Rah! Rah! Sis! Boom! Bah! Super Easy Pom Pom Cookies!

Are you ready for some football?  I mean, are you ready for the quickest, easiest, no-decorating-skills-required cookies for your game day dessert platter?

Easy Pom Pom Cookies! 

That's something to cheer about. 

Maybe the neighbors are coming over to watch the game.  Maybe you're making cookies for your kiddo's team party.  And maybe, just maybe, you don't want to spend 17 hours decorating cookies.

These pom pom cookies are so, so simple...and so, so cute.  I love them mixed in with these easy (are you sensing a theme here?) football brownies!


To make the pom pom cookies, you'll need:

• small circle cut-out cookies
• royal icing, divided and tinted with AmeriColor food coloring for your team colors (I used Super Red and Bright White)
• disposable icing bags
• couplers and tips, #2 & #1

Use a #2 tip to pipe a flower shape with long thin petals in the base color.

Use a #1 tip to pipe another flower on top in the contrasting color.  It's ok if it's not perfect...actually, I think it's better if it's not.

Go back the the base color and add a smaller flower shape on top.

Let the icing dry completely before stacking.

{My cookie icing dried super shiny in the dehydrator.  More info here.}

So, those footballs brownies?  They're covered in a dark chocolate glaze.  Look:

Yeah.  You need these for your game day dessert table.  Come on over to Parade to see just how easy they are to make.  And eat.

---

Are you ready for some football?  I mean, are you ready for the quickest, easiest, no-decorating-skills-required cookies for your game day dessert platter?

Easy Pom Pom Cookies! 

That's something to cheer about. 

Maybe the neighbors are coming over to watch the game.  Maybe you're making cookies for your kiddo's team party.  And maybe, just maybe, you don't want to spend 17 hours decorating cookies.

These pom pom cookies are so, so simple...and so, so cute.  I love them mixed in with these easy (are you sensing a theme here?) football brownies!


To make the pom pom cookies, you'll need:

• small circle cut-out cookies
• royal icing, divided and tinted with AmeriColor food coloring for your team colors (I used Super Red and Bright White)
• disposable icing bags
• couplers and tips, #2 & #1

Use a #2 tip to pipe a flower shape with long thin petals in the base color.

Use a #1 tip to pipe another flower on top in the contrasting color.  It's ok if it's not perfect...actually, I think it's better if it's not.

Go back the the base color and add a smaller flower shape on top.

Let the icing dry completely before stacking.

{My cookie icing dried super shiny in the dehydrator.  More info here.}

So, those footballs brownies?  They're covered in a dark chocolate glaze.  Look:

Yeah.  You need these for your game day dessert table.  Come on over to Parade to see just how easy they are to make.  And eat.

---

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Three Cheers for Sweet Strawberry Pasta Salad...and giveaways!

You know how football food is all meaty, and spicy, and cheesy, and heavy?  Don't get me wrong...I've never met a Frito Chili Pie I didn't like, but what about adding something *sweet* to the mix?  How about Sweet Strawberry Pasta Salad?

How about making it with pasta in the shapes of your favorite sports team??!?
How FUN is that?!?  

OK...look.  I know, I know.  It's pumpkin season.  Believe me, I am all. about. the. pumpkin.  BUT.  It's still hot here.  And the strawberries?  They're still delicious.  I'll take them as long as I can get them.
{Someone is revoking my food blogger card as we speak.}

I'm so excited to share this recipe with you...and tell you about the company that makes this ADORABLE pasta:

The Pasta Shoppe is a company out of Nashville, Tennessee and they make the cutest pastas ever.  (We're all about cute around here, right?)  Sports team pasta...that each come with a mix for a savory pasta salad, chicken soup kits with chicken shaped pasta (!!!), golf pasta, support our troops pasta, birthday pasta, holiday pasta.  If you can think of it, I bet they make it.

They also have a fundraising program.  Oh, what I wouldn't have given for kiddo to have sold this pasta instead of wrapping paper, magazines, and inedible pre-popped popcorn! Can you imagine how easy this would be to sell?  I think just about everyone loves pasta.  (They even offer gluten-free!)

 If you went to OU like I did, are you squealing over that Sooner Schooner pasta right now?!?

{Scroll down past the recipe for more on the pasta giveaway.}

Sweet pasta salad.  Maybe it sounds weird.  Trust me on this.  It is so incredibly yummy.  After I took the pictures, I stood in my kitchen eating it straight out of the big pasta bowl.  The dressing (cream, strawberries, vanilla, almond) tastes like strawberry ice cream.  You need to try it.  Promise.

