New name and new blog

A Little Lovely has gotten a face lift along with a new name and site. 

Please visit

LOVELY

Amazing Dinner Rolls

So I was in charge of bringing the rolls to our Thanksgiving dinner. Truth be told... I have only made rolls from scratch maybe three times - EVER! The times I have made them they haven't really turned out. Not sure if it was the recipe or me? So making rolls for a crowd at Thanksgiving was a bit intimidating. Luckily, I came across this amazing recipe. These rolls were light, fluffy and buttery! And they will probably be making a weekly appearance at our table! I doubled the recipe and it came out great with 36 beautiful rolls. The original recipe used a bread machine, which I didn't have- so I changed it up to make it work without.

Sweet Dinner Rolls 

(slightly adapted from allrecipes.com)

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 cup warm milk

1 egg

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 (0.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

1/4 cup butter, softened

Pour warm milk and water into a bowl, add sugar to dissolve, then add yeast. Allow to proof for about 20 minutes until creamy foam appears. Add 1/3 cup butter and salt, mix. Add egg, mix to combine. Add flour a cup at a time, after each cup mix with a hand held mixer (I'm sure a Kitchen Aid mixer would work just as well but we our resources are limited here). Knead for a good 10 minutes. Allow to rise for 45 minutes in a warm area, covered.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 12 inch circle, spread 1/4 cup softed butter over entire round. Cut each circle into 8 wedges. Roll wedges starting at wide end; roll gently but tightly. Place point side down on ungreased cookie sheet. Cover and put them in a warm place, let rise 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Bake in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden. Take rolls out and rub butter over hot rolls.

Enjoy!

Turkey Cookies!

Turkey Day is coming up! I actually came up with this idea last year as I was in charge of bringing the treat for Crew's Thanksgiving preschool party. It ended up that I procrastinated (typical of me) and was left to come up with something that I already had or could find at the only grocery store where we were living. I found a lot of cute ideas using candy corns, but wouldn't you know they were out of them at the store. So I was forced to come up with my own turkey treat, using what I had. Luckily I made something work!

What you need:

BODY: Fudge Stripped Cookies
HEAD: Mini Chips Ahoy (I actually couldn't find these either, so I used a small round cookie cutter and cut out a small circle out of each cookie)
FEATHERS: Pretzel sticks
BEAK: Pepperidge Farm Gold fish
WADDLE: Twizzler Pull and Peel, cut into small pieces
EYES: Mini Chocolat chips
Chocolate Frosting to glue it all together.

Happy Turkey Day!

Spooky Eats!

Last year, I was in charge of bringing the Halloween snack for Crew's preschool party. On the menu: Mummie Dogs, Oreo Spiders, and Jack-O-Veggies! Super easy to throw together and the kiddos loved it! 

Mummie Dogs: Used recipe from here.

Oreo Spiders:
Oreos (Body)
M&Ms (Eyes)
Twizzler Pull and Peel, cut into 2 inch pieces (for the legs)
Chocolate frosting (to glue on the eyes)

Jack-O-Veggies:
I found the cute little pumpkin holders at Target. And then filled them with Apple slices and carrot sticks!

Ice Cream Parlour Party

I have been going through withdrawls because I have not thrown a good party for months. I came across this lovely little number from Eat, Drink, Chic. I am in Heaven! She came up with some fabulous ideas and goes over the top with tons of free printables to embellish your party! I get giddy just thinking about throwing something like this! 

{Pictures courtesy of Eat, Drink, Chic}

Love, love, love the look.

Coconut Ice Sauce?!!!... I might have to attempt to create something as divine as this! What an amazing idea for a sundae bar. 

I love how creative she was in using a wooden office organizer for the toppings! Genius!

Those printables are to die for!

She even has printables for the cups too! 

 Well, at least I know what party I will be throwing next! 

Stuffed Pizza Crust

Tonight I had planned to make pizza. It was just going to be a basic pizza, marinara, cheese, olives, pepperoni, onion... nothing special. I tried a new pizza dough recipe and since I don't have my pizza stone here in Dominica, I was left to use my cookie sheet. The recipe said it made two medium sized pizzas. It wasn't enough to half it in the pan, but when I rolled the whole thing of dough into the pan it ended up being a little too much. Since it was already in the pan, I had an idea to use the excess dough into a stuffed crust. That transformed this basic pizza into something fun and out of the norm! The garlic butter Parmesan glaze topped it off perfectly! (Thanks to the hubs for thinking of adding that goodness to it!) It was delicious and filling. I think I am going to initiate Fridays as PIZZA night. It goes so perfectly with my Friday night movie dates with Crew! 

Homemade Stuffed Crust Tutorial

Make your pizza dough according to the recipe. I used this one from Annie's Eats and substituted 2 cups of whole wheat flour. It made the perfect amount to make the stuffed crust in a cookie sheet sized pan. 

Roll out your dough and place in pan. Stretch with hands to make sure the dough is evenly distributed.  There should be an excess of about an inch of dough hanging off of the edge. 

Place a good amount of cheese around the very edge of the pan. 

 Fold over excess dough and press it down.

Make sure it is pressed down completely all the way around.

At this point you can add your sauce and toppings.

Then melt about 3 tablespoons of butter. Mix with about 1-2 teaspoons of minced garlic. Brush it onto the crust and top with a good amount of Parmesan cheese.

Ready to be baked.

Enjoy!

My New Favorite Frosting!

I have always thought powdered sugar and frosting go hand in hand. That was until I tried this new recipe. It looked kind of wierd calling for only flour, milk, vanilla, butter and sugar - regular white sugar NOT powdered sugar. I thought it seemed interesting. And so I tried it.  

Let me tell you I have a new favorite frosting! This is hands down the best frosting I have ever had! Well I have a few favorites but this is definitely in my pool of favorite frostings! I love it! It is perfectly sweet with a silky smooth texture! It doesn't have that overly sweet taste that many frostings have that use powdered sugar. You know when trying to get your frosting to that perfect consistency and you add more and more powdered sugar only to find that by the time you add enough powdered sugar, it completely ruins the flavor because it is just too sweet? Well, problem solved! And it's whipped to perfection! This is the perfect recipe. Consistency, flavor and texture... A+! It would be a lovely accent on any cake! 

I love the site that I found it on. She goes through a complete step by step guide with pictures of how to make this magical frosting. Check it out here.

The Best Whipped Frosting

makes enough to frost a 9″ layer cake or one dozen cupcakes generously

1 cup milk

5 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup butter, at room temperature

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar (not powdered sugar)

In a medium saucepan, whisk one cup of milk with 5 tablespoons of flour. Heat over medium until the mixture begins to sputter, whisking constantly. Continue to stir as the mixture thickens. You will know it’s done when it reaches the consistency of thick cake batter, after about 7 minutes of heating and whisking. Stir in 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and set aside to cool COMPLETELY.

Now, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, or using a hand held mixer, beat 2 sticks of softened butter (1 cup) with 1 cup of granulated sugar until light, fluffy, and white in color, about 3 solid minutes of beating on medium-high speed. You want the sugar to be totally incorporated into the butter.

Be sure that the milk/flour mixture has completely cooled, and add it to the butter/sugar mixture. Beat all ingredients for about 1 minute on high speed, scraping down the bowl halfway, until they are smooth and well blended. The frosting should be as light and fluffy as whipped cream.