Live Your Dream

Strawberries!!

Last week in school we were studying plants and the boys remembered picking strawberries last year and asked if we could go again. My husband had Monday off so we made about an hour drive to a local strawberry farm and had so much fun!

We actually picked about 6 gallons in an hour and a half. We kept 3 of those and gave the rest away to friends and family.

I spent most of Monday night washing berries and freezing them. We ate some with dinner and then on Tuesday I made a strawberry pie and strawberry bread. YUM!

I didn't have a graham cracker crust at home so I made my own. It was so easy!

3/4 c. flour
3 Tbsp. butter
1-2 Tbsp. powdered sugar (I used 2)

Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

{strawberry pie}

3 oz. pkg. strawberry or raspberry jello (I used raspberry because my store was out of strawberry!)
1 c. sugar
4 Tbsp. cornstarch
Add 2 c. boiling water

Cook and stir until creamy (comes to a boil). Place kettle in cold water and stir until lukewarm. Fold in the strawberries or raspberries (approx. 2 pints sliced or whole). Pour into a baked pie shell. Refrigerate. Serve with a dab of whipped cream.

{strawberry bread}

I used this recipe except I made the following changes:

reduced oil to 3/4 c.
added 2 c. strawberry puree
reduced white sugar to between 1-1/4 c. and 1-1/2 c. because my berries were so ripe

Hot Chocolate Cones

I had a blast Sunday night (truly!) making these hot chocolate cones for my husband's co-workers. The recipe actually tastes good and it looks adorable, too. It took me about 2 hours to make 33 of them. :) I was a bit exhausted (and covered in cocoa) when I finished so I quickly put tags together and labels on the back with the "to" and "from" information. And when I totalled all the costs it came to right under $1 per person. Not bad!

I got the idea here and used her recipe but with Special Dark Hershey's cocoa. Each cone has 6 Tbsp. plus 1/4 c. of semi-sweet chocolate chips and about 1/3 c. miniature marshmallows. I also bought a bag of mini twizzlers which were perfect for the "cherry on top." If I remember right, each batch of cocoa made about 22-24 servings (3 Tbsp. of mix per serving).

I ran out of a few ingredients so I sealed up the leftover mix and made another batch Monday night for the kiddos' Sunday School teachers. (This second time around my husband poured chocolate chips and marshmallows for me--so much faster!)

Homemade Bagels

The boys and I decided to make bagels the other day. I came across two yummy recipes (Cranberry Orange Bagels and Pumpkin Spice Bagels) in the October/November 2010 issue of TOH's Healthy Cooking. We picked up our ingredients in the morning and I promised them when they woke up from their naps that we would make the dough. They stood on stools to watch me measure and helped me dump in the ingredients. I even passed around the different spices for them to smell. I think they had fun! Of course we had to wait for the dough to rise (though mine didn't rise very much!) and then I divided the dough into balls and they got to poke their thumb through while I twirled it in the center. Clark said we had an assembly line. :)

Here is a picture of the bagels cooking in the boiling water.

Then I pulled them out with a slotted spoon and they drained on paper towels (while I dropped two more in). Pictured below is the Cranberry Orange bagels.

And finally after two batches of each recipe (whew!) we had lots of yummy bagels and a maple nut bagel spread.

Strawberries!!!

I had planned to do something fun with the kids on Friday...I just didn't know what that was until I checked my email and saw that the local strawberry farm was open. :) I called my brother and we made an impromptu trip to pick strawberries. The boys had a great time and Ella just slept outside in the warm breeze.

(Alex LOVES strawberries!)

Then tonight I made strawberry muffins and monkey muffins. We decided that we will start a tradition of eating breakfast for dinner on Sunday nights. (We also had bacon...what a great combination!) LOL

Strawberry Muffins (thanks, Betsy!)

1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1/2 cup toasted walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh strawberries

Preheat oven to 400. Butter and flour the bottom and side of an 8 up loaf pan, set aside.
Place nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes or until brown and fragrant. Remove from oven and let cool completely before chopping.
In electric mixer bowl, beat the butter until softened. Add the sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, on at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three addition and sour cream (I used yogurt) in two additions, alternating - starting and ending with the flour. Mix only until combined. Gently fold in the chopped strawberries and nuts.
Scrape batter into the prepared muffin tin and bake about 15-20 minutes, or until toothpick is clean.

(I added one mashed banana to the batter on the second batch. YUM)

Monkey Muffins

Baking Day...YUM!

As you know, our third little pumpkin hasn't made her appearance yet so I decided to plan things for us to do this week to keep me busy and distracted. I normally make homemade bread and keep extra loaves in the freezer but I haven't baked in quite some time because our freezer is so full of quick-prep foods for after Ella arrives. I decided to bake today and store everything in my brother's freezer. :)

I started off our morning @ 8 a.m. with two batches of bread (4 loaves in total) and then made two batches of chocolate chip muffins. 

My friend, Betsy, arrived just about the time we pulled the first batch of muffins out of the oven. We ate breakfast and then put another batch of bread in the mixer. She had wanted to learn how to make bread so I tried to give her a crash course. Then we mixed up dough for two King Cakes. 

