Sweet Experiments

Now that Tyler is frequently hijacking the kitchen, I'm finding that I have to compete for weekend baking time. I was already planning to make pastries on Saturday until Tyler shoved me aside with words of french toast. So I had to settle for Sunday pastries instead.

I have been eyeballing a recipe for weeks out of Rachael Ray's February magazine, called Raspberry Linzer Cheese Danishes. It's all about the puff pastry...that's all I've got to say. I had an extra sheet lying around the freezer and really, what else was I going to do with it?

Yum....don't they look good enough to eat? They have an almond cream cheese filling with a dollop of jam in the center. I used strawberry jam and fig jam instead of raspberry.

After they come out of the oven, you drizzle them with icing....after they cool completely, that is. Boy, I wish I'd read that part in advance. Tyler was practically starving to death during the cooling process. I had to set them outside on the back porch to speed the process up a little bit.

So how did they taste, you wonder? I thought they were fantastic...super delicious! Tyler, not so much. For him it was 0 for 2 as far as breakfast went this weekend. Are you kidding me? What's not to love. Even Rick agreed with me on this one. Total winner.

And in the dessert category...Molasses Spice Cookies. Yet another recipe I cut out of the Sunday Parade magazine from Dorie Greenspan.

I clipped this one out of the paper sometime mid-December and am just now getting around to baking them. They were well worth the wait though. The flavor was perfect and they came out nice and chewy, just how I like.

For The Record...They Were Good

Rick and I had some 50% off Joann coupons that were burning holes in our pockets, so we went and used them on a few more kid's cookbooks for Tyler. We got Betty Crocker's Kids Cook and Southern Living Kids Cookbook. Tyler once again had a recipe picked out before we made it back to the house....french toast sticks from the Betty Crocker book.

Of course you can use any bread you like for french toast, so I was assuming we would just use the whole wheat sandwich bread we had in the cupboard. However, a certain someone held their nose up at the idea and said that the bread was too "nutty". So I threw some ingredients in the bread maker and out popped a regulation loaf of white sandwich bread.

The next morning Tyler and I were up bright and early to get started. I sliced the bread into nice thick slices and then into sticks. Tyler beat together the egg/milk mixture and poured it over the bread.

The crazy part of the recipe is that you were supposed to crush up cornflakes and coat the egg covered sticks with the crumbs. Crunchy french toast....weird! I wasn't sure about that so we decided to only coat half the sticks...and with crushed corn chex because that's what we had.

Tyler was in charge of cooking on the stove and he did a great job...flipping and all.

The final product...half crispy and half regular.

May the record show that Tyler was in complete charge of dishing his own food. He chose the pieces he wanted, added the syrup and powdered sugar. It wasn't until Rick and I had almost finished our plates that we realized Tyler hadn't eaten much...maybe half of one stick. When we asked why, he insisted that I had ruined it by adding too much syrup. What!? I had nothing to do with it. Anyway, Tyler didn't care for the meal, but I don't know if it was because of the syrup or the crunchy coating....which wasn't bad by the way, I liked it.

Done

Phew! I'm finished! I completed the last disk of STS strength this morning. The process I started almost a year ago has finally come to an end. After receiving the disks last February, I procrastinated for MONTHS because I knew it would be such a huge challenge and that it would require a 3 month block of matter-of-fact commitment.

My first attempt at STS didn't go so well. I only made it through the second mesocycle before I had to give it up due to a flair up of an old back/shoulder injury. But after a few visits to the chiropractor and some rest, I was back on board to try again from the start.

Here is my before picture...actually I took this in the second week of the program, but that still counts as a before...right?

Before
After

It's not a monumental change, but I can certainly see more definition in my biceps, shoulders, triceps and thighs. I also lost a solid 5 lbs during the course of the program....it's not a lot, but it sure makes a difference in how my clothes fit.

