Mini Pizzas

I know I have been delinquent. Let's just pass right by that like it never happened. The other night I turned this:

Into this!

The were delicious especially for being so easy.

Ingredients:
1 can Pillsbury crescent rolls, I used reduced fat
Pizza Sauce
Pepperoni
Mozzarella cheese
Garlic powder or garlic salt

Spread the crescent rolls into triangles. Place pepperoni (5 large was what the recipe called for) on the triangles. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Fold the points of the triangle up and pinch seams. Sprinkle the tops with the garlic powder. Bake at 375* for 9-11 minutes. Serve with pizza sauce on the side. Easy dinner!

Hosting a baby shower without the guest of honor

This was a real stumper. First thing is first. My mother in law and I had started talking about my sister in law's baby shower around January. After her extensive research we settled on a venue, Amore Trattoria Italiana. This also happens to be one of my favorite restaurants. All in all, this was going well for us. Mother in law, sister in law, myself, all very excited!

Cut to the day before the shower.

Josh (my husband) reading a text from his phone from his brother: "At hospital, not sure what is going on. Might need you to help with dog later"
Me: "That is totally a joke! They are messing with us! ha!"
Phone rings later, Josh answers.
Brother in law: "We are in the hospital, we don't know a lot yet but I don't think we'll be going home."
This is no joke people!
Extreme concern, panic, worry, emotion, disaster planning ensues.

Cut to a couple hours later when we know more about the situation. Mom and baby are doing well. Baby will be here early, may require some extra TLC, but everything is under control. (P.S. Thank you Spectrum Butterworth Hospital and Helen DeVos Children's Hospital).

Naturally, the question arises. Do we have the shower? Answer: yes. This was made very simple, the mommy to be requested we still have the shower. Meanwhile, I had Googled for advice from people in this situation before me and many posts said things such as "Why would you have the shower without the mommy to be?!" or "I would never do that!" Well folks, don't pass judgement on a situation unless you've been faced with it yourself.

So what do you do when your guest of honor will not be in attendance? You roll with it!

What we managed to pull off...

Gift bags

Who opened Baby Reed's gifts? Well, the grandma's of course! Another request of the mommy to be, and I liked it!

Cupcakes to match Baby Reed's monkey themed nursery. Thank you Buddy and Miss

Amore handled all the hard stuff including the linens, nice touch!

Play a little baby shower bingo to take the edge off.

Everyone laughing, having a good time.

Monkey cupcakes again

Oreo truffles for the favor.

Simple flowers

Facetime with Baby Mama so everyone can see she is doing well and she can still see everybody! (She will love me for sharing this photo with you). She handled this whole experience with grace and she is a wonderful mom.

Was it exactly what we wanted? No. But all things considered, I'd say it was a successful celebration honoring our mom to be and her little bundle of joy, and isn't that the whole point anyway?

I wrote this post to benefit people looking for advice similar to what I was doing on April 13, 2012. It is easy to wonder what to do while you're in the haze of many emotions. A little encouragement never hurts.

- We'd like to thank Uncle Josh for his assitance in the audio/visual department. He took pictures and recorded everything for Baby Mama. He also fought with the uncooperative WiFi to reconnect so we could see her pretty face! -

Cut to April 16, 2012 - healthy (little) baby boy - 4lbs 14 ounces!

And May 5, 2012 - Proud Uncle Josh!

Welcome to the family little guy, we're so happy you're here!

Chocolate Ritz Cracker Treats

Wondering what these little buddies could be?  They are so simple...

You will need:
Ritz Crackers
Peanut Butter
Chocolate Chips for melting
1 tablespoon of shortening (there's probably a "healthier" option here but come on, we're talking about peanut butter dipped in chocolate)

Put peanut butter on a Ritz Cracker then cover it with another to make a sandwich. Repeat for as many as you would like to make. Melt the chocolate chips combined with shortening in the microwave. Dip the cracker sandwiches in the chocolate and let stand until chocolate is set. I put them in the fridge for a little while.  Serve and enjoy!

