I love the summer — there are picnics and backyard events, and there’s always an excuse to pack up some goodies to share with friends. Every Thursday, we venture out to a local concert. At this point, food is a contact sport — people bring little tables, great flatware, fine wines and cheeses. I like to think I bring the best treats. Here’s what’s on the menu for tomorrow night: fresh mozzarella and basil crescent rolls. Easy, easy: preheat the oven, unwrap the rolls, lay a slice of cheese, a few basil leaves, roll’em, bake ‘em as directed. Done.

For the grab and go dance party that follows: apple cinnamon scones and lemon, blueberry scones. Preheat the oven. Chop an apple. I used the oldest, most bruised apple that everyone was passing over in the fruit bowl. Pop open a package of Cinnamon Chip Scones, slice lengthwise in half. Put some apples in, Put the top on. Pinch the edges. Roll in oatmeal or raw sugar. BAKE. Cool. Dance.

The lemon blueberry scones are based on the same idea, but I took a really old jar of lemon curd from the back of the fridge.  Preheat. Pop open some blueberry scones, slice lengthwise, spoon a bit of curd to the bottom half, put the top half on and pinch the oven, and BAKE. Cool. Really cool, ’cause the curd get’s HOT. Dance more. Last week is was buttermilk biscuits with homemade raspberry jam.

I’d love to hear some more suggestions — are there family favorites at your picnics?

everything you need!

Sliced apple on bottom half of scone.

Roll the pinched scone in sugar or oatmeal for crunch!

Yum

Buttermilk biscuits +raspberry jam

Ah, the summer vacation; things slow down. There’s no rushing to band rehearsal or baseball practice. No more spelling tests, math I can’t understand, or packing lunch in the wee hours. It seems so dreamy until I remember that lunch is still my responsibility and there are visiting children and picky eaters, and all I keep hearing is the screen door slam shut, “Mom, we’re hungry!!!!!”

True story: I have 5 children in the backyard, 4 slices of salami, a half thingy of mozzarella cheese, a few slices of pepperoni, and a boiled egg. But since I also have Immaculate Baking Crescent rolls, I am looking at an incredibly groovy lunch:

leftovers

Turning leftovers into a magical lunch . . .

Crescent Rolls UNROLLED

After I preheated the over, I opened the rolls, lay them out on the baking pan, put some goodies in each, rolled back up, and popped them in the oven. A few tips: it’s best to use dry-ish ingredients. The mozzarella was a bit “wet” and got a bit leaky (but still tasted great and didn’t sog up the roll). When you are rolling the crescent rolls back up, be sure to begin rolling from the wide end and finish at the point. I’ll let the pictures do the talking, but suffice it to say, I cleaned out the fridge, fed 5 boys fast, and I’m working on dessert.

Bits of stuff into crescent rolls -- don't overfill!!!!

all rolled up

bake until golden

LUNCH!

You know the drill – if you’ve been around small people who attend school, it happens to the best of us. Somewhere between the after school snack – which is before the pre-dinner snack – and baseball practice, one child tells me about his homework. There are the usual suspects: math, spelling, writing a paragraph, and “I need to bake a big cookie.”

I am stunned. Baking? Now? For tomorrow? What KIND of cookie, dearest offspring? “Gluten-free.” Of course. . . .”And in the shape of Georgia.” The shape of Georgia? Yup.

So mommy dearest swings into action lecturing first about not waiting to announce these things until the last minute and what if mommy did not work for the best cookie company in the world? So there we are, me-n-Max, preheating, taking a trial package of GLUTEN FREE Brownie cookie dough and rolling it out. Then, of course, before it is done, tracing Georgia on paper and putting it on the large cookie, cutting and baking until complete. A huge success, an odd assignment – nervous breakdown avoided. Plus it was cool to see and tasted great. Sweet Georgia Brownie.

Half-Baked: Tracing Georgia

Pretty in Pink

Well, the glimpses of spring has sent me in search of some spring-themed bake-ware — and I’ve fallen in love with my brand new silicon (EASY clean) flower-shaped baking tray. Plus, it’s pink, so it was hard to resist.

I am trying out our new cookie tub (which is so new, it has no label), full of Chocolate Chunk Dough.

Pre-heat the oven as usual, grab an ice cream scoop (which is sometimes just a spoon in my house), and scoop away.

SCOOP!

Bake it as directed, and viola! These treats a chocolatey and chewy, and my kids thought I had reinvented the wheel!

We love compliments, so thank you!

http://www.businessgivingstrategies.com/2010/04/03/cookies-with-a-cause/

quarter the dough

I just had a slew of boys sleeping over, and I’ve noticed that in addition to taste, quantity is a huge issue when it comes to good kid food. So when the bleary-eyed crew woke up, I preheated the oven and made scones, scones, and more scones. To emphasize the abundance and pass along variety, I cut the dough in quarters before baking. The result was some two-bite blueberry and cinnamon chip scones, warm from the oven and charging the kids up for an AM round of basketball. It is March Madness, after all.

two bite blueberry scones

Baby shower, gluten free snacks!

Really, we’re great listeners. So many of you have written, called, stopped by demonstrations and emailed us about developing gluten-free products. For those of us who are gluten-free – out of choice or necessity, we know how hard it is to find a great cookie.

So here at Immaculate we started experimenting a long time ago. And we’ve tasted our share of saw-dusty, chalky, oversweet, crumbly gluten free snacks. Ugh. But we learned and sourced and consulted and finally, we are about to launch an AMAZING cookie. And it just happens to be gluten-free and dairy-free. I’ve been serving them up to friends and family for the past month, and sometimes I only tell those sensitive to gluten what they are eating.

So while I don’t have packaging to show you yet, I was proud to bring along this package to a teacher’s a baby shower. They went fast . . . watch for them.

wheeeee . . . gluten free!

Can the insistent 7-year old open the peel-and-pop canister of cinnamon rolls before the guests come for brunch?? Impatient mom preheats the oven, washes a baking sheet, and films her help in the kitchen . . . Open Immaculate Baking canisters by peeling 2 labels and then pressing hard!

In the back office here, there is a top-secret fridge. Sometimes, there are special samples, new products, ingredients, and the like. And when there is something brand new, the first case or two get delivered and tucked  into that  fridge. . . . So here is a sneak peek of our soon-to-be released Crescent Rolls and Cinnamon Rolls (with icing!)

So while the packaging is incredibly charming, it didn’t seem right not to have a little initiation tasting, so I took a canister of each home. And so far, I baked the Cinnamon Rolls.

WOW. 350 preheat. I use a silicone pad on my baking pan. Peel, peel, and pop the can. Bake for about 20 minutes, ice, cool, YUM.

cinnamon

crescent!

Fully baked and frosted