Off To Girl's Camp

It's that time of year again for

Girl's Camp

and I am off this morning.

We head up the mountains for a 

week's stay.  It is filled with fun,

hikes, "singing in the trees", snipe hunts,

canoeing and just a wonderful time

being out in nature.

This year our theme is

about being a daughter of 

a Heavenly King.

I am a daughter of royal birth

My Father is King of  Heaven and Earth.

I was raised in the courts on high,

A child beloved, a princess am I.

I already have my boots on so I

will be out of computer, cell phone, and all

technology range.

See you next week.

Almond Cookies and Cream Ice Cream

Summertime is filled with homemade ice cream

at Purple Chocolat Home and taking  a great

Cookies and Cream Ice Cream and adding a

few of our favorite flavors, we created

Almond Cookies and Cream Ice Cream.

To take it one step further, we added some chocolate

swirls.  This is one of our favorite flavors this summer.

Almond Cookies and Cream Ice Cream

2 1/2 C. sugar

2 - 7 oz. jars of  Kraft Marshmallow Creme

Egg Beaters - equivalent of 8 eggs

1 quart whipping cream

1 quart milk

1 tsp. almond flavoring

1/3 pkg. Oreo cookies, crushed

Hershey's chocolate syrup

In large mixer bowl combine sugar, marshmallow

creme and Egg Beaters.  Mix until well blended on low.

Add the cream, milk and flavoring.  

Process in ice cream maker.  Use 8 parts ice to 1 part

rock salt to freeze ice cream.  

Meanwhile crush Oreos and place in a 9x13 pan

and place in the freezer.  

When the ice cream is frozen, stir into the cold 

Oreos then swirl in the Hershey's syrup.  Place

in the freezer for 6-8 hours or overnight.

This one is a fun twist on Cookies and Cream.

I will be posting this with

Sweets for a Saturday

The Bees Are Buzzing - 24th of July Celebration

We are lucky in Utah because we get to

have fireworks both on the 4th of July and

on the 24th of July.  On the 24th of July we

celebrate the pioneers entering the Salt Lake

valley in 1847.  It is called Pioneer Day.

Utah is known as the Beehive State,

so today's table honors our 24th of July

Celebration with a bee table. 

A few months ago I received an email coupon for 30 percent

off anything on Horchow's  website.

Of course, I had to go take a look and  I found these

fun Bumble Bee plates.

They are a soft buttery golden color and the 

raised detail is just wonderful.

Matching salad plates have the reverse design 

with the honeycomb around the rim and the bee

in the center.

They also had Wallace's 

Napoleon Bee flatware, and with everything

30 percent off, I decided to splurge since I am from the

BEEHIVE STATE.

Here is a closeup of the bee plates.

It was really fun to use these for the first time

for a family dinner.  Adults and children alike

were really enchanted by the bees, both on the

plates and on the flatware.

I added a little craft store bee to a silver napkin ring

and tucked in a little ivy and a yellow rose from

the garden.

The beehive table needs a little beehive

cake don't you think?

Yellow and clear bubble glasses

and ruffled placemats sit atop a

stone table.

Since bees love flowers and so do I,

I cut some Peace roses and my very first

gardenias ever.

The gardenias are a potted plant that I hope to 

take indoors for the winter.  

The smell is just incredible!

The Bee hive cakes were made

from 

Betty Crocker's  Bonnie Butter Cake Recipe

which is always my go-to recipe for a buttery, rich

cake.  I have my Betty Crocker Cookbook from 1976,

right after I graduated from high school!

 I baked them in my mini bundt pans and

stacked two, then crumb coated them and piped

on a Honey Cream Cheese frosting.

Yum! (I will have to fight off the bees!)

Thanks for helping to celebrate the 24th of July

or

Pioneer Day

with me today.

Hope you enjoyed your visit to 

Purple Chocolat Home.

