Food Blogger to Day Care Provider to Cottage Food Business AND Volunteer!

It's been quite a while since I last published a post! Life has been busy my friends!

Since I retired in 2018, I started watching my two youngest grandsons for my daughter Ashley. About 50 hours a week is dedicated to being at her house watching the boys. This arrangement is working very well for both of us. 

Before I retired

Food blogging metamorphosed into a cottage food business called SalleeB's Kitchen. Remember, happiness is homemade and I'm the happiest baking and decorating sweet treats for special occasions of all kinds.

My daughter doesn't mind me baking and decorating in her kitchen. 

Therefore, I have two totes of cake decorating equipment that stays packed up in the hatch of my Nissan Versa most of the time. I have gotten quite fast at packing additional equipment into the car on baking days! 

Last year I baked 17 dozen cupcakes, 13 dozen cookies, and 45 cakes. 

Some of you might not think this sounds like a lot, BUT that is all of the treats I care to bake and decorate! My goal has never been to run a full-time business. It has always been to supplement my income AND keep it somewhere between a hobby and a part-time pursuit. 

Remember, I am spending about 50 hours a week watching the two grands. 

The oldest started Kindergarten in August 2018 and I am using my 20 years of educational paraprofessional experience helping him complete homework, practice math facts, and read 20 to 40 minutes a day. During school breaks, I also make packets of daily review and practice work. Don't worry though, I have a lot of online learning scheduled in there too. 

As if this wasn't enough, I also help with a church program called Bible Buddies. The Bible Buddies program is once a week for students in K-4th grade and it runs from September to April. There are usually about 28-33 children enrolled in the program. My role is shadowing my older grandson and assisting his group through the three class rotations; music, bible lesson, and crafts/games. 

Are any of you other Grammys keeping up with a schedule like this? 

Be proud of yourself! For me, retirement hasn't been the end of working. It is the end of working for an employer. Now I have a monthly income, supplemental income and every federal holiday and weekend off to go and play! Yes, I am blessed. Well, friends, that catches you up on what I have been doing. I am going to post some baking pictures for you to drool over. I wish you could taste them too!

 

 

 

 

 

No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pumpkin Spice Whipped Cream Topping

Yield: One 8" cheesecake
Ingredients

• 1 no bake cheesecake mix
• 1/2 cup 100% pumpkin puree
• 1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
• pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 8 oz. of heavy cream

Directions

• Follow the package directions on the cheesecake mix, but add 1/2 cup pumpkin puree, 1 Tbsp. granulated sugar, and 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice to the milk called for in the directions. 
• After mixing the graham cracker crust, set 1 Tbsp. of crust aside in a small bowl. 
• While the cheesecake is setting up in the refrigerator, pour 1 cup of cold heavy cream into a mixing bowl. 
• Beat on high until the cream begins to thicken slightly. 
• Gradually add 1/4 cup of powdered sugar and 1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice. 
• Continue to beat on high until the cream thickens and forms creamy, stiff peaks. 
• Spoon onto the cheesecake filling and spread evenly. 
• Sprinkle 1 Tbsp. of reserved graham cracker crust over the top. 
• Refrigerate until time to serve. 

Enjoy a slice of homemade happiness on a plate!

Pineapple Mug Cake

Enjoy pineapple mug cake in or out of the mug! 

The texture of this mug cake isn't nearly as dense as most of the made-from-scratch mug cake recipes that I have tried. I feel like this is a great way to make small servings of cake.
Yield: about 2 - 12 ounce servings, or about 4 - 6 ounce servings

1. Two 12 oz. mugs
2. Crack a large egg into a small bowl and beat with a fork until the yolk and egg white are blended fairly well. 

   

                                               One large egg makes about 3 Tbsp. of beaten egg.

Measure the following ingredients into each mug:

• 6 Tbsp pineapple cake mix
• 3 Tbsp water
• 3 Tbsp melted butter, or melted shortening. Canola oil may be used too. 
• about 1 1/2 Tbsp. beaten egg
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

  

  Ready to stir.

Directions

• Stir ingredients in each mug together for about a minute, or until smooth and well blended.

