Oven Baked Decorated Bowls

So I was with a friend, looking for a craft we could do with a group.  We wanted to keep it simple, but to do something that hopefully people would actually use.  We settled on decorating plates, or at least serving dishes.  Got the inspiration from here...

Source: dotoot.com via Nancy on Pinterest

We ended up with a square-ish shallow bowl that we thought would be cute as a serving dish for cookies.  We sort of had to make it our own, because we had trouble finding a pen/paint that was food safe AND permanent.  Many of them said "not for contact with food."  We finally settled on a Martha Stewart product that at least said "non toxic" and that it would be dishwasher safe once baked.

People could put whatever they wanted to on their plates.  Once they were finished, we were supposed to put them in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Later we found out that it works better if you air dry them for an hour first... and put the plates in the oven WHILE it's preheating rather than waiting until it's preheated.  

Here's my final product before it was baked:

And after it was baked:

So where the paint was a little thicker, it bubbled up and some of the bubbles popped.  I did another one later with a much thinner line of paint and it turned out great!  Live and learn, I guess.  This was a really fun project and there is still paint left - so I'm sure there are more dishes to be made!

Bacon Wrapped Crackers

Now I know that the combination of club crackers, bacon, and brown sugar sounds like a strange mix, but trust me on this one.

Recipe came from here:

Source: besteverrecipecollection.blogspot.com via Nancy on Pinterest

These are quick (well, except that they bake for 45 minutes) and super easy.  Everybody will love them!  You may have to do some convincing to get people to try them, but once they do, the plate will be empty in no time.

Here are mine:

The downside?  The recipe said to put them on waxed paper.  I think next time I would use parchment paper.  Look what happened to my wax paper on my cookie sheet.

Other than that minor snafu, I would make these again for sure!

Pineapple Angelfood Cake

After the mostly failed cookies this afternoon, we were ready to try something else tonight.  Something that would satisfy the sweet tooth.  Happy to say this one did it!

Source: dawnsquiltcorner.com via Nancy on Pinterest

We even had to make a store run for this one.  No angelfood cake mix in the house.  All in the name of my pinterest blog!

It took approximately thirty seconds to dump in the angelfood cake mix and the can of pineapple.  The part that took the longest was preheating the oven!

We knew from just tasting the batter that this would probably be a winner...

        

Smelled delicious while it was baking, and oh boy!

       

This one will be repeated!

Skinny Monkey Cookies

I have no idea what is "monkey" about these cookies... I guess because there are bananas in them.  Wanted to find something dessert-like that was still healthy.  I was at my parents' house spending time with family and Mom had all the ingredients, so we gave these a try.

Source: onceamonthmom.com via Nancy on Pinterest

The verdict?  They could use a little sugar.  Probably the bananas are supposed to provide the sweetener element, but not so much.  Good try, but probably wouldn't make these again.  If I did, I'd try adding some Splenda.

Crockpot French Toast

I love French toast.  Anytime I go out to a restaurant for breakfast, that is my default order.  Sometimes I venture out and try something else, but not too often.  So the idea of making it the night before and waking up to in the morning sounded like a pretty good deal.

I got the idea from here...

Source: thecakeeccentric.wordpress.com via Nancy on Pinterest

I realized the first problem right away.  Recipe says to cook for 6 hours.  I sleep longer than that and I definitely value my sleep.  I decided that I would either need to wake up in the middle of the night and take the crockpot from the fridge and plug it in... or wake up early in the morning and turn it to "warm" before heading back to bed for a while.  I opted for option #2.

Here's the "before" picture - when I put it in the fridge before I headed to bed:

I woke up to find that most of the liquid had cooked off... and probably a couple of hours before I got to it.  It was edible - and even pretty good - but there was a LOT of French toast that was stuck to the sides and bottom.

I think I'm going to have to try it again with option #1!