Plates and flatware - Horchow

Glasses and topiaries - Tai Pan

Napkins - Pier 1

Napkin Rings - Wal Mart

Placemats - Home Goods

I will be posting this with 

Tablescapes Thursday

If you love pretty dishes and placesettings,

come visit Tablescapes Thursday.  It is so much fun!

Pancakes and Pinterest

Doesn't looking at this Cinnamon Roll Pancake 

make you just

swirl

oops, I mean swoon!

I saw a picture of this on Pinterest and

I was drooling.

Ok, some of you know about Pinterest and

many of you asked about it.

Pinterest is a "way to catalogue the things

you love" as they say on Pinterest.com.

I would describe it as a place to create your

own personal bulletin board collages from

internet images.

To begin, visit Pinterest.com and request an invite.

They may take a while to get back to you, but

they will eventually send you an email and 

have you set up an account and choose a password.

Next you create a "board" or a collection of

interest, for example, I created a food board that

I titled "Food As Art".  Then I began "pinning" or

clicking on beautiful photos I saw and Pinterest

automatically catalogues those photos on my 

"Food As Art" board.  I can create as many different

boards as I want.  I just saw one tonight that had

a different board for every color and it was just a

collection of inspiring photos in that color.

When you click on someone's board then you

can be redirected back to the original source, so 

for instance on the Pinterest picture of the

Cinnamon Roll Pancake, when I clicked on it, 

I found the original post at

Recipe Girl.com so I could make the recipe.

Next you can follow friends and they can follow

you and then all of their picks show up on your

main Pinterest page.  You can "repin" their picks

or pins and add them to your boards or just enjoy

them on your main board.

From what I can tell, Pinterest automatically

connects you to your Facebook friends

and then tells you that they are members of

Pinterest and asks if you want to follow them.

You can also follow people you find on Pinterest

that you like their taste.

First let me say, that Pinterest will up your

drooling on your computer, so if that is

a danger to your equipment, don't even get started!

You will be drooling over food, fashion, places, spaces,

quotes, etc.

If you want to follow me, become my Facebook 

friend by sending me an email and I will 

tell you my Facebook account then when you

get your Pinterest account or if you already

have one, we will be asked if we want to follow

each other on Pinterest and anything I "pin" will

come up on your main board.

(I added this after I posted, but now I have a

"FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST"

on my sidebar if you want to follow me.)

Now, back to these fabulous Cinnamon Roll Pancakes.

Recipe Girl stacked them 3 high and I just had to

follow suit for the photos, but they are so rich and

delicious you are going to be really lucky to

eat more than one.

You basically make a fluffy pancake and

then swirl in a butter, brown sugar and

cinnamon mixture.  When you flip it over

the cinnamon sugar melts and creates

as she describes,  "craters of crusty, sugary cinnamon."

Then, just to make it complete, you top it with a cream

cheese glaze!  Oh, it is even better than it looks.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes Recipe

Pancakes

4 C. all-purpose flour

8 teaspoons baking powder

2 tsp. salt

4 C. milk

4 T. vegetable oil

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet

ingredients in another bowl.  Stir them together 

until everything is moistened leaving a few lumps.

Cinnamon Filling

1 C. butter, melted

1 1/2 C. brown sugar, packed

 2 T. ground cinnamon

Mix the three ingredients together.  Place

in a disposable piping bag and snip the end

off or put in a Ziploc bag and snip the corner off.

(This will keep in the fridge so you can make them again

and again and again!)

Heat your griddle to 325 degrees.  You don't want

these too cook too quickly.  Make desired size

pancake on greased griddle and then using the

piping bag and starting at the center of the

pancake, create a cinnamon swirl.  Wait until

the pancake has lots of bubble before you try 

to turn it.  Yo will find that when you turn it

the cinnamon swirl will melt.  If you have your

griddle too hot, it will burn the cinnamon, so I

suggest 325.

  The cinnamon kind of melts out

and creates the craters which then fill perfectly

with the cream cheese glaze.