Sweet Strawberry Pasta Salad

1 (14 oz.) package pasta
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
3 TBSP powdered sugar
1 pint strawberries, sliced and divided
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup sweetened, flaked coconut, toasted
1/3 cup blanched, sliced almonds, toasted

Cook the pasta according the package directions.  Drain.  Rinse with cold water and set aside.

In a blender, process the cream, sugar, 1 cup of the strawberries, vanilla, and almond extract until smooth and thickened.

{I was so tempted to just slurp this up with a straw.}

Place the pasta in a large bowl; toss with the coconut and remaining strawberries.  Drizzle the dressing over the top and sprinkle on the almonds.  If extra dressing remains, serve it alongside the pasta salad.

*giveaway closed* 
 
For the giveaway:  The Pasta Shoppe is giving away THREE pasta goodie boxes including the collegiate pasta of your choice + a selection of everyday/seasonal favorites!  Yay...three winners!

To enter, visit The Pasta Shoppe's website and leave a comment telling me one of the pastas you love.
For an extra entry, visit their fundraising page and let me know in a separate comment that you did.

Entries accepted through 11:59pm CST, September 29th.  Good luck! :)

Congrats to Bianca, Kayla and Amanda!!! 
 
*find The Pasta Shoppe on Facebook here.*

This post was sponsored by The Pasta Shoppe. My opinions are my own. I take full responsibility for my love of strawberries during pumpkin season.

You know how football food is all meaty, and spicy, and cheesy, and heavy?  Don't get me wrong...I've never met a Frito Chili Pie I didn't like, but what about adding something *sweet* to the mix?  How about Sweet Strawberry Pasta Salad?

How about making it with pasta in the shapes of your favorite sports team??!?
How FUN is that?!?  

OK...look.  I know, I know.  It's pumpkin season.  Believe me, I am all. about. the. pumpkin.  BUT.  It's still hot here.  And the strawberries?  They're still delicious.  I'll take them as long as I can get them.
{Someone is revoking my food blogger card as we speak.}

I'm so excited to share this recipe with you...and tell you about the company that makes this ADORABLE pasta:

The Pasta Shoppe is a company out of Nashville, Tennessee and they make the cutest pastas ever.  (We're all about cute around here, right?)  Sports team pasta...that each come with a mix for a savory pasta salad, chicken soup kits with chicken shaped pasta (!!!), golf pasta, support our troops pasta, birthday pasta, holiday pasta.  If you can think of it, I bet they make it.

They also have a fundraising program.  Oh, what I wouldn't have given for kiddo to have sold this pasta instead of wrapping paper, magazines, and inedible pre-popped popcorn! Can you imagine how easy this would be to sell?  I think just about everyone loves pasta.  (They even offer gluten-free!)

 If you went to OU like I did, are you squealing over that Sooner Schooner pasta right now?!?

{Scroll down past the recipe for more on the pasta giveaway.}

Sweet pasta salad.  Maybe it sounds weird.  Trust me on this.  It is so incredibly yummy.  After I took the pictures, I stood in my kitchen eating it straight out of the big pasta bowl.  The dressing (cream, strawberries, vanilla, almond) tastes like strawberry ice cream.  You need to try it.  Promise.

Sweet Strawberry Pasta Salad

1 (14 oz.) package pasta
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
3 TBSP powdered sugar
1 pint strawberries, sliced and divided
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup sweetened, flaked coconut, toasted
1/3 cup blanched, sliced almonds, toasted

Cook the pasta according the package directions.  Drain.  Rinse with cold water and set aside.

In a blender, process the cream, sugar, 1 cup of the strawberries, vanilla, and almond extract until smooth and thickened.

{I was so tempted to just slurp this up with a straw.}

Place the pasta in a large bowl; toss with the coconut and remaining strawberries.  Drizzle the dressing over the top and sprinkle on the almonds.  If extra dressing remains, serve it alongside the pasta salad.

*giveaway closed* 
 
For the giveaway:  The Pasta Shoppe is giving away THREE pasta goodie boxes including the collegiate pasta of your choice + a selection of everyday/seasonal favorites!  Yay...three winners!

To enter, visit The Pasta Shoppe's website and leave a comment telling me one of the pastas you love.
For an extra entry, visit their fundraising page and let me know in a separate comment that you did.

Entries accepted through 11:59pm CST, September 29th.  Good luck! :)

Congrats to Bianca, Kayla and Amanda!!! 
 
*find The Pasta Shoppe on Facebook here.*

This post was sponsored by The Pasta Shoppe. My opinions are my own. I take full responsibility for my love of strawberries during pumpkin season.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Baby Got Track.

{Molly, that post title is for you.}

Kiddo was on the track team this year...and as much as I admired the kids who practiced four days a week after school for what felt like months on end, I was just floored by the commitment of their coach. Not a school employee, but a dad, who was out there EVERY DAY after school and at EVERY track meet.

