Spring and Easter link party

It's time for another link party and we thought it would be fun to have an Easter ~ Spring themed one so we not only get holiday ideas but ideas for the season too.

Crafts, Cakes, and Cakes                                   Michelle's Tasty Creations

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    Hot Eats and Cool Reads                                  MorningNooNight
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Here's what your hostesses have been up to lately

starting with the top left we have ~ 

Lemon & Asparagus Orzo Salad from: Hot Eats and Cool Reads

Springtime Spritz Cookies from: Crafts, Cakes, and Cats

Easter Cupcakes from: Michelle's Tasty Creations

Lemon Brownies from: MorningNooNight

Easter Basket Cookie Bars from: Michelle's Tasty Creations

Simple Lemony Asparagus from: Hot Eats and Cool Reads

M & M Sugar Cookie Bars from: Michelle's Tasty Creations

Fresh Strawberry Bread with Strawberry Cream Cheese Glaze from: MorningNooNight

Strawberry Cream Puffs from: Crafts, Cakes, and Cats

Meyer Lemon Crumb Muffins from: MorningNooNight

Trying to Fly with the Butterflies Cupcakes from: Crafts, Cakes, and Cats

Bacon & Asparagus Breakfast Pizza from: Hot Eats and Cool Reads

~A few things to remember~

Please only link up Easter/Spring  recipes, crafts, DIY, tutorials, printables, etc. that YOU have created.

Please don't link up any Etsy shops, giveaways, or other link parties.

By linking to this party you give us permission to share your post on our blogs and other social media.

Please share this party by linking back to us in your post or by adding this party to your party page.

Be sure to stop by and visit a few of the other blogs that have posted; we all love to see sweet comments.

An InLinkz Link-up

spring time spritz cookies

It seems to me we all only remember to bring out the handy dandy cookie press at Christmas. Now they make cute Christmas cookies but what about some spring time Easter cookies? These simple cookies can be brought up a notch by simply adding some food coloring and making them pretty colors!! I followed Wilton's spritz cookie recipe with one small change, I didn't add almond extract. 

These are yummy little sugar cookies that are easy to pop in your mouth and be on your way. They also happen to be the perfect size and softness for my 15 month old!! She is loving having these special little treats around I had to hide them in the pantry so she couldn't see them during dinner!

What you need

3 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 cups softened butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla ( wilton calls for 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract)

cookie press and disks

What you do

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a one bowl mix your flour and baking powder and set aside. In your stand mixer beat together the butter and sugar, add in the egg milk and vanilla mixing well. Slowly add in the flour until well incorporated. 

At this point if you wish to add color seperate the dough into equal parts for each color wanted. I picked five colors and used food coloring gel. Have fun you can mix colors to get a color you don't have. 

Load your cookie press per its instructions. This is where you have a couple options you can load multiple colors and you will get a couple mixed colored cookies or you can load one color at a time and clean out the press between each color. I let mine mix I feel it gave the cookies a lot of character.

Press your cookies onto your cookie sheets.I used a disk that reminded me of flowers for spring.

Bake for 10-12 minutes and enjoy these bite size cookies! 

Egg "muffin"

My daughter is almost 15 months old. So basically she either eats or doesn't. Sometimes its because she is stubborn other times its because the poor thing is working on not 1 but 3 molars!! I am always looking for ways to get healthy food in her, when she will eat veggies are the hardest to get in her. There are some she has no problem with others are a big no go. One thing she does like is eggs so I made these "muffins" with spinach to see if she will eat them and she does!!

I think they are great!! I made them one afternoon and we have been just warming them up for a quick breakfast or even a snack!!

What  you need

12 eggs

6-8 strips of bacon chopped

1/4 of an onion chopped

about 3 cups spinach chopped 

1 cup cheeese

What you do

Preheat oven to 350° In a pan cook your bacon and onion until the onions are soft, toss in the spinach and cook until wilted (only a few minutes). While you let that cool in the pan beat your eggs in a bowl and add the cheese. You can also add a little salt and pepper if you desire. Mix in your spinach mixture, and pour everything into a well greased muffin tin. I used a ice cream scoop and that worked well about 1 scoop per tin. You will get 12 muffins. Bake for 15 minutes, Enjoy right away or cool and put in the fridge for breakfast tomorrow!! 

