Brownie Pop Favors For A Baby

All ready to be bagged up and eaten.

  Have I told you before that I love babies?  Well I do. I love them even more when they don't belong to me.  Don't get me wrong, Pork Chop was the worlds cutest baby!  Don't believe me?  Well you take a look and let me know what you think.

Yes that is a picture of a picture.  This was taken when he was just a little Pork Chop.  And yes he did that on his own.  He had attitude even at that age. And yes that is on my fridge, I mean really how could I not put it up.

Try to forget that he got that from Hubby, I am the one that swears, Hubby must have taught him this.

  Anyway, babies are great, and when you have a baby you usually have a baby shower.  And baby showers mean treats.  And this is my super long way of getting a cute picture of Pork Chop on the blog, and working in a few yummies.

  So a friend of my sister in law was having a last minute shower, which lead her to ask me to make stuff. I did not have a lot of time so we had to choose simple.  And simple is cake pops.  Or in this cake brownie pops.  I could live off of these, and by I could, I mean I really should.

 To make these you just make some brownies and crumble them up with frosting, I know I have shown it before a few times, so I am just going to pretend you all know what I am talking about.  In case you don't here it is.

  So I was very lucky that these were a simple pop, the ones that you don't have to make perfectly round and they are going to be standing up.  I started with my mix and made larger balls and chilled them.

All done, and I am so glad it was an easy letter.  Could you imagine doing like a "Q" or something?  Things you should keep  in mind when you name your child.  Just saying.

 Then I melted my candy melts and got to work dipping them all.  I started by putting out a sheet of parchment paper and dipping the end of each lolli pop stick in the melts.  Then I put the sticks about half way into the ball, and let them set up a few seconds before I started dipping the whole thing.  It did not take too long.  Once they were dipped I let them set and warm up, because if there is one thing I know, my stupid cake balls are going to crack.  And when they did I just dipped them again and they were all good.

  Now for this little baby, we wanted to have a monogram on them, in pink.  So I took some pink candy melts and melted them, I used a disposable piping bag and a #2 tip.  Now you could use a squeeze bottle or a paper cone, but I like the control I have with a piping bag.

  I also want you to know that I finally figured out how to lower the power on my microwave.  This may in the future make using white candy melts better.  It may also not, who knows, just wanted to let you know I finally after 10 years and not reading the instructions, figured it out.  I am smart!

I had some extra, as I always do, and just figured I would play around.  My writing is horrible, even worse on a sideways cake ball.

I was too lazy to put his full name.

This could either be rude, or like Alice in Wonderland.  I opt to think Alice in Wonderland.

  So I piped on the H's and let them set up fully.  Then I just bagged them up, tied them up and put them in the cool basement to wait until Hubby delivered them.  I never put them in the fridge as they will crack and get condensation.  There is nothing in them that would go bad from sitting out a bit, so it was all good.

  So here's to other peoples babies, and me having a reason to each chocolate!

I'm linking up HERE and HERE

Cake Boss Black And White Cookies, Take Two

Wow  I didn't realize how ugly this picture was until now.  Oh well, they tasted awesome.  And I only know this because I may have eaten about 40 of them.

 So way back last year, I got to meet he Cake Boss, not a huge meeting, just a "thanks for watching"  sort of thing at a book signing.  It was neat because Pork Chop got to give him a few treats and he was really excited to meet a celebrity.  Anyway, we got a book and I poured over it for things to make.  And the first thing I made were these black and white cookies.  That was before Christmas last year.  And ever since then I have wanted to make them again.

 Once you taste these you will understand, they are like sugar pillows covered in a sugar blanket.  Which if you try not to think of actually eating a pillow or a blanket, is really yummy.  I made them the way the Cake Boss said at first.  And they were great, but they were huge.  And in being huge I could only eat one, and even then it was a stretch, those were sure some big cookies.

These are them, they were still big, I used my smaller cookie scoop and they still turned out big.

  At the time I swore to myself that I would make them again, and make them smaller and that I would not get sick eating them.  I kept two of those promises.  Bet you cannot guess which ones.

  So I did exactly like I did last time, except this time Pork Chop was not having any of it.  He was all "I don't want to help!"  And I was all "well I don't want your help!"  And he was all "fine!"  and I was all "Fine!"  And that really didn't happen.  I just asked him if he wanted to help and he said "No thank you."  But that does not make for good blog reading, so you pick the story you like best.

