Kid & Caramel Overload

Do you ever have days where you just wish you could call a do-over.

I'm having one of those days.

Since becoming a parent 7 years ago I've learned that sleep is never a given. Especially sleep on the weekend. I don't know why in the last seven years I've fooled myself by thinking, "oh they'll sleep in tomorrow I'm sure!" It never happens that way. I've so badly wanted to sleep in the last couple of days, but dear little Sophie decided that she wants to be up early, and has all of a sudden decided naps are no longer part of her schedule.

She has been fighting a nap for the last hour or so, no matter what I do. I'm about to loose my mind. So what do I do? I sit down at the computer and begin to type.

Because I know that most of you can relate.

I know that like me, you too have had those never ending, tear filled days where you just want to throw in the towel and scream,

"I QUIT!"

But we can't quit. We can't give up on our kids or ourselves.

We have to trek on, apron strings tied and smile on our faces.

It's not always fun, but it's defnitly rewarding. That the Kid Overload part.

If I had a gallon of Peanut Butter Buttercream today, I'm sure I'd have already eaten the entire container.

But instead of Peanut Butter today, I've got Caramel.

Caramel Cupcakes filled with Caramel and topped with Caramel Buttercream

Yep, that's the Caramel Overload part.

I know some of you have never attempted the whole homemade caramel process. And trust me, as many times as I've attempted it, I'd rather buy it in a jar at the grocery.

I was searching for a caramel recipe and that's when I found the greatest way to do this EVER!

I'm not sure if this really counts as "caramel" or not, you decide, I really don't care, I refer to it as the sweetest, yummiest, carmaliest thing I've ever made or tasted.

Okay, so here's what you need to do first.

Simple Homemade Caramel Sauce

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 Crock Pot

That's it!

Peel the label off of the Sweetened Condensed Milk.

Lay it in your crock pot.

Completely cover it with water.

Cook on Low for 8 hours.

Remove from Crock Pot and Voila! Caramel Sauce!

I told you! It is so easy! And no, I did not eat it right off of that spoon. I wanted to. But I practiced self control in this particular case!

Now, once you have your caramel sauce made, it's time to bake up the cupcakes.

Caramel Cupcakes

1 Golden Butter or Yellow Cake Mix

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup milk

3 eggs

1/2 can caramel sauce (homemade kind works best!)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin tins.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, butter, milk, and eggs until everything is incorporated. Slowly add in caramel sauce and mix well.

Using an ice-cream scoop, fill the muffin tins 2/3 full.  Bake for 15-18 minutes or until tops bounce back.

Remove from pans and cool completely on a cooling rack.

Once cupcakes are cooled, pipe some of the left over caramel sauce into the top of each cupcake. I used a large round decorating tip for this.

Caramel Buttercream

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
3-4 Tablespoons milk
Caramel Sauce

In a large mixing bowl combine butter and shortening. Add in vanilla. On slow speed begin adding in powdered sugar. Add milk one Tablespoon at a time if needed. Add in caramel sauce to your liking Continue mixing until frosting is piping consistency.

Pipe frosting onto cupcakes. And then as if that wasn't enough caramel, melt some remaining caramel sauce and drizzle over the top of each cupcake.

I'm feeling much better just thinking about these cupcakes. Enjoy!

Happy Father's Day

I am so non-creative when it comes to giving gifts.

(I know, cupcakes, but who wants cupcakes for every single holiday or birthday? Okay, I would, but we're talking about normal people here.)

And again I'm such a procrastinator.

It seems I always think of that perfect gift or idea two months ahead of time, but I always wait until a few days before the event to actually try to get it together.

Father's Day has been no different.

I had this idea about 3 months ago to do this project for Dear Hubby.

And of course, I wait until today to try to get it together. Luckily the kids were pretty cooperative today so it came together quickly!

And thank goodness for 1 hour photo processing!

I figured that since Dear Hubby has his own office now that he needed to decorate it up a little bit, and what better way to do that than pictures of the kiddos.

I'm sure you've all see how this project is done.

