It is no secret that I love sweets. In fact, when Lent rolls around each year and I see people giving up sweets, I hide… I don’t want those kind of crazy thoughts to invade my brain. I can tell you straight up, me without sweets, would not be a pretty sight.

When the folks over at The Motherhood asked me if I would like to be a co-host for a virtual Cooking Connections class surrounding all things sweet, I jumped at the chance. An hour devoted to nothing other than desserts? I’m in!

You can join in the virtual chat based class as well, this Wednesday 1pm EST on The Motherhood. Julie, from Mommie Cooks and I will be joined by a team of dessert experts who will share some great recipes, techniques and tips surrounding:

• Kid Friendly Desserts & Desserts on the Go
• Your Favorite Desserts, Lightened Up
• Desserts Worth Indulging & Special Occasion Desserts

In the meantime, I am doing my best to diligently research sweet treats prior to the Cooking Connections class. I want to make sure I am armed with the best dessert recipes out there to share with you! Researching, taste testing, experimenting with dessert recipes is tough, I tell ya’, but I am more than willing to do it for you and the Cooking Connections Sweet Treats class.

I know there is still a chill in the air, but I am anxiously awaiting spring and summer, which means sweet treats of the frozen variety. In this case, Frozen White Chocolate Hot Chocolate. Yes, you read correctly… frozen hot chocolate. OK – it isn’t necessarily hot, but this recipe takes your favorite hot chocolate mix and turns it into a rich, frozen, decadent treat.

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Frozen Hot Chocolate

Frozen White Chocolate Hot Chocolate (Adapted from Epicurious)

Author Dine & Dish

Ingredients

• 6 half-ounce pieces of high quality white chocolate
• 2 Tbs half and half
• 1 envelope store bought hot chocolate mix
• 1 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 3 cups ice
• Whipped cream optional
• Chocolate shavings optional

Instructions

• Place the white chocolate pieces and the half and half into a microwave safe bowl. Heat for 1 minutes, stopping to stir half way through. Continue to heat until melted and smooth. Add the hot chocolate mix and sugar, stirring constantly until thoroughly blended. Remove from heat and slowly add 1/2 cup of the milk and stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature.
• In a blender place the remaining cup of milk, the room temperature chocolate mixture, and the ice. Blend on high speed until smooth and the consistency of a frozen daiquiri. Pour into a cup and top with homemade whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

The post Cooking Connections Sweet Treats Class {Recipe: Frozen Hot Chocolate} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

I’ve admitted it before on my blog and honestly, don’t have to say this outloud because it is very clear to those who know me that I am not “Supermom”. Supermom has never been one of the cape’s hanging in my closet. I have plenty of the “forget to pick your child up from preschool” mom capes and “lock your keys in the car with your kids in it” mom capes, but no supermom capes. Oh, and how could I forget my favorite cape… “Your kid is yelling out curse words in Target” cape. That’s my favorite. Oh yeah.

It is funny to me how something as simple as making a big batch of pancakes, flash freezing them in the freezer, and then heating them up for a hot breakfast for the kids on a busy school morning makes me feel like I could at least have part of the “supermom” cape. I know… it isn’t anything huge, feeding your kids pancakes for breakfast. Sometimes, however, it is that little extra effort that pushes you into the category of actually feeling like you have your act together for once. Days where I feel frazzled to get all 5 of us ready and out the door by the time the school bell rings, having a hot breakfast for them makes me feel a bit like “supermom”. Do you think I can maybe trade the “ooops….I forgot to feed my kids breakfast this morning, here have these smooshed up graham crackers that have been in the diaper bag for six months” cape for an “occasionally when the stars all align I seem to have my act together” cape? Yeah… alright. I didn’t think so.

