In the Kitchen

My mother-in-law gave me this Paula Deen cook book when Remy was very small, and I have been itching for him to be old enough use it! Yesterday afternoon he asked me if we could make something, and I began searching for the perfect (i.e. quick enough for a short attention span and simple) recipe to try. We settled on her pretzels. I was amazed at how quickly they mixed up with only a few simple ingredients. (These are only baked, not boiled as I know you do with some 'real' pretzel recipes...)

Remy's favorite part was kneading the dough. He spent the majority of that time telling Halle how strong he is and that 'this job is best for big boys', but she was more than happy to try as well. They only have to rise for an hour, and that was a great break for my budding chefs. We then rolled them out into letters and standard pretzel shapes. We chose to top them with cinnamon & sugar rather than just salt so that we could eat them as dessert after dinner. Halle loved using the shaker!

These turned out super-cute and pretty tasty!

Enjoying

This weather really does make me sooooo happy! This weekend we had friends over for a cookout, and then yesterday we had a 'picnic party' (according to Halle) in the yard. While I love the craziness of big celebrations, I adore parties like this~ that only require a snack of some sort, a blanket (in this case a vintage table cloth) and friends.

Last week at my mom's, I went 'shopping' through her kitchen for anything I might need and found that she had some mini muffin pans. She graciously gave them to me, and I am thrilled! I have already made brownies, and yesterday I made banana muffins. The tiny little treats made the perfect food for our picnic. And the littles had a blast~ it even worked out so that Trace got home from work and was able to join us.

How are you enjoying this transition into fall? Today is Remy's first day of school and soccer, so it's a big one for us! I'll be back later with We Scout Wednesday, I think, but that's it for now! xo

Friday Love

Happy Friday, lovelies! I have so much to love today that I can hardly get it down fast enough~ so blessed! We'll get right on with it:

Today I'm loving:

~Impromptu games of tag in the yard. We are ignoring that the weather people (what do they know anyway?!) are talking about snow for this weekend and we've been enjoying every moment we can in the fresh air. I think it does a world of good for our moods!

~That I am a dessert genius. Okay, not necessarily a genius, but one illegal bonfire (didn't know you aren't supposed to burn until April...) plus graham crackers plus marshmallows plus peanut butter cups equals THE MOST INCREDIBLE TREAT. EVER. And I'm sorry that I didn't take any pictures, but I just ate it too fast! I also love that woodsy, smoky smell in our house after a fire. I am so far from 'woodsy' that I'll take it where I can... (This girly girl is not so much for camping!)

~This baby ruffle-bottom goodness. This is a sneak peak at Hallelujah's Easter outfit!

~This new dress and the fact that Halle is always willing to model. She says 'dance dress?', and of course I can't resist! This dress plus a few other new things will be in the 2 sweet things shop momentarily.

~This Amish friendship bread. I have heard of it for years, but today I finally made it, and it is soooooo good! The deal is that someone gives you a starter and you squeeze it (in a bag) and add to it over 10 days. Then on the last day you divide it into new starter bags, which you then give to friends, and make 2 loaves of this cinnamony deliciousness. I will totally be making tons more of this in the future! It's kind of like a chain letter, only without the threats of death or drama...

Have a wonderful weekend! Remy starts soccer tomorrow, so it's sure to be an eventful one for us.

Baking and Making

This weekend our church had a dessert night, and somehow our small group was volunteered (or maybe someone in our group volunteered us?) to make all the desserts for 120 people! We were feeling a bit intimidated about getting it all done, but in the end it worked out great! I made two of my 'old standby' Martha Stewart vanilla bean cheesecake, one with the glaze and one without. I won't bore you with the details because I absolutely do not stray from her recipe~ it is the most amazing cheesecake I've found!

Before I divulge my new top-secret recipe, let me just tell you about two of my favorite kitchen tools. The first is Cake Release from Wilton. You use it anywhere a recipe says to 'grease and flour' a pan, and the cake will pop out, crumb-free, every time! This stuff is amazing!

Another of my favorite things for baking is something I use nearly every day. My hand mixer. I think it goes back to my pioneer roots, as I would rather use this than bother with setting up and plugging in another machine. Plus I love the fact that it uses zero electricity and washes up super-easy. I received mine for Christmas from some wonderful friends, and I think they found this one at Williams-Sonoma, though I couldn't find a link anywhere.

Okay, so on with the new creation... It really isn't top-secret, as it really isn't anything too complicated, but it came out so great that I thought I would share. First I made a basic chocolate cake. Mine was rather spongy (it contained 4 eggs, I think!), but you could use any cake recipe that you like. The only alteration I made to the original recipe is that I took about 4 tablespoons of good quality raspberry preserves, heated them for a few minutes to thin them, and added that to the batter. I made it in an 8x8 pan and flipped it out on a wire rack until it was completely cooled. Once it was cooled I used a large serrated knife to split the cake horizontally into two layers, and I laid it open like a sandwich. To the bottom layer I spread on about 1/2 cup of the raspberry preserves. I placed the top layer back on top.

For the icing I made a thin chocolate glaze by heating about 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream and 2 tablespoons white corn syrup in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until just starting to boil. Then I removed it from the heat and added about 12 oz. chocolate chips, stirring until smooth. I allowed this to come to room temp. and then spread over the cake. As a finishing touch I shaved a chocolate bar into small curls and added this to the sides of the cake while the icing was still wet. It looked so pretty!

**Amended to add: Use whichever pan(s) your recipe calls for! Mine happened to be a small recipe that only called for an 8x8, but a regular layer cake recipe would have exploded in such a small pan! Any form of cake would work for this, I think!**

I also had some time this weekend to do some sewing with these gorgeous new fabrics form Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane Collection. I had been drooling over these prints for months and finally bit the bullet and bought some when the perfect project came up. I love how these skirts turned out! I actually have a few more of her prints that I haven't cut into yet~ I can't decide what to make of them because they are so lovely! (I was fighting bad lighting, but hopefully you get the idea... I take the worst pictures!)

Happy Tuesday! I have a few custom orders I'm working on today, so it promises to be a busy one! See you tomorrow!

Friday Love~ We are very Thankful!

Hebrews 12:28 "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptable with reverence and awe..."

I hope your Thanksgiving (if you're in the states...) was wonderful! We had a great day with extended family eating too much, sharing old stories, and watching all the children play. Everyone was happily exhausted after the festivities and slept well as soon as their little heads hit the pillows. I can't take credit for most of the food, but I thought I would share some pictures.

Love this girl: Halle is very into 'reading' right now. Also notice the blur of only-underwear-clad Remy in the background.

Love this outfit: Pre-dinner show at our apartment. Halle sports a felt lunch bag on her head and Rem's shoe on her foot. Remy (again in the background) is relaxing in a diaper box. That's normal, right?

Love the food!: Appetizers

My cousin's gorgeous table before the eating frenzy

The spread... I tried my Great Grandma's cornbread dressing for the first time and it was a hit! In fact, Trace ate some for breakfast this morning!

My pumpkin pie

Grandma's chocolate cream pie~so pretty!

Halle, post-nap, chowing down

Remy and youngest cousin, sweet baby Zola

I also want to mention that I'm having a sale in the 2 sweet things shop from today (Black Friday) through Cyber-Monday!  Still Free International Shipping and all Bib/Burp Cloth Sets are $12 (marked down from $17) and all Booties are $12 (marked down from $15-$16). Happy Weekend Shopping! I think we're going to spend the day getting our little tree out and maybe decorating~ I can feel some Christmas music coming on!

She's Moving On

I thought I might have something poetic to say on this day. Maybe something out of 1 Samuel where Hannah takes her newly weaned son to the temple and dedicates him to the Lord. But I don't have many words. Today is the fourth day that Halle has gone without nursing at all, and strangely, wonderfully, it seems right. As you can see from the pictures she has moved right along the food chain, and after discovering the cookie dough bowl was on the counter she stood in the kitchen shouting 'COOKIE' until I went in and gave her some. (Don't shake your heads... you know you eat it right out of the bowl too!)

A large credential I have as a 'super mom' (please read the sarcasm in this!) is that I make a stellar chocolate chip cookie. Nothing fancy, but perfectly crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside. They don't get stale, but that is in part due to the fact that we eat them all before they would have time to! It's no wonder that after saying 'Dadda' pretty regularly, 'cookie' was Halle's second word. Not momma, mind you, though she can say that. Hmph. I'm not bitter.

