Puff Pastry Roses & A Dinner For A 40th Anniversary!

I have seen this beautiful dessert on Facebook several times over the last month or two. The second I saw it I knew I had to try it! I knew this was something that my mother would love, not only it is beautiful, but also tastes great!!!

This year Mothers Day is actually the same day as my parents 40th anniversary. My brothers and I have been secretly planning for my older brother to come up the Friday night before (last night) and have a surprise dinner, so I thought that would be the perfect time to make this beautiful dessert!

I also tried a few new recipes for dinner. I had to find something that would stay well for a few hours because we took it out to Arrington Vineyards. So I made all the food and dessert and we took it out to the country hills to a beautiful local vineyard on one of the most beautiful nights this spring. It was a fantastic evening and I am so grateful my brother was able to come up!!

The most important thing here is to get the apples super thin! This was my test 

run several weeks ago, for last nights actual dessert I sliced much thinner!

Lemon in water. Microwave all the apple slices for 3 minutes.

3 T of apricot preserves with 1 T water. Microwave 1 minute.

Roll out a thawed puff pastry.

Slice into 6 even pieces.

Put apricot preserves on each slice.

Spread out apples overlapping and a little cinnamon.

Fold over and then roll.

Looks like a rose!

With thinner apple slices it looks even better!

Place the roses in a muffin pan and cook for 40-45 minutes.

Aren't they beautiful!?

Add a little powdered sugar.

Here was a rose from last night with the thinner slices. I think they turned out beautifully! A perfect Mother's Day dessert!

Here is the dinner I cooked. I wasn't able to take many pictures because I was in a hurry to get it all finished and out the door. Asparagus, always a favorite!! Prosciutto and rosemary wrapped chicken thighs (I never thought I would make a Rachel Ray recipe, but when something looks good it doesn't matter where you get the recipe), a new recipe I'll be making again!! And Pioneer Woman's roasted carrots, not pictured is the amazing vinaigrette you add on top right before serving that has fresh thyme, rosemary, dijon mustard, garlic, a little white wine vinegar, and olive oil. I also picked up some dinner rolls, if you have guys whether brothers, husband, or dad, you know the rolls are important!

My brother Joel (who lives in Mississippi), my amazing dad, my beautiful Mom, me, and my baby brother Jesse (who is a traveler and almost never in the States anymore).

40 years of marriage! Words can not express how grateful I am to them for their perseverance and love for each other! Without them I would be nothing! I love them to the moon!

I am so blessed and grateful for my family and the sacrifices they all made to pull off a wonderful evening!!

Greatest Cinco De Mayo Snack Ever!!

I signed up to bring snack for Santi's preschool class this week, Wednesday and Friday. I was trying to find a fun idea and was coming up short...until I changed my search. I decided to look up fun cinco de Mayo snack ideas (although it's actually today). I found THE CUTEST idea ever!!!!

I have already apologized to Santi's teacher for the sugar overload. I normally try and keep the sugar to a minimum. Years ago I was a teacher at Santi's preschool and know what 12 3 year olds on sugar looks like!!! Its not pretty y'all! You can literally time 2-3 minutes after sugar intake....insanity!!!

But this HAD to be made...wait for it....

Oreo, icing, coconut, cinnamon candies, sprinkles, & oreo filling. The cutest tacos ever!!!

Start by taking apart golden Oreos and scraping the filling out.

Cut about 1/3 off one cookie, then place the cut one on top of the other to 

get the exact same size for both, cut again.

Place all the Oreo filling in a zip lock and cut a small hole in 

a corner of the bag, this will be the sour cream.

Fill each taco with chocolate icing, or taco meat.

Dye some coconut green to make lettuce.

Add tomatoes and cheese, otherwise known as cinnamon candies and yellow, orange and white sprinkles. Honestly separating the sprinkles was the hardest part of this whole endeavor!

Add the sour cream, Oreo filling, or you could always buy white frosting.

The end.

I mean seriously though! I am going to have to find another reason to make these again! They are just too darn cute to only have once a year!!!

Santi got to be my tester! He approved!

I plan on being a much more responsible mom on Friday!

Santi chose these cute butterflies for the other snack.

He ate everything except the celery....I tried ok!?

Feliz cinco de Mayo!!

