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