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How to make an Ice Cream Cake, kinda…

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My Children love ice cream cakes. I do too because they are very convenient at birthday parties, no scooping the ice cream and using two different utensils. They are also soooo dang expensive!  I thought I would share with you my award winning directions on how to make a fabulous ice cream cake.

First, bake two cakes. I use only Hershey’s chocolate cake, you can find the recipe on the back of the baking chocolate box.

Second, frost the top of the bottom half of the cake. Again, using Hershey’s Chocolate frosting (the best) again, recipe on the box of powdered chocolate.

Opps, actually I do this the night before. Line your cake pan with saran wrap. Take your ice cream, we use only Blue Bell, we are snobs I know! Thaw it a little and press it into the same cake pans that you will be baking the cake rounds in. Freeze overnight.

Un-mold ice cream and place on top of cake. Top with last cake round.

Next, quickly ice the sides of the cake as best you can. This will not be real easy but you just need to get it covered a bit. Put the cake back in the freezer for an hour or so, you will be taking it out to finish icing when it has had time to freeze again.

How to make an Ice Cream Cake, kinda...

Now the most important part…

MAKE SURE WHEN YOU CLOSE THE FREEZER.

~YOU KNOW THE ONE IN YOUR GARAGE WHERE IS IT 100 DEGREES,

YOU DON’T SLAM THE DOOR SO HARD IT BOUNCES BACK OPEN.

BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT YOUR CAKE WILL LOOK LIKE 1 HOUR BEFORE YOUR CHILDS BIRTHDAY PARTY…

Seriously? Am I the only one these kind of things happen to?? What would you do now?

Work At Home Series: Respite Care

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I have wanted for along time to do a series on work from home opportunities for Mom’s. It is something that is really close to my heart. I have all through our marriage always done something to bring in a little extra money. I have made jewelry, had a little ceramic business and as a licensed stylist cut hair from home. Many times it was just “fun” money and other times it really made a difference in our lifestyle. I consider couponing a wonderful “part time” job, but sometimes and especially in this economy, you need a little more.

For the past year I have been working outside my home as the Director of a Private Christian Preschool. It is perfect for me and such a blessing because my little kids get to come to work with me. I know that for many of you this would also be ideal but the opportunity has not come up, or you would rather stay at home either way. I looked in the past for opportunities that would bring in some extra income but was never sure if it would work, if it was legitimate or worth my time.  I am really excite to profile a few women who have taken the time to tell us what they do so that we might learn something form them or get some good ideas!
Work At Home Profile: Susan B.
I am 40 years old, and was finally able to have our first (and perhaps only) little baby May 2009. I was a career gal before that, and with two incomes we never had to worry about much of anything. We were able to take off at a moments notice and not have to budget it into the family budget. -Let alone clip coupons-.

Why did you start:
After Susan had her baby: “I went back to my office job, they actually held it for me, can you believe that? I worked one week, and I cried all the way to the office every day because I had to leave her. Pumping breast milk in the bathroom during lunch and then hurrying home to feed her was the pits! I remembered something a lady at church told mea few months earlier. I was the nursery leader and her daughter is special needs. Sometimes she would bring her into the nursery to play even though she is much too old to be in nursery. This sweet sister introduced me into the wonderful world of RESPITE care.”

What does it take:
I got myself and my home certified by the state of Arizona and got the word out that I was certified and was taking new clients. Withing days I had two clients. They bring them to my home, we play games, read stories, watch movies, play outside, you name it…. All the things I already am doing with my 15 month old daughter. And my daughter loves to play with these clients. I love to see them interact with each other and I know that this is an important time in my daughters life to teach her to be compassionate towards everybody. I now have 3 clients and right now thats a good number for us.

How many hours a week do you work:
Well, that depends on my clients and their schedules. I actually just finished a two week 24-7 job. Its not always like that though. I usually have each client aproximatley 5-20 hours per week. Like I said, it really just depends on what their needs are.

What is an estimate of what you can earn:
Again, this all depends on each individual client. I have one client that has some health issues and I haven’t even seen her in about 6 weeks. I get paid on an hourly basis up to 13 hours in a 24 hour period. That is all the state alots for. Each client is allotted a certain amount of hours in a calendar year. If they use up all of the hours in the beginning of the year then there will be no more given until the next year. This is all based on individual needs.

