Cake Mix Cookies

This was on a message board that I saw the other day and decided to try to make them myself. It's a pretty simple recipe with only about 3-4 ingredients. I did had to adjust my baking time to about 20 minutes because the cookies were not completely done. This could be because the amount I had scooped to make the cookie balls, so adjust yours accordingly if need be. I had a box of red velvet cake mix in the cabinet and used that. I put icing on the cookies since the kids like that on them.

Ingredients:

1 box of cake mix (ANY kind)
2 eggs
1/2 c. butter, softened, OR 1/3 c. oil

1 c. chocolate chips (any variety)

Directions:

Beat all ingredients until smooth.

Add 1 cup of chocolate chips, any variety

Drop by tablespoon size balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake @ 350 for 10 minutes, cool on pan for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Makes 3 1/2 dozen.

In Bed Wathing TV Cake

When my friends asked me what kind of cake I was working on, I said, "It's a couple in bed......watching TV." It sounded a little naughty for a second. I thought the couple turned out cute and I made Heroes logo on the TV because that was one of the birthday girl's favorite show (luckily she liked a show with an easy logo!)

Hello Kitty Cake

This is a cake I made for one of my daughter's friends. There are 5 girls that do everything together. Heather wanted a Hello Kitty cake and when I showed up at the party with this, the girls loved it. Heather told me her grandma (who is a very talented cake decorator) wouldn't let them eat the Hello Kitty figure because it was too cute.

Baby Einstein Cake

My friend's little boy was turning 1 and she asked me to make a Baby Einstein cake. The cake was white with buttercream frosting and the decorations were made of marshmallow fondant. I spent forever trying to get the elephant's trunk to point up and couldn't get it. He's still cute though.

Garlic Chicken Pesto Pizza

There hasn't been a food blog on here for quite a while! I'll start it out with PIZZA!! I wanted to do something totally different then what I usually do. Soooo.......here's the recipe.

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)

2 - 3/4 cups bread flour

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoons salt

1/2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2" pieces

1 small onion, halved and thinly sliced

1/2 each small green bell pepper, julienned

1 large clove garlic, chopped

1 small jar pesto

spinach leaves, torn into small pieces

1 tomato, thinly sliced

Cheese-I used a combination of mozzarella, provolone, parmesan and feta cheese

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Beat in 1 cup flour, 1 tablespoon oil, sugar and 1 teaspoon salt. Add the remaining flour; beat until combined.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 to 8 minutes. Place in a bowl coated with cooking spray, turning once to coat top. Cover and let raise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

In a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, saute the onion, pepper and garlic in a 2 teaspoons olive oil for a few minutes. I like mine to still be crunchy. Remove and set aside. In the same pan add chicken and cook until there is no longer any pink. Remove from heat and set aside.

Punch dough down; roll out dough according to your pan size; 14" round or a 15"x10" rectangle pan. I used my stone rectangle for this recipe.

Spread a tablespoon of olive oil on top of dough. Then layer some mozzarella on the dough.

Spread the jar of pesto over the mozzarella

Add some shredded mozzarella and provolone cheese, the chicken, tomato slices, sauteed veggies, torn spinach, parmesan and the feta cheese.


Bake at 400 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes or until crust and cheese are slightly browned.

Mandy and Trent's Wedding

On Friday, May 29, 2009 Mandy and Trent were married for time and all eternity!!

Mandy is the daughter of my best friends, Tina and Larry. They are also my daughter, Kami's in-laws. I have known them for almost 20 years now and they have been Kami's in-laws for almost 11 years.

Mandy and Trent decided to be married in the Draper Utah Temple with a wedding reception following that night. Tina thought it was a good idea to rent a house instead of hotel rooms because we were making a lot of the food for the reception and I have already done a cake for her son in a hotel room with unfavorable conditions!! She thought never again are we going to do that!! It was also probably cheaper for her to rent this house instead of several hotel rooms anyway. We had 15 people staying at the house!! We also had a lot of fun being all together!

Below are some of the pictures of the house that I found on the internet. I should have taken my own, but we were very busy almost the whole time!!

We didn't have snow at the time we were there!!

The foyer/front room

The TV room were Carlee and both grandpa's spent a lot of time watching cartoons

Larry and Tina stayed in this master bedroom

This is the bedroom that Joe and I had

The family room downstairs. Some of the boys slept on the giant beanbags and there was an XBox set up already!!

This is the room that Kami, Eric and the kids stayed in.

Here is the huge kitchen/dining room that we had to play in!! This is where we spent most of the time!

I really loved all the room that this kitchen had!

Here Tina, Cher and Kami are helping make the mini cupcakes. Joe was on trash duty!!

Some of the many mini cupcakes. They were chocolate fudge and lemonade with vanilla buttercream.

The view from the patio deck out back. If we had known there was a BBQ grill, we would have had the guys grill us working girls some food!!

