Christmas Goodies…..Yummy!

Last weekend I went on a baking spree! It was lots of fun! Gabe was home :), so once the kids were tired of “helping” me he was free to entertain them when they needed something. I recently purchased that gorgeous stand mixer (it wasn’t really a Christmas present, but I had been waiting to get a great deal on it and it just so happened that Thanksgiving weekend I got a GREAT deal on it at Kohl’s!!!!!!!!!!!!) Let me just say it is wonderful and I have already used it numerous times!

Now on to the Goodies part

I tried to find some recipes that weren’t your ordinary cookies and I must say they all turned out delicious and were pretty easy to make.

Gingerbread Pear Muffins

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsps baking powder

3/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/3 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup light molasses

1 egg

1 medium pear, peeled, cored and finely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease or paper-line 12 muffin cups. (I used the mini muffin pan with 24)

2. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, ginger, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into large bowl.

3. Combine mile, oil, molasses and egg in medium bowl. Stir in pear. Stir mile mixture into flour mixture just until moistened.

4. Spoon evenly into prepared muffin cups, filling two-thirds full.

5. Bake 20 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean (the mini muffins took about 10 minutes). Immediately remove from pan;cool on wire rack 10 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Peppermint Meringues

2 egg whites

1/4 tsp peppermint extract

1/8 tsp cream of tarter

2/3 cup sugar

2-3 finely crushed candy canes

1. Lightly grease a cookie sheet; set aside. In a medium mixing bowl beat egg whites, peppermint extract and cream of tarter with electric mixer (or fancy new stand mixer ;)) on high speed till soft peaks form. Add the sugar, 1 Tbs at a time beating till stiff peaks form.

2. Drop mixture by rounded teaspoon 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet.Sprinkle with crushed candy canes.  Bake in a 300 oven about 20 minutes or till firm and bottoms are very lightly browned. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool. Makes 36 cookies.

Chocolate Crinkles These are one of my favorites!! They are superb!

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted

1/2 cup cooking oil

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

Sifted powdered sugar

1. In a mixing bowl beat eggs. granulated sugar, chocolate, oil, baking powder, and vanilla with an electric mixer till combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in remaining flour. Cover and chill 1 to 2 hours or till easy to handle.

2. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in powdered sugar to coat generously. Place balls 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 375 over for 8 to 10 minutes or till edges are set and tops are crackled. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool. If desired, sprinkle with additional powdered sugar. makes about 48 cookies.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip

3/4 cup Jif Creamy Peanut Butter

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1 1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

3 Tbs milk

1 Tbs vanilla

1 egg

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cup milk chocolate chocolate chips

1. Combine peanut butter, shortening, light brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed with electric mixer until well blended. Add egg. Beat just until blended.

2. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended. Add chocolate chips. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly in crisscross pattern with tines of fork.

3. Bake at 375 for 7 to 8 minutes, or until set and just beginning to brown. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Remove to wire racks to completely cool.

Marshmallow Krispie BarsThese are divine! The building Gabe used to work at requests them each year for their Christmas lunch even though we don’t live there anymore. Last year Gabe shipped them there……Yes, they really are that good!

1 package DUNCAN HINES Chewy Fudge Brownie Mix

1 package (10 1/2 ounces) miniature marshmallows

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 Tbs butter

1 1/2 cups crisp rice cereal

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease bottom of 13x9 inch pan.

2. Prepare and bake brownies following package directions for cake-like recipe. Remove from oven Sprinkle marshmallows on hot brownies. Return to oven. Bake for 3 minutes longer.

3. Place chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter in medium saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until chips are melted. Add rice cereal; mix well. Spread mixture over marshmallow layer. Refrigerate until chilled. Cut into bars (I use a pizza cutter to cut the bars, it is much easier than using a knife).

So if you want to add one more thing to your to-do list, pick a recipe and give it a try, at least you will have some yummy treats when you are finished!

