Pop tarts, of the home made variety

It's pouring rain all day today. Not just pouring rain, but the wind has been blowing hard, whipping the rain against my window and making quite a raucous. On day's like today I bake. I headed over to Pinterest to find some ideas. I found this recipe for home made pop tarts. The only problem was that I didn't have the ingredients to make pie crust. And like I said it's pouring rain, and I had no desire to even walk the few steps to the car to drive down to the grocery store. So I put my thinking cap on. What could I use instead of pie crust? Well I have this recipe for Quick Pizza crusts, which is basically a baking powder biscuit recipe. So I made that up and rolled it out as thin as I could. I then used my Pampered Chef Cut and Seal thingy to first cut out some circles and then I filled them with home made strawberry jam and some with Mom's Apple Pie in a Jar. And they turned out pretty good. Not flaky like a pie crust would have been, but sometimes you just have to make do with what you've got.

The Recipe would go something like this...

Pop Tarts...kinda

2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1/3 cup oil
2/3 cup milk(or just enough to make dough moist)


Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add milk and oil until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Roll out on a lightly floured surface as thin as you can get it.(I have a pampered chef roller thingy that makes it pretty easy to get it nice and thin). 
You could cut the dough into rectangles or circles. Place a tablespoon of jam in the middle of one circle. Place another circle on top and seal the edges really well. Bake in oven at 425F for about 12-15 minutes.
While they are baking make a glaze with one cup powdered sugar and about a tablespoon of milk and a smidgen of vanilla. Mix together until smooth, it should be the consistency of a thick syrup. 
When the pop tarts are done baking remove them to cooling rack and glaze while still warm.

I was pleased with how they turned out. More importantly, the kids loved them. A perfect warm after school snack for a rainy day.

Earth Day

We celebrated Earth day by going for a coin toss walk around town. Have you ever done one? It's easy. All you have to do is flip a coin at every corner. If it's heads you turn right, if it's tails you turn left. Sometimes you end up walking in circles, sometimes you end up on the other side of town. But it's always an adventure.

We first ended up on a side road at the edge of town...not so hard to do when you only live a block away from the edge of town. The girls had taken some plastic bags so that they could collect garbage, after all it was Earth day and what better way to show the earth you care than to collect some garbage.

We also had to check out the bugs. James has just discovered bugs. He has to stop at every little ant hill and enthusiastically say "BUGS". When he's done looking at the bugs, in true boy fashion, he steps on them.

It was pretty windy, so Kymberly decided that she'd see if she could juggle the air. Yep, she's a pro.

And because I just love to watch my boys together, I'll share one more picture from our walk.

Strawberry and Blueberry cupcakes.

I bought 10lbs of strawberries at a deep discount because 1 or 2 in each container had started to go bad.  I wanted them so I could restock my strawberry jam. Done. After I had made 2 batches of jam(and saved some for just eating), I still had some mashed strawberries left over but not enough for another batch of jam.

I decided that I would try a recipe that I had seen on Pinterest for strawberry cupcakes. But after looking at the recipe, I decided that it was too finicky for my liking. So I decided to play around with a my trusty easy white cake recipe(recipe will follow).

Once I had made the strawberry cupcakes I decided that I wanted to make some blueberry ones too. I just happened to have some blueberries in the freezer. Both cupcakes turned out splendid. I didn't like the grayish purple colour of the blueberry ones so I added a little blue food colouring.... apparently too much because they ended up being very blue instead natural looking.  After they were baked they were even more blue. But they still tasted good. Next time I will leave out the food colouring and see what they look like.

For the frosting I made a cream cheese frosting with strawberry and blueberry puree respectively. I gave some to a friend for letting me use his US post office box, and then I took some to a family gathering. They were a big hit. The strawberry ones were by far my favorite. The strawberry flavour was just fabulous!

Very Berry Cupcakes

1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vinegar
1 cup milk less one tbsp
3/4 cup pureed strawberries (or berries of choice)
1/2 cup butter
2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients with an electric mixer. Beat on high for 3-4 minutes. Bake at 350F for 19 minutes for cupcakes or 30 minutes for 9x13 cake.

See I told you this recipe was easy!


Very Berry Cream Cheese Frosting

4oz cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup pureed strawberries( or berry of choice)
4-5 cups icing sugar

Combine all ingredients with an electric mixer. Beat on high until well blended and creamy.

My Crazy kids...man, I love them!

This video needs no introduction...she takes care of that herself. 

The boy loves to be outside. He has figured out how to open the screen door, so if I'm not careful, he'll just make a run for it whenever he wants. I'm constantly hounding the girls to be sure to shut the main door. His other new love is the trampoline. We put it back up during our Easter break, and he thinks it's the best thing in the world....well except for the empty garden, you can't keep him out of it; I don't know what I'll do to keep him out of it when I finally get it planted.

This evening, straight out of the tub, the boy made a run for it again. I'm just glad I got a diaper on him before he bolted.

What a Hoot.

A few weeks back Kathryn brought home a book that she had borrowed from her teacher. The book came with a note saying that it was a really good book but that there was some language in the book, and that I might want to look it over before letting my 9yr old daughter read it. I perused it and decided that it look like a fun book to read, but that I'd like to read it allowed to Kathryn and Tansley so I could edit when needed.

The book is called "Hoot" written by Carl Hiaasen. Right from the very first page, you are sucked into this book. Roy Eberhardt is the main character, he's the new kid at at Trace Middle school. One day while on the bus Roy sees this boy running bare foot. He is fascinated with the running boy. This fascination gets him into trouble, first with Dana Matherson, the school bully; and later with Beatrice Leep, a rather tough soccer player. But that's not all, there are these owls that need Roy's help. Some how Roy, Beatrice and the running boy will need to out smart a clueless police officer, a construction foreman and the Mother Paula's Pancake House company that plan to build on a vacant lot where the owls live.