  

  Smooth and well blended. Ready to microwave.
• Place mugs into microwave  and cook for 3 minutes. Cooking time is for a 900 - 1000 watt microwave. 
• The cake will rise to the top of the mug.

  

  Immediately after microwaving 3 minutes.
• Remove the mugs from the microwave and allow to cool 2-3 minutes.

  

  After cooling 2-3 minutes, the mug cake can be turned out of the mug. 
• At this point, you can turn the cake out onto a plate, or you can leave the cake in the mug.

  

  The mug cake slips out of the stoneware mug easily. The mug wasn't oiled or greased.
  Top with a topping of your choice and enjoy!

Cake Mix Mug Cake - A Five Minute Mug Cake

I decided to Google the phrase, cake mix mug cake.
Yep, a few of you have tried this idea out too, BUT I don't think anyone else has had such excellent results as I have.

Why? Because I actually use ideas from more than one mug cake recipe. Yep, I did what I do best...take inspiration from more than one recipe and combine them into a new recipe.
Storing Cake Mix for Mug Cake Use

• Measure out 6 Tbsp. of cake mix into an individual, zip top sandwich bag. Repeat.
  
• Roll the bags tightly and zip the tops closed. 
• Place the rolled bags of cake mix back into the cake mix box to store for use at a later time. 

A 15.25 ounce package of cake mix will make about 7 mug cakes.
A 16.50 ounce package of cake mix will make about 8 mug cakes.

I hope you will try my cake mix hack - Cake Mix Mug Cake.

Recipe for a Five Minute Mug Cake

Yield: about 1 - 12 ounce serving, or about 2 - 6 ounce servings

Directions:

• Crack a large egg into a small bowl and beat with a fork until the yolk and egg white are blended fairly well. 
  
  One large egg will yield about 3 Tbsp. of beaten egg, just enough for 2 mug cakes!
• Set aside.

Measure the following ingredients into a 12 ounce mug:

• 6 Tbsp cake mix, any flavor
• 3 Tbsp water
• 3 Tbsp melted butter, oil, or melted shortening 
• about 1 1/2 Tbsp. of the beaten egg 
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

• Stir ingredients in the mug together for about a minute, or until smooth and well blended.
• Place mug into microwave  and cook for 3 minutes. Cooking time is for a 900 - 1000 watt microwave. 
• The cake will rise to the top of the mug.
• Remove the mug from the microwave and allow to cool 2-3 minutes.
• At this point, you can turn the cake out onto a plate and slice it into two portions, or you can leave it in the mug for a 12 ounce serving. 
  
• Top with the topping of your choice and enjoy!

No Bake Chocolate Cheesecake Dessert with Chocolate Chip Cookie Crust

Hot summer days are here again!
I don't know about you, but I don't even want to think about turning on my oven and heating up the kitchen. Instead, I like making no bake desserts that are quick to make and require minimum time in the kitchen. 

I believe this is the perfect recipe for beginning cooks. 5 ingredients is all it takes to make an easy and elegant chocolate cheesecake dessert. Your friends will think you worked for hours!



No Bake Chocolate Cheesecake Dessert with Chocolate Chip Cookie Crust
Ingredients
2 - 3.4 oz pkg of instant cheesecake pudding mix
2 - 3.4 oz pkg of instant chocolate pudding mix
6 cups of milk
12 chocolate chip cookies, crushed to fine crumbs
4 Tbsp. of melted butter

Directions

• Blend, process, or crush 12 chocolate chip cookies into fine crumbs.
  

• Add 4 Tbsp. of melted butter to the cookie crumbs.
• Stir until mixed well. Measure out 2 Tbsp. of the cookie crumbs and set aside.
• Press the remaining cookie crumb mixture into the bottom of a 9" spring-form pan
  
• Pour 3 cups of cold milk into a bowl. Add the packages of chocolate pudding and beat for 1 minute. 
  
• Pour the pudding into the cookie crust and spread evenly.
  
• Set pudding into the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
• Pour 3 cups of cold milk into a bowl. Add the packages of cheesecake pudding and beat for 1 minute. 
  
