A Valentine's Tradition...

My Mom has made a strawberry pop cake for as long as I can remember--seriously. It's a Valentine's Day tradition and SO good. Not to mention that it's insanely easy to make.

-Buy a box of white cake mix

-Substitute strawberry pop for the water (so you will use strawberry pop, oil and egg whites. NO water)

-Bake as directed

I also make a strawberry frosting. It's insanely good!

-Powdered sugar

-Melted butter (a couple of tbsp)

-Softened cream cheese

-Strawberry pop

Dump in powdered sugar, butter, cream cheese and a small amount of strawberry pop. Mix with your mixer and add more powdered sugar/strawberry pop as desired. Mix until frosting consistency.

I don't have the exact frosting measurements...I just add until I get the frosting that I want.

Top your cupcake with red hot candies, candy, fresh strawberries, sprinkles--or anything that you would like. You'll then end up with the most delicious cupcake ever.

Pin It

Best Apple Crisp in the WORLD...{A Recipe}

Saturday nite I dreamed of baking. I know-for someone trying to lose the baby weight you would think that just dreaming of food would satisfy me.


Ha! Yeah, right...I woke up and had to make what I made in my dream: my Grandma's recipe for apple crisp. {which has totally made me want fall to arrive asap...}


Being the sharer of all things amazing, I decided to share this amazing recipe with you. I hope you run out, get the short list of ingredients and make it as quickly as possible...

a picture of the yumminess...yum.

Cast of characters:

The amount of ingredients will make a 9x9 pan.

Be like me and double it for a 9x13...

4-6 apples peeled and sliced                                                     1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar                                                                   2 tsp lemon juice

1/2 cup white sugar                                                                     1/4 cup water

3/4 cup flour                                                                                 cinnamon

Blend {I use my hands} brown sugar, white sugar, flour and butter until crumbly. This will be your topping--set aside.

Spread your peeled and sliced apples in your greased pan. Glass pans seem to work best for me.

Mix the water and lemon juice together. Pour evenly over apples. Make sure that you have enough water to cover the entire bottom of the pan.

Sprinkle a generous amount of cinnamon on top of apples.

Spread the sugar/flour/butter mixture on top.

Bake uncovered for 50-60 minutes @ 350. It will be done once it's bubbling, light brown and your apples are soft.


That's it! Super easy and sooo good.

Getting to Know Me...

So, it's Sunday again which means it is time for another round of Getting to Know You from MannLand5. I love this meme--it's easy, fun, and I've discovered some fabulous blogs on the way!

1. If you had to choose a country to live in besides USA (or the country you live in), which would it be?  Hm. That's a tough one...I would love to live somewhere tropical--maybe somewhere in the Bahamas? I may need to do a tropical island tour and then I'll know for sure where I would want to live, ha!



2. Which would be worse, wearing flip flops in the snow or wearing gloves in the summer?  That one is so easy for me to answer...the gloves in the summer. My skin is crawling just imagining that one!


3. Fried or Bake and why?  Baked. I'm not really a fried type of girl...



4. If you were an entertainment reporter, which celeb would you love to interview and why?  Ellen DeGeneres! I LOVE her--and she cracks me up--I think it would be a fabulous interview!


5. What was your favorite book as a preteen/teenager?  I loved Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley High, Nancy Drew, Sleepover Club and who knows what else. I loved {and still do!} to read!


6. List your top 3 guilty pleasure television shows.  Big Brother, Glee and Pretty Little Liars.


7. What bumper sticker slogan best describes you/your attitude/your life?  "Sarcasm: the body's natural defense against stupid." I'm pretty sarcastic so I love this!


8. If you were to join a circus - what performer would you be?  A trapeze artist! Although I am afraid of heights, so I'm not sure how that would all play out...



Have a fabulous Sunday! And if you want to see a tasty treat that I blogged about, go and and visit Marvelous Mommy--I think you'll like it...

Hot Cocoa Recipe--Super Easy!

Okay, I had a few requests for my Mom's cocoa recipe and as promised, here it is for you all:

As taken from her Facebook page:

8 qt box powdered milk (Carnation is best, but I can't find it this year!)

3 oz jar of Coffee Mate original powder (I always add quite a bit extra)

1 lb Nestle Quik powder

1/2 lb powdered sugar (I added probably almost a pound...and it tasted so good!)


Just mix everything up and you are done! (I bought a Christmas bucket at Wal-Mart with Bellie the other nite--it has a lid and everything!  Perfect for storing it.)