Simply take pictures of the kids with the letters spelling out whatever you want, print and frame.

I went a little further and used PicMonkey to create a collage, fix up the colors a bit, and then put the label on it (I love PicMonkey now that I'm figuring it out thanks to my friend Ashton from Something Swanky).

I'm sure this project would be great for any occassion.

I'm thinking about making one for myself! That's not too weird is it?

So, if you're a last minute gifter like me, you've still got 8 hours to get this done!!

Happy Father's Day to all the great Dad's out there!!

It's Time For A Carnival

It's time to take a trip down memory lane.

Back to a time when riding your bike by yourself on a city street was safe.

A time when playing Ditch 'Em after dark wasn't frowned upon by your parents (just the local law enforcement).

A time when spending every single day at the public pool, by yourself, with your besties and trying to impress that one boy meant more to you than all 45 days of summer vacation.

I remember those days very well. Those were some of the best days of my life.

No cares in the world.

Thinking you were so grown up, when in reality you had no clue what being a grown up really meant.

My parents live just down the street from one of the local Catholic Schools.

Every year the Catholic School would hold it's Annual Festival. To me, it was a Carnival.

They'd close off all of the streets around the school and church.

They'd haul in The Scrambler and Go Gator Coaster and all of the other puking machines and all of the neighborhood kids would spend way too much money on sugary Cotton Candy and the daunting task of winning an inevitably ill gold fish with a limited life span. 

As much as I loved those gold fish, I was all about the Cotton Candy.

I love loved how it would melt in your mouth, and somehow, no matter how careful you were, it would end up all over your face and fingers.

I miss those days.

Although secretly I try to relive those moments vicariously through my kids.

When all of the other parents are screaming, "No, you can't have cotton candy it makes you act crazy", I'm all, "let's buy the ginormous bag!" "We only come to the fair once a year!"

(my kids love me)

So when I saw that Hayley, The Domestic Rebel made

Sea-Salted Cotton Candy Kettle Corn

I was in love.

I was 11 again, riding my pink and purple ten speed bike, taking on the world one bag of cotton candy at a time.

I knew I had to make it.

The recipe is fairly simple. The hardest part for me my kids was staying out of the kettle corn while melting the chocolate.

I hope that when you try this recipe it takes you to a time and place where you feel like a kid again.

Come on everyone, It's Time For A Carnival, got your tickets??!

And just so you know, this recipe will draw crowds. Just take a look at the spectators!!

 

A Junk Food Junkie turned Clemintine Crazy

I hate to admit it, but we are a house full of

Junk Food Junkies.

Straight up snack-a-holics.

Although I'm so not proud to admit that, it's the truth.

I'm trying to be better. It's just so hard when this is staring you in the face.

And trust me, this is light. We had a massive file 13 cleaning a few weeks ago. It was down to left over Easter candy and apparently some Christmas Sweet Tarts that Santa forgot to put in the little one's stockings.

Anyways.

It seemed as though the littlest one in this house had more of an addiction to this crap than any of the rest of us. She got into such a bad habit of opening up this drawer every morning, noon, and night and sneaking a snack. Yes. She is only 22 months old, but very demanding about what SHE wants!

I decided it was time to rid the house of this junk and start anew.

Two things happened.

I decided to start exercising again and I decided to look for a healthy alternative cupcake.

It's funny. 

How come your body decides these things after sitting for 3 days of being sick and not wanting to move a muscle in your body, and when you finally do decide to do something about it (i.e. order a DVD online to be shipped within 10 business days) that by that said 10 business days comes around, earlier said exercise motivation has gracefully left the building.

Well, it's almost here. The DVD that is. I think I've checked FedEx 100 times today to see if they had delivered the package yet. Never mind the fact that I was sitting within 10 feet of my front door and I would have definitly seen the FedEx driver come down my circle driveway, walk up to my door, and ring my door bell.

But what if I missed him while I was taking out the before mentioned cupcakes from the oven?

What if he/she snuck onto our property like the SWAT Team on National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?

