Keeping My Toddler Busy: Baking with Mama

I love baking. Lately I've been making cupcakes or muffins for Steve to bring to work with him on Fridays. The general consensus from everyone at his work is that I need to forget the muffins and make only cupcakes, so this time Cai and I made chocolate muffins with chocolate frosting (Which reminds me, what are your favorite combos for cupcakes and frosting? I need some ideas!).

This was really difficult to photograph, safely, so I don't have very many pictures. 

I also don't have one of those cool activity stands because they cost a butt load, so I just watched him very carefully as he sat on the counter.

I made sure to explain to him to keep his fingers out of the mixer, and I also unplugged the toaster because he wanted to turn around and stick his fingers in there.

(Can I just point out my new under-cabinet lighting? Steve and I went to Ikea for Valentine's Day and spent like $50 on it and Steve installed it himself. I love it!)

Basically, I just filled the measuring cups or spoons and helped him pour them in. This is a great opportunity to practice counting, and, with older children, give them the ground work for fractions.

And I completely forgot to take a picture of the results, but they were yummy.

I have many, many memories of baking with my mom, so this is something I was really excited about doing with Cai. In fact, he got to do some baking with Marmie on vacation.

(She's going to kill me for sharing a picture of her in her pjs. They were making biscuits for breakfast)

What are your favorite things to bake or cook with your kids?

German Pancakes

We had another snow day today. Of course that means I no longer have President's Day weekend off, but if that means not having to drive in this mess, I'm okay with that.

Steve had off today too, so I made a tasty breakfast for us to celebrate the snow day (and the fact that I gave myself my first injection, haha).

I've been craving German pancakes which aren't super good for you, but I made the healthiest version I could (white whole wheat flour, raw milk, organic eggs).

                                                                                                                               

We top them with whatever tastes good. I usually use sugar (I used raspadura this time). Steve prefers jam or peanut butter (we were out peanut butter). They are very much like crepes only thicker.

As I was making them, I couldn't help but think about how many thousands of times German pancakes have been made in that kitchen over the past twenty plus years.

How many times did my Oma make them for grandchildren (all nine of us) or great grandchildren (all fourteen of them)? I remember spending the night when I was little. I would sleep in the spare room with the scary monkey doll sitting on the headboard. When I was very little, I would sleep in bed with Oma and Opa. They had a TV in their room, and I remember falling asleep watching Roseanne after telling Oma that we weren't allowed to watch that show at home (I felt so guilty for watching it and so guilty for telling Oma it was a bad show, haha).

In the morning, I would get up with Opa and he would make me chocolate milk in a baby bottle with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck on it. I was too old for a bottle, but not so old that I'm too embarrassed to share that part, haha.

 Then I started thinking about all of the other meals that were made in that kitchen. All of the pancake soup, goulash, potato balls, chicken paprikash, farina (that was another common sleepover breakfast), German apple cake, halushki, pies (apple, raspberry, stawberry, and peach), Christmas cookies (Oma and Opa kept the heat off in their bedroom and master bath and Oma would store boxes upon boxes of Christmas cookies in the shower they didn't use because it was as cold as a refrigerator in there), green bean and ham soup, and chicken soup.

Thousands of meals have been lovingly prepared in this kitchen. Thousands of laughs shared with friends and family. It's going to be hard when we have to leave it behind. 

Date Night: Cookie Bake Off [The Results]

So here are the results of our first date night of the new year (read the plan here)...

We started by taking all of the possible ingredients out of the cabinets, fridge, and pantry. I did this mostly because I knew Steve wasn't aware of all of the baking materials we had.

It made me realize that this date would be a good idea to do periodically in order to clean out our pantry.

I put on my apron and told Steve he had to choose one to wear also. He did, although a little grudgingly.

And then we took a picture to document the night. Please ignore my multiple chins.

The actual process was highly entertaining, included a little bit of smack talk, and some flirting, and took a lot longer than I thought. 

