Falling in love with a loaf.

I saw this post today about panda bread via Ohdeedoh and the 5 year old girl in me started plugging in her easy bake oven. I have to make this! I’m not a fan of green tea (lets just say my stomach isn’t) so I will probably use food coloring instead. Panda bears were my absolute favorite animal growing up so I think that has something to do with it too.

I might have to be a complete show off for the first day of school and make some panda bread sandwiches… oh I can see them calling me for every homemade treat this year ;).

If you want to make some the original recipe is here and needs to be converted to Fahrenheit and cups. Not that big of a deal for something so stinking adorable. I’m going to use my favorite go to bread recipe and food coloring. Ah, good ol’ red dye #40.

I’m off to soccer games and getting ready for an ice cream party, dance classes, and more soccer tomorrow. It never ends. Have a great bread baking Monday!

Getting Merry

I'm not into Christmas decorations like most people, I'm a bit Grinchy about it. It's not that I don't like Christmas, I just don't like moving my regular stuff around just to put it back in a few weeks. I'm lazy and a bit OCD and when my decorations find a home they stay there all year every year. In fact if I could get away with just stringing a tree with chocolate candy on Christmas Eve and call it good I would. I would eat all the decorations Christmas eve and then put the tree away- sounds good to me!

When you have kids though they sort of expect their mom to actually decorate. I know it's already the 5th and I don't have a single decoration found yet so I thought to help me get in the mood we'd start a little seasonal fun today and decorate tomorrow. My Aunt emailed me the funnest link for all things Christmas last year and my kids absolutely loved it! It's called Northpole.com and it's ad free and kid friendly- love that. They can send an email to Santa and get a reply, make personalized Christmas books, print out fun educational worksheets, find fun recipes, even track Santa on Christmas Eve. If you've been there before then you know how fun it is for the kids. I've printed off enough fun things today that I'm sure to be humming "Deck the halls" in no time.

As soon as I wash a few big bowls (I've been making divinity, bread, and chocolate chip cookies) we're going to make Sparkly Peppermint Playdough and Gingerbread Playdough. I haven't tried the recipes out yet so I'll let you know how they turn out.

I'm not going to win awards for being the mom with the cutest Christmas house for December but my kids will have a blast while I procrastinate decorating. I think that sort of redeems me ;o).

Have a great weekend!!

Yum!

It's been rainy and sprinkly almost all week and there's nothing better on a rainy and sprinkly (yes I know sprinkly isn't a word but it's fun to say) day than a good filling soup that's not too heavy. I found a new favorite I thought I would share because it's too good not to. I've had the recipe for at least 2 years and never tried it until last month and I feel bad that I let 2 years slide without ever making it, where have you been all my soup making life? Meet Cheddar Ham Chowder-

It's basically a really good corn chowder with ham and cheese in it. Ham, a cousin of bacon- need I say more? It cooks up really quick, it takes me about 30-45 min. from start to finish. My family loves it but I did make a few changes. I add an extra cup of carrots (frozen sliced), used super sweet white corn, added an extra 1/2 cup water (to cover the extra carrots), decreased the celery because celery is a waste vegetable but I still like a little celery flavor, and I increased the ham because one just has to.

I love this soup with homemade rolls and a side salad. Last night I made corn bread to go with it like the recipe recommends and it's not my favorite side with it, rolls are better. I do have a kick butt corn bread recipe that needs to be shared. It's a sweet corn bread that's really moist (the first day anyway) and we love it with chili. I've used yellow or white corn meal and it's great either way although white makes it a little more moist for some reason.

Here's the link for it- Sweet Corn Bread

This is why I gain 11 pounds in less than a month!

Baking the Blues away...

There's no school today, I don't feel like going anywhere with ice all around, and the sky is a dull grey... ughhh. The weather is actually better today than it has been all week but because the wind drifted the snow over some of the roads up in the hills the buses can't run. We didn't find that out until Jeremy tried to open the school doors and they were locked, we really need to listen to the radio or something. Since we don't have school on Fridays here it's going to be a long weekend.