Or...What if he/she followed Google Maps for our address and ended up on the other end of our road, knocking on someone elses door that doesn't even know who Jillian Michaels is?

What a tragedy that would be.

(Hold on now I'm paranoid I missed him, I gotta check it just one more time! Nope. Not here yet)

Another funny thing about all of this though, is that today as I was sitting down looking over my favorite pages on Facebook, I noticed a post from

Four Marrs & One Venus

It was a picture of a Jillian Michaels DVD.

What! Someone else is just as crazy as I am?! Someone is going to get their Shred On?!

Yep!

Jen from Four Marrs & One Venus has started a page on Facebook for all of us crazy enough to take this on. If you're interested in joining in, you need to go to her Blog and check it out, she'll get you connected up.

So anyways, back to my littlest one in the house. I decided it was time to get rid of all of this junk food that was within her reach.

So instead of the junk food drawer looking like it did, now it looks like this.

One lonely bag of Cuties. But now, Sophie's favorite snack.

I don't mind her getting into the drawer now and grabbing a snack of her own. And she's finally learned how to peel them all by herself. She is a rather independent little thing.

And now that she has taken on a whole new approach to snacking. It's time to start looking at some new cupcake ideas.

I happened to be searching for something to make for dinner and I went to one of my favorite go to websites Taste of Home.

I remember my mom always getting this magazine when I was a kid. I always thought it was so cool all of the different recipes that were published and how they always hid that little toothpick somewhere in the magazine. I'm still to this day shaking my head at why I could never find that dumb thing. I wonder if it was just a ploy to get readers to look at every page in the book searching for that non-existant ticket to wealth, you know, kind of Willie Wonka Golden Ticket-esq wouldn't you say.

But for me, it's a go-to for a much needed update to the dinner time blah's.

I happened to come across a Clemintine Cupcake recipe.

I thought to myself, this sounds interesting, and I know I have the ingredients. I'll give this one a shot!

I was so excited to see further down in the recipe that it was listed as one of their Light & Tasty recipes.

I'm totally game now!

This recipe turned out really well, although, I think that you could probably make it even better by using a sugar free cake mix as a substitution, and I may just have to give that a try. Not that the whole cupcake will be sugar free, but I'm sure it would save you some grams and some calories.

But for now, we'll stick to it as is. Here's the recipe as written on Taste of Home, with a few little notes added in for good measure.

I hope that you will enjoy this cupcake. I hope that you will join me in the 30 Day Shred along side Jen at Four Marrs & One Venus, and finally I hope that all of us will be able to get the Oompah Loompah song out of our heads!!

Have a great day!!

  

• 1 package (18-1/4 ounces) white cake mix
• 3/4 cup water
• 4 egg whites
• 1/2 cup clementine juice (about 5 clementines)
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon grated clementine peel
• 4 clementines, peeled, sectioned and membrane removed (this was the most difficult thing to do...I ended up 4 clemintines into it, using a small can of mandarin oranges drained instead. They worked just fine! An orange is an orange is an orange right? Well for me it was!)
• FROSTING:
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon grated clementine peel
• 5 to 6 teaspoons clementine juice
• GARNISH:
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (you could also use dark cocoa candy melts, that's what I had on hand so that's what I used)
• 24 clementine sections with membrane (about 2-1/2 clementines)

 

• In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients; beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Beat on medium for 2 minutes. Fill paper-lined muffin cups half full. Place one clementine section in the center of each; gently press down into batter. Chop remaining sections; sprinkle over batter.
• Bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
• For frosting, in a small bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the confectioners' sugar, clementine peel and enough juice to achieve spreading consistency. Frost cupcakes.
• In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate chips; stir until smooth. Dip clementine sections halfway into chocolate; allow excess to drip off. Place on a waxed paper-lined baking sheet; refrigerate until set. Place one on each cupcake. Yield: 2 dozen.

Nutritional Facts 1 cupcake equals 238 calories, 9 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 7 mg cholesterol, 176 mg sodium, 40 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 2 g protein. 

Samoas, Thin Mints and...Pinewood Derby?

I always wanted to be a Girl Scout. I was fascinated by the green uniforms. Not so much the entire uniform as much as the Girl Scout Sashes adorned with badges notifying the entire world of your accomplishments. I don't know, maybe it's an acceptance thing for me, or something that I wanted to be able to show the world just how amazing of a Girl Scout I was. Yeah, well, that lasted through about 2 years of Brownies. I never did get that amazing green dress, still to this day when I see a Girl Scout covered in all her radiant merit badge glory, I am inspired to do good deeds.

I try to support the Girl Scouts, and you know what that means! This time of year is Cookie Time! I started to think, what could I possibly do food wise to use up the 4+ boxes of cookies I ordered (as if straight up from the box with a ice cold glass of milk wouldn't work). I just so happen to follow Something Swanky and she has devloped what I would like to now call The 35 Pound  Series, simply because I'm sure after seeing all of her great recipes I'm bound to gain at least 35 pounds. She's done some amazing Girl Scout inspired recipes this week, this is just one of them!

Samoas Dip

She also does this Linky Party on Thursdays, Sweet Treats Thursdays. And this is where I found Crumbs and Chaos and this recipe.

Thin Mint Popcorn

Now I have to warn you, both of these recipes are simply delicious and addicting! I've made both of them in the last two days, and can't stay away from either one of them. Again it's a good thing that I work with 6 other equally hormonal women that I can share these with or I may just have to rename it The 85 Pound Series. Seriously, if you want or need something tasty to take to a party or just to get you through the 4 hour Daytona 500, these would be perfect! Both recipes are down at the bottom, just scroll down, or better yet, keep reading and eventually you'll make your way down there!

These days I'm getting a slight glimpse of the scouting lifestyle again, except from a different aspect. The world of Cub Scouts. Dear Son decided he wanted to be a Tiger Cub, so off to Cub Scouts we went. Well, Dear Son and Dear Hubby went. Mom stayed home :(  After a few months of scouting we've had a few different events that haven't really reminded me too much of my scouting days, although that was oh, let's just say, a few years ago.
Today we dove again into Cub Scout world with what is apparently the mecca of all scouting events. The Pinewood Derby. Now like some of you, I've heard of this event, but was truely unaware of what Pinewood Derby meant to Dad's and scouts. After two long weeks of preperation, today was the day. The day that all little boys dream of. The day they perch themselves atop a long, skillfully crafted race track, waiting for the flag to drop and for their car to go racing down the speedway into the winners circle. I never want to get my hopes up too much, for fear of being let down. But you know when you have that feeling that you just want them to win so bad, that was me. Round 1, he won. Round 2, he won. And so on and so on. Undefeated through 10 rounds of Pinewood Derby. First Place! His first time around he won First Place! Can you sense the excitement exuding from me. I still can't believe that on his first run of Pinewood Derby he did so well. I am a very pround Scouting Mama!

So anyways, enough about scouting, let's get to cooking! First we'll start with the Samoas Dip. This is the recipe from Something Swanky as she has it written I did go ahead and add more coconut, and trust me, it wasn't too much!

I served this with Mini Nilla Wafers and Graham Crackers and it was fabulous!

Next, Thin Mint Popcorn. This too is the recipe as is on Crumbs and Chaos.

Now, don't say I didn't warn you. Both of these recipes yield high consumption! Enjoy!!

Pomegranate Cupcakes

So after my last entry I was trying to figure out what to do with my leftover pomegranate seeds, and but-of-course I had to do a cupcake! How though was I going to incorporate this tart, yet sweet flavor into this recipe. And then it hit me! Let me take you back a year or so ago.

I'm the type of person who would pefer her beverage be from a glass with an umbrella rather than a shot glass. I'm not really a beer or whisky person, unless it's in a cupcake of course. So about a year ago I had my first Pomegranate Martini (ok, so no umbrella). Immediately I went out and purchased a bottle of PAMA pomegranate liquor to make them at home (I guess I'm a bit of a tightwad, I can't see spending $7 per drink for something I can make at home). So for this cupcake I turned to my half-empty bottle of PAMA liquor. But have no fear, these can be made kid-friendly too!

