California Strawberry Festival

There's quite a few strawberry festivals throughout California but this was my first, in Oxnard.

We visited my in-laws that live in the area and got a chance to take in the sites and deliciousness of the Strawberry Festival. They've got it all:

chocolate covered strawberries

strawberry crepes

strawberry nachos

make your own strawberry short cake

strawberry pizza

strawberry beer

strawberries and champagne

strawberry jam

strawberry cheesecake

This week I will trying my hand at Strawberry Nachos because I think they are so unusual and of course I need to see if I can make them BETTER than the folks did at the fair. Stay tuned.

Mini Donuts

Today is "bring a treat for the teacher day" and so we made mini donuts. I couldn't resist buying the pan when we visited Sur La Table over the weekend. Love these. So cute and simple. Here's a recipe I pulled and altered from allrecipes.com.

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup buttermilk

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2T. melted butter 

1 cup confectioners' sugar

2 tablespoons hot water

1/2 teaspoon almond extract (I omitted this because I have childhood nightmares of its overuseage)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease a doughnut pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Stir in milk, eggs, vanilla and shortening. Beat together until well blended.
4. To make glaze, blend confectioners' sugar, hot water and almond extract in a small bowl. Dip doughnuts in the glaze when serving.

Graduations Caps

Kindergarten graduation is upon us and so Katie was given a project to work on at home this week. A Graduation Cap.

Katie and I went to the art cupboard and picked out buttons and brads she wanted to use.  The two basic rules were; it had to have her name and it couldn't be too heavy. First, we used the Cricut to cut out letters. We used felt flowers, regular and fabric covered brads, colored paper circles we made with a paper punch, and some small buttons. Katie glued it all together with some e-6000 and with moms help finished it off with a tassel. She loves it!

Pepperoni Bread

There's a few ways to make pepperoni bread but this is how I was raised to make it by my Italian grandmother and so I think this is how it shall stay. Some people roll the bread so it makes this cute little spiral - I say boooo. I like all the goodness in the middle and all the bread surrounding it. Below you'll find the instructions on how to make the deliciousness and here's what you need:

1 loaf frozen bread dough (set out to rise according to package instructions)

1/2 lb of mozzarella cheese

1/2 lb sliced pepperoni

2 T. olive oil

1 egg white

dash or two garlic powder

1 T. melted butter

salt

preheat oven to 400 degrees. drizzle a little olive oil on the pan then pull dough gently length wise, corner to corner then begin spreading equally to the sides.

place 2-3 handfuls of cheese and cover with pepperoni

begin to seal by bringing one edge of the dough over the top, pulling slightly

then bring the other side to the top and pinch/seal together

 On each end of the bread pull the dough out slightly then fold down to seal the edges.

Turn the entire loaf over so the sealed side faces down.

Blend egg white, dash of garlic powder, 1 T melted butter and large pinch of salt in bowl. Using a pastry brush, brush mixture on top of prepared bread. Pop it in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

 Always tastes best when served warm. A family favorite.

Rock It

While at the beach with the family I came across these smooth rocks. I collect flat smooth ones to help label wine and cheese at my next gathering. It also got my thinking that you can use them just about anywhere you want to label something or even just leave a special message for someone.

What you'll need:
several smooth, flat rocks
black chalkboard paint (found at Micheal's)
paint brush
chalk to write with

Start off by dusting the rocks clean. Apply two coats to both sides of each rock and let dry. Once they're dry for a few hours you can write on them. I tried using watercolor crayons and they worked well, too. These make great and easy gifts even your kids will enjoy making. TIP: you can also paint small rocks and hot glue them to the back of each larger rock so they slant slightly off of a cutting board.

 My favorite cheese, Ewephoria.

Potato Cakes

I made potato cakes the other day thinking it would be great to use all the left over mashed potatoes I had made the night before. I found this recipe AFTER I made mine. Wish I would found it BEFORE.
http://www.food.com/recipe/leftover-mashed-potato-pancakes-9054

Mine tasted good but for some reason did fare well in the pan.

They acutally look like their doing okay and then....not so much.

I'll try again maybe with more flour next time.

In the KinderGarden

When I volunteered to help prepare the garden for the Kindergarten class I had no idea I'd be manning a Rototiller. But before I manned any machinery a family with a winery stepped in and donated wine barrel planters. Thank you!
They came in, dropped the planters in place and we filled them with potting soil, ready for the kids to plant their KinderGARDEN. So, to finish it off I made a sign for both the preschool and Kindergarten classes to mark their gardens.