Jam Hands

Recipes to come. Have a wonderful Easter!

Right off the bat - No of course it isn't real frog eyes in this salad. It is Acini de Pepe, a very small pasta, similar in size to tapioca pearls. They are a little bit more firm than tapioca pearls.

A lot of the recipes I saw online made a fruit juice & flour sauce over the stove top. I went a slightly different route but I thought the results were delicious. Please note that you will need to plan ahead for this as it needs to chill overnight before serving. Enjoy!

Notes: If you would prefer to use Instant vanilla pudding, you can try using the method at Simply Delish, which is to add in a full cup of reserved pineapple / mandarin orange juices. If I were to use instant vanilla pudding, I would mix it up in a separate bowl with the fruit juices to make sure that it is mixed completely, then add it as directed.

Besides making ham and pineapple sandwiches, Ham Salad is my favorite way to use up leftover ham. For a delicious treat, serve this Ham Salad with butter crackers and slices of Swiss cheese. It is crazy delicious. Enjoy!

I spotted this intriguing recipe for a spicy Pineapple Raisin Sauce over at Food.com and had to try it out with a baked ham. A little bit sweet from the brown sugar and pineapple and a little bit tangy from the honey Dijon Mustard. Use fresh pineapple for the best flavor, but canned will do in a pinch. Enjoy!

Oh my goodness. Blue cheese lovers rejoice. This recipe I found at from Simple Comfort Food is incredibly delicious and comforting. Extra crispy fries are topped with bacon crumbles and a to die for cheese sauce that contains shallots, garlic and lots of blue cheese.
If you don't keep shallots on hand, fear not, and substitute regular onions instead. Enjoy!

This Easter I wanted to try out a few new sauces to go alongside the traditional baked ham we serve. I found this easy recipe over at ChinDeep. My only change was the halve the amount of cinnamon and cloves, as I found the spices overwhelmed the cherry flavor. Enjoy!

I went totally picture crazy with this cake, but as you can see, it was so adorable that I couldn't help myself. It tastes as good at it looks. A moist orange and coconut cake is frosted with even more orange and coconut. It is divine. Many thanks to Sweet Tea and Cornbread for this delicious recipe. This would be a perfect dessert for Easter. Enjoy!

Many thanks to Pocket Change Gourmet for this recipe. It was a nice change from traditional Deviled Eggs. If you love bacon you should give this one a try. For an Easter get together I would make one try of traditional Deviled Eggs and one tray of these Bacon Cheese Deviled Eggs for variety. Enjoy!

Note: I used the advice from this post by The Kitchen for boiling eggs. I didn't worry about centering the egg yolks, but I did follow the instructions noted for cooking the eggs slowly and following that up with an ice bath. This method worked pretty well. I only had 1 or 2 eggs that were really difficult to remove the shells from, and the rest were very easy as long as you are extra careful.

Many thanks to Stella B's Kitchen for this recipe. It is outstanding. Fresh crunchy vegetables with a creamy sauce on top, then garnished with even more veggies, bacon and cheese. My only change was that I added a sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese on top for a bit of extra flavor. Enjoy!

For all the folks that love to sneak spoonfuls of cookie dough when baking cookies, this Cookie Dough Fudge is for you.  A delicious cookie dough base is topped with a mixture of melted chocolate and peanut butter and chilled in the fridge until set.

The original recipe at Life's Simple Measures calls them bars, but to me their texture, the fact they are no-bake, and their ultra sweetness is very fudge-like, so I went with calling it a fudge.

Some notes: I reduced the amount of chips that I used by half as I love the flavor of the cookie dough more than the chocolate. I used white chocolate in the topping instead of milk chocolate, and I also reduced the amount of topping in half as I thought it was plenty for an 8" x 8" pan. If you would like to follow the original recipe, use 2 cups of mini chocolate chips in the dough and double the ingredients for the topping.

My final recipe for St. Patrick's Day is this cute Pistachio Chocolate Bundt Cake. It is very moist and while I originally made a chocolate ganache for a topping, I think a light dusting for powdered sugar is equally good. I am not a huge fan of chocolate so I prefer the powdered sugar on top but you can frost it with whatever suits your taste.

As with almost all bundt cakes, these taste best the day after they are made, so try to make it the day before you plan on serving it. While I was researching which recipe to try for this, I noticed a trend of people commenting that other cakes they had tried had not enough of a pistachio flavor to them. I used two packages of pistachio pudding mix to fix this. I also used a French Vanilla cake mix, but you can use white as well. Enjoy!

A delicious main dish that is perfect for St. Patrick's Day.

If you haven't tried the deliciousness that is the Shamrock Shake from McDonald's, get your butt in the kitchen and make one yourself. An alternative to this recipe would be to use mint chocolate chip ice cream and milk if you don't mind chocolate chips in your shake.

The other day I made my first ever Irish Soda Bread and was blown away at how easy it was and how crazy delicious it turned out. This is not a fussy bread at all. It reminded me a lot of this fancy Williams Sonoma Dresden Stollen with Cranberries. It is not quite as light but the flavors are very similar. My family loved it, especially the kiddos.

I decided to use dried cranberries instead of the traditional raisins, which I am not a fan of. Next time around I'd like to add some orange or lemon zest, and perhaps a bit of Princess Cake and Cookie Flavoring, which has flavors of vanilla, almond and lemon. Enjoy!

This punch tastes as good as it looks. Which is to say, it tastes awesome! It only takes three ingredients and makes a ton. My only goof when preparing this recipe was that I scooped the lime sherbet a bit too big so it was challenging to get it in the punch glasses. When you go to make your punch be sure not to make that mistake too.

Many thanks to Pocket Change Gourmet for this recipe! They have a wonderful blog with so many yummy recipes. I encourage you to go visit their blog and poke around. Enjoy!