Spooky Monster Finger Cookies

 

This recipe can be made plain or with other variations.  I choose to take a more natural approach using pistachios, cocoa and dried berries. But you could make them with food colorings and flavors too.  Have fun!

 

 

Spooky Monster Finger Cookies

Makes 30-40

1 C Butter, Softened
1 C Powdered Sugar
1 Egg
1T Vanilla
Pinch of Salt
2 ¾ C Flour
1 t Baking Powder
About ½ C Sliced Almonds
4 Oz Chocolate, White Chocolate, or Almond Bark

Variations:

1 C Non-salted Pistachios, Ground
2 t Macha Green Tea Powder

OR

1 C Freeze Dried Berries (strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, etc.), Ground

2T Cocoa Powder

Beat the butter and sugar together for a few minutes.  Add the egg and vanilla.

Add the salt, flour, baking powder and the variation ingredients, if needed.  Wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Mold the dough into life-sized “fingers”.   As I unfortunately learned later, these cookies spread a little while baking, so make the fingers skinner than your own.  Don’t forget the knuckle and use a knife to mark 3 lines at the knuckle.  I also lightly pressed my finger on the tip so that I could later adhere the almond “finger nail”.  Bake on parchment paper for about 25 minutes.

 

 

 

Once cooled, melt the chocolate in the microwave.  Put a little bit on the tip and place the almond on top.  Make sure to pick the best almond slices. 

 

 

Slightly chill them for about 5 minutes to harden the chocolate and serve! 

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Cone Cakes!

Cone cakes were a childhood favorite of mine.  I recently even found a similar recipe for these in my Betty Crocker Boys and Girls cookbook. They sound a little weird now, but they’re so fun and very easy to make!  My mom used to make them for our summer church potlucks.  I loved gobbling them up with my friends.

                                                     

Here's a few things that I want to mention.  If you use the colored cones or a colored cake mix it gets a little translucent and kind of weird looking.  I like the funfetti mix because the more sprinkles the better. If you want to get creative, do it in the frosting choice.  Any flavor will work.  You can even top it with a cherry if you want.  I hope you have as much fun with these as I do.

Cone Cakes

Makes 14-16 Cones

14-16 Flat Bottomed Ice Cream Cones

1 Box Funfetti or Yellow Cake Mix plus Ingredients on Box to Make the Batter

1 ½ Containers of Frosting (any flavor)
Food Coloring
Sprinkles                                                   

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Carefully line the cones in a large cake pan.  Make the Funfetti cake batter according to the instructions on the box.  Fill the cones with batter about 1/2 inch from the top.  If you fill it all the way you’ll get a mess (Like I did on a few).  VERY CAREFULLY put the pan into the oven.

Bake about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean.  Cool. 

Dye the frosting. Frost the top, preferably with a piping bag to resemble an ice cream swirl.  Add some sprinkles, and serve!

Easter Bunny Games

Sick of the ole' scavenger egg hunt? Here are some super easy games to play with kids during the Easter holiday.  These games are also great because you can do different versions of them at different holidays. I like to go a little crazy on the prizes. The dollar store has great items for kids, as well as the $1 bins at Target and many craft stores. It's fun to play these while wearing bunny ears. Hope you have fun!

Easter Bunny Buckets
What You'll Need:
4 Easter basket style buckets or baskets without handles
Toys or candies for each bucket
Plastic Easter eggs
Something to determine where they stand
Gift bag or basket for each kid

Place the buckets in a row. 

Fill them with toys, candies, pencils, etc.  I like to go in order of how cool it is.  So maybe it's a small piece of candy or a pencil in the first bucket.  Then the last bucket has a larger gift on the side for them to pick out like a big piece of candy or a $1 store item.

Give them a place to stand by putting down a piece of tape or something.  I got creative with craft paper and stickers by making a carrot shaped marker.  If you don't give them a marked off place to stand, the kids tend to move closer and closer to the buckets which isn't fair.


Hand out the bags or basket to each kid. Each kid takes a turn.  They need to get an egg into each bucket in order 1,2,3,4.  It's up to you on how you want to give out the prizes.  From my experience, they want them right away. Have them fill up their bag with goodies.  Rotate through each kid until everyone has had a turn.  You'll want to play this at least 2-3 times depending on how many kids that you have.  I like to do this game first in case I have extra prizes from the 4th bucket.  Then you can use them in the following games.




Pin the Tail on the Bunny

This one requires a lot of creativity.  I made my bunny free style, but am giving you step by step picture instructions on the pieces that I used.  I also made mine with magnets so that I can hang it on the refrigerator.  You can use tape, to hang it, but you may want to use blue painters tape so that your walls don't get ruined.

What You'll Need:
Craft paper - 2 brown thick card stock, 1 white thick card stock, 1 pink or printed pink (for ears and nose), multi colored for the tails
1 pack heavy duty magnets,
1 pack of flat magnets,
Bow (optional)
Googly eyes (optional, you could draw them in)
Glue
Scissors
Something to cover their eyes, like a Bandanna or a scarf

Cut out the pieces similar to my pictures. Use round objects from your kitchen to get good looking circles. You may want to weigh the papers down with books as you glue them together.

Bunny Body

Body, head, ears, feet, paws

White tummy, cheeks & teeth

Pink nose

Fold pink paper in half, cut insides of ears

Glue to the back of the head.

Weigh it down with books.

Arrange the face before gluing.

Draw whiskers.

Glue body together.

Add the paws and big bunny feet.

Add the flat magnets, googly eyes, and bow.

Glue the magnets to the tails.

