Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Retro 50's Housewife Shower


My youngest sister is getting married in a few weeks, so of course that means a shower must be thrown! Her wedding has a definite retro vibe and her own personal style has always been anything but traditional. With that in mind, we decided on a 50's housewife theme for her shower. The colors she's using in her wedding are aqua with touches of yellow and red. Perfect for our retro theme. Even the menu was retro. It included such classics as, pigs-in-a blanket, deviled eggs, and the piece de resistance, the sandwich loaf complete with cream cheese icing and stuffed olive decoration.




When I was trying to come up with ideas for the shower, I stumbled across the Wedding Chicks website. They have great DIY project ideas and lots of FREE customizable templates. I was able to customize the colors to match our shower.

This cute template was the inspiration for our dessert table

The "Candy Bar"
Ready to be the perfect housewife!
We asked our guests to wear their best 50's housewife dresses, aprons, and pearls. Desperate housewives??!!
Congratulations little sis!
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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

give me s'more of those brownies!

I have to confess that I've have little no desire to bake, as of late. You may have noticed from the lack of any baking going on here! Life events, mostly Hubs being deployed back to Iraq, have zapped my mojo. I've just been totally blah...not interested in cooking much of anything.
The lingering heat hasn't helped either. It's those end of summer doldrums. I seem to get them every year around the end of August. Hubs heading out just made even worse than usual this year. Then I saw these brownies while flipping through a magazine. "I want those!" What could be better than a s'more? A s'more brownie! Cookie crust, rich chocolaty center and gooey marshmallow top... oh yeah, these will make you want to head to the kitchen, tie on an apron, and start baking!

S'more Brownies
source: Taste of the South, September 2010

(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients: 
1 12-ounce box vanilla-wafer cookies
2 1/4 cups sugar, divided
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 cup plus 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, divided
5 1-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 16-ounce bag large marshmallows,  cut in half

Method:
Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 13x9-inch pan with aluminum foil, letting foil hang over sides of pan. Set aside. In the work bowl of a food processor, pulse together cookies, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt until mixture is fine. With processor running, slowly add 5 tablespoons melted butter, and continue blending until mixture is well combined. Press crumb mixture firmly into the bottom of prepared pan.
In a large bowl, whisk together remaining 1 cup melted butter and melted chocolate until mixture is well combined. Whisk in remaining 2 cups sugar and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, whisking constantly, until mixture is smooth and glossy. Whisk in flour and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Pour batter into pan, smoothing top.
Bake until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out with just crumbs, about 30 minutes. Let cool slightly.


Preheat oven to broil. Place marshmallow halves on top of brownies, in rows, as close as possible. Broil until tops of marshmallows are golden brown and puffed.you may have to rotate the pan a couple of times to get even browning.  Let cool slightly before cutting brownies into squares. Use a sharp knife to cut brownies. Dipping the knife in a glass of warm water between cuts helps it not to stick to the marshmallows.


The best part about these smore's is that no campfire is required!