"Cake Boss" came for Easter.

Yes, I realize, once again, that I am late posting. There are so many posts clogging up the backdate on this blog it's pitiful.  But maybe, one day, it will all arrive on the blog, not necessarily in the proper time line, but still they shall be documented on House of Bowling!

So, back at Easter, my crafty sister came in with a sweet weekend project for all the cousins.  Making Fondant Cakes. 

Of course, there was a small competition because in our family you can't boil an egg without claiming a winner.  The two youngest cousins, Baby Girl included, decorated the following cake, which had yellow cake inside of it with a YUMMY butterfinger filling.

And then, two of the middle aged cousins, The Middle Child included, decorated this strawberry cake with fresh picked strawberries and cool whip filling.

The Middle Child showed his inner pastry skills by molding this incredible rose.

Pretty good, eh? Especially for his first time.

I know, I know. Can you believe it? They did a fantastic job. Apparently t.v. isn't all bad, it seems that watching Food Network is like osmosis. Who knew?

Great job Cousins! You ROCK and so did your cakes!!!!

Kid Friendly Sushi....this ain't your mama's California Roll.

As if your mother, or my mother, or my children's mother ever made a California Roll. 

 Kid Friendly sushi rolls.  Sort of.  Just for kicks.  Just or fun.  We found them in an ad for Smucker's (I think) in Family Fun Magazine and decided to give it a try.  No rice, no raw tuna, no seaweed, no octopus, no wasabi.  These, my friend, are just good ol' peanut butter and jelly....

My helpers cut the crusts off the soft white Bunny Bread......

Rolled out the white bread.....

And you have to roll it really thin....really, really thin.

Spread some peanut butter, and then your jelly.....sadly, we were out of grape for our sushi rolls and had to use apple jelly instead.  Here's a hint....apple jelly is about the color of the peanut butter....thus there will be no pretty swirly designs in your sushi roll.

.....then you roll them up and cut them into bite size rolls.....yum.  

Now, you ask, what in the world is that red stuff on the sushi rolls?  Well, that's a clever food tip from Middle Child....he decided since we didn't have a lot of color due to our lack of grape jelly, and because real sushi rolls will sometimes have a "seaweed wrap", he ran to the pantry and grabbed some strawberry fruit roll ups!! 

Cooking Camp at House of Bowling---Blueberry Snack Cake

So, we've been doing  a lot of cooking over here at House of Bowling, we (and I mean I) have just neglected to post it on the blog.....but no more. These photos can't just hang out in a cooking camp folder on my laptop and expect to feel loved.  So, here they are, and expect some more posts like this to come soon.

This particular day we made Blueberry Snack Cake......a yummy recipe I found through another sweet gal's blog who also has fun in the kitchen cooking with her precious girls...Life's Surprises.  She describes this snack cake to be like a big blueberry biscuit....and that's exactly what I'd say it was like as well. Thanks for the recipe!!

My kids enjoyed making it, loved poking the plump blueberries sticking out of the top when it was fresh from the oven, and they also liked the flavor. Elder Son woke up on Saturday morning....right before lunch....eh, teens....therefore, he didn't particpate in the cooking camp portion....just the taste tester portion.

His words, while warming up his second helping in the microwave, "this is good, Mama, I just wish it had sugar inside it like it does on top."

Clearly, had he been slaving away in the kitchen all morning with the rest of us, instead of sleeping his young life away, he would have known it DID have sugar on the inside as well.  We just may, or may not, have went a little over the top with the sprinkling of sugar on the outside before putting it in the oven. :)

Here you'll find the cast of ingredients:

The big lesson for this session....learning to scrape down the edge of the spoon to get an accurate measurement. 

Any fallen blueberry that didn't make it to the bowl, was fair game to be popped into the mouth of whoever caught it.  And in the end, Middle Child and I just ate whatever was left in the carton ourselves. We love fresh blueberries.

The "sprinkling" of sugar on the top of the snack cake begins.  This took a little longer than should be expected, due to the fact that everyone had to practice their own signature Emeril imitations with different variations of his BAM!! 

See what I mean....we practiced sprinkling with A LOT of sugar.  No wonder Elder Son couldn't taste the sugar on the inside. It would appear that it was all on the outside!!! :)

Now I'd like to ask you to go back to the top of this post.  Look again at the photo of the "cast of ingredients".  See anything odd?  Sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, milk, sugar, blueberries, eggs, etc. etc.......it's all there.  Plus one little extra character.  The kids set up the ingredients while I went to retrieve our camera.  They were so proud of their set-up when I returned to the kitchen.  Proud and giggly.  I didn't realize what the joke was until after I had taken the first photo.  Apparently, we have folks from all over who want to participate in House of Bowling cooking camps.  :)

Slinky Dog (from the movie Toy Story) 

Cooking Camp...RAINBOW CAKE

The elder son came home from church wanting to make a cake.  Sure thing.  What are Sunday afternoons for?  I said naps, the kids voted for cake baking. The kids won. However, I still rule things around the kitchen, so when Elder son brought out a red velvet cake mix (knowing I need it to make red velvet cookies for the hospitality room this weekend at Baby girl's gym meet), I balked.   And promptly bribed, suggested nicely, that we make a Rainbow Cake. A few weeks ago, maybe it was months, I saw a picture of one on MckMama's blog, (continue to pray for her son Stellan) and immediately filed it away to do sometime, knowing the kids would enjoy the process.  They loved the idea.

