Happy Birthday!

My oldest turns 5 today!  Cannot believe how fast this has happened, or even how much she has changed over the years.  Last weekend we had her "Tangled" birthday party.  The party was a huge success, almost everyone on the invite list showed up.  It really was a good thing that weather cooperated otherwise we would have all had to try to pile into the tiny or garage, or even tinier house. 
So for her birthday cake, she decided on the infamous doll cake.  For those of you that don't have kids, the doll cake is a big cake with a doll stuck in the middle, the cake is her skirt.  I have never made one and the directions that I found online, really made no sense.  The gist of it, you bake a cake in a bowl, hollow out the middle and stick the doll in, frost, and enjoy.  The directions online called to make two bowl cakes and somehow put the together?  Of course there were no pictures to illustrate their point, so basically, wing it.  Well, we made one bowl cake, made two round cakes, and put it all together to get the final product. 

Everyone loved the final product, and as you can tell, Aiden added her own "bling" to the cake, sparkle frosting.  I have to admit, it looked pretty good.  Not to bad for just using pictures and imagination.  The best part, including the barbie, it cost about $9 to make.  I would have to guess that if we had bought if from the bakery, it easily would have cost triple that. 
Since we don't know our dog's birthday, we decided that we would celebrate his birthday with Aidens'.  So Phineas also got a birthday cake on his special day, complete with dog food sprinkles. 

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza.

So my family is obsessed with pizza.  Actually, Aiden and I am obsessed with pizza.  It is the one,  well, one of many, dish that we can eat and eat and eat.  I could eat it everyday, for every meal, if only my husband would let me, sigh.  Jets and Pizza Hut are by far my favorites, something about a thick, chewy, greasy slice that gets my stomach roaring.  Not only bad for my waistline, but Mark doesn't like thick pizza, he likes the thin crispy crap.  On the plus side, we have perfected the art of homemade pizza.  We have an awesome recipe for crust, which I of course make with my Kitchen Aid, found a great canned sauce, and an equally great bottle of Italian seasonings.  Put it all together with some ouey gouey cheese, and you have the best homemade pizza around!  In light of that, why not shake it up and try something new. 
Now, I should have realized that this wasn't going to be the best idea because of the fact that we are so used to the great homemade pizza that we are used to.  Even though, I still thought, why not.  I saw on the handy dandy television an ad to make personal pizzas using the Grands biscuits.  So Aiden and I flattened the biscuits, added the seasoning, sauce, cheese (light cheese for Carly) and pepperoni, and popped them into the oven.  15 minutes later, they were done. 
They turned out nicely, they rose and browned and made a mess all over.  Aiden and Carly both flew over to the table and a few minutes later, dinner was served.  Then a few minutes later, dinner was served again!  They loved them, Aiden ate 3 and Carly ate 2.  SUCCESS!  They were pretty tasty, should have added a little more seasoning, because you really could taste the biscuit, but all in all a keeper. 

Roasted Garlic Paste.....what?

One of my favorite online blogs to get new recipes from is Annie's Eats.  She has a love for Macaroni and Cheese which is an all-time favorite of mine and the kids.  Sunday I decided to make pasta with roasted garlic, white cheddar and wine sauce.  I did have to tweak it a little because of all the things we didn't like in the recipe.  Personally, I don't like broccoli or wine so those were nixed right off the bat.  I simply added more chicken broth and replaced the broccoli for some carrots and fresh green beans out of our garden.  So first thing in the recipe you had to make roasted garlic paste.  Like I have said before, I am a baker.  I love any and all things that I can make with my Kitchen Aid.  A chef I am not.  Surprisingly, the roasted garlic paste directions were straight forward enough for even me to make, roast garlic for an hour in the oven, and squeeze out the cloves and mash with a fork.  See, super easy! And super yummy!  The dish came together nicely, and I made a loaf a french bread on the side.  Now the verdict would come in.  Carly loved it, she ate and ate and ate, until she noticed that her sister wasn't eating, then of course, she stopped.  Aiden did not like it at all.  She just stared at her food, not the reaction that I was going for!  The husband and I loved it as well, which is surprising for us, because we usually don't take well to new foods either.  Poor Phineas didn't get any leftovers either.  He is usually pretty excited when a meal is done, waiting in the kitchen for the kids to scrape their plates in his bowl.  So this meal will be one that we will keep, probably keep tweaking little by little to satisfy the munchkins. 

Something Old and Somethng New

So to get things started, I started with an old favorite of my four-year-old, roast.  Aiden is not a big eater by all means, she mostly grazes all day long then won't eat a big meal come dinner.  It never fails that ten minutes before bedtime, she is starving once more, usually getting a bowl of Mini-Wheat's or Nutri-grain bar.  But for some reason, the kid loves roast. 
Personally I love roast too.  I make mine in the crock-pot and since we have been buying our meat fresh from the farm, it has never been better.  The fact that you can smell the aroma all day long just adds to the anticipation of the big "event", one reason that I am excited for the cold weather.  I usually make my roast with a can of condensed soup, some beef broth, either from a can or cubes, and some carrots.  For some reason, we don't like potato's that have been with a roast, because they taste too much like the meat.  Instead of the condensed soup, I opted for a dry soup and used it like a dry rub on the meat.  Then, because I forgot that I was making it for dinner, started it about two hours later than usual, which actually worked out for the best.  When I start the roast at 9am I find that I am turning the crock-pot off, or on warm, around 5pm, so as not to dry out the meat. 
The meal was a success to say the least.  Aiden had two helpings of roast, didn't care for the carrots though.  Carly was happy with the meal also.  She is easy to please for the most part though, and ate all of her carrots which made me happy.  This is one meal that will be added to my recipe book for more meals to come. 
Later this week I will try my hand at making a staple around our house, mac-n-cheese!  Have never made it from scratch so it will be interesting!