I have a little baker…

May 26, 2015 1 Comment

As long as I could remember my son would be right by my side every time I decided to bake something.

my little baker!

my little baker!

More than likely it was because he wanted to lick the spoon when I was done, which was okay by me..I just enjoyed the bonding time and I loved how curious he was. I distinctly remember this one time when I was baking cookies and went to put the dough into the oven; when I got back to the table, Carson had gotten a hold of my leftover cookie dough and he was using his chest to flatten the dough..keep in mind this was when he was three years old. I laughed and asked him what he was doing and he responded by saying that he was rolling out his dough..then it dawned on me that he must not see that I have a rolling pin in my hand when I roll out the cookie dough. It’s just funny what kids pick up on! Since then it’s been about 4 years and I’m thankful that Carson still loves to bake with me. About a month and a half ago I saw that there was a cake contest in our area and I asked Carson if he wanted to do it. I was happy when he got so excited and said YES! And so it began…the planning…what catagories were we going to enter and what were we going to make? Carson decided on entering 2 categories and was going to make a 3-D version of a rubix cube made out of cookies and he decided to also bake cinnamon oatmeal raisin cookies.

Our kitchen looked like a wreck the entire weekend. Friday after my husband came home from work..he said, THIS is NOT what I expected to come home too… Carson just looked at me and we kept plugging along.

rolling out the dough

rolling out the dough

getting ready

getting ready

in the oven it goes

in the oven it goes

and the decorating begins!

and the decorating begins!

We stayed up till midnight getting everything ready, and on the big day..we were ready and excited!! Never having entered a baking contest, we had no idea what to expect. We got to the venue and set up our entries and we were so amazed by the cakes!! Carson was carrying in my buttercream cake and when he saw the other entries, he said with such a serious face..” mommy, I don’t think we are going to win.”. I laughed.. and explained that there were different levels and different categories. We spent the whole day at the event, ooohing and aahhing over the amazing cakes and cookies, and buying the newest and coolest baking gadgets. Carson met the masterchef jr season 3 contestants and decorated cookies with them. He was in his own element. It made me happy. At the end of the day, Carson won first place for his rubix cube and third place for his cinnamon oatmeal raisin.

rubix cube

rubix cube

I won first place in everything I entered. It was a good day!

Winners!!

Winners!!

Carson can’t wait for next year’s contest…maybe he will be masterchef jr someday… one can always dream!! I have included the recipe that Carson entered for his cinnamon oatmeal cookies..it is VERY good. Give it a try! Leave me a comment and let me know what your favorite cookie flavor is!

CINNAMON OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES

Mix and set aside:

2cups all-purpose flour

  • 1teaspoon baking soda
  • 1teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

  • Mix wet ingredients

  • 1cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1cup sugar
  • 1cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
  • 2large eggs
  • 3teaspoons vanilla

  • Then stir in

  • 3cups oats (not instant)
  • 2 cups raisins
  • 1.5 tablespoons of cinnamon
    1. Preheat oven to 350°.
    2. Combine wet ingredients on low.
    3. To cream, increase speed to high and beat until fluffy and the color lightens. (do not overbeat- it will make the cookie tough)
    4. Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture until fully mixed together.
    5.  Now add the oats and raisins and cinnamon;
    6. Drop 2-inches apart onto baking sheet sprayed with nonstick spray.
    7. Bake 11-13 minutes (on center rack), until golden, but still moist beneath cracks on top.
    8. Remove from oven; let cookies sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
    9. Sprinkle the cookies with cinnamon before serving.
Filed Under: In the kitchen Tagged With: , , ,

Are artificial dyes affecting my child?!!

March 24, 2015 Leave a Comment

Our kids are crazy! That’s what my husband said to me as I walked through the door. It was 9:30pm and the kids should have been asleep but instead they were running around chanting, ” daddy’s crazeeee”. Oh brother!! They woke up so early that morning, they should be exhausted. After 30 minutes of laying down with them they were finally out! I started to straighten the house and get things ready for the next day and that’s when I saw it… the trash can was full of popsicle wrappers, lollipop wrappers and an empty cheetos bag. I walked straight into our room with the wrappers and empty bag and just looked at my husband for an explanation. He looked at me dumbfounded and said..” what??!! The popsicles are sugar free.” Not exactly the answer I was looking for.
Food dyes certified by use by the FDA has increased 5 fold since 1950. The most common food dyes that are found are Red 40 and yellow 5. As a consumer, I know that food dyes are in most products we use. Popsicles, twizzlers, m&m’s, sodas, even macaroni and cheese! What manufacturers don’t want you to know, is how much food dye is in each product. With food dyes linked to ADHD, cancer, allergic reactions and a slew of other behavior issues, shouldn’t it be important to know how much dye we are consuming?
Research was done by Purdue University scientists and an article was published in the Journal of Clinical Pediatrics on the amount of food dyes in commonly consumed products. They found General Mills Trix to have 36.4 mg of dyes per serving, fruity cheerios had 31 mg of food dyes per serving, Capt Crunch Oops all berries had 41 mg of food dyes per serving, skittles had 33.3 mg of food dyes per serving, M&M’s had 29.5mg per serving and powerade orange sports drink had 22.1 mg of artifical dyes per serving. Behavioral tests show that as little as 30 mg of artifical dye can cause adverse reactions. Researchers established that children could easily consume 100 mg of food dye in a day. Think about what your children eat in a single day. From breakfast, lunch and dinner to all the snacks in between. the cumulative impact of so much dye in foods could be the reason that behavior problems have become more common.
My kids get hyperactive after consuming foods with a lot of food dyes. Especially red food dyes. Pair that with their favorite snacks of fruit roll ups and you have a dangerous combination! So when my coworker had mentioned that she made her own fruit roll ups – I was all ears. Especially when she said it only took 2 ingredients. So this past weekend, the kids made their own fruit roll ups..and it was a SUCCESS!! It took all of 5 minutes to prep and only 2 ingredients.No artificial flavoring and no artificial dyes! I let the kids pick out what fruit they wanted to use and we ended up with strawberries ( 1 lbs container) and raspberries (1 pint).
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Just blend each fruit and mix 1 tablespoon of honey into blended fruit.
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Lay a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet and pour fruit and honey mix on parchment paper. Thin to a even layer and place into a preheated oven (200 degrees) for 4 hours. After its cooled, cut into strips. We used tape to keep it rolled up, but you don’t have to even roll it up if you don’t want to.
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Since it takes 4 hours to make, I would make 2 batches at a time. After everything was made, rolled and taped, Carson was our taste tester and gave it two thumbs up.
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…and then there was SNOW!!

March 5, 2015 Leave a Comment

The weather has been crazy here in Texas to say the very least. Hot, then cold. Sunny then bitterly dreary rain. The kids had a few snow days last week which they were ecstatic about and then last night at 1130 pm we were awoken by first the house phone ringing to tell us that school had been cancelled, then 10 minutes after that awoken to my cell phone ringing with the same message and then 10 minutes after that with the same call to Chad’s cell phone.

We got to sleep in this morning…the kids were being EXTRA quiet because they still thought they were supposed to be in school! I can’t remember when we last got to sleep in until 830am! We woke up to 4 inches of SNOW!! We couldn’t believe it!! We quickly got changed and started our snow creations,
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instigated a snowball fight with our neighbors, went sledding
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AND made snow ice cream!! In fact, it’s a pretty funny story.. a few weeks ago when snow wasn’t even a thought in our minds I had been up late one night (dang my insomnia) and was scrolling on PINTEREST and saw a recipe for snow ice cream.. I pinned it and posted it on Facebook saying that I was totally going to make it. My friends laughed at me, asking where I was going to get snow in texas. lol. And now..look at me now..Today I made Snow Ice cream!!

I had Carson gather the snow (about 6 cups full)
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and then had him kind chop it up so it was light. We added a teaspoon of vanilla
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and 1/2 can of condensed milk.
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Then chopped it up and mixed it all together again.
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Excitedly I scooped it bowls for each of us to eat.
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However, Carson just held the bowl in his hand was watching me, I asked him what was wrong and he said he wanted to see me eat it first. I took a bite and it
AMAZINGLY tasted like ice cream!! He then took his bite and said, ” I still think you should have washed the snow..if we get sick..its your fault.” He makes me laugh all the time with his logic of thinking. But that still didn’t stop him or Katie from eating all of their ice cream!! Give it a try!! It’s so neat and FUN!

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its hump day- plump day!!

February 18, 2015 Leave a Comment

It’s hard to believe that  I barely knew how to cook before I was married with kids! Yes, I was totally spoiled by my mother,grandmother and actually…everyone in my family!! But luckily my husband knew early on to tell me that everything I made was delicious. lol. Even though I knew better! Now I definitely know better when he says my dinner tastes delicious and the kids say the total opposite. BUSTED! But I am always on the look out for quick and easy recipes for dinner. And lately,  I have been hearing and reading about all these great recipes using the crock pot!! I have to be honest..I have not had much luck at all with the crock pot but decided to give it another go. My coworker told me about a lasagna recipe in the crock pot..I was a little hesitant because I have tried to make pasta dishes in the crock pot before and the edges never fully cooked. But I have to say..I was quite impressed with this recipe. In fact, my sister was over at my house visiting when I was putting everything in the crock pot and she was blown away with how easy it was. So without further ado..here is the recipe that I used from itsalwaysautumn.com

crockpot-lasagne

 

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Fall Football and Friends!!

September 30, 2014 Leave a Comment

You can feel the coolness creeping in the morning and see the days growing shorter. The leaves are starting to change colors and pumpkins are starting to abound!  Fall is here! This is one of my favorite times of the year. There is so much to do! We have the state fair, pumpkin patches, Oktoberfest and lots of festivals going on during this time!

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This past weekend, I had time to pull out my fall stuff and decorate the mantle! Now I am definitely in the fall mood!!
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This past weekend we attended the Greek Festival! There was so much great food there! Gyros, spanakopita, Kotopoulo me ryzi, and baklava!! Even baklava ice cream!! We were in heaven!!!  Carson and Katie were in awe of the little greek dancers.
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The rest of the night they were doing their own versions of greek dancing!  I even went home and tried to bake my own greek pastry!! If you want to try your hand at baking some greek cookies. Here is the recipe for koulourakia that I tried. it is delicious!

Sesame Greek Easter Cookies (Koulourakia)

  • Prep Time: 10 minsTotal Time: 22 mins
  • Yield: 48 cookies

About This Recipe

“Traditional Greek cookies are 2 small strands of dough twisted together and brushed with egg-milk mixture and sprinkled with sesame seed.”

Ingredients

    • 1 cup butter
    • 1 1/2 cups sugar
    • 3 eggs
    • 1/2 cup orange juice
    • 6 cups flour
    • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
    • 2 teaspoons baking powder
    • 1 egg, beaten ( mixed with the milk)
    • 7 tablespoons milk

Directions

  1. Cream butter. Add sugar gradually.
  2. Add eggs one at a time alternately with orange juice.
  3. Add flour that has been sifted with soda and baking powder, a little bit at a time. Should be a soft dough.
  4. Shape as desired and brush with egg and milk mixture. Traditional Greek cookies are 2 small strands of dough twisted together and brushed with egg-milk mixture and sprinkled with sesame seed.
  5. Use greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees to 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.
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Filed Under: In the kitchen
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