I grew up in Louisiana and love sweets so the recipe for King Cake was more or less a treat to myself! I guess about then it was time to turn the first two batches into bread pans (thanks Mom, for loaning me some extras) and then lunch. After lunch we baked the bread, baked the King Cakes and decorated them. After Betsy left I put the other batch of bread into the oven and turned the final batch into bread pans. In total we made 8 loaves of bread, 24 chocolate chip muffins, and 2 King Cakes. Now it's 5 p.m. and I'm exhausted!

I hope you had a good Monday. I had a box of Stampin' Up! goodies arrive while we were baking so I'm excited to tear into it and make something new. Hopefully I will have something fun to post tomorrow!

Layouts from The Farm

Today I decided to haul my laptop onto the sofa and sit with the boys while they watched Leap Frog's Letter Factory and I worked on more digital layouts. I was impressed with how many letters and/or sounds Alex (28 months) could identify this morning during our school time. It's review week so we are reviewing A-L. I figured another pass at the DVD would be good for them (and good for me!). :)

Clark's layout

Alex's layout

Of course my battery died before I was done but they gave me a few moments of peace and quiet once I was plugged in, to finish them.

We worked a little more in Ella's room after that--sorting diapers and old bottles. I have been trying to work a little each day on getting some clothes washed and putting away leftover odds and ends from the boys. While the boys ate lunch, I used up some overly ripe bananas in a loaf of banana bread and just pulled that out of the oven. Hopefully they are sleeping and I can enjoy some "alone time" (as Clark calls it) before they wake up. One day he actually asked me if I make them take naps so I can be alone! LOL

Happy Monday!

Chocolate Pecan Waffles

Yum! I made our favorite waffles for breakfast this morning and I even doubled the batch so you can imagine how long I stood in front of the waffle maker. :)

This recipe comes from the July/Aug 2009 issue of TOH's Simple & Delicious magazine.

Chocolate Pecan Waffles

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
2 squares (1 oz. each) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup chopped pecans
Fresh raspberries and whipped topping (we used strawberries)

In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar until foamy; beat in the milk, butter and vanilla. Stir in the chocolate.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Stir in chocolate mixture just until combined; fold in pecans. Bake in a preheated waffle iron according to manufacturer's directions until golden brown. Serve with raspberries and whipped topping. Yield: 16 waffles.

Iced Coffee Latte

I had to share this great recipe with you. It's super easy and stores well in the refrigerator. :) It comes from my favorite line of magazines--Simple and Delicious (from Taste of Home) May/June 2009.

Iced Coffee Latte

1/2 c. instant coffee granules
1/2 c. boiling water
4 c. chocolate milk (or make your own with Hershey's syrup)
2 c. cold water
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
ice cubes

In a large bowl, dissolve coffee in boiling water. Stir in the chocolate milk, cold water and condensed milk. Serve over ice. Yield: 8 servings.

(I added a little more sugar, extra Hershey's syrup, and extra milk.)

Hot Cross Buns

Good Friday to you! I tried a new recipe on Monday for Hot Cross Buns. I basically followed the recipe (halved) except I froze the buns on cookie sheets until they were hard enough to bag (and returned to the freezer). Then last night I put them back on cookie sheets and let them rise the final time (overnight) and baked them first thing in the morning. Yum! The icing makes them complete. :)

Hot Cross Buns
(yields 6 dozen)

4 pkg. (1/4 oz. each) active dry yeast (or 8 tsp. instant yeast)
3 c. warm milk
2 c. canola oil
8 eggs
4 eggs, separated
1-1/3 c. sugar
4 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground cardamom
13 to 15 c. all-purpose flour
2-2/3 c. raisins
2 tsp. water

Icing:
3 c. confectioners' sugar
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
4 to 5 Tbsp. milk

In a very large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm milk. Add the oil, eggs, egg yolks, sugar, cinnamon, salt, cardamom and 10 c. flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a firm dough. Stir in raisins.

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1-1/4 hours.

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Divide into 72 pieces; shape each into a ball. Place 2 in. apart in four greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pans. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 40 minutes. Combine egg whites and water; brush over rolls.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to cool on wire racks. For icing, combine the confectioners' sugar, butter and enough milk to achieve desired consistency. Pipe an "X" on top of each bun. [Put the frosting in a Ziploc bag and cut off the end for an instant pastry bag!]

St. Patrick's Day and A Birthday

Today is my sister Lisa's birthday. I always send her a green birthday card so I had to keep with tradition and make one again this year. :)

{supplies}
Paper: Garden Green, Certainly Celery, Whisper White
Ink: Garden Green, Versamark
Stamps: Doodle This, Polka Dot Punches, Heard from the Heart
Accessories: Whisper White EP, heat gun

Several of my students have birthdays this week and next week, so I scoured the internet to find an idea for a treat. I found this recipe for Clover Cookies on Martha Stewart.com. Perfect!

I made a template out of a plastic coffee can lid. I'm glad DH asked if I wanted to save it last week. :) Not only were they easy but they are also delish!

And here are the finished products! I bagged two of them with some curly ribbon (quick and easy!) just in time before my lessons start today.