cookie party

after the recital we had to rush home, change clothes, and head off to a cookie exchange party in huntington beach. i was up super early yesterday morning and late the night before baking all my cookies for the party and printing the recipe. this year i made cranberry-orange pinwheels. they are super good. i make them every year at christmas time. they are pretty easy to make and really pretty without being too fussy. my sister jen made these incredibly cute spice cookies that look like melted snowmen. i loved them.

we were an hour late to the party and most people were already leaving. that was a bit of a drag but because we are such good friends with the host i didn't feel weird hanging out after the other people left. in fact, it was kind of nice to have time to sit and chat. the kids went straight upstairs and had a great time playing with all the toys. they were so funny. connor was rocking out on a microphone singing the ninjago theme song. mason and the rest of the kids were building with magna blocks and jumping on a mini trampoline. they all seemed to be getting along great so we just sat downstairs and had a glass of wine. it was just a little bit of heaven to finally relax.

all the kids got to exchange gifts before we had to drive home. i brought home a box filled with a variety of cookies. i was so tired but it was a really fun day.

christmas eve

it's six am. christmas eve. what are you doing? miles and i are baking cookies and making candy. this is not the romantic storybook kind of baking that comes with christmas but more of a super tired i just want to be finished kind of baking. we again decided to give homemade gifts for christmas and this year it is just too much. we woke up at 2 am to finish baking and are still at it. ugh.

we are supposed to be delivering christmas gifts to all his family tonight. lets see if we can get it done. i swear next year we are buying gifts.

making cookies

we had a fun weekend baking and decorating lots of cookies. dahlia decided she wanted to make sugar cookies so we baked them on friday and spent saturday morning decorating them with the boys. we didn't really stick to a theme for the cookie cutters. i just let the kids pick their favorites from our collection. i think i need to get some new ones. they seem to be using the same shapes over and over.

miles helped to decorate them with us. connor loved the frogs. dahlia of course was partial to the shoe and crown again, and mason still loves his train and sailboat cookie. for some reason the kids seemed more interested in eating the frosting than decorating the cookies so miles and i ended up doing most of the work. i know. it's a tough job.

cookies with granny

granny slept over last night so we had the whole day to hang out with her. dahlia really wanted to make cookies. i thought this was a great idea. i pulled out all our fun new cookie cutters. we have been wanting to try them out for a while. dahlia was particularly fond of the glass slipper and the star fish. mason of course loved the train and the lobster. he was all about the big cookies.

we had a great time frosting all the cookies. poor connor slept through this part. that was fine with me because he is a little too young to really decorate cookies. he would just end up eating all the frosting. come to think of it mason and dahlia did their fair share of eating the frosting as well. we loved decorating the cookies and were so excited when we could finally eat one. yummy! thanks granny for spending such a fun day with us.

cherry chomper time

i finally got around to making that cherry cake today. it is delicious. the recipe i use is from martha. dahlia and connor were great helpers. they pitted all the cherries using our beloved cherry chomper. we actually made two cakes. one for us and one to bring to my sister susan's birthday celebration tomorrow. yum yum.

ice cream

time for ice cream cones! yummy.

chocolate bark

we finished up the holiday candy making for gifts this year. we made four different chocolate barks. a dark chocolate and white chocolate swirl with dried cherries, a traditional peppermint bark, a dark and white chocolate swirl with slivered almonds, and a white chocolate with candied walnuts. they all looked and tasted delicious. we broke them into big chunks and wrapped them individually. the different barks along with homemade caramels were then put into nice paris bistro candy bowls that we found at sur la table. the whole gift got wrapped in red cellophane and it was ready to give. i thought they were very beautiful. lets hope people like them.

candy making

there are some exciting things happening around here. we are in full christmas mode. we have decided to make homemade candy for gifts this year. our first project was to make some caramel for all my girlfriends at the ladies luncheon i am going to. this sounded easy enough for us.

we started off using a barefoot contessa recipe but it didn't turn out very good. the caramel separated while cooking and even though we were able to save it by adding a little water and reheating it, the flavor was slightly off. it tasted a little bit burnt. we tried again with this recipe. we had a much better result. it is a lighter caramel but super yummy and much easier to make. we decided to make it even better by layering walnuts in the caramel and then drizzling bittersweet chocolate over the top. yum. they are so so good. i think miles and i have eaten ten each.

we made a triple batch and that gave us enough to package twelve gifts for the girls and have half a pan left over for other friends and family. i think they look so beautiful packaged in the little candy box with custom made tags. now that we have finished making caramel it is time for chocolate bark. yum yum. oh the holidays are so delicious.