Steve's Cookies

Steve made Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich cookies. I'm not sure exactly what ingredients he included, but I do know he started by toasting/candying some rolled oats and mixed them into the batter. The cookies themselves are peanut butter with a sweet pb&j filling. He actually used one of my piping bags to fill the cookies. His cookies were a little crumbly, and I felt so badly for him when half fell of the cookie sheet and broke when he took them out of the oven. But he worked hard to piece them back together. I think the idea was brilliant, and the filling tasted AMAZING!

                                                     

                           

My Cookies

I had this brilliant idea for my Chocolate Caramel Cinnamon Cookies which didn't work quite as well as I wanted it to. I actually did some research ahead of time (Steve did not) and decided to make a butter and cream cheese based cookie thinking it would be fluffier. It was not. I layered mine with chocolate ganache, then a layer of cookie, then a layer of caramel (made by heating up sweetened condensed milk) topped by the last cookie. I also put a little bit of cinnamon sugar butter in with the caramel. I then pinched all of the layers together and sprinkled some cinnamon and brown sugar and salt on top. They tasted really good, but they weren't  quite what I wanted them to be.

   

                                 

Contest Results
First we had Steve's sister Lauren judge them based on taste, texture, appearance, and creativity. We tied with Steve losing a point for texture (she thought the sugar didn't blend well enough) and me losing a point for flavor (she didn't like the salt on top).

Then our friend Dan came over, and he judged them using the same criteria. At first, we tied also, but then I restated the name of Steve's cookies (Dan didn't realize that "jelly" was also in the title), so Dan tasted Steve's cookie again and gave him an extra point for creativity, making Steve the winner!

Success?
I think it was definitely a successful date night. It was just the right balance between competitive and fun, allowed us to be creative side by side, didn't cost anything, and helped us use up some extra ingredients lying around the house. It also appealed to Steve's desire to stay at home on his day off. I definitely want to do something like this again.

What's Next?
Next it's Steve's turn to plan a date closer to the end of this month. I have no idea what his plans are, but I'm really hoping he gets creative too!

Date Night: Cookie Bake Off [The Plan]

One of my goals for the year is for Steve and I as a couple to be more purposeful about date nights. None of this, "I'm bored; you want to go out to eat?" stuff. I want actual planned dates.

So in order to make this happen, I used technology. I use this website called Cozi. It's a personal planner website specifically designed for families. The two components I use the most (both online and via the free app on my Droid) are the shopping list and the planner. The cool thing about the planner is that you can set it up to send text message reminders about an upcoming event to everyone in the family. So, I went through our calendar, from now until June, and scheduled one to two dates a month. I rotated back and forth between a date that I have to plan and a date that Steve has to plan. I also set it up so that we get a text reminder a week before the date giving us plenty of time to plan.

And, because I initiated all of this, I thought it was only fair that I plan the first date. I made it an home date to show Steve that I am not doing this with the intent of causing us to spend more money.

The Date: Cookie Bake Off
Location: Our kitchen
Time: After work
Materials: Ingredients we have in the kitchen.
Other Guidelines:

• No recipes allowed, although you may research recipes for ideas ahead of time.
• No shopping ahead of time.
• Someone else (Steve's sister and maybe one of mine) will judge the results based on creativity, taste, texture, and appearance.

I'm actually SUPER excited about this and would go as far as to say that Steve is a bit excited too. He really enjoys making up recipes, and he LOVES cookies, so this is right up his alley.

I'll do my best to take some pictures tonight and post the results over the weekend. I'll also try to keep updating on these date night ideas and how they turn out!

Easy *Fake* Apple Dumplings

When everyone went home after our big Pre-Thanksgiving feast this weekend, we had a ton of leftovers. But of course, when Lauren and I were craving leftover apple pie, we discovered that all we had left was pumpkin pie. The craving was a strong one, so I set about to make us something fast, yummy, and apple-y.

Thus, Easy Fake Apple Dumplings were born. I'm sure I'm not the first person to do this, but just in case I am, I thought I'd share what I did.

Easy *Fake* Apple Dumplings

Geez, I feel like I'm advertising Great Value brand.