Here's the recipe.

Pomegranate Cupcakes

Pomegranate Syrup
1/2 cup PAMA 
1/2 cup Pomegranate juice (kid-friendly: eliminate PAMA and use 1 cup juice)
1/2 cup granulated sugar

In a medium sauce pan, bring all ingredients to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the juice has reduced down until you have about a 1/2 cup of syrup.

Cupcakes
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon soda
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 eggs, room temperature
2/3 cup sour cream, room temperature

In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and soda, set aside. With your mixed beat butter and sugar until well combined. Add in eggs, one at a time until mixed well. Mix sour cream into butter mixture. Alternately add flour mixture and syrup into batter until well incorporated.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake at 350 degrees for 16-18 minutes or until the cupcakes bounce back to light touch (do not brown or over bake or they will dry out).

Frosting
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 Tablespoon sour cream, room temperature
1 T PAMA liquor (kid-friendly: just POM juice)
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
pomegranate seeds for topping

Allow cupcakes to cool, frost cupcakes with desired amount of frosting and top with pomegranate seeds.

Yeah! They turned out great! These cupcakes aren't just beautiful to look at, they taste amazing and are very simple to make. No response from the persnickety kids yet though,maybe after dinner.  I'll keep you posted!

Pomegranates, Pomellos, & Persnickity Kids

As I was walking through the grocery store the other day I was trying to look at everything around me. Trying to take in all of the things that I had never tried. Why? I really don't know. I'm trying to become more inspired. I'm trying to try new things. I've seen so many amazing cupcake ideas lately, all of which I have in my mind too, but just haven't acted on them as quickly as everyone else. Sometimes I over think things, I know that I should just go with my gut feeling, but it's taking that step and failing that I'm afraid of. I'm trying to get better at it. I take it one day at a time.

So anyways, as I was walking through the produce section, something caught my eye. What is this? a big, round, green, unripened grapefruit? After closer inspection of the sticker I realized it was a Pomello. Hum? I was intrigued. I had no idea what it was. I had no idea what it tasted like. I had no idea how to peel the thing. All I knew was that this beautiful $1.49 fruit was going into a nice little bag and coming home with me.

As I was choosing my pomello, I looked slightly left and noticed a fruit that I had seen quite a few times but had never actually purchased, a pomegranate. I always see these fruits online being dissected and cleaned in bowls of water and I always thought to myself, "well that looks pretty easy, I wonder what they taste like?" So along side my giant green pomello I placed a beautiful red pomegranate.

So after checking out with my two new treasures I couldn't wait any longer, I had to get home and open them up to see just what the insides looked like. (Random fact #11 Secret obsession with dissecting fruits and veggies)

I broke out the cutting board, knife, and a big bowl of water. Now as I've mentioned before, I am a mother of 2. Aiden who is 6 1/2 and Sophie who is 19 months (Random fact #12, my kids share a birthday exactly 5 years apart). Both of them enjoy being in the kitchen with me and I'm trying to work on being more patient with them while I'm diving into these adventures. So as I was cutting into the first fruit, the pomello, both kids were perched on the chair and table (Sophie enjoys climbing on furniture like a chimpanzee) waiting ever so patient to see what was hiding inside. The pomello kind of surprised me. I had looked online as to the best way to cut into it and found that you can cut it pretty much like a grapefruit. The pomello was very spongy, and there wasn't as much flesh on the inside as I had expected. The pomello tasted very similar to a grapefruit.

I finished cutting it and offered it up to the kids. I could tell by the look on Aiden's face, he wasn't enjoying this experiment as much as I was. Sophie on the other hand was bound and determined to eat her way through the entire green "ball".

Now it was pomegranates turn. I took the knife to the pomegranate as I had been instructed to do so online by scoring it into five sections and peeling them apart. I also was warned online about the juice that comes from the pomegranate and how much it could stain. No fear here, onward! I peeled one of the sections from the fruit and placed it in the big bowl of water and started gently plucking the seeds from the inside of the fruit.