November, A Little Late :)

I figured I shouldn’t skip over our month of Thanksgiving so I’ll give you a little re-cap :). October starts the craziness around our house with my kiddos birthdays and that craziness just kept right on going through November. We actually stayed at our house for Thanksgiving and had some family come to us instead of us traveling back “home”.

We celebrated our thankfulness all month long with our turkey. We added feathers throughout the month with things we are thankful for. It was a fun way to record what we are thankful for and he also made a very cute decoration on our table.

Some of his feathers read:I am thankful for….

Mommy and Daddy..Our Warm House.. The Zoo Sunshine.. Our Veterans..My Wonderful Family..Keenan and Trinity..Football..Food

We had a great visit with my parents for several days before Thanksgiving. I actually made my first full Thanksgiving dinner, turkey and all the trimmings! I can’t take all the credit though, my Mom showed me the ropes of the whole roasting a turkey thing and dinner turned out DELICIOUS! As for the turkey…. it was way easier than I thought it would be, if you’ve never tried it, you should it was super easy.

My parents left Thanksgiving morning and Gabe, the kids and I watched a little bit of the parade and took naps and my in-laws arrived in time for dinner. We had roast,  ultimate mashed potatoes and a few other yummy sides. We also had a great visit with them and our boat now has a nice new custom made cover!! Gabe and my father-in-law worked on that the whole weekend and it turned out spectacular, much better than the blue tarp (that had a few holes) that wasn’t big enough to cover the boat!! Thanks Doug for all the time, effort and materials!!!

We also made a banner to remind us to give thanks! We learned about the first Thanksgiving and made Squato’s Snack.

Squanto helped the pilgrims learn how to hunt and plant good yielding crops. He taught them to plant two dead fish with three seeds of corn in little hills of earth. This would give them the best yield of corn.

Oreo’s=hill of earth                   Candy corn=corn                             Gummy fish=dead fish

We continued our lessons in life and in the books. Gabe helped Trinity make a scale for our math lessons on comparing weight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a hit with everyone! The kids enjoyed playing (aka learning) with it for several weeks.

We made pumpkin pie!!! (One of my favorites) Keenan helped stir the pie filling, it was very yummy! He loved it, with a little cool whip on top of course!

We had a good month of family and thankfulness and as is tradition in our family we put up our Christmas tree :)!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Halloween!

I hope you had a great Halloween, we certainly did!! We celebrated in several different ways. We went to the Louisville Zoo Halloween Party, the Pumpkin Patch Party at our church, Trinity and I went to the Halloween Parade in our town, we carved pumpkins, roasted pumpkin seeds,  ate candy, decorated Halloween cookies, had pumpkin shaped PB&J sandwiches covered in orange sprinkles for lunch, and of course Trick-or-Treated!

Here is our Halloween in pictures

 

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To end our Halloween festivities we picked out a small amount of candy to keep and set the rest out for the “Candy Witch” to take. In return for our bag of candy she left us two nice presents :). Thanks Traci for putting me in touch with the “Candy Witch” ;), I think we will invite her back every year!!

Keenan is 2!!

October 23, was Keenan’s second birthday! He is looking more and more like a big boy everyday (insert mommy’s tear here).

He is getting so big and learning new things and words everyday! I didn’t think it was possible but I think he may talk even more than Trinity does, he definitely gives her a run for her money :)!

We celebrated his birthday at my sister’s house while we were back home visiting.

There were presents:

There was the Construction Zone cake:

The bike:                                       Doesn’t he look so Big!

The Rocking Horse:            Papa (my Dad) made Keenan a rocking horse.

We had a great time celebrating Keenan’s birthday with family and friends! I am sure that it will be time to do it all again before I even blink.

Happy Birthday Keenan! We love you very much!!

Happy Anniversary to my Hubby!!

October 19, was our 8th wedding anniversary!! It seems like just yesterday that we were standing looking out over the beach saying our vows. 

