Deanna's Best Peanut Butter Cookies

Seriously, these are so good!

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 pkg instant chocolate pudding mix

3/4 cup hard margarine (softened)

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

2 tsps vanilla

2 tbsps honey

2 cups total of your choice- peanut butter chips, chocolate chips, and/or Reese's pieces candy

Now make them! 

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butters and sugars. Add eggs, vanilla, and honey. Add dry ingredients. Lastly, add your chocolate chips. 

Roll into 1 inch balls. Flatten slightly with a fork.

Bake 10 minutes.

Cool slightly and remove to wire rack. Yum. 

Smushed Cupcakes

... Also known as flourless cupcakes. I ran out of white flour last week. Now I know I could just go to the grocery store or borrow some from a friend or neighbour but I use Sunnyboy flour. This flour is milled nearby and all the organic wheat comes from surrounding fields. And it is great flour. I use it for everything including bread! Anyways, I ordered some that was supposed to come in tomorrow, but it won't be ready for another week... Now what!?!? Next time I will be more organized and order more before I am down to my last cupful.
So the boys and I made these today. Jacob thought it was cool how the magic of the really fast mixer turned the egg whites into "whipped cream."


SMUSHED CUPCAKES

Melt together in a bowl set over a pot with about 1inch of simmering water: 1 cup chocolate chips and 3 tablespoons hard margarine.

Meanwhile... Seperate 3 eggs. Beat egg whites in mixer until peaks form. Add 1/4 cup sugar.

When chocolate is melted, remove from heat. Cool for a couple minutes and mix in egg yolks.

Scoop part of the egg white mixture into the chocolate mixture. Whisk together and carefully fold it all back into the rest of the egg whites.

Divide evenly into 12 cupcake liners.

Bake at 275 for 30 minutes, rotating once.

Cool completely and add a scoop of ice cream.

These cupcakes look normal when you pull them out of the oven, but they sink into themselves as they cool. Also, as an additional note, if you spill the bowl of melted chocolate chips, melted margarine, and egg yolks on yourself, the stains don't come out.

Taking the Kitchen Outside Part III

Another project that starts in the kitchen and ends in backyard fun. ICE CUBE BOATS!
It all started in the morning... First Daniel carefully filled the ice cube tray with a spouted measuring cup. I was impressed that there was no spillage. Meanwhile Jacob pinned clothespins to toothpicks. Then we carefully added a couple of drops of food colouring into each ice cube hole. We balanced the clothespins across the ice cube tray to keep the masts upright and then I put the whole thing in the freezer.
After lunch Jacob fell asleep so Daniel and I made sails for the boats. We anxiously waited for Jacob to awake. When he finally did, he taped all the sails on and then we went outside. We filled up this old plastic sandbox with water, popped the boats out, and here we go!

Jacob liked figuring out which ones actually floated upright.
Some didn't because our masts/sails weren't straight.

The liked having the hose left on because it created a current that went in a circle.
When the boats made it around, they got sunk by the cascading water.

Daniel enjoyed putting the sunken boats back in the tray and then eating them when I wasn't looking.

Taking the Kitchen Outside Part II

Now painting is always something fun in our house (okay, maybe not always) but I thought THIS was something we could do outside for sure! I have these old crummy baking pans that we use for paint and a whole container of random paintbrushes, two disgusting old t-shirts and a roll of paper. I grabbed some painter's tape and we were all set. Now turns out Daniel wasn't so into this, but maybe the paper was too high for him. Jacob would paint for a bit, then "wash" his brushes and take off his t-shirt and go play for a bit. Then he would come back to work some more on his masterpiece. He did paint the fence a bit, but it is metal so I figure it will come off in the rain.

Hard at work

Somehow I didn't get a picture of the finished painting! :(

Daniel's Painting

Taking the Kitchen Outside Part I

I know I've posted about volcanoes before. Truly, we go through so much vinegar and baking soda in this house... but then I read an article about trying different things mixed in with the baking soda. This mom tried bubble solution, dish soap, and even orange pop and chocolate milk. Well, I wanted to do volcanoes outside since it is finally nice, and I wanted to try this. We used 7-up instead of orange pop, we didn't have chocolate milk and I wasn't sure about doing that out in the sun.... though apparently the chocolate milk was really cool. Anyways... she had actual measurements so I had the boys do all the measuring in the kitchen then we put our cups on a tray and hauled them outside. We used 2 tbsp baking soda and 3/4 cup vinegar for each volcano.

Now, because the pop, bubbles, and dish soap do different things a smart mama would have labelled the cups with a dry erase marker so that for next time we can just play with the most epic volcano... but I didn't. So we will just have to try this again. 

Colourful Rabbits

We have borrowed this great book from the library several times: "White Rabbit's Color Book" by Alan Baker. Today we decided to CRAFT the book. Only glitch... Turns out I returned the book to the library yesterday. Thank goodness for YouTube because we found it on there (it was a dumb video, just a lady turning pages and I had to read it, but whatever). 