the cherry chomper

if you have kids and a lot of cherries, you need a cherry chomper. oh my gosh this little kitchen tool is just perfect. the kids had so much fun pitting the cherries. i already had a cherry pitter, but i could not resist buying this one. the one i had before was not very easy to use and would launch the cherry pits across the room. now with the cherry chomper the kids argue over who is going to help me pit the cherries and the clean up is so quick. all the pits get collected in the base and you just empty it out when you are done. easy. now if only we could stop eating the cherries long enough for me to make that cherry pie.

snow cones

last week while shopping i simply could not resist buying a snow cone machine. there was a very inexpensive one at target that was calling our names. after much deliberation over choosing the perfect flavors (blueberry lemonade and watermelon) and picking out all the cups and accessories needed the kids and i raced home to try it out. the fact that it was freezing cold that day did not deter us. we meant business. i am so happy to say that the snow cone machine is awesome. so easy to fill with ice and then just turn it on. no turning a hand crank for ten minutes only to get a thimble full of ice like the snoopy snow cone machine of my day. oh no. this baby does all the work for you. needless to say snow cones have been requested for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day since this amazing little machine arrived at our house. of course not every meal can be accompanied by a snow cone but we are having our fair share. i think this will be a favorite all summer long.

easter cupcakes

i have been reading a lot of baking blogs lately so i was super excited when mason wanted to make chocolate cupcakes today. i thought that sounded like a great idea. we used the devils food recipe from martha stewart's cupcake book. it is so good. i decided to make the cream cheese frosting from the book instead of the chocolate one. miles is not a huge chocolate fan and i thought the clean up from white frosting would be much easier. it always seems that most of the frosting ends up on dahlia's clothes.

we decided to be fancy and decorate them for easter. i even got out the frosting tips! the kids colored pictures of an easter bunny and then i scanned them and printed scaled down versions of them onto sticker paper. we used my new circle cutter and toothpicks to make cupcake toppers. i think they turned out so cute. this is definitely a technique i will be using all the time now. mason and dahlia got such a kick out of seeing their designs on the cupcakes. oh, and they were delicious.

tabbouleh

i am getting bored with my old recipes. i have decided to try out some new things this week. today i made this tabbouleh salad from ina garten's show "barefoot contessa."

it was really good. i did not serve it in pita pockets with big chunks of feta like she suggested. instead i cut up the feta and just tossed it in the salad. i just served it in a bowl. i also left out the green onion (i don't like it) and mint (miles doesn't like it.) mmmm. i thought it was a yummy lunch although miles felt like the flavors got a bit monotonous. that is true. it might be better as a side dish.

easter cookies

jen came over with bodhi today and we made easter sugar cookies. mason and dahlia helped decorate all the cookies. there was sugar everywhere. mason kept saying "i'm a great helper." mason is so excited about easter. he has watched "the easter bunny is coming to town" about seven times now. he loves the train chugs. he said he is going to paint eggs and eat carrots with zena. what a cutie pie.

cookie exchange

i went to a cookie exchange last night at my sister susan's house. it was lots of fun. i ate way too many cookies. i feel like i have a bit of a sugar hangover today. is that possible? there were five girls and each made two different types of cookies. we made sure to have at least six of each type to trade and then extra cookies for sampling. i think the winner of the night for me was the toffee. it was just a little bit of heaven. i think that is actually a candy instead of a cookie, but it was so good. now it is time to try the peppermint one. mmmmm

puree

this weekend was so fun. i drove down to meet my sisters for a manicure/pedicure. afterwards we picked up one of my brothers and went to a friend's 30th birthday party. it was at a restaurant where they had rented out a room. it was so nice to be out without the kids. i think my sisters and i were the only sober ones at the party. we all had a long drive home, and didn't want to drink before driving. i got home at one am. man is has been a long time since i have been out that late. i had so much energy when i got home.

on sunday my sister christina came over to make vegetable and fruit purees with me. i was so excited to make the purees. we got this new cookbook that is full of recipes that use the purees to sneak vegetables into your kid's dinners. i don't really have the problem of my kids not eating vegetables yet. mason is only 2 and he loves eating fruit and vegetables. however, my sister's daughter is 6 and will not eat any fruits or vegetables. this plan is a great idea for her. i just thought it would be fun and who couldn't use some more vegetables in their diet? it took us much longer to make the purees than we thought it would. we made spinach, cauliflower, pineapple, and chicken. we also were going to make sweet potatoes and butternut squash but we found them already pureed in a can. we were lazy so we just bought the cans. tomorrow i am meeting her again to hang out. we are going to make one of the recipes and try out our new purees. how fun.

cookies

mason and i made cookies yesterday. we went to the store and picked out cute cookie cutters. mason picked the whale and the frog. i chose the chick and the butterfly. we had fun. we were good. we only ate two.