I'm completely happy with the results and I'm already ready to start the program again...you know, in about a month or so. I love Cathe Friedrich. Everything she puts out is outstanding. I discovered her 3 years ago on FitTv and I've never looked back. If I didn't realize it before, I realize now that she's changed my life...inspiring me with a passion for fitness that I've never had before. And the best part...I've never set foot inside a gym. Seriously, who needs the gym when you've got Cathe Friedrich!

Discovering A Treasure

When Tyler's teacher told us that he needed to start reading chapter books, we thought...okay, sure. So we went to a few bookstores and looked around, but didn't really find anything that would be engaging for a 4 year old. Then I decided to try the early reader section of the library and that's when I stumbled across the Mr. Putter and Tabby Series.

Wow! I am in love with this series. It's absolutely perfect for Tyler. They're short chapter books with lots of pictures and Tyler has no problem completing them in one sitting. All of the books feature an older man and his cat Tabby...and do I have to remind you how much Tyler loves cats? And they're funny too, I laugh out loud every time.

Turns out I'm not the only one in love with the series. Last week when Tyler and I went to the library, we found that every single Mr. Putter and Tabby book was checked out. Every single one....and the library has around 20 of them. We couldn't believe it. What a disappointment! We ended up having to put a few on hold. Who knew?

Previously, Rick or I had always read picture books to Tyler at bedtime. Now he is reading chapter books to us....I love it!

Dinner And Dessert

Over the weekend, I tried a new chicken recipe that I'd cut out of the newspaper a few weeks ago. It's from Dorie Greenspan's column that runs in the Parade magazine on Sundays. It's called Maple Orange Chicken.

The recipe is straightforward and beyond simple. All you do is brown some chicken cutlets (I used chicken breasts) in a skillet until cooked through and then you make a glaze of maple syrup (the real stuff) and marmalade to go over the top. Then you can garnish it with chopped parsley to give it some more color.

I thought the chicken came out great and Tyler must have thought the same, as he gobbled his right up. I didn't hear much from Rick, but then the condiment king did douse his rice with soy sauce (bleh!) and I'm not sure the soy sauce and marmalade were getting along too well in his mouth.

On the dessert front, I made Ellie Krieger's Double Chocolate Brownies, out of an issue of the Food Network magazine.

I also put my Baker's Edge pan to use, which I love! That thing is great....it's nonstick and it bakes evenly. It's a little awkward putting the batter in, but hey....making every piece an edge piece is worth the trouble.

As for the recipe itself...it was alright. The brownies have a lower fat content, so they came out more cake like, then dense and chewy. That's fine, but honestly...if I were blindfolded I would think I was eating a piece of cake.

Rise And Shine

The recipe Tyler picked out this week was a breakfast item, so we got started bright and early this morning. It was a breakfast pizza topped with scrambled eggs, sausage and cheese.

We used a can of refrigerated pizza dough for the crust and Tyler took care of the toppings. He practically cooked the scrambled eggs all by himself.

The mini pizzas looked great when they came out of the oven, and they were a nice change of pace from our normal breakfast fare...cold cereal.

Yum!

After filling our bellies with delicious food, we were off to Lowe's for their building project. Today the kids were making tic-tac-toe boards.

You know how Tyler is now...he likes to build all by himself. He's pretty good at it too.

Ta-da! The face of the game board slides in and out, revealing a storage compartment for the game pieces...red circles and blue squares. You wanna play?

Cutest Thing I've Seen

Yesterday, Tyler brought home a book he made at school about land formations and bodies of water. It's seriously the cutest thing I've ever seen! Earlier in the week he was telling me some of the information he had learned, but I didn't realize that he had been working on a book!

What's a lake, you ask....

Oh, it's a body of water with land all around.

An island?

That's a body of land with water all around it.

And it goes on....a peninsula.

An isthmus!? Get out!

