Frozen Rose Cocktail

Frozen Rose

No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake Bites

No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake Bites

Summer Berry Trifle

Ingredients

1 Fresh Angel Food Cake, cubed into bite size pieces

1 Pint Blueberries

1 Container of Strawberries, sliced

1 Vanilla Pudding Mix, prepared according to package

1 Container of Cool Whip

Directions

1.)  Prepare vanilla pudding according to package and place in fridge to set

2.)  Slice strawberries and cut angel food cake into bite size pieces

3.)  Begin layering Trifle with angel food cake, pudding, cool whip, strawberries and blueberries.  Repeat layering until you end with Cool Whip on top.  Then create design with fruit on top

Red White and Blue Fruit Cookies

Ingredients

1 Package Store Bought Sugar Cookie Dough

1 Container Cool Whip

1 8 oz. Block of Cream Cheese

1/4 Cup Powdered Sugar

2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

2 Cups Fruit of Choice (I used a mix of Strawberries, Blueberries, and Raspberries)

Directions 

1.)  Bake Sugar Cookies according to package and let cool

2.) Mix together Cream Cheese, Cool Whip, Powdered Sugar, and Vanilla using a hand mixer

3.)  Spread Icing on the Cookies and Decorate with Fruit of Choice

You know I love a good party and a reason to entertain.  Just because we are at home in quarantine doesn’t mean you still can’t throw a little party at home.  In our house tonight we are having a video game party with homemade pizza and appetizers!  The kids love it!  I have been trying out new recipes lately and here are a few of my favorite party food recipes!

Plus a party at home especially in quarantine is not complete without a fun cocktail and dessert!  Check out my single serve Prosecco Pink Lemonade drink!  For dessert we are going to have an ice cream bar!  The kids love making their own sundaes!

Mexican Corn Salad

Ingredients

1 Bag of frozen Sweet Corn

1 Small Red Onion, diced

1 Red Pepper, diced

2-3 Jalapeno’s, diced

1 Bunch of Cilantro, chopped

1/2 cup of Queso Fresco Cheese, crumbled

2 TBSP. Olive Oil

Dressing

3 TBSP. Sour Cream

2 TBSP. Mayo

Juice of 1 Lime

1/2 tsp Cumin

1/2 tsp. Paprika

1/2 tsp. Chipotle Chili Powder

1/2 tsp. Salt

Directions

1.)  Heat Olive Oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Add corn and cook until golden brown (you can also grill corn cobs) about 10 minutes

2.)  Chop Red Onion, Red Pepper, Jalapenos and Cilantro.  Add to a medium bowl and add Corn and Queso Fresco Cheese

3.)  In a separate bowl mix all dressing ingredients together.  Whisk until creamy

4.)  Pour dressing over corn mixture and mix all ingredients together

5.)  Top with additional crumbled Queso Fresco

6.)  Place in fridge until ready to serve (you can serve hot or cold)

**Serve as a side dish when you grill out or would be great served as corn salsa with chips

Prosecco Lemonade Punch

Ingredients

1 Can of Frozen Pink Lemonade

1  2 Liter Bottle of Sprite Zero

1-2 Bottles of Champagne (I used 2 Bottles of Prosecco)

1 Bag of Frozen Strawberries (they add flavor and act as ice)

**To make an individual glass of this punch follow this recipe

1/2 Can of Sprite

1/2 Cup of Pink Lemonade (Ready to serve juice)

1 Cup of Prosecco

Handful of strawberries

Arancini (Rice Balls)

Recipe from Joanna Gaines

Magnolia Table 2 Cookbook

Ingredients

1 Bag of Rhodes frozen Bread Dough or Rolls

10-12 Slices of Sandwich Pepperoni (or a bag of pizza size pepperoni)

1 Bag of Grated Mozzarella Cheese

2 TBSP. Melted Butter

1 tsp. Garlic

1 tsp. Italian Seasoning

1 Jar Pizza Sauce

**NOTE:  You can also use Refrigerated Pizza Dough, and other toppings

Directions:

1.)  If using frozen dough let it thaw and knead it into a ball

2.)  Flour rolling pin and roll out dough

3.)  Once dough is rolled out sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and pepperoni

4.)  Tightly roll dough into a jelly roll log

5.)  Melt butter and mix in garlic and italian seasoning

6.)  Baste butter and seasonings onto the top of the dough

7.)  Gently cut dough into 1 inch pieces and place on baking sheet

8.)  Bake at 350 Degrees for 15-20 minutes (you want to make sure the dough is golden brown)

9.)  Serve with your favorite pizza sauce

Ingredients

1 Box Lucky Charms Cereal

1 Bag of Marshmallows

3 TBSP. Butter

Directions

1 Cup White Chocolate Chips (Optional)

1.)  Melt butter and marshmallows on stove top then pour over Lucky Charms and white chocolate chips

2.)  Press into a 9×13 pan and let cool

3.)  Cut into squares

By now you know I love to put together fun and creative food and desserts for parties and holidays.  With Valentine’s Day just around the corner I made a dessert board that would be a great addition to your Galentine/Valentine’s Day parties!

