Kitchen Challenge - MARCH

So I challenged myself to make pretzels, and they turned out alright. Truthfully, I think the only problem with them is that I put too much salt on top. But they look pretty, don't they?

I halved the "Mall Pretzels" recipe found HERE.  Which was a good plan, because six huge pretzels is enough for this house. I used 1 cup white bread flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour, and I mixed the dough in my breadmaker. I thought they were a bit of a pain to roll out, but by number five I seemed to have a good method. I brushed the tops with melted soft margarine and sprinkled with plain old table salt. We ate them with pizza sauce for dipping.

 Jacob thought the pretzels were cool. He helped me roll them. He watched them bake. He wanted to "pick" his own. And then he licked the salt off the top and wouldn't eat it. Oh well, that picture was worth it.

 Daniel felt left out, because I served him cheese and cucumber for lunch. I thought the pretzels were too salty for him. But he wanted a taste so much that I broke up some little pieces for him. Lucky Baby. Also, Daniel figured out how to drink out of a straw today and it is super cute.

Alligator wanted a bite of the pretzels and Jacob kindly shared. Alligator approved.

Getting Your Kids to Eat: Failure

 I don't want to make food a fight in my house, but sometimes it would be nice not to have someone whining over the food. I heard about a line of cookbooks with kid-friendly recipes so I borrowed the only one the library had. Well, there are lots of recipes that sound delicious, but basically her thing is that kids will eat anything if it "looks" fun. While reading the book, I had a couple of basic thoughts that kept repeating themselves: "this is a colossal waste of time" and "maybe this would be neat for a special occasion." I don't really want to buy into her ideas because I don't want Jacob to only eat carrot slices if I take the time to cut out little stars with a mini cookie cutter. And I really don't think he would eat egg salad just because I put it on a piece of bread that is shaped like a duck. However, Jacob really likes this picture in the book:

He calls them "cookie bears" even though they are english muffin pizzas. Well, yesterday was a rough day for him so I thought I would make him pizza, which he loves, and I could easily put a happy face on it for him.

Okay, I admit it is kind of creepy, but this was a last minute thing, and the only veggies in my house were mushrooms, red onion, and orange pepper. And guess what? Jacob wouldn't eat it. Not a bite. He ate it for lunch today, but I think that was because I cut it up when he wasn't looking so he didn't know it was the same pizza. 

I showed Jacob this picture and asked if he would eat it:

He said "No." 

In case you are wondering, the snail is a homemade turkey sausage and his shell is a scoop of mashed potatoes. You are supposed to make the shell swirl with ketchup in a small piping bag.  Steam 4 peas and 3 tiny carrot slivers to make the eyes, mouth, and antennae.  Thinly slice lettuce for the grass. 

Yah right!! 

I Thought Pyrex Was Indestructible

Jacob was helping unload the dishwasher last night, and he dropped my 1cup Pyrex measuring cup. SMASH! It shattered everywhere. I quickly scooped Jacob up and plopped him into the hallway. Grabbed Daniel (who was standing right next to the dishwasher) and handed him to Jeff. He picked his way through the glass and went to console Jacob that it was just an accident and it really didn't matter. I wasn't really too worried about getting glass in my feet, but Jacob kept wanting to come back into the kitchen. Seeing as he HATES band-aids (he cries when I need one) we told him that if he went in the kitchen he would cut himself, bleed, and need a band-aid. And apparently just to make my point, I accidently leaned on some glass and cut my finger. Now, don't go freaking out, it bled for all of 12 seconds and it didn't even really hurt, but I showed Jacob and that kept him out of the kitchen. Maybe I should have put a band-aid on it just for show, but as of right now, I can't even remember which finger was bleeding. 

As an aside,  Jeff added "Pyrex" to our grocery list, and we now have the weirdest grocery list on our fridge ever:

rinse agent

egg timer

Pyrex

rubber boots

peanut butter

Why Juice Boxes Make Lousy Blocks

So while I was trying to make dinner yesterday, Jacob emptied all the 1-ish litre apple juice boxes from the cupboard. We had just recently bought a new case so there was probably 11 or 12 in there. At first it didn't really bother me. He was stacking them around Daniel and they both seemed to be entertained, which was a good thing. Who knew you could make walls and towers out of juice boxes? I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention because next thing I know Jacob is standing on top of his stack of juice boxes and the bottom two have broken open. Now the mess could have been much worse, which I am thankful for, but now I have discovered one more thing that needs to be kept in a locked cupboard... juice.