I am so glad we picked the Montessori preschool for Tyler...he is doing the best work there. He's learning everything from who is on the dollar bill to the anatomy of a flower. His reading skills are out of the park, that's for sure. But it's not all work...he has so much fun. I can't wait to find out about the fruit kebabs he made at school today.

Riding The Slow Train

It's been a quiet week so far. Nothing much going on. I'm in the third week of the last mesocycle of STS, so I've been pretty wiped out. I only have 4 more workouts before I finally finish the program. Lifting heavy weights is exhausting for sure, but I'm definitely proud of what I've done so far.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to accomplish much else around the house this week. I was hoping I'd have some time for scrapbooking, but my photos remain at Costco, unclaimed.

I did manage to get in the kitchen and try a few new recipes. For some reason, I'm never too tired for that!

I tried a muffin recipe from The Complete Muffin Cookbook, by Gloria Ambrosia. I've had the cookbook since 2006 and I think this is the first time I've actually used it. Funny how that happens...maybe I have a few too many cookbooks. I made the Orange Cardamom muffins.

They smell great, that's for sure...thanks to a brand new jar of cardamom. I wasn't as impressed by the taste though, they were a little bit....bland? The orange flavor didn't really come through at all. They're 100% whole grain, which is my favorite part, so I won't mind eating them all up.

I also tried a Rachael Ray recipe called, Sweet Potato and Sausage Hash.

This one tasted good, but not great. My main complaint was the disproportion of meat and potatoes. The recipe calls for 2 lbs of sweet potatoes, but only 1/2 lb of sausage. That's fine if you love sweet potatoes, but it just wasn't enough meat for the carnivorous boys in the house. I also picked a funky sausage that wasn't the best. With a tastier sausage, like Jimmy Dean, and more of it, this one could really be great.

Rainy Weekend

It rained all weekend.....not very hard, but it was still all wet and dreary. So we stayed in for the most part, playing Monopoly and other board games Tyler can't seem to get enough of.

On Saturday morning I had the perfect opportunity to make this month's recipe from my Gooseberry Patch calendar...chocolate chip pancakes.

Mmmm, they were good!

For dinner we went out to eat at Casa Mia, an Italian restaurant. Our food was a steal, because we used a restaurant.com coupon that paid for $25 of our bill. Not a bad deal and we got a ton of food. I ordered a calzone that was absolutely huge, while Rick had a spicy chicken caesar salad and a lasagna. Tyler had macaroni and cheese from the kids menu.

On Sunday we eagerly headed over to Joann's, as the 50% of coupon in their mailer finally went into effect. Tyler and I have been eyeing some cookbooks, but weren't about to pay full price for them. When we arrived, we were surprised to see a new selection of books on the shelves, so we had even more to choose from. Tyler found another Gooseberry Patch cookbook, called Kids in the Kitchen, Year 'round fun. I ended up getting a Gooseberry Patch cookbook as well, called Summer in the Country.

We all know how excited Tyler gets about cooking, so of course he had a recipe picked out before we even made it back to the house. His book is oriented by seasons and holidays thru the calendar year, so one of the first recipes is for Hot Chocolate in January. Perfect!


So that's what we had for dessert last night...real homemade hot chocolate. Yum!

Salad Bar

Tyler had no problem picking out a recipe to try this week. He had one marked and ready to go...a salad bar.

We made a list of the ingredients we needed and stopped at the store on the way home from school. With fresh vegetables in hand, we were ready to start.

The first step was to make the dressing.

It's just a mixture of mayonnaise, vinegar and apple juice. Sounds weird, but it tastes good on the salad.

I started chopping the vegetables and placing them in different bowls. Tyler took them and arranged them in a salad bar fashion, complete with labels.

Gotta label those sunflower seeds...

For the lettuce, we used a mix of iceberg and spinach...it's what we had in the fridge.

Here's the completed salad bar...shredded carrots, mushrooms, tomato, black olives, chopped egg, croutons, cucumber, kidney beans, shredded cheese, chow mein noodles and sunflower seeds.

The salad bar turned out great....I think we should have it more often. I can't think of anything else that would inspire Tyler to eat so many vegetables. He had two helpings! I mean, come on....look at his bowl!

A Little Bit Mild

According to the weather forecast, we're having "mild" temperatures this week. What the heck is that supposed to mean, anyway? Slightly warm? All I know is that it's been snow free, as in no new snow, for several weeks now and I really can't complain.

It's actually been raining on and off for the last several days, and I never thought I'd say this about rain, but I love it! The temperatures have been in the low to mid 40's, which is actually really nice for winter in Yakima.

In the kitchen, I've had a hit and miss sort of week with the new recipes I've tried. First I made Fiesta Pork and Cheesy Polenta out of Rachael Ray's February magazine.

I loved this meal! LOVED IT! And what's more...Rick and Tyler both claimed to enjoy it. I hope they weren't lying on my account because I'm making this one again...for sure. I used a pork sirloin roast because that's what the store had. I also used fresh bell peppers instead of frozen, half and half instead of heavy cream, and regular polenta instead of instant. Oh, and I left the scallions out...but I don't think any of those substitutions made a great deal of difference in the overall taste. It's a winner!

For dessert, I made Prune Cake out of my new Pioneer Woman Cookbook.

I was desperate to get rid of that Costco sized bag of prunes hanging out in the pantry and I had such high hopes for this recipe. It had a nice flavor, like Quaker Raisin Spice instant oatmeal, but it was sweet, a little too sweet. But worse than that, it was wet. You're supposed to make a caramel topping to pour over the finished cake, which soaks in and makes it...wet. I just didn't care for the final texture of the cake and neither did Tyler. He won't be eating any more of it. I guess that means more for me....Hmmmm.

It's a Secret

Tyler had two craft projects this weekend, but I completely forgot to take the camera with us, so I had to wait until we were back home to take pictures. Our first stop was at Lowe's to build a coin bank.

It has four separate sections and slots for pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. Once you fill each slot to the top, it's enough for a roll. Tyler emptied out his piggy bank and my purse, but he still doesn't have enough to make any rolls yet....although he's getting close on the pennies.

Our next stop was at Ace hardware to make a doorknob hanger.

He glued sparkly tissue paper to a wooden form and decorated it with shiny snowflake stickers.

This weekend I also used the last of my pumpkin puree to make Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins as seen on Cookie Madness, one of my favorite blogs.

Made with whole wheat flour, Special Dark Cocoa and chocolate chips, they turned out delicious. Nobody was able to detect the pumpkin though, so we referred to them as the "secret pumpkin" muffins.

In other delightful news, I'm glad to announce that our Christmas tree came down today. Phew! If it didn't come down today, it would have remained for another week...I'm sure. Tyler was under the mistaken impression that the tree was staying up until Valentine's Day. Um....yeah, I don't think so!

Spaghetti Pie and Carrot Pennies

Tyler was so pleased with his pizza from the other week that he was already begging to get back in the kitchen. He even took his cookbooks to school and shared with the class the recipes he planned on making this weekend. He had decided on Spaghetti Pie from his Gooseberry Patch book and Carrot Pennies from Pretend Soup.

We started with the Spaghetti Pie.

First you have to mix ground beef with milk, bread crumbs and such, as if you were making meatloaf. Then you pat the mixture into a pie plate to form a "crust" and bake it off in the oven.

Next you mix cooked spaghetti noodles with an egg and pour it all into the prebaked meat crust.

Then you top it off with sauce and cheese and put it back in the oven to finish baking.

While that was in the oven we got started on the carrot pennies.

Actually, I did all the prep work on the carrots in advance...the slicing and cooking.

All Tyler had to do was add the ingredients for the glaze and stir.

And that's what we had for dinner tonight. The carrots were great and the pie was good too. The meat crust was kind of thick for my taste though...kind of like a giant meatball.