To help sweeties find unique gifts for their sweeties for Valentine’s Day, I am re-running this article on Sumo Cookies…

One of my very favorite things in the whole world is to find something new.  So, when I looked across the parking lot while waiting for my husband to pick me up from the Hobby Lobby lobby and saw a sign for Sumo Cookies I grabbed my phone and Googled it.

By the time he pulled the car around I had found out that they are the makers of ENORMOUS FORTUNE COOKIES and are based here in DFW.

I am a fortune cookie LOVER.

So, the logic next step was to go across the parking lot to see what an ENORMOUS fortune cookie looks like.

Once inside I met the owner Janice Paris.  She showed me some of the unique treats that she makes.

It is hard to understand the size in a picture, but they really are pretty big.  Most of the big fortune cookies are sold with unique messages inside.  Sumo Cookies also will customize what goes into the enormous cookies.  They have sold cookies with Hot Wheels cars, miscellaneous toys and wedding rings.

They also make smaller fortune cookies and little gifty treats.  It is all quite adorable.

Sumo Cookies have been in business online for about 6 years.  You may have seen their Sumo VW bug driving around town.  The Sumo Cookie store opened a month ago in the Robertson Creek Shopping Center off Long Prairie Road in Flower Mound.

The Food Network show Sugar Rush recently ran a story on Sumo Cookies –

It is all just a lot of fun.

The other really great thing is that you don’t have to be anywhere near Flower Mound, Texas to get Sumo Cookies.  They ship nationwide!

Editorial note: Shannon contributed this post BEFORE New Year’s Eve because it is something she often serves for a NYE party. Due to a little disorganization on the behalf of Burb Mom editors, we did not catch it until now. BUT when I saw how yummy it was I couldn’t save it until NEXT year…and think that it would be a fun recipe to try anytime!

Want a yummy cake? Keep reading…

What about a cake that features the secret kick of Grand Marnier?!?

Berry Chantilly Cake w/ Grand Marnier

1 White cake round, 9 inch, baked from mix (Use egg whites in the mix to keep cake white)
10-12 Whole fresh raspberries
1 cup Fresh strawberries, stemmed, halved
1 cup Fresh raspberries
1/2 cup Fresh blackberries or blueberries
3 oz. Grand Marnier
1/4 cup Orange juice
Marsopone cream Frosting (recipe below)

~Directions~

-Combine Grand Marnier & orange juice. Whisk until blended. Place berries in a shallow bowl or dish, cover with Grand Marnier mixture. Marinate for 30 minutes.

-Using a serrated knife, cut cake horizontally to create a top and bottom. Drain berries and portion into center of one cake layer and spread. Drizzle with remaining Grand Marnier mixture. Cover the bottom of second cake layer with thin layer of frosting. Combine halves like a sandwich. Coat entire cake with a thin layer frosting. Top cake with whole berries.

Martha Stewart’s Marsopone cream frosting

-1 cup of heavy cream
-8 ounces of mascarpone cheese, room temperature
-1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

~Directions~
With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form (be careful not to over-beat, or cream will be grainy). In another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and confectioners’ sugar until very smooth. Gently fold whipped cream into mascarponeuntil completely incorporated. Use immediately.

YUMMMMMM!!! Happy New Year!

My favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner is homemade pies. YUM! My all time favorite is my Great-Grandma Chunkie’s Chocolate Pie. Grandma Chunkie (real name Lilly Maybell) was a little spitfire. She had purplish pink (sometimes blue!) hair and always made you laugh. She also made THE best pies! Usually for our Thanksgiving dinners, we would have about 3 pumpkin pies along with banana, lemon and chocolate. She made me my own mini chocolate pie. A tradition, I have started with my kids, because we all know pumpkin pie is totally gross when you’re a kid!