Cover the kids eyes with a scarf.  Spin them 2 times and let them try to put the "tail" where it's supposed to go. Each kid gets a different colored tail. Repeat with the next kid. Whoever is closest is the winner. Award prizes for each game or tally the games for 1 big prize.

Bunny BINGO

What You'll Need:
Lot's of multi colored card stock (depending on how many cards you have)
Easter Stickers (you may need to pick up multiple books of the same style.  For this one, you'll need at least 16 of each type of sticker.  You also need an extra set for reading the piece)
Rubber cement or scrap booking tape
Scissors
Container to hold game pieces
Lots of prizes!

Free style or work on excel to get 4 rows of 4 boxes each.  Keep them on one sheet of paper or adhere them to a colorful card.

Cut out squares for game pieces to cover the cards after the matching sticker is called. 
Also cut out squares and adhere one of each sticker to them.  Put these in a container and use them to call the squares.

Stick the stickers in the boxes of the game cards randomly.

To Play:
Pull out the sticker squares to call a piece.  Each kid then covers that sticker with a piece of paper.  Whoever gets 4 in a row or diagonal wins a prize!

I hope that you have a

Happy Easter!

Macha Green Tea Coconut Panna Cotta

Panna cotta is one of the easiest desserts to make (in my opinion).  Like creme brulee, you can alter it into different flavors pretty easily.  The recipe below uses coconut milk in place of the milk that would be in a typical recipe. I added a few simple garnishes, and oh la la! A simple dessert that is bound to impress.

Macha Green Tea Panna Cotta
Makes 4-6

1T Unflavored Gelatin Powder
2T Cold Water
1 C Heavy Cream
2 Cans of Coconut Milk
1/2 C + 1T Sugar
1 1/2 t Vanilla
1T Unsweetened Macha Powder
2T Crystallized Ginger, Chopped

Put gelatin in a pan with the water. Wait about one minute. 

Separate the top thick cream of the coconut milk and set aside. Measure out the remaining coconut milk from the bottom of the can. This would look like semi-clear coconut water. You will need 2 cups.  If there isn't enough, use a little of the thicker coconut cream.

Heat the pan with the gelatin until it becomes a clear liquid, about 30 seconds.  Add in the cream and 2 cups of reserved coconut milk. Bring it to a boil. Whisk 1/2 cup of sugar, vanilla, and macha powder in and remove from heat.

 

Pour it into 4-6 ramekins and chill for at least 3 hours or until it's set.

To serve, take the reserved coconut cream and stir in 1T sugar.  Dollop on top of the panna cottas and garnish with crystallized ginger.

Lobster Mac & Cheese

I know that some critics say that this is a waste of a good lobster tail, but for many, this is so worth it!  This recipe involves multi-tasking.  You'll want to prepare the lobster, cook the pasta, and make the sauce at the same time.  Don't worry though, it only takes about 25-30 minutes of prep work. 

Lobster Mac & Cheese
Serves 3-4 Entree Portions/ 5-6 Side Portions

12 Oz Macaroni or Curly Style Pasta
6 T Butter
1/3 C Flour
3 C Whole Milk
4 C Thinly Shredded Cheddar Cheese or Cheese Blend
1 Lb Lobster Tail
2 T Brandy
1/2 C Panko Bread Crumbs
2 t Onion Powder, or To Taste
1/2 t Nutmeg, or To Taste
Dash of Cayenne Pepper
Paprika for the Topping

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Slit the lobster tails down the middle.  Reserve the lobster shell. Remove the lobster meat and roast it the oven for about 10 minutes or until cooked.  Chop the lobster meat.

Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta all of the way, to your liking.

In another pot, melt 2T of the butter and then add the flour. Stir well and cook for about 1 minute.  Add the milk and lobster shells (this is a good way to maximize the lobster flavor). Bring it to a boil and then simmer it for 5 minutes.  Pull out the tails or strain it if necessary.

Whisk in the cheese slowly until it melts.  Add the spices, brandy, and cooked lobster meat. 

Combine with the pasta and place into a casserole dish.  I happen to have a great nonstick dish.  If you're concerned, lightly butter the dish.

In a saute pan or the microwave, melt the remaining 4 T butter. Mix in the bread crumbs. Top the mac and cheese with the bread crumb mixture and sprinkle the top with paprika.  Bake at 400 degrees for 12-17 minutes and serve.

Lemon Olive Oil Cake

This cake is really nice because of it's light flavor and texture.  Make sure to use fresh lemons and splurge a little on the olive oil.  When I made this I used a kalamata olive oil to really heighten the olive flavor.

Lemon Olive Oil Cake
Makes 1 Cake

For the Cake:
1 3/4 C Flour
1 1/2 C Sugar
2 1/2 t Baking Powder
1/2 t Baking Soda
1/4 t Salt
2 Lemons, Juice and Zested
1/2 C Milk
3/4 C Olive Oil (don't be cheap, get a good one!)
2 t Vanilla
4 Eggs

For the Glaze:
1/2 C Powdered Sugar
1/2 C Fresh Lemon Juice

 

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Grease a 9 inch cake pan and coat it with flour, tapping the remaining flour out of the pan.

Combine all of the cake ingredients in a bowl and beat it for about 1 minute or until well combined.

Bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Feel free to use other sized or shaped pans, but the time will be different based on the deepness of the batter.

While the cake is baking, mix the powdered sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl.

When the cake is finished baking, let it begin to cool in the pan.  Drizzle the cake with 1/2 of the lemon juice mixture.  Let it cool at least 15 minutes and remove it from the pan by flipping it upside down onto a plate or a cooling rack. Spoon the remaining lemon juice mixture on top.  Serve it as is or with vanilla or lavender infused whipped cream.