Sweetie Pies

Ingredients & Supplies
1 Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crust or homemade pie crust
1 can of cherry pie filling
Cinnamon & sugar mixture
Mini cupcake pan
3-inch and 2.5-inch round cookie cutters
Mini cookie cutter shapes

1. Let pie crust sit out for 15 minutes before cutting.
2. Cut 3-inch and 2.5-inch circles out of pie crusts.
3. Put 3” circles of dough in the bottom of a mini cupcake pan
4. Push the edges flat to make a rim of dough.
5. Fill with cherry pie filling. (Approx. 3 or 4 cherries each.)
6. Cut out inner shapes from 2.5-inch circles of dough.
7. Place 2.5-inch circles of dough on top and push the edges together with bottom circles of dough.
8. Take your 2.5-inch cutter and press the two layers together, cutting the outer dough off.
9. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar mixture.
10. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes.

Gimmie S'more Love

Ingredients & Supplies
Jumbo-sized marshmallows
Graham cracker squares
Hershey’s candybars
1-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter

1. Cut center of marshmallows with heart-shaped cookie cutter
2. Melt Hershey candybars in a ziplock bag in the microwave - 30 seconds at a time until completely melted. (Two candybars will fill one s’more heart)
3. Place marshmallows on graham cracker squares
4. Pour melted chocolate inside marshmallow heart shapes until full to the top.
5. Let chocolate dry and harden on a countertop or in fridge.

A message for Mother Nature.

Snow Day #6 at the Denneler house isn't nearly as fun as Snow Day #1. The novelty has definitely worn off. 

I'm probably stating the obvious here, but summer can't come soon enough. Only 131 days. Sigh.

Perspiration Inspiration

My sister and her husband own a fitness center in Chanute, Kansas and every year they hire me to design t-shirts for their members. This year's fitness theme is "One More" - encouraging people to go that little extra during their workout. If you look closely, you'll see that the letters of the words on the t-shirts are made up of healthy exercise words - so there's a message within a message on each one. (Hmmm... maybe I should take my own advice and do one more sit-up instead of eating one more handful of these delicious Cheez-Its right now.)

Bea's snowhive.

Can I go back to work now? 

I was so cabin-fevery today, I built this snow beehive. 

Snowhive? Snive? Beeigloo?

Room for two kids. Or one stir-crazy mom.

Groundhog Grub

I was looking through old photos today and came across some previous Punxsutawney Phil treats I'd made. This cake was for a friend of mine at Sullivan Higdon & Sink (who's birthday was the day before Groundhog's Day.) And the groundhog cupcakes I made a few years ago for Bea to take to daycare.

I thought about baking a treat today since we're home again on Snow Day #2. But, we're all out of powdered sugar, and I'm on my last stick of butter. Maybe next year, Phil. 

Hmmmm.... I do have a box of brownie mix. Perhaps I should bake a groundhog shadow?

Brr...

This was the view out my frosted-over front door this morning. It never got higher than 7 degrees all day, we got 5 inches of snow, and I spent 2 hours shoveling our driveway. I don't like those numbers one bit.

And school is called off for tomorrow, so it's another snow day at home with the kids. Save me. Or just send butterscotch schnapps for my hot chocolate, please.

More lovin' from my oven.

I've been experimenting with some of my recipes this weekend, trying to perfect a few of the projects I plan to teach at my I HEART SUGAR class in two weeks. (BTW, the class is full. Yippee!) Can't wait to share some sweet secrets with my 12 fellow bakers. Ladies... start your ovens.

I'll post all eight projects after the class is over, so stay tuned. There are some really fun Valentine treat ideas that you will love.

I want this.

My husband thinks I'm crazy. I've been obsessing over this trash can for two years. It's the Wesco Spaceboy. (Currently only available in the UK.) And yes, it's $250. But I don't care. I must have it. Some day.

If he can have three iPhones in four years, I surely deserve one cool trash can. Valentine's Day is just around the corner.... Hint. Hint.

Bea's Hive

With a name like Bea, it would be very tempting to go bumblebee crazy in her bedroom. But I try to restrain myself and save those ideas for her birthday parties. Instead, our daughter's room is an eclectic mix of fun, funky & functional. The paper-quilted wall is a crazy kaleidoscope of color. Her platform bed incorporates quirky, modern safety rails as well as valuable storage (for a bazillion stuffed animals & blankets.) A simple, tree-shaped shelf holds 100's of books within arm's reach. And her curvy dresser is like something out of Alice in Wonderland. Bea's room is probably one of my most favorite spaces in our house - the smallest, but the most fun too.

Happy National Pie Day!

Like I need a holiday for an excuse to eat pie.....

I got these swell new mini alphabet fondant cutters and just had to test them out.

What's in a name?

When our son was born (almost 10 weeks early!) Eric and I had barely started discussing baby names. But we quickly settled for the first name we could both agree on: "Gus." It was short, normal-but-not-too-normal, and we didn't know anyone else named Gus. Nine years later, I can honestly say we picked the perfect name for him. (Probably a good thing we didn't have more time to over-think it.)

With the help of eBay, I've been able to collect a lot of fun "Gus" items that we use to decorate his room - movie posters, toys, soda bottles, restaurant menus, advertisements and a ton of books. My hope was that all this Gus stuff could be used for decorating, no matter if he's 2 years old or 82 years old. (But my guess is that at about age 15, he's going to want me to pack it all up in a box and hide it. Until then I'm going to keep collecting.)