If I am unable to work certain days due to being out of town, a holiday, or sick. I just let them know in plenty of time so they can find another care giver or make other arrangements. I run a business out of my home but I keep in min
d that I actually work for each of my clients and I so, I try to be available for their needs. 90% of the time the care is given on a set schedule, however, there is that occasional call from a parent needing to drop off their child for a few hours or so, and typically its not a problem. I can have up to 3 clients at a time. So, I really can’t answer that question. It varys month to month. I will say that I started at $9.00 an hour and since then I have recieved a small pay increase.


How long have you been doing Respite Care:
I have been doing this for only about 6 months

How long did it take to get certified and how much was it:
Certification was a breeze. There are 4 classes I had to take with TESTS, but they were all pretty easy! I had a background check done, I had to get a fingerprint card, and my driving record was pulled. I think thats about all. The coolest part was that the company i decided to hang my “licence/certification” with took care of all of the costs for me. There was zero out of pocket expence for me. With the promise that I would stay with their company for 12 months.

As far as getting my home certified…. That was pretty easy as well. I made an appointment with the state inspector and that was the longest part, It took about two weeks for him to come out. The only expence I had was buying and installing smoke detectors in each bedroom in my home and purchasing a new fire extinguisher. there are some rules about keeping chemicals and medicines locked up but that stuff was easy. You can just go to your state website and there will be a checklist of all the things they will check to certify your home, and believe me, they will check! All in all I think it took close to a month to complete everything.

Susan, thank you so much for taking the time to tell us about what you do! This is such a great idea and I honestly know a few women who would be wonderful at this and do really well.

Frozen pickle juice, a concession stand delicacy.

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Ahhh, the allure of the baseball park concession stand. The aroma of fried food, candy and frozen pickle juice???

For a mere 25 cents you can buy frozen gatorade in a tiny 2 oz. little cup, my frugal heart breaks everytime my children blow all their quarters on these. But what happens when the gatorade runs out? The kids, with quarters burning holes in their pockets start buying the frozen pickle juice.

But, what happens when the baby not knowing any better pitches a fit for the frozen pickle juice expecting something sweet?

Let’s find out…

 

We tried to tell him, we tried to hide it, but somewhere in the back of my sick twisted little mind I wanted to see what would happen.

If you scroll down really fast it kinda looks like one of those little flip books from when you were a kid.

Don’t worry no actual children were harmed in the taking of these photos, just a few taste buds!

Hershey’s vanilla fruit torte ~ Fruit pizza recipe!

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I am re-posting this for Memorial Day, I have been making since I was 17, it is my favorite dessert! It is PERFECT for anytime! Everyone will LOVE you if you make it this weekend!
First you have to create your base.
3/4 cup butter softened, 1 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup powered sugar. Now, I always double mine because I like the crust a little thicker…. (the above is not doubled)

Then press it into a pizza pan, mine is about 18″. The kids like to help with this part…


Bake at 300 degrees, 20 -25 min. until lightly browned.


Now you need your sauce, or vanilla filling. Did I mention this is really low calorie??? 🙂 Melt the vanilla chips with the whipping cream and beat in the cream cheese.


Spread onto the COOLED crust. I throw it into the fridge at this point while I do everything else. Yummmm, now I just have to keep the kids fingers out!


Cut up your favorite fruit (usually whats on sale!) Pineapple is a must, and so are strawberries! Can you believe I had to buy blueberries from the store…. Try to use as many different colors as possible.
Start spreading them out on the cold crust. This is the kids job.


Isn’t it pretty?! Throw it back in the fridge or put it somewhere safe so no one can snatch any fruit off the top.


Now it is time to make the glaze. You might be tempted to skip this part because it is so pretty already, but this will keep the fruit on the pizza, and keep anything from getting brown, like if you used banana’s. I also double this part. Combine in a small sauce pan until thick and pour over pizza.
I try and pour quick and then use a small spatula to spread it out thinly and evenly…


Here it is!!! I keep mine in the fridge. You will NOT have any leftovers I promise! I really need to get a better camera, this does not do it justice! People will think you bought it from a store, it is so pretty!

