Jacque Made: a place to share my creative side.

Thursday night was our monthly Relief Society Activity I was in charge of. This is an activity we have for the women in our congregation meant to help them get to know each other better, learn something, and be uplifted.  We decided to have the activity be about pioneers (the early  members of our church and how their faith can strengthen ours... and pie ;)). Jaime helped me so much with the design of the invite and the other printables.. as well as helping me with the activity idea itself. I think this may be one of my all time favorite invites Jaime has ever designed! I love it! These oil paintings of pioneers were also found by Jaime and inspired the feel of the dessert table. Aren't they gorgeous? I got the flowers at Trader Joe's, of course. We had pies and bread/rolls with jelly and butter for the refreshments. I love how it all looked together and felt it really had a pioneer feel to it.    This was the table in the front o...

My sis introduced me to this recipe awhile ago. And ever since, I've been hooked. I make it when I want to impress guests or when I take a meal to a family - I'm lucky to have a cooking loving sister like Jaime. She always shares the best recipes with me. This recipe is delicious on top of brownies and vanilla ice cream. It would also taste great with crepes or pancakes or even on toast.  I need to buy myself a larger mesh strainer. It always takes me awhile to strain the seeds out. But, it's totally worth it! Look at the beautiful smooth, glistening sauce! Mmm! Here's the printable recipe : Ingredients : 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 water 2 cups fresh raspberries, rinsed and picked over Directions : Combine the sugar and water in a medium heavy pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes. Add the raspberries and cook, stirring occasionally, until the syrup thickens and reduc...

These cookies were a spur of the moment decision, and boy, was I happy when I tasted them. I always turn to my friend Elizabeth's blog when I want to bake (or cook). She has wonderful recipes for cookies and cakes, and all sorts of yummy things.  Here's the recipe from her blog: Ingredients : 1 cup butter 1 1/2 cups sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 3/4 cups flour 2 teaspoons cream of tartar 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt Rolling Mixture : 1/2 cup sugar 2 Tablespoons cinnamon Directions : Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Cream butter and sugar together until light-colored. Add eggs, one at a time, until fluffy and then add vanilla. Combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Mix dry ingredients into butter mixture. Chill dough, as well as an ungreased cookie sheet, for about 15 minutes in the fridge. Meanwhile, mix the rolling mixture ingredients in a small, shallow bowl. Scoop 1 inch globs of c...

Since it's coming upon Christmas, I'm going to share my mom's wonderful banana bread recipe. I usually make it as muffins, but she always did it as loaves of bread and gave it away to our neighbors. Either way, it is divine, and Christmas isn't the same without it. Enjoy! MOM'S BANANA BREAD Ingredients: 2 C. flour 1 C. sugar 3 eggs 3/4 C. oil 2 C. mashed bananas (can also use grated carrots or apples) 1 tsp. vanilla 2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 1 C. chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts are good) (I sometimes add a few chocolate chips to the tops of my muffins for extra ooey gooey goodness)  Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix. Pour into well-greased loaf pans (or muffin pans or mini muffin pans - I use a melon baller scoop if making mini muffins). Top with a few chocolate chips, if desired. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes (if using loaf pans) or about 15-20 minutes for muffins. If doing mini muf...