So this time, I tried to again spread the icing, but again it globbed up so I just dribbled it on, worked great.  And on my word, I never once licked the icing bowl.  Oh but I so wanted to!

  So here is the last post with the recipe I used.  The only difference was that I doubled the batch.  I got a butt load of cookies.  And that translates to I forgot to count.  But I has so many I think people at work were sick of them buy the end of the week.  Also I left them out in a box and they still seemed nice and soft about 4 days later.  But if you are normal they won't last that long.  My friends at work are on a summer schedule and as such it is too hot to eat too many.  Or at least that is what I tell myself.

  I cannot tell you how much I love these, seriously as soon as I ate the last one I was wanting to make more.  To preserve the somewhat enlarged butt I have going on, I won't. For now at least.

Apple Nachos

Yeah I know, not the nicest picture, but you know what, I am at peace with my crappy picture taking abilities.  Sort of.

  When I saw this on Shugary Sweets I knew I had to make it.  Why, well I don't know.  I mean I am truly against any kind of fruit in a desert, no matter how much sugar you put in there, you know there is fruit.  So I pinned it and just sort of forgot about it.

  Then I had plans to have my sister over.  We were going to order take out and watch a movie with Pork Chop.  So  I wanted a desert but really didn't want to make anything.  I had a craving for something though. So this is where I went, I went with fruit. As a desert.  And I am sort of ashamed to type that out.  Please forgive me.  It's actually really good, which I am really happy about.

This is all I used, I could have added sprinkles or something, but I forgot.

  So what Shugary Sweets did was actually an involved process, and by involved I mean she actually did her own sauce and such.  I am way too lazy for that.  I just hit up the ice cream isle and grabbed a few things.

  I got chocolate sauce, because that is classic.  I was going to get caramel but wanted something richer, I mean we had fruit to cover.  So I got dulce de leche.  It's good, trust me.  Then I got marshmallow fluff, I have never actually eaten that stuff before. But for the sake of my sister I was willing to try it.  And apples, you need apples, or else you are just making a sugary soup, which come to think of it, would not be a bad thing.

This is a great thing to have if you eat apples a lot, as it is I is another one of those things I had to have and use once in a while.

  Anyway I got granny smith apples as they are really sort of tart, and I figure that would allow me to put more sugar on it.  It's a scientific fact that you can eat the same amount of fruit and sugar, and there are no calories in the sugar.  Look it up, I swear.

  Okay so what I did was made my sister and I each our own plate.  Only because I don't like to share, and we would make less of a mess on ourselves this way.  Also I tried to get Pork Chop in on this, but he was not having any of it.  He likes apples, but only when we don't have them in the house.  He was all " I want green ice cream!"  And I was all " I don't have that!"  And he was all "Your the worst mom ever!"  But he said it with his eyes, which is way worse than really saying it.  So he ate popcorn and was fine.

See how easy?

Then into a bath of water and lemon juice, and slice them in half  so they are more nacho like.

  So I used my apple cutter thingy.  I got it a while back from pampered chef after seeing someone else I know with it.  I washed my apples then used the tool to cut them.  I left the skin on the apple because that is where all the healthy stuff is.  According to my mom anyway, and I might as well let her be right about one thing.

  I also got a bowl with cold water, and added some lemon juice, about 1/4 cup to about 2 cups water I guess.  Who knows really, I just eye ball things.  Then I took each apple slice and cut it in half to make it thinner.  Then I put them in the bowl of lemon water and sort of tossed them.  Then I laid then out on a plate all pretty like and we were ready to go.

I first put them on a smaller plate, but there was so much so I did this, way less chance of making a mess.

 Now if you want to be really fancy you could have chopped nuts or chocolate chips or something, but you all know I didn't do that, so I won't even pretend that I did.

  I tried the marshmallow fluff and it was just like my home made marshmallows, before they dry out.  So I could be really fancy and do this with fresh ones, but you all know I won't right?

And the money shot, it tasted way better than it looked.

  So it was really good, and I cannot believe how full I got off of one apple, I couldn't even finish it all.  My sister said it was good, and that I could write that on the blog.  So there you go, we both liked it.  And it was mostly fruit.  Maybe we are getting sick, who knows.  I just know I need more chocolate soon, no more of this fruit stuff.

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It's Over, Summer Time Fun Pictures

He is smiling now, but just mention school and he gets mad.

