Monkey Cake and Train Cake

I love the idea of making birthday cakes for my kids. 
As a mom, we all create traditions for our family.  Some of those traditions come from our childhood homes and the traditions that were started way before we had kids. And some traditions we develop on our own. It is traditions that create a sense of home and family and safety in our children's lives.  I don't think it matters what those traditions are, but I think it is essential that traditions exist.  It gives kids something to look forward to --- something to come home to when they are all grown.  One of my traditions is the birthday cake.

Now, I know I have only had two birthday parties so far.  My son is 2 1/2, and my daughter is 8 months.  They both have summer birthdays.  So this summer I will be creating my son's 3rd cake and my daughter's first cake.  So I don't claim to have a lot of experience in this area, but I am excited about the concept of creating birthday cakes for my children.  My heart is definitely willing; even though my experience is saying buying cakes is much easier.

My son's first birthday party had a monkey theme.  Here are the cakes. This cake hinged on my flimsy
art skills.  I drew the monkey on the cake by pipping small stars. I based the monkey face on a small rug (I bought from Bed Bath and Beyond) in my son's bathroom bath.

My son's 2nd birthday party had a train theme.  Here is that cake.  The train cake was tons of fun to make.  And Aidan, my son, loved eating it. I filled the train cars with pretzels (log car), M&Ms (because they are colorful and cute), animal crackers (zoo car), and crushed Oreos (coal car).

I have not come up with the theme for his 3rd birthday yet -- or my daughter's theme for her first birthday. Let me know if you have any ideas.  Remember I have very little artist ability, but I make up for the lack of ability with a wiliness to try anything.

Crock Pot Chicken Chili

My neighbor Kristy doesn't love cooking.  She likes it --- and she loves the idea of cooking for her family.  She knows I love cooking, so she asked me to give her some ideas for good family dinners.  Now let me start off by saying that her crew isn't the easiest to cook for -- they have some food -- shall I say dislikes.  They don't like eating vegetables.  And Kristy is endlessly trying to get veggies in their tummies.  They are a meat and potato family. But I told her that the vegetables and beans can always be hidden in the meal. Last week she asked me to come by and cook dinner with her.  I thought I would show her an easy chicken chili recipe.  This recipe has a bit of sweetness to it because of the marmalade, and it can have as much heat as you can take. 

What is great about this recipe is it is easy and when I say easy, it is EASY.  This is a great meal to go to when your day has been too crazy to even make yourself and peanut butter sandwich. There is nothing better than smelling a crock pot dish coming together.  The end result is warm and fills your belly.  The crock pot allows the flavors to become fully married, and oh the best part -- only one pan to clean up after dinner.


Chicken Chili -- (with Mommy hints)

2 -3 chicken breasts
1-2 Tablespoons of taco seasoning (Mommy hint -- use your favorite kind -- if you want more heat use 2 Tablespoons -- my  favorite is La Preferita)
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup of salsa (Mommy hint -- use your favorite -- my favorite is Newman's Own all natural medium salsa.  If you want the chili to be spicier -- use a hot salsa)
1/2 cup orange marmalade (Mommy hint --  if you don't like orange marmalade don't worry - you don't taste the orange - all you taste is the sweetness in the background.  My husband hates orange anything -- and when I tried to make it with another preserve for him, he didn't like it as much -- the marmalade is the best of the different fruits that I have tried.  But take a chance and change it up with any fruit you want)
1 can black beans (Mommy hint -- my neighbor's husband doesn't like beans, so we pureed the beans.  We were able to keep the nutrients and fiber and hide the scary beans from Mike)

Directions:
Brown cubed chicken in a saute pan with olive oil, taco seasoning, and garlic. Once browned place chicken mixture in crock pot.  Then deglaze pan (Mommy hint -- get all the flavorful brown bits off the bottom of the pan) with salsa and marmalade. Once deglazed, place mixture in crock pot with chicken. Cook on low for 2 - 3 hours.  Mommy hint -- don't put beans in until last half hour before serving. 





I like to serve this over noodles. Use a short fat noodle.

Mommy hint -- If you don't want to use the crock pot, and you want to go from refrigerator to stove to table quicker, you can.  Do this whole process in one pot.  Cook on low for 45 minutes and serve. 

Soft and Fluffy Pancakes

I have been playing with different pancake recipes for years now.  I try a recipe and tweak and tweak
it.  Then I try another -- but I have finally found the perfect combination of ingredients and tweaking.  These pancakes turn out fluffy and tasty every time.  It is not worth my time or calories to make any other pancakes -- this pancake recipe has been perfected.  I hope you try them and you enjoy them as much as my family and I do.

