Food, Glorious Food!

After all the snow and no school ALL week, our routine was shot, I couldn't remember what day it was, and the kids were tired of having to put on 5 layers to go outside, and just wanted to play the Wii. I decided we needed to do something fun together. It kind of worked.

I had each of them go through the fun cookbooks (thanks Deborah for the fantastic dessert cookbook at Christmas!), and they all picked out an exciting item to make. Well, most of them did. Marian didn't care, so I picked out a tasty treat to try out for her. I chose a fabulous cookie recipe. Now, there is some background on this one. 6 years ago, I went to Texas to babysit my niece for 10 days while my brother surprised his wife with a cruise. Since she didn't know it was coming, she had made these amazing cookies. I, of course, ate them all while they were gone. They were so transcendingly delicious! I had never seen this kind of cookie before or since, and yet, as I pawed through my cookbooks, lo and behold, I had it all along! It was a very time-intensive cookie. You had to make the cookie and then melt chocolate to sandwich between two of the cookies. Yummy! I made these first and yes, they were as good as I had remembered. (There were none left for our party.)

Next, it was Joshua's turn. He chose some individual chocolate monogrammed cakes. I was very disappointed with the from-scratch cake recipe in the book. It came out very flat. I mean VERY flat. So we called it brownies and ate them plain. There is another story that goes with that part, but I'll save it for later. I ended up making regular brownies, which we then cut and dipped in the chocolate glaze. Then I piped Valentinesy things on top of them. They were SO cute! There's a picture at the bottom for you. SO cute, I say!

Then it was on to what I chose for Marian: Mississippi Mud Pie Brownies. I decided to stick with the brownies from mix, since I already knew how those turn out. Then we sprinkled marshmallows on top and covered that with homemade chocolate frosting. Decadent and delicious! I've done these before using marshmallow creme, but I really liked the actual marshmallows better.

Callie chose a Toll House Pie. I had never made one before, but I'm sure I will again! Yummy! It was rich, it was chocolaty, it was sublime! I am fat.

Delaney had chosen a pink cake mix last time we shopped, for her birthday. She decided she wanted to make it then. So we made pink cupcakes. We made mini cupcakes and I'm pretty sure Delaney ate a dozen or so of the suckers! She did like the pink cake thing. (However, her birthday is tomorrow and I still have to decide what I'm going to do for her cake-wise.)

And that was our day of cooking. We did invite friends over for a Dessert Party to share our treats, and they also brought treats. It was fun to visit with friends and eat wonderful things and get a break from the snow. Here are a couple pictures. There are none of the kids, since they were mostly still in Pajamas and were smeared with the contents of whatever bowl they had been licking. The bowl licking was their favorite part. Well, that and having company to be silly for.

Yeah, remember the first batch of cake/brownies? Well, here is the rest of the story..... they needed to come out of the pan. I was out of room in the kitchen, and Joshua was my helper, so I decided to invert the pan at the dining room table. Unfortunately, I stood in the wrong place, and the light fixture is NOT over the center of the table. So as I flipped the (Stoneware!) pan into the air to turn the brownies out onto the rack, I smashed it into the light fixture and it broke in a loud and exciting cascade of broken glass. Oops. This is the now-naked light fixture.

Here are the cupcakes, the pie, the reject brownies, and the mud pie brownies. This is the table, all set up for our friends to come and play.

These are the totally adorable individual frosted cakes. Aren't they so cute?! I could eat them up! And I did. They were delicious as well as cute!