Samoa Brownies

Its girl scout cookie time!! I am sure you have seen those cute little girls in front of the store, but the big question is did you buy some?? I used to be one of those cute little girls selling cookies and I am proud of it!! Being a girl scout gave me a lot of memories and I did a lot of things I might not have done with out being in the troop. Being a girl scout isn't something I did for a short time I was a daisy all the way to a junior!

Anyways... the cookies are all to die for but only come around once a year! Now when I was selling them my parents had friends that would try and buy enough thin mints for a year! But you don't need to do that you can just head over to my friends blog and make hers when ever you want! Check out the Thin Mints over at CookingMorningNooNight.


For me I love the samoas!! In fact so did my dad he gets his box and just kept it in his lunch box so he wouldn't have to share. But now I have a fun way you can too have this yummy cookie at home its just not a cookie its in brownie form! I got inspired from Host the Toasts brownie!


Her cookie base was a perfect idea! add in the brownie and I went for a home made caramel sauce!

What you need

Cookie crust
1 cup Flour
1/4 sugar
1 stick cold butter cut into pieces

Brownie
You can go homemade like she did on the link but I went for a box of Ghirardelli double chocolate brownies!

Caramel coconut sauce
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup half and half
4 Tablespoons butter
1 cup toasted coconut


What to do

Preheat oven to 350°
Line a 8x8 baking dish with foil and spray with no stick spray.  Mix together the cookie crust items until a soft dough forms. It will seem dry but with come together in a ball when pressed by your hands. Press dough into your prepared pan and bake 15-18 minutes until the top is lightly golden. Cool for 10 minutes and then place in the refrigerator or cool for another 20 minutes.

Mix together your brownie mix per instructions and pour on top of cooled cookie layer and bake for the time instructed for me this was about 45 minutes.

Now you need to cool on a wire rack and then place in the freezer to firm them up some more. While in the freezer make your caramel sauce and mix about 1/2-3/4 of it with your toasted coconut. Remove from freezer and pour coconut caramel over you brownies and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.

Cut up and enjoy!! Now I have to apologize that I don't have more pictures. what was I

thinking!!

Toffee chocolate chip cookie bars and a cookie bar sundae

Ok so I have been slacking, and then I was ready to get back into the swing of things and my clumsy side came out and I hurt my leg!! But I am back up and moving (slowly) so I made these toffee chocolate chip cookie bars and then I made a sundae on it... yep ice cream on a warm cookie nothing better!!!



I have wanted to make a toffee cookie for awhile and then I thought adding chocolate chips would be a great addition and then the thought of cookie bars came to mind and then I made them into a sundae!!!!! So here ya go.

Toffee chocolate chip cookie bars

What you need
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup softened butter (2 sticks)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup toffee pieces (can be found by the chocolate chips)
1 cup chocolate chips


What to do
Preheat oven 350°
In a medium bowl mix your flour, salt, and baking powder. In your stand mixer beat together your butter and sugar. Add your eggs one at a time and then the vanilla. Make sure its mixed well and slowly add in your flour mix.  Stir in your toffee and chocolate chips. Grease a 13x9 pan and press in your batter. I found that spraying my hands lightly and using them to press into the pan worked best.
 Bake 25-30 min.

Cookie bar sundae

All you need is to warm up a cookie bar for about 15 seconds in the microwave. Add a scoop of ice cream and some chocolate syrup and your toppings and yumm your done!!

Valentines day shirt!

CUTE AS CUPID SHIRT

Its that time of the month!! Its my silhouette monthly challenge! This months theme was fabric. And there is actually so many projects that can be done on the silhouette machines using fabric. I choose to cut a heat transfer pattern out and make my daughter a t-shirt. The hardest part of this was that my flocked Heat transfer vinyl took a lot more time under the iron then the suggested time. Yep that means this was easy!


TIP: Always remember to mirror your image when using heat transfer.

Make sure when you put the vinyl in your machine you have it the correct direction. I used silhouette flocked HTV my directions said to have the shinny side down. I did not use a mat and used the recommended cut settings by silhouette. 

 I started with just a pink shirt. 

 This is the vinyl after it had been cut you can see its mirrored.

 And this this it before I ironed it on you can now see that it will be on the correct direction.

 Here is the cute shirt finished!!

Here is my sweet girl who did not wake up from nap in a modeling mood. Apparently wearing a cute shirt and having your picture taken is torture....

44 bloggers total joined this months Fabric challenge!! Check out their awesome projects below! Don't forget to pin!!!! 

