Ho-Ho-Ho, Haappy Birrthday!

May is Birthday month. My husband, son, brother, and various other relatives all have their special day in this lovely month. First up is my husband who happens to be a big fan of Ho-Ho's. So my mom and I whipped up a Ho-Ho's cake!

It is easy, fast, cheap, and scrrrrrrumptious. Can't beat that combo. 

Supplies:

• 20 Ho-Ho's
• cake platter or plate
• ribbon
• a tube of cake icing with decorative tip
• Birthday candles

How To:

 1.Open all your Ho-Ho's and group them together in a circle vertically.

 2. Tie your ribbon around the grouped Ho-Ho's (someone's finger would be handy right about now).

3. Decorate the bottom of the "cake" with your icing along with a few spots on top where your candles will go. Place candles and admire.

Making my husband happy with a snazzy three-step cake? Oh, I Got This!

Link Partyin' With:

It's Ham-mer Time!

Got left over Easter ham? Good! I've got a bunch of ham recipes and ideas, 20 in fact. Grab a few and that ham will go to good use!

1. Cheesy Ham and Potato Soup

2.  Waffles with Ham and Egg

3. Ham Casserole

4. Crock-Pot Ham and Beans

5. Monte Cristo Casserole

6. Ham and Broccoli Quiche

7. Ham Salad Spread

8. Ham Muffinwiches

9. Split Pea and Ham Soup

10. Hearty Ham Casserole

11. Baked Ham and Cheese Omelet Roll

12. Ham and Cheese Sliders

13. Lay it out on a sandwich like this one: Gerber Sandwich

14. Chop it up and throw it in my Golden Macaroni and Cheese

15. Make a batch of hearty breakfast burritos with ham to stick in the freezer for some quick and tasty breakfasts!

16. Mini Ham 'n' Cheese Frittatas

17. Ham 'n' Chickpea Soup

18. Save some moola and make your favorite pizza at home. My favorite is Hawaiian and left over ham tastes devilishly good on it.

19. Ham Stuffed Tomatoes

20. Ham and Corn Souffle

Not feeling like I am eating left-overs five nights in a row? Oh, I Got This!

Golden Macaroni and Cheese

Macaroni and Cheese is one of my most favorite things. The cheese, the pasta, the general gooey goodness. It's heavenly.
But there are varying levels of Mac and Cheese goodness. My calling is to find the MOST heavenly recipe out there (tough calling, I know). So far this is the winner:

This recipe hails from Southern Living Magazine and it is just all sorts of yummy. Everyone who's tasted it when I've made it has loved it, I love it, and I think you'll love it too!

Bake Time: 40-45 min.
Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients:
1 (8oz) package elbow macaroni (about 2 cups uncooked)
2 cups milk
1/4 all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon onion salt
2 (10oz) blocks sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (about 4 1/2 cups)
1 cup soft breadcrumbs
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

Directions:
1. Set oven to 350. Cook the macaroni, drain, set aside.

2. Place milk, flour, and onion salt in a quart jar or tupperware container; cover tightly, shake vigorously for 1 minute (an overactive child might enjoy this part). Be sure to get all the flour mixed in or you'll end up with clumps in the final product and that's just yucky.

3. Stir together flour mixture, 3 1/2 cups of the cheese, and the cooked macaroni. I prefer to stir it in the dish I'll be baking it in. Yes, I am that lazy.

4. Sprinkle evenly with breadcrumbs and remaining 1 cup cheese...

 then drizzle evenly with melted butter.

5. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and scrumptious looking.

Tips:

• It makes the drizzling of the butter much easier if you zap the butter in the microwave for about 30 seconds in a pourable liquid measuring cup.
• Don't use store bought pre shredded cheese. The preservatives that they use to coat the cheese makes the whole thing taste bland. If you want the prep to go quicker than shred the block cheese before hand and keep in the fridge or freezer.
• I use the tiny breadcrumbs you get at the grocery store rather than tearing up four pieces of bread for soft crumbs. It tastes just as good but takes a lot less time.

Variations:

• Add chopped up bacon or ham to the macaroni with some on top.
• For a little healthiness chop up some cooked broccoli and mix it in.

