LaForce Be With You

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Beef Cheese Ball

I made this to take to the Alpha Chi Omega Charlotte Alum Christmas Event. It was a recipe swap and ornament decorating party! What a great party idea right? I was so excited to go to this since it involved making an appetizer or dessert and sharing the recipe AND doing something crafty! 3 other Clemson girls and I went together and we had a great time :)

p.s. my sister gave me this snowman platter a few Christmases ago... isn't it so cute?! he has a red hat you can't see in the picture.

Beef Cheese Ball

Ingredients:
-8 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temp (I used red. fat)
-2.25 oz. jar of dried beef, finely diced
-½ tsp onion powder
-1 ½ tsp Worchestershire sauce
-Dash of celery salt
-Dash of garlic salt
-½ - ¾ cup grated cheddar cheese
-½ cup chopped pecans
-Dried parsley - use your own judgement, it's mainly for color

Serve with crackers

Directions:
Mix first 7 ingredients and shape into ball. Spread pecans and sprinkle parsley on wax paper. Roll ball in pecans and parsley until covered. Place a half pecan on top if desired. Chill for a few hours before serving. Make sure to pull it out of a the fridge about 20 minutes before serving so it can soften a little. This also freezes well if you want to make it ahead of time and thaw before using.

this is the dried beef I use

all done rollin' around

I got fancy and put the recipe on these recipe cards Homemade by Jill created. The recipe swappers were impressed!

When I made the beef cheese ball, I actually made 2 so that I would also have one for the Gingerbread House party... sneaky I know but also time saving. It was a big hit! Both times I served it, people loved it. Many didn't believe I had made it since it seems so fancy but now you know that it's really simple!

Would be wonderful for quickly approaching super bowl parties. Let me know if you try it out. Enjoy!

Linking up to these parties:

Saturday, January 8, 2011

DIY Free Dessert Stand

I'm sure near the top of many of your New Year's resolutions is to spend less/budget better. I am completely on board with doing things the thrifty way and how does it get any thriftier than something you can make for ZERO DOLLARS! Yep that's right, using only things you have on hand and trust me you have these items.

My idea for this came about when I saw this post with a cute candlestick dessert stand that you can take apart. Problem was after a few trips to goodwill I still couldn't find one of those candlesticks needed for that project. Enter plan B. It was only 1 day until we were having friends over for our Gingerbread House Party and I reeeeally wanted a dessert stand to display some treats on. So I made one using only items in my house and I still wanted it to be able to come apart - so nothing permanent. If you are like me you probably don't have space to store a big dessert stand intact.

I used:
-2 white platters I had on hand - 1 bigger than the other, you could also use plates)
-tape- double-stick to be exact but I think other non permanent tapes would work as well if you fold them over
-wrapping paper
-A jar of peanut butter.... wha??? just trust me on this :)

Wrap your jar of peanut butter in the wrapping paper. It can even be some other jar/container with a flat top. It helped that the jar was fairly full to make the dessert stand more sturdy and that it was plastic (non breakable). Cover the lid in double-stick tape and place smaller platter/plate on top and push into tape. Then place that in the middle of your larger platter to complete the stand! So quick, cute, and did I mention FREE!

You could also doublestick tape it to the bottom platter if you wanted it to be extra extra sturdy. Since it was already pretty sturdy and just adults at this party I wasn't really worried about it. This can work for any type of event since you can just switch out the wrapping paper. Or even use fabric scraps. You can also switch up your platters/plates. Afterwards, it's a piece of cake to take apart by just pulling the top platter off the tape and unwrapping your jar. Just make sure not to wrap up a food item you are going to need that day :)

Of course this doesn't have to just be for desserts especially since so many New Year's resolutions are about eating healthy! Use it for appetizers or fruit or whatever really! However, here are the recipes for the Crinkles & Snickerdoodles.

Linking up to these parties:

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

My First Freezer Paper Stenciled Shirts

I am sure you have seen freezer paper stenciled shirts before on blogland... they are nothing new, but ever since I got my Silhouette I really wanted to try them out since it would make them much easier to do. Since I decided to make some of the gifts I gave out this year, that was able to present me (present, get it? hehe lame I know) with the perfect opportunity.

This is a wonderful blogpost I referenced with a tutorial video and she does hers without a Silhouette machine. This post is also a great resource.

I decided to do a trial on a onesie first before I made shirts for Eric's nieces and nephew. I used a design from my Silhouette software library and had my Silhouette machine cut the freezer paper creating the stencil saving all the little inside pieces needed for the stencil (all described in the video tutorial). Then I ironed it to the onesie shiny side down so it will stick.

