Space Monkey Shakes

So in my last post I told you guys that back in January we visited Walt Disney World. While we were there we dined at the Scifi Cafe. It is themed like a drive in and is beyond awesome.  As a little treat we ordered Space Monkey Shakes they are basically a chocolate banana shake with banana rum in them! When we got home we attempted to make our own. Here is a how to!

you need one banana per shake! 

Two big big scoops of ice-cream.

chop up the banana so it all fits! 

start with one shot per shake and add more if necessary. 

blend it all up!

Top it off with some whip cream and enjoy! 

These are seriously delicious and have quickly become a house hold favorite, just in time for warmer weather! 

-Courtney

Photography

So back in January I bought this pretty little thing.

We've gone on quite a few adventures since and we're trying to get to know one another better.

The first adventure we went on was to Walt Disney World.  The original point of  going to Florida was to celebrate my boyfriend and I's 5 year anniversary. We had an amazing time and had plenty of time to see everything. There were so many picture taken so I will share one from eat theme park we visited!

Day 1: Epcot, however my camera died because I didn't charge it properly. 

Day 2: Hollywood studios, this is from the "Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show" 

Day 3: Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Day 4: Magic Kingdom.

Day 5: Universal Islands of Adventure. Harry Potter World! 

Next time I will share pictures of our beach adventures! 

Sugar Cookies!

Every Christmas I drool over the perfectly decorated sugar cookies. I love the embellishments, the shinny frosting, and the endless options for shapes and themes. Determined to make my cookies look like those found in magazines I found a recipe for cookies and royal icing and got to work. (The recipe I used was a combination of 2 recipes from my copy of "The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book"  and the royal icing recipe was formed after reading several recipes and a little bit of trial and error.) My cookies definitely didn't look like those in magazines but they were pretty tasty! 

With Easter right around the corner these would make some awesome treats! 

Lets get to it, shall we? 

Preheat oven to 350 and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

14 tbsp butter

2 tsp vanilla extract 

2 large eggs

Whisk together  flour, baking soda and salt. 

Combine the sugar and butter. Beat in the vanilla and eggs one at a time until combined. 

Reduce the speed of your mixer and mix in the flower mixture. 

form the dough into two large discs and wrap them in saran wrap. refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

Roll the dough out and cut your cookies out! 

Bake them at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Let them cool completely before decorating. 

As for the royal icing,  I am going to make a confession. I can't remember exactly what I used! 

If I am correct I used:

2 large egg whites

2 teaspoons lemon juice 

3 cups powdered sugar

Mix them together throughly. 

divide them into separate bowls to add color. 

carefully pour them into squeeze bottle or a pastry bag. 

I really liked using the squeeze bottles! I am not sure what gave me the idea to try them but I was so glad I did. 

Sugar cookies can fit into every occasion! Why not have a cookie decorating contest at your next party! 

Checkered Cake

Hey everyone, welcome to the first official post of February, a few days late but its better than an empty promise!

A year ago this month I received an awesome gift, a checker board cake pan set, before this cake I had only tried it once.  So last week, I "dusted" it off and get to work. I took the lazy route though and used boxes of cake mix to complete this project.

First things first, make sure you have everything you need!

Insert the divider into the pan and decide how you want to cake too look, you will have two layers that are patterned the same way. 

Fill your cake plans according to the plan, starting with the center, be careful not to let it drip into the center section too much! 

After you have completely filled you pan remove the insert carefully. Repeat this process until all 3 of your pans look something like this...

Bake your cakes according to the directions on the box. Lightly frost between the layers of the cake, and frost the outside as you normally would. I chose a homemade chocolate buttercream because its delicious!  

When your through, enjoy the beauty of your cake! 

This is a really simple and fun way to impress people. The hardest part really is filling the pan! I ended up pouring my batter into measuring cups with a pour spout. 

-Courtney

P.S. I totally tried to make my white cake pink by using a bit of red food coloring. It would have turned out better if I'd have used pink, however my dog decided to eat my pink food coloring right before I used it. 

February!!!

Well another month has passed and I totally failed on updating this blog. Please stick with me as I try to expand this blog, and maybe even launch a small business. I've got some deliciousness planned for this month! Keep coming back for more!

Homemade Marshmallows

So about a year ago, I was researching how marshmallows are made.  Then I stumbled upon a post on Smitten Kitchen about making your own marshmallows. I found my recipe there although I have seen it in several other places. This was pretty easy until I did not let the sugar and gelatin mixture mix long enough. I didn't notice and continued to make the marshmallows. So I had to try it again, the first portion of the pictures are from my first attempt, the rest from the second. Here goes nothing! 

Ingredients: 

Approximately 1 cup powdered sugar

3 ½ envelopes unflavored gelatin

1 cup cold water

2 cups granulated sugar

 ¼ tsp. salt

2 large egg whites

1 tbsp. vanilla

A few drop s of food coloring to spice things up

9x13 in. pan and a standing mixer or hand mixer. 

Your first step is going to be to oil your pan and sprinkle powdered sugar on top of it.  Make sure to get the sides too.

Pour 1/2 the water into the mixing bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over it.

 

In a sauce pan heat the sugar, corn syrup, 

the second half of the water, and salt on low heat.  

Stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar is dissolved. 

Increase the heat and boil the mixture until the temperature reaches 240 degrees. 

This took me about 10 minutes. 

Pour the mixture over the gelatin mixture. Stir until the gelatin is dissolved. 

Beat the mixture until it is 3x its original size. (This is where I went wrong the first time.)

Beat the egg whites until they hold stiff peaks.

Mix the egg whites and vanilla into the mixture.

Pour the mixture into the pan and sprinkle powdered sugar over the top.
Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
All picture above are from attempt #1, looking back on this photo I should have known they weren't going to turn out.

When done properly this is what your marshmallow block will look like. 

Cut into squares or use a cookie cutter to create fun shapes! Roll the marshmallows in powdered sugar to coat the sides. 

These were seriously delicious, they were pretty easy too!!


Try them out for yourself!!!




-Courtney 

Happy New Year!

Hello Everyone! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season! I took a little unannounced and unplanned hiatus, but I am back and ready for action!  I'm no longer spending 10-20 hours a week in the car and am super excited for what this year will bring. Hopefully lots of time for blogging and travel!

I have a ton of good stuff planned for you guys this month. Including MARSHMALLOWS and CHILI!

I got some cool new baking stuff for christmas too and can't wait to share it with you all. I also bought myself a new camera, hopefully it will kick the quality of this blog up a little bit!


See you all later this week!


-Courtney