I always said I would never be one of those moms that went crazy, taking hundreds of pictures of their kids but here I am. After looking at these, I think, “How can I not be one of those moms?”.
My Little Readers
February 6, 2010 – 11:16 pm
Lately it seems everyone in this house has gone a little book crazy. We have all been reading more than ever. I’m not complaining! In fact, I was just telling my parents I didn’t mind winters in Minnesota. It gives us time to get caught up on all the reading we want to do. It also gives us time to snuggle with our young ones. This afternoon, my son got to snuggle with grandma after a big day of sledding. Andrew has been on a polar bear kick lately and so we want to feed that curiosity with the right kind of media as much as we can.
This particular book is part of series called My Animal Family. Each book comes with a DVD and a card containing a code. The DVD has educational, actual footage of the animal in their habitat. The code is for a special website that links with the series. Our code links up t0 the polar bear games since that’s what book we have. It’s quite a bit of bang for your buck considering many children’s books retail for more than what this media package retails for.
As far as the illustration goes, it’s not the most artistically impressive book we own but it is far from unimpressive. We have books with exceptional art but that is a separate category. A lot of the artistic ones lack in the educational department. This one is however one of the most educational books we own and that is what we are looking for more and more now that Andrew’s little brain is in sponge mode and he is soaking up all the information he possible can. He is learning his letters and all about space and various natural habitats. There is a window open and we are trying our hardest to keep the information flowing. One of the ways we can do this is by getting him the books he likes, on the topics he is interested in as well as letting him watch A LIMITED amount of video production that is educational.
The title of this post is My Little Readers (plural). My daughter is only 8 months old but already LOVES books. We aren’t going to limit her to board books for babies. There’s no reason she can’t sit along with Andrew and listen to his stories. I think when we had Andrew we just assumed he needed age-appropriate books but that simply isn’t necessary. Any reading is good reading early on. It gets them familiar with our language and encourages bonding among so many other things. I just know she is going to treasure her books like the rest of the family!
The Nanuq book won a Mom’s Choice Award which takes the guessing out of it if you are a mom and debating if you should buy the book or not. The founder of PBS’s Reading Rainbow is on the panel of judges for the awards. As a kid I used to look forward to that show. I think I can trust her opinion. They have a store on Amazon that links to their other reader’s choice award winners. It’s okay to have books that are not of this genre in your collection, but try to mix some into your library if possible. The more your kid learns from reading the more they will reap the benefits.
Once your child realizes they can travel to another world or learn something they had never imagined before simply by reading, they will be off in their own little worlds. . . and I mean that in a good way.
Cookbook Review: The New Best of BetterBaking.com
February 4, 2010 – 5:43 pm
Don’t you just love it when a new book arrives in the mail and it exceeds your expectation THREEFOLD!? That is what happened to me today when I opened up The New Best of BetterBaking.com by Marcy Goldman. To be honest, I was pretty surprised to see that it didn’t have a gazillion 5-star reviews on Amazon. It should, it’s a gorgeous book and the author obviously knows what she is doing (she has a very successful website). It’s possible this book is flying a little low on the radar at the moment but I think that over time this will become one of those baking cookbooks we all refer to in conversation.
I opened this book and set out to do what I do with each of my new cookbooks which is to sit down with a pack of Post-it Flags (I think these are actually made less than a block from our house but anyway. . .) and mark all the recipes that I categorize as “must try immediately”. Usually I mark 4 or 5 recipes. I just counted 15 for the BB book! I’m not sure how I will fit all this baking in but I can’t wait to get started.
First on my list? Triple Butter Cream Buns. I wanted to make The Underground Baker’s Secret-Formula Carrot Cake but I gotta lay off the sweets for a while so I think I might make that for my daughter’s first birthday. Perhaps Woolworth’s Fudge Cake for Valentine’s day? I most definitely have to make Double-Cheddar Scones for my neighbor the scone expert.
I’ll be the first to admit that I do judge a book by it’s cover and this cover appealed to me. The book is designed by Five Seventeen and the photography is by Ryan Szulc (check out Book 2 under Food and be ready to be blown away). I only have one complaint about the book and that is that it needs MORE photos. Something tells me Ryan Szulc isn’t exactly cheap. I imagine publishers weigh things like that. Maybe the conversations go something like this: “Well we could get Ryan Szulc but then our budget will only allow for 50 photos. Or we could get Joe Schmo and have 100 mediocre photos. . .” Yeah, I don’t know what I would choose. It’s definitely a tough call. Or I could be totally wrong. I know nothing about the publishing world.
Anyway, back to Marcy Goldman. I can’t imagine the amount of time she put into this book. She doesn’t look 80 in her bio pic so the woman must not sleep. To have gone through all these recipes (not to mention the thousands on her site) and perfect them is just amazing to me. Such creativity, such passion. I want to read cookbooks from women (and men) that are passionate about what they do. I do NOT want to read a cookbook from someone who is trying to make a quick buck. You can tell Ms. Goldman is beyond passionate. There is serious creativity and passion here.
I’m confident I will be going back to this cookbook several times, year after year. There are recipes for beginners and some for seasoned pros. This would make a great gift for somebody just learning how to bake or for someone who already bakes on a weekly basis like myself. It’s just the right size too.
Last night I mixed up the dough for the Triple Butter Cream Buns. I’m a little afraid to make and eat something with “triple butter” in the title but Goldman has a great quote in the introduction. She says, “Moderation (as difficult as it may be to exercise at times) tastes best.” I’m with her 100%. What would you rather eat- 1 cream bun or 2 regular buns? I’m going for the cream buns myself. I chose to make these first because I have been craving a good croissant and Goldman says in her description that these are “like croissants” and “easy as pie” not to mention “bakes up as fast as Pillsbury crescent rolls”. I’m all over it. . .
The dough did mix up fast. While kneading I just knew they were going to turn out good. The dough felt so supple- not at all like it feels when you know a recipe called for too much flour and you wish you would have played it by ear rather than just dumped it all in. I started to get a little worried when I started putting in the second call for butter. I was going to halve it, but I thought I better stick to what she calls for to give an fair review of the recipe. After eating one though I wish I would have cut back on some of the butter. They were good but wow. . . that’s a lot of butter. I suppose it’s no different from eating a butter cream frosting or something but yes, moderation is definitely the key with these. They are what you would make for a special occasion.
Triple Butter Cream Buns
Marcy Goldman
Ingredients
Dough:
4 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 cups bread flour
5 teaspoons sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup whipping cream at room temperature
1/4 cup milk at room temperature
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
Butter Roll-In
2 cups (1 pound) unsalted butter
1/2 cup (4 ounces) salted butter, melted, for brushing
Egg Wash
2 eggs, whisked
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and stack each one inside another baking sheet (you will have 4 sheets altogether, each double-stacked).
In a large mixing bowl fitted with a dough hook (or use a bread machine), whisk together the yeast and water and let stand for 1 minute. Whisk in the bread flour, and then the sugar, egg, and softened butter. Stir in the cream, milk, most of the all-purpose flour, the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir to make a soft dough. Attach the dough hook and knead for 8 to 10 minutes to make a soft, supple dough, adding more flour as required. Remove the dough hook, spray the dough with nonstick cooking spray, and cover the entire mixer, dough and all, with a large plastic bag. Let rise for 45 to 60 minutes, until almost doubled in size (or refrigerate overnight).
Gently deflate the dough and divide it in 2. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out one section at a time into a 16-inch circle. Using a cheese slicer or potato peeler, scatter 1 cup of unsalted butter slivers over the surface of the dough. Using a pastry wheel, cut the dough into 8 to 12 wedges (depending on how big you want the rolls; larger is better, but smaller is better for dinner rolls). Roll each wedge into a croissant shape. Place in the baking sheet. Repeat with the second section of dough.
Place the crescents on the prepared stacked baking sheets. Brush each one very generously with the Egg Wash. Lightly cover with a large plastic sheet or bag and let rise until almost doubled in size, 45 to 60 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Place the buns n the oven. After 30 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 350 F and continue baking until the rolls are deeply browned. Remove from the oven and brush each roll several times with the melted, salted butter.
Easy Valentine Treats
February 3, 2010 – 10:16 am
We put together some treat boxes for the people at ECFE and of course a few for the relatives. The box we used to carry the treats in is actually an upcylced Cup Noodles box that Andrew helped me paint pink and then line with leftover scrapbooking paper. The little boxes are from Target and the cute valentines are the ones I got from The Black Apple.
We did some simple mini brownie bites:
I used some Wilton molds for these and just smooshed one end down so they would sit nice.
Then I used this pan:
which I got for 50 cents at our local thrift store. Nobody says you have to put cake mix in mini cupcake tins- it can be brownie mix if you want, or cheesecake or mini lemon pies. . .