All of the cookies were super easy to make and I added some of the kids favorite candy too!  This is your chance to be creative and design a fun platter of your own!

**The XoXo gummies are from Trader Joes and the heart gummies are Valentine’s Day Sour Patch Kids

**I also used the leftover vanilla chocolate to make chocolate covered pretzels

Strawberry Cookies

Ingredients

1 Box Strawberry Cake Mix

2 Eggs

1/2 Cup of Vegetable Oil

1 Bag of Ghirardelli Vanilla (or Chocolate) Melting Wafers

1 Container of Valentines Day Sprinkles

Directions

1.)  Mix Strawberry Cake Mix, Eggs, and Vegetable Oil together using mixer

2.)  Once mixed scoop dough into 1 inch round balls and place on baking sheet

3.)  Bake at 350 Degrees for 10-12 minutes

4.)  Remove from baking sheet and place on cooling rack

5.)  Melt vanilla wafers in microwave until smooth

6.)  Dip half of the cookie into the chocolate, place on cooling rack and add sprinkles

**You can also frost the cookies with Vanilla or Chocolate Frosting and add sprinkles

Cake Pops

Ingredients

1 Box of Funfetti Cake Mix (You can use chocolate or vanilla too)

1 Container of Vanilla Frosting

1 Bag of Ghirardelli Vanilla Melting Wafers

1 Container of Valentine’s Day Sprinkles

1 Bag of Baking Sticks (Or I used festive straws here)

Directions

1.)  Bake Funfetti Cake according to box in 9×13 baking pan

2.)  Once cake is cool crumble cake

3.)  Add 2-3 Tablespoons of Vanilla Frosting to cake crumbles, Mix together with handheld mixer

4.)  Roll into 1-2 inch balls

5.)  Melt vanilla wafers in microwave until smooth

6.)  Dip the end of the sticks into white chocolate and place into the center of the cake pop

7.  Place cake pops in fridge 30 minutes to allow the pops to harden

8.)  Dip cake pops into the white chocolate and add sprinkles

9.)  Let cake pops harden 20-30 minutes

Heart Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 Cup of Butter flavored Crisco

1/2 Cup of Peanut Butter

1/2 Cup of Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup of Sugar

1 Egg

2 Tablespoons Milk

1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1 3/4 Cup of Flour

1 tsp. Baking Soda

Pinch of Salt

1 Bag of Reese’s Valentine’s Hearts (or Hershey Kisses)

Directions

1.)  Using a mixer cream together, Crisco, Peanut Butter, Sugar and Brown Sugar

2.)  Add in Egg, Milk, Vanilla, and mix together

3.)  In a separate bowl mix together Flour, Baking Soda, and Salt

4.)  Slowly add in dry ingredients to peanut butter mixture

5.)  Once combined roll into 1 inch balls

6.)  Roll cookie balls into sugar and place on baking sheet

7.)  Bake at 350 Degrees for 10-12 minutes

8.)  Remove from baking sheet and place onto cooling rack and gently press chocolate hearts into cookies

9.)  Let cool and harden for 30 minutes

Valentine’s Day is next week and my kids have their outfits ready for their school parties!  I linked some of my favorite Valentine’s looks for your kiddos!

Kids Christmas Fashion

I’ve said this before but fall is my favorite time of year!  We love doing fall family activities every weekend.  I’ve put together a list of family fun events to do this pumpkin season!  I will be updating it throughout the season!

HallowBoo at Idlewild

One of our favorite family fall fun activities is HallowBoo at Idlewild!  We haven’t been in 2 years (the boys are so little here) but we are planning to go next weekend!  Idlewild is famous for their Storybook Forest which walks you through all the famous nursery rhymes.  For HallowBoo the kids can trick-or-treat through the forest and collect treats along the way!

After they are finished trick-or-treating the whole family can enjoy the rides in the park!  Below is a list of dates and times they are open this season.

HallowBoo

Dates:  Saturdays and Sundays October 5th-27th

Time:  Gates and Storybook Forest open at 11:30/Rides open at 12:00PM- 6:00PM

https://www.idlewild.com/

Happy Hauntings at Kennywood

Kennywood has Halloween fun for kids geared towards 10 and under with Happy Hauntings!  Kids can trick-or-treat through Kiddieland and ride their favorite rides.  There is also hayrides and corn maze!

