PORTUGUESE SERRADURA By Ruth

This has got to be one of the easiest, cheapest, and yummiest desserts ever! It literally takes 10 minutes from start to finish.  Anyone can make this!

Ingredients

Maria cookies 1 pack 80 cents

1 can of condensed milk Less then $2.00

1 pint of heavy cream about $2.50

That is less then $5.00 and can feed about 10-12 people easy.

1st crush maria cookies in a ziplock bag or processer

2nd mix the heavy cream until it peaks

and add condensed milk and mix it in

                                   4th layer either little plastic cups like this or glass bowl
                                            cookies cream cookies whatever you like
                                         more or less of either it will still be amazing.

Back to the 80's

 

This weekend we celebrated my niece’s 8^th birthday, with a splash of the 80’s.

My sister’s house was filled with the screams and giggles of ten 8 year old little girls and a hand full of terrified little boys. Everyone wore the best 80’s outfits and danced their hearts out to Justin Beiber and 80’s themed music for kids. They had a blast. Even I had fun dancing around with the kids!!! We played games like,

Music freeze (which by the way they were really , really good at) and Simon says. Ruth even had a real disco ball and strobe lights, which is a little 70’s, but  their 8, they can’t tell. Lots of great food, of coarse Ruth did all the cooking and for the favors she had a friend of hers who is starting up her bakery business make 50 cupcakes all decorated with all things 80’s. Super cute!!!

Ahhhh, birthdays are the best, and kids never forget them. It’s their special day!

Fruit sticks kids love these!

Wait……. that means I have 3 weeks to plan the twin’s birthday party!!!!

I better get started.

BACON MAKES EVERYTHING DELICIOUS! by Ruth

Here is a recipe I saw on pinterest, I made them on Saturday and they were absolutely amazing. Very easy!

Chicken breast

bacon

cream cheese 

jalapenos

adobo goya 

& toothpicks

Slice the chicken breasts as thin as possible, and season it with the adobo.

cut the jalapenos in tiny squares (remove seeds of coarse, unless you like it spicy)

take a slice of the chicken put a dab of cream cheese and some jalapenos and roll it up then take the bacon wrap it around the chicken and hold it in place with the tooth pick.  To cook them you can either grill them outside or what I did was put a tablespoon of olive oil in skillet, and cook them I covered the skillet for the first 3-5 minutes then  cooked them uncovered, occasionally add a little water if needed . 

I don't have pictures of the finished product. (I was in a hurry)

But they look great when there cooked. Nice & crispy looking!

COCONUT BANANA CAKE OR TRES LECHES? by Ruth

Here is a recipe for a great easy to make cake. 

I didn’t take pictures of the whole process because I wasn’t sure if it would be good or not. But it turned out delicious!

3 cups of swan cake flower

2 cups or sugar (or splenda)

4 eggs

1 1/3 cups of coconut milk

½ cup of condensed milk

1tea spoon of vanilla extract

2 ripe bananas

1 cup of shredded coconut

3 teaspoons of baking powder

½ teaspoon of salt

2 sticks (half cup) of unsalted butter

Pre heat oven to 350

Cream butter and gradually add sugar until light and fluffy

Add the eggs one at a time until each is well incorporated in the mixture

Sift the flower salt and baking soda together

Slowly add flower little by little alternating with the coconut milk

Also add in the vanilla extract

Add in about ¼ cup of shredded coconut (more or less whichever your preference)

Add in bananas and mix well

Bake for about 35 to 45 minutes until stick comes out clean.

For the topping this is optional mix whatever is left over from the can of coconut milk with about half cup of condensed milk set aside

In a skillet toast the shredded coconut till nice and crispy.  Poke a couple holes in the cake and slowly pour the coconut milk and condensed milk. Then top with the shredded coconut, and refrigerate until nice and cold.  Again this topping is optional but tastes amazing. If anyone has tried a tres leches cake this is similar. If you decide to not top it this way it’s still a very moist delicious cake.

Felt Flowers by Ruth

                                                                                  

While at Michaels craft store the other day I came across these pretty little felt flowers that I thought would be perfect to use as a broach, for Angie and Katherine’s coats.I looked at the price and they were $5.00 each. They were so cute but I just did not want to spend that much money on them, besides I bet I could make them for much less. As I walked through the aisles I came across the felt section, each 8x10 piece .29 cents! So I purchased many different colors and decided to give it a try. This project is so easy, and versatile, there are endless possibilities. From hair clips, headbands, broaches, necklaces, and even an added accessory to a bag. So simple, I think even the kids would enjoy giving this a try.

cut the felt in a straight a line

make a 1 inch straight line on felt paper  



Fold the strip in half and hot glue the ends.

cut little slits on the opposite end

       glue the back end and turn around and volia!!

Katherine loves her new head band!!!

Sock Dolls.......

Lately I’ve been feeling the itch to make something, and I’m not talking about cooking, but something more hands on. So it came to me, when the girls were playing house, why not try to make a doll.  They love to play with little babies. I have a box where I keep samples of fabric and sewing materials on hand when I get the craving to make something, so I got it out and found some colored socks that would be perfect to make little sock dolls. Now I had an idea on how to possibly make them but I had never done any before. When the girls were about 4 months old I made a little gingerbread man out of oatmeal colored fabric with my sewing machine and it soon became more of a sucking doll then a play toy, but what did I expect they were teething! The girls are growing up so fast and in a couple of years they probably won’t be interested in playing with little dolls anymore, so I have to take advantage of every moment. They are in my favorite age group now 6-9, the girls will soon be turning 8 years old and I still can’t believe it! The first sock doll I made took me 2 hours but the 2^nd and the third took about 45 mins each from start to finish, not to bad since I sewed them by hand.

Go Giants!!!!

Super bowel Sunday….. the NY Giants, a football and lots of players. Sad to say but I know zero about football, so when my daughters came home from school today and handed me a class memo, I began to panic. The 2^nd grades classes are going to be taking a school picture honoring the NY Giants and the children are asked to participate by wearing the colors blue or red or a NY Giants shirt. I knew the girls didn’t have any solid colored red or blue tees and we defiantly didn’t own any sports shirts, so off we go shopping. It is about 6:30 pm and we try a couple of sports stores and everything Giants for kids are completely sold out!!! Really???  Even plain blue shirts were completely out. Now what? It was getting late and we stopped by the only store that is open almost all night long….. good old Walmart! Ok, so they didn’t have any Giants shirts left for kids, but they had the right color royal blue polo shirts, and at $7.99 they were perfect!! All I would do is paint on the Giant’s Logo in white with some fabric paint I had at home and with a pair a cute skinny jeans they would be good to go.  

                     I googled the logo, printed and cut it out…

All Done....

Go Bananas!!!

Ever have this happen to your bananas? My girls love bananas, there are weeks when they want them everyday and then they go on a banana strike. Go figure! I hate throwing food away, I really do. When ever I have stale bread I always throw it out in the back yard for the birds and put fruit gone bad in the garden area I usually plant for the spring. A friend of mine at work shared a great banana bread recipe with me that specifically asks for blacken bananas. This couldn’t have come at a better time because I had 3 bananas that were ready to go!  It is super easy, and instead of making 2 loaves of bread as the recipe suggests, I made just one and 2 trays of mini muffins for the girls to bring as a snack for school.

3 or 4 over over ripe bananas

 4 eggs

 8 oz butter

1 1\2 cups splenda

2 tsp baking soda

pinch salt

1 cup walnuts small  pieces

2 tsp vanilla extract optional.

 This will make 2 loafs big size bake it for about 50 mins or so

Melt butter just warm or else eggs will cool if it gets too hot. Mix eggs, sugar, salt and slowly add 3 cups flour.

Mush bananas

 add and mix well and add nuts

I skipped the nuts, the girls just don't like them.

 in the oven at 400 degrees for about 50 mins

All done! Smells amazing…..