Big Batch Pancakes

Makes: 30 Pancakes

4 cups all-purpose flour
8 Tbs sugar
8 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
2 eggs
4 cups milk
1 cup canola oil
2 tsp vanilla

1. Heat your pan or griddle to medium low heat.
2. Combine all of the dry ingredients and mix together. Next, add in the liquids and eggs. Mix until smooth.
3. Pour the mix onto the griddle by scant 1/3 cup. When bubbles form on top, turn over and cook until golden.
4. To flash freeze pancakes allow to cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, place pancakes, 6 at a time, on a large cookie sheet. Put them in the freezer for 15 minutes. Remove and place in an air tight storage container or freezer bag and put back into freezer until ready to use. Continue until all pancakes have been “flash frozen”. Why flash freeze? Why not skip that step and just stick them in the freezer?  Flash freezing each pancake individually allows you to stack them after wards for storage without each pancake sticking to each other. That way, of you want to take out 1 pancake or 5, you can grab them each individually without worrying about breaking and sticking.

The post My Many Non-Supermom Capes (Recipe: Big Batch Pancakes) appeared first on Dine and Dish.

I don’t know how many of you do it… mom’s with jobs, kids, husbands, responsibilities and yet you still manage to have successful and regularly updated blogs. What is the trick to the balance you have managed to achieve? Or, is it that you are having the same struggles I am but hobbies that you enjoy other than your writing are getting left behind? Is it possible to have it all…to do it all… and to do it all well?

I’ve decided to take baby steps to getting my life back in balance. Writing makes me happy – it is my therapy and I need it. Photography is also something I find joy in. I am going to carve out time each week to devote to each, in the forms of Dine & Dish and Culinary Snapshot.

Hopefully you’ll see more of me around the blogosphere again soon…once I figure out that mythical thing called BALANCE.

Speaking of – Culinary Snapshot has a new post up! I hope you will come over and check it out. If you’d like to be featured as a Snapshot Spotlight or if you have a before and after foodie photo you’d like to share, come on over and let me know! Giveaways for participation will begin again in April.

Just Like Lambert’s Thrown Rolls

There is a great little restaurant outside of Springfield, MO called Lambert’s Cafe. The only way you can get their delicious rolls is by catching them as the servers throw them at you. This is a copycat recipe that is a great substitute when you can’t make it to Lambert’s yourself! This can also be made by using the dough cycle of your bread machine.

Side note – I accidentally made these like clover leaf rolls (as you’ll notice in the picture), but they should be made into two spheres versus three!

SERVES 12

The post Mythical Balance (Recipe: Just Like Lambert’s Thrown Rolls) appeared first on Dine and Dish.

I’ve been thinking about how life is going to be with four kids. It seems as if the people I know who have more than three kids either live in complete chaos, but really make it work for them or they are totally organized. I’d be dreaming to think that I am going to turn into Martha Stewart by the time May rolls around, but I do think I have a few months to get some good systems back into place. I want to get on top of my menu planning, scheduling, cleaning, freelance writing, hobbying, etc. I think the best way to live, especially with kids, is as simply as possible. No – this doesn’t mean we are giving up toilet paper and completely clearing our house out, but I do want to do some major de-cluttering, restructuring and planning.  If I am going to be the best “Mom-in-Chief” of my household, as Michelle Obama likes to call it, then I need to simplify and stick to it.

One way I like to simplify my menus every week is to throw in a few meals that I know I can whip up quickly. There are some nights where eating out just seems easier than cooking, but if you have a few “quick” meals scheduled for your week, you will be less likely to be tempted by the thought of eating out. Two food items that I know I can always turn to for a dinner time quick fix are shrimp and Italian sausage. Shrimp and Italian sausage thaw super quick (which to me is important because I am constantly forgetting to take the meat out of the freezer to thaw out) and cook quickly, don’t require a lot of extra ingredients to make a meal out of them, and it shakes up your weekly menu a bit with something besides the typical beef or chicken.

As I begin my goal planning for the next year (which is something I am getting my kiddos involved in too and encourage you to do the same) you’ll hopefully be seeing a lot more planned out meals on a weekly basis from me. You can bet that in that rotation you will begin seeing a great deal of things that can be put on the table fairly quickly. I’m going back to basics in order to begin my journey to simplicity.

I adapted this Italian Sausage and Peppers recipe from the Taste of Home website. Talk about simple and delicious… the recipe fits my new plan perfectly!

The post A Year for Simplicity (and Italian Sausage and Peppers) appeared first on Dine and Dish.