No More Pretzels in the Bowl

This post is for my brother who has previously claimed that blogs about giant pretzels make him homesick. I hope tiny baby pretzels do the same.
Anyways, I made something delicious. Pretzel bites with cheese sauce. So good. I literally could not stop eating them. I made them for lunch, snacked on them all afternoon, and then had more before I went to bed. I am not going to give a recipe because I copied it exactly from here. I think the only change I made was that I used hard margarine instead of butter and sea salt, which I don't know if it counts as Kosher. I love it when a recipe turns out perfect just the way it is.
Note: Daniel took one taste of the cheese sauce and started crying. So I gave him tomato sauce instead for dipping. The cheese sauce was amazing but the pretzels tasted really good in the tomato sauce so it was hard for me to decide which to use.
Also, this recipe makes about 200. Make sure you share! I had a friend and her two kids come over to share the pretzel love.

An Update on Turning 30

I have been asked how our birthday challenge went. More or Less. As most challenges go we started out really strong. It was fun to get rid of one thing everyday. Sometimes it was just a lone kitchen utensil that had an unknown purpose, sometimes it was a pile of something being saved for some unplanned craft, sometimes it was the extras where we had multiples and multiples stacked it the cupboard. Anyways... We knew we were going to be away quite a bit over the summer so we had a few good PURGE DAYS. That way we wouldn't have to come back and say we were gone for 11 days now we have to find 11 things to get rid of. Our church had a garage sale so we donated a bunch of stuff to that. We now have a corner of our basement dedicated to next year's garage sale. By August our challenge petered out quite a bit. I still think however that it was successful. Have I missed anything I got rid of? Nope. But I still look around and see clutter.
And then I found this:

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. William Morris

Wow. That is so my goal for my house! I have said before that I want everything in my house to be something I love, and this kind of summed it up beautifully for me. This will be an ongoing struggle and challenge for me, but I know that someday I will succeed and be happy with the results.

In conclusion.... The birthday challenge was good but the lifestyle challenge continues!

On Learning Joy

Joy Spam Pass It On!!!

I hope these pictures make YOU smile.
So many simple ways to make the world a more JOYFUL place.
A SMILE is all it takes... and maybe a banana.
Do something TODAY to make someone smile and put a little joy in their heart!

Oreo Cake

If you come to my house on your birthday I will probably make you a cake. This is the cake I made my brother-in-law. This is also the best chocolate cake recipe ever. I should have used this cake for Jacob's birthday digger cake. So moist and delicious.

The original inspiration for the chocolate cake recipe come from Martha Stewart's Allergen Free Cupcakes, which are really good. My version makes two rounds. I think my pans are 8".

3cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tsps baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup cooking oil (I use canola)
2 tbsps vinegar
2tsps vanilla
2 1/2 cups water

Preheat oven to 350.
Combine dry ingredients in one bowl and we ingredients in another, then combine.
Batter is very thin.
Divide into two pans and bake 25-30 minutes.

For the Oreo filling:
1 8oz pkg cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups cool whip.
Then add chocolate chips or crushed Oreos.

For the chocolatey top:
4 squares semi sweet bakers chocolate
1/4 cup butter
Melt in microwave.

The Very Hungry....

CATERPILLAR! I love the idea of reading a book and doing a craft to go along with it. This was my first try and it was a great success! At first Jacob wanted his caterpillar to have a red face and a green body but when I told him he was going to paint it himself and pick the colours he went with blue and black. 

Just for fun we made beetles out of the little ends of the egg cartons. Which turned out awesome because the boys discovered that the beetles can go for rides on the caterpillars' backs. We fed the bugs all leaves because that turns out to be what the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" liked best.

On Learning Love

We have decided to start some learning at home and are beginning by teaching the boys the fruits of the spirit. One of the ways we learned about love was by making heart shaped cookies and then decorating them and delivering them to our friends... because we LOVE our friends.

Don't the boys' cookies look awesome?
The cookies were painted with a food colouring and egg yolk mixture before baking. 

Painting the cookies looked like so much fun that I had to give it a try

And here is Jacob packaging up the cookies for delivery.

Sugar Cookies Betty Crocker Recipe Without the Cream of Tartar Because I Didn't Have Any and I Also Don't Ever Have Almond Extract So It Doesn't Have That Either

1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 cup stick margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

Beat sugar, butter, vanilla, and egg together. Then add flour and baking soda.
Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375. Roll out cookies, cut out shapes... Bake 7 minutes.


