A traditional mac ‘n’ cheese starts with a roux. This is not a traditional mac ‘n’ cheese. This is easy fo’ sheezy mac ‘n’ cheese where you get your kids to do most of the work so you can kick it and watch Oprah. And the kicker? It’s baked with a topping of crushed up Goldfish crackers! How cheesy is that? No child (or adult) can resist…

ingredients:
1 lb pasta (I prefer pennette)
4 cups cheddar cheese
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 bag goldfish crackers (save 1 cup, crush the rest)
1 Tablespoon butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 9×13 pan. Boil the pasta according to the package.

While it’s boiling, in a large bowl, combine THREE cups of cheese (setting aside one cup), cream, milk, salt, pepper and paprika. Set aside.

Set aside one cup of goldfish crackers, and put the rest in a freezer bag. Now get a kid full of aggression who likes to bash things, luckily, I have one – give him a rolling pin and stand back. Let him go at the freezer bag of goldfish, til all are crushed. Take away the rolling pin. (This is for your own safety and sanity.)

By now the pasta should be ready. Drain it in a colander, then immediately pour into the bowl of cheese and stuff. Stir ’round until it’s all melty and combined. Pour into your prepped pan. Top with the reserved one cup of cheese and the crushed goldfish crackers AND the whole goldfish crackers. You are putting the whole ones just cause the kids get a kick out of seeing whole goldfish crackers sitting on top of the pasta. Add dabs of the butter here and there on the top of the crackers.

Place your pan on a baking sheet – this is in case it bubbles over. No one wants a cheesy oven to clean up – trust me. Bake for 20-25 minutes depending on your oven, until bubbly. Let cool a bit before serving.

This makes a good side dish OR main dish. And the kids really get into helping since it’s just mixing and crushing! Sure this is kid’s food but uh…I like to sneak a few bites late at night. Usually while standing over my sink in my pjs…

Knowing the Baby wanted a Batman birthday cake, I had visions of Batman standing above Gotham City. I knew I wanted a stacked cake – with various sized tiers…

ingredients:
stacked cake
( I used Cookies n Cream flavor)
frosting
(Chocolate sour cream worked well)
chocolate fondant
fondant dyed with yellow food gel coloring

To start, I assembled my cake and frosted it, then set it aside.

I rolled out the chocolate fondant to 1/8″ – 3/16″ of an inch. I knew I wanted the heights of the buildings to be various sizes, so I tried to keep them within 4″ high. I cut out various widths, different roof variations and shapes. I set those aside.

Then I dyed my fondant yellow and cut VERY TINY little square and rectangle shapes for the windows. I made these various thickness so the windows would pop in and out.

I like to dry out my fondant a bit before I apply it, so I left these lightly wrapped in plastic wrap over night.

The next day they were pretty firm. I laid out different facades for the four sides of the cake.

To apply them I put a touch of frosting on the back and simply pressed them on.

I liked to stagger them a bit, I didn’t want the facades to be all up on each other. I just wanted space between and a nice clean look.

I added a large Bat-logo on the top circular tier, and of course the Batman candle to watch over fondant-Gotham City.

Well the Baby asked for a Batman cake – DESPITE the fact that I had made him Batman cupcakes. He’s right though, birthdays are all about cake. He asked for a Cookies n Cream cake, what made him think of that, I have no idea, but luckily I had a recipe on hand!

I had a Batman figure candle and I knew I wanted him to somehow be towering above a city. So my idea was to stack two different shapes of cake. I made two batches of cake. One batch in a 9×13, and on batch in two 8″x8″ square pans. The two squares were going to stack to be the base.

Once out of the oven and cooled, I leveled off the cake so that they were flat.

Using PLENTY of frosting, I stacked the top of one 8×8, then set the other on top. Use a lot of frosting, you can always take it off, you just don’t want crumbs to ‘pull’ and muck up the cake. I then crumb coated the sides and top, then went back in for a final coat of frosting.

Now for the top circular tier I used a small round cake pan as a template, but if you have a cutter you are better off than me – and I cut out two 6″ circles of cake.

Again, I leveled them, placed one top of the center of the top 8×8, put a nice layer of frosting on top – then set the other 6″ circle on top of that.

Again, a quick crumb coat, then a nice final clean layer of frosting. There is your stacked, frosted cake. Yum! But wait…now you have to add Gotham City…

So I got this book, What Hawaii Likes to Eat. What caught my eye was a chili recipe – now it says right in the book ‘Zippy’s won’t give out their recipe, here’s our version’. Uh…yeah. This is NOTHING like Zippy’s chili, however I can tell you, it’s a good hearty chili recipe just the same.

I made a few adjustments and made it in a crock pot. I was having a party and wanted to make my life easier. And I needed to watch back episodes of the Amazing Race. I have priorities you know.

ingredients:
2 lbs ground beef
2 onions, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 (28 oz) can stewed tomatoes
2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
1-1/2 (14.5 oz) cans kidney beans
5 Tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons garlic salt
2 teaspoons oregano
2 teaspoons cumin
1-1/2 teaspoons black pepper
a pinch of crushed red pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Brown meat in a large skillet. Add the onions and garlic and cook until the onions are soft.

In a large bowl, combine the meat mixture with all the other ingredients. Stir well.

Pour into a crock pot and set on low for 4 hours.

I like to eat this over rice, topped with a little onion and cheese, but you can always serve it the way Zippy’s does – over hot dogs or burritos.

Sometimes you just need a little chocolate. As in teeny tiny. These are light and sweet, with a small amount of pep to get you going.

ingredients:
6 ounces chocolate chips
1 cup water
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Line a mini muffin pan with liners. This recipe makes a lot – 48+!

Combine the chocolate chips and water in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. It looks disgusting, but trust me. Stir constantly and eventually the chocolate will melt. Whisk in the mascarpone cheese until the mixture is smooth. Set aside and let cool for a few minutes.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in the mascarpone mixture.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and chocolate chips. Add the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture. Stir until just blended.

Pour the batter into the prepped cupcake liners. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely – on a wire rack.

I topped these with a little whipped cream frosting, but frankly – they are great on their own. I may have eaten ten. Or so.

When the Baby said “BATMAN party” the first thing that came to mind was the logo. Simple, iconic, and couldn’t be that hard to do, right? Well.

ingredients:
10 ounces white fondant
yellow gel dye
8 ounce chocolate fondant
2.5″ circle cutter

Since I didn’t have a Batman symbol cookie cutter in the exact shape I wanted and I am a crazy perfectionist – yes, I cut these all by hand. It certainly wasn’t fun. But I had 24 kids coming and I knew every kid had to have the same looking cupcake. Fair is fair.

Here’s how I did it: I printed out the logo at a size that would fit within a 2.5″ circle, so the length was probably around 2-1/4″ total. Then I cut it out on heavy cardstock.

Roll out your fondant to 3-1/16″. I used chocolate fondant, again (see ladybug post) because of the flavor. Is black traditional? Of course, but I knew that these 24 kids coming to the party would devour the fondant and probably leave my delicious Ovaltine cupcakes lying in the wake. (I was right) So I’d rather they eat chocolate than black dye. Hey, I care.

I always feel more comfortable handling an x-acto, but a paring knife will do as well. Just make sure that your x-acto is clean and sanitized. If you’ve worked with x-actos before, you know they sometimes come oiled – totally disgusting and not good when you are cutting fondant. CLEAN THAT THING.

Place the cardstock template over the rolled out fondant. Using your x-acto go carefully around the edges of the template. Set them aside in an airtight container, sprinkling a little cornstarch on the bottom so they don’t stick.

For the circles, just dye some fondant yellow, roll out to 3/16″ of an inch, and using a 2-1/2″ biscuit or circle cutter, cut out circles. Again, I dye fondant I like to let it air dry just a bit, then added moisture can make it kind of hard to work with.

Now place the chocolate Batman symbols on top of the circles. I like to let these dry out just a touch before I put them on top of the cupcakes. When you are ready, frost your cupcakes and stick them on top. Just don’t mess with Batman’s cupcake. He might get angry.

For the Baby’s birthday party I laid out a bunch of snacks in jars for the guests to serve themselves. Since it was Batman themed – I rolled out chocolate cookies and cut them into bats of course! Dipping them in sanding sugar made them even more fun to eat!

Sugar cookies came to mind because I use A LOT of sugar. I actually passed a 25lb pound bag at Costco and it gave me pause – that’s when you know you bake too much. Luckily C&H sent me a $20 gift card! C&H has a lot of great holiday baking ideas on their website – it is the only sugar I use, maybe because our family is from Hawaii and I used to love driving by the sugar cane fields. Plus they had such memorable jingles!!

ingredients:
2-3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup Valrhona cocoa powder
1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.

In a bowl whisk together the flour, salt, cinnamon, baking powder and cocoa. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electrc mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Carefully add the eggs and vanilla.

