Monday, February 28, 2011
Funny, when...
I try to use the computer with Jude in my arms, he wiggles and screams, kid knocks out with daddy, NO FAIR!
Baking Banana Bread
I LOOOOOVE High Five Magazine (its the equivalent of Highlights for Children for the preschool set), Sophia and I pour through its pages as soon as it comes in the mail (BTW, thanks Nana and Gumps for this awesome Christmas present!). Besides the fun stories and hidden pictures (which I think like her mommy is Sophia's favorite part), they always have 1 craft project and 1 recipe to make together. March's recipe is banana bread, and we decided to make it today:
The best part of this recipe was that besides the oven parts and measuring stuff (that will come next), Sophia could do pretty much everything, from mashing the bananas to mixing the rest of the parts in the bowl. I could even walk away for awhile to take care of Jude, or to find my phone so I could take pictures. The recipe said you could add nuts or chocolate chips, we added both and oh yum, never leaving chocolate chips out again.
Sophia showing off her creation!
Enjoying the fruit of her work.
Jude wishing he could try it.Sunday, February 27, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
"Chlocolate Chlocolate" Chip Cookies (scratch made)
Its been raining here for the last couple of days, which means the kids and I are housebound while daddy works. We really need to finish the valentines we started 2 weeks before valentines day, but when its rainy, I like to cook, OK OK, I like to cook all the time, but the rain gives me a good excuse to play around in the kitchen.
DD and I decided to bake "chlocolate" chip cookies yesterday (I gave her a choice between cookies and brownies), and after perusing some of the recipes I have bookmarked, I decided to make up my own recipe (I swear, this is not turning into another food blog). I based it on a brownie recipe since I wanted something really chocolaty (yes, I am a girl, I love chocolate, but so does the rest of the household to there :P). DD was such a huge help, she really loves to do things "all by myself," and I am getting better at letting her and not freak out if its not turning out exactly like it should. That's the beauty of making up a recipe, you really don't know what its supposed to look like (just a vague idea), so less stress over the details. So before DS wakes up, I better get on with the recipe:
"Chlocolate Chlocolate" Chip Cookies
(makes about 3 dozen, or 2 dozen and some to "taste test")
4 oz Unsweetened baking chocolate (I used Baker's)
1-1/2 sticks of unsalted butter
2 C sugar
3 eggs
1 t chili powder (optional)
1 T vanilla
1 C unbleached flour
1 C oatmeal "flour" (I whizzed about a cup of quick oats in the food processor, this brought the size down to about what wheat germ looks like and then evened out the cup with some whole wheat flour)
2 generous C of chocolate chips, make sure you test them before putting them in your dough, gotta make sure they are of good quality you know (1-1/2 C or so for the dough, 1/2 C to top off the cookies right before going into the oven), oops spilled some, better test those too.
Preheat oven to 375
Cut up butter into thick pats and break up the unsweetened chocolate on top. Microwave the butter and chocolate until the butter is melted and then stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir sugar in (this looks like dirt according to DD). Add the 3 eggs, vanilla and chili powder and blend together. Add the flours and combine then add chocolate chips. Put kids down for nap and chill (the dough, and yourself).
After surfing the web, having a snack, changing and nursing son, wash hands for the trillionth time and prepare cookie pans with parchment paper (this is wonderful stuff, have I told you this yet? Seriously, buy this, its worth its weight in gold) and remove stiff dough from fridge. Use a spoon to help get the clay...I mean dough out and form into golf balls. Push reserved chocolate chips into the balls before putting in oven (this assures some pretty and gooey chocolate chips on top).
Bake about 10-12 minutes (they should have shiny dry tops kind of like how brownies look), slide parchment paper off pan and let cool a bit before transferring to cooling racks.
These are super chocolaty cookies, so if you aren't that into chocolate (whats wrong with you anyhow) don't make these. :D
DD and I decided to bake "chlocolate" chip cookies yesterday (I gave her a choice between cookies and brownies), and after perusing some of the recipes I have bookmarked, I decided to make up my own recipe (I swear, this is not turning into another food blog). I based it on a brownie recipe since I wanted something really chocolaty (yes, I am a girl, I love chocolate, but so does the rest of the household to there :P). DD was such a huge help, she really loves to do things "all by myself," and I am getting better at letting her and not freak out if its not turning out exactly like it should. That's the beauty of making up a recipe, you really don't know what its supposed to look like (just a vague idea), so less stress over the details. So before DS wakes up, I better get on with the recipe:
"Chlocolate Chlocolate" Chip Cookies
(makes about 3 dozen, or 2 dozen and some to "taste test")
4 oz Unsweetened baking chocolate (I used Baker's)
1-1/2 sticks of unsalted butter
2 C sugar
3 eggs
1 t chili powder (optional)
1 T vanilla
1 C unbleached flour
1 C oatmeal "flour" (I whizzed about a cup of quick oats in the food processor, this brought the size down to about what wheat germ looks like and then evened out the cup with some whole wheat flour)
2 generous C of chocolate chips, make sure you test them before putting them in your dough, gotta make sure they are of good quality you know (1-1/2 C or so for the dough, 1/2 C to top off the cookies right before going into the oven), oops spilled some, better test those too.