Happy Hauntings

Dates:  Saturday and Sundays October 5th-27th

Times:  12:00PM-4:00PM

Happy Hauntings

Simmons Farm Hay Ride

Simmons Farm Apple Picking & Hayrides

Fall events at Simmons Farm start Saturday September 14th

Monday-Thursday:  9:00AM-6:45PM

Friday-Sunday:  9:00AM-5:45PM

Activities Include:

• Hayride
• Pick your own pumpkin
• Apple picking
• Petting Zoo
• Pick your own flowers

Simmons Farm

Trax Farms

Fall Festival Dates & Times: 

Saturday and Sunday’s September 28th-October 27th

10:00AM-5:00PM

Activities Include:

• Hayrides
• Pick your own pumpkin
• Corn Maze
• Bounce House
• Live Music
• Food Trucks

Trax Farms

Soergel Orchards

Fall Festival Dates & Times:

Saturdays and Sundays September 21st-October 27th

11:00AM-5:00PM

Friday Night Hayrides Dates & Times:

Friday September 27th- Friday October 25th

4:00PM-7:00PM

Soergel Orchards

Triple B Farms

Pick Your Own Apples & Sunflowers Dates & Times

Saturdays and Sundays starting September 7th

10:00AM-4:00PM

Fall Festival Dates & Times

Saturdays and Sundays starting September 21st

10:00AM-5:00PM

Activities Include:

• Pick your own pumpkins
• Apple picking
• Face painting
• Sunflower picking
• Build your own scarecrow

Triple B Farms

We had such a great time in Disney!  My favorite part was seeing the joy on the boys’ faces when they met their favorite characters!  These are memories that I will cherish forever.  I haven’t been to Disney since I was little and obviously so much has changed with the park but also with preparing for your Disney trip.  I did a lot of research and asked my Disney expert friends what I needed to do and came up with a trip that was best suited to our family’s needs.  Here are my Disney tips and tricks with what worked for us!

Tickets

We purchased the 5 day Park Hopper Pass.  We were able to go to all of the Disney Parks (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios) plus we were able to go to Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon with our tickets.  We chose the Hopper pass which allows you to visit more than one park in a day.  We felt this was good for us because we knew the boys weren’t going to last all day in a park.  We wanted to have the ability to come and go as we pleased so we would go to the park during the day and take a swim break at the hotel and go back to the park if we wanted.

Magic Bands

If you stay in a Disney hotel you will automatically get Magic Bands sent to you.  If you don’t stay on Disney property you have the option of purchasing your own Magic Bands.  I highly suggest getting Magic Bands for many reasons!

1.  You don’t have to carry tickets in with you.  Your Magic Band will scan at the park entrance
2. If you plan on making FastPass selections you will just scan your bands at each FastPass ride entrance
3. If you plan on purchasing the Memory Maker Photos you just scan your band at each photo location throughout each park and your photos are automatically uploaded to your My Disney Experience App.

My Disney Experience App

Now that you have your tickets and Magic Bands it is time to plan out your trip.  You can do this all through the MyDisneyExperience website and App.  I used the website for my laptop and downloaded the App on my phone for when we were in Disney.  This is where everything for your Disney trip is stored.  This app is so user friendly and walks you through how to link your tickets to your Magic Bands, book FastPasses, dining and more.

MemoryMaker

I highly suggest purchasing the Memory Maker Photo Pass.  There are Disney Cast Members all over the parks who take your photo in front of your favorite Disney attractions and character meet and greets.

Our Hotel 

Nick is a Hilton Honors member so were able to use his points for our stay.  We stayed at the Hilton Buena Vista Palace which is located at Disney Springs.  Being that we were not on Disney property I had to make sure our hotel had shuttles to the parks.  So that is one of the main reasons we stayed here.  The shuttles came to our hotel every 25 minutes starting an hour before the parks opened.  Then we were dropped off just outside of security at each park.

On Sundays the Hilton Buena Vista Palace has a Character buffet breakfast.  Minnie, Pluto, and Goofy go around to each table and visit with each family.  This was awesome because I didn’t have to stress about booking a character breakfast within the parks.  The boys had a great time!

We were also within walking distance to Disney Springs which is a great outdoor shopping and dining area.  We went there just about every night for dinner.  I had made reservations for restaurants in advance and I would definitely suggest you do this as well because it gets very crowded.

There are also a lot of great shops in Disney Springs.  They have a huge Disney store so that is where we did most of our souvenir shopping so we didn’t have to carry our purchases around with us all day at the parks.

Another lifesaver for us was Amazon Prime Now.  I placed an order with Prime Now at midnight the night we arrived in Disney and our order was in our hotel by 8:30 the next morning!  I would highly recommend doing this because you can bring in food and drinks to the parks and this will save you money!

Pirates League

If you have younger kids I highly suggest the Pirates League Makeover where your kiddos can get transformed into Pirates or Mermaids.  Also for your littles who love Princesses they can become their favorite princess at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.  Both are located in the Magic Kingdom.  This was such an awesome experience.  From the moment you walk in it is a Pirates Adventure where you get your own Pirate name, pick your costume, receive special Pirate goodies, and more.  You need to make a reservation so you will need to call (407- WDW-STYLE) to book your experience.