Blog With Friends: Spring, Please

Today’s post is the next in our series of Blog With Friends theme collaborations. Each month a group of bloggers get together and each publish a project based on a theme. What I love about this partnership is that it’s not bloggers with similar interests or strengths, but a diverse group coming up with a variety of posts. In a given month we may have a recipe, sewing tutorial, crocheting, crafts project, book review, and/or a technology post, all related to the theme of the month.

There will be individual project pictures and links to what everyone else has to offer at the end of my post. There’s also the opportunity for you to link up any of your Spring themed posts.

Here’s a peek at what we all came up with:

This month our theme is Spring. And let me tell you, it can’t come fast enough for me. My contribution is the recipe for my White Brownie Parfait. I chose this recipe because I use white cocoa, a sort of nod to winter but I also use fresh berries. Nothing says spring is here and summer’s coming like fresh fruits. I chose strawberries and blueberries because that’s what looked best to me, but you can really use whatever berries you find. This recipe is versatile. The white brownie adds sweetness but the flavor won’t overpower any fruit you choose.

 White brownie Parfait

 The first step is to make the white brownies. They’re easy to make, microwave, mix and bake. They’re ready when they start to brown.

 White Brownies

Of course you know that my boys ate some of the white brownies before I even made the parfaits.

 White Brownies

I cut the brownies into very small squares for the parfait, and layered them with fresh fruit and whipped cream. I thought about marinating the fruit and I thought about flavoring the whipped cream, but in the end I did neither, letting the fresh flavors shine through. Good choice.

White Brownie Parfait

Be sure to visit all of this month’s other Blog With Friends projects:

Robin of Someone Else’s Genius shares a tutorial for Faux Terrarium Earrings:

Stacy of Stacy Sews and Schools shows us how to make this Splish Splash Rain Cape:

Eileen of Eileen’s Perpetually Busy made an Easy Spring Baby Blanket:

Melissa of Home on Deranged tells us how to get gardening help from our phones with her post on Five Apps to Help Your Garden Grow:

 

Christy of Uplifting Families shares some Non-Candy Easter Basket Ideas.

Lydia of Cluttered Genius tells us about Spring Cleaning With Essential Oils:

White Brownie Parfait

                                                                     ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
¾ cup white chocolate chips
1 stick margarine
½ stick butter
1 packet (1¼ oz) Arctic White Hot Cocoa Mix
¾ tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup flour
 
1 cup sliced strawberries
1 cup blueberries
whipped cream
 
Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 X 13 pan.
*Melt together the white chocolate, margarine and butter in microwave. Once it’s completely smooth stir in the white cocoa mix.
*Stir in the vanilla. Once incorporated, stir in the sugar, then the eggs and last the flour.
*Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the edges are browned, the top has started browning and the center is completely set. Remove from oven and cool completely before slicing.
*In a glass, layer brownie pieces, blueberries, whipped cream, brownie pieces, strawberries, whipped cream.

Secret Subject Swap: Happy’s Back

Welcome to the March Secret Subject Swap. This month 14 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts. Read through mine and at the bottom you’ll find links to today’s other Secret Subject Swap posts.

My subject is: Are you Irish? Either way, you’re working outside and see a Leprechaun putting something in your bushes, you . . .
It was submitted by: Spatulas on Parade

. . . run.

The End.

Why do I say “run”? I mean most people would be thrilled, right Look for a pot of gold, right?

Well I have a bit of a different perspective when it comes to Leprechauns. That’s because last March in my Secret Subject Swap post, I told the story of how a mischievous leprechaun called Happy Go Lucky (Lucky, for short) Leprechaun stole Susie Storm’s Rainbow Cookies. Yes, I used the pseudonym Susie Storm but everyone knew it was me. And what did Happy and his band do with those cookies? They wore them. As pants. Susie was not amused (read the story HERE).

A week later I wrote about the trap Susie had set for Lucky. Long story short, when we last saw Susie she was running down the road pelting coins at Lucky (who was carrying her Dark Chocolate Chip Bread) while being chased herself by mental health workers carrying straightjackets (read the story HERE).

I thought . . . no, I’d hoped . . . we’d seen the last of Lucky, for Susie’s sake at least. So what did I think when I saw this prompt today? Not, “yippee, let’s search for a pot of gold”. Nope, more like “he’s baaaaack”. Or  “noooooo” (said in my Mr. Bill voice).

So imagine my Susie’s surprise when, a year later, she’s planting flowers and turns around just in time to catch a glimpse of  Happy hiding something in her bushes. The minute she sees him, Susie’s eye starts to twitch. It’s been a tough year for her, adjusting to having her food stolen not once but twice, the embarrassment of her cookies being worn as pants, the constant need to look over her shoulder for anyone who might think that she needs a nice long stay in a room with padded walls.

Lucky looks right at her, winks, and runs away.

With difficulty, Susie had managed to put most of it past her. She had lived to bake another day. And then, 12 months later the inevitable happened. March came once again and Happy was back.

“Go right into the house” she thought. “Stick with the plan, you know you wanted to make that Creme de Menthe Shamrock Cake” she told herself.