Mommy Tips-----
I think there are a few key steps that make this recipe.  First it is important to warm the milk slightly.  The milk shouldn't be hot, but it cannot be cold from the refrigerator.  If it is cold, when the milk and the melted butter touch each other, the butter will start to reform and form crystals.  When the milk is slightly warm, the wet mixture remains smooth and silky.  The next key to this recipe is the egg white.  You really have to beat them until they form beautiful peaks.  If you are saying, "I have never beaten egg whites right -- I don't know how to."  You are not giving yourself a chance.  You just have never beaten egg white long enough.  Trust me -- I used to feel this way about egg whites --- UNTIL -- I did it long enough.  You will know when you have beaten them long enough, because once you create those beautiful stiff peaks, you will never forget how to do it.  The last key is the mixing -- don't over mix the wet and the dry ingredients.  And ever so gently mix the egg whites into the batter.  You must maintain the fluffy aspect of the egg whites.  This is why the pancakes are so fluffy.  These little steps make all the difference.  You will never make pancakes from a mix again.

Make it homemade; you are worth it.

Soft and Fluffy Pancakes
* 1 cup flour
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 2 egg yolks
* 3/4 cups skim milk, more or less (warm 30 seconds in micro)
* 4 tablespoons butter, melted
* 2 egg whites
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 1 teaspoon or a bit more vanilla

Directions: Place first three dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, salt,baking powder)mix together. In another bowl, mix the yolks, milk(with the chill taken off it), melted butter, and vanilla together until smooth. Next, make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the mixed wet ingredients all at once. Stir until just combined. DON'T OVER MIX. Beat the egg whites until light and fluffy. Add the sugar toward the end of the beating process. Fold the egg whites gently into the batter with a spatula.  Pour onto a buttered grill, cook your pancakes, and enjoy.

Slowly incorporate egg whites into the batter.

Here are the pancakes moments before my family ate them for breakfast.

What a cheese ball

Ok, I know this sounds so 1950s, but I make a great cheese ball. I used to make all sorts of appetizers for parties. It didn't matter how difficult the recipe was; now I have two kids -- two years old and 5 months. I still like to cook, but sometimes I have to think about the time it takes to make something. If I am going to spend a lot of time on the dinner and dessert, I have to cut back on the time it takes to make appetizers. Here is one of my go to appetizers that always gets lots of oohhs and yummms, but it is super easy.

Goat Cheese Ball with Pistachios

1stick of room temperature unsalted butter
1 10 oz stick of room temperature goat cheese
3/4 cup of pistachios (and a bit more reserved for decoration)
2 cloves of garlic (make a paste using some sea salt)
use fresh chopped scallions or chives to decorate the cheese ball the day you serve it


Whip room temperature butter, room  temperature goat cheese, and garlic/sea salt paste together. Then mix in chopped pistachios. Reserve some chopped nuts for decoration. Now for the cheese ball part -- it is really more of a half dome. Use a bowl that is the size of the half dome you want to create. Place plastic wrap in the bowl with enough extra wrap to over the cheese once it is in the bowl. Spray the plastic wrap with Pam Cooking Spray (this will help you invert the cheese dome and uncover it). Place cheese in the plastic wrapped bowl -- press cheese into bowl to insure the cheese takes on the form of the bowl. Cover the cheese with the remaining plastic wrap. Put in the refrigerator to set. This can be done the day before the party.

When getting ready for the party, invert the half dome (bowl) onto your serving platter. Take plastic wrap off. Use the remaining nuts to decorate the cheese ball. Lightly press the nuts into the cheese ball. Also use some chopped scallions or chives to decorate cheese ball and platter. Serve with crackers.

This is the key to the success of this cheese ball -- you MUST take it out 1 hour before you want to serve it. It has to soften or people will not like it as much. Trust me, it is the difference between having very little of the cheese ball leftover and having most of the cheese ball leftover.

Enjoy!

What am I going to do when she goes to preschool....to college?

I cried the moment I left my daughter's room last night.  I should start out by saying that when I was pregnant with my first child, I read that your baby should leave his bassinet in his parent's room before three months of age in order to have a smooth transition.  I was a new parent, so I listened.  By ten weeks, I moved Aidan to his crib.  I was a bit sad, but I knew it was the right thing to do.

My daughter is almost five months old, and she still sleeps in the bassinet in our room.  My mom has been asking me for months, "you have moved her into her own room? Haven't you?"  I got sick of  denying it, so I lied -- "yep, I moved her."  I felt badly, but I couldn't take it any longer.  She is probably going to be my last baby.  This time I am not as worried about doing what the BOOK told me to do.  I am doing what feels right to me, my husband, and my daughter.  And the three of us have been doing great the past five months.  So there has been no incentive to change our situation. I am not ready for her to move allllll the way down our short hallway.  I know now that once she moves, she is not coming back.