  So it's over, the summer is done.  And I feel like I got nothing done at all.  Really I had such plans.  They all fell through.  The one thing I did get to do was spend time with Hubby and Pork Chop, so you cannot really complain.

  Thought I would post some pictures to show you the fun we had.  We did a few day trips, because everything cost so much, we tried to just pic a few big ones.  So here are some fun pictures.

  And just so you know I hate taking pictures, a lot.  I never like how I look. So just pretend I am a super hot, it will make looking at these a little easier.

  So we went to the Zoo with my Aunt, she is awesome, she knows all the short cuts and she even will get down and crawl around with Pork Chop.  Although she wouldn't do this, I don't know why I did.

Yeah, so basically it is a ropes course.  And that means heights, I hate heights. Oh and you are basically comparing yourself to a gorilla, double crappy situation. 

And the funny thing is this is as high as we got, we went up one level and Pork Chop and I climbed back and forth across the easiest thing like 4 times.  I kept telling him it was fine we could get down, but he was all "no I like this" when I totally could see he was scared.  So after a few trips across and such we got off.  I will point out there are no pictures of me hugging the post behind me there, well none that I will post.  It was high!

Then another day we went to Canada's Wonderland.  It has been here for as long as I can remember and every year there is a new ride.  Hubby took Pork Chop a few years back, but he was too little for any real rides. Well this year, he was allowed on almost all of them.  And so we rode rides from the minute it opened, until the minute it closed. This is the big waterfall where they had divers, we saw them and Pork Chop was all "let's go, more rides!"

That is Pork Chop and I in the front of this kids size coaster.  I swear he would ride them all day , every day if he could.

And we got to go swimming at my parents a few times.  Pork Chop is big enough  to stand up in the pool but wears his life jacket to be "brave"  And I hate the pool now, not sure why, I would spend all day in it as a kid.  Anyway I spent the time listening to "Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy look at me!"  And then he would jump in.

And of coarse Hubby had to take pictures under water.  I will not post the self portraits he took, those are just for me.  Also Grandpa will always do a canon ball, Pork Chop thinks it's the coolest.  He has done that since I was a kid.

My little Pork Chop, he is getting so big.

And he had to wear these goggles, and jump in holding his nose.  So cute.

  Then this past week we went to the annual exhibition.  We had planned to go to the Fan Expo, you know the thing I was making my steam punk outfit for?  Well since a little Pork Chop is due for some serious dental work in the near future we had to pick one thing to go to.  And I figure a trip as a family is better.  And considering the outfit I started for Hubby ended up being a complete mess, this was good.  Also they had a food truck weekend, so really it was for me to eat lots of food.

I only wanted pictures with the two treat trucks.  This pink one looked good! I have no idea who that guy is but he must be getting a treat, so I will allow him to be in my picture.

And here is Pork Chop and I and the Cupcake truck.  I was "scream cupcake!" Can Pork Chop yelled "No!"  So there you  go.   Notice the owner giving me the look?  Well you know, I am used to that by now.  Poor Pork Chop was not feeling the best, so I carried him "piggy back" for a while.

It was only 10:30 am but I felt bad because I wanted to try a cupcake.  I did and only took two bites, then tossed it.  Way too sweet first thing in the morning.  But I bet it would have rocked later on.  So sad.

We usually only get ride passes for Pork Chop and one of us, they are costly.  We lucked out that my brother in law won two and hooked us up, but I was the lucky one to go on the rides.  Can you tell that I am loving it?

I am trying to give Hubby the stink eye, as I got really wet and he was all nice and dry. Jerk.

And it was so hot we had to sit in a building to try to cool off.  So Pork Chop make himself a craft, and picked out a stuffy for his new cousin, who is "the cutest baby ever!" as he says.  I think he is obsessed with her, he is always asking about her.  And me and her mom hope they get married one day, we are not related really so it's all good.

And here is my guy in his cool guy shades, eating a plain snow cone.  He loves shaved ice, and he was not drinking enough so I figured it would get some water into him.  But the lady at the stand gave me a weird look when I said no flavor please, and people were sort of eyeing him as they passed by.  I choose to believe it is because he is cute, not because they probably feel sorry for him having the mother that will not allow him to have a real snow cone.

  So that is about it, we didn't do as much as we usually do, as this is the first summer I am working my second job.  I actually miss spending as much time with the boys as I used to.  But then give me an hour with them and I am ready to go to work.  Just saying.

  Hope you are all ready for back to school, because it's going to be a while until next summer.


I'm linking up HERE and HERE