Birthday Cake Balls

Ann's birthday was this past week. The first to reach 2-7! The girls got together for dinner at Nick & Sam's Grill and then some fun time at Capital Pub.

But what is a birthday without cake? And why have regular cake when you can have cake balls??

I love these little things. They are a great size, easy to bring to dinner or a party and cute. Thankfully, this second attempt went much easier than the first time. Instead of dipping the balls completely into the white chocolate, I placed the cake balls on a cooling rack and poured the chocolate over them. Still not as good looking as a real bakery but they are yummy at more attractive than the first attempt.

Here's the simple recipe rundown:

Ingredients - 1 box cake mix and ingredients listed on the back, 1 can frosting, 1 box white chocolate or chocolate bark (candy coating would also work), sprinkles

Directions - bake cake according to box (I reduced the oil a little since my last cake balls were a bit oily). let cake cool completely then crumble with hands. mix in 2/3 of the frosting. if the mixture doesn't stick when rolled into a ball, add a little frosting to the mixture until it wants to adhere to itself when rolled into a ball. roll mixture into balls... you will probably get about 4 dozen. let harden for a few hours (I leave mine overnight) in the fridge. melt chocolate according to package. dip cake balls into or pour chocolate over cake balls and shake sprinkles on top before it hardens.

Here's what you end up with!



Yum! Happy Birthday Ann!

Comfort Food - Mac & Cheese Carbonara

A good friend of mine played nurse for her mom recently. To help make their weekend easier, I made a dish of ulta-comfort food - mac and cheese! But not just any mac and cheese, grown-up mac and cheese with garlic and pancetta. YUM. I got the recipe from Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Here is the full recipe.

I've got a few comments for the recipe... first, one food network website user said it cost them $80 to make this recipe. Yikes. Don't do that. Buy the cheeses that you like and that are in your budget. Lots of assortments of cheese will give you a great flavor for way less than $80.

Second. Temper the eggs before you pour it into the milk/flour mixture. (You temper by first adding a small amount of the hot liquid to the eggs stirring constantly. Do this two or three times until the eggs themselves have warmed up a bit. Then you can steadily pour the egg mixture into the large pot of milk/flour. If you pour the eggs straight into the hot liquid without tempering, you'll end up with sort of scrambled eggs in your liquid.)

Third. The cheeses. Like I said before, buy the ones you like or use what you have on hand. I happened to have sharp white cheddar, smoked mozzarella, and parmesan in the fridge. I picked up a small block of mild cheddar and had enough for the amount of cheese in the recipe.

Lastly, it took my mixture 12-15 minutes to thicken to the point of being a sauce... much longer than the recipe called for. Just be patient... my arm is totally sore today from stirring but it was well worth it!

So back to the story. I made Mike and I a really small dish so we could eat a little of the mac and cheese and I packed the majority of it in a foil container and gave it to my friend for the weekend with her mom. I had my bowl with a green salad... the mac is RICH so just pair it with something a bit lighter for a great meal. This dish has great taste. The garlic really made the dish for me. Here are a few pictures!

garlic cooking

the cheeses



pre-baking

the dish i made for mike and i.

we must have a mouse ;)

a mouse named katie... don't judge

Mashed Potato Skins

I made this easy side dish for Labor Day BBQ at the Stanley's. Get the recipe from Rachael Ray here. This was such an easy dish... no need to even peel the potatoes! Another good thing about the recipe is that its pretty versatile. Want to use turkey bacon? Go ahead. Don't like green onions? Don't add them. Want to add roasted garlic? Throw some in. Make it exactly the way you like your potato skins or baked potato. (Just try to work with the basic ratios given in the recipe.) I happen to love white cheddar and green onions on my potato and Mike loves the bacon so I stuck to the recipe as written. Perfect to adapt to the menu for your next pot-luck, picnic or bbq!





And, I got to use the great casserole carrier that my mom MADE for me. It keeps the dish warm and helps prevent me from burning myself on it while getting it into the car. Love it and my crafty mom!