It was a beautiful day and I can still see every moment of that day in my mind. I never could have believed how blessed we would be today as I stood there on that beach and looked out over the beautiful ocean. The card that Gabe gave me sums up our lives right now:

Someday, many years from now, we’ll look back on this crazy time in our life together and wonder how we did it all…

And then, those ordinary, everyday moments that we often take for granted will shimmer like stars as we recount them…

I’ll sit close beside you, you’ll take my hand in yours. We’ll look at each other and say: “I’d do it all again…

And I wouldn’t change a thing.”

We enjoyed a nice dinner out alone to celebrate our anniversary and Gabe surprised me with a beautiful necklace!

I love you babe!!

Trinity is 5!!!

One week ago, October 18, was Trinity’s 5th birthday! Wow five whole years, that is really hard to believe!

Just 5 years ago she looked like this! The bow….She was born the day before our anniversary so Gabe put the bow on her as my gift :).

Now she looks like this!

Not a baby or toddler anymore but a little girl that is learning new things every day, becoming kind and caring, testing her boundaries, and being loved by her mommy, daddy and brother.

We celebrated her birthday at my sister’s house while we were visiting so that our families and friends could celebrate with us. Trinity chose a bumblebee theme this year and it turned out really cute :).

There were balloons and gifts… 

a piñata…

  a  Bee hive cake….

and of course the singing of Happy Birthday and the blowing out of candles!

Happy Birthday Trinity, we love you very much!!

October Where Have You Gone?!?!?!?

October is a crazy month at our house…..and well, that could be a little bit of an understatement! We have celebrated 3 birthday’s and an anniversary, trick-or-treated at the zoo, gone to the pumpkin patch,  traveled back home for 9 days, homeschooled, gone to the pumpkin patch party hosted by our church and Gabe has been to Pittsburgh once and has to go again before the month is over. After actually typing all of that out it has just dawned on me why my house is such a mess, ha ha!!

So, needless to say, I have a zillion things that I have been meaning to post but just haven’t had the time. So I’m going to try and catch up this coming week. If I don’t get caught up before the holidays I my never catch up!!

Hopefully I will be posting lots this week so if you have been wondering what we have been up to, just stop on by :)!

It’s Apple Time

We have been studying apples, can you tell?

Apples Apple Graphs Apple Crafts                                           Stained Glass Apple

Apple Print Wreaths

Apple Books

Apple Tasting

Trinity ate it too fast to get a picture, but her favorite apples were the Pink Ladies that we found in the produce section of Meijer. I think the fact that they were “pink’ made them taste better ;).

 

Apple Food

Peeling Apples for Apple Crisp

Sliced apples for Apple Pie

Apple Cider

We have had a great time learning about and exploring apples.

To wrap up our unit study we visited an apple orchard (well, two to be exact)!

The first orchard we visited you weren’t allowed to actually pick apples or even walk through their orchard but we enjoyed their playground and enjoyed some apple doughnuts and an apple slush!

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We also enjoyed looking at their section of a bee hive!It was really neat for Trinity to see actual bees doing their thing inside their hive, we also found the queen :).

Our apple studies just wouldn’t be complete without picking some so we visited another orchard that allowed U-pick. Daddy got to join us on this adventure since we went on the weekend!

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Fall is a very busy season at our house, two birthdays and an anniversary, so this was a great way to kick off the season! Now we have been blessed with fall weather :) to make it even better. Next fall leaves, pumpkins and Halloween!!

Delicious Apple Cider

After reading about apple cider and watching a Mr. Rogers-like video (you know like the episode where they went to the crayon factory, I loved those!) on how it is made Trinity wanted to make some. I don’t have an apple press so we had to settle for the store bought stuff but I wanted to make it a little yummier so I searched the internet and found a recipe. It’s simple yet delicious!