Happy Valentines Day. I'm contemplating a red velvet cake. We'll see how far that goes.

Kitchen Remodel 2011: The Big Reveal

Some of you probably recall The Kitchen Remodel of 2011. We shared our progress along the way. This project was not easy or clean. But before we knew it we had a blank slate. Then we started to rebuild.

I bring you the newly remodeled, fully functional, vastly improved, and energy efficient I might add, Reed Family Kitchen:

Looking from the kitchen into the dining room

Dining room

Looking from the dining room into the kitchen

The back splash and counter top

Granite sink

Window looking into garage

Door to basement, side cabinet, fridge, pantry

Door to basement, side cabinet, fridge

This picture was a bit of an after thought, not staged well (dog butt), shows the pantry

An eye test... Which do you prefer, #1 or #2?

Sometimes I forget how much I dont miss this.

Because I get to wake up to this instead!

Spinach Pinwheels

By now you have heard me talk about dinner club plenty. Following tradition each year we have a Christmas gathering, this year hosted by the Grostic's. A fellow dinner clubber brought this as a dish to pass and I thought it was pretty darn good.

You will need:
10 ounce bag of frozen spinach, rinsed and drained
2 cans refrigerated Pillsbury Crescent rolls
1 tub Garlic and Herb cheese spread (I used Allouette)
Cookie sheet

Roll the crescent rolls out of can. Following perforation, split in half the long way so you have 2 rectangles (4 once you roll out both cans). Pinch seams together (well). Spread 1/4 cheese spread on each rectangle. Divide spinach evenly and sprinkle evenly on all 4 rectangles. You can modify this to taste by using less cheese or less spinach. Roll each rectangle and make sure all seems are well closed. Cut into 1 inch sections. Bake following instructions on crescent roll can (about 350 for 10-12 minutes depending).

Serve warm and enjoy!

Throw in a little Triple Overtime wine from our friend Igor Larianov and you have what I call a nice little happy hour...

Merry Christmas 2011

As you may recall, every year I make my Christmas cookies and last year I tried to make ginger bread men as my fourth variety. Lesson learned. This year I decided to add truffles to the mix. Not my famous oreo balls but something a little different.

You will need:

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 2.5 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips + 1 cup semi sweeet bakers chocolate, melted
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 package white chocolate melted, 1 package semi sweet chocolate melted for dipping

In a large bowl beat cream cheese until smooth. Add in sugar until blended. Stir in melted chocolate and vanilla until no streaks remain. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes. Shape into 1 inch balls and dip in the melted chocolate or vanilla. Sprinkle with crushed pecans, coconut flakes, or colored sprinkles to decorate. Refrigerate or freeze for 1 hour or until set.
I like to decorate with the opposite melted chocolate. I put melted white chocolate in a zip lock baggie and cut a small tip off of the corner. Squeeze over the truffles to create a pattern.

These looked very pretty on a holiday platter as my contribution to the party. I am told and also believe that they taste quite good, too.

Merry Christmas!

Griffin Wallace (right) with his friend Baxter Batson (left)

Would you like a hot apple pie with that?

I'm back! And I brought with me this delicious apple pie! I am so proud of this creation. This was my first ever pie and it turned out so pretty, and it tasted good too. I brought this to Thanksgiving where I was in charge of desserts. I made something else too, but it obviously isn't as important.

I'd like to thank Grandma Ople (?) and allrecipes.com for this one. I did make some modifications. I cheated on the crust and went store bought, same for the lattice work topping.
Here's what I did:

• 1 store bought 9 inch pie crust
• 1 box of frozen pastry, thawed and cut into strips using pizza cutter
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced - I actually got 1.5 pies out of this many apples

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
• Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off. 

 

• Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft. 
• Enjoy!

You can see why I say 1.5 pies, the second one was not very full but was very tasty

 For a first try, I think it looks pretty good.