Our Attempt At Cake Pops

The kids thought it would be fun to attempt to make some cake pops.  It sounded fairly straight forward and easy as I scanned the recipe.  

All three of the kids love to cook and bake.  Every Sunday they each beg to help daddy make our lunch or typically brunch.  All three of them are actually better at cracking eggs than their mom.  I typically find myself fishing a little piece of a shell out.  You would think I would figure it out by now.  I guess I need to go to daddy's "Cracking Eggs" school too.  The kids picked out a Funfetti Cake mix and we mixed it up and put it in the oven to bake.  

The took the cake piece by piece and smashed it into crumb size pieces.  We then added 3/4 of a can of store bought frosting and mixed it all together.  That is where the fun began.

The kids dug in and rolled the cake into balls therefor forming cake balls.

The cake balls were placed on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and then put in the freezer for about an hour.  

We put chocolate and white candy melts into glass bowls above bowling pots of water to create our own hot pots.  Soon they were melted so we added orange food coloring to make our pumpkins ... that was our thought anyway.

The kids pushed their stick in the frozen cake ball .....

and rolled it around in the bowl.

It was a little steamy as you can see.

The sprinkles were ready and waiting.

The kids did such a great job working together, taking turns and helping each others as some held while others got to decorate.

They took their decorating serious. 

Shane was concentrating pretty hard here. 

Adding the finishing touches.

The kids were very proud of their finished cake pops.  I have to say they did everything from start to finish with very little help from me.  They thought their finished product was pretty yummy! I would add we are not going into the cake pop making business anytime soon.  It was quite the process from start to finish.  I am not sure how all those people have those perfect looking cake pops that they make into all kinds of things.  I guess we have some practicing to do. 

Shane Back In The Kitchen

We came home from the Apple Orchard with 3 1/2 bushel bags of apples.  Let me give you a hint if you are looking for some nice cheap apples for applesauce.  You can get windfall apples which are apples off the ground.  A 1/2 Bushel bag is only $4.  You get a lot of apples for $4.  You can find really nice apples on the ground especially after the wind blows in South Dakota. 

Shane and I spent 5 hours in the kitchen cutting up apples, cooking them down and then running them through the tomato press to make applesauce.  

Shane was a busy boy.  He cranked out almost all the apple sauce by himself.  He sure got the hang of how it all worked. I can't believe his little arm didn't get tired.

Yummy ... look at all the applesauce that is now in our freezer for the winter.  If you look in our freezer you would think that all we eat is pasta and pizza  sauce and apple sauce.  I know our hard work will pay off and taste yummy this winter.  Notice we did 2 kinds of applesauce.  One turned out really pink.  The girls thought the pink applesauce was pretty neat! The apples were so sweet we didn't even need to add any sugar. 

I once again enjoyed my day with Shane in the kitchen.  He is going to make a wife pretty happy someday with all this cooking experience!

Storing Up For Winter

This year we bought a small plot of a gal's garden. Every week I met her in the Kohl's parking lot for my weekly delivery.  I loved getting my basket every week and seeing what new surprises were inside.  The kids thought it was pretty fun too although I'm not sure they liked trying all the new vegetables.  Let me just tell you this was the way to garden.  Someone else does all the word but we get to eat all the yummy produce.  

When the tomatoes came in abundance Shane I went to work.  Shane sure does not mind his time with out this sitters and loves to help me in the kitchen.  Almost every day when the girls have school he asks me what we should make for them for an after school snack.  He was super excited to cook a couple afternoons with me as we made some yummy food to store for the winter.  

We chopped up some carrots, celery and onion ...

and then added some tomatoes.  

We cooked it all down, ran it through the blender and then the colander and ended up with some yummy tomato soup.  It will be perfect with sandwiches this winter.  We also made some vegetable soup with a tomato base with the rest of our yummy vegetables. 

We have processed over a bushel and a half of tomatoes into pizza sauce, pasta sauce and salsa. These were some of the tomatoes we roasted for tomato sauce.  They were so yummy.   

I think Shane probably cranked a bushel of tomatoes through our tomato press.  He wasn't going to stop until he got the job done.  

I am officially done looking at tomatoes for awhile.  I am sure we will enjoy the fruits of our labor this winter and I have to say it was fun to do this with my little guy! He even is into wanting to make his own lunch now.  He just might end up being the chef in the family.