1 (64 fluid ounce) bottle apple cider

3 cinnamon sticks

1 teaspoon whole allspice

1 teaspoon whole cloves

1/3 cup brown sugar

In a large pot (or slow cooker) combine apple cider and cinnamon sticks. Wrap allspice and cloves in a small piece of cheesecloth, and add to pot. Stir in brown sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat, and keep warm.

I added the brown sugar to taste so that it would not be too sweet, I ended up using between 2 and 3 Tbs.

I also used this little thingy instead of cheese cloth

I have absolutely no idea what it is called but you put spices in it for soups, or in this case apple cider and hang it from the side of the pot. It’s like using cheese cloth but only cuter ;). Gabe’s grandmother gave it to me, I enjoy thinking of her each time I use it!

Trinity loved the warm cider so did Keenan and I’ll admit I had several mugs of it myself. Once the weather actually turns fall-ish try it out or you can try it out now and dream of fall weather until it decides to arrive.

Brew some up and enjoy!!

Trinity’s Chores

About a month ago I decided I needed to make Trinity’s contributions to helping around the house a little more formal. Up until then she helped with many things but had no formal “chores”. I browsed many blogs and articles and saw lots of good ideas but nothing that would work perfectly so this is what I came up with. This is her chart, it is a combination to do list/chore list. She made it with me, we walked around one morning and took pictures of the things that she needed to do to take responsibility for herself and to contribute to our house and family.

These are the specific chores

Get Dressed, Brush Teeth, Wash Face

Feed and let Rufus out

Pick up Bedroom

Help Set the Table

Help Clear the Table

Pick up Living Room

Put Silverware Away

Put Laundry Away

Get PJs on, Brush Teeth, Wash Face

When she completes these things she uses the little ring stamps hanging from the chart to put a stamp on the incentive chart (the slip with the bear on it). Once the chart is full she gets $3.00.

There are two stipulations. 1. She must do the chores with a good attitude and a smile. I don’t allow her to gripe and complain about the chores, if she does she still has to do the chore but does not get a stamp. 2. She has 10 minutes to get dressed, brush her teeth and wash her face in the morning and then again at bed time. If it takes longer than that she doesn’t get a stamp. She is totally capable of this but she has a tendency to be “Pokey Pink”. This time limit became even more important once we started school, if I let her it could take upwards of 30 minutes because she stops and plays. This seemed like a better solution than standing at the bottom of the stairs nagging her to hurry up every morning.

This was a great way for her to have a little bit of money of her own that she actually earned! She had begun to think that just because we walked into a store she should get something. Now I just ask her if she has enough money to buy something and she remembers that she has money but is saving it for a Strawberry Shortcake doll she wants. This is the other benefit of the $3.00, instead of blowing it on junk at the dollar store she is trying to save it for something nice that she wants.

We also had a lesson on generosity the other day with her chore money. We went shopping at a churches “share day”, a yard sale where everything is free. We went and found several items of clothing for the kids and Trinity found some games and books that she wanted. When we were finished we donated money to the charity that the church was raising money for. I made sure she new that the things were free but we were choosing to donate money to help the people that needed it because we could.

Another great benefit………. She is teaching Keenan how to do chores with a smile :)!

You would think another benefit would be that it is less for me to do………but really it’s not. She does a great job, she is learning to do a great job. Eventually it will be less for me to do, but for now it takes her longer than it would take me and it isn’t always perfect. But if I continue to do it myself she, and eventually they, will never learn to be responsible for themselves, they will never learn that things aren’t handed to you on a silver platter, they will never appreciate when someone does do something for them. They will never learn responsibility or have the ability to save or learn to be generous with the money they have earned. So it is worth the extra work on my part to help them learn these things.

I found the incentive charts and little stamp rings at the dollar store so this only cost me $2.00 :)!! Bonus!

Wow this seems a little long and rambling but I think there are LOTS of things that she can learn from this little chore chart! What about you? What age appropriate chores do your kids do? What, if anything, do they earn for doing their chores? What are you trying to teach them most by chores? I’d love to hear from you :)