Croque Monsieur is a fancy name for grilled cheese. Ah, but it’s so much more. It’s the pan-fried buttery goodness that keeps you coming back for more. As well as the filling. You don’t have to just use plain old american cheese, use a swiss or a jack, ham, turkey or tomatoes. It’s all good, baby.

ingredients:(2 sandwiches)

4 slices of bread
butter
cheese
meat – ham or turkey
tomatoes if you so desire

Melt butter (just use the microwave). Brush onto both “outsides” of the bread. Place buttered side down in the pan. Lay your sliced cheese on the UP side.

Layer your meat on top. One side, layered thinly is best, with your tomatoes or other toppings on the opposite side.

Now add another layer of cheese. This will “glue” it together, allowing for a smooth FLIP.

Place the other slices of bread on top of the cheese, buttered side up. Now, flip it, baby!

Look how nice and toasty that is!
Normally Croque Monsieur is served with pomme frites, but I didn’t have those. Onion rings will have to do, so sue me. Enjoy!

One of O.G. the animal hater’s favorite cookies, surprisingly.
No butter. No eggs. No I’m not joking. Yes, it tastes good. Real good.

ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cups rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup white sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
2 Tablespoons molasses
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup raisins

Don’t let the amount of ingredients fool you. It’s not that bad.

Here’s an awesome trick I learned from Martha Stewart. Measure out your oil first. Then do the molasses, and the stuff will slide out clean as a whistle. Scroll over the photo on the right to see the action for yourself…

Preheat oven to 350. Have ready 2 greased baking sheets.

Mix together flour, oats, baking soda, salt and spices. In a seperate bowl, mix together sugar, oil, molasses, pumpkin and vanilla until very well combined.

Add dry ingredients to wet in 3 batches, folding to combine.

Fold in raisins…

Drop by tablespoons onto greased cookie sheets. They don’t spread very much so they can be placed only an inch apart. Flatten the tops of the cookies with a fork or with your fingers, to press into cookie shape.

Bake for 16 minutes at 350. If you are using two sheets of cookies on 2 levels of your oven, rotate the sheets halfway through for even baking. You’ll have enough batter for 4 trays.

Remove from oven and get cookies onto a wire rack to cool.

These taste best when they’ve had some time to cool and set. They taste even better the next day!

ingredients:
4 oz or 6 oz clear plastic party cups
2 large boxes blue jello
12 gummi fish
whipped cream

Make Jello according to package. Fill the plastic cups. Chill in the fridge for about an hour, just as long as it’s not set. Put the gummi fish in each cup. They should look ’suspended’ in the water. Return the cups to the fridge. When you are ready to serve, add some whipped cream ‘waves’ on top!

So for the big Pirate Party, I wanted something quick, in addition to the millions of other dishes I had planned. This is a variation on a meatloaf that I make. And talk about quick. You can make your own meatballs, but this is way faster. Just 4 hours in a crock pot…

ingredients:
2 bags meatballs – plain, no sauce (or make your own)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tsp black pepper

Put half the meatballs in the crock pot. Cover with HALF the brown sugar, then HALF the ketchup, then one teaspoon black pepper. Add the rest of the meatballs, and everything else, just as you did. Cover. Set your crockpot to high. This will only take about 3-4 hours.

The ingredients are simple, but the taste is fab. (Sorry this is the only picture I have)

I decided that the idea of working with fondant would be fun, but I was worried about the dyeing process. Turns out that was fun too! Fondant is very easy to work with and the results are outstanding.

ingredients:
fondant
gel dyes
gloves
straw
toothpick
knife
biscuit cutters

I just bought plain white fondant. I used gel dyes which work way better than liquid or paste. To get some of the darker colors, you need to really knead in the dye. So I used disposable baker’s gloves that worked great.

For the pirate broke the fondant up into 3 batches. Red for the scarf hat, pink for the skin, and black for the eyes and eye patch. I also saved a tiny bit of white for the eye.

To get that perfect shape for the face, that will sit on top of the cupcakes, I used a medium sized biscuit cutter. It is a perfect round shape.

I cut out the red fondant in the same size as the face, but cut it at an angle to make it look like a head scarf. Since it is the same size as the face, it fits perfectly on top.

To make the eyes I hand cut out the white area, but for the black of the eye, I used a straw.

To finish it all off, I added a little tie of the scarf, a black eye patch and string, and a tiny mouth. The scarf decoration and the earrings are star and moon sprinkles that I got at Surfas.

Fondant lasts for a long time in a sealed container. I plan to make cupcakes, frost them and then plop these on top. Yay for pirates!

This isn’t a recipe, it’s more of a how to. I like my kids to help in the kitchen, when it’s safe. This allows them to participate in making their own food, which is half the fun. And hey, the tortilla makes an excellent thin crust.

ingredients:
flour tortillas
pizza sauce (Boboli sauce works fine)
mozzarella cheese
any toppings you’d like:
pepperoni
olives
vegetables
pineapple

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

On a baking sheet, lay out the tortillas. Let the kids pile on whatever they want. The end. I would suggest you attempt to push the toppings to the corners to get an even cook, but you know, you may encounter some resistance. Speaking from experience.

I also suggest putting the cheese on LAST, so that all the ingredients get nice and melty underneath. YUM.

Bake the pizzas for 7-10 minutes, until the cheese is nicely melted and a little brown. Cut and serve!

I love tiramisu, but am not a fan of the alcohol. Crazy, I know. So I thought I’d make one up that really pushed the coffee flavor and also incorporated ice cream, because who doesn’t love ice cream?

I had lady fingers left over from when I made the Christmas Trifle, so I went and picked up some marscapone cheese. I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do, I kind of developed this recipe on the fly. What came about was a delicious concoction similar to an ice cream bombe, sorta like a tiramisu, but without the alcohol.

This is a great recipe for parties. People love cold desserts. Even in winter.

ingredients:
1 (8 oz) container marscapone cheese
½ cup confectioner’s sugar
3 Tablespoons strong coffee
1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream

1 box ladyfingers
1 cup strong coffee

Let’s talk coffee. Now if you are in a pinch, and don’t have brewed coffee, don’t sweat it. Just use instant, but use 3 HEAPING tablespoons to one cup of water. We want it STRONG here. Save the rest of the coffee for later.

As for the ice cream, my preference is always to make my own. Not everyone wants to do this, which I can understand. If you must buy ice cream the only brand I ever recommend is Double Rainbow. The texture, consistency, flavor, is everything you’d ever want from an ice cream. And at Trader Joe’s, it’s inexpensive.

Mix together the marscapone cheese, sugar and the coffee. Mix well, until it’s a nice tan-ish brown.

Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap. Dunk ½ of the ladyfingers, one by one, in the strong coffee, and line the outside of the pan. Do the bottom as well – which will end up being the top. So you might wanna be not so sloppy about it, eh lazy?

Pour some of the marscapone mixture on the bottom, then layer with ice cream, some dunked ladyfingers, over and over until you reach the top. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze.

Once ready to serve, pull it out by the lined plastic wrap and invert onto a plate. Slice as you would a cake. Your friends will be impressed, when frankly, you didn’t do jack.