To beat the blues I figure nothing says "happy" like spiking a somewhat healthy recipe with chocolate and giving the kids a sugar coma. Sure makes me happy!

Here's the recipe in case you need a little sanity with school closures or just want a really easy muffin recipe.

~Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins~

1/2 c. softened butter (one stick)

1 c. sugar

3 mashed ripe bananas

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

chocolate chips (I use a half bag for one batch or a whole bag for double)

Mix ingredients in the order given. Fill greased muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake at 350* for 15-20 min. Check with a toothpick until pick comes clean. Makes about 18 regular muffins.

You've got questions...

I've got some answers! Blogger doesn't let me email answers to comments so I thought I would share them here for the good of all.

1. Cinnamon rolls- How very very rude of me to show my yummy cinnamon rolls and not share the recipe. It's my favorite roll recipe from Cody's aunt Dianne. These are super easy, back in the days when I couldn't get anything to rise to save my life I would make this dough and it would work every time. Makes great rolls too. Love it!
To be fair- I make the dough according to directions but I dump as much butter, cinnamon, and sugar as I want. I usually use a cream cheese frosting recipe for the top but last time I was out of cream cheese and did a simple glaze. Still good either way.

Never Fail Rolls
2 Tbl. Dry yeast
½ cup sugar
¼ cup warm water
2 tsp. salt
2 cups warm water
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup butter, melted
6 cups flour

Mix yeast with ¼ cup warm water. In separate bowl (kitchen aid) combine 2 cups warm water, sugar, salt, and eggs and mix. Add yeast. Add flour to other ingredients and beat vigorously to a soft dough. Let rise ½ hour. Place in fridge for 2 or more hours. Dough can stay in fridge up to 2-3 days. Roll out with quite a bit of flour. Cut into desired shape and dip in butter. Arrange on cookie sheet. Let rise 1-2 hours. Bake at 425 for 12-15 min.

*For Cinnamon Rolls*
Add a ½ tsp. lemon in the dough (optional).

1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup raisins (optional in my opinion-yuck!)
2 tsp. cinnamon

Roll into a rectangle and spread melted butter over dough. Sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon, and raisins. Roll like a jelly roll and cut with a string 1” wide. Place on
buttered cookie sheet ½ inch apart. Let rise 1 hr. then bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Aunt Val's Cream Cheese Frosting
1 pkg. cream cheese (8 oz.)
1 cube butter softened
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese and butter together until fluffy and smooth. Add vanilla and powdered sugar and beat the tar out of it until creamy. Add to cooled rolls (or it will melt).

2. Digital scrapbooking- the program I use is just Adobe Photoshop Elements. I'm stuck in the days of yore with my dial-up Internet and disposable digital camera and my photoshop is the same way. I use 2.0. I'm still learning and I'm hoping to get a higher version this spring, but since I'm very cheap and I still can't spring for high speed- 2.0 suites me just fine. I think it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Jessica Sprague has some great tutorials for little tricks you can do with photoshop on her blog. Most of her things are tailored for a higher version but I can do most of them with my version as well.

3. Hairbows- I recommend Suave Professionals curl enhancing spray gel extra hold in the teal green bottle. I fix my girls' hair wet, spritz a few squirts of the spray gel, style, then hairspray. If their hair holds up well the bow will stay too. The spray gel works wonders for fly-aways and Kaci's curls and keeps their hair tidier for longer. I also prefer alligator clips with textured ribbon strip glued inside to french clips or plastic clippies. They just stay better in my girls' fine hair. There is a way to make hair bows with a strong magnet on the alligator clip but I haven't tried it yet. Not much help here but any suggestions are welcome!

I think that's it, if there's something you want to know and I haven't covered it let me know and I can do another long winded addition. I'm just not a ton of help in these areas, I'm sort of a Jill of all trades. How does that saying go? Something like I can do a million different things but I've mastered none of them- yeah, that's pretty much me in a nutshell. Have a great rest of the weekend!

