My dear friend and her husband are first time home owners!  To help them celebrate, I wanted to do something special because she has been such a light in my life and has made my life feel pretty dang special.  So I set out to make these cookies.

This was my second experience working with royal icing.  Even just being the second time, I’m already getting the sense that when working with this type of icing, you get better and better the more you practice.  I must admit, though, that halfway into decorating these, I thought they were going to turn out disastrous!  The details of the grass, windows, door, etc really made the difference and brought these cute little homes alive!

Right now I’m still looking for my favorite sugar cookie recipe, so I’ll spare the one I used this time (although I did like it, I didn’t “love” it).  I do, however, love the royal icing recipe and will share it below.  Also, please check out Annie’s fantastic tutorial on royal icing at Annie’s Eats!

Royal Icing

Printable Recipe

4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tbsp meringue powder
5 Tbsp water
additional water as needed

In the bowl of a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment to mix together all ingredients.  Let mix for 7-10 minutes, until the sheen has disappeared.  The icing is now at it’s stiffest consistency.  To thin it out, continue to add a little bit of water (by teaspoons) and stir by hand until it’s at the right consistency for piping.  Separate the icing into different airtight containers, to match the number of colors you plan to use.  Color appropriately with desired gel food coloring.  Transfer only the amount of icing needed for piping to pastry bags fitted with Wilton size 1, 2 or 3 tips.  Pipe outlines on the cookies where you plan to fill the thinner icing, in the next step.  Let set. Meanwhile, keep the additional icing covered to avoid hardening.

To create the filling, thin out the icing remaining in the airtight containers by very gradually adding teaspoons of water and stirring by hand.  The icing is at the right consistency when it rapidly drips off the spoon and immediately smooths back into the icing remaining in the bowl.  Use either a squeeze bottle or spoon to pour the filler icing into each outlined cookie.  Spread out to the edges with a toothpick until smooth.  Pop any bubbles with the toothpick, as well.

Let set completely for a few hours or overnight, and then decorate with additional piping icing as desired.

Source: Adapted from Annie’s Eats

As our moving date gets closer, we are getting busier with packing and seeing friends before we leave.  This means fast dishes are essential, especially at lunch time.  These burgers served up a fantastic quick meal the other day when we had only a moment to spare and grab a bite to eat.  To help quicken the pace, I bought the meat already shaped into patties, and it didn’t hurt that they were on sale.  After all ingredients were factored in, the burgers totaled less than $1.00 each!  And, trust me, you can’t find a Bruschetta Burger on any of those fast food restaurants’ value menus for $1.00!    It’s worth every penny to take the time to grill it yourself and slap on some cheese and tomatoes at the end.

Although the original recipe gives ingredients for a rub, I used some hamburger seasoning I had on hand.  You can do the same, or just refer to the original source to make your own.

Bruschetta Burgers

Printable Recipe

Yield: 4 burgers

4 burger patties
hamburger seasoning, to taste
1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
2 Tbsp basil, shredded
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
4 hamburger buns
spread butter
garlic salt, to taste

Preheat grill.  In a small bowl, combine the tomatoes, oil, garlic, salt and pepper, stir in the basil; set aside.  Season hamburgers with choice of hamburger seasoning.  Grill until cooked through, flipping only once.  After flipping burgers, top each with about one tablespoon of the mozzarella cheese and one tablespoon of the tomato mixture.  Continue to grill until the cheese is melted.  In the meantime, butter the buns and sprinkle with garlic salt.  Toast on the grill for a few minutes.

Assemble the burgers and serve with choice of condiments.  I prefer to eat mine as is, no extras. YUM!

Source: Adapted from Miss in the Kitchen

The last time I went on a bit of a blogging hiatus (one year ago), it was because I was pregnant and wanted to vomit every time I thought about Pennies on a Platter.  This time, I’m not pregnant but other life changes are in full swing.  We are moving!  Ben recently accepted a job offer in Southern California, so we’re packing our bags and our baby boy and heading west.

