Pasta, pasta

We had exciting happenings at our house last night. Exciting! I made Pasta with Sun Gold Tomatoes (with asparagus becuase it’s delicious and cherry tomatoes because I couldn’t find sun gold tomatoes at the store!) from Bon Appetit magazine. I also put out fresh baked French baguette because I wanted the tired kids to eat something. Well, eat they did! Bread of course, and Lex was feeling so brave he even tried a little butter on his bread (seriously!) That was such a success (because who doesn’t like butter with bread?!?) that he even worked up the courage to try the pasta!! This is big happenings in our house! Whole wheat spaghetti, asparagus, tomatoes, all mixed together with a cheesy sauce (not super WW friendly)… and he ate it! He didn’t love the veggies, but he ate a small serving of the pasta. It was amazing and exciting :) I know many parents of kindergarteners with their kids would eat anything besides pasta, but in this house we are thrilled when they finally eat pasta!! Of course, Eve happily ate her food once Lex decided it was acceptable. I wonder if he’ll try it again. Should I press my luck and make mac & cheese? :)

Cookie fun

Once again my counters are covered in sugar. This time we made flower cookies (a few days ago) and last night I put white royal icing on them. This afternoon we decorated them. I thought I’d be “fun mommy” and get out the food-safe paints and markers. The markers were great, but the paint made a MESS! Eve painted three cookies before I took the paint away. We had fun with the markers instead.

painting

Not only were the paints super messy, but as with everything Eve paints, the cookies ended up black.

lex

Lex showing off his work. He did have a great time, despite that sour face.

eve

You'd think these kids were in different rooms. My camera flash was wacky.

xoxo

Lex said he made ths cookies specially for Eve.

my work

Guess who made these? I thought hard about cleaning the kitchen while the kids colored, but where's the fun in that?!

cookies

Cookies! After all that hard work we were hungry!

Puddles

It was another beautiful day today!  I feel a million times better this week than I have in the past few weeks.  I was in a total funk and I KNOW it was because of the dreariness of the weather.  I think I’m an undiagnosed SAD sufferer… but really, who isn’t?  Anyway, sunshine today meant more melting, which meant… puddles!

Eve

It's been so long since we've seen the sun that she forgot how to wear sunglasses! (just kidding, of course)

puddle boots

Puddle boots.

walking and talking

Walking and talking. We miss Lex when he is at school.

splashing

This puddle was super deep!

alan and eve

Alan went for the first run of the season. Eve was pretty worried about him :) We were outside when he got back and when he ran past the house Eve took off after him. Here they are walking back towards the house.

Lex

I know you haven't seen a lot of him on the blog lately!

boots

Their boots were FILLED with muddy water :) We emptied them outside and I'm hoping they dry overnight.

After all the excitement outside we came in for showers. Eve cried her way through a shower and almost continually for the next half hour until Alan laid down on the couch with her and they both fell asleep. I woke them for dinner, but Eve sat like this the whole time. We aren’t quite sure if she was sleeping, but she definitely might have been. :) I brought her up to bed after dinner and she was mighty glad to be there.

sleeping eve

Is she sleeping? We aren't sure.

She has been waking up a lot at night this past week and coming into our bed. The other night she was wide awake at 4am. I have no idea why. I’m dreading tonight after her early bedtime and she hasn’t really eaten much since lunch. Maybe I’ll bring a snack upstairs so when she is wide awake at 2am I can feed her and put her back to bed :) We’ll see.

I feel bad sometimes about her and naps. With Lex I clung to my “respect the nap” stance until he was almost in kindergarten! Eve would still nap most days if I let her, but even a short nap results in her being wide awake until 10pm. That’s too late for me! When I do a good job of being home for the regular schedule (lunch, stories, quiet time… all on time!) she does well for the afternoon, but lately I have been doing a very poor job of that. Trying to squeeze in errands after playdates, or lunch dates, or “quick” grocery shopping after preschool, or whatever. More times than not these past few weeks she’s had either a late quiet time or none at all. I need to get better at respecting her quiet time. The problem is that she’s just so sweet during the day it’s easy to try and fit in “just one more thing.” Slowing down will be next on the agenda… but not tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are going to two parties! Good Beginnings of the Upper Valley (of which I am a past volunteer, recipient, and current board member) is celebrating it’s 25th anniversary and we are having a big kid party tomorrow morning. It should be fun. Tomorrow afternoon we’ve been invited to a March Madness party. We know next to nothing about basketball, but we will dig out our SU shirts and enjoy the party all the same. It may be our last seeing as we are not sports people and I volunteered to bring cookies but copped out at the last minute. I envisioned nicely decorated cookies that looked like basketballs, and maybe some with the SU logo, just for fun. Instead when it came time to decorate I was tired, the kids were tired, the day grew late and I had to put them to bed, the royal icing got too stiff, my hands hurt trying to do the piping… so I grabbed a knife and just swiped orange icing across the top. Today I bought store bought icing in a tube and “decorated” them to look like basketballs. When our dear host tomorrow sees them he might kick us right out the door!!! :)