Creme de Menthe Shamrock Cake

Against her better judgment, Susie approached the bushes. She knew better, she really did, but she just had to see what it was Happy had hidden there.

She looked down and saw the little black pot. Is it possible? Could it be? Was Happy brazen enough to hide his gold at her house? Or was he maybe growing a conscience, trying to make amends for his actions last year?

In the pot wasn’t any gold, though. Just a piece of paper. Susie looked around, thought again about just walking away, but in the end she couldn’t help herself. She needed to know what was on that paper that Happy was hiding.

She unfolded the paper and saw her name at the top. So maybe he really did want to apologize. But what she saw next got her blood boiling all over again:

If you shut your eyes I bet you too can see poor Susie's eye start to twitch. Better put a reservation in for that room with the padded walls. Susie may end up requiring another visit.

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

Stacy Sews and Schools

The Bergham's Life Chronicles

Spatulas on Parade

Dinosaur Superhero Mommy

The Momisodes

Climaxed

Someone Else's Genius

Confessions of a part-time working mom
The Lieber Family 
Southern Belle Charm 
Searching for Sanity 
Sparkly Poetic Weirdo 
Small Talk Mama 

 

Creme de Menthe Shamrock Cake

                                                                        ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
1 ½ stick butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup creme de menthe
1/2 tsp mint extract 
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
 
Ingredients, frosting:
2 sticks butter, softened 
1 tsp mint extract
2 TBSP creme de menthe
4 cups powdered sugar
3 - 4 TBSP milk

green food coloring  
 
Directions:
*Grease and flour a 15 1/2 X 10 1/2 jellyroll pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
*Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, milk, creme de menthe and mint extract.
*Starting at your lowest speed beat in the flour, salt and baking powder just until incorporated, then increase speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes.
*Pour evenly into prepared pan.
*Bake for approximately 20 - 25 minutes or until the center springs back to the touch.
*Cool for an hour on the counter, then move to the fridge until cold.
*Alternating the small and large cookie cutters, cut 4 hearts out of the cake. Leave only one space for the stem, the other "leaves" should touch.
*Using a sharp knife, cut out a "stem" shape in the spot that you left for the stem. Remove all the cutouts to your serving dish and assemble to look like a shamrock. Place both the jellyroll pan and the serving dish in the fridge.
*Cream the butter with the mint extract and creme de menthe. Carefully blend in the powdered sugar. 1 TBSP at a time, add in as much of the milk as you need to bring the frosting to an easily spreadable consistency.
*Remove about 1/2 cup of the frosting into a small clean bowl and add green food coloring to use later to outline the shape.
*Spread the frosting onto both cakes using a knife to clean up the edges and define the shape. Pipe the darker green frosting around the edges of the shapes on both cakes.

Life is not a Bowl of Cherries?

Most of us have given some thought at one time or another to the meaning of life. I know I went there more than a few times in my hippy days. Usually while listening to The Grateful Dead. Hell, I danced barefoot to Jerry Garcia BEFORE he was an ice cream flavor, but that’s another story altogether.

Existentialism, transcendentalism, sensualism, intellectualism, empiricism, spiritualism, realism, optimism, pragmatism, theoretical, hypothetical.

There are, of course, cliches about life. You know, like the old “life’s a bowl of cherries.” But I’ve been working on some analogies of my own. Some simple little catchy correlations between life and  . . . well . . . me. And I have to admit, I’m not doing very well.

Perhaps I’m over-thinking because if:

Life’s a snowstorm
          that makes me a flake?

Life’s a souffle
          that makes me hot air?

Life’s a beach
          that makes me a blistering sunburn? It hurts just to type that.

Life’s a dance
          that makes me a stripper pole? Ewwww. Get out the Lysol.

Life’s a cookie
          that makes me a crumb?

Strawberry Chocolate Crunch Snowballs

Life’s a song

          that makes me responsible for everyone covering their ears? Because I can’t carry a tune. Even when I lip sync.

Life’s a hot fudge sundae

          that makes me a nut?

Life’s a maze

          that makes me a rat?

Life’s a vacation

          that makes me food poisoning?

Or, you know what, maybe I’ve been searching in vain. It’s actually conceivable that I’ve known the meaning of life all along. Possibly that childhood song is not just a fun tune to sing in a round, but is, in fact, the insight we’ve all been looking for:

♪ ♫ ♬ merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream   ♪ ♫ ♬

Strawberry Chocolate Crunch Snowballs

                                                                  ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
1 stick butter, softened
1 stick margarine, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp strawberry extract
2 cups flour
about 1/3 of a 11.5 oz package of Keebler Fudge Stripes Dark Chocolate cookies
1/4 cup Nestles 25% less sugar strawberry powdered drink mix

Approximately 3/4 cup powdered sugar
 
Directions:
*Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
*Place the cookies into a food processor and process into crumbs.
*Cream the butter, margarine, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and strawberry extract. Start on low until the powdered sugar is mixed in.
*Again starting on a low speed, beat in the flour, 1 cup of the cookie crumbs and drink mix.
*Roll the dough into approximately 1 inch balls. Place on cookie sheets and bake 10 - 12 minutes or until set.
*Cool completely. Roll in powdered sugar.