4th of July Ideas

 

 

Subway Art

I love having Subway art around my house with every season. This piece of art from 36th Avenue is especially festive. I love the fonts that she chose.

Source: 36th Avenue

Free Patriotic Fonts

If you are having a party this year and would like to use some Patriotic Fonts you can go to the 36th Avenue and download your own fonts to use for your own super cute invitations!

Source: 36th Avenue

 

How Glorious would it be to wake up to these beautiful pancakes on the morning of the 4th?!?
And yes, they are red velvet pancakes!! Go to I am baker for the recipe.

Source: I am baker

At every parade you need some parade wands so you can wave to the people in the parade. Aren't these precious and so easy to make.

Source: Eighteen 25

 

What a fun and inexpensive way to serve snacks at your 4th of July party! I love them!

 From the Idea Room 

 Written by Whipperberry

These cupcakes toppers are not only festive for cupcakes but you could stick them into almost anything with toothpicks.

Source: Paper and Pigtails

Source: Pint Sized baker

Source: Room to Inspire

 

Source: The Sisters Cafe 

 Red, White, & Blue Parfaits

 Red, White, & Blue Chocolate covered pretzels




 Serve a red beverage with blue pop rocks along the rim of the glass. This drink will take every one of us back to our childhood on this 4th of July!! Pop! Pop!!

Source: Pizzazzerie






End the night with sparklers and fireworks of course!! I love the way Celebrate Magazine grouped these sparklers together using the free printable that you can get on their website. And stuck them in a bucket of sand. Really festive!

Source: Celebrate



If you will be celebrating with small children and you feel sparklers are too dangerous then these will be a little safer, but still really cute and festive. You can go to the idea room for your free printable.

Source: Idea Room

Written by Whipperberry

Almond Poppyseed Muffins

 

I might have made these a little too soon after making our Almond Bear Claws. The claws made a lot and I probably should have frozen some of them. Because it made so many I made my family eat them up all week for breakfast so they didn't go to waste. And when I told the family what we were having for breakfast they said, "More Almonds?!.?!." It was funny! These are very good and light and were enjoyed by all. Just don't bake all your almond recipes in one week. ;)


Almond Poppyseed Muffins

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 1/3 T oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 T poppyseeds (I added more than a tablespoon because we like poppyseeds)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large mixing bowl cream butter, oil, eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and almond. In a separate bowl mix flour, salt, baking powder, and poppyseeds. Add to first mixture and blend well, but do not over mix. Pour into muffin pans that have been greased or have papers. Bake between 23-27 minutes.

Icing:
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Mix ingredients together and drizzle over muffins.

Source: This recipe was adapted and altered by The Princess and her Cowboys

9 Delicious Mexican Food Recipes

Chipolte Chicken Taco Salad

Creamy Chicken & Chile Enchiladas

King Ranch Chicken

Slow Cooker Chile Verde Pork Enchiladas

Beef Carnitas

Smothered Chile Colorado Burritos

Taquito's

Taco Salad

Cheesy Chicken & Rice Bake

Recipe Swap #1 Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Today I'm excited to write my first post as a participant in the Surprise Recipe Swap.  I joined the group last month and was excited to receive my secret partner of the month. As a member, I will be given a blog each month to check out and replicate one of their recipes. On an assigned day, we all post and reveal who our secret blog partner is! I'm excited to participate in the group, it is great to find new recipes and learn from other bloggers.

My secret blogger is, Stephanie from Attainable Cuisine I really enjoyed going through her posts and reading her work. She is a wife, busy mother of three children, and finishing her degree in education. She even finds time to blog about her cooking!! I don't know how she gets it all done, but she does and she does it well. :)

As I looked through the recipes, I was drawn to a sweet treat. The treat is called  Lemon Crinkle Cookies. For some reason I have been really wanting lemon desserts lately so when I read about this recipe my mouth started to water. These cookies are so light and moist. Perfect for a hot summer day with a tall glass of ice tea.

 

  Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 tsp lemon zest
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F & line your cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Combine dry ingredients, except the powdered sugar, and set aside.
Cream sugar and butter until fluffy. Add egg, vanilla, zest and juice; mix until ingredients are incorporated. Slowly stir in flour.
Either using a small spoon or a teaspoon scoop out dough and gently roll into balls, dip each in the powdered sugar to coat. Place on cookie sheet and bake 13 minutes. Be sure to watch closely towards the end of baking since all ovens bake differently.
Cool for 2 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to a cooling rack. Store in a airtight container.

Source: Attainable Cuisine

If you are interested in also participating in a future surprise swap go here to the Hungry Little Girl's blog. :)

Mario Kart Birthday Party

 

My little guy turned four this past weekend. I can not believe how time has flown by and that he has grown up so much. Joey loves Mario Brothers, Mario Kart, Mario Party.... Truly anything Mario. Last year I threw him a Super Mario Brothers party and he wanted to do that again, but I encouraged him to change it up a little bit and all I was able to get was Mario Kart. ;) He changed the theme by a hair!! Ha! Anyways, I once again had a ton of fun planning the party and wanted to share parts of it with you.

I made King boo out of lanterns I found at Party City. I drew the face and my mom cut out the tongues that we taped on. I then folded some yellow card stock as a crown. It would have been really cute to glue some rhinestones to the crown but I ran out of time. After we got home from the party my son asked if I would hang the Boo's from our ceiling fan!! Sure why not, but before I knew it they were shooting the Boo's with Nerf guns!! Raising Boys....  :)

 These star power cookies are sugar cookies. I used a cookie cutter and pushed a cookie stick into the dough before baking. After cooling I decorated with icing. It was a good thing I did it the night before because the icing took 60 minutes to set.

 Aren't these cute!! PVC pipes from Home Depot spray painted with green Rust-oleum. Make sure you use this type of spray paint. Supposedly, regular spray paint doesn't stick to the PVC. My boys are still playing with these pipes even after the party.

 

 How fun are these!! I found the molds on Amazon and filled them with white chocolate. These also made an appearance at last year's party. Too cute not to make them again. I also sprinkled the gold chocolate coins down the center of our table. Mario has to have his power coins to collect. ;)

I also found these chocolate mustache molds on Amazon. These were also a huge hit. I used Wilton chocolate to melt and place in the molds. It works beautifully!!

 Each child got a cupcake with a Mario Kart car on top. The kids loved getting to take these home.

The party favor bags had a Mario Kart notepad, Mario pencil, Mario pencil sharpener, Mario Eraser, and Super Mario fruit snacks inside them. I love the tag I attached. What a fun way to play on the word WE "Wii". :)

9 Delectable Breakfast Recipes

 

  Bread Pudding

French Crepes

Mini German Pancakes

Almond Bear Claws

Breakfast Jammer Sticks

Cream Cheese Danish

French Toast Casserole

Bacon and Swiss Quiche

Mini Monkey Bread

King Ranch Chicken Update

 

  Oh my goodness what a weekend we have had so far. Today we celebrated my son's 4th birthday. We threw him a Mario Brother's Party. I can't wait to show pictures in a post one day this week. It was a lot of fun. It was also his first soccer game today. Poor guy could only focus on his birthday party after the game that he didn't even play his first game. :(  He was so excited!!

King Ranch Chicken is one of our favorite dishes and we like to have it often. I usually season my chicken in the slow cooker prior to making this dish so it's easy to throw together. This is the recipe I typically use whole chicken cooked in the slow cooker. Well, one of my best friends is always talking about the simple way she seasons her chicken using one can of Rotel tomatoes with about 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts in the slow cooker until it just falls a part . Oh my this was a PERFECT way of seasoning your chicken for this dish! It was flavored just right for King Ranch. This is what I used this time and I'm not sure I will ever make it another way again! YUM!! This dish is excellent served with Spanish rice, guacamole & salsa with corn tortilla chips. And if your up for it, a Margarita. :)


Ingredients:

• 1 dozen corn tortillas
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2-3 cups shredded chicken breast
• 1 large green pepper, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2-4 tablespoons cooking oil
• 1 lb shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• garlic powder and salt to taste
• 1 10 3/4oz can of cream of chicken soup
• 1 10 3/4oz can of cream of mushroom soup
• 1 10 oz can of Rotel

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Cook chicken and shred. I use the shredded chicken that I previously seasoned, cooked, and froze for later use. You'll find that recipe here, whole chicken cooked in the slow cooker or you can use one can of Rotel tomatoes with about 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts in the slow cooker until it just falls a part. Saute peppers and onions using the cooking oil. Blend all ingredients together in a greased 9x13 casserole dish. Bake for 30 minutes or until done.