Lemon Blueberry Ice Cream Cupcakes

24 lemon cookies, coarsely crushed
1 (21-ounce) can blueberry fruit filling
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (6-ounce) can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed and undiluted
1 (8-ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
Multicolored candies and sprinkles


Place 12 foil baking cups into muffin pans; sprinkle crushed cookies evenly into cups. Spoon 2 teaspoons fruit filling over cookies in each cup, reserving remaining fruit filling for another use.
Fold condensed milk and lemonade concentrate into whipped topping; spoon over fruit filling in prepared baking cups. Freeze 8 hours or until firm. Top with candies and sprinkles just before serving.

Oui Oui! French Onion Soup

Oui Oui!! French Onion Soup

When I was a kid, I hated soup.  You couldn't pay me enough to eat even a bite.  My mom would go on and on about how soup was not only good, but good for you...( yeah, that was incentive to a seven year old).   Luckily, I got over it. Now soup is a staple part of my dinner menu nightly.  It's a wonderful accompaniment to almost any meal or a meal in itself.  Chicken soup, vegetable soup, broccoli and cheese...can you say yum?!

My newest passion is french onion soup.  I've only developed a taste for this over the past couple years.  So, when one of the hubby's favorite sport shows, The Matthew Mitchell Show, had the Coach's Kitchen segment featuring this delicious delight, you know I had to give the recipe a try.  I stuck mostly to the recipe, but may have changed a pinch here and there.  Here it goes...

Ingredients:

4 large onions, yellow, sweet, etc.
1/2 stick of unsalted butter
1 1/2 bottle of dark beer

2 quarts of beef broth

salt, pepper, onion powder
1-2 tbs beef powdered beef bullion
1 loaf of french bread
Gruyere' cheese
Oven safe soup dishes or aluminum pans (I used the ones for pot pies)


Directions:

Chop Onion in medium small size chunks.  Melt half a stick of butter in a sauce pot and dump in onion.

Saute onions in butter until caramelized over medium low heat, approximately, 45 minutes, stir constantly.

Once onions are a lovely shade of golden brown, pour in half a bottle of beer.  Stir and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until all the alcohol has evaporated, approximately, 25 minutes. 

Pour in 2 quarts of beef broth, add salt, pepper and onion powder and 2 tbs of powdered beef bullion.  Cook on low for for 20-30 minutes until broth is completely heated.

Ladle some soup into your oven safe dishes or aluminum pans.  Slice a piece off french bread and lay it on top of your soup.  Cut the cheese in thin slices and top off your bread.  Now put under the broiler for about 5 mins til your cheese melted and bubbly.

Nothing left to do now, except enjoy. Bon Appetite!

Groovy Man Tye Dye Cupcakes

Groovy Man! Tie Dye Cupcakes

Far out!  These flower power cupcakes were not only yummy, but super fun to make.  A great way to get the kiddies involved in the kitchen.  We made these for our weekly craft night, but I think they would be great for a spring party or birthday party.  Hope you have as much fun making them as we did!


Ingredients
1 box of white cake mix
food coloring ( 4 different colors)
cupcake liners
white icing



Prepare your cake batter as directed on the back of the box.  Separate the batter into four little bowls. 
Choose 4 different colors of food coloring.  This is a great part for the kiddos to help with.  Have them add a few drops (or more depending on how dark you want your colors to be) and mix.  Hint: once you have the little ones add the color, recap and put them out of reach.   By the time I went to go get the cupcake liners and return to the table, all of 2 minutes, my son had turned my pink batter, an ugly purple, while my little girl was busy smearing drops of orange all over my table top like it was finger paint.  No...I'm not kidding.

I let my baby girl fill the muffin pans with liners and my boy, fill the liners with batter.  A bit messy and drippy, but all in all not too bad at all I thought.  Carefully spoon one color at a time in layers, for example, Using a tablespoon, I had him add one spoon of blue, gently tapped so spread it out, then we added a tablespoon of yellow, then green, and topped it off with a bit of purple.  We varied the color we started off with, then layered with so that the cupcakes would have some variety.

We followed the cooking directions on the back of the box.  When the timer beeped, tested them with a toothpick to make sure they were done and let them cool completely. 

Frosted them with some fluffy white icing and then of course we had to sample our blast from the past cupcakes. 

Very yummy, as you can tell by my baby girl's frosting covered face.

Lucky Charms Cupcakes

Erin Go Bragh! Lucky Charms Cupcakes

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  I found the most adorable recipe on Betty Crocker's website. It was for Lucky Charms Cupcakes .  Mashmallow cereal, cake and frosting...oh, yeah baby, that's my kind of recipe!  So, of course I had to try it out and of course put my own twist on it.  The end result: super cute, super easy to make.  Here we go:

Ingredients

1 box of yellow cake mix (bake according to box directions.  Mine needed water, eggs and oil)
Lucky Charms
green colored sugar or white sugar and green food coloring
green food coloring
cupcake liners
1 can white frosting

Line your cupcake pans with cupcake liners. Mix your cake mix according to box directions.  

I added some green food coloring to make my batter more festive.

Mix until your color is completely blended.

 Bake cupcakes according to box directions. 

 Cool completely before you decorate.

While your cupcakes are cooling, make your green sugar, if you weren't able to buy green colored sugar. To do that, in a small bowl, pour about a 1/2 cup white sugar.  Add drops of green food coloring.  5-10-drops depending on how dark of a green color you want your sugar to be.  I added about 10 to mine.  Mix thoroughly and completely.  You will want the food coloring completely mixed in the sugar.

When your cupcakes have cooled,  frost with white frosting. Sprinkle with colored green sugar.  Then sprinkle with Lucky Charms cereal, be sure to include the marshmallows. Mine kept bouncing off, so I took a few at a time and pressed them lightly in the frosting.  It stayed just fine.  Sprinkle again lightly with green sugar.  Add a cute little St. Patrick's Day cupcake topper for added cuteness.   The ones I used on my cupcake are available at

Outside The Juice Box , my other blog. 

I hope you try making these.  They were alot of fun and very yummy, as you can see by the frosting covered faces of my little ones.