mini tart cups

These mini tart cups are so cute and easy.  They are the perfect snack size, and can be made in so many flavors and varieties!  All you need is any sugar cookie, cracker, or shortbread dough that can be rolled out.  I used a biscuit cutter with a scalloped edge because it makes the tart edges prettier.

Gather up your favorite dough recipe (that can be rolled out), a muffin tin, and a biscuit cutter slightly bigger than the muffin tin base.

Roll out your dough fairly thin because it will puff up a bit when it bakes, and you want plenty of room for tart filling!  I should have rolled this batch a bit thinner, but they still worked fine.  Just don't roll your dough CRAZY thin, because you want the tart crust sturdy enough to support the weight of your filling.

Use your biscuit cutter and cut out the dough in slightly bigger circles than the bottom of the muffin tin openings.  Spray the muffin tin well with cooking spray before you lightly press the dough in and they'll pop out easily after they're baked.  Grab a fork and poke 3-4 times on the tart bottoms to prevent them from puffing up too much.

I baked this batch for 18 minutes, then let them sit for about 2 minutes before I removed the tart cups to a wire rack to cool completely.

You can easily make these a day before you need them if you store them in a cool dry place.  I made these ahead of time, and I made the custard filling the day before as well.  I piped the custard into the cups right before I needed them and topped them with strawberries and blueberries.  So easy!  I love these tarts.  They taste yummy (seriously, I need an intervention to stop eating them all!), they were really easy, you can make them in advance, and they look super fancy.

Tarts are great for parties because you can just grab them and you don't need a fork or even a plate.  I love grab and go foods!  I've already got a bunch of tart variations I want to make too.  One the top of my list?

• shortbread cup + chocolate pudding + whipped cream dollop
• graham cracker cup + chocolate ganache or pudding + toasted marshmallow
• chocolate sugar cookie cup + strawberry Greek yogurt
• sugar cookie cup + strawberries + whipped cream dollop
• peanut butter cookie cup + Reese's peanut butter cup

mini tart cups

ingredients:

• 2 cups AP flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 egg
• 3 tsp milk

directions:

1. In a food processor, blend the flour, sugar, salt, and butter until it resembles coarse sand.   Pulse in the egg, then add in the milk and pulse until the dough comes together.
2. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Flour you counter and roll on the dough fairly thin.  Use a biscuit cutter slightly larger than the muffin tin base and cut out your dough.  Gently press into the greased muffin tin and lightly stab 3-4 times with a fork.
4. Bake for 18 minutes, until the edges are lightly golden.  Remove from the oven and let sit for 2 minutes before removing the cups onto a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Once cooled, fill cups and serve, or set unfilled cups aside in airtight container in a cool dry area.  Cups can always be filled and served the next day.  Once filled try to consume the cups within 3 days or the cups will start becoming soggy on the inside.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!  This is just a brief shout out to all the awesome dads out there.  I hope you are all having a very relaxing and fun day with your families.

I just had to add this "proud Mommy" moment from earlier today.  I reminded Liam this morning that today was Father's Day.  His reaction was to run up to Jeff, hug him and tell him "I love you!"  Then Liam turned to me and insisted that Jeff needed cookies.  Chocolate chip cookies.  He knows they're Jeff's favorites (and figured he'd get a cookie or two out of the deal I'll bet!).  Liam insisted on making the cookies himself.  All I did was help measure, add the egg (we had spillage the first try when he did it himself), and handle the oven.   Liam did the rest all by himself.  And darn it if I can't stop eating them!  I love how sweet this kid is, and how freaking awesome he is in the kitchen!

Because Jeff is totally awesome I was already planning on making a good dessert, but the kiddo stole the show a bit, so I'll make my dessert later.  I'll post it soon, don't worry.   :)
Seriously though, he could have been relaxing and doing whatever he wanted today, and Jeff beautified the whole front yard AND cleaned out the garage!  Extra credit goes to him.

Happy Father's Day everyone!

Not bad for cookies made by a 4 year old, huh?

Liam used my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, which can be found here.

Mickey Mouse birthday treats

I'm still in denial that my baby is already 4.  I seriously don't know how that happened so fast!  This kiddo is a total Disney fanatic.  Wonder why with parents like us?  :)  This is the second time he's insisted on a Mickey Mouse themed birthday party.  I already had most of the decorations, so I thought, why not?

Throwing a birthday party so close to Easter always messes me up because there is just so much going on every spring!  As usual, I realized at the last second that I had not a clue what to make (food wise) for Liam's birthday party.  Liam requested Mickey Mouse cupcakes.  Other than get Mickey patterned cupcake wrappers I couldn't think of how to make a Mickey cupcake.  Finally I decided on Mickey head toppers over the frosting.  They turned out okay too.

