Helping Mommy Bake

Claire LOVES to help me make anything. She is really getting good at dumping stuff in without spilling...however she has discovered by observation how to turn on the mixer, hence the flour flying out all over the counter...see below:
YUMMY! This is banana bread batter that she is enjoying. She can eat a whole piece for breakfast now! I let her try to break open eggs for the first time this week. It went about how I expected it to go. SMASH...egg shells all in the measuring cup. Oh well, she had fun! And I have just as much fun watching her figure things out.

The Making of the Gingerbread House

So these are gonna go in reverse since that's the way Blogger likes to upload things. Here is our finished house! Slightly sloppy by my old definitions, but absolutely perfect with a 2 year-old helping!

You'll notice that Claire was a huge fan of this craft project. Her hands are in her mouth on several photos. She loved the icing.
I would actually put the icing on the house and then she would stick the candies on. And then I kept noticing she would just stick her finger in the icing so she could eat it.

Her eyes are closed in pure bliss:

What's not to love? Sugary treats right after breakfast while still wearing Sponge Bob jammies. I hate Sponge Bob btw. But for $3 clearance jammies at Wal-Mart...you stop caring and just buy them. Stuff at the Goodwill or Resale stores costs more!

YUMMY! I put out all these different bowls for the candies. Next year...I won't be so organized. It's all just gonna get mixed up anyways!

She got the hang of this right away and had a blast sticking all the candies on...in between sticking some in her mouth!

Ahh...standing in the chair. This is why I like to keep her strapped in the booster seat or high chair. Then she can't get out!

I first told her we were gonna put the candy on the house and she dumped a whole bowl right on to it. :)

It only took about 5 minutes to ice the house together. The roof was broken in the box, but nothing a little icing didn't fix!

Stay tuned for more fun Christmas crap, err...crafts...that we've been making!

Thanksgiving Food!

So we had my parents down on this past Saturday to have Thanksgiving with them. I made a ham vs. a turkey and there were definitely not enough people to make both. I also made green bean casserole for the first time ever. Wow...that was an easy recipe! But again...I don't really like stuff in cream-based sauces because they are too rich so it's not something I'll make regularly.

Then I made a family favorite called "cheesy potatoes" per Josh's request. I don't like them either because they have sour cream in them. Ha. I am picky. :) So I made those for the first time as well, and they turned out well too.

I made cranberry sauce from scratch per the back of the Ocean Spray bag, and that turned out great. I love cranberry sauce. I could eat that stuff plain like a bowl of ice cream. I love stuff like that that is bitter. Crazy, I know. The canned cranberry sauce has HFCS in it, too, boo.

Lets see...I also made the yeast rolls that you let rise for like 5 hours. I had Claire help me put the frozen dough balls in the pan. I put 2 in each so they were doubly big. Yum. Claire decided to lick one of the dough balls. She loved it immediately and gnawed on it until it turned into a soft lump of gooey dough, at which point she started eating the raw dough. Another favorite of mine. ;)

She also ate raw carrots and celery for the first time! She did chew them up and spit them back out for the most part, but I guess that's all part of trying new things!

I made a 10 pound ham. I swear there are at least still 5 lbs in the fridge. I should probably put it in the freezer tomorrow because I'm already sick of ham. I'm going to make some split pea soup with it. I love split pea soup. It's probably my favorite kind.

I also made 2 desserts. Lemon pudding bars and Apple-Raspberry Cobbler. Both are completely gone. :)

Lets see...Stuffing was done by Stovetop, complete with the MSG in all it's glory. I'm sure that's why all the other brands suck...they don't have MSG.

My brother Richie sent down some corn chowder from his garden corn from this summer. It was super tasty with carrot chunks and potatoes. Claire loved it, but she loves cooked carrots more than me. Carrots are sooo sweet.

Speaking of sweet, Claire's appetite has really picked up lately, and boy does she love fruit. I can't keep bananas, grapes, oranges, or clementines in the house. I think we've already been through 2 boxes of the clementines this citrus season. I'm not used to having another fruit eater in the house! She also loves apples and can easily eat 2 in a day.

She also loves cream of wheat, oatmeal, and hard-boiled eggs. I've been trying to feed her an egg for a bed-time snack instead of something like an apple since the protein will keep her full longer.

I also had a shrimp ring for an appetizer with cocktail sauce. I love horseradish cocktail sauce...the hotter the better...I love the sauce they have at St. Elmo's!

Well that's about it for the food. Want some leftovers?

Black Friday Buys

Last year I bought nothing on Black Friday. Today, I did go to two stores! I got some steals:

Frog Princess Tiana $14.99 vs. $7.44
Snow White $19.50 vs. $7.44
Cinderella $21.35 vs. $7.44
Belle $16.50 vs. $7.44
Ariel $23.95 vs. $7.44

So I got FIVE dolls for $37.20! If I bought them all at "full price" it would have been $96.29.

I also got her some playdough for her stocking....ooooh Christmas is fun!!! I need to control myself. She isn't even begging for anything at this point.

I stopped at 5! They are basically Barbies and super cute. Claire's in love with Princesses! Sorry the sale is over. They also had a Barbie on Special for $5 but I didn't see any left. Bummer. Next time I need to go in the middle of the night apparently.

Among other things, I got my table set for our Thanksgiving which will be tomorrow. I also made homemade cranberry sauce according to the recipe on the back of the Ocean Spray bag. I sampled some, and it is really good! I also made some Lemon Pudding Bars for dessert. Pumpkin Pie is ok, but I'm not super crazy about it. It's generally too rich/thick for me no matter what recipe. I excited about cooking the rest of the stuff tomorrow for our big meal!

Graham Cracker Recipe

Since I've had a couple emails and other requests for this, here is the
HOME-MADE GRAHAM CRACKER RECIPE!!!
and I do want to give credit to the awesome cookbook I got this out of: WHOLE FOODS FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY which has tons of other awesome recipes. It is a LLL publication. LLL of course stresses healthy eating from as natural of a state as possible for the whole family. You should totally buy it. It has recipes for stuff that you typically BUY all the time...also for things like "condensed soup mixes" and saltine crackers, salad dressings, pancake "mixes", "sloppy joe mixes"...stuff I used to buy before I started reading labels and avoiding MSG and HFCS as much as possible. It even has some recipes for home-made juice, which I might try when I finally go and pick apples this fall! So here goes.

INGREDIENTS:
1/3 c. oil
1/3 c. Honey
2 T. molasses
1 t. vanilla
2 1/2 to 3 cups whole wheat flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 to 1/2 c. milk
oil or butter for greasing

READ ALL THE DIRECTIONS FIRST!
1. Mix oil, honey, molasses and vanilla in large bowl.
2. Combine 2 1/2 c. flour with baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in medium bowl.
3. Add dry mix to wet mix, alternating with milk. Mix well. When dough gets too stiff for spoon stirring, knead with hands.
4. If dough becomes too sticky, add up to 1/2 c. more flour. Form dough into ball.
5. Preheat oven to 300 F.
6. Grease cookie sheets.
7. Divide dough in half.
8. Roll out flat, directly onto sheet. (It should be enough to put on 2 sheets.)
9. Use knife to cut into squares about 2.5 inches apart, but do not actually separate.
10. Prick surface with fork or shampoo brush (???!!!) for even baking.
11. Bake for 15-25 minutes, or until outer edges are slightly browned.
12. Remove from oven with potholders (duh!)
13. Allow to cool entirely on sheets.
14. After cooled, separate the crackers and remove from sheet with turner.
15. Store in an airtight container to keep them fresh.

PS...I like to sprinkle extra cinnamon/sugar on top of mine after poking the holes! Warning...you will never want store-bought ones again! :) If you make them, let me know how yours turned out! :) YUMMY! ENJOY!

Home-Made Graham Crackers!

I've enjoyed making homemade Graham Crackers for awhile. I bascially decided to make it one day when we were out of Graham Crackers and I didn't feel like running up to Trader Joe's which is about 20 minutes away. I don't like feeding Claire stuff with HFCS because it is seriously in everything and pretty unnatural.
They are super easy and super tasty. You can also top them with whatever you want, too!

Cooking with Anja

Anja is an awesome cook. One night she made us some yummy curry chicken complete with pineapple and mandarin oranges in it. Yummy-ness in the making: