Sometimes you feel like a ...

Apparently we didn't have enough sweets at Easter. I felt the need to make cookies. But we had all the ingredients in the pantry ... so they're free, right?

Almond Joy Shortbread Cookies

(or Mounds Cookies, for those without Joy)

Ingredients

1/2 cup (3.5 oz) granulated sugar
2½ cups (11.25 oz) all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
10 oz butter, room temp
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

7 oz sweetened coconut flakes

1/2 cup slivered almonds

Cookies Cutters


Directions

1. In a small sauce pan over medium heat, toast coconut and almonds, stirring frequently. (Omit almonds for boring-old Mounds cookies.) When coconut flakes have turned golden brown, remove from heat. Pour into a bowl and set aside.
2. Combine butter, sugar, and salt with a mixer. Add flour slowly and mix on low speed until blended.
3. Spread dough flat between two sheets of wax paper and refrigerate until firm.
4. While waiting, snack on dough ... it's fine cause there are no eggs in it ... as if that ever stopped me.
5. Preheat oven to 350 F. On floured surface, roll dough flat until 1/4" thick. Cut with cookie cutters or circular glass, and place a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Roll again and repeat until you have used all the dough.
6. Bake at 350 F for 8-10 minutes, until the edges are golden brown. Cool on wire rack.
7. Melt the chocolate in a microwave or over a double-boiler.
8. Dip top of cookie in chocolate (or spread with a frosting knife), then dip in bowl of coconut/almond mixture. Place face-up on wire rack to cool.
9. Eat every cookie. Complain that you have a belly-ache.

Makes about 24-30 3" cookies.

Yum, city.

Easter Egg Party!

I haven't had an Easter Egg Party in YEARS!!! 2011 I was super pregnant/had a newborn, 2012 I can't remember, but I had a 1-year old, 2013 I don't know, I don't have a good excuse. But finally, this year! New house, new job (mom), and friends who are actually close enough to come to a party!

Decorations. I love FREE holiday decorations ideas! Got a bunch of paint cards from the hardware store and made a Carrot and Bunny garland.

I tried to make Egg holders with the cards too, but they ended up being too big! Boo! Would have been adorable had I actually measured the egg.

Food (and Drink). Nothing says PARTY like good food!

Blew out a bunch of eggs, so I of course had to make a Fritatta.

And easter egg Rice Kristpie treats! Yum!!! (just regular Krispie Treats with Rainbow sprinkles, shaped into eggs. Would have been super cute with an egg-shaped mold).

And Mimosas!

And the Eggs. Lots of choices for decorations!

Glue and tissue paper and glitter

Stickers and metallic paper

And regular liquid die.

We also had Nail Polish, crayons, water color pencils, and gel color for paining.

Don't Let the Pigeon Wear Your Hat

We're a little obsessed with Mo Willems around here. We've got almost all the Pigeon books, a few Elephant and Piggy books, and several late fees from the library for all the other ones we borrow. Ro's third birthday party was a Pigeon-themed Hot Dog party. We spent a Saturday last month at the Eric Carle museum accosting Elephant and Piggy.

And I can't seem to stop knitting Pigeon hats.

And Duckling hats.

And Pigeon dolls.

Mostly because people won't stop ordering them. And asking for them. They were my first sale on Etsy.

I do love that I am contributing financially to our family's budget ... or at least funding my yarn shopping allowance.

Rowan's Third Birthday!!!

(Cross-posted to Little Red Rowan)

Rowan is 3 years old. Can we just take a moment to marvel at that?

We couldn't celebrate his birthday on the 11th (more on that later), so we did a party with the grandparents the weekend before. We decided to have a Pigeon Party, since he totally love the Pigeon Books, and so do I.

It was very cute and laid back. I realized (today) that I had ideas for games, but I didn't actually do anything for them. We had only invited one other kiddo, and she and her parents couldn't come because SOMEONE decided to show up in their family a few weeks early. So it was only adults, so I guess we didn't need games.

I made pigeon cake pops ...

Beth gave me a cake-pop pan to try. This makes the balls with just cake, not cake mixed with frosting. So it makes them healthy, right?!

The only problem(s) with this method is:
1) when the balls get stuck in the pan. After a few batches, I found that COPIOUS amounts of Pam/cooking spray does the trick. I mean COPIOUS amounts, on both pans. Crisco/grease didn't work.
2) I only had one pan, so I could only do 12 at a time. It took about 4 batches to get through all the batter I had, which was about an hour of baking, plus about 10 minutes in between each for cooling. It took A LONG time.
3) the wrong amount of batter means to balls are not quite round. Too much leaves a little seam around the ball, and too little leaves the ball a little flat on top.

But in the end, they were pretty good.

Beaks. The cake pop book called for candy-covered sunflower seeds. You can buy these online or at baking supply stores, but only in big huge bags. I needed approximately 20. So I just took some of my candy melts, made them yellow, and covered a few seeds from my tin of trail mix.

It was ok, Probably needed to thin out the candy more (as I noticed later while dipping the pops), but not too bad.

Cake. I used this recipe, and it was AMAZING. Cut it in half, and it was STILL a lot of cake.

Dipping. Colored the candy melts blue, and thinned it out with vegetable oil. I needed to thin it A LOT more than I remember doing in the past, but it was so thick. I had just enough for 24 pops.

Eyes. Wilton makes candy eyes, but again, I didn't need 100 of them. And I was trying to do this a inexpensively as possible. I colored the eyes with gel color, white/sparking and black. It worked pretty well, though some of them "dropped" a little.

But they were yummy!!!

Decorations. God, I love Pinterest. So many Free ideas for Free decorations.

I chose the pigeon balloons ...

and pigeon toilet paper rolls (printable template here) ...

... and the classic streamers and balloons and my mom's birthday banner.

Food. Well, it was a Hot Dog party, right!!!

Hot dogs and mac & cheese (with french fried onions like at Eatery). 

And then presents. We decided on a play Coffee Maker and a balance bike. However, he's still too short for the bike. With the seat ALL the way down, he can JUST touch the ground with his toes. So I guess we'll stick with the tricycle for a few months.

Happy Birthday, kiddo!!!