Here's the story: White Rabbit finds three pots of pain - red, yellow, and blue. First she climbs in the yellow. Then, all yellow now, she climbs in the red. She is surprised to turn orange! She has a shower, turns white again, and climbs back in the red. Now red, she climbs in the blue... Tada! Princess Purple Rabbit. She showers and starts all over again with the blue, then decides to return to the yellow but, oh no, she turns green. The story has a twist ending which we did not recreate with our craft... Mostly because I didn't print off enough rabbits. The shower runs out of water, she doesn't like being green, and all that is left is a little red paint. She jumps in, turns brown, and lives happily ever after. 

Here is what the boys made... Every time she had a shower we paused the movie and got a new white rabbit. The colours weren't perfect but I think it was still fun. 

I Heart Watermelon

I don't know what is not to like about watermelon. It is juicy, sweet, and pink.
And you can do this:

The boys wanted to eat the turtle and I had cut all the fruit off. In hindsight, I should have left his feet and head like little watermelon slices. The boys ate the turtle anyways.

Rhubarb Rocks My World

So my neighbour invited me to help myself to his very plentiful rhubarb. I was very happy. I have already made a straight rhubarb crisp, rhubarb-orange juice, and now this: 

I call it Rhuberry Crumble Bars. I am currently trying to convince myself that I don't need another piece. The boys devoured it in seconds. Jacob said it was so good it tasted like birthday cake. Daniel asked if he could also have it for lunch. (We had this for morning snack... Is that wrong?) 

Here is what you need to make yourself a delicious treat!

Preheat your oven to 350. Butter and flour an 8x11 pan.

Crumble Layer- melt 1/2 cup butter or hard margarine in small bowl and then add 3/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4tsp salt. Mix in 1 1/4 cup flour until crumbly texture. Put in fridge until ready to use. (I used part whole wheat flour)

Rhuberry Layer- In a medium bowl toss sliced strawberries and sliced rhubarb with 2 tbsps brown sugar and 1/3 cup white flour. I didn't measure the fruit. I just filled up my medium mixing bowl. 

Bar Layer- mix 3/4 cup room temp butter with 1 1/4 cup icing sugar until fluffy. (I used my stand mixer). Add 2 eggs already lightly beaten and 3/4 tsp vanilla. Add 1 cup flour, 3/4 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt. Spread in prepared pan.

Top batter with rhubarb/strawberry mixture. Top that with the crumble mix. Bake for 50 minutes.

Cool completely and dust with icing sugar. 

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Wow. We NEEDED something to do today! It is really windy to be outside and we need quiet in the house and I am trying not to rely on the TV unless I really have to. Daniel says "let's do a craft!" Ok. So we head to the basement to see what kind of supplies I have hanging around. Jacob grabs a whole bunch of Popsicle sticks and I grab the iPad to search Popsicle stick crafts on Pinterest. 

Here are the results:

Jacob made two airplanes and Daniel made an airplane and a dragonfly. The plane with Jacob's name on it is apparently called "JJ the Jet".  This was fun and easy! I might add magnets to the back when they are done flying their creations. 

An Apple Tale

Applesauce Spice Muffins

1/2 cup hard margarine

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 cup white flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsps baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon 

1 tsp allspice

1 jar homemade applesauce (a little more than a cup)

Makes 1 dozen large muffins. Bake at 350 for 22 minutes. 

So, I have to go back in time a bit to tell this story. Mothers' Day to be precise. Some lovely anonymous person dropped off two huge boxes of apples in front of our church (and other local churches as well) along with some small cardboard containers and a note for moms to help themselves. Amazing, I think. Anyways, due to the fact of being the pastor's wife and that these apples were at both churches we attended that day, I came home with ALOT of apples. Golden Delicious and Ambrosia! Well that day I made apple crisp (probably along with every other mom who goes to church in the area) for my family for dessert. Then we took a vacation. When we got home I realized I had more apples than we could eat before they were done for and I don't waste food! So I cut up as many apples as would fit in my crockpot (didn't peel them, too much work) added some water and honey and a little sugar and some cinnamon to make it smell good and eight beautiful hours later I had some yummy chunky applesauce (yes that is my recipe, pretty specific, eh?). I let it cool, put it in jars and stuck them in the freezer (Jacob dropped one jar full of applesauce on the ground in the basement on the way to the freezer... Yea for a mess on the only carpet in the whole house). I think it made about 6 jars. So, today I realized I had stuck a jar in the fridge and figured it has been there a week, I better use it up. And this recipe was what I made. These muffins are so soft and yummy and just the right amount of spice. Enjoy! 

Happy 3rd Birthday Daniel!

So my little guy is three... and he told me exactly what he wanted for his cake - James Cake. That would be James from Thomas the Train. Anyways, here it is:

I forgot to take a picture, but the inside of the cake was tye-dye blue.
Blue is his favourite colour.

Blow!! (Three blows, one for each candle, so cute!)

Birthday Shirt I made for him. Got totally stained today.

Dancing Daniel.