Baking

Super Victory and Some Randomness

Posted on by Amy
I must start out today by saying, “Yay Packers!” We aren’t die-hard Packers fans in our house. Neither my husband nor I are greatly into professional sports (except maybe golf on his part). I have always sort of liked the Packers though. They just seem to have more tradition and spunk than other pro teams. And since we live in Wisconsin now, well, it’s hard to resist the Packers fever around here. Packers fans are just fun. I mean, what kind of loyal, kooky fans would sit out in freezing cold weather week after week with big foam blocks of cheese on their heads but these hearty, happy Wisconsin folks?
I did dress my girls in green and gold yesterday and today though. And we watched the game. And cheered for the home team. And we’re happy they won. Here’s Miss in her green shirt (Her shirt that is a more appropriate shade of green is too small now). She was much more interested in getting her shopping cart as full as she could than in watching the game. She did say, “Go Packers!” though. Unfortunately she was also saying, “Yay Hawkeyes!” (my husband brainwashed her on the one football Saturday when I took some time away for myself to go to a book club meeting during football!!).

Oopsie-Doozy!! I think she actually said, “Oh noooo!!” when half her stuff fell out.
We just put it all back in (check out the doll’s head).
We do “Cheese Head” a little differently at our house. Go Pack!
Lass wore Packer gold yesterday.
She is getting much more interested in and capable of playing with various toys. I love watching her curiosity.

Now some randomness:
Miss got a new bathing suit for our upcoming trip to Florida. I bought a size bigger than her usual size to make sure it will still fit her this summer, and wanted to try it on her when we got home from the store. Naturally, she would not let me take it off and wore it over her onesie for the rest of the day.
I posted a little while ago about how Lass’s hair stands straight up so adorably. Well, it’s getting longer, and this outfit has a hood that she was wearing up in her carseat, so it was flat for a while the other day. I’m so used to the hair standing up, I think she looks like a different baby!!
Finally, right now my house smells deliciously like banana bread. I tried again to make some this morning. I remembered to grease the pan. I adjusted the oven temp (my oven does not get to the true temp it says it does, so I have to adjust it a bit to try to compensate; last time I had it too hot). And I managed to produce this perfect, yummy goodness.
It came out perfectly, all in one piece even. Slightly crispy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside. Very banana-y. And not too vanilla-y, even though Miss dumped a bit too much vanilla in the batter. I am so proud. I may become a baker after all.

Fun in the Snow

Posted on by Amy
Today it wasn’t windy and it finally warmed up enough that Miss could go outside and play in the snow with her Daddy. Based on her other experiences with playing in the snow, I was expecting her to want to come back in pretty quickly, but she had a blast!

She got a little taste of the snow.

She had a bit of a hard time moving around in it as it was over her knees.

But she did not want to come in, so Daddy got dressed more warmly and gave her a ride.

And then they just rolled around in it for a while.


One last ride before coming in.

Miss was not happy about having to come in. But she soon forgot to be upset and got good and warmed up by, what else? Dancing!! Lass had a lot of fun dancing too.

Then we made some cookies for the big game tomorrow. Miss didn’t eat dinner well enough to get to have one tonight, but she’ll get one tomorrow. Go Packers!

Snow Day

Posted on by Amy
I’m not sure if we’re going to be hit by this big snowstorm heading in this general direction. We might be just far enough north that we don’t get much snow from it. We got a couple of inches last night, but the weather forecast looks like we’ll have mostly flurries for the next few days. Nevertheless, it’s very cold and we have plenty of snow.

So, I declared today to be a snow day at our house. We won’t be going anywhere and are all settled in to stay nice and warm and have lots of fun. Right now it’s nap time for both girls, which is always fun. This morning we had plenty of good times too. What better way to spend a cozy winter day inside than by baking with my favorite almost-two-year-old?

