Last, but not least.

Here is the recipe for the last menu item I didn't purchase for Jessica's tea party.  :)

I first had this dill wrapped cream cheese crescent roll at the Miss America party I threw two years ago.  (I didn't have one last year because we were in Vegas for Miss America!)  My friend, Maria, brought it and everyone seemed to love it.  I thought it would be a nice "hot" option to include at the tea party.

Dill Wrapped Cream Cheese Crescent Roll

Recipe courtesy of AllRecipes.com and my friend Maria  :)

 

Photo courtesy of Healthy Obsessions of a Girly Tomboy

Ingredients:

• 1 (8 ounce) can refrigerated crescent roll dough
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 1 tsp dried dill weed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a cookie sheet.
2. Unroll dough on lightly floured surface and press seams together. Sprinkle one side of block of cream cheese with enough dill to cover. Place cream cheese, dill side down, in center of dough. Sprinkle with more dill to cover. Bring sides of dough up around cheese block and seal to completely enclose.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 15 minutes. Serve warm.

You will use more than 1 tsp of dried dill weed.  According to Maria, she just shakes some on until it seems right.  I used almost the entire small bottle.  I probably could have used the whole thing.  This also seemed to be a hit at the party.  My mom even asked for the recipe so she could make it at the Octoberfest party they have with thier neighbors.

This saturday I will be working on some more iced sugar cookies for another bridal shower.  This time I'm making tea cups.  Please check back next week to see how they turned out.  The colors I have been asked to use are yellow, red, and teal.  I think I have a few good ideas, but still need to do a little more brainstorming.

What's Joey's favorite food?

SANDWICHES!
(That was for all my Friends-loving readers out there.)

This post is about the tea sandwiches we had at Jessica's personal shower/tea party.  We had two different kinds, Cucumber Mint and Basil Hummus.

Cucumber Mint Tea Sandwiches

Recipe courtesy of Epicurious.com

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves, rinsed, spun dry, and chopped fine (I couldn't find fresh, so I used dried mint.  It worked just fine.)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons cream cheese
• 6 slices of whole-wheat bread
• 3-inch length of seedless cucumber, cut into thin slices (Mine had seeds)

Directions:

In a small bowl combine the mint, the butter, and the cream cheese and stir the mixture until it is combined well.  Spread the bread slices with the butter mixture, top 3 of them with the cucumber, distributing the cucumber evenly and seasoning it with salt, and top the cucumber with the remaining bread slices.  Cut off and discard the crusts and cut each sandwich diagonally into quarters.
 
 

These were actually pretty good.  And that's coming from someone who doesn't really like cream cheese!  As I stated in the ingredients section, I couldn't find fresh mint at my grocery store, so I used dried.  They turned out fine.  I'm sure that fresh mint would have been better, but oh well.  I had to make do.  I also used cucumbers with seeds.  I just broke all the rules with this sandwich.  :)  My tip for this sandwich is to use the slicing blade for your food processer if you have one.  My cucumber was perfectly sliced in about two seconds, and I didn't have to worry about cutting any fingers off.  It was great!  Oh, and the top row of sandwiches on the platter were decorated with slices of the cucumber skin I removed while peeling them.  I just stuck a toothpick through them like a ribbon and poked them into place.  I think they look super cute.

Basil Hummus Tea Sandwiches

Recipe courtesy of Healthly Obsessions of a Girly Tomboy

Ingredients:

• Hummus
• 1/4 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, rinsed, spun dry, and chopped fine
• 6 slices of whole-wheat bread

Directions:
Spread the bread slices with hummus and sprinkle three of the slices with the basil.  Top those with the remaining slices of bread.  Cut off and discard the crusts and cut each sandwich diagonally into quarters.


I did not try one of these.  I have never had hummus and don't plan on trying it.  Yes, that's probably weird, but I don't care.  Hummus is just not something I feel the need to experience.  :)  The guest of honor seemed to enjoy them though, and that's all the counts!

Who wants some lavender?

I never knew there were so many recipes using lavender.  I always knew you could cook or bake with certain flowers, but wow.  There's a lot out there.

It was kind of a challenge to find the right lavender recipes to use for Jessica's personal shower.  In the end, I settled on two recipes that I knew I could make.  Lavender pound cake and lavender tea cookies.  Quick bread and sugar cookies have sort of become my two specialties, so I figured I couldn't screw them up too badly.  Thankfully, I was correct.

Lavender Pound Cake

Recipe courtesy of Joys of Lavender

 

Photo courtesy of Healthy Obsessions of a Girly Tomboy

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks butter or margarine
• 2 cups of sugar
• 5 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tbls chopped dried lavender (I ground mine with a motar and pestal)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar.
2. Add one egg at a time, beating well after each egg.
3. Combine dry ingredients.
4. Combine buttermilk and vanilla.
5. Add alternately dry and wet ingredients to creamed butter.
6. Pour into 2 greased and floured 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 by 2 5/8 inch loaf pans.
7. Bake for one hour or until tester comes out clean.  Cool on rack for 10 minutes.  Remove from pans and let cool completely.  You can eat as is or you can drizzle your cake with a frosting.