As the video shows you, you don't need a Silhouette but it sure does help A LOT! I would never want to do a complicated design with just an exacto knife. Freezer paper is found near the wax paper and foil stuff by the way.

Then I used a paint medium that mixes with acrylic paint to turn it into fabric paint. A couple of coats later and voila! Looking back I think I would have picked an easier design for my trial... the little tiny stencil lines (like the propeller) were challenging especially when done on a teeny tiny onesie. I added the word later and love that font with the plane!

With the trial being a success, I picked up some shirts (and onesie) for Eric's nieces (1 yr, 3 yrs, 8 yrs) and nephew (11 yrs) and repeated the process with different designs I created in the software. Well the skull design I bought from Silhouette.

Here are the results: skull for the boy, i rule crown for the 8yr old, and cupcake for the 3yr old). They got their shirts as part of their Christmas gifts.

And onesie for the baby that says "sugar and spice... I LOVE that she is making a kissy face while wearing it ha! Priceless!

I dare say Miss Abby IS as cute as a cupcake... don't you agree? The cupcake even goes with her play kitchen stuff.

Her royal highness

The boy did not want to "model" his shirt for me but boys will be boys. Well my first freezer paper stenciled shirts turned out great don't you think!?! These were fun to make and even more fun to give and tell the person you made a shirt just for them! Plus it is very friendly on your wallet :)

I have made a few more freezer paper stenciled clothes since then that I can't wait to show you soon! Do you have any fun shirts you made or ideas for neat designs?

Linking up to these parties:

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Chocolate Crinkles and Snickerdoodles

For the holidays I decided to make some treats I hadn't tried before.

2 of those things were Chocolate Crinkle cookies and Snickerdoodles. Snickerdoodle is such a funny name for a cookie, don't ya think? I think it could be more realistically called Cinnadoodle (considering there are no Snickers or anything close to that in the cookie) but sadly I was not consulted in the creating of this cookie. Chocolate Crinkles actually makes sense. Anywho... on to the recipes.

Chocolate Crinkles from here

Ingredients:
1-1/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
powdered sugar (for coating)

Directions:
Place the chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl, and heat on low until the chocolate is mostly melted. Stir slowly until the mixture is smooth.
In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in the chocolate mixture, and then add dry ingredients. Stir until the flour is all incorporated. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours or overnight. It will firm up considerably.
Preheat the oven to 325 F. Put about 1-1/2 cups of powdered sugar into a shallow bowl. This is the part where you have to work quickly. Scoop out heaping tablespoon-sized balls of cookie dough — roughly 1-1/4 inches in diameter. Roll them very briefly between your palms to make them more even, if you need to. Drop the balls into the powdered sugar, about 4-5 at a time. Gently shake and toss the bowl to coat the balls with sugar. Don't be shy with the powdered sugar - some of it bakes in so you need a lot for it to show up! (Note: You want the dough to stay firm and chilled, so you have to do this part rather quickly. I actually put the dough back in the fridge between batches.)
Arrange the coated balls on a lightly greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet, leaving about 1-1/2 inches between them. If you have to wait for the oven to finish preheating, put the cookie sheets in the fridge while you wait.
Bake the cookies for about 10-11 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack.

The blog I got this from said she was able to make 3 dozen even though where she originally got said 5 and I got about 4 dozen when I did it.

I took no pictures of the process due to hands covered in powdered sugar... it was also everywhere else in my kitchen too.

Snickerdoodles from here (Bake at 350 has some other yummy looking treats... check it out!)

Ingredients:
2 & 3/4 c flour
1 & 1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c butter
1/2 c shortening
1 & 1/2 c sugar
2 large eggs
2 TBSP sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper, set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt; set aside. In another bowl, cream the butter, shortening and 1 & 1/2 c sugar. Blend in the eggs at low speed.
Add the flour mixture (I did this in 3 additions), and mix until combined.
In a small bowl, combine the remaining sugar and cinnamon.
Roll 1 TBSP of dough into a ball and roll in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place dough on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart.
Bake at 350 for 8-9 minutes. Do not overbake. the centers will be soft, but will set upon cooling. (A very thin cookie spatula helps in transferring because they are so soft.) Cool on a wire rack. Makes 4 & 1/2 dozen.

The snickerdoodles were by far my favorite of all the treats I made over the holidays... they just may be one of my favorites of all time. I do love cinnamon! You should definitely try them! You definitely don't have to wait until next holidays to make some yummy cookies :)

Linking up to these parties:

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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Beef Cheese Ball

Saturday, January 8, 2011

DIY Free Dessert Stand

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

My First Freezer Paper Stenciled Shirts

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Chocolate Crinkles and Snickerdoodles