And so the saga began:

T-5 was amazed at how well we did on our Rainbow Cake.  I think the kids were amazed too, even though they made each layer and saw it bake.  When I called them in after I had assembled and iced each layer, I cut into it to show their Dad and everybody said WOW.   Now that's what you call "sweet success".  

I cut them a big slab and put it on a platter....because it's tall and a plate just wouldn't do.  In the photo below, I hope you can see the finger trails within each colored layer.  Baby girl had to try EACH cake color.  As a taste test.  Which she later informed Middle boy that the purple and green tasted best and thus were her favorites, the red, eh, not so much.  I tried explaining that all the cake layers taste the same....they were all made from the same mix, and food coloring does not give off any extra flavoring.  But it was to no avail, she just looked at me like I was crazy and took another fingertip full of purple and licked it clean, declaring it the hands down color of choice.

This last pic may need a little explanation:  I didn't have a cake dome high enough to cover this masterpiece, so we improvised with our big pasta pot.  No spaghetti this week until the cake is gone. :)

**H3 connection --- I'm thankful for free Sunday afternoons where we can make Rainbow Cakes, and be reminded that HIS promises still stand true today!!

Cooking Camp....Sausage Squares

This is the breakfast of champions. And the snack of champions. And the best baby brunch shower food ever. And so on and so forth. It's just plain good. We've been enjoying them for many years. The entire family loves them. The only problem, they don't last long.

The good news, it's just 4 ingredients.

• Crescent rolls.

• sausage and cream cheese

• shredded cheddar

It's a real love/hate relationship, which you'll experience as soon as you make a batch.

You will love me for sharing the recipe.

And after you eat the entire pan, you will hate me for sharing the recipe.

Cooking Camp---surprise cupcakes

I've been baking in the kitchen most of the day, making goodies for the cake walk at the kid's fall festival. And it reminded me that I had yet to post this cooking camp from a couple of weeks back.

First, you must line your cupcake pan with cute little paper holders. Why? Because greasing and flouring are too much trouble, and they make the most fun cupcake papers for every holiday, event and season known to man. This part may take a while, if you're 8 and you like to do "this row with the polka dot ones, and this row with the pink striped ones, and this row with the ones that have little purple cupcakes on them, etc.etc.etc.".

As a practice in patience, I survived, but barely....I had to restrain from sternly announcing...."JUST PUT THE HOLDERS IN ALREADY!!"


Finally, once the papers are properly aligned, color coded and what not, you can help mix up a batch of cupcake batter. Chocolate Fudge, in fact. And then, if you're real nice, you can hold the beater in your left hand and the spoon in your right hand and lick alternately, until clean.




Now comes the fun of the "surprise" part. Break off a piece of chocolate chip cookie dough and poke it into the middle of the cupcake batter. YUM. Now eat a few pieces of dough for good measure. It never hurts to check the ingredients before serving them to others. :)


Add a little icing to the top...cream cheese icing works nicely.



And then take a big bite and see the surprise inside!!!!



TB loved passing these out at school to the teachers telling them it was a "surprise cupcake". She and Walt both got a kick out of the cookie baking right inside the cupcake. Fun times. Yummy surprises!!

Cooking Camp...APPLE ENCHILADAS!!!!

The most amazing thing ever....ever....next to your Mama's apple pie. Actually, I've never had your mama's apple pie. So, I don't really know about that. But I do know that these apple enchiladas are out of this world.

I know I sound like a broken record, but they are also so easy to make. Even a kid can do it! :)

Yep. They enjoyed making these apple enchiladas. And also eating them. Hot from the oven. With a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. You want some? Go here for the recipe....then head to the grocery store, buy your stuff and make them tonight! Then call me to come over and sample....please. with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Okay, okay, already....the taco ring is on the recipe blog.

Seriously....I thought everyone already knew how to make it and would be bored with even me posting pics of TB doing it. Started not to even include it, but it was a fun afternoon with her in the kitchen.

After a few demanding comments and even a couple of email-ers as well, I put the recipe on the House of Bowling recipe blog, where all good foods hope to reside. :)

Hope you all enjoy!

On a side note, can you believe tomorrow begins OCTOBER????

Cooking Camp...TACO RING!!

So, remember a few weeks back when Baby girl was TOO tired from the first day of school to help out in the kitchen???


Well, it's taken a while, but she's back rollin' it on out, now....

Even went so far as to do this cooking camp project by herself....no boys included. Of course, she tired easily from grating a 1/4 block of cheese.....which is where I had to step in and help out. If this is any indication of her future, she'll be buying bags of shredded for every occasion.

Her Taco Ring was beautiful and delicious.....