This was easily my favorite food item from the shower.  I think it would be great as well without the lavender and served with strawberries and Cool Whip.

Lavender Tea Cookies

Recipe courtesy of What's Cooking America

 

Ingredients:

Cookies

• 1 tsp dried culinary lavender flowers
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp lemon extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/8 tsp salt

Lavender Frosting

• 1 cup powdered (confectioners') sugar
• 2 Tbls dried culinary lavender flowers
• 2 Tbls milk
• 2 tsp light corn syrup

Directions:

Cookies

1. Grind lavender flowers with a mortar and pestle.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together ground lavender flowers, butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon extract.  Add flour and salt; mix until combined (dough should be soft but not sticky.)  Refrigerate 1 to 2 hours or until dough is firm.
3. Prepare lavender frosting; set aside.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.   Remove dough from refrigerator.
5. On a lightly-floured surface, roll dough approximately 1/4-inch thick with your rolling pin.  Cut into desired shapes with your favorite cookie cutters and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.   (I use powdered sugar to "flour" my rolling surface.)
6. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned around the edges.  Remove from oven and cool on wire cooling racks.  When cool, frost with lavender frosting.

Lavender Frosting

1. In a small plastic bag, combine powdered sugar and dried lavender flowers.  Let stand at least one day before using.  When ready to use, sift the mixture into a medium-size bowl; discarding lavender flowers.
2. Add milk and corn syrup, mixing well.  NOTE: Additional powdered sugar or milk may need to be added (enough milk to make frosting easy to spread).  Spread on baked, cooled cookies.

I wasn't a huge fan of this cookie.  However a couple of people asked me for the recipe, so it can't be too bad, right?!  Don't get me wrong, the cookies were good.  They just had a little more of an "earthy" taste to them than the lavender pound cake did.

As you can see from the photo above, I let a few of them bake a little too long.  I think it was because the dough was warm.  I would suggest keeping it in the fridge until you're ready to bake them.  Go ahead and roll and cut out the cookies, but slide the baking sheet in the fridge while you're waiting to put them in the oven.

I also have to point out the cookie on the top of the plate.  Some of the cookies weren't exactly smooth on top and the frosting pulled away a little bit.  When I checked them in the morning, I found this little guy.  How awesome is that cute little heart within a heart within a heart??  I ran into the bedroom with the cookie to show my husband.  He just looked at me like I had lost my mind.  I still think it was pretty awesome.  :)

Jessica's Personal Shower/Tea Party

Today was the big day.  Jessica's personal shower was this afternoon, and I must say that it was a success!  I've been baking up a storm the last few days and even purchased a few things that I didn't have time to make.

The spread

The tea bar (for lack of a better term)

The Menu:

• Lavender pound cake
• Lavender tea cookies
• Cucumber mint tea sandwiches
• Basil and hummus tea sandwiches
• Dill cream cheese roll
• Assorted mini-cheesecakes
• Assorted puff pastries
• Assorted teas
• Earl grey lavender tea
• Mandarin orange green tea
• Island mango and peach white tea
• Regular green tea
• Akbar, Polish black tea
• Lemon bars
• Assorted mini-scones

I think we had a pretty good selection.  We didn't really have too much leftover.  It helped that the guest of honor took home the rest of the tea sandwiches and some cookies.  My mom also brought home some goodies for my dad. 

I'm sure you noticed the two menu options that are crossed out.  Well...not everything always turns out like I'd hope.  I attempted to make some lemon bars Friday evening.  Huge fail!  I'll have to try again some other time because lemon bars are so yummy.  The assorted mini-scones were also a huge fail.  I never even entertained the idea of trying to make them myself.  My plan from the start was to run to Panera Bread the morning of the shower and pick up a batch.  When I arrived at Panera this morning, I didn't see any mini-scones displayed.  I waited in line thinking, "Maybe they just haven't been put out yet..."  Nope.  Apparently Panera decided to discontinue making their mini-scones daily...TWO days ago.  Ugh.  You can still get them, but you have to call in the order a day ahead of time.  Boo.  My next stop was Gordon Food Service to buy something to replace the scones with.  I ended up with the assorted mini-cheesecakes and puff pastries.

Please check back for the first recipe I'll post which will be the lavender pound cake.  I was a little sceptical, but I think it was my favorite menu item today!  It would even be great without the lavender.  I might have to make it for strawberry shortcake.

I will leave you tonight with a photo of me and the bride-to-be.  :)

Thanks, Jess, for letting me throw you a shower.  I had a wonderful time putting it all together.

And a special thank you to my mother who helped me out today.  She refilled the tea pot when needed, got the guests their drinks, helped clean up, and basically let me not only be the host of the tea, but a guest as well.  Thanks, mom!

You Say Goodbye and I Say Hello

I always think of that Beatles' song when the Miss Wayne County Pageant comes around.  We say goodbye to last year's titleholder and hello to this year's.