basketball cookies

World's worst decorated cookies! (they don't even taste fantastic either!)

I’ll bring a box of Thin Mints as well, maybe that will redeem me!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookie

I made Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies for Lex’s Valentine’s Day party tomorrow. They are DELICIOUS!!! I’m not going to type the whole recipe, but you can find it on the Martha Stewart web site. Super easy to make. Try them! :)

raw cookies

Unbaked, unfilled cookies. Simple finger prints make the hearts.

heart cookies

My hearts belongs to you. Those these hearts belong to tomorrow's kindergarden class! :)

I was reading the comments on the Martha Stewart page and I agree that the dough would have been a little better with a bit of milk in it and the cookies would have been even more excellent with chopped up peanuts or chunky peanut butter. Either way, they are tasty!

I have chocolate under my fingernails… or Valentine’s Day sugarfest

Someone, please, get me out of the kitchen!!

I don’t know what’s come over me this Valentine’s Day. I’m not really a big fan of the holiday, but for some reason this year I’m gung ho! I finally got the deliciously decorated sugar cookies out the door today…

one more peek

One more peek...

and this afternoon we found ourselves back in the kitchen (dining room, really) making Peanut Butter Balls. The kids saw this recipe in Parents magazine and wanted to make them for their classmates. Eve’s party is tomorrow and Lex’s is Friday, so today we whipped up a double batch, dipped them in chocolate, rolled them in sprinkles, and only sampled one each! :) I packaged up Eve’s tonight and tomorrow morning we’ll staple the Valentine’s Day cards to the baggies and send them to school. Hope they fit in the “mailbox” she made made in class today!

Eve

Eve, licking the spoon. She wore this hat all afternoon and made everyone call her Frosty :)

stickering

I printed labels for the baggies and the kids put them on. They were truly very helpful with this whole project!

rolling sprinkles

I dipped the peanut butter balls in chocolate and the kids rolled them in sprinkles. It was a messy endeavor. I don't know how people make chocolate dipped things look attractive. Maybe I need more practice!

close up

Not the most beautiful things, but I think their classmates will enjoy them.

me

Look, it's me! Alan came home and took some pictures. Chocolate fingers!

all packaged up

Here are the treats for Eve's class, all packaged up.

labels

Probably not necessary because the smell of peanut butter is potent, but I thought it would be nice to include an ingredients list, just in case.

eve cards

Here are Eve's Valentine's Day cards. She did most of the writing, but got tired at the end so I helped with a few. I love them! She was heart happy with the stickers :)

final product

This is what they will look like tomorrow when we staple the cards to the bags. I get all excited just looking at them!

lex cards

Here are Lex's Valentine's Day cards. He was so creative this year, with the decorations and the writing. I love the outpouring of love as well. I hope his classmates like it and don't give him trouble for not having "cool" store bought ones. I wonder what age that starts? I hope we have a few more years of innocent love!

clever writing

It took me a minute to figure out, but I love this clever writing.

I hope my abundance of photos isn’t annoying. I’m all giddy about pink this year!  I’d like to say we’re done for awhile, but I told Lex’s teacher I would make cookies for their class party on Friday, so tomorrow afternoon we will be making Peanut Butter and Jelly Heart cookies. :) I’m sure you’ll see pictures of them too!

PS. These Peanut Butter Balls are tasty, but not as good as the pretzels ones we had at Christmas! In case you were wondering.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

eve and alan

Happy Birthday Alan!

Not much of a cake fan, Alan decided he wanted cookies for his birthday this year. Birthday cookies are becoming a trend around here and here! Today we made Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, a modified version of a recipe we found on an Alton Brown DVD awhile ago. They are delicious!!!

Ingredientscookies
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolks
2 Tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used KAF’s Burgundy Semisweet Chocolate Chunks with a few Nestle chips thrown in because I didn’t have enough chunks.)
3/4 cups chopped pecans (optional)

Directions
Preheat oven to 375°
Melt butter.
Sift together flour, salt, baking soda.
Pour melted butter into mixer. Cream butter and sugars on medium. Add eggs, milk, and vanilla. Mix until combined. Slowly add flour mixture until combined. Add chips and nuts.
Chill dough.
Scoop onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown. Remove cookies from pan immediately. (slide parchment paper right off the pan onto cooling racks and allow cookies to firm up a bit before moving them from the parchment paper)

Yield: 3 dozen

I actually doubled this recipe and froze two dozen for quick and easy baking later. That’s just what we need around here, fresh baked cookies in under 15 minutes! :)

Pineapple Sunshine Muffins

I blogged about these over a year ago, but I’m going to do it again. We make these muffins a lot. I’ve made a few modifications to make them a touch healthier and yummier. I like to pretend I make these for the kids, but really if I wasn’t fully on the WW wagon right now I would have eaten the whole batch already.

They last awhile and freeze well, so this is a doubled and slightly modified version of what I posted before.

Pineapple Sunshine Muffins
pineapple sunshine muffins
Ingredients:
1 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
4 eggs
1 cup butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 can (20oz) crushed pineapple, undrained
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup sunflower kernels
1 cup dried cranberries

In a large bowl, combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. In another bowl, mix the eggs, butter, and vanilla; stir in pineapple. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in carrot, sunflower kernels, and cranberries. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups until 3/4 full. Bake at 375° for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to wire rack.

I want to give a shout out to the Pampered Chef Stoneware muffin pan here. Check out the difference between muffins baked in that pan and muffins baked in silicone muffin cups. The Pampered Chef ones are so much more beautiful!

muffin comparison

Pampered Chef Stoneware on the left, silicone baking cups on the right.

Gumdrops and kisses

I started my holiday goody making today! Yum! (already ate too many) There will be more to come, but these are by far my favorite.

Peanut butter blossoms

Peanut butter blossoms. Yum! The kids were really helpful this year too.

While Lex was in school and Eve was napping I tried my hand at homemade gumdrops. I was flipping through a Better Homes and Gardens book called Christmas Comfort and Joy at the library a few weeks ago and this gumdrop recipe jumped out at me. It took me awhile to work up the courage to try it, but I finally did and they came out pretty good!

gumdrops

Orange and Lemon gumdrops

Christmas Gumdrops

Ingredients
Butter
1 c. sugar
1 c. light corn syrup
3/4 c. water
1 3/4 oz package powdered fruit pectin
1/2 t. baking soda
sugar

Directions
1. Line a 9x5x3″ loaf pan with foil, extending foil over edges. Butter foil. Set aside.
2. Butter sides of a heavy 1 1/2-quart saucepan. In saucepan combine sugar and corn syrup. Cook over medium-high heat to boiling, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until sugar dissolves (about 10 minutes). Avoid splashing mixture on sides of pan. Carefully clip candy thermometer to side of pan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until thermometer registers 280° F, soft-crack stage (about 10 minutes). Mixture should boil at a moderate, steady rate over the entire surface.
3. Meanwhile, in a heavy 2-quart saucepan, combine water, pectin, and baking soda. Mixture will be foamy. Cook over high heat to boiling, stirring constantly (about 2 minutes). Remove from heat, set aside.
4. When sugar mixture reaches soft-crack state, remove from heat; remove thermometer. Return pectin mixture to high heat; cook until mixture just begins to simmer. Gradually pour hot sugar mixture in thin stream (slightly less than 1/8″ diameter) into boiling pectin mixture, stirring constantly, for 1 to 2 minutes. Cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute more.
5. Remove saucepan from heat. Add desired flavoring and coloring (see below). Pour mixture into prepared pan. Let stand 2 hours or until firm. Use foil to lift candy out of pan. Using a buttered knife, cut candy into 3/4″ squares. Roll in sugar. Store loosely covered. Makes about 72 pieces.

Flavorings
Orange Gumdrops: Add 1 1/2 t. orange extract, 1 t. finely shredded orange peel, 4 drops of yellow food coloring, and 1 drop red food coloring.

Cinnamon Gumdrops: Add 3 drops oil of cinnamon and 7 drops red food coloring.

Mint Gumdrops: Add 3/4 t. mint extract and 7 drops green food coloring.

Lemon Gumdrops: Add 1 1/2. lemon extract, 1 t. finely shredded lemon peel, and 7 drops yellow food coloring.