Preheat oven to 375
Cut up butter into thick pats and break up the unsweetened chocolate on top. Microwave the butter and chocolate until the butter is melted and then stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir sugar in (this looks like dirt according to DD). Add the 3 eggs, vanilla and chili powder and blend together. Add the flours and combine then add chocolate chips. Put kids down for nap and chill (the dough, and yourself).
After surfing the web, having a snack, changing and nursing son, wash hands for the trillionth time and prepare cookie pans with parchment paper (this is wonderful stuff, have I told you this yet? Seriously, buy this, its worth its weight in gold) and remove stiff dough from fridge. Use a spoon to help get the clay...I mean dough out and form into golf balls. Push reserved chocolate chips into the balls before putting in oven (this assures some pretty and gooey chocolate chips on top).
Bake about 10-12 minutes (they should have shiny dry tops kind of like how brownies look), slide parchment paper off pan and let cool a bit before transferring to cooling racks.
These are super chocolaty cookies, so if you aren't that into chocolate (whats wrong with you anyhow) don't make these. :D
Monday, February 14, 2011
Love According to Us
"Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can; all of them make me laugh." -W.H. Auden
Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired. --Mark Twain
Valentines day might well indeed be a retail holiday, however, it doesn't hurt to have a reminder of what we love and to give us a chance to make sure we tell one another how much we love them. I feel so blessed to have the husband and children that I have. Even when we have a "bad" day, its another day together and that alone is enough for me.
Love and Twain (or Clemens whichever you prefer)
May 12, 1869
Out of the depths of my happy heart wells a great tide of love and prayer for this priceless treasure that is confided to my life-long keeping.
You cannot see its intangible waves as they flow towards you, darling, but in these lines you will hear, as it were, the distant beating of the surf.
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), American writer, to Olivia Langdon, his future wife.
Out of the depths of my happy heart wells a great tide of love and prayer for this priceless treasure that is confided to my life-long keeping.
You cannot see its intangible waves as they flow towards you, darling, but in these lines you will hear, as it were, the distant beating of the surf.
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), American writer, to Olivia Langdon, his future wife.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Love and Baseball
It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. ~A. Bartlett Giamatti, "The Green Fields of the Mind," Yale Alumni Magazine, November 1977
A hot dog at the ballgame beats roast beef at the Ritz. ~Humphrey Bogart
When you're in a slump, it's almost as if you look out at the field and it's one big glove. ~Vance Law
If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base. ~Dave Barry
A hot dog at the ballgame beats roast beef at the Ritz. ~Humphrey Bogart
Without baseball, the world axis would tilt.
Animals would bark and howl constantly.
Citco signs and subway trains would quit running.
All sunrises and sunsets would be gray. Without baseball,
all that we love might never be the same.
When you're in a slump, it's almost as if you look out at the field and it's one big glove. ~Vance Law
If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base. ~Dave Barry
Friday, February 11, 2011
Love and Auden
O Tell Me The Truth About Love
Some say love's a little boy,
And some say it's a bird,
Some say it makes the world go around,
Some say that's absurd,
And when I asked the man next-door,
Who looked as if he knew,
His wife got very cross indeed,
And said it wouldn't do.
Does it look like a pair of pyjamas,
Or the ham in a temperance hotel?
Does its odour remind one of llamas,
Or has it a comforting smell?
Is it prickly to touch as a hedge is,
Or soft as eiderdown fluff?
Is it sharp or quite smooth at the edges?
O tell me the truth about love.
Our history books refer to it
In cryptic little notes,
It's quite a common topic on
The Transatlantic boats;
I've found the subject mentioned in
Accounts of suicides,
And even seen it scribbled on
The backs of railway guides.
Does it howl like a hungry Alsatian,
Or boom like a military band?
Could one give a first-rate imitation
On a saw or a Steinway Grand?
Is its singing at parties a riot?
Does it only like Classical stuff?
Will it stop when one wants to be quiet?
O tell me the truth about love.
I looked inside the summer-house;
It wasn't over there;
I tried the Thames at Maidenhead,
And Brighton's bracing air.
I don't know what the blackbird sang,
Or what the tulip said;
But it wasn't in the chicken-run,
Or underneath the bed.
Can it pull extraordinary faces?
Is it usually sick on a swing?
Does it spend all its time at the races,
or fiddling with pieces of string?
Has it views of its own about money?
Does it think Patriotism enough?
Are its stories vulgar but funny?
O tell me the truth about love.