For all you chocoholics, this pie is a must! Here’s the recipe that she wrote on a small piece of paper:

Grandma Chunkie’s Easy to Make Rich & Creamy Chocolate Pie

• One large Hershey Candy Bar (milk chocolate) 8 oz (now I get 2 large chocolate bars)

• 18 large marshmallows cut up

• 1/2 cup sweet milk (I just use regular milk)

• 18 oz. Cool Whip

• Melt Candy bar and marshmallows in milk over low fire until smooth. Cool.

• Add 1-9 oz Cool Whip into chocolate mixture

• Pour into baked pie shell and keep cool until ready to serve.

Don’t forget to spoon a large helping of Cool Whip on your slice of pie! (I like to add chocolate sprinkles too)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Baking with my kids is a fun tradition we have started.

I found these adorable Thanksgiving Cookies and thought I would share them with you. I modified the ingredients a little; my kids didn’t seem to mind that I forgot the malt balls. They gobbled them up!

What you need:

7 Candy Corn
2 Double Stuffed Oreo Cookies
1 Whopper
1 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup
1 Tube of black piping gel (for the pupils of the turkey’s eyes)
1 tube of white icing (to spread in the edge of Oreo so the Candy Corns will stay in place and for the whites of the turkey’s eyes)

Assemble the cookies to recreate the look in the photo.

What Thanksgiving activities do you like to do with your children?

Carnation evaporated milk sent me the opportunity to run a fun little challenge.*

They are encouraging people to test their favorite recipes using evaporated milk vs. regular milk.

Hey, I am up for some fun and love to turn anything into a competition!

I decided to try this little game a few nights ago when I was expecting some guinea pigs friends for dinner.  I looked through the new Carnation Holiday Recipe Guide and decided since I was slaving over a hot stove all day doing the entire dinner by take-out, the least I could do is make a dessert from scratch.

I chose the fudge recipe to try.

Mmmmmm….

Fudge.

A little note about evaporated milk from Carnation:

Evaporated milk is just fresh milk that is gently heated to remove about half of the water and in condensed form, it not only makes dishes richer and creamier but also provides double the protein and calcium per serving.  Since it is available in regular, low-fat and fat-free varieties, you can substitute it for the kind of milk you normally use in your cooking.

In dueling saucepans I made two recipes at the same time – one with Carnation Evaporated Lowfat 2% Milk and the other with regular 2% milk.

Here is the recipe I used:

Carnation Famous Fudge

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup Carnation Evaporated Milk

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups miniature marshmallows

1 1/2 cups Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Line 8 inch square baking pan with foil.

Combine sugar, evaporated milk, butter and salt in medium, heavy-duty saucepan.  Bring to a full rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Boil, stirring constantly, for 4 to 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Stir in marshmallows, morsels, nuts and vanilla extract.  Stir vigorously for 1 minute or until marshmallows are melted.  Pour into prepared baking pan.  Refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm.  Lift from pan, remove foil and cut into 48 pieces.

***

The first thing I noticed…yep, I am super observant…was that the color was much different between the two mixtures.

The other thing I noticed is that any color difference was completely obliterated by the addition of chocolate chips, yet both smelled, looked and…tasted amazing. 

Oh pleeeease, like you could stir this concoction without tasting it.

Once the two batches of fudge was completed, I placed it out on a platter with different colored toothpicks in each recipe.

My guests would be able to taste both and then “vote” for their favorite by the color of the toothpick.

What my guests didn’t know was that the wood colored toothpicks were in the Carnation evaporated milk batch and the red toothpicks were in the regular milk batch.

My guests humored me and jumped right in.  They tasted each batch of fudge and threw their favorite fudge’s toothpick into a bowl.

And so, what was the final score?

5 to 5.

Everyone voted enthusiastically for fudge – either batch.

YUM.

I will say that the Carnation evaporated milk made fudge batch was a little creamier, easier to cut and glossier in appearance, but both recipes turned out super yummy.

The recipe is really easy and doesn’t take much time.

*I was sent two free cans of evaporated milk and a gift card to cover grocery costs from a representative of Carnation — Thanks!