Fulfilling my calling in life while making others love me (well, my cooking anyways)? Oh, I Got This!

Link Partyin':

www.bluecricketdesign.net

wearethatfamily.com

My Silly Obsession

I've got this silly obsession with sprinkles. But how can you not? They are fun in sugar form...with colors. You can't lose. So I have decided to see what I can do with the little party makers (other than the obvious scattering on everything) and here is use #1:

Scrumptious confetti cake made by YOU! By making this yumminess yourself you can do any color combination you please (like red and green 'confetti' for Christmas) or add as much or as little color-power as you wish (I'd rate my cake as a medium on the color intensity scale).

How do you do it?
1. Get your favorite combo of sprinkles (the softer kind work best like these long, rainbow ones here; sugar sprinkles do not work, they melt into the batter and tint it slightly) and...
2. Mix them into the cake batter just before you pour it into your cake pan!

Add however much you want, for my cake I added a little less than 1/4 cup of sprinkles for the one box of cake mix.

Giving into my sprinkle obsession? Oh, I've Got This!

 Want to see some awesome websites? Check out these ones! This post participated in one of their link parties!

The Shabby Creek Cottage

House of Hepworths

todayscreativeblog.net

Starvation and the McMuffin

I almost starved a few months ago. Sort of.
Cereal has always been one of my fundamental food groups: Cheerios, Life, Grape Nuts Flakes, Honey Bunches of Oats...the occasional Reese's Puffs. So, when I found out my son (whose only food group at the time was me) had issues with milk I just about cried. What was I going to eat?! Soy milk is brownish and seems closer to alien cocktail than milk in my opinion (unless it's the chocolate kind, then I must admit it is divine) and I can only take so much pb and j.
After munching through a number of unhealthy options I decided I'd try to recreate the Egg McMuffin. I've always loved those things. At first I fried an egg every morning, but there usually wasn't enough time for that. Then I saw a great idea HERE about using a muffin tin to bake the eggs and freeze the put together McMuffin. Genius! But my vision was a little different so after some trial and error, this is what I've come up with:

Homemade McMuffin

Easy, Quick, Warm Morning Goodness!

Prep Time: 15 min.

Cook Time: 15-20 min.

Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients

olive oil or spray

12 large eggs

salt and pepper

12 English muffins

sliced ham

sliced (or shredded) cheddar cheese

Items Needed

muffin tin

plastic wrap

3 gallon sized freezer bags

Sharpie

Directions

1. Set oven to 350 degrees and spray or brush muffin tin with oil. Be sure to get the sides of each cup well or the eggs stick very stubbornly.

2. Crack one egg in each cup. Sprinkle salt and pepper on all of them.

3. Place in oven and cook for 15-20 min. or until yolk is fully cooked. 

4. While the eggs are cooking set up your muffin making area. 

Get out your English muffins, ham, cheese, two of the freezer bags, and twelve 7 by 9 inch sheets of plastic wrap.

5. Open up 6 of the English muffins and lay them out. Put one slice of ham and however much cheese you want on the bottom half of each muffin.

6. Put the top on all the muffins and wrap each in a sheet of plastic wrap.

7. Mark the date on one of the freezer bags with a Sharpie (it's always good to know with things in the freezer) and place all six in the one bag.

Repeat with the other six muffins and put both bags in the freezer.

8. Pull your eggs out of the oven and let them cool (so that there is less condensation when put in the fridge). 

Place eggs in the last freezer bag and place in the fridge. I tried making up the complete muffin and freezing them but the egg came out rubbery so I've found the fridge to be a much tastier option. If you won't be using the muffins regularly then I would only do a few eggs at a time so that they don't go bad.

Reheating Directions

1. Take out one of the ham and egg muffins. Unwrap, fold up a paper towel and place underneath the muffin. Place muffin and paper towel on a plate.

2. Heat for 30 sec. in microwave, open sandwich and place one egg inside. Heat for another minute or so open faced, close up sandwich, and eat!

Not only do I love these things but my husband does too! That is my main success rate-o-meter. Switching up my food groups so I don't starve? Oh, I got this!