I am also feeling like pretty big stuff today because I got my clothing labels in the mail yesterday. I had been making these, but with the amount of orders I've been getting I decided it was time to invest. I'm so glad I did! I got them from Miss Label on etsy, who also made my ribbons that I use. They came super fast and look wonderful!

And one last thing, but certainly not least: I am so excited about the awesome response I've been getting in the past weeks for 2 sweet things! Two pairs of my booties are being featured today over at The Pink Camellia's blog, and I hope you'll go check it out. It's a lovely blog, and she has a great shop on etsy too!

Good morning!

This morning in search of breakfast, I decided to try this recipe that I've been waiting over a year to try. I had cut it out of a Rachael Ray magazine at my mom's house (I tried to find a link, but had no luck), but it called for sour cream, and I almost never have that on hand. So after a taco night this past week, I dug the recipe out of a much neglected folder and gave it a try. Beautiful, right?! And the great thing is that it tasted as good as it looks! I hope you get to indulge a bit this weekend!

In other events, it's 35 days until the holiday we don't celebrate, and we have a dragon living among us. Remy found this costume last night at Old Navy and had to have it. In the 14 or so hours since we bought it, he's had it on twice. He would have slept in it had we let him! I'm betting that by the time that day gets here, it will be sweaty, stained and otherwise useless, and that's okay with me! I can't stand Halloween!

Morning Muffins

We are off to an early start this morning! Remy thought that our purchase yesterday of Halloween sprinkles merited making cupcakes. Although I am usually not one to deny anyone cupcakes, I thought that muffins were a better idea for today, so we thawed out some blackberries from our CSA and made some. They ended up looking pretty spooky because of the berries, and the sprinkles seemed quite appropriate.

Here's Rem stirring the batter:

This is Halle, um, helping?

'Mr. Froggy Spotty Foot' joined the party

Froggy and 'Alligatory' (who is an iguana, by the way) added the sprinkles

The finished muffins

I hope your weekend is off to a great start! Don't forget to check out my last post to enter the giveaway!

Make way for the king!

Remy's birthday is fast approaching (2 weeks tomorrow!) and we are starting to prepare. He wakes up every day saying 'Today is my birthday!'. I think it may have been a little confusing when we went to pick out party supplies several weeks ago. Instead of a hat I really wanted to make him a birthday crown, an idea I got from this book . At first he was not at all interested in the crown, but for the two days that I worked on it, all I heard was 'Is the crown ready? Is it ready yet?' (Yes, it took two days because I decided to hand stitch it for some reason.) Last night it was finally ready and King Remy wore his crown.

I told Trace that I was practicing sewing felt letters for the day when I sew Remy his homeschooling letter jacket. We were both cracking up!
Here's a baby blanket I finished crocheting this week for a friend due in March. It turned out so cute, and I can't wait to see baby Clara in it!
This last picture is of some biscuits I made today. I decided this morning that I have been in the south long enough that I should be able to make a good biscuit. It's kind of a requirement for a Southern Lady, I think, and up until now mine have been rock hard, too mushy, flat, etc.  So I found a simple recipe (How did I screw this up before? They are so simple with only four ingredients!) and took my time while Halle napped and Remy was train-occupied. They were so good. I wish you were here to join me for my nap time cup of tea!  Happy Friday!

A crafty weekend

Remy sure does love his little sister! (And she adores him.) Lots of kisses all around!

Here's my big girl playing. Please ignore the toy mess behind her- now that she's rolling around the place gets trashed twice as fast as it did with just Rem on the move.

I've also been crafting a little bit. This is a new pair of pants for Remy from another t-shirt. After the initial fear of the 'pawpaw' pants, they were a big hit, so I made a pair yesterday.  He's actually wearing them today but wouldn't stand still for a picture. They have a squirrel on one side and a cargo pocket on the other. I am getting a bit more adventurous with the machine...

I also made these cookies this weekend and had to show them off. They weren't anything fancy recipe-wise, but they were so gorgeous that I took a picture. (Is that strange?) They were also delicious! We still have a few left if anyone wants to come over- I'll brew some coffee.