Ingredients: 

Refrigerated crescent dough 

2+ apples sliced (I used granny smith)

Cinnamon

Sugar

Nutmeg (optional)

Butter

Brown Sugar

Directions:

1. Prepare apples. Peel and slice into small pieces, then toss with cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg to taste.

2. Open crescent roll package and unroll crescent triangles. Place about a spoonful of apples in the center of each triangle.

3. Roll tip of triangle up over the apples then pull sides up and over and pinch to close. This doesn't have to be pretty.

Dumplings should look something like this.

 4. Place dumplings on a cookie sheet (I lined mine with parchment paper for easy clean up) and put in the oven at the temperature given on crescent roll package. I think mine said 375. Bake until golden brown.

5. For the sauce, I melted about two and a half tbsp. of butter in the microwave. Then I mixed in brown sugar and cinnamon, and grated some nutmeg in. I didn't measure, I just kept mixing and tasting. I probably used about 2/3 of a cup of brown sugar. After I mixed it, I stuck it back in the microwave to make it a little smoother. If you want more exact directions for a sauce like this, I would recommend looking up the directions for the sauce for monkey bread.

 6. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and sauce drizzled on top!

 We REALLY enjoyed these. And two each was just enough to be satisfying but not overly filling.

Have you used crescent dough for anything other than making crescent rolls?

Key Lime Colada Cupcakes

Last night I made cupcakes for a bake sale. My plan was to...actually, I didn't have a plan. I found a box of lemon cake mix in the pantry and decided to try making berry pink lemonade cupcakes. I was pretty sure I had some frozen berries in the freezer. I thought I'd put a berry in the middle of each cupcake, then cook down some berries and use the juice to color and flavor some homemade butter cream.

I made the batter then searched for the berries. Couldn't find them. I'm pretty sure I used them the last time I made berry cupcakes; I must have, because they're gone. So I changed plans. *Note: after I was fully engaged in the new plan, I realized that their was a pint of fresh strawberries in my fridge. Where they came from, I don't know, but I totally could have used those.*

New Plan: Key Lime Colada Cupcakes. I took my lemon cake batter and added a bit of coconut rum, the juice of a lime, and some flaked coconut. I also added a bit of flour and a teaspoon of sugar because I wanted the cupcakes to be a bit firm and not too sweet. . I tasted one when they came out, and it worked fine. Oh, and some green food coloring, just a couple drops; I like to use the "neon" green you buy at the grocery store instead of the regular green.

For the frosting, I wanted to make a butter cream and swirl it nicely on the top of the cupcakes. I decided to use that Pinterest tip of chilling coconut milk then using the thickened part that separates from the coconut water. I've done that before, and it didn't turn out very firm, so I mixed that with some butter. I also added lime juice, a few drops of food coloring, and a few drops of coconut extract. I forgot, however, that I didn't have a whole bag of powdered sugar. So when I mixed it all, it came out like more of a glaze. AND...the acidic lime juice made it hard for everything to blend well. I ended up putting it in a double boiler in order to get it to blend more smoothly.

It worked really nicely as a glaze. I put it on the cupcakes twice, the second time after the first application had firmed up a bit; it gave it a better look. As garnish, I added some lime zest and pieces of organic, unsweetened flaked coconut (I thought it looked pretty).

I hope they sell well!

Puppy Treats (Yeah, I'm that dork)

I made homemade dog treats. I don't know what exactly possessed me, but I made up my own puppy treats. I checked out some existing recipes from Allrecipes.com and a couple from Pinterest, then combined the elements I had and was comfortable feeding my puppy.

I simply mixed together outs, flax seed meal, peanut butter, honey, Polaner Allfruit-black raspberry, and some vanilla yogurt until I got a consistency I liked. I originally intended to make them bone shaped or at least use a round cookie cutter to shape them, but it was late when I made them, and I was eager to be done. Plus, Finn really likes to play with his treats before he eats them; throws them in the air and chases them around the room.
So instead, I made them into little bite sized balls and baked them at 375 until they were golden brown.