The girls loved how the book introduces all of these characters at the beginning with little hints that some how they'll end up being all connected. Each night they would try to guess how they'd end up all tied together. Each night they would beg me to read just a little bit more. There wasn't a dull moment. And really there wasn't all that much language. And nothing too terrible, but I'd just substitute "darn" or just leave it out all together.

This is absolutely a book that I would recommend you anyone, of all ages. It was just a "Hoot" to read.

Growing up is hard to do.

I took the soother away from the boy this week. He is almost 2 after all. I only let him have it when it is nap time of bed time, or we are at church and I want him to sit still for the last 10-15minutes when he has just had enough of the confinement of the church pews. He also has this blanket that he loves. The soother and blanket combination were like a magic wand. When I put him down and give him those two things, he'd be out almost instantaneously. I was dreading taking his soother away; I love how he just goes to sleep in a blink of an eye. But I knew it was time. He'd sometimes go sneak it out of his crib and then walk around chewing on it and talk to me with it in his mouth. My hubby convinced me that it would be a good week to just do it seeing how it was Easter break and the kids weren't in school. So I just didn't give it to him for nap time on Tuesday. He fussed a bit, but then just went to sleep. So at bedtime, I just didn't give it to him, again he fussed for a bit but just went to sleep. The first draw back I noticed was that he wakes up earlier in the morning and won't go back to sleep. I also came to realize if I push putting him down for a nap by about an hour, he goes to sleep much better. This actually works nicely for me. Before he would lay down at 11am before lunch and then wake up miserable because he was starving. But if I can get another hour out of him, I can get him to eat lunch first, problem is, I can't always get that hour. At times he is just so down right cantankerous that he MUST go down earlier, for my own sanity if nothing else.

Today was the first day that I really missed that soother. The boy was up at 6am this morning. about an hour and a half earlier than he usually wakes up. Which meant he was going to be miserable by 11am and need a nap. The problem: We would be in church, 11am just happens to be right at the end of sacrament meeting. I bet you can see where this is going. At about 20 minutes to eleven, the boy turned into a monster. I tried to calm him with playing hand games, which would work for 30 seconds, but then he'd be mad again. My wonderful Relief Society president, offered to take him out for a walk in the halls so I could have a few moments of peace during the meeting. I guess while they were out in the hall she noticed he was tired and almost had him asleep in her arms(not an easy feet for a 70+ year old grandma and a 40lb toddler)...until the congregation began to sing the closing hymn, and then he woke up and howled. If I had had his soother and blanket I know he would have sat calmly on the pew beside me and gone to sleep leaning up against me. But I can't go back now. Hopefully sooner rather than too much later he'll get used its absence and together we'll figure out what to do in its absence.All in all I've been pleasantly surprised on how well he has done with out it...at least when we are at home.

Oatmeal(in other words; porridge or mush...yuck) Alternatives

While following some food links on Pinterest, I stumbled across this wonderful blog. She has tonnes of yummy recipes. What I fell in love with were her breakfast recipes. I've pinned a whole bunch of them here.

The first one I tried was the Apple Cinnamon Quinoa Breakfast. I followed this recipe exactly, but found that I liked it a little sweeter so ended up adding some brown sugar. I LOVED it with the addition of Brown sugar. I don't like oatmeal(or mush as we called it when I was a kid) at all. I can't stand the texture...ick! But this is a wonderful substitute for oatmeal, without the nasty texture issue.

the recipe, with the addition of brown sugar.

APPLE CINNAMON QUINOA BREAKFAST ( Serves 1-2)

1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup water
1 apple thinly sliced
1/3 cup raisins
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 handful dried cranberries
1/2 handful pecan nuts (or walnuts), slightly toasted
yogurt or cream

Rinse the quinoa. Bring quinoa and water to the boil in a medium sized saucepan. 

Reduce heat and gently simmer for 5 minutes. 

Add the apples, raisins and cinnamon. Simmer until the water is absorbed.
While quinoa is cooking, toast the nuts in a dry pan for a few minutes over medium heat.
Sprinkle cranberries and nuts over the quinoa. 

Serve warm with dollops of yogurt or cream.

Today I'm also trying out some of her granola recipes, but a little different since I am using ingredients I have on hand. Go check out her Crunchy Quinoa Granola and her Lemon Coconut granola.

Have you ever tried Baked Oatmeal? Me neither until this past weekend. Here's a recipe you should try out. I cam across this Raspberry Baked Oatmeal recipe on Pinterest as well. But I had to tweak it because I didn't have any raspberries on hand. My recipe is as follows.

Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal

Ingredients
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups diced apples
heavy cream, whipped or plain

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°.
Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
In a second mixing bowl, whisk together the applesauce, yogurt, milk, oil, vanilla, and eggs.
Pour the wet ingredients onto the dry, and add the apples.
Fold gently to combine.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan.
Bake for 45 minutes or until golden.
Serve with cream, whipped or not.

I made this the night before and then popped it in the oven when I heard my kids were out of bed the next morning. Everybody loved it. We did add some brown sugar to it after we served it up. This is one that I'll certainly make again.

Alright now how about Refrigerator Oatmeal? Anybody given that a try? No, me neither. But I think I will some time. Once again I stumbled upon the idea on Pinterest. Go check out the recipes. If you try it out, tell me what you think. I'm a little scared to try it...but then I was also a little scared to try the baked stuff, and I ended up loving that.