Add the flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and just chill. A few hours should do it but if you are impatient, like moi, throw it in the freezer for a bit.

When you are ready, roll out cookie dough onto a well floured surface. This dough is a little sticky so working fast and with cold dough will get you done in no time.

Cut out your shapes – in this case…BATS for the Batman party. After the shapes were cut out I dipped the edges with sanding sugar. It gives it a little extra crunch and looks festive.

Bake for approx 10 minutes give or take depending on your oven. Let cool on wire racks.

These are a nice cookie on their own, but imagine making an ice cream sandwich out of them?? Or you can just throw ‘em in a jar and invite Batman over.

The Kid requires a lot of snacks. Snacks for kindergarten, snacks for daycare – he’s a growing boy. I try to give him one healthy thing (fruit, carrots) and one treat. Strawberry Pocky was a good go to since he had a chocolate allergy – and they sorta look like lightsabers too.

Ground chicken meatballs are pretty common in Japanese cooking. However I called mine Chicken Meatballs, What because that is what the Baby said when he discovered that I’d hidden edamame beans inside the meatballs. D’oh. It was worth a shot. Let me tell you, the Kid, LOVED them…the Baby, he feels a little betrayed right now.

ingredients:
1 pound ground chicken
1 egg
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon mirin
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 cup panko
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup edamame beans, shelled

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

If your edamame are still in their pods, shell them and place the beans in a small bowl, set aside for later.

In a small bowl combine the soy sauce, sugar, mirin and cornstarch.

Mix together with the ground chicken and the egg.

Add the panko and the black pepper, mixing well with your hands. Form small flat patties in your hand, and place one or two edamame beans in the middle, then seal it up to form a meatball. You shouldn’t see the beans. Shhh.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, turn over and then bake for another 10-15 until the meatballs are cooked through.

Even if you don’t want to trick your kids, just leave the beans out and these meatballs are great on their own. No trickery involved.

This weekend I made 120 cupcakes for a very special little girl’s 1st birthday. The theme was ladybugs and pink of course! I made red velvet cupcakes and topped them with fondant lady bugs.

ingredients:
24 cupcakes
frosting
12 ounces chocolate fondant
12 ounces white fondant (dyed with red gel coloring)
Dots candy – black (or licorice gumdrops)
Black licorice lace

I decided to use chocolate fondant for the base circle because sometimes dyeing fondant black seems to lead to leaking and trouble. These cute Thomas cupcakes turned out great, but after a while the black began to weep – not so cute. But those were eaten quickly and these I knew would be sitting out.

Roll the chocolate fondant out to 3/16″ of an inch. Try to keep it on the thin side because remember you will be stacking the red on top and you don’t want to weigh everything down. Use 2.5″ biscuit or circle cutter and out circles. Set them aside in an airtight container, sprinkling a little cornstarch on the bottom so they don’t stick.

Now for the red – take white fondant and using red gel dye, dye it red. This is the best dye for this because doesn’t run and doesn’t take much. I advise using gloves whenever you dye fondant, people will ask questions about your bloody red hands, otherwise.

After I dye fondant I like to air it out a bit, it tends to get a little wet and sticky and way to hard to start rolling immediately. Once the fondant has dried out a bit, roll out the red to about 3/16″. Using the same 2.5″ circle cutter – cut out circles, but then cut them in half. Lay them on top of the chocolate circle, but splayed a bit, like wings. Again, but in an airtight container.

To make the ladybug dots, I used a small – TINY – cutter for the circles. However you can just take off a bit of fondant, roll it into a ball and then flatten it. That will also give you the perfect sized small dot. Place those on top of the red wings. If they are too dry, you can add a touch of water on the back to make them stick to the fondant below, but NOT TOO MUCH.

To make the head, cute a black Dot candy or licorice gumdrop in half. These are so sticky they will stick all by themselves.

For the antenne – use a toothpick and make a hole close to the ladybug ‘head’. Cut a small piece of black lace licorice and insert it into the hole. You shouldn’t have a problem with it staying put, but you can put a little bit of frosting on the end to make sure it stays in place.

I like these to look like they are ‘floating’ on top of the cupcakes, to do that – put a small amount of frosting on the center of the cupcake, only about 1 Tablespoon. Then place the ladybug on top of the frosting and push down and twist.

NOW. Your cupcakes are complete! Yes, it was a little bit of work, but SO worth it. Especially when you have a pink ladybug birthday to celebrate!