Finn loves them! And actually, so do I; I would make cookies from this same recipe, haha! Finn really does love them though. We've been trying to teach him to roll over, and as of yet, this is the only treat he will do it for without urging. In fact, all I have to do now is hold one of these and he lays down and rolls over! It's quite entertaining.

**Note** As I typed this, my wonderfully puppy decided to roll in something dead, or at least I assume so because he certainly smelled like it. So he just received his second bath in three days. Gross.

Steve's Special Request

Since an employee made some for him at Christmas, Steve has been begging me to make him some Oreo balls, so I decided to that this year instead of truffles. They were so easy! But a little tedious. It's just crushed Oreos and a package of cream cheese. You blend those and roll the result into balls. I froze them then to reduce the mess and dipped then into white chocolate. I ran out of white chocolate part way through and mixed it with regular. Yummy! The huge one is for Steve.

Homemade Crackers

I made a plate of homemade crackers today. They're not the delicious kind that are so good you want to eat them by themselves. But they're good enough to enjoy with cheese or to have one or two by themselves. Plus they're healthy; I made them with whole wheat flour and wheat germ.

Stress Baking

Tuesday was a bad day for me. I had a stressful day at work, a mix of normal stress and some yearbook drama, and I came home tired and frustrated and ready to crash. I decided to bake some cupcakes out of my new cookbook What's New, Cupcake? in an attempt to relax. Just after I got everything mixing nicely in the Kitchen Aid, my husband walks out of the bedroom (he had worked overnight the night before) and says "They'll be here in twenty minutes," then went downstairs to get ready.

"They" is our friend Anthony and his girlfriend. I knew they were coming, but thought they were coming the following evening. But of course, I was wrong. I left the mixer running, ran downstairs, threw clothes in the hamper, straightened the bathroom, and just generally scrambled. Steve walked out of the bathroom, and I promptly burst into tears.

I got over that quickly enough, enjoyed our time with Anthony and his girlfriend (even though she trounced us all at Crazy Game), and finished my cupcakes. What do you think of them?

The roses are made out of Laffy Taffy and were super easy to make. I majorly needed a touch of spring in my life, and these were just the trick! I love baking.

Owl Cookies!

Saturday was my friend Traci's baby shower (yes, the same Traci as in this post). She is having a boy sometime in June, and she is decorating the nursery with owls, so the theme of the shower was owls. Around Valentine's Day, I watched an episode of The Martha Stewart Show highlighting the creation of some love bird owl cookies, and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try out the recipe. So I used the cookie recipe found here. I followed the recipe, for the most part, but I ran out of sugar, so for the last 1/2 cup I used dark brown sugar instead of white sugar. I also added some cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger to give them a little more pizazz. I think the lemon juice combine with the spices really made a difference.

The directions for the cookies included a template for cutting out he owl shapes. Cutting them out by hand was a great deal more time consuming than I thought, but they turned out really cool.The dough was nice weight, so it wasn't difficult to transfer them to a cookie sheet. And the dough baked very nicely too, with no sticking. I was also surprised as to how many cookies it made, despite the face the cookies themselves were stinking huge.

So obviously, since Traci knew she was having a boy, I decided to go toward more male-typical colors. I was going to do a bright green, bright blue, and chocolate brown, but I ran out of yellow food coloring, so I ended up using a more muted blue green, but it still looked pretty cool. I used a chocolate royal icing recipe for the brown which I found here at Food.com (it tasted really good). Then, since royal icing was so much more simple than I realized, I decided not to use a recipe for the plain royal icing and to wing it instead. It worked out fine.

I put the icing in squeeze bottles and followed the directions on the website. I outlined the cookie and then filled it in, using a butter knife to spread out the filling. I also put in the stripes in the opposite color and used a knife to swirl it a bit.

Long story short (although not really I guess), they turned out really cool looking and really yummy. I had to play around with the decorations a bit. I tried using marshmallows for the eyes, but ended up using York Peppermint Patty Pieces with icing dots in the middle. I used cut up Dots gum drops for the beak. I decided not to do the feet because I thought they looked dumb.

Here's the finished product...