1. No-Sew Valentine's Day Pillows by A Tossed Salad Life
2. No-Sew Interchangeable Fabric Bunting by unOriginal Mom
3. Monogrammed Burlap Garden Flag by The Turquoise Home
4. Crawl, Walk, Bike by It's Always Craft Time
5. Freezer Paper Stenciled Tote Bags by Weekend Craft
6. DIY Bleach Spray Shirt by Practically Functional
7. Stenciling Sherlock by Please Excuse My Craftermath...
8. Felt Star Wands by Cutesy Crafts
9. Yoda Kid's T-Shirt by Architecture of a Mom
10. Mark Your Territory- Dog Flags by Black and White Obsession
11. Nautical Pillows by Lil' Mrs. Tori
12. Big Sister Gift & Silhouette Cut File by Creative Ramblings
13. Nerdy Baby Onesies + Free Cut File by Essentially Eclectic
14. Easy Easter Bunny Onesie - Silhouette Cameo Craft by Adventures in All Things Food & Family
15. Fabric Envelopes for LEARNING LETTERS! (& cut file) by From Wine to Whine
16. "Good Morning, Sunshine!" Memo Board by Tried & True
17. Hearts-A-Lot Burlap Pillow Cover by My Paper Craze
18. Baby Quilt by Dragonfly & Lily Pads
19. Surprise Holiday Banner by Whats Next Ma
20. "Team Betty" Tote Bag by The Thinking Closet
21. DIY Sock Minion by Create it. Go!
22. Pretty Up Some Organza Bags by Getsilvered
23. Easy Heart Appliqued Onsies by Create & Babble
24. Bleach Pen Gel & Freezer Paper Stencils Made with the Silhouette Machine by Bringing Creativity 2 Life
25. Valentines Baby Onesie & Boy's Shirt + Free Cut Files by The Frill of Life
26. Valentine's OWL Always Love You T-shirt by My Favorite Finds
27. DIY Screen Printed Curtains by Chicken Scratch NY
28. Fabric Painted Quilted Wall Hanging by Terri Johnson Creates
29. Glitter Iron-On Top by Simply Kelly Designs
30. DIY Monogrammed T-shirts with Silhouette Heat Transfer Material by Pitter and Glink
31. Birthday Challenge by Fadville
32. Machine Applique with SIlhouette Cameo by The Sensory Emporium
33. Fabric Applique Valentine's Day T-Shirt by DailyDwelling
34. "Cute as Cupid" shirt by crafts, cakes, and cats
35. Sew Cute Applique by Life After Laundry
36. Rhino Onesie by It Happens in a Blink
37. Upcycled Birchbox Cameo Accesory Organizer by Cupcakes&Crowbars
38. Customizing textiles with Heat Transfer Vinyl (working title) by feto soap
39. Easy Fabric Art by McCall Manor
40. Lady Bug Tote Bag with Silhouette Rhinestones by Ginger Snap Crafts
41. Mommy and Em's Coordinated Aprons by TitiCrafty
42. Canvas sketch project and a share by Clever Someday
43. Foxy Lady Pajamas by Mabey She Made It
44. Teddy Bear by Work in Progress

Dry Fried Calamari

Do you have an all time favorite appetizer to order when you go to a restaurant? I would say my husband and I usually choose calamari. Its always hit or miss where you go because just cooked a few seconds too long and it gets chewy.

And I bet you never thought it would be easy to make at home the right way! But it is, we follow Alton Brown's recipe over at foodnetwork.com. We really like this dry fried way, its basic and you can spice it up your own way. The key is to cook it for no long than 60 seconds!! No joke I time it on my phone while my husband cooks.

What you need
1 pound squid ( we get tubes and tentacles and buy it at whole foods so far the only place we can find that has it)
2 quarts oil, peanut or vegetable
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup corn meal
salt, pepper, and what ever other seasonings you want to add

Heat oil to 375, make sure to use a thermometer and do your best to keep it at that temperature while cooking. Rinse your squid really well and pat dry. Cut the tubes into 1/2 inch rings and set aside with the tentacles. Mix together your flour, corn meal, and seasonings. doing a small handful at a time dredge the squid in the mixture and set aside.

Cook squid in oil in small batches for only 1 minute( 60 seconds), no joke use a stop watch!!!

Let cool on a cookies sheet lined with paper towels to soak up the oil.

Dip in your favorite tartar sauce or cocktail sauce. My husband loves to add siracha hot sauce to the cocktail sauce.