National Pancake Day

Shrove Tuesday is a day observed by millions of Christians around the world. It's the Tuesday right before Ash Wednesday when people indulge in richer, fattier foods and celebrate in over the top ways to get ready for their 40 days of Lent.  Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Carnival whatever you want to call it, it all boils down to the philosophy of "Live it up before you let it go." In Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand the day is also known as "Pancake Day" and it is as common a custom to eat pancakes just as it is in America to eat Turkey on Thanksgiving. 

It's just what you do. 

So in the spirit of tradition (because I'm not personally a religious person), I whipped up my own original recipe for the very best pancakes on the planet. They turned out so ridiculously delicious, I figured I'd share. After all, I haven't posted a recipe on this blog since the day after Halloween. 

It's about that time. 

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 TBS sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 large egg

1 TBS vegetable oil

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract 

1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk

Directions:

In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Whisk to combine.  

In large glass measure, add 1 1/2 cups low fat buttermilk, egg, oil, and vanilla.  Whisk to combine.  

Add the wet ingredients into the center of the dry and whisk to combine.  If the batter seems to thick, add more buttermilk until it is pouring consistency.  Set aside.

Heat griddle/skillet which has been lightly oiled with either the canola/butter mixture or sprayed with cooking spray to med-high.  

When griddle/skillet is hot enough, stir the batter and pour by 1/4 cup to form pancakes.  Cook until the edges begin to look dry and small bubbles form on the batter surface.  Flip and cook on the other side for a minute or so, until pancake is done. 

Remove to platter in warm oven, and repeat with remainder of batter.  

And off the subject of pancakes, we've got an under the weather kiddo yet again. She's sick, but still smiling which warms my heart more than pancakes ever could. So send some quick recovering love our way if you think about it and Happy Mardi Gras everyone!

College.

Lets play catch up a bit here.

Kalynn is officially 3 years old.

Everyone tells me the terrible twos have nothing on the thunderous threes. So far, this is proven to be extremely spot on. She's very opinionated, very stubborn, very determined and very sassy. She makes her own path, right or wrong, and she doesn't take no for an answer. I'm not 100% sure if this is an age thing, or a hereditary thing. I guess we'll find out in due time. Either way, trying to tame the wild, or at the very least trying to keep up with her, is exhausting. Fun, but exhausting.

It seems like the crazier life becomes with a growing toddler, the faster it goes.

I'm having a hard time believing that 2012 is already over, let alone the entire month of January and half of February in 2013. Sometimes it's nice to slow down a bit and remember what is truly important. Mainly, the people I love.

When we visited California a couple weeks ago, it was really important to me to get some pictures of Kalynn with my grandmother (her great-grandmother). She's been an awesome staple in my life from before I can even remember and I really wanted to figure out a cool way to capture of all 4 generations of women in our family:

I absolutely love love love the idea of this picture. Being more physically distant from that side of my family then I have been in years is really hard sometimes, so having this little piece of them to on hang on Kalynn's wall is really special for us.

And with time flying by quicker than I expected, I also came to the realization that we need to be financially prepared for things that will come faster than we thought they would. Like Kalynn going to college.

Because she is going to college.

Every holiday I get asked by friends and family "is there anything that Kalynn needs?" "What kinds of things does she like?" "What types of toys does she play with?" And the truth is, She's three. And a spoiled three at that. She has more toys than she knows what to do with. More importantly, she has more energy than any person I've ever met so sitting down and playing with anything for an extended period of time is just out of the question most of the time. Sure, she loves to open gifts and have new toys and we're not unappreciative of the things that she has gotten and loved over the years. A few of those toys have even become part of our permanent daily routine, but truthfully, at least at this point, we're blessed to not lack any traditional type of toy or clothing that she needs.

Gradsave.com is a way for our friends and family to give the gift of education instead of traditional presents for any of Kalynn's special occasions, holidays and birthdays. College is expensive. I'm currently in the process of paying back a portion of my student loans and it's almost impossible to see the light at the end of the tunnel. What we're trying to do, is to not let Kalynn have a giant mound of debt after she finishes her degree. After seeing the final bill of my own college experience, and imagining the inflating cost of a college education 15 years down the road, it's frightening to think where we'd be if we didn't start planning right away.

Gradsave is super easy to use and it's 100% FDIC insured. We've set up an account for Kalynn so all anyone needs to do if they wish to donate is go to her profile page. All donations big and small are welcome. As soon as she hits her $1000 goal, that money is then transferred into her 529 college savings fund and her Gradsave goal starts again at zero. This website makes it so easy for friends and family to participate in an extremely practical gift that she'll never outgrow no matter how old she gets. It's pure genius.