We had some very ripe bananas, or as Miss calls then, “beenahs” that were past the point of eating by themselves. Naturally, they needed to be transformed into Beenah Bread! Miss did a great job mashing the bananas
and maybe eating a little bit too, while Lass supervised.
She helped me measure in the rest of the ingredients and take the batter-filled loaf pan to the oven. I forgot to grease the pan, so the finished product didn’t come out of the pan very nicely. In fact, the bottom of the loaf stayed firmly stuck in the pan while the top half flopped out. I am seriously not cut out for this baking thing! I managed to get the bottom portion out in one piece and stick it onto the top piece so it at least looks like a nice loaf. From a distance. Until you cut it. It tastes good!
Then we moved on to some Valentine’s Day decorating. I’ve not really been much of a Valentine’s Day celebrater (is that a word?) in the past decade or so. I typically think of the holiday as not much more than a way for greeting card, jewelry, candy, and flower companies to make money. Though I usually get my hubby a card and sometimes we go out to dinner or I cook a special dinner at home, we don’t do much else for the day. But now that Miss is at such a fun age, I can’t let this cheesy holiday go by without plenty of fitting activities.
Today, Valentine’s window stickies. Miss loved these by the way. The last thing she asked for when I was putting her down for her nap was, “Play more hearts??” She kept peeling them off and sticking them back on, and has assigned a particular heart to each member of our family (the swirly one in the photo below is Daddy’s).

I don’t know what our next Valentine’s project will be. I did buy more cookie dough, so we’ll be baking and decorating Valentine’s Day cookies in the near future. And probably doing some other crafts. Maybe we’ll make some cards to send. Who knows? It definitely brings more meaning to this holiday though when I can make it into a fun time for my girl. I feel great about celebrating an overly-commercialized holiday when we do it with homemade gifts and treats and make it into just another reason to give extra love and hugs around our home.
If you are getting hit by the coming blizzard, I hope you’ll stay safe and warm!

Turkey Cookies

Posted on by Amy
Yesterday Miss and I made cookies. Turkey cookies made in the shape of her hand. I’m a competent cook, but I’m the first to admit, I’m not very good at baking. Not yet anyway. I never got into it until recently. The pie a month ago, and now cookies. I tried to get Miss into cooking with me, but because of the danger from knives and the stove, I decided baking would be easier for her to really help with. And she seems to really enjoy it. She was so excited yesterday to get her apron on and get to work in the kitchen. Plus she loves washing her hands, which is how we started, of course.

Then we traced her hand to make the pattern for cutting the cookies (and then had to wash her hands again. Duh.)
She got freaked out by the noise of the mixer at first.
She didn’t have to worry about it for too long though, because my $1 garage sale hand mixer, purchased at least 12 years ago (though rarely used), finally died on me. So we switched to an easier method, clean hands and then a wooden spoon. That was easier for Miss to help with anyway.


Unfortunately, Lass woke up right when I put the cookies in the oven, and trying to nurse her, while switching the cookies around halfway through, and then keeping an eye on them because they were probably going to be done before my timer went off didn’t really work out. It worked perfectly fine for her, because she got fed. But the cookies didn’t fare so well.

Nevertheless, they were still tasty and decoratable, so we waited for them to cool so we could complete the turkey transformation. Miss chilled with her sis while we waited.

Finally the cookies were cool and the decorating commenced. Miss was naturally just as interested in eating the frosting and sprinkles as putting them on the cookies, but we eventually got them done.


And of course I had to let her sample the finished product.

So, as I said, I’m not a baker. And I’m really not an artist, so the cookies are very ugly. But I am proud that they do sort of resemble turkeys. A little bit. I mean, as much as a hand resembles a turkey. And of course, the whole point of the exercise wasn’t really the cookies anyway. I had a wonderful time with my girl.
Today we had a very relaxing day. Miss and I caught the end of the Macy’s parade. We only saw the last 15 minutes or so, but it was enough to see Santa at the end. Can I tell you that I cried when my girl’s face got the most magical expression on it as she watched Santa waving and dancing and got to see the reindeer? It was a perfect day for reflecting on all that I’m thankful for.