These were really easy and quick to make.  I printed out a sheet of paper with 15 Mickey head outlines on it and covered the paper with a large piece of wax paper. I filled a freezer bag with half a bag brown melting candy. I know they don't taste as good as real chocolate, but they are so much easier to melt, and keep at the desired consistency.  I microwaved the bag for a few minutes (checking and squishing occasionally), then took it out, cut a tiny very small hole in one corner, and used the bag like a piping bag.  I just traced the Mickey outline and filled it in.

I filled in the first 15 Mickeys and just slid the bottom outlines over to an empty section of wax paper and made more.

Note:  The melting candy should be easy to handle, and be warm, not too hot.  You need to keep moving and fill in the Mickeys quickly because the candy will want to keep coming out.  Also, you don't want to wait too long and have it firm up too much before you finish.  It is really easy if you get a good rhythm going.

Let the Mickey heads cool.  It shouldn't take long if you're in a hurry.  Pick them up off the wax paper and stick them on top of the cupcake frosting.  Unless you've made your Mickeys crazy thin they should pop off the wax paper very easily.

I thought I had a Mickey Mouse cookie cutter until the day before the party.  Oops!  Instead of Mickey shapes I decided to go super simple and make round Mickey cookies.  They're a bit sloppy, but I made about a million of them and started to get really tired.  They are yummy though, so I really don't mind the leftovers.  :)  The royal icing recipe is available here.  I wrapped these cookies up in stead of giving out goodie bags.  No one ever seems to play with goodie bag contents anyway, and who doesn't love cookies?

Liam was so excited by all the Mickey things around our house, and playing with friends.

Last year I stumbled across a site that had a great idea.  Every year starting at about age 3 give your child a questionnaire.  The same questions every year, and you can compare the answers.  Such a great idea!  Last year Liam refused to answer at least half of the questions, but this year he actually responded to all of them.  I was pretty amazed.  His answers were pretty cute too.

I got this idea from reaves party of three if anyone wants to check it out.  He are Liam's responses:

1. What is your favorite color? red
2. What is your favorite toy? trains
3. What is your favorite fruit? strawberries
4. What is your favorite tv show? Phineas & Ferb
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Preschool lunch
6. What is your favorite outfit? My red shirt
7. What is your favorite game? Candyland
8. What is your favorite snack? Fig bars
9. What is your favorite animal? platypus
10. What is your favorite song? Twinkle twinkle little star
11. What is your favorite book? Goodnight moon & Biscuit series
12. Who is your best friend? Preschool friends
13. What is your favorite cereal? Daddy's cereal (whatever he's eating, mostly wheat bran)
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play games
15. What is your favorite drink? Boy soda ( the only “soda” I give him is carbonated water with a bit of lemon juice in it, but I can't think of what else he's talking about.)
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas!
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? My blankets and a book
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? A fig bar (wishful thinking!)
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? cupcakes
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A Daddy!

Yes, even our hard hats are Mickey!

1 minute microwave mug cookie

Guess what?  Today is an important day!  What day is it you might ask?
It's my blog's 1st birthday!  Anniversary, whatever!
I'm so excited.  :)  A big thank you to the maybe dozen people who read this.  You have followed me for a whole year now and seen over one hundred recipes.  That is so exciting to me.

And hey, what's a birthday, anniversary, whatever without cake?  I love cake.  This cake is even better than normal cake because it uses barely any dishes, tastes great, is portion controlled, and takes less than five minutes between making it, baking it, and clean up.  What's not to love?

I love microwave cookies.  They are satisfying, portion controlled, easy, and my favorite quick weeknight dessert.  I have three versions I regularly make: peanut butter, chocolate chip, and chocolate chip peanut butter.  I also have a basic cookie base, and a slightly healthier base.

This is the basic cookie base.  Literally just dump these all into a coffee mug and mix well with a spoon or butter knife.  You don't even need to grease the mug because the coconut oil in the batter helps enough.  Mix a tablespoon of peanut butter and/or chocolate chips into the batter.  Then microwave the mug for one minute.  Done!

If you want to use the healthier base instead substitute whole wheat flour for the AP flour, and only use 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar.

This is just a random pre-microwave picture of a peanut butter mug cookie.

Have I mentioned how much I am in love with this dessert?  It is warm and part cake consistency, part ooey gooey wonderfulness.  If you don't like the ooey gooey consistency then just microwave an extra 30 seconds.

Just some extra close up photos of each cookie.  This is healthier base chocolate chip peanut butter.

Classic base peanut butter.

Classic base chocolate chip.

1 minute microwave mug cookie

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp melted coconut oil
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar (or 1 tsp granulated sugar)
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 3 tbsp AP flour (or 3 tbsp whole wheat flour)
• pinch of salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp peanut butter (optional)
• 1 tbsp chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

1. Dump all ingredients into coffee mug and mix well.
2. Microwave for 1 minute.
3. Let stand 1 minute.  Grab a spoon and enjoy!