Serving size I used a 1/3 cup measuring cup.  Add hot water and you are done.  You can taste it before you add your marshmallows or marshmallow fluff to see if you need more mix.

It's so easy to make and my Mom always gets requests for her recipe.  I've drank this for years and I will never drink the packet stuff again!  Her recipe is that good and yummy.

Let me know if you have questions and then after you make it come back and tell me what you think.

ps-and you can always head over to my Mom's blog and leave her a thank you--I know she'd love it!

Best Banana Bread Ever {A Recipe}

I remember promising my lovely readers the best banana bread ever recipe.

And I want all of you to enjoy it just as much as I do!

Here ya go--and don't blame me if you find yourself eating an entire loaf....

******

Best Banana Bread. Ever.

Mix together:

1/2 c oil
1 c sugar
2 eggs
3 mashed bananas

Mix together and add to ingredients above:

1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 c flour
salt

1 c nuts (optional)

Grease and flour loaf pan(s)

You can use {2} loaf pans with this recipe, however, I only use {1}

Bake for:

30 min at 250
30 min at 350

And a note from my Mom:

If you divide the recipe into two loaves, this cook time may be right, but if you do one bigger loaf it usually needs to cook longer. I think I cook a little longer at the lower temp, and then just keep testing it after 30+ minutes at 350.

******

So there you have it! This recipe was passed on from my Grandma to my Mom and now to me.

It's that good!

Leo has been begging for me to make this for days...so I think I'll be nice and make him some this weekend.

Enjoy!

More Summer Yumminess

I am about to share with you one of my favorite, I reapeat, favorite, recipes.

Ever.

It's a little rich, so if you don't have a strong liking for something sweet I am advising you to not make this.

You've been warned my friends....

Blueberry Coffeecake

Heat oven to 425, set aside a 9x9 pan (or an 8x8)

1) Melt 1 stick of butter in your pan (I usually place on the burner to melt it.) Once it melts pour the butter into a bowl.

2) Mix the following dry ingredients:

1 c sugar
1 1/2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

Set them to the side

3) Mix together:

Beat 1 egg in a 1 c measuring cup
Fill the rest of the 1 c with milk

Add to your dry ingredients above

4) Pour batter into your pan that you melted your stick of butter in

5) Pour melted butter on top of your batter

6) Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon on top--go ahead, load it up! You can't have too much....believe me :)

7) Sprinkle 1 c blueberries on top

8) Now bake at 425 for 10 minutes

9) Reduce heat in oven to 375 and bake for ~20 minutes

How yummy does that sound? I promise you, you will NOT be disappointed with this gooey recipe.

Wanna know a secret? When I was pregnant with Isabella I would make this religiously. No kidding.

Leo would be lucky to get one bite...

No wonder I gained so much weight....

Summer Yumminess

As I mentioned here, I love to bake.

There is something extremely satisfying in thinking about what I must eat and then make it. The end results are usually fabulously delicious and I can share my goodies with others.

Now, since I don't live near any of you which means that I can't walk or drive over these yummy creations, I will share my recipes with you.

I know, I know, I am much too kind, but I want to share this with you, my bloggy friends. I want you to have something that you can sit down with at the end of a hard day or maybe even have in the morning to start a day off wonderfully.

Are you ready? Because our first recipe is....

Lemon Bars (which I swear are to-die-for)

What you'll need for the crust:

1 1/2 c flour
2/3 c powdered sugar
3/4 c softened butter

What you'll need for the filling:
3 eggs
1 1/2 c white sugar
3 Tbsp flour
1/4 c lemon juice

Heat your oven to 375, grease a 9x13 pan (I use a glass pan); set aside

Mix your crust ingredients together (flour, powdered sugar and softened butter). Mix until you can form in a ball. Take the dough ball and begin spreading it in your greased pan.

Bake for ~20 minutes (give or take, keep an eye on it) until it is slightly golden.

While your crust is baking whisk together your filling ingredients (eggs, white sugar, flour and lemon juice). Whisk until it is frothy. Set aside.

When crust is done, take out of oven and pour filling on top. Place back in oven and bake another ~20 minutes--until light golden. (Again, keep an eye on it. I cooked mine for around 18 minutes and it turned out perfectly).

Once you have taken it out of the oven, dust the top with powdered sugar.

And there you have it...delish! They are good warm, but even better the next day.