• Pour the cheesecake pudding on top of the chocolate pudding layer. 
• Garnish with the reserved 2 Tbsp. of  crumbled chocolate chip cookie
• Chill until firm, about 2-3 hours
• Gently loosen the spring-form pan sides and lift away from the dessert.
• Slice and serve. If desired, top each slice with 1-2 Tbsp. of whipped cream, or whipped topping. 
  

Enjoy a slice of homemade happiness on a plate!

Link to Thirty Frosting Recipes

I have been following Cookies and Cups, for several years now and wanted to share this link with you. I can always use another great recipe for frosting.

30 Frosting Recipes

Rosette Birthday Cake

Cake mix strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting. 10" bottom layer and 4.5" top layer

Cake Pan Hack

Use a removeable, 1.5 quart crockpot to bake a 4.5 inch cake layer. Grease and flour the inside of the small crockpot insert, pour in about an inch and a half of batter, and bake for about 20 - 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs clinging to it.

Wilton 1 tip created large rosettes. Small open star tip for small red flowers. Small leaf tip for the leaves. #5 writing tip for writing. 

Bottom and top layers are split and filled with cream cheese frosting.

Princess coach was made using the mold shown below and melted vanilla bark. The gold is from Wilton color mist, an edible spray. 

Melted vanilla bark held a round toothpick onto the back of the molded candy carriage. 

SalleeB Shares: Subpar Desserts for $16

Hi there. Last night the hubby and I had dessert at a local chain restaurant.
You know the saying, "hindsight is 20/20"? NOW we know ordering dessert was a bad and costly idea. After a lengthy wait, long enough that we thought our order was lost, the two desserts and beverages arrived.
Should've Looked at the Price
Now I do have to say that the hubs didn't look at the menu price because the words "Chocolate Lava Cake" robbed him of his common sense. lol...lol  Chocoholics know what I am talking about don't you? Yes, we are taking part of the  blame for the dessert debacle.
The Hubs Chocolate Lava Cake
Bill's chocolate lava cake looked good except for the two walnut sized scoops of vanilla ice cream. The size of the lava cake actually made the minuscule scoops look even smaller.

Being in tune with the hubs, I knew he didn't like it because he paused after he chewed the first bite of cake once.

He went ahead and ate it, but probably shouldn't have because he told me the ice cream tasted "weird." Also, the "lava" was chocolate syrup drizzled over the cake and maybe a little bit in the center.
My Strawberry Cheesecake
I did look at the menu prices and figured about $4.00 for a slice of strawberry cheese cake would be good. After all, it is hard to mess up cheesecake.

My slim wedge of cheesecake was about two inches wide at the outside edge. Since I am trying to cut calories, it was the perfect size and it taste great!

By comparison, the cheesecake just made the quarter of a cup of  thawed, frozen strawberries and juice look slightly pitiful. Yes, that was what topped that lovely wedge of cheesecake.

Comparing Bill's dessert with mine, mine was the better of the two sweet treats. Cheesecake won over chocolate this time.

The waitress arrived with the bill for our lovely desserts.
Yes, you hear sarcasm. Here is where the hubs went into price shock. Silently he handed me the ticket so I could read it and go into price shock with him.

Chocolate Lava Cake with vanilla ice cream     $6.49 

Strawberry Cheese Cake                                      $3.99

Coffee                                                                   $2.49

Soda                                                                     $2.49

Total                                                                     $15.46  before tax was added. 

Wow! The beverage prices were sky-high!
I am going to rant a little bit here. For $2.49 I can buy two, 2-liter bottles of soda! AND when you fill a glass full of ice you might have 4-5 ounces of soda in your glass. The hubs may have drank 20 ounces of soda. What the heck?  Additionally, my coffee cup might have held about 8 oz. of coffee and I only refilled it once! For $2.49 I should have drank half a pot!

Okay, I am trying to calm down and remember things like overhead that a restaurant has to deal with.

I think what bothers us the most about our dessert experience, is that we could have gone to another local restaurant and eaten a meal with drinks, and dessert for an additional $5.

Sure, the dessert wouldn't have been cheesecake, but the self-serve ice cream and dessert bar would have been infinitely better than Bill's chocolate syrup lava cake and weird tasting ice cream!

