Celebration Sweets!

Happy September!

And Happy Labor Day! Hope everyone has had a great weekend so far.

For the last few months, I've been going through revisions a plenty on a project, and organizing for a rewrite, but something I'm constantly reminded of by some dear friends, is to always celebrate the small victories. Well, finishing up some revisions was a HUGE victory for me. Not to mention sending kidlets back to school in one piece (and getting back into a semi-functional routine), and getting a few big day job projects wrapped up. 

Well, there's no reason to minimalize any of those victories. So to celebrate those (and let's not mention it was also my kid sister's 21st birthday), bring on the sweets!

Thanks to Pinterest and inspirations a la Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade view on cooking, especially when you're short on time, this was what things looked like:

The dessert menu included strawberry cheesecake dip, white chocolate Oreo pops, bROLOwnies, and 3 flavors of cupcakes: vanilla, chocolate, and rice crispy. 

Here's my how-tos on a couple of these sweets, shortcuts and all ... *looks around* don't judge my cheating ... lol!

Strawberry Cheesecake Dip

1 box graham crackers

1 package Jell-O No Bake Cheesecake

1 1/2 cups cold milk 

1 can strawberry pie filling

directions: 1) Prepare Jell-O No Bake Cheesecake per directions on box. 2) Pour into center of serving dish. 3) Pour strawberry pie filling on top. 4) Surround with graham crackers. 

In the words of my 4yo chickie ... "Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy!"

White Chocolate Oreo Pops

1 package of Oreos (Double-Stuf seems to work better)

lollipop sticks

2 packages Baker's brand white chocolate

Sprinkles or small candies to decorate with

directions: 1) Push 1 lollipop stick into the creme filling of each Oreo. Depending on number of broken cookies, 1 package of Oreos should yield ~30. 2) Melt 1 package of Baker's brand white chocolate per microwave directions. 3) Dip Oreo lollipop into melted chocolate, use spoon to swirl chocolate over cookie. 4) Place on wax paper. 5) Decorate each Oreo pop with sprinkles or candies. 6) Refrigerate pops for ~1 hour for chocolate to harden.

I found a short vase we already had, stuffed it with some tissue paper, and stuck the pops into the vase, and voila! Yum!

For the rest of the cheats recipes ;) ... check out my blog later this week!

Windy Aphayrath writes contemporary YA when she's not chasing after her 3 kids, flying all over the country for her day job, or trying to balance out her city girl ways with her outdoorsman husband. She's represented by Logan Garrison of The Gernert Company. You can find Windy at her blog (windyaphayrath.blogspot.com), on Twitter (@windyaphayrath), at facebook.com/windyaphayrath, and pinning away on pinterest.com/windyaphayrath.