If you've never been to a track meet, let me fill you in.  They're outside.  (You probably knew that.)  In the heat, in the sun, and, yes, sometimes even in the rain. From 8am to 5pm. Your child will compete for, oh, a total of 4 minutes?

Suggestion for track venues: tacos. And possibly margaritas.  

So anyway, obviously coach needed some cookies.  And not just any cookies, the most brightly colored running shoe cookies in the universe.

The shape was made from a template.  I used it to make these cookies last year.
Here it is for you to use:

(Just save this image on your computer and resize it as you wish. Click here for info on how to use a template.)

To make obnoxiously colored running shoe cookies, you'll need:

• sugar cookies cut with the template above
• royal icing, divided and tinted with AmeriColor Electric Green, Sky Blue mixed with Turquoise, and Orange mixed with Red Red (or any colors you want)
• disposable icing bags
• coupler and tips: #2
• squeeze bottles 
• toothpicks

Outline cookies in the base color and the sole color using #2 tips, sectioning off areas to be filled with contrasting colors.  Reserve some of each of the piping consistency icing.

Thin all of the icings with water, a bit at a time, stirring with a silicone spatula, until it is the consistency of a thick syrup.  (Reserve some of the blue icing for piping details later.) You'll want to drop a "ribbon" of icing back into the bowl and have it disappear in a count of "one thousand one, one thousand two." Four is too thick, one is too thin.  Count of 2-3 is good.  Cover with a damp dishcloth and let sit for several minutes.

Stir gently with a silicone spatula to pop and large air bubbles that have formed.  Pour into squeeze bottles as needed.

Flood the cookies, filling in the outlines. Use toothpicks to spread the icing and pop any large air bubbles that have formed.

In the very small areas, take care not to overfill, and run a toothpick through the area to dislodge air bubbles.  Overfilling and not using a toothpick can lead to craters as the icing dries. Let the cookies dry at least one hour.

Again with #2 tips, add the laces and shoe details.

Let the cookies dry, uncovered, 6-8 hours or overnight. 

A big thank you to ALL of you coaches out there...especially volunteer coaches!  You are appreciated! 

---

{Molly, that post title is for you.}

Kiddo was on the track team this year...and as much as I admired the kids who practiced four days a week after school for what felt like months on end, I was just floored by the commitment of their coach. Not a school employee, but a dad, who was out there EVERY DAY after school and at EVERY track meet.

If you've never been to a track meet, let me fill you in.  They're outside.  (You probably knew that.)  In the heat, in the sun, and, yes, sometimes even in the rain. From 8am to 5pm. Your child will compete for, oh, a total of 4 minutes?

Suggestion for track venues: tacos. And possibly margaritas.  

So anyway, obviously coach needed some cookies.  And not just any cookies, the most brightly colored running shoe cookies in the universe.

The shape was made from a template.  I used it to make these cookies last year.
Here it is for you to use:

(Just save this image on your computer and resize it as you wish. Click here for info on how to use a template.)

To make obnoxiously colored running shoe cookies, you'll need:

• sugar cookies cut with the template above
• royal icing, divided and tinted with AmeriColor Electric Green, Sky Blue mixed with Turquoise, and Orange mixed with Red Red (or any colors you want)
• disposable icing bags
• coupler and tips: #2
• squeeze bottles 
• toothpicks

Outline cookies in the base color and the sole color using #2 tips, sectioning off areas to be filled with contrasting colors.  Reserve some of each of the piping consistency icing.

Thin all of the icings with water, a bit at a time, stirring with a silicone spatula, until it is the consistency of a thick syrup.  (Reserve some of the blue icing for piping details later.) You'll want to drop a "ribbon" of icing back into the bowl and have it disappear in a count of "one thousand one, one thousand two." Four is too thick, one is too thin.  Count of 2-3 is good.  Cover with a damp dishcloth and let sit for several minutes.

Stir gently with a silicone spatula to pop and large air bubbles that have formed.  Pour into squeeze bottles as needed.

Flood the cookies, filling in the outlines. Use toothpicks to spread the icing and pop any large air bubbles that have formed.

In the very small areas, take care not to overfill, and run a toothpick through the area to dislodge air bubbles.  Overfilling and not using a toothpick can lead to craters as the icing dries. Let the cookies dry at least one hour.

Again with #2 tips, add the laces and shoe details.

Let the cookies dry, uncovered, 6-8 hours or overnight. 

A big thank you to ALL of you coaches out there...especially volunteer coaches!  You are appreciated! 

---

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Wordless Wednesday - Champions (Bruins Edition)

Champions!!!!! And, this Boston girl can go to bed now.  :-)

Champions!!!!! And, this Boston girl can go to bed now.  :-)

reade more... Résuméabuiyad