Archive for May, 2011

This morning I woke up and was just not feeling so hot.

My body quickly reminds me I am no longer in my 20s.

The kids were starving, the hubs was wondering around the kitchen.

So I just grabbed a bunch of stuff I knew everyone would enjoy, tossed it all in a bowl and cooked it.

Lucky for them it all made sense.

We even got to use some of the Salted Buttermilk Carmel instead of syrup. BONUS!!!!

Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal Pancakes

Makes about 8 average sized ones

Ingredients

• 1 cup pancake mix (I like trader joes multi grain)
• 2 pkgs (1.5 oz each) Maple Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup almond milk
• 2 tsp oil (veggie)

Directions

1. Toss all ingredients into a large bowl and mix well.
2. Heat and butter pan/griddle. Pour about 1/3 cup of batter on and cook (until bubbles form). Flip and cook a bit more.
3. Remove, stack and pour on syrup.
4. Devour

So the beautiful Kim over at The Farmers Wife, asked me a few weeks ago to do a guest post. (my first one EVER)

After I completely embarrassed myself at my kids karate class over my excitement, I calmly replied to her e-mail.

Then I started to stress. ‘What am I going to make?’ ‘Oh geeze, what to make?’ This went on for a few days.

Finally, I came up with these…..

They are…..Snickerdoodle cookies……. in a jar! Think pizookie but in jar form. Oh yea baby

Please go over and check out Kim (and her fabulous blog) for the low down on these dangerously addicting fellas.

Thank you Kim for this honor. I truly adore you and ALL of your delicious recipes.

A few things I thought I would share with you. Things I thought I would never say or do….that is until I had kids….

In no particular order…

1) “Don’t put that in the dogs ear!”

2) “Don’t eat that!”

3) Plant “sandwich seeds” (seeds my daughter saved off her sandwich bun)

4) Preform surgery on a Zhu Zhu pet.

5) Race to the store in the middle of the night to replace a fish that died. (That I killed)

6)”The dog is not a horse”

7) Stay up late surfing the Internet, trying to find a particular lego set (or toy in general).

8)”If you don’t eat your food, you get to watch me eat your dessert”….mean I know but there is a back story to it Ill tell you one day.

9)Watch a Spongbob Marathon and actually enjoy myself

10) Watch the clock on Friday (ok everyday) for wine time.

What have you said (or done) that you never thought you would?

Keep your questions for my FAQ page coming as well. I enjoy reading and answering them.

Ever since I had my first taste of salted caramel, I like many other peeps, became an addict.

Hello, my name is Lauren and I am a salted Caramel addict (among other things….food related )

Remember this stuff…..

Trader Joes started me on my addiction. They start me on a lot of addictions.

Rather than break the bank (on caramel sauce) every time I went grocery shopping, I thought I would try to make some.

And to my surprise it was super easy, and beyond super tasty; we all like easy don’t we? I thought so.

Man I could just take a bath in this stuff….to much? sorry

Please ignore my shadow puppet hand

Salted Buttermilk Caramel Sauce

Adapted From: Our Best Bites

Ingredients

• ¾ cup buttermilk
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup butter, cubed
• 2 Tbsp Corn syrup
• 1 tsp Fleur de sel Salt (can be hard to find, I found it at Williams Sonoma)
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. In a large pot (make sure it is large as while this cooks it bubbles), combine buttermilk, sugar, brown sugar, butter, corn syrup and salt.
2. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low.
3. Cook until nice a caramel-ly rich brown. About 10 min. Stir frequently with a wooden spoon.
4. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Continue to stir to cool.
5. Enjoy. (Store in fridge)

Did you ever see one of those recipes that you just had to try/have?

This is one of them.

One day ago (as my daughter so sweetly says when retelling a story), I was feeding my Pinterest addiction and found a picture for layered lemonade cake…..holly bagolie. (when I get excited I tend to make up words)

The next thing I know, I am in the car headed to the store to get some ingredients. Now this is a big deal in itself because I HATE to go to the store, especially for just a few things. But there I was on the way to the store.

Once home I gathered my composure and ingredients and got to work.

This is hands down the best cake I have ever had. Incredibly moist, dense yet at the same time airy. The lemon isn’t to ‘slap your mama’ tart but nice and……lemony.

After consuming 1/2 the cake by my self next I want to try making it with some cherries (kinda like a cherry lemonade) or…..or….even better strawberry……oh my oh my. The possibilities are endless with this.

For the frosting I just whipped up the same base as the Oreo Cupcakes I made a while ago. Instead of crushed Oreo I put some lemon rind and more of the lemonade in.

Now that I think about it crushed Oreos would be incredible with/in this.  Back to the kitchen to make more variations.

Lemonade Cake

Adapted from myrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 6 Tbsp butter, softened
• 1 Tbsp lemon rind, grated (about ½ a lemons worth)
• 3 ½ Tbsp lemonade concentrate, thawed
• 3 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 ¼ cup buttermilk

For the Frosting

• 5 Tbsp flour
• 1 cup milk
• ½ cup buttermilk
• ½ Tbsp lemon rind, grated
• 1 cup butter
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 Tbsp lemonade concentrate, thawed
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup powdered sugar

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9×13 inch baking dish .
2. In a gallon sized Ziploc bag combine, flour, baking powder and soda and salt. Shake to mix and set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer cream butter and sugars together. Add vanilla, lemon rind and lemonade. Mix until combine.
4. Add eggs and egg whites one at a time, mixing completely in between.
5. Add flour and buttermilk alternately into sugar mix. Mix well after each addition.
6. Pour into prepared baking dish. Bake for 25 min, or until tooth pick (or I use a spaghetti) comes out clean.
7. Remove and cool completely.
8. Meanwhile, prepare the frosting. In a saucepan, whisk flour, lemon rind, milk and buttermilk. Stir constantly. Mixture will be thick. Remove from heat and let cool to room temp.
9. In a large bowl cream butter and both regular sugar and brown sugar. Add vanilla, lemonade and powdered sugar. Add cooled flour mix and beat. If it looks separated, you didn’t beat it enough.
10. Frost cooled cake and store in fridge. Million time better cold.