The pageant was last night, and we crowned Sarah Suydam, a Wayne State University student from St. Clair Shores.  Goodbye, Anjel Francisco.  We loved having you as our Miss Wayne County.  Best of luck to you in California.  Hello, Sarah.  We're so happy to have you join our pageant family.  It's going to be another good year!

Now that the pageant is over, Swiss steak is cooking in my slow cooker for dinner, and brownies are made for dessert, I have a moment to post that pasta salad recipe I promised about a week ago.  I got this recipe from the Miss Wayne County Executive Director, so it seems fitting that it's in this post.  We both are pretty simple eaters and love us some fat-free Italian salad dressing.  :)  Without further ado...

Sheila's Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 16 oz. box of pasta (I used tri-color rotini)
• dash Kosher salt, if desired
• 1 can of Italian style diced tomatoes
• 1 large cucumber, cut into chunks
• 1/2-3/4 bottle of Italian dressing
• dash garlic powder or garlic salt
• dash dried parsley

Directions:

1. Cook pasta as directed on box. Add kosher salt to water, if desired.
2. Mix can of tomatoes with pasta. Add cucumbers. Refrigerate.
3. Add italian dressing. Add garlic salt and parsley to taste. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
4. Top with dried parsley for presentation.

It's so easy to make, and so tasty!

This Saturday is the tea party/personal shower I'm throwing for my friend Jessica.  I will have lots of tea party-like food recipes to post next week.  Please check back for those and some photos from the party!

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time

Okay, not jelly, just peanut butter.  Well, some chocolate too.  :)

It's time for another cookie post!

To celebrate the end of summer, my hubby and I decided to have a little Labor Day family BBQ.  We had the normal hot dogs, Polish sausage, and hamburgers that you usually have at a BBQ, along with baked beans and potato salad bought by our mothers.  I wanted to make something that I haven't blogged about yet, so I decided on peanut butter cookies and pasta salad.  In this post, you'll find the peanut butter cookie recipe...if you hadn't figured that out yet.  Stay tuned for pasta salad in an upcoming post.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Once again, I used my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook for this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup peanut butter chips
• Granulated sugar
• Melting chocolate or chocolate chips, if desired

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375°F.  In large bowl, beat brown sugar, peanut butter, butter and egg with electric mixer on medium speed until creamy, or mix with spoon.  Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Stir in peanut butter chips.
2. Shape dough into 1 1/2-inch balls.  Dip tops of balls into granulated sugar.  Place balls, sugared sides up, about 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet (do not flatten).
3. Bake cookies 9 to 10 minutes or until light brown.  Cool 5 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.
4. If desired, in a microwave-safe bowl, heat melting chocolate or chocolate chips at increments of 30 seconds until chocolate is melted.  Dip one end of each cookie into chocolate.  Place on a sheet of wax paper and let stand about 30 minutes or until chocolate is set.

My absolute all-time favorite cookie is a Mrs. Field's peanut butter cookie dipped in chocolate.  It's a rare treat I allow myself to get at the mall.  These rival them.  Honestly, they're so good.  It might be a bad thing that I can make them myself now...

What I've Been Up To

I definitely haven't been cooking.  That's for sure!

It's pageant season, and that means my days have been filled with stuff for Miss Wayne County.  I am the official tech/graphics/web person for the pageant and with our 2010 program only eight days away, I've been a little swamped.

Here's a sneak peak at what I've been working on:

It's our program book cover.  I'll post the entire program once the pageant has taken place.  I know some of my pageant friends check my blog, so I don't want to ruin the program book unveiling.  Actually, the book is pretty much the same year-after-year, but we did add a few new things for this year. 

I took over putting the program together last year when our printer retired.  It's a little more work than I expected, but nothing I can't handle.  Honestly, I really do enjoy doing this, and it saves our program money by not having an outside source do the graphics part.  I think I missed my calling somewhere.  Why didn't I major in graphic design or something?  Imagine what I could do if I actually knew what I was doing.  Ah...the possibilities.  Oh well, I do what I can and enjoy it!

We also started a Princess Program fundraiser this year, so that's been added to my plate as well.  So far, I must say that's it's been a definite worthwhile fundraiser.  The girls are ADORABLE, and we've been able to beef-up the scholarships we're giving out this year.  A winner for all involved!

This coming Wednesday we are having a tea party for our princesses.  Stay tuned for photos from that!

In addition to all of that, I'm also in charge of our website.  I started the site about five years ago as a surprise for our executive director.  To say it has evolved would be an understatement.  When I think about what it looked like when I started and what it looks like now, I'm pretty amazed.  I've learned so much in the process.  Although, I know I still have a lot to learn.  This is where I thank companies, namely Weebly, who make things so much easier for me.  They allow us to have a pretty darn professional looking website with minimal headaches on my end.  :)

So that's what I've been up to.  Pageants aren't all glitz and glamour.  There's so much that happens behind the scenes that I never even thought about when I was competing.  I love giving back to this organization that gave so much to me.