If you'd like to make a donation or if you'd just like to check out Kalynn's profile page, CLICK HERE.

Other than time passing far too quickly, things are returning to normal since the excitement of holidays and birthdays has come to an end. We're gearing up for Valentine's Day by planning a little photo shoot that will be posted later next week. Hope all is well with all of you!

xo

Easter Post

Hope everyone is having a blessed and perfect Easter Sunday!

The Toddler Easter Basket

There is a fine line between tradition and melt down for our family on Easter Sunday. As much as I appreciate the practice of stuffing chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, Cadbury eggs and Peeps in the guts of a prettied up basket, I also know how much of a nightmare for a 2-year-old that can be.

So this year, we're heading down the road that leads to less of a sugar rush and therefore less of a sugar crash.

We've decided on some toys, coloring books, crayons, stickers, fruit snacks, and some goldfish "carrots" made from decorating bags and green ribbon. (I know, how boring are we this year??)

We found these perfect, little, toddler-friendly, plastic eggs with suction cup feet and strings for easy hiding. 

I filled ours with pom-pom chicks and Annie's chocolate cookies

 We're also starting the tradition this year to plant some magic beans the night before Easter to see what grows in the morning:

The Easter Bunny will sprinkle magic Easter dust over the candy seeds, and under the moonlight, special treats will grow:

Hope everyone has fun tomorrow! Happy Easter weekend!

Easter Egg Cupcakes with "Yolk" Centers

Thanks to Cupcake Project for this idea which I pretty much stole right off the page. (with a few of my own twists, of course)

It looked way too cool to not try out.

I had no idea you could cook anything inside egg shells. However, it totally makes sense now that I think about it. Why not cuppy cakes?

First, you need to hollow out your shells. I poked a whole at the top of my eggs with a cork screw and then just chipped away until I had a hole the size of a nickel. It needs to be large enough to get the tip from your decorating bag through it.

I like to dye my eggs with Kool-Aid. 2/3 a cup water plus one packet usually does the trick. Sometimes the yellow is a bit stubborn but if you mix just a little bit of orange in with it, it's fixes the problem without altering the color.

Use a whisk instead of tongs or those horrendous dippers that come in a box. It coats evenly and you get way more handle and control over what you're doing. If you dare to let your toddler close to this project, it'll be easier for them to handle as well.

Once your eggs are colored, place them in your muffin pan with some foil to help them stand upright. You certainly don't want these guys to tip over while they bake.

I put my cupcake mix inside a decorating bag to make it easier to maneuver. Fill the eggs about 1/4 of the way full.
For the "yolk" centers, mix cream cheese and sugar until you get your desired taste. I only made a handful of eggs today so I used 2 oz of cream cheese and 4 teaspoons sugar. But you can certainly switch that up if need be.  I used a medicine dropper to insert a marble sized drop right on top of the cupcake batter. If you don't have a medicine dropper, you could use another decorating bag.
Then continue to fill up the egg with batter somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 of the way full. You don't want them to overflow, but you don't want them to not fill up the egg either. It's a fine line between perfect and disaster here.

Bake them at 350º between 15-20 minutes and you have yourself the perfect mini cupcake! I added just a tiny bit of frosting to close the hole at the top, and then some pretty easter flags to make them festive.

I'd also like to say THANK YOU for all the VOTING you guys are doing! I've jumped from 440 to 194 this month! You're all pretty awesome, and I appreciate all the comments, feedback and love! XO

Rainbow Connection Cookies

So we all know how I feel about the Muppets. It's no secret. Today I felt like giving a little shout out to my pal Kermit by making him these sweet cookies. Here's the condensed version of what I just did:

Allow me to explain in a little more detail.

First thing is first. Make or buy your sugar cookies. I made ours just because I was too lazy this morning to go to the store and buy a tube of the Pilsbury kind. Anyway, divide the dough into 6 separate bowls and add separate food coloring to each bowl so you have 1 each of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

Roll each color into individual balls about the size of a grape.

Take one ball of each color and roll into a larger ball about the size of a ping pong ball.

Roll, kindergarten snake style, a long line out of your rainbow ball, twisting as you go. The twisting is important, it's what gives your cookies the complete rainbow effect. 

Then wrap your line into a small pinwheel and bake on a baking sheet at 350º for 10-11 minutes. I rolled some of my edges in colored sprinkles but that's totally your decision to make based on how sugared out you feel like being.

I suppose this would work for any holiday. You could do white, green and red for Christmas, orange with black for Halloween, red, white and blue for 4th of July etc... But I was in a rainbow connection mood today.

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