For the paint mix 1 egg yolk with 1/2 tsp water. Divide mixture into four small containers (I used measuring cups) and add 1 or 2 drops of food colouring to each one. Paint cookies before baking. Colours get nice and bright in the oven.

Mac & Cheese Made Easy

Who knew macaroni and cheese could be almost as easy as making it from the box? I have made homemade Mac & Cheese before but it usually involves butter and flour and making a roux. Then baking it to thicken up the sauce. Multiple pots and a baking dish means more mess. Anyways, I found what I thought was a brilliant idea and built my own recipe around it for the flavours I like.
The brilliant idea? Cook the macaroni in the milk! Genius.
So, take your milk and add the pasta. Cook over medium heat about 20 minutes. Stir lots. Try not to let it boil, if it does it might thicken too quick but then all you have to do is add a little more milk. When the milk is hot add a squirt of mustard. I know that is very technical, but I was trying to make less dishes not more. Once your pasta is cooked through then add the cheese and paprika and onion powder. Stir until all the cheese is melty and eat immediately. For some kick sprinkle some red pepper flakes on top. (That last ingredient is just for me, too spicy for the kids, but so delicious!)

Enjoy.

Mama's Mac & Cheese

2 1/4 cups milk
2 cups elbow macaroni
1 squirt mustard
1 cup shredded mild cheddar
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp onion powder
Sprinkle red pepper flakes (totally optional)

Monkey Bread/Boys

I don't know what makes the "monkey" in monkey bread... Is it the pull apart factor? Jacob requested moose bread next time so I guess I better get on that. Anyways monkey bread apparently comes in many flavours from savoury to sweet and when I saw the words lemon and monkey and bread together it was just meant to be. 

I used my cinnamon bun dough recipe since the recipe called for frozen ready to bake white roll dough. I hate when recipes call for things like that. I once got a cookbook from the library that ws supposed to be great fun snacks for kids and the first recipe called for Eggos. Then put peanut butter and an apple slice on top. How do these books get published? And, I digress. 

Bun recipe:

1 egg

1 1/4 cup warm water

1 tbsp oil

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 1/2 cups white bread flour

2 tsps instant yeast.

Mix, let rise a bit in bowl. Divide into 24 pieces and roll into balls. Place in buttered 9x13 pan and drizzle with 3 tbsps melted butter.

Meanwhile, zest a lemon. Now I have never zested before and thus I don't own a zester and it turns out that that other weird side of the four sided cheese grater is not for zesting. Zesting a lemon with only a cheese grater is a pain in the butt. Note to self: buy a zester. 

The recipe says mix the zest of one lemon with 1/2 cup of sugar. I did this, but in the end I felt like a had way too much sugar, so use your own judgment. Sprinkle only HALF of this mixture on top of your buns and let them rise a little more so the sugar/zest mix dissolves into the buns. 

Your oven should be preheating to 350. I always forget to do that! When the buns have doubled in size sprinkle with the rest of the sugar/zest mix and bake for 20-25 minutes. 

Now have the glaze ready so you can pour it on as soon as the buns come out of the oven. Mix 1/2 cup icing sugar with 1tbsp lemon juice, or more, until you are happy with the consistency. 

If you are brave enough to risk burning your mouth eat one right away. They are delicious, and to me tasted like perfect little lemon donuts. 

Something Random from my Kitchen

Fruit-Kebobs...

... Easy and fun and yummy... Need I say more?

Happy 4th!

So Jacob is four. Wow. Holy smokes. Crazy. I find this hard to believe, and yet here he is. My wonderful little boy. He is so excited to be four!

Here is my delicious looking iced cake:

This icing is so good! And way easier than buttercream.

1 pkg instant pudding (I obviously used chocolate)

1/2 the milk called for on the package of pudding

1 small container cool whip

Mix together for creamy deliciousness. 

Bonus recipe: throw leftover icing in the blender with milk to thin the consistency. Pour into popsicle molds for the best "fudgsicles" I have ever made.

Now, Jacob wanted a digger cake. So then I brought out the heavy machinery... CAKE DESTRUCTION! 

But look at that cute face! He loved it and had a great birthday.