This is the biggest move we’ve made, so we’re busy searching for places to live, scoping out moving options, packing up our belongings, and trying to spend as much time with our friends here as possible.  We love where we live now, and have the best friends and church we could ask for, but we know we’re being called to this next step of ministry for a purpose, which excites us to no end.

That being said, until we finish our move and get settled, I won’t be blogging as often (as you can already tell).  The timing is a bit bad, as I’m starting the baby food process with Judah and can not wait to share my favorite recipes.  Some of the next upcoming posts may not be about food, but updates of our move instead.  I’ve come to adore you, my readers, and definitely want to keep you posted!

In the meantime, I’d love to hear your favorite thoughts (food related or not) of California.  Chicago is a great city, and I’ll dearly miss it.  So, to help me not miss Chicago so much, please share what you love about Southern California, or the West in general!

Breakfast food is growing on me.  I used to think that cereal was the best option as it is quick and can be varied by choice.  That was a few years ago.  I’ve since broadened my experiences with breakfast food and rarely eat cereal now (although we always have a select few in our cupboard).  Okay, fine, I’m eating a bowl of cereal right now!  But, that’s what happened.  Cereal moved into my bedtime snack routine, away from breakfast.  (Yes, dad, I am growing more and more like you every day!)

Oatmeal is a type of cereal to which I never took a liking.  When I was pregnant last year, there was a morning when I craved oatmeal with maple sugar.  So, I bought a pack of instant oatmeal, heated it up at work, took one bite and then instantly remembered how I didn’t like it and threw the rest away!  After that, for the rest of my pregnancy, the smell of maple or brown sugar oatmeal made me gag.  It was unfortunate for me that one of my coworkers prepared it just about every morning.  Yuck!

Enter Baked Oatmeal.  My life is changed!  Honestly, I do not know why I’m loving this baked oatmeal after never liking any other kind (well, except oatmeal cookies of course).  But, this recipe is one I’ll keep forever and will probably serve too much.  It’s definitely quick and can be varied very easily.  Just add whatever fillings you like…whether it’s apples, blueberries, bananas, brown sugar, etc.  Throw it in the oven, and soon you can feed your guests a very lovely (yet, very easy) delicious breakfast!

I made this for our parents when they came and stayed with us for Judah’s baptism a few weekends ago.  Then, I meant to make it again last weekend when our friends from Detroit visited, but guess what, my oven broke!!  If that happens again, I’m throwing it into my cast iron skillet and baking it on the grill.  I did this with boxed brownie mix and it worked like a charm!

Baked Oatmeal

Printable Recipe

Makes: 8 – 10 servings

3 cups oatmeal
3/4 cups brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 cups milk
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Optional Add-Ins:  raisins, dried cranberries, blueberries, apples, bananas, walnuts, etc.
Optional Toppings: milk, cool whip, ice cream, etc

Preheat oven to 375˚F.

Butter a 13×9-inch pan. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together.  Pour into the buttered pan and bake for 25 minutes.

Serve hot with optional toppings.

Source:  Cara Swartzendruber, a friend of Pennies on a Platter

Happy belated Mother’s Day to all of you wonderful mothers out there!  This year, both mine and Ben’s moms got to be the guinea pigs for me trying my hand at royal icing.  It was so much fun to first go out and find these adorable cookies cutters at Sur la Table (I heart that store!), and then to research different tutorials from other food blogs and websites on the tips and tricks of royal icing.  I also found a lot of help reading about how to send cookies in the mail so they make it in once piece.  Interesting that both moms claimed only one cookie arrived “neatly” cracked in half, while the rest were in tact.  I say that’s success for a first timer!

After reading and searching the web, I decided to go with a half batch of this sugar cookie recipe from Sweetopia and used Annie’s Eats’ extremely thorough and very helpful tutorial on royal icing.  I’m excited to make more cookies decorated with royal icing, as it is so much easier and more fun that I ever imagined!  I’ve got ideas spinning in my head.  You could be the next recipient of cookies…just keep watching your door step!

Again, happy Mother’s Day!  I can’t believe I actually celebrated my first as a Mom!!