dessert

Stacked Cannolis

My husband and I have tons of fun experimenting in the kitchen together and this past weekend was no exception! We decided to take on the feat of making cannolis for the first time. As we finished up our dinner, we started reviewing the cannoli recipe and quickly realized we were unprepared. Who knew you needed a cannoli mold to make that tube shape? I quickly researched alternative ways to make the cannoli shape without a mold. I read a few recipes that said you could cut off the end of a broom handle or make a mold out of aluminum foil. Besides the fact that I use a dustbuster instead of a broom, I wasn’t loving the alternative options. It all sounded a little messy to me, so I decided to get a little creative and try stacked cannolis!

Stacked Cannolis

They actually turned out great and were super easy to make! We used Alex Guarnaschelli’s Homemade Cannoli Recipe from Food Network (which is delicious by the way) and tweaked the preparation to make them stacked instead of the traditional cannoli shape. Once you cut the dough into circles, you put them right into the hot oil and fry them into flat discs. We put a spoonful of the filling between each layer and topped the tower with the last of the filling and a few raspberries. Didn’t they turn out adorable? Bonus- they taste delicious too!

deconstructed cannoli

Craving a delicious italian pastry? Instead of making a batch of cannolis, consider trying this posh spin on the traditional dessert.

Frog Treats

As you may have noticed from Monday’s post, I love themes! And I found the theme we chose for my sister’s baby shower, Frogs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails, was a BLAST to put together! Today I want to follow up with you and share the recipes we used for our frog treats.

Watermelon Frog– I originally found this idea on Watermelon Creations and loved it! I ended up modifying it to make it a little easier for the watermelon carving newbie I am.

Materials Used:
2 Watermelons
2 Large Googly Eyes
Assorted Fruit to fill watermelon
Toothpicks

1- Set one Watermelon on its end and cut the mouth-opening (start at the top middle, cut a few inches down then make horizontal cut out to the edge), take the mouth chunk out, you will use this later.

2- Find the angle you want your frog to sit (this will depend on the size and shape of your watermelon). You want to make sure your guests can reach in and the fruit won’t spill out. Once you find the angle, shave off a small amount where your melon meets the table, but don’t break through the rind! You don’t want your melon to leak!

3- Use a melon baller or a spoon to scrape out the inside of the frog. Again, make sure you don’t break through the rind at the bottom

4- Use the shaving from the bottom of the frog and shape it into the two eyes. Next, glue your large googly eyes to the melon eye cutouts, hot glue worked great for us. To get the eyes to stick up, stick toothpicks in the eyes and stick into the body.

5- Since our watermelon was on the smaller side, we used a second melon for the legs and feet. Cut the second watermelon in half. Now, choose the thickness you want of your legs and slice a ring with that thickness off the half of the melon. Then cut the ring down the middle, making a semi-circle. You now have 2 legs!

6- Use the mouth chunk to make the feet. Cut the chunk in half and scoop out all the melon. You should now have 2 triangles. Cut the points off to match the thickness of the legs and shape into two matching feet.

7- Now that you have all your pieces, stick toothpicks in the feet and legs to make sure nothing moves around.

8- Last, fill with assorted fruit and serve!

Oreo Frogs– I found this adorable idea here on made to be a momma. These were a ton of fun to make and were not only cute, but delicious too! They were everyone’s favorite treat at the party. For reference, I bought vibrant green candyquick (1 12 oz package makes 1 dozen frogs) and the large candy eyeballs (12 in a pack).

Pond Punch– This was a fun drink to add some diversity to the beverage selection. I found the recipe here on food network, but only used half the sugar it called for and it was PLENTY sweet! We also offered champagne to mix with the punch, which turned out delicious!

Glamourita Pond Punch

Lily Pad Chicken Salad– This was a great healthy option to balance out all the sweets on the table. Lucky for me, my brother-in-law has an awesome chicken salad recipe he gave me (see below). After mixing together the chicken salad, put a couple tablespoons on each lettuce wrap and enjoy!

Glamourita Chicken Salad Lily Pads

Dalton Chicken Salad
1 ½ lbs chicken breasts
3 celery sticks
½ lb of seedless purple grapes
2-3 hard-boiled eggs
4 oz of sliced almonds
1 Tbsp paprika
1 tsp garlic salt
salt and pepper to taste

1- Season chicken with seasoned salt and black pepper and cook on grill

2- Broil almonds in oven until brown (watch closely, they burn easily!)

3- Dice all ingredients (except almonds) and combine in a bowl

4- Slowly add mayonnaise (or miracle whip for a lighter option) until covered

5- Add roasted almonds, paprika, garlic salt and salt and pepper to taste

Want more? Check out the Snail Eats and the Puppy Dog Tails from the shower!

Snail Eats

Now we will focus on the snail portion of the party! My sister’s baby shower on Saturday just wouldn’t have been complete without these adorable snail dishes.