A little recap and marshmallow madness

I feel like I should throw on a Faith Hill wig circa early 90's and sing "Just Breathe" at the top of my lungs and then flop in a nice big comfy chair and veg my life away. I'm home now and I can finally take a big deep breath and just relax for the rest of the year. Wish full thinking I know.

I've successfully reunited with all my family on every side and it's been a fun summer. It's nice to be home and settled though.

The kids and I had a great time at Bully Creek and it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. The only dirty yuck that was there were the mosquitoes and the flip-flop paste, oh and the bull frogs that came out at dusk. Jeremy loved the entire weekend and came home with at least 9 skeeter bites on each leg after being sprayed and several war wounds. One thing I've learned since having a boy and a husband is that it's not fun until you or someone else loses some flesh. So not a girl thing at all!

Ashlyn had a blast playing with Brittany so I didn't see very much of her all weekend. Mary was all about the dogs and followed every dog she saw which led to her disappearance after dark one night. I called Cody and joked that I lost her but still had the other 3 and 75% is still a "passing" grade. Wasn't funny when we were yelling her name and looking for her with flashlights for 20 min. though. Kaci was just a little bundle of go and more go. She ran and ran until she got distracted by the "dog dog" and then she chased them for a while. It was really exhausting doing it by myself. I'm convinced that's why it takes two to make a baby, because it takes two to chase them down all day at a family reunion later on as well. It was so good to see my family again and see how well everyone is doing. I only wish more people would have shown up, I missed seeing the rest of them too!

Last night I got a hankering (is that still a word??) for homemade marshmallows so that's what I made. I finished after 11 last night but they are so good they were well worth it. I made strawberry and peppermint. I'll have to make my drink of choice- a "blue lady" for the peppermint ones, yum! Ashlyn was such a great helper. We have marshmallow dust and jars of marshmallows everywhere! I got the recipe here, brownie points, very good.

Jeremy lost his first big front tooth today and is super excited. He had worked on getting it out all weekend until his gums were literally purple so he could get the $5 that Aunt Val promised him if he could pull it out on Saturday. It looked extremely loose then and was sticking out like mater. He didn't have any luck after trying all day so Val gave him the $ anyway for all his effort. It was so loose today all he had to do was push it to one side and it fell out. I don't know what it is about loose teeth but they gross me out so I just let him take care of all the wiggling and pulling. I'm in no hurry and I'm definitely not going to touch it. Well that's the recap and believe it or not that's the condensed readers digest version.

Na-cho average Nacho

I'm de-junkifying my hallway and stairs today, doing dishes, laundry, you know the usual. I am going to take the kids to the library for a mad science demonstration at 1 and I'm sure Jeremy is going to have a blast and Mary will freak out but it should fun. Mary has been freaking out at everything lately. Her big thing right now is "NO finning!". She hates when anyone spins in a circle, she says it makes her dizzy and freaks her out. She just stands there and screams. Kaci has caught on that this causes a hilarious show for her so she's learned to twirl in circles and does it right in front of Mary. I think it's pretty ingenious for a 14 month old but it's getting way to loud in here. I'm going to work on un-freaking Mary today as well.

Last night I tried a new recipe I thought I would share. It's Nachos made with waffle fries and bacon, the candy bar of meats, yummm! I gave it a 3.5 out of 5 mostly because the cheese wasn't as melty as I like but Cody really loved it. We didn't add the salsa mostly because I don't like it as well so I saved it for the side but here it is in all it's cheesy bacony glory-


Waffle Fry Nachos
1 package (22 oz.) frozen waffle fries
10 strips bacon
3 green onions, sliced
1 can (6 oz.) sliced olives, drained
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2/3 c. salsa
1 1/2 c. shredded Cheddar cheese
1 1/2 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese
sour cream
Bake fries according to package directions. While fries are baking cook bacon and crumble. Transfer cooked fries to a 10-in. ovenproof skillet. Top with the bacon, onions, olives, tomatoes, salsa (optional) and cheeses. Return to oven until cheese is melted. Serve with sour cream. Yields 6-8 appetizer servings or about 3 main dish servings.
Enjoy!

Some cuteness

I just love these little twerps! They keep me in stitches almost daily, between the fits anyway. Yesterday was dress-up day for Ashlyn. She came downstairs donning her princess gear and looking so cute asking me to put on her tiara. That sums her up pretty well actually. We had to go get some groceries yesterday so I got Kaci ready to go and found some sun glasses that actually matched her outfit. She looked so cute and left them on until the kids kept taking them off for her. She kept fake laughing while I was taking her picture like she was modeling, I think we're going to have our hands full with this one.

Mary and Jeremy were camera shy yesterday but I thought I would include some pictures of them that crack me up. Mary came to me a couple of weeks ago wearing a tie skirt she made all by herself. She was so proud of herself and I thought it was pretty clever for a 2 yr old. I was really impressed that it went all the way around like a little grass skirt. Jeremy loves to dress up but he's embarrassed when I want to take his picture so usually all I get is a little flash of him. His favorite thing to wear is his mask, his bathrobe, a belt, his snow boots, and a sword or weapon of some kind. Usually he's still in his jammies when he plays this so it's so funny with his little chicken legs sticking out of his p.j. shorts and then you see his big clunky boots. I love these kids!

Sunday we made big soft pretzels and can I just say delicious!!! I thought I would add another installment of Tasty Tuesday and type up the recipe for those of you who haven't asked me for it yet (you will). The picture doesn't do them justice but they are just like the ones you buy at Costco or the fair. We eat them with salt on top and cheese dip but Mom told me they are pretty good with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top and I'm guessing you could make a cream cheese frosting for dipping.

Jumbo Soft Pretzels 450* makes 12

4 1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 Tbsp. yeast

1 1/2 c. warm water

melted butter

course kosher salt

Solution:

1 Tbsp. baking soda

2 c. water

Mix until soda is dissolved

Mix water and brown sugar (I use my kitchen aide) until brown sugar is dissolved. Add yeast and mix. Let sit for 3-4 minutes. Add flour and knead for 10 min. After kneading raise for 30 min. Pinch off golf ball size pieces of dough and roll into long ropes and form a pretzel. Dip into solution and put on a well greased cookie sheet. Bake for 7-10 min. (Check at 7 minutes because they are usually done by then). Take out of oven & dip in melted butter then sprinkle with salt or cinnamon and sugar. Viola` and enjoy!

Have a tasty Tuesday

A person I visit teach had surgery this morning so I thought I would take her some dinner and dessert and see how she's doing. I've spent all morning as Betty Crocker and Mrs. Cleaver baking koloches, chicken enchiladas, and salad complete with croutons among other things. I would've done more but it's getting hot outside and it's turning into an inferno in here. That's plenty of food anyway (I'm really craving some chocolate though). I thought I would share the recipe for the koloches. They are really yummy and pretty easy but they are time consuming. A good recipe for when you're spending all day folding laundry and doing dishes and feel like cooking a tasty treat for later.

Kolaches-

1 package active dry yeast

1/4 c. warm water

1 1/4 c. warm milk

3/4 c. sugar

6 Tbsp. softened butter

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

5 to 5 1/2 c. all purpose flour

1 - 21 oz. can pie filling (we like cherry)

Topping:

1 - 8 oz. package cream cheese softened

2/3 c. sugar

1 egg yolk

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the milk, sugar, butter, salt, eggs, and 2 cups flour; beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a very soft dough. Do not knead. Cover and rise until double, about an hour.

Turn out on a well floured surface and roll into 1 1/2" balls. Place 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets and cover and rise until doubled, about 40 min.

In a mixing bowl beat cream cheese, sugar, and egg yolk until smooth. Using the end of a wooden spoon handle make an indentation in the center of each dough ball. Fill the centers with 1 tsp pie filling, add 1/2 tsp cream cheese topping. Bake at 400* for 10-15 min. Refrigerate leftovers.

This recipe makes over 5 bakers dozens so if you would like to halve it go ahead. The measurements just get tricky so I just make the entire batch and use every cookie sheet I own and gain an extra 12 lbs. I think they look prettier before they are baked because I can't seem to keep the topping from slipping off in the oven though. Enjoy!