Thursday Treat : Baked Beans for Summer BBQs

Here's one of my favorite things to bring to neighborhood and family get-togethers. It's a dish that's easy to make and you'll never have to worry about left overs!

This recipe makes enough for a 9x13 pan. You may want to make a batch to take and one to keep at home :)

Ingredients:
3 Cans pork and beans - discard the "pork" chunk
1 C Ketchup
2 T Mustard
1/2 C Brown Sugar
1/2 Yellow Onion - chopped
1 Green Bell Pepper - chopped
1 Can Pineapple chunks- drained
4 - 5 strips bacon - cooked and crumbled

Mix everything together and bake at 350 for a minimum of 2 hours, stirring occasionally. I like mine super thick, so I usually let them bake for 3 1/2 to 4 hours if I have the time. Mmmmm tastes like summer already!

Whatever Wednesday: What the FARK?

If you love hearing about crazy news stories from across the country or even the world, you'll love FARK.

Drew Curtis collects the wackiest stories from a variety of news sources and compiles them into one handy little site for your enjoyment. There are also nifty little categories and a brief synopsis, do you know what your getting into before you click the link.

Great for a laugh and sometimes a confidence boost, check out FARK.

Tuesday Tip: Build a Better Birthday Party

Here's a few fun and relatively easy ideas to help make your child's upcoming birthday bash more fun!

Cupcake Bar

Great for all ages, but especially for younger kids, this activity is fun and tasty too! All you have to do is bake the cupcakes and let the guests do all the work. Set out cans of frosting, a variety of sprinkles, and other fun toppings like mini-marshmallows, chocolate chips, gummy candies and more!

Photo Booth

Use a sheet or create a fun themed back ground, round up a variety of silly props(boas, sunglasses, hats, etc) and have the kids strike a pose. You can either print the photos and send home with the kids or mail them out later as a way for your child to say thanks for coming.

Fun Favors

Let kids create their own party favors: tie dyed shirts, seedlings in hand painted flower pots, or if the part is a sleep over, pillow cased personalized with fabric markers.

Monday Make:Golf Cake for Dad's Day

Father's day is just a few weeks away, so here's a fun project that'll show your golfing dad you were thinking of him.

What to do:

Ingredients:
•2 (9-inch) round cakes
•1 can (16 ounces) vanilla frosting
•Green food coloring
•Yellow food coloring
•1 ½ cups shredded sweetened coconut
•1 cup ground vanilla wafers
•1 (4-inch) piece of Fruit by the Foot fruit leather
•1 wheat stick (Pringles) or thin pretzel stick•1 large chocolate chip
•3 white gumballs

What you'll need:
•A serving platter
•A bread knife
•1 large resealable plastic bag (Ziploc)

Trimming the cake:
1.Cut a 1 ½-inch-deep oval from the cake (see template). Arrange the cakes on a serving platter.

Frosting the cake:1. Tint the vanilla frosting grass green with the green and yellow food coloring. Spread the green frosting on the top and sides of the cake to cover completely.

To complete the decoration:
1.Place the coconut in a large resealable bag. Add 2 teaspoons warm water and several drops of green and yellow food coloring. Massage the bag until the coconut is tinted bright green. Add more food coloring if desired for a darker color.
2.Sprinkle and press the coconut over the cake as shown in the photo for the fairway. Leave a few areas open for the sand traps and putting green.

3.Pour the ground vanilla wafers onto the open areas for the sand traps.

4.Fold the fruit leather in half over the end of the wheat stick and press together for the flag. Press the wheat stick flag into the putting green area.

5.Press the chocolate chip, pointed end down, in the putting green area for the hole. place a few white gumballs on the cake for the golf balls.

I wish I could take all the credit for this great idea, but i confess, I found it at parenting.com. Check out the site for more fun cakes for birthdays or other celebrations.

Treat Thursday: Old Glory Cookies

This fun recipe comes from the fine folks at Good Housekeeping and they look great as decorations as well as being a tasty treat. You need two star shaped cookie cutters, one large and one small.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C flour

1/8 t baking soda

1/8 t salt

1 stick butter, softened

1/3 C granulated sugar

1 lg egg yolk

1/2 t vanilla

1 1/4 oz hard red candies, crushed

1 1/4 oz hard blue candies, crushed

In one bowl mix together all dry ingredients except candies. In second bowl cream butter and sugar, then add egg and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients into wet a little at a time until the dough comes together. Press dough into disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate 30 mins.

Preheat oven to 350. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment. Roll out dough between two sheets of parchment paper until 1/4 inch thick. Use large cookie cutter to cut out and then use small cutter to take out the centers.

Fill cookie sheet with large stars and bake 7 mins. Remove cookies from oven and fill centers with crushed candies. Replace in oven and bake 5 - 8 more minutes until edges are brown. Remove to wire rack to cool.

Fill cookie sheet with small stars and cook 10 - 12 mins or until golden brown. Remove and cool on racks.

Whatever Wednesday: What a Wreck

Here is one of my most favorite sites to check out whenever I need a pick me up.

It's Cake Wrecks and it's totally hilarious! You laugh yourself out of your chair or gasp in horror as you see all the wreck-tastic cakes that stores have made and thought - yeah that looks good - before they priced and try to sell these things. Unbelievable!!!!!

Check it out, you won't be sorry :)

Tuesday Tip: Essential Social Media

In case you're not up on the latest when it comes to social media, here's an article that can help you understand a little of what they can do for you as you promote your business or yourself.

Granted they don't all work for everyone, but experiment and try them out. You should be able to get a feel for those that are the best and then you can focus on a few, instead of spending all your time trying to do them all.

Some of the highlights include: 5 unique ways to use twitter for business, 8 strategies to engage multicultural consumers, why retention should be a priority in social marketing, and HowTo: add Blogger Outreach to your PR plan.

Check it out and see if there's something that can help you get more traffic to your shop, blog or whatever you're trying to do online.