HERSHEY’S VANILLA CHIP FRUIT TART
3/4 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. confectioner sugar
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
Vanilla Filling (recipe follows)
Fruit Topping (recipe follows
Heat oven to 300 degrees. Beat butter and confectioners sugar until light and fluffy; blend in flour. Press mixture onto bottom and up side of 12 inch round pizza pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned; cool completely. Prepare Vanilla Filling; spread on cooled crust. Cover; chill. Prepare Fruit Topping. Cover; chill assembled tart. 10-12 servings.
VANILLA FILLING:
1 2/3 (10 oz. pkg.) Hershey’s Vanilla Milk Chips
1/4 c. whipping cream
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
In microwave-safe bowl microwave vanilla chips and whipping cream at HIGH (100%) 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until chips are melted and mixture is smooth when stirred. Beat in cream cheese.
FRUIT TOPPING:
1/4 c. sugar
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 c. pineapple juice
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
Assorted fresh fruit
In small saucepan combine sugar and cornstarch; stir in juices. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened; cool. Meanwhile, slice and arrange fruit on top of filling; pour juice mixture over fruit.


Fudge Puddle Cookies – Recipe

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** This is a repost but I was totally craving these!
It has been really cold here in Houston and that “I just want to stay home and bake” feeling has bitten me! So I wanted to try a new recipe and it was a success, judging by my kids faces.
The recipe is below, mix the dough and then put it in the fridge for about an hour.
Next, I took my smallest cookie scoop and dropped scoopfuls into my mini muffin pans. It was easier and faster than rolling them into balls by hand!
Then as soon as they came out of the oven I used the wooden handle of a ( can’t think of the name of the tool, Mom help!) and pushed in the middle of the cookies to make a little well.
Aren’t they cute?
Next, I made the fudge and had the girls help me fill the cookies.
Oh My Goodness! They are good!
They are so pretty all stacked together. Almost too pretty to eat… almost.

Fudge Puddle Cookies!

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup milk chocolate chips
  • 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup pecan halves

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
  2. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt.
  3. Cream butter, peanut butter and white and brown sugars. Mix in egg and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir the flour mixture into creamed mixture. Shape the dough into 48 balls, 1 inch each. Place each ball in one compartment of a mini muffin tin.
  4. For filling, put chocolate chips in a double boiler over simmering water. Stir in milk and vanilla, mix well.
  5. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and immediately make wells in the center of each using a melon baller. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Then carefully remove to wire racks. Using a measuring cup fill each shell with the chocolate mixture. Top with a pecan half.

Mega Swagbucks Day!

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This week I won 543! The most I have ever won!

** The key is to use Swagbucks as your search engine first. Then use Google or whatever else you normally use.

Just like Shop at Home and Ebates, Swagbucks is one of those that I really wish I had signed up earlier to do! It is so easy and I am able to really get some nice things from Amazon in return. The key is to sign up and invite your friends to sign up also.

If you’re not already a Swagbucks member, register now!

The first thing that really made a difference in how many I had was telling people! I started telling all my friends and family and asking them to sign up and give it a try! I felt a little like I was trying to sell AMWAY or something but it really is easy to do! The key is to get people to sign up under you. When they receive a swag buck you get one too, up to the first 100. My husband, kids and some friends use swagbucks first, then go to google if they need more info. Just from this alone I can get 200 sometimes in a day!

Ways to get Swagbucks:

In order to earn Swagbucks you first need to be a member of the site. I have put a link to the site below where you can set yours up. Open the link in a new window and sign up.

Tell your friends about it and have them sign up under your referral link so that you both can earn bucks. Also look around the web for swagbuck codes that haven’t expired. You have to be quick about it.

Subscribe to their newsletter and follow them on twitter. Sometimes they give out promo codes that can be redeemed for swagbucks.

Download the toolbar, it gives you 1 each day just for having it.

Here’s how: go to swagbucks.com. Click on toolbars at the bottom of the list, download and install the toolbar. Use it as your search engine!


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Kraft First Taste – Free Wheat Stix!

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Kraft First Taste is a place to get the insdie scoop on all the new Kraft Products. They send coupons, samples and surveys. This past summer I was able to login to my account and had 8 FREE full size product coupons available!

Some people are finding right now that they are getting coupons for a Free Wheat Thins Stix or Triscuit Thin Crisps when they check their account! Sign up or check your account HERE.

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Retail Coupons for the Weekend!

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Going out this weekend? Take advantage of some savings! Thanks Courtney!

~ AMC Theaters Free Popcorn

~ Bath and Body Works Free Signature collection with $10 purchase HERE

~ The Children’s Place 15% Off HERE

~ Express $25 of $50 or $50 off $150 HERE

~ Tanger Outlet Mall Coupons HERE

~ Yankee Candle $10 off $25 purchase HERE

~ Chili’s Free Queso and Dessert HERE

~ T.G.I. Friday’s $5 for 2nd Entree HERE

~ World Market $10 off $30 purchase HERE

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