But recently I started to realize it is getting to that time to move her; she is getting too big for her bassinet .  And last night seemed like the situation was leaning in the direction that it was the right thing to do for my husband and for her. Notice I didn't say it was the right thing to do for me.  My husband expressed his desire to eat dinner later, after our son went to sleep.  My daughter didn't take her typical late afternoon nap, and she was getting hungry because she missed her early evening milk.  It seemed that keeping her up and feeding her after we ate was too late for her.  And making my husband eat early just so I could hold her until she fell asleep was unfair to him.  So I did it. I went upstairs, fed her, and put her down in her crib in her room with her full belly.

When I came downstairs without her, my husband was shocked to hear that I put her in her crib.  He  said," I thought you weren't ready for her to move yet."

 I cried...and cried ... soft quiet tears.  He had the table set for dinner.  He had heated up our leftovers.  He had poured the wine.  I sat in the family room.  And I cried ... and cried.  I was not ready for my little one to grow up and move out of our room and into her own room.  What am I going to do when she goes to preschool....to college?

Mummy Hug -- the reason I stay at home

My son and I were eating breakfast and watching a cartoon where a little mummy boy was sad because he lost his "Mummy." Of course at the end of the cartoon, the little mummy found his Mummy.  As soon as they found each other, they hugged.  At that point, my two year wrapped his arms around me and said,"my Mummy."  My heart ... I could actually feel it getting warm inside my chest.  I could feel blood rushing to my heart -- and expanding my heart muscle.  I know it sounds a bit dramatic, but it is true.  Remember the scene in The Grinch Who Stole Christmas where the Grinch's heart grew when he saw the people of Whoville celebrating Christmas even without their decorations -- well, I am not comparing myself to the Grinch, but I did experience my heart growing inside my chest.  I felt his pure love for me.

I glanced at the clock on the wall; it was 7:35 am.  And in that moment the thought that ran across my mind was if I were still teaching school, class would have started five minutes ago.  Wow, am I glad I am staying at home.  This is the reason I stated home.  We have a tighter budget because of that choice, but in that moment my choice was validated and ohhh so worth it.

It all started with getting up early with the farmer

It all started with getting up early with the farmer.  So my darling husband usually gets out of bed with my farmer son at 5 am.  I say farmer son because somewhere in our vast farmlands in the USA there is a farmer who has a son who won't get up and out of bed early.  And my son, born into a life in the suburbs of Chicago, wants to wake up at 4 am.  We keep him in bed until 5 am with the help of the Goodnite Lite, which is an alarm that is attached to a circle which changed from a moon to a sun depending on the time you set.  We have him in his crib waiting and playing by himself for an hour.  Not that we are sleeping during that 4 to 5 o'clock hour, but at least we are resting in our bed.

So as I was saying, my darling husband usually gets out of bed with my son at 5 am.  I rest for a bit longer, then get up, put my makeup on, and get ready for the day.  Because once that kid-horse-race starts a-movin' there is not much that slows it down.  Today my husband was really sleepy, so when the farmer woke up at 4 am, I rested until 4:30 and then got up, put my makeup on, and got ready for the day.  You read me right -- I put makeup on at 4:30 am in order to get a head start on my son.  The things that we do to maintain some form of what we used to look like before kids.  I used to be quite put together, so in order to not look like a complete disaster -- I get up early to get ready for the day. Once the horse race starts, I never look in a mirror again.   Anyway, I got up with my farmer at 5 am.

We had a fine morning playing with trains and what not.  At 6:20 am my husband came downstairs with my four month old in arm - lucky me she usually sleeps until about 8:30 am -- wow I am glad she woke up nice and early today.  So, I make my husband a breakfast to go sandwich, and he is out the door 5 minutes later. And mommy is at the starting blocks....... she is off and running.  I breastfeed my daughter, put her down to play, and make my farmer his breakfast -- all while returning a friend's phone call -- I have a phone operator's head set that allows me to multitask at peak performance. 

Once I clean up after my farmer's breakfast, the horse race started to move a bit faster.  My daughter was screaming, so I went to her and she had pooped though her cute outfit.  I cleaned her up and gave her a bath -- and yes, after that she needed a bath.  I put her on a towel on the ground only to notice that my farmer's diaper (my husband was the last one to change him -- the only reason this is important is I didn't want to take the blame for this poorly fasten diaper -- I was way too tired and the day was way too young for me to start blaming myself) was hanging somewhere around his knees.  I tacked that pony to the ground and found out that he was soaking wet with pee -- shirt, pants, and socks.  Yeah!!! Another twist in the track.  I took his clothing off and put a new diaper on him. I then looked around the house for a wet pee spot on the carpet, so I could take care of my home. Luckily, I found nothing -- he only peed on himself.  So, I had a naked daughter rolling off her towel on my family room floor and a naked but diapered farmer son sitting in his Little Tike Cozy Coupe in front of the TV.  I put the dirty clothing in the wash and glanced at the clock -- it was 7:40 am -- wow that is a lot of action -- I guess this makes up for watching a little Oprah in the afternoon IF they both take a nap at the same time today.  And this all started with getting up early with the farmer.