When it comes, will it come without warning
Just as I'm picking my nose?
Will it knock on my door in the morning,
Or tread in the bus on my toes?
Will it come like a change in the weather?
Will its greeting be courteous or rough?
Will it alter my life altogether?
O tell me the truth about love.
WH Auden
Yummy Cookie Experiment Part 2
Ok, so I tried a Lemon version and a Maple version and they were just as yummy, though the chocolate ones are my favorite thus far. These are the variations:
Lemon Coconut
The cookies seemed to go over well at our church coffee hour, one of my friends there said that the maple walnut cookies were like "pancakes in a cookie". I would love to use the lemon coconut cookies in a parfait with strawberries and whip cream......
Lemon Coconut
- Lemon Cake mix (again used one with pudding in the mix)
- Replaced 1 of the Tablespoons of water with lemon juice (would replace both next time)
- Used about 2 cups of flaked coconut (approximate, I just used up the rest of a bag I had on hand and loaded the cookies up)
- Yellow Cake Mix (this was a butter recipe mix)
- Added a teaspoon of Maple flavoring to the butter/egg/sugar mixture
- Used about 1-1/2 cups roughly chopped walnuts
The cookies seemed to go over well at our church coffee hour, one of my friends there said that the maple walnut cookies were like "pancakes in a cookie". I would love to use the lemon coconut cookies in a parfait with strawberries and whip cream......
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Yummy Cookie Experiment
OK, so Husband had a particularly bad day the other day, I wanted to make something for him to try to end it on a good note, but only had a couple hours to do it in (seems like a long time, but remember, 2-1/2 month old and 3 year old).
So to the chocolate cake mix I went, but cake is so boring to me and I couldn't get it cooled and iced before he got home so to the Internet I went. I wanted to make a cookie of some sort, and there were lots of different recipes, but most of them used oil and water for the liquid part and I wanted a rich cookie. Here is where I went with it...
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
by Jennifer Moore
1 Stick unsalted butter
3 Eggs
1 T Sugar
1 Box chocolate cake mix (I used one with "pudding" in the mix)
2 T Water
1-1/2 C Chocolate chips (this can be modified to your taste, or add nuts or toffee pieces, the possibilities are endless here ;-D)
Preheat oven to 375. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Cream the butter, eggs and sugar together for 4-5 min using hand mixer (dunno if this amount of time is really needed, but that's how I did it), add cake mix and beat in till well combined, then add in the water and continue to mix till well incorporated (the color will lighten). Scrape down the sides with a spatula as needed. Remove mixing thingys (yes, this is a technical term) and scrape out as much of the batter as possible, this is the most annoying part because the batter is like a really thick frosting so its a pain but worth it i promise. Mix in the chocolate chips using your spatula. Drop rounded tablespoons of batter onto parchment lined cookie sheets, bake 1 pan at a time for 7-9 min, or until the cookies barely give when you lightly press with your thumb. Remove from oven and cool on parchment paper (carefully slide it off the pan) and then on cooling racks.
These cookies are even more scrumptious as they get cool and over the next couple days, they didn't last long around here, and this time I was the main culprit *blush*. Today I am going to try a lemon cookie, and a maple version as well, bringing them to church coffee hour tomorrow...Wish me luck!
So to the chocolate cake mix I went, but cake is so boring to me and I couldn't get it cooled and iced before he got home so to the Internet I went. I wanted to make a cookie of some sort, and there were lots of different recipes, but most of them used oil and water for the liquid part and I wanted a rich cookie. Here is where I went with it...
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
by Jennifer Moore
1 Stick unsalted butter
3 Eggs
1 T Sugar
1 Box chocolate cake mix (I used one with "pudding" in the mix)
2 T Water
1-1/2 C Chocolate chips (this can be modified to your taste, or add nuts or toffee pieces, the possibilities are endless here ;-D)
Preheat oven to 375. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Cream the butter, eggs and sugar together for 4-5 min using hand mixer (dunno if this amount of time is really needed, but that's how I did it), add cake mix and beat in till well combined, then add in the water and continue to mix till well incorporated (the color will lighten). Scrape down the sides with a spatula as needed. Remove mixing thingys (yes, this is a technical term) and scrape out as much of the batter as possible, this is the most annoying part because the batter is like a really thick frosting so its a pain but worth it i promise. Mix in the chocolate chips using your spatula. Drop rounded tablespoons of batter onto parchment lined cookie sheets, bake 1 pan at a time for 7-9 min, or until the cookies barely give when you lightly press with your thumb. Remove from oven and cool on parchment paper (carefully slide it off the pan) and then on cooling racks.
These cookies are even more scrumptious as they get cool and over the next couple days, they didn't last long around here, and this time I was the main culprit *blush*. Today I am going to try a lemon cookie, and a maple version as well, bringing them to church coffee hour tomorrow...Wish me luck!
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