Autism Awareness

It is officially April 30, 2011 and there is 1 more day left in April which is Autism Awareness Month.  I hope that everyone has learned at least ONE new thing about autism and how it effects us ALL.

When I was gowing through elementary, middle, and high school, I didnt know anyone with autism.  In fact, I had never heard of it.

Now, I choose to have the wonderful children with autism as a part of my everyday life.  Autism is no longer a disability that we don't know about.  There is no teacher in the public school system today that will not have a child with autism in their classroom.  It is time for us ALL to learn everything that we can to make these children as successful as possible.

There is that saying, "Once you have met one child with autism, you have met one child with autism."  It is the truth.  Please be aware and understanding for not just autism but ALL disabilities.  All need to be believed in.

Earlier this month I went over to one of our parents house to make the cookies below.  This parent has a sweet child with autism and in honor of autism awareness month and the awesome teachers that work with ALL of the students with autism at the wonderful Thomas Jefferson Elementary school, we made the cookies below.  Dont they look just yummy?  4 hours of baking later, we had the finished product...Autism Awareness Puzzle Piece Cookies.  (For those of you that need to know, I ordered the cookie cutter on-line.  Lots of places carry them.) 

And yes, a child with autism did help make these cookies...

Happy Easter!

Matt and I wish everyone a very Happy Easter!  We love you all!  Stay dry and warm on this rainy Sunday!

Below are just some Easter cookies that I made for today...Matt has already eaten half of them.  Enjoy!

The Dreaded Deadline!

So the "deadline" has come and gone.  Some of us made it and some filed for that good ol' extension. 

Did we all survive?  Boy I hope so.

My Taxman, (hum hum...my father-in-law..) never told us how good of a deal it was to get married. 

Haha.  I might not have waited a year and a half to get hitched.  But oh well.  Now we know.

Matt and I have a different look inside the "tax world."  Matts dad is a C.P.A. and owns his own firm.  I will put a plug in right about now- Riggs & Associates C.P.A.- he rocks.

Even though I don't personally know what the schedule is like, I do know that all C.P.A.s and staff work hard up until that last day...APRIL 15 (or April 18 this year...thank you gov't)

In honor of their hard work, I decided I needed to make a treat.  I'm kinda in to making cookies.  There is always something new and I am learning every time how to do a better job.

so check out below what I made.  It only took about 4 hours to make 24 cookies........

Birthday Treat

The other day I texted my father-in-law to see what dessert he wanted to have for his birthday. I didn't have to wait one minute and he had already told me what he wanted...

I don't even have a name for this dessert. It's just called, "The Orea thing" and I know exactly what people are wanting.

OK so this is sooooo easy and soooooo good. It is one of my favorite if not my all time favorite summer treat.

I don't even make it during the winter months.

I guess it's all because my mom used to make it when we were growing up and it was always a summer thing.

Sunday is the birthday day so we will get to enjoy this.

But I have a secret....

I made Matt and I one as well. So we won't have to share. haha. Sneeky.

You're going to LOVE this recipe below.

The main ingredients you need are:

Oreos

Cool Whip (soft)

Vanilla Ice cream (soft)

Chocolate Syrup

And any toppings you like.

Crush Oreos and put on the bottom of the dish. I added a little chocolate syrup on top.

Then add the soft ice cream ontop of the Oreo crust.

Then cover with the softened cool whip.

Top with more crushed Oreos and chocolate syrup

See, I made 2. L.O.V.E.

Snack Attack

Do you love appetizers? Let me rephrase because I know we all love appetizers. How about this... Do you love easy appetizers? That sounds better. Easy in anything makes me feel better. I am not a fan of complicated recipes. I don't want to have to decode what authors mean on recipes. We have all been there and don't really like going back. Ok so I have the perfect EASY appetizer for you then. 2 ingredients. Look below.

So you need a jar of Pepper and Onion Relish and cream cheese.

I use Harry & David Pepper and Onion Relish. I know that we do not have a Harry & David store here in Bentonville. I always stock up when I go to St.Louis. I'm sure you could use any kind of relish you wanted. I just love this particular relish.

There are 2 ways to make this:

1. Mix the relish and cream cheese together well. Serve with crackers or tortilla chips.

2. Pour relish over cream cheese block. Serve with crackers or tortilla chips.

I love option #1 with tortilla chips. MMMmmm MMmmmm good. I could eat this stuff all day long.

Enjoy!

Light It Up Blue

Did you know: Autism Affects 1 in 110 Children 1 in 70 BOYS ! April is Autism Awareness month. One of the ways that we show our support is to wear blue or to change out light bulbs out to blue April 1-2. This amazing support was started by Autism Speaks and Light It Up Blue! Go to the website and check out all of the pictures of how people are showing their support for autism and those they love with autism. If you get a chance, do something to show your support. I get the opportunity every day to work with some very special children with autism. They teach me something everyday and I could not imagine my life doing anything different then what I do now. On Friday at Elm Tree Elementary all of the teachers in the autism classes brought blue treats for the rest of the staff at school. Krispy Kream did blue doughnuts!

Don't those look delish? Thank you Krispy Kream!

A picture of the Empire State Building during Light It Up Blue!

So here is what I did to show my support for autism awareness. For the treats for the teachers on Friday I made cupcakes with blue frosting! They turned out so good!

I was in a training all do so I didn't even get to try one to see how they turned out. Monday at school all of the staff is wearing blue! I can't wait to see how everyone looks!!

I got to use my new cupcake corer.

I saved Matt all of the cupcake pieces that came out from coring them.

Filled with blue buttercream icing.

Yummy!

Remember to show your support for autism awareness!

All-In

I think I am a pretty resourceful person. I don't like to go to the store if I don't have to and I make due with what I have.

Have you ever searched for recipes on-line using keywords of stuff you have at your house? I do all the time.

So here is what I did this time.

I had a batch of pre-made Pillsbury sugar cookie dough. This would be the kind that you just slice and then bake. I didn't want to just slice nad bake though. What fun is that?

Did I mention that I was out of flour? That meant that I could use my rolling pin and roll out the dough to use the cookie cutters that I wanted to use.

Here is what I did- I sliced the cookies, then used a small circle and cut out the circle from the cut dough. Then I was able to bake them the amout of time the package called for.

(When I opened the oven I did not like what I saw. The circles weren't perfectly round. So I pulled out the cookies and used the cookie cutter again to cut off the excess dough and then I got the perfect circle!. Matt loves the cookie rings he got to eat.)

What can you possibly make with little circles? POKER CHIPS!!!!

I had seen poker chips on a website before and I thought they were so much fun. My father-in-law is also an avid poker player. He is in the middle of tax season and not able to go play like he wants so I thought the idea was perfect.

To make the Royal Icing you need Meringue powder. I follow the directions that come with the box, but I also end up having to add a lot more water. Just remember to add one Tablespoon at a time.

I out lined the cookies. Remember the outline needs to be thicker then the icing used to flood the cookie. I'm still working on making it all look clean.

I filled a bag with all of the leftover white thick icing. The small #2 tip was perfect for all of the detail. The bottles I use for flooding and outlining had too big of a tip so I had to switch.

And there it is! You feel like playing some poker now don't you?