Who doesn’t like fries?

There are endless ways to make them, top them and eat them.

They are the perfect companion to any BBQ.

First, pre-heat and prepare your baking sheet. Wash and begin to cut your potatoes.

Once cut let them soak in a large bowl of ice cold water and 1 tsp vinegar (this help to keep the potatoes white…you do not taste the vinegar at all once they are baked).

After 20 min in the water, remove and pat potatoes dry with paper towels.

In a large bowl combine butter, oil, salt, pepper and garlic. Toss in potatoes and coat well.

Pour on to baking sheet and bake.

Once golden and yummy looking, remove from oven and immediately top with cheese. Enjoy.

Oven Fries

Ingredients

• 5 large russet potatoes
• 3 cups ice cold water
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• ½ stick (1/4 cup) butter, melted
• ½ cup olive oil
• 2 tsp pepper
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 cup shredded cheese (I used sharp cheddar and asiago)

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 450. Line a baking sheet with foil.
2. In a large bowl add the ice-cold water and vinegar.
3. Wash and cut your potatoes into 1-inch strips, and place in the bowl. Let soak for 20 min. Remove and pat dry.
4. In another large bowl combine butter, oil, salt, pepper and garlic. Mix until combine. Add potatoes and toss to coat.
5. Spread evenly over baking sheet and pop in the oven for 20 min. Stir/turn potatoes and bake for another 20-25 min or until golden brown.
6. Remove and immediately top with cheese. The heat will help melt the cheese.
7. Enjoy

Here is another fabulous question….

Q: How did you start your research on Homeschooling Programs and how did you organize your day to fit school in on top of…everything else?

A: Good one. I did a ton of research on-line (mainly just goggling homeschool programs) and narrowed it down. I requested a ton of info. Once I got it all in I just looked at what they offered. We do not go to church, so it helped to choose programs that didn’t have any religious connections. Then we looked at price. There are some pretty pricey ones out there. Ultimately the one we picked (Calvert) just felt right and it offered a program (for a additional fee) where you send in the test and someone else grades them….so I wasn’t the bad guy……all the time . In the program they included the text books, paper, answer keys (thank god), even crayons. Everything you could need (except for a few items for science).

As far as fitting everything in….we just do it. We know what has to be done and really some how just make it work. The program we picked works so well for us because they give you a manual that really lays it all out for you. Each day is laid out; it pretty much tells you what to say and how. Obviously it can be adjusted to the family.

I really hope that helps. If you have any more questions about homeschooling, please do not hesitate to ask them.

Keep any other questions coming……I’m ready

First question to add to my FAQ’s:

Q: How do you find the time to cook/blog/take care of kids/talk to husband/clean the house?

A: Liquor…..just kidding (kinda). Because I am homeschooling my kids we incorporate a lot of the cooking into school. While they are doing their work, I get stuff ready (pre-heat, pre-measure) and we finish together.

The hubs works durning the day, so when he gets home we say hello and I get started on dinner and he spends time with the munchkins. Then we eat, bathe, read and bed (for them). Then it is our time…bow chick wow wow…just kidding we aren’t that cool. We watch our fav. TV shows then off to bed.

I try to keep up on bloging surgically throughout the day. When ever I have time. I don’t get much sleep. Late to bed early to rise.

As far as house cleaning……yea, that is a different story. During the week, my house is a complete disaster; and it drives me crazy. I am a neat freak. (and this is where my lovely sister says….no just a freak…love you ) I really try to SCRUB my house top to bottom during the weekend.

That is about it. And sad thing is that is literally my day…..my life.

Keep your questions coming. I love it.

So I thought I would try something a bit different.

Keep you on your toes.

From time to time I like to be crafty. The kids like it. It helps the planet…..recycling junk I my have just tossed. Helps keep us artsy and keep our creative juices flowing.

I have seen these several places on the web and thought they were awesome. I almost bought one at Target the other day (glad I didn’t).

I thought since summer is coming up, these would be perfect for traveling kiddos. We keep these in the car for short trips to the store or longer ones up north.

I bet you have everything you need right now.

The best part of this is, once they find everything and they get board with them….you can change out the toys. Awesome!!! Cant do that with the Target ones

Eye Spy Jars

Materials

• 1 mason jar (I used a quart sized jar) or clear bottle w/top (the wider the mouth the better)
• 1 bag (48oz) rice (any kind will do)
• Assorted toys and trinkets
• List of the toys used
• Ribbon to go around the top, to make it pretty

Directions

1. Fill jar 1/3 full of un-cooked rice.
2. Add toys and trinkets. Fill with a bit more rice, then more toys and so on. Be sure to leave at least ½ – 1 inch room at the top.
3. Put top on and shake up really good.
4. Wrap ribbon around and tie, now it looks pretty

We sent in the final test just yesterday!!!

We are done!!!!

Although it has been a long, hard school year for us, (this was our first year homeschooling) I wouldn’t change a thing.

They learned a lot. And I learned a lot…..of patients .

I am so proud of my munchkins.

Way to go guys!!!!

Lets get this summer thing started…..

What are your plans for summer?