My grandchildren enjoy watching the TV cooking competition called Nailed It.  If you haven't heard of it, it involves contestants who have no skills trying to make and decorate desserts that look like a professionally prepared example.  The results are often funny (or alarming)! Thinking of ways to stay connected with our family, we had the idea of doing our own cupcake decorating competition in our own family by decorating cupcakes and taking pictures and putting them up for you, our readers, to vote on!  
     Here were the rules of the competition:

• We didn't judge on the baking of the cupcakes.  Some of us used cupcakes and one of us used corn bread!  As long as it was the size of a cupcake, that is all that mattered. 
• Instead of having one item to copy, we just gave a theme instead.  For our contest, everyone had to decorate their cupcake to look like a puppy.
• Everyone could choose what they wanted to use to decorate with (candies, cookies, sprinkles, etc.) but if you used fondant, you had to make your own. (No one chose to use fondant! lol)
• We ended up with 2 groups of contestants, an adult group and a children's group.  Our children's group ranged in age from almost 2 years to almost 9 years of age.  If you had more kids participating, you could break the age groups up into like age ranges. But, this is just for fun, so we aren't too concerned.

     So, please, do us a favor and in the comments vote for your favorite cupcakes!  The kids group has a number on each picture and the adults have a letter.  We appreciate your participation! 

    This was a fun way for our family to stay connected even though most of us have to stay apart.  I also think it would be a lot of fun to do with a youth group which has to meet on line instead of together or with a group of friends who can't meet for lunch right now.  You could do it with whole cakes or cookies, too.  The best part of the challenge was after we decorated them, we ate them!  
     Thanks for your votes!  I hope you give this virtual activity a try! 

​Taco Bell is one of my husband’s favorite places to eat. Yes, we know it’s not real Mexican food, and it is not the healthiest option, but that doesn’t change that’s it’s tasty! 

One of our favorite things to get there is the Crunchwrap. So we thought we’d try to make it at home. It seemed simple enough and it was! The result turned out delicious, simple, and had the potential to be healthier (that’s not the route we went with but it could be).

The Crunchwrap is like a burrito but it’s layered and inside is a tostada shell, the wrap ends up having a disc shape.  It then gets grilled to hold it shut. This actually makes it easy to eat and less messy. Making it at home is so easy, we’ll probably add it to our menu more often. Our kids love it too. ​

I don’t know that I will put together a recipe in the same way I usually do but, I’ll tell you about each layer and different possibilities I’ve imagined for them. ​I also made a video that shows the process. Check it out below and on Youtube. (Did you know we have a YouTube channel?)

1. Large flour tortilla- you really want a large tortilla for the base because it needs to be able to fold up
    around the top of the Crunchwrap to secure everything in place. 

2. Main protein- we used cooked ground beef, but I imagine beans (refried or otherwise) would be
    delicious too! I can also see a breakfast version with egg or potato. You’ll want to spread it into a
    circular shape that will fit underneath the tostada shell. 

3. Nacho Cheese- I love the Fritos Jalepeño Cheddar dip. My tip is to spread this on the bottom of the
    tostada, rather than try to put it on the meat directly. This cheese is too spicy for our kids so we just
    used regular shredded cheese for them on this layer.  I can also see guacamole being delicious right
    here. 

4. Tostada Shell- this is where the crunch comes from for the Crunchwrap. 

5. Sour cream- again spread this onto the top of the tostada shelf. This is another layer that would be
    delicious as guacamole. This is also a great place to add hot sauce!

6. Vegetables and herbs- Lettuce, diced tomatoes, onion, cilantro, diced peppers. Take or leave
    whatever veggies you wish.

7. Shredded Cheese- a final layer of shredded cheese is added. 

8. A small circle of flour tortilla- this may not be needed if your base tortilla is large enough to
    completely close over the top. Mine weren’t, so this circle helped to keep things secure in my
​   Crunchwrap as I “grilled” it. 

​To fold the wrap take the bottom tortilla and fold it over the top. Pleat it around the edge until the whole tortilla is up around the edge. 

Carefully place it plated side down on a hot pan or griddle over medium to medium high heat. Let it cook about 3-5 minutes until it’s browned. Flip and repeat. 

Now your Crunchwrap is ready to enjoy.  

I’d love to know if you make it and what variations you try! Let us know in the comments below.

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    Last week, when I told you about making Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches, I promised to tell you what I did with the ice cream "scraps". This Brownie Baked Alaska is the happy outcome! 
    Traditionally, Baked Alaska is made with a white cake as the bottom layer.  The recipe is vintage, created by a restaurant to celebrate the purchase of the Alaskan Territory.  Since that time, there have been many variations to the recipe.  The amazing part about the Baked Alaska is that ice cream gets baked in order to brown the meringue on the outside of the dessert. It is a delight to cut through the layers of meringue, ice cream and in this case, brownie.  
     I liked using the brownie instead of cake because 1-who doesn't love brownie and ice cream together? 2-The brownie is more firm than cake to use as a base and comes out of the pan easily, and 3-a small batch of brownies makes the perfect size to fit without a ton of cake leftovers.  (Then, I would be writing a post about what to do with leftover cake!) 
     For this recipe I did something new!  I made Swiss Meringue, something I had never done before!  It was so easy and the results were amazing!  It was like a marshmallow cream without gelatin.  I don't know why I had never tried it before, but I think I will be going back to this recipe again and again.  

Swiss Meringue

Assemble:

• In advance of the day that you want to make your Baked Alaska, prepare your ice cream by softening it and putting it into a plastic wrap lined round bowl to form it into a dome shape.  Re-freeze it until quite firm.  The plastic wrap will allow you to remove the ice cream from the bowl.  I didn't do that step because at first I didn't know that I was making a Baked Alaska, so I had to heat the bottom of my bowl to remove the ice cream.  It worked, but lining the bowl with plastic wrap would have been easier. Also, normally people make their Baked Alaska with an entire carton of ice cream so that the dome is larger than mine.  But since we were using scraps, ours is more pie like.
• Bake your favorite brownie recipe in a round pan that will match the size of your ice cream dome.  My ice cream was in a smallish Pyrex bowl, so I used a brownie mix that I had on hand and baked it in an 8" round cake pan.  When I make a larger recipe than this one, I will use my favorite brownie recipe that you can find here. 
• When cool, put your brownie circle on top of the bowl of ice cream and invert the ice cream on top of it.  Replace into the freezer while you make the meringue.
• When the meringue is ready, peel the plastic off of the ice cream and cover the entire ice cream and cake with the meringue.  
• Now, brown the meringue.  You can do that in the oven at a 425 degree temperature for just a few minutes or do what I did and use your kitchen torch to brown it.  (I love using the torch! There is a little pyromania in all of us!) 
• Return the Baked Alaska to the freezer until you are ready to serve it.  Hopefully in a couple of hours so that it will have time to be very frozen.  

    You can use any flavor of ice cream that you wish.  Ours was Neapolitan, which gave the nice surprise of not knowing what flavors might be predominant in each slice.  But, mint chocolate chip is a favorite or anything that you may love. 
     This recipe was much easier than I imagined it was going to be and got lots of oos and ahhs from the kids. I hope that you will give it a try!