This is one thing people often don't realize about the pomegranate. You eat the seeds of the fruit, the outside is just the capsule. I also read somewhere that pomegranates are great for the female reproductive system. That I have no idea if it's true or not, just thought I'd throw that out there. Back to the dark red juice staining my cutting board. I removed all of the seeds from the sections of the pomegranate, tossed the carcase in the trash and offered up the tasty morsels to the kids once again.

This time, exact opposite reaction. Aiden had a huge grin on his face and insisted that I save some of those "seeds" for him to eat after school. Sophie. Well she just shook her head and down off the table she went.

I've learned in the 19 months of being a mother of 2 that this is typical. Everything in their worlds are opposite. Opposite sleeping habits, eating habits, personalities, likes, dislikes. It truly is amazing that two kids who are raised in the same exact house can be so different. I guess that's God's way of keeping it interesting in the Campbell house.

We finished off the pomello but we still have some of the pomegranate seeds left and have been trying to figure out what to do with them. I think I've got it. In fact I know I've got it. You'll have to check back to see what I've done with them!!

A Day of Randomness

Is that a word? Randomness? Hm, who knows. But today in my world it is a word. Random events occured, like this. I would consider this random, since it's been forever since we've had anything around here like this.

This is what the bushes in front of our house look like tonight. Do you know what that white stuff is? It's SNOW!! Finally some measurable snow! Not that I enjoy driving in it, but it's always pretty to look at, or at least I think so. And it's always fun to watch Aiden working as hard as he can between giggles clearing the driveway and sidewalk.

Tonight, after he finished clearing the sidewalk I looked out the front window to see just what he was up to, and I found him face down in the snow making snow angels. I think he's really missed the snow!

So what else was random, well this is going to be random. It just feels like a day to write some random stuff. So here goes. I started writing this blog to tell you all about my random cupcake creations, obviously now not only does it include my cupcakes, but I kind of wanted to let all of you into my world a little bit. As these postings progress I hope that all of you will get to know me a little better, even all of the strange, quirky (some consider crazy) things that go on in my life. My likes, my dislikes, my pet peeves, things that make me happy and things that irritate the ever living crap out of me. So, here's some random facts you may not know.

• I was born September 28, the year is not important :)
• I have an older brother whom I remember laughing with more than fighting with. He also introduced me to Dear Hubby and for that I am forever grateful. Did I mention he's older?
• I took 4 years of French in High School... the only good this would ever do me is if I had to order cheese, green beans, or apples while visiting France. Outside of that, I have no idea what I'm saying.
• I love Vodka and Cranberry juice, although I don't really drink too often these days.
• I love just spending time with Dear Hubby. We don't get much time alone these days with the two little ones around, and it seems when we do we end up either just hanging out at home, or driving to some random store looking for hunting supplies (which I don't mind at all by the way).
• I have a secret yearning to be Lara Croft. Not only is she goregous, but she really knows how to handle her 9mm.
• I miss being a child. There are so many things that I wish I could go back and either pay more attention to and learn from or do differentley.
• I miss my Grandpa Haning terribly. He was an amazing man and there are so many things that I wish I could have shared with him. I see alot of him in Aiden, and I hope that he will grow up to be at least half the man that Grandpa Willis was.
• I have a secret obsession with filling out forms or paperwork of any kind. And I only know one other person in my life that can truly appreciate this quirk, and for that, Mollie, I love ya!
• I have a degree in Computer Science, I have my License in Massage Therapy, and I own a Cupcake business.

Okay so that last one you may have already known, but hey, 10 random thoughts about myself at 9 pm is a little difficult.

I have to look at all of those things as reasons why I am who I am today. The good stuff, the bad stuff, the in between stuff, it all matters. But if there's one thing that I've learned, you have to leave the past in the past, live for today, because no one is guaranteed a tomorrow. I hope all of you enjoyed learning a little bit about me today, I'd love to learn more about all of you out there too! Talk to you soon!!