Patriotic Fun with Betty Crocker

Happy Tuesday, friends! As I mentioned yesterday, I really got into the patriotic cooking spirit this weekend. I didn't stop with the fruit salsa and pita chips. Instead I decided to attempt to create a red, white, and blue cake thanks to Betty Crocker. Let me just say, I followed her directions word for word. Betty said, "jump!" I replied with, "how high!?" It was a wonderful afternoon. 

Click here to follow the recipe to make your very own Red, White, and Blue cake for the holiday! In the mean time, here is how my cake turned out!

Red, White, and Blue Cake Shopping List:

White cake mix

Eggs

Vegetable Oil

Red and Blue food coloring

Bundt cake pan

Fluffy Frosting (you'll end up melting it, so the fluffy kind works well!)

Sprinkles if you wish!

Notice the mess in the background? Pretty standard.

After dying the cake red and blue, my fingers had started to change colors. Good thing I was wearing an apron otherwise my guests wouldn't have recognized me.

Viola! I drizzled the icing all over the cake and topped it with fancy star sprinkles. If you look closely, you can see the chunk missing from the middle of the cake. That cake was definitely left in the bundt cake pan. 

Usually I'm alone cooking the kitchen, so I took this opportunity to pose with my puurty cake. I was very excited after it was finished and I didn't want anyone eating it soon. We waited until later that night to dive into the yummyness.

Red, White, and Bluuuue!

 The MU plate adds a little Mizzou flair to the patriotic spirit of this cake.

On another note, remember when I posted about meeting scientists with my students? Click here if you want to refresh your memory. Barbara over at The Corner on Character posted about John and his Girls on a Misson presentation. Check it out! 

Linking up here with Tuesday Talent Show!

Fruit Salsa & Pita Chips

This past weekend a few friends and I celebrated the 4th of July a little early. Needless to say, I took this opportunity to experiment on a few patriotic treats. Today, I'll show you how I made a fruit salsa and homemade pita chips. 

Originally, this fruit salsa recipe wasn't supposed to be red, white, and blue but it just kind of happened. I bought way too many blueberries (and understatement of the amount of blueberries in my fridge) and couldn't find any kiwi. Oh well! The salsa was delicious. 

Fruit Salsa:
(Depending on how much salsa you want depends on how much fruit you put in - go wild!)
2-4 apples (chopped)
Strawberries (chopped)
Raspberries
Blueberries
2 tsp Fruit Preserve (if you add more fruit, add more preserve and sugar)
2 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar

Combine all of the ingredients and pop it in the fridge for 30 minutes or so. The longer the better if you ask me!

Pita Chips
Tortillas (10 or so - again, depends on how many you wish to make!)
Vegetable oil
Sugar
Honey

Using a pizza cutter, create small chips from the flour tortillas. Pour vegetable oil in a skillet and let the oil warm for a few minutes. Toss a few tortilla slices into the skillet and let them crisp for a few minutes. After awhile, your oil becomes quite warm and it takes about one minute per chip. Be careful! A few of my chips wound up outside because I got distracted.

Place your cooked chips on a plate and drizzle with sugar and honey. Use them to dip into your fruit salsa and ENJOY!

What patriotic recipes are you testing out this year?

Land of the Free and Home of the....... CHIEFS! (sorry, old habits die hard)

It's hard not to smile when looking at that little face! I hope your 4th of July was as exciting as mine. I grew up loving the holiday and now I have a true appreciation for it. It's a great way for family and friends to get together and mingle. If you know me, you know I love to mingle!

I went a little overboard with making goodies for the holiday. I got really excited about dipping things in chocolate and using food coloring to dye things red, white, and blue!

First, I cheated. I have never been able to successfully melt chocolate without burning everything in site. So, I bought this:

....and holy smokes! IT WAS AMAZING! It cut down on my frustration level completely and it tasted yummy.

First, I snagged Martha's idea and made Pretzel Sparklers and they were delicious and super simple.

Kudos, Martha!

Next, since I was on a roll with dipping things in my cheater chocolate I moved onto marshmallows. I thought it would be a great idea to have my 2 year old nephew help with this feat. He carefully took the skewered marshmallow and SLAM-DUNKED it into the chocolate. After drizzling chocolate all over the counter and me, I took over. No need for a panic attack on the 4th!

After a few minutes of practicing our colors, I had a bowl full of red and blue M&M's to decorate my rice krispies.

snap, crackle, POP!

The trick to my rice krispie treats is less KRISPIE! I don't put in the full 6 cups of cereal that the recipe calls for. That way, they are more gooey when you eat them. My tip comes with a warning though: once I thought it would be a good idea to use food coloring to dye my treats another color for Valentine's Day. Of course, I picked the color of l-o-v-e: red. Do you know what rice krispie treats look like when they are dyed red?

Raw meat. It was difficult trying to convince people to eat my snack when they thought I had brought raw meat to our food share! Be cautious of what color you dye your treats!

The food I posted today is so easy... your 5 year old cousin could make it. Really, famous chefs would probably laugh at this post because of its simplistic features! Oh-well.. they tasted yummy and were stress free!


Enjoy a picture of my pooch, Alex.

As Tigger would say... TTFN!