Par-ty! Par-ty! Par-Tee!

 So, maybe I should call Better Homes an Garden.........a friend pointed out that it looked like a magazine coer. Neat idea. Had a buffet nibbly party for students and their parents, on the weekend. End of the year and all that.  Made the punch from Gingerale, Raspberry and Pineapple and Lemonade Juices. Froze strawberries in a block of ice to keep the punch cold. Was a great conversation piece.  Decided to bring out all my best china...what's the point of keeping it in the china cabinet...needs to be used and enjoyed.

 Got a couple of goodie trays and deli trays fom the local grocery store bakery and deli. Free, I might add. Had enough store pointst  to host a wedding, if  I so wished. The leftovers were taken to Morgan's work later on, here they were devoured with great gusto.

 Cupcake Tier...made a nice butter cream frosting...not sugary...more butter than anything else, and piped it onto the cupcakes. Not having a piping bag, I fashioned a large Ziploc bag into a  concical shape, taped it in place, cut off the end and it made a better piping bag than I could have hoped.

 Coins and candy citrus fruits stuck in the top. They disappeared pretty fast.

 Beautiful and made sushi by a family who owns a Japanese Restaurant in town. Tasted wonderful...fresh, lovely flavours compbined with each other.

Oh, and Bo........( bad Bo)........eyeing that sushi...wanted in on the action.  Was a great day.

End of the Year......applaud your teacher.

Chocolate Cranberry cookies, Butterscotch confetti, Double brownies, grapes and carrots stuck in for good luck.

End of the school year. Time for celebrating. And not just for the students. The teachers deserve a treat as well. Every year I do up these party trays ...just htought it would be nice to give something to the Learning Assistance Classes at Timberline High School. It's  not for the regular classes or the regular teachers. The teachers in these classrooms are specialists....they are Advisors, Education Assistants, mentors, Study Coaches, Scribes....you name it, they do it. They deserve our applause, support and thanks. God bless the Learning Assistance classroom , its students and teachers!

Chocolate/Butterscotch/Cranberries

 It's the end of the school year. I always make up goodie trays, this year with a pile of fruit in the centre of each tray ( gotta at least pretend it's  alittle healthy), and then deliver them to the Learning Assistance classes at the high school. This yea I did up a batch of Butterscotch Confetti. So easy. So good. It's in the Copany Coming Cookbook. Used butterscotch chips, a dollop of peanut butter, hlf cup of margarine. Melt it all together. Stir. Then add a coucple of packets of colourful mini marshmallows. Freezes great. Doesn't last that long.

 Also from the Company's Coming cookbook is this Double Brownie recipe. A dark chocolate browning bottom with a blonde butterscotch top.  Didn't frost it . Would be too gooey.

 Lastly, did up a batch of Oatmeal Choc Chip  cookies...from the Taste of Home collection. Has a ton of ingredients from quick oats to regular oats, cranberries, rasins, chocolate, cococut....... nice.

Just have to do up trays tomorrow and whisk it all off on Monday. Then freeze the rest for company coming in July. All set. Bring on summer.

Sour Cream Apple Bread

 SOUR CREAM APPLE BREAD ( Kind of like a coffee cake, but less sugar and no yeast)

CAKE: 1/2 cup softened butter, 1/4 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 cup sour cream, 2 cups flour, 1 /2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, pinch of Kosher salt.

FILLING and TOPPING: 1/4 cup brown ugar, 1 tblsp flour, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 cup pecans, 1 tblsp melted butter, 2 cups apples ( Granny Smiths are best)

DIRECTIONS: Line 8 inch spring form pan with foil and spray with veggie spray. Combine all cake ingredients till just combined ( do not overmix). Combine all filling ingredients. Scrape half of batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle half of filling mix over this. Spread remaining batter over top adn then sprinkle rest of filling/topping on batter. Bake at 350 for about an hour, till a sharp knife insertd in the centre comes out clean.

This is absolutely wonderful and a little different. Can be eaten as  a bread with a salad, or as a coffee cake. Less sweet than most. 

Black Ice Tea Lemonade

Yummmmm, Black Ice Tea Lemonade

Starbucks serves one up that  is positively addictive. And also positively expensive. So, Have been searching for the right combination recipe, online,word of mouth, to find something that would work.   Decided to combine them .....bought myself one more Black Ice Tea Lemnade form Starbucks, to do a taste test and spent about an hour concocting up a brew. Finally hit upon it. Was rather easy in the long run and just took a bit of tweaking and twiddling. I used  a little less sugar and did it two ways: one the way they did it, and the other in my sweet tea maker....brews up a mean ice tea.

BLACK ICE TEA LEMONADE ( Starbucks)

Boil 5 cups water in a large pot, add 1/2 cup sugar, 3 bags of orange pekoe black tea. Let steep till desired colour. Add 1 can  frozen lemonade concentrate. Then add 5 more cups of cold water.

BLACK ICE TEA LEMONADE ( tweaked)

In Sweet tea make, add 3 good tablespoons loose black tea to drip, or 3 bags of good black tea. Fill water reservoir with water. Scoop out half a can of frozen lemonade concentrate ( either pink or regular), toss in a bit of lemon peel, and a 1/3 of a cup of  sugar , if using.

      

 If you wish to use Simple Sugar Syrup, in place of the grainer sugar, add at the very end.  ( Recipe following) .

       

Fill Sweet Tea Maker Pitcher ( I use one of those curvy Koolaid type pitchers) with ice...right to the very top. Put pitcher under the drip and let it all brew till amber  liquid fills the pitcher. If using sugar syrup add a bit at a time to get the right taste. Then stir madly to dissolve. Dump mixture into serving container; add more ice , if you wish. Should not be too sweet, or too lemony. Should taste just right.

SUGAR SYRUP ( good to have on stock): Boil for 5 minutes 2 parts sugar to 1 part water. No longer. Cool then keep in fridge to sweeten ice tea.