Pasta

See those beautiful noodles in my new logo? Uh huh. I made them. And when I get around to it, I'll post about it. You'll just have to wait until then, m'kay?

Cream Puffs

My daughter wanted to make dessert for me for Mothers Day, and when she suggested Cream Puffs, I just knew we had to make them! Today was definitely a Cream Puff Day!!!

They are quite simple to make and they are oh so fun to eat!


For the Filling:

Make 1 recipe vanilla pudding. (I made homemade vanilla pudding from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, but a box of pudding made according to directions works well too). Whip about 1 cup of cream, adding vanilla and sugar. Fold the whipped cream into the pudding until fully incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.

For the pastry:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

In a large pot, bring water and butter to a rolling boil. Stir in flour and salt until the mixture forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon or stand mixer, beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown.

When the shells are cool, either split and fill them with the pudding mixture, or use a pastry bag to pipe the pudding into the shells.

When I split the shells, I pulled out a little of the inside to create a little pocket to hold the filling, but this is optional.

Dust with powdered sugar or drizzle some homemade hot fudge sauce on top.

Yes, that's an orange and blue birthday cake.

We've had two birthdays these past few weeks. Hypatia is a Cinco de Mayo baby, born on May 5, 2000. She turned 5 on 05/05/05!! And I didn't even plan it that way!! May 5, 2000 is also special because of the way the planets aligned that day, too. I'll have to google it:

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/alignment.html
http://stardate.org/nightsky/may05.html

So, now she is 7 and I had to decorate a cake. She wanted pink frosting, but I accidentally used peach. When I informed her, she got excited and said "YES!! I really wanted orange, but I didn't know you had it!! Make it MORE orange!!" Serendipity! So I kept adding peach until we had an orange that would rival any Halloween cake out there. Then, for the accent color she insisted on a nice blue color. So, this is what we ended up with. It suited her just fine.





Dylan turned 11 on April 25. Due to the rush of the day, and things going on in the evening, I didn't get a cake made. Dylan wasn't bothered in the least. He stuck some candles in some cookies he had made and opened presents anyway:



And, for a laugh, I have some good blackmail photos for when my 3 year old grows up: