couple changes and I have one product recomendation:

I don't keep marscarpone cheese in my fridge so I substituted with reduced fat cream cheese.
I added a teaspoon of Watkins Vanilla Nut Extract
I sprinkled chocolate on top
I didn't add the walnuts because I didn't have any 

My sales pitch is for Trader Joe's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunks. If you haven't tried them you really should. You will love them. They taste very good. They are under $3.00 for 10 ounces. They taste better than Nestles Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips. They all have their own personality.

Did you notice the words at the bottom of the bag?  Left side says "Ideal" ~ Right side says "snacking."

I love using them for their angled shapes and random sizes. Some times you need chips and sometimes you need chunks. Banana Bread and Chocolate Chip Cookies need chunks. Just saying...try them and you will like them. If you buy them, try to disregard the little message they have placed on the bottom of the bag.

You can also find this recipe on my Pinterest page. Just click on the Pinterest button and look for the board "Recipes I have made."

Enjoy!

 

I'm Back

Wow, I just looked at my calendar and saw that it's October 2nd, 2014! It took me a little longer than I expected to get back here, but hopefully it's better late than never! I'm glad they didn't shut down this place. I have a few recipes to share in the future, but for today I will get my feet wet by seeing if I can still download pictures. I'm doing this on the fly...so here goes...not necessarily in the order I lived them...

Sorry, that old plan is not happening! This is what is happening. I am in transition from my older, long-time laptop to a new fancier, faster laptop and now I know I need to complete that transition before I take on this blog back full time or even semi-part time. I will post with the pictures I have on my iPhone and my iPad which takes a little time but not as long as this old, dog-tired laptop! These pictures took over 25 minutes to download from my photo stream from the laptop and that just doesn't work for me long-term or short-term or ever.

Ok, on with the new plan!

The following pictures are ones I shot as we were driving through downtown Portland, Oregon last Saturday. We were headed up from the river and I saw this guy get out of the drivers seat of a really cool car! Really, really cool car! Once I took my eyes off of the cool car, I saw the driver walk around the back of the car and I told my hubby, that looks like Jerry Seinfeld ... and Fred Armison! Well, it was. So, as we drove past them I had my phone so of course I had to take a few pictures. These pics aren't to bad considering they were shot from a moving car!

This beauty is a SAAB 850cc 3-stroke Monte Carlo circa 1966-67

 As we drove past we could hear their voices as they talked and laughed. It was definitely them. And...how often do you see a guy in a suit with brilliantly white tennis shoes or whatever they call them now!

I digress for a moment. When we heard David Letterman would be retiring this coming year, we started recording his shows. We like to sit down and watch one for a good laugh. So, on this past Tuesday we sat down and watched last Thursdays show. Jerry Seinfeld was the guest and he said he was going to Portland to shoot an episode of his new show, "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee." He has traveled to around the country to shoot shows with comedians in a different classic car each episode.

Now we know why he was in Portland. We had assumed it was for Fred Armison's show, Portlandia that has been filming it's next season around the Portland area this summer. We have since heard and read that Jerry and Fred shot scenes around the city, including a food cart in SE Portland where one of my nieces happened to see him also. 

Jerry's new show will be available on Crackle in the near future. I guess Crackle loves it because I just read this morning that they renewed the show for a second season and the first season hasn't been seen by the public yet. I'm guessing it will be funny.

Well, this is not much but this is what I have for today after more than a year away. 

Have a great day!

P.S.

I just looked over at the TV and on "Live with Kelly and Michael," I saw Kelly's bestie, Jessica Seinfeld on the screen! She is Jerry Seinfelds wife! She is there to celebrate Kelly's birthday today! How nice! The Seinfelds seem to be all over this post! Happy Birthday to Kelly Ripa!