Pickiest Eater Ever!

Meet Luca,

the pickiest child on the planet. And when I mean picky, I mean he almost never likes any kind of meat, no fruit (not one single one), no veggies (none!). And don't even try and trick him, he sniffs out anything "gross". But he loves to eat dirt, trash, leaves, rocks, paint, paper. Yeah, he will put just about anything in his mouth except food. He doesn't even like most unhealthy food!

When Santi was a baby he would eat anything. I made all his organic baby food and sat in my kitchen and judged other parents. I apologize right here and now. I didn't understand why parents didn't just tell their kids no, or make them eat whatever they gave them. Why is it so hard to get your kids to eat fruit or veggies? I mean some veggies are gross, so be realistic, but the good tasting ones aren't hard to get your kids to eat.

Then Luca was born and everything changed. From day one he was picky. I struggled to get him to eat anything. He would have preferred to only have milk until the age of 4, ummm no thank you! He will literally spit out everything or just throw it on the floor without trying it.

There are a few things that Luca loves. He loves peanut butter, thank goodness, at least he eats some protein. He loves all dairy, so cheese, yogurt, etc. He loves cereal bars, yeah not healthy, but not the most horrible thing in the world. He also loves bread, also not that healthy, but at least I can make him pb&j's.

Two weeks ago Luca got sick and I needed to cut dairy out for a few days. Oh my! Thats his diet! I went on a search for anything and everything that I could actually get him to even at least try. Most suggestions of recipes or foods "for a picky child" are a big fat joke! Luca would rather not eat at all than try homemade spinach chips or some other craziness. My search was harder than I thought it would be, but here are some things that I found. The majority failed, but now I feel like its a challenge, and I AM GOING TO WIN, NOT A STUBBORN 1 YEAR OLD! Now you know where he got his stubbornness.

BLUEBERRIES. Everyone loves blueberries. They are like candy! Right?

Oh my word! He picked it up! Thats a really great start. Some things he won't even touch!

Holy cow! He put it in his mouth! I'm getting excited!!!

Then he looked at me with his "Eww thats nasty face"...

And sweetly put it back on his plate. FAIL #1!

DEHIDRATED APPLES: If he has a problem with texture maybe changing the texture a little will help.

Apples are delicious! Don't be crazy Luca!

I sliced each apple really thin.

I even put a little sugar and cinnamon on the apples to tempt him and baked 

them on 200 for an hour and a half.

Oh man, they turned out awesome! I tasted them to make sure they were good and yes, yes they were! Luca licked it and spit it out. Of course!

PROTEIN SHAKES: I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. But I was speaking with a friend and she suggested protein shakes, that way I could add fruits and veggies too....if he would actually drink it.

I made sure to make it really good! He hates bananas/any fruit so I added things he likes, peanut butter and a little chocolate. I just added water since I was trying to cut back on milk. 

The protein powder made it pretty "milky" anyway.

He CHUGGED it!!! The whole thing! Hallelujah!

In fact, there was someone else in the room that wanted to try it, it looked so good. 

Santi loves fruit and is a pretty good eater, so obviously he loved it!

Day two I was bold. I added spinach and NO chocolate.

Eww, I wouldn't even drink that!

Miracles do happen y'all! He didn't chug it, but he drank it 

all between breakfast, lunch and dinner!

SPINACH PASTRY TWISTS: He loves bread and cheese so I thought maybe I could hide some spinach on the inside of something he loves.

Spinach and egg wash for the outside of the twists.

I cut a puff pastry sheet into several strips.

Topped with spinach and parmesan.

Hide all evidence of anything green!!!!

Fold in half and twist. Bush egg on top and add a little more parmesan.

Bake on 400 till golden brown. Maybe 10 minutes, I can't remember exactly.

Some of the green showed through, but I planned to give him the most hidden one first.

He actually put it to his mouth....and liked it....a little. He ate about half.

Santi liked it too! Then I gave 2 to a friend to try. Then Nolan came home and didn't 

know they were for Luca...and now they are gone. SIGH....

Thats all I've got for now. Anyone out there have any realistic suggestions? I don't want to hear about how your child eats kale and I just need to stick it out. AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!

I LOVE food, what is wrong with my child?! Come on already!