Mother of the Year, Or Not

Posted on by Amy
When I was a kid my mom used to joke about being “Mother of the Year.” Or rather, the things she did that disqualified her from that lofty status. It was all just for fun. If she didn’t cook dinner or do something “motherly” she would say, “Well, I guess I just lost my bid for Mother of the Year.” And we’d laugh. Don’t get me wrong here. My mom was great. She did all sorts of motherly things and more. But of course no one is perfect, and often she could joke about it when she wasn’t.
Some days feel like “Mother of the Year” days. You know those days when everything clicks? The TV stays off. We take fun trips, go for walks, do crafty things, and have lots of mother-daughter-bonding time. The days when I can still be calm the tenth time I say something like “No Honey, we don’t pull the dog’s tail/put a book on your sister’s face/climb on the counter/insert toddler behavior. Come on over here and let’s read this stimulating and oh-so-educational book instead.” One of those the-house-is-picked-up-delicious-dinner-is-made-kiss-the-hubby-at-the-door-domestic-bliss kind of days. Okay, not quite so Leave It To Beaver, but you know what I mean. If you’re a mom, you have those days when it just flows. It works. You get in your groove.
Yesterday was one of those days. It started with Miss and I making an apple pie in the morning. This was a first for both of us. Prior to yesterday my experience with making pie consisted of putting a pre-made (pre-baked even) pumpkin pie in the oven to warm it up a little bit on Thanksgiving. So yesterday I took the apples we got from the farm last Friday, got Miss all set up in her Tower, and proceeded to make pie. I did not make the crust from scratch, but we did the rest. We started by donning our aprons. I don’t have a little one for Miss yet, so I took my waist-down only apron and adjusted it to fit her.

Miss’s apron and mine were both made by my aunt. She has an Etsy shop, which you can check out hereif you’re in the market for an apron.

Miss enjoyed “helping” me wash, peel, core and slice the apples. She pretended to “wash” the cores, and she ate half of one of the apples (that one didn’t go into the pie of course).
I pointed out to her that her apron had some pockets and she stocked them with apple peels.
After I zested the lemon and squeezed the juice onto the apples, Miss wanted to eat the lemon. She actually took quite a few tastes of it and didn’t even make a sour face. In fact, I had to keep her from taking a big old bite of the peel, which I think she would have chowed down on if I had let her.
She kept an eye on the progress of the pie as it was baking and we were very pleased with the finished project, both in terms of how it looked and how it tasted!


The rest of yesterday was kind of more of the same. We went to the grocery store, Miss played outside with her dad, we had a good dinner, Lass was super fussy in the evening and nothing was working to soothe her until I figured out what she needed and then she was happy as a clam, and so on. It was a, “Yeah, I got this” kind of day.
Today was not so much. It wasn’t a bad day. In fact, it was a just-fine day. I just wasn’t on my game. Once again I woke determined to get ready and get to story time at the library. Once again, we did not get ready on time. I planned to go to the library again anyway, but I was rushing to get out the door with enough time to get to the library and browse for books before having to get home for lunch. It was after 11 when I finally got in the car with both girls and started driving to the library. And then I realized I had forgotten my wrap for Lass. I could have pulled her out of the car in the infant car seat and carried her around the library in that. But at the thought of that, I said, “Ah, screw it.” And I headed for the Starbucks drive through. I got myself a decaf, venti, nonfat, no whip, 2 Splenda Mocha and drove. It was really quite nice. My girls tend to like the car and so they chill. And I chill. And it’s nice sometimes to just hit the drive through. So that’s how I rolled through the library too, with the drive-through book drop. So I guess I just lost my bid for Mother of the Year. Oh well. I’ll try again next year 🙂