Cream Cheese Glaze

1/2 C. butter

4 oz. cream cheese

1 1/2 C. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

In a microwave safe bowl melt the

butter and cream cheese and then stir

together.  Whisk in the powdered sugar and

vanilla.  Add a little milk if needed to make

it a glaze consistency.

Printable Recipe

This was the feature on our Sunday Brunch

last week.

I will be featuring it on

On The Menu Monday

and

Sweets For A Saturday

A Garden Party for Baby's First Birthday

There is something just magical

about baby's first birthday party and

with a cake like this, how can it be

anything but magical.  Goldie is one and mama

Lindsay said she found all

of her ideas for the party

on Pinterest.com. 

I just adore this

ruffle cake.  I had never seen one

before and now I have seen them  all 

over the internet.

You can find out how to

make it online with how to videos

on Youtube.

Have you joined Pinterest yet?  It is

really fun.  As a matter of fact you will

find that I have pinned many of you, my

blog friends and have featured some

of your beautiful pictures.

Lindsay made this fun lace and fabric

hanging that set the tone for the

table.

She ordered these adorable straws on line and

put them in Ball jars.

Matching lace and fabric ties

top the cute jars.  

Pink is the order of the day

and it looks so cool and refreshing

in the summer outdoors.

A touch of pink was added to

 Rice Krispie Treats and 

then they were cut into hearts and flowers.

These fantstic little ham and swiss sliders

were a recipe she found on Pinterest.  You

make a poppy seed butter and top the

bun with it and then bake them until

the cheese melts.  These were a huge hit.

Pink and purple "ice cream cone"

cupcakes were adored by

all of the little ones.  She

placed the two frostings in 

separate icing bags then put them

in a larger bag together.  The larger

bag had a 1M tip and when it was

squeezed, the two colors came out.

This way the colors don't mix!

Another one sneaks off the platter!

The kids also had fun blowing bubbles.

Now for the funnest part.  Is this

a tradition in your home?  Do you let

them attack their cake on their first

birthday?  We love this.

Look at how she has her foot

up on the high chair tray -  Miss Casual.

This cake is almost too pretty to let her tear into it.

She is just too lady-like.

Ok, so she gets a little help here.

Sometimes you have to teach

them how to dig in!!!

 Mmmmmmm, I think I like this tradition.  Can I do it next
year too?

Let's finish with a few photos of the other 

party goers. (These are all six of my

grandkids!  To be a grandmother is

the greatest thing in the world!)

Everyone had a wonderful time.

Happy 1st Birthday Goldie!

I will be posting this with

Tablescapes Thursday

Seasonal Sunday

Mini Chocolate Cherry Pies

Our massive cherry tree is ready to be picked

and although we enjoy the fresh fruit just

as it is, I wanted to create a recipe to

use the sweet cherries in.

Chocolate covered cherries are one of

my favorite treats to make at Christmas

so I decided to make a  Chocolate Cherry Pie.

I love any dessert in little individual form.

They make it so much more fun for serving

to guests.  Often for a dinner party I make

small desserts and have each couple share

one.  

Chocolate Cherry Mini Pie Recipe

2 eggs

3/4 C. flour

1/2 C. brown sugar

1/2 C. sugar

3/4 C. butter (no margarine), melted

1 C/ semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 C. chopped, fresh sweet cherries

enough pie crust for 2 - 9 inch pie shells

Pre-heat oven to 325.

Mix the eggs, flour, sugars in a bowl and

stir together.  In another bowl place the

chocolate and butter and microwave for

1 minute.  Stir until smooth.  Add to the

egg mixture and then stir in the chocolate.

If you are making a large pie, this will make

one pie, if you are making individual pies,

this will need  the dough for 2 pies and

will make 6 individual pies.

Bake at 325 for 60 minutes for a large

pie or 30 minutes for individual pies.

I dipped some fresh cherries in chocolate for a garnish.

This is a fudgy, rich pie that is moist in

the center with bites of cherry.

It turned out so great!

I will be posting this with

Foody Friday

Sweets for a Saturday