Pesto Snail Rolls– These were a huge hit and looked exactly like snails (the adorable cartoon ones of course!). We got the recipe here from Recipe.com

Glamourita Pesto Snail Rolls

Chocolate Hazelnut Peanut Butter Pinwheel Cookies– These cookies looked like snail shells! They were a little labor intensive, but definitely worth it. The recipe is from Jif, found here. I ended up altering the recipe slightly to make the dough more manageable. I left out all the butter and added ¼ cup of flour to the peanut butter dough. I baked mine at 350 degrees for 10 minutes and they turned out perfect!

Glamourita Chocolate and Peanut Butter Snail Swirl Cookies

Turkey and Ham Pinwheels- We needed a few options that were a little more substantial, so we chose these Pesto Tortilla Pinwheels from Home Cooking Memories. These were great as is. We chose to make both turkey and ham pinwheels and added two toothpicks to act as antennae.

Glamourita Snail Rollups 

Mr. Snail’s Veggie Garden (Assorted Veggie Tray)- This is an obvious one. We always have a veggie tray at all of our parties; we just decided to give this one a fun nickname to fit into the theme!

Glamourita Mr. Snails Garden

Want more? Check out the Frog Treats and the Puppy Dog Tails from the shower!

Don’t Bail on Puppy Dog Tails!

Last, but not least, we have the puppy dog tails! My sister has three of the world’s cutest dogs and they are always wagging their tails. My mom and I had to make sure the baby shower on Saturday lived up to my sister’s puppy dog tail expectations!

Go Fetch Cheeseball- Cheeseball is a family favorite of ours and can be found at any family gathering we have. Of course, we had to give it a name to match the theme, but the ingredients are the same from our tried and true family recipe.

Glamourita Go Fetch Cheeseball

2 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese, softened
1 lb sliced ham, diced
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and shape into round ball. Serve with crackers.

Puppychow- There are a million puppychow recipe variations out there and most of them are delicious! For the shower, we chose to serve snickerdoodle puppychow, found here at Your Cup of Cake.

Glamourita Puppy Chow

Puppy Dog Tails– Lastly, we thought these were too cute to pass up (it also didn’t hurt that they were delicious!)

Glamourita Puppy Dog Tails

Dip pretzel rods into melted white chocolate and cover in toffee bits, let cool.

Want more? Check out the Frog Treats and the Snail Eats from the shower!

Frogs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Do you know what little boys are made of? Apparently the recipe calls for frogs, snails and puppy dog tails.

My older sister is pregnant with a little boy (the first baby in the family) and my mom and I had the pleasure of throwing her a baby shower this past Saturday. My sister chose the theme of frogs, snails and puppy dog tails and I think it’s safe to say we took the theme and ran with it.

Glamourita Frogs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

My family is big on celebrations. My sister and I always had the most elaborate parties growing up, they ranged from dalmation themed with ice cubes made of milk and choc chips to Hawaiian themed with actual hula girls there to teach us moves. My mom was always finding a way to make our parties interesting and exciting and this baby shower was no exception.

Basics for a good party include food and drinks, entertainment and favors!

First, we will focus on the most important aspect of a party, the food! We wanted everything to fit into the frogs, snails and puppy dog tails theme so we got a little creative.

Frogs: fruit filled watermelon frog, chocolate covered Oreo frogs, chicken salad lily pads and pond punch.

Snails:  pesto snail rolls with carrot antennae, chocolate and peanut butter swirl cookies, Mr. Snail’s vegetable garden (veggie tray) and turkey and ham pinwheel wraps

Puppy Dog Tails: go fetch cheeseball, puppy chow and puppy dog tails (chocolate and toffee covered pretzel rods)

Next, it’s important to have a couple fun games to engage everyone. We had a diaper raffle where anyone who brought a pack of diapers got entered to win a prize! This is a win/win, giving the mother-to-be tons of diapers to start with and giving a few lucky winners a great gift basket! Next we did a cute matching game of candy names and pregnancy terms found here. This one ended up stumping a bunch of us, but we had a couple guests who got them all correct! We also did a cute observation game where we told everyone to pay attention to the mother-to-be as she walked around with a tray full of baby items. After she left the room, we asked the guests questions about the mother-to-be, like what color is her nail polish, what kind of shoes is she wearing, etc. Most the guests pay little attention to the mother-to-be since they are trying to focus on remembering the items on the tray; it’s a fun curve-ball to throw into the mix of traditional baby shower games.

Last, but not least, are the guests’ favors. I am a huge candy fan and especially a fan of candy buffets. They are not only great favors, but add great decoration to the party. We chose all blue and white candy for ours; we had a mix of chocolate, taffy, gummies, jelly beans and more. It’s a cute way to say thank you for coming to your guests. Girls not only grabbed their favorites, but took some home for their families too!

Everything turned out great, but the fan favorite was definitely the Oreo frogs! They were such a cute visual addition to the party and actually tasted great too! I had a blast making all these treats and setting everything up with my mom. Are you interested in any of the recipes or ideas? Check out all the step by step details of the party here- Frog Treats, Snail Eats and Don’t Bail on Puppy Dog Tails!