Eric, Collin and Carlee enjoying the hot tub. I only had time to get in it once. Now we all want one!!

Grandma Brewer decided to get in on some relaxation too!

The wedding day was beautiful!! The Temple was only 11 minutes away from the house we were staying in. I was so happy to be at the ceremony!

After the ceremony, we waited outside for the happy couple. It was a little hot outside. Collin was sunburned from going golfing with the guys the day before, so I took him just inside the Temple doors so that he could cool off. I also wanted him to see how beautiful and peaceful it is inside the Temple. We found this large round seating area to rest on for a minute and to watch for Mandy and Trent. Collin was so quiet!!! I don't know if he was really taking it all in or he was exhausted! We then saw Trent's mom come out, so Collin and I went back outside to tell everyone that the newlyweds were coming.

Just outside the Temple doors.

Awwwwww!!

Even the kids had to get in on some cuddling action when they saw Mandy and Trent kissing!! Sometimes they can be so cute!!

I love this picture of Collin with his great-grandma Brewer

Mandy with her parents, Tina and Larry

The whole Jensen gang. Justin, Kami, Eric, Larry, Collin, Mandy, Trent, Tina, Carlee, Del-Leda, Levi and Cher.

After we were finished at the Temple, we headed back to the house for a little bit to do a few things before the luncheon. the luncheon was held at the Madeline in Sandy, UT. We had a choice of three different entrees. I picked steak and Joe had the salmon. We always share!!

Afterwards, we all ran back to the house to get ready for the reception. The boys went to put up the chairs and tables, Tina and some of the others grabbed the food and Kami, the kids, Joe and I stayed at the house so that I could fondant the cake and then go. BUT...someone for got to leave us the address to the park!! we eventually made it there!!

The reception was held at the Draper Historic Park. It wasn't a very large park, but it was beautiful and had a awesome huge gazebo!! It was the perfect place to hold a reception!!

Grandpa Joe helping Carlee with her corsage.

Some of the table decorations that Mandy and Tina put together.

This is the wedding cake that I did. Only the bottom tier was real. It was made with chocolate fudge cake with chocolate mousse filling. It had royal blue ribbon on each tier and the top I made with gumpaste. I did have a little help from Kami and Cher in making the leaves and the filler flowers! Thanks you two!!

First dance as husband and wife!!

The beautiful bride dancing with her daddy!!

At the end, we all sent Mandy and Trent off with a line of sparklers! The kids really enjoyed it and it was fun for all of us!

After the clean up and we were back at the house, we were all so exhausted!!! I really wanted to go to bed but Tina talked me into getting in the hot tub!! I was glad I did but I kept thinking of all the stuff we had to do to get ready to go in the morning! We had to clean up the house and wash all of the bedding and towels before we left for our 4 1/2 hour drive home...and be there ready for the open house at Kami's!! It all worked out good!! A lot of people stopped by to visit the happy couple, ate cake and chatted for quite a while. Mandy and Trent still had to go back to Salt Lake to catch a plan in the morning. They went to Cancun for their honeymoon. When they got on their plan, the airline gave them a free upgrade to first class!! SAAAAWEEEET!!!

We love you Mandy and Trent!!!

This is for my cake friends!! I put a tutorial for making the carnations on the Sugar Teacher's blog. You can view it here.

My Niece, Audrey's, Wedding

My niece, Audrey was married to Sam on May 23, 2009.

Here are some of the pictures that I took of the wonder day!!!

This is my step-FIL Lynn, my BIL Steve (the brides dad) and my MIL Velma (Joe's Mom). They are sitting outside the Rexburg Temple waiting for the bride and groom to make their entrance into the world as a married couple.

This is the view from in front of the Temple. Indications of things to come!! Later, we did have to move the outside wedding reception to inside the church! Audrey wanted to so much have the reception outside in her parents beautiful yard.

This is my SIL Lenora, the brides Mom, talking to the photographer. Still waiting for the bride and groom to show.

Well they made their way out of the Temple finally and couldn't wait to start smooching!! Audrey is wearing her mother's wedding dress!! I thought that was so sweet!! People just don't do that anymore!!

The cute couple!!!

We went back to the house to decorate and put the cake together, but the wind was so bad, we had to move it to inside. It turned out better that way anyway!! Wish I would have taken more pictures of the decorations and things and the FOOD!!! It was great!!

Here are the culprits that decorated the bride grooms car!! I'm supposed to keep quiet about it, so don't tell!!!

The finished job!!

It's cake time!! This is the cake that I made the happy couple!! It's a chocolate, vanilla and yellow cake, covered in buttercream with fondant drapes, gumpaste daisies, calla lilies and chocolate clay twigs with ribbon that I swiped from their house!!!

This is almost the whole Newton family!!! Wendy wasn't there yet and Amy had already left.

This is Wendy and her kids. They had to come kind of late, but I was glad that they still came!!