Here in the Ozarks we have a lot of  folk sayings and I am going to conclude this post with my Great-grandma's favorite saying:

Don't buy a pig in a poke, or Don't buy something you haven't looked at! 

Sallee's Six: A Sextet of Pumpkin Inspired Cupcakes

The annual trip to the pumpkin farm! 

Pumpkin cupcakes that will leave your taste buds singing an Hallelujah chorus!
Just reading the list below makes my mouth water for some yummy, pumpkin, homemade happiness on a plate! I want to make them all. How about you?

1. Impossible Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes -  A cupcake that taste like pumpkin pie and you can eat with your hands. Yum!    Click Here for the recipe.

2. Pumpkin Cupcakes with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting - A trinity of fall goodness, pumpkin, caramel, and cream cheese!     Click Here for the recipe

3. Pumpkin Carrot Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting - A fall flavor binge of pumpkin, carrot, and maple cream cheese.     Click Here for the recipe

4. Maple Cupcake with Pumpkin Pie Frosting - A healthier cupcake for those who are trying to be good, but still want a fall treat. This is the cupcake for you.     Click Here for the recipe

5. Pumpkin Smores Cupcakes- Graham cracker crust bottom, pumpkin cupcake filled with marshmallow cream and smothered with chocolate ganache. My idea of fall flavor heaven!
  Click Here for the recipe

6. Pumpkin Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting - A traditional pumpkin cupcake with a rich, made from scratch, salted caramel frosting.     Click Here for the recipe

Spiced Monkey Bread for Two

Sugar and spice and everything that's nice maybe what little girls are made of,

BUT I am a big girl and I want my sugar and spice in my monkey bread! Specifically, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves mixed with brown sugar and baked with butter into a spiced, caramelly syrup that surrounds the crisp sugar coating with each bite of buttermilk monkey bread. I've got to stop describing it or I am going to be making more monkey bread!

I thought everyone knew about monkey bread.

I was wrong. Bill didn't know what monkey bread was.

Can you believe that? He grew up in California and Kansas. Don't you have monkey bread there? Somehow he missed out on this treat until I made spiced monkey bread for us. NOW that he knows what it is............he wants more, much more!

I used two  - 6 ounce souffle cups, but any 6-8 ounce ramekin, or baking dish will work.

Ingredients

• 1- 7.5 oz tube of generic buttermilk biscuits
• 2 Tbsp. butter - for buttering your baking dishes
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves

Topping Ingredients

• 2 tablespoon butter, melted
• 2 tablespoon brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Butter your two baking dishes generously and set aside

   

   Generously buttered souffle dishes.

Preparing the Biscuits

1. Cut each biscuit into quarters and roll each quarter into a ball. 

   

   I cut the biscuit into quarters with a pizza cutter. 

2. Set the dough balls aside.
   
3. Put the sugars and spices into a one quart zip top bag.
   
4. Zip the top and mix the sugar and spices in the bag.
   
5. Dip a ball of dough into the melted butter and drop it into the bag of spiced sugar.
   
6. Repeat until you have four butter coated dough balls in the bag of spiced sugar
7. Close and shake the bag until the balls of dough are completely coated.
8. Divide the dough balls between the two buttered baking dishes.
9. Repeat steps 4-7 until all of the dough balls are coated and divided between the two baking dishes. 

   

   Ready to bake!

Preparing the Topping

1. In a small bowl, blend the melted butter, brown sugar, and spices for the topping.
   
2. Using a tablespoon, spoon the topping equally over the top of the dough in each baking dish.
   

Time to Bake

• Set the baking dishes on a small cookie sheet or shallow baking pan and put it into the preheated oven.
• Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until the dough is beginning to brown.
• Remove from oven and let sit for 2 or 3 minutes. 
• Carefully turn each baking dish upside down onto a plate and let it sit for a minute.
• Gently remove the monkey bread from the baking dish. 

  

  This is what happens when you don't let the baking dish sit on the plate for a minute.

  

  A perfect individual serving.
  You are ready to eat some homemade happiness on a plate!