I piped my leftover marshmallow fluff onto these. It made for a pretty dessert but I’m not sure marshmallow fluff straight-up is something I would recommend eating. I probably should have cut it with some butter and made it into more of a frosting. But then I wouldn’t have gotten the true white coating like I wanted.
These are just a few ideas for simple desserts that can be done in one morning or afternoon if you need something festive to take and are not wanting to spend the whole day on something.
Valentine’s Day Gift- Homemade Box of Chocolates
January 31, 2010 – 9:38 pm
Normally, my more hair-brained schemes fail big time but this one actually turned out! The chocolates are very sweet but I think if I use semi-sweet instead of milk chocolate for the shells it won’t be so ultra sweet. Also maybe less butter. Anyway, here is how I made a homemade heart-shaped box out of recycled materials and homemade chocolates to fill it with.
I ordered these cute valentines from A Black Apple:
They came right away in a super-cute envelope that I just couldn’t throw away. I had also bought these red cardboard hearts at our local thrift shop:
I cut out two strips from the mailing envelope and put a stripe of glue on the edge of one cardboard heart:
Then I put the cardboard on the heart and put some masking tape that I would remove later on there to hold it. Then I put glue on the inside as well for extra reinforcement:
I ended up with this box which I will line with wax paper before putting the chocolates into:
It’s not the greatest but I have to remind my readers that when I am doing all this I am also dealing with an 8-month old and a 3-year old who want to get into everything! For the chocolate candies, you are going to need these Wilton molds.You can line mini cupcake tins with foil but these work best:
Okay, so you kind of have to work fast here because everything needs to be at a certain temperature. It helps to plan. I decided to do chocolate covered cherries, coconut and caramel nut for fillings. I was going to do some with the leftover marshmallow fluff inside but of course I forgot that until after so write down your plan!
In a double broiler, melt a bag of chocolate chips with 1/4 cup butter. If the chocolate is thick and grainy looking and not smooth and shiny looking add more butter. I ended up adding a whole stick (1/2 cup) but probably should have compromised at 3/4 stick (6 TB) because these turned out extremely rich. Melt the chocolate and turn off the stove. Let the chocolate sit in the double broiler. It won’t harden as you work on the fillings but do be sure to give it a stir now and then.
For my caramel nut filling, I unwrapped 10 caramels and put them in a bowl with a few tablespoons of heavy cream. I put the bowl in a pan of simmering water. The water was shallow so that it didn’t boil up and over into the caramel. The idea is to melt the caramel slightly so that it can be stirred easily to form a gooey goodness filling. Stir in the peanuts. It should look like this:
So basically you want to put down a base of chocolate, a scoop of filling and then a cover. You want to chill each step so that it doesn’t melt all together and form a gooey mess so lay down some chocolate and then stick it in the freezer for 5 minutes. Then get it back out and put a scoop of filling on top of the base shell. It should look something like this:
Stick it back in the freezer for 5 minutes before covering the whole thing in more chocolate. While those are chilling, work on your other fillings. I did cherries as well. I just used marchianos and had my son pluck off the stems. I’m sure he ate a few cherries while on the job.
For these, I used a rounded Wilton Brownie Pop Mold
For my coconut filling, I boiled 1/4 cup cream, 1/2 cup coconut milk, 1/4 cup corn syrup and then added 1 cup of flaked coconut and 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract. It turned out great and I am going to use the left-over for some homemade Almond Joys!
Make sure you chill everything for a good 1/2 hour before packaging them up. Bake it Pretty has some really cute packaging ideas. I recommend the heart window box and some pretty little pink mini paper cups. I’m out of pink and had to use white! After experiencing on my own, I am ready to try something a little more advanced, like this: Making Artisan Chocolates
I added some Valentine-themed sprinkles to my coconut ones. Remember to put those on when the chocolate is still warm so they stick. Here they are cut open:
The caramel peanut ones are the best. I really wish I would have remembered the marshmallow! One bag of chocolate chips mixed with 1 stick of butter yielded 25 candies. Next time I need to either use 2 bags of chocolate or stick to just one flavor as I had tons of filling concoction left-over and not enough chocolate.
I hope this inspires you to make something special for your sweetheart this Valentine’s Day. Oh and here’s another, more quick and easy idea to do with the melted chocolate. I think this is self-explanatory:
Yum!
