Tuesday Donut

We go to church at least twice a week - Saturday night and Sunday morning. Baby Girl calls Saturday night "big church". Sunday morning has been given the name of "little church", but it's her favorite because little church has donuts. Full-size donuts. Nothing cut in half and they are the good donuts. Not just a bunch of glazed. There are chocolate bars, maple bars, and - the most coveted of all donuts - donuts with sprinkles! Again, Baby Girl has her own name for them, "bagels with sprinkles". She especially loves the ones with pink icing and rainbow sprinkles.

So, I'm excited for the full-size donuts, of course, but Baby Girl gets only half a donut. I don't want to send my kid wired into children's church. I always tell her that she can half before church and half after she gets out of her class. She gobbles down the top part of her half of the donut and then moves to the bottom part. I wrap up the other half in a napkin and put in a side pocket in my purse.

By time church is over and we're leaving someone is usually crying. Does church ruin your kids normal eating and naptime routine? It ruins our and there's always that dilemma of do they eat lunch and then nap or nap and then eat or is naptime even going to happen?!

Anyway...the donut never gets back to Baby Girl. I don't feel bad because we both forget about it. Monday, we also forget about it because that's usually our day of rest. Tuesday, Ga (Granma) comes over and Mom (Me!) leaves the house to do errands and maybe drink a cup of coffee while reading a book. Tuesday is the day I use my purse and it's in the same state as I left it Sunday afternoon. After getting out of the car I put my keys in the side pocket and I find a napkin and wonder, "what did I put in here now?"

Sunday's donut has now become Tuesday's donut.

I'll confess, if it's not too damage, I will eat it with my coffee. If it looks like the picture of the donut above then I talk myself into throwing it away. Always a battle. The donut makes me smile because it reminds me of Baby Girl, her excitement for a bagel with sprinkles, and that I can still control her donut intake.

My 19th Month Old Baby Girl

She was just cuckoo today! I did a lot of observation because she was just cracking me up. I started watching "Glee" on Netflix because I've gone through everything else, it seems. I like the singing and dancing and so does Baby Girl. She started this new dance move where she lifts her hands above her head and waves them around. There was lots of spinning and jumping. Her jumping though is when she sort of lifts her heels a bit off the ground.

Baby Girl also was brave enough to put herself in the dogs' cage.

Then we had a yummy dinner tonight of twice baked cauliflower. The directions - boil the stuff, process the stuff, then stick it in the broiler for a few. That's about it. Also, add whatever ingredients, seasonings you really like. We had ours with garlic, butter, chives, chicken, and tomatoes. I recommend boiling the cauliflower in chicken stock (or even veggie stock) versus just water. It'll give it a bit more flavor.

Oh, look! Our garden is growing!

Tomato and Cucumber

Tomato with a Baby Girl in the back

There are three tiny asparagus growing up!

The Bread Made My Heart Burn!

I accidentally stole a thing of strawberries from one of my girls yesterday and I was very excited about it when I started unloading the stroller and found them! I bought some strawberries when I last went shopping and froze some for Baby Girl's smoothies, sliced some for fruit salad, and saved a few whole ones for myself. They were so yummy; however, we've been strawberry-less for a few days now and so this morning was quite sweet because Baby Girl got to have some in her Malt-O-Meal (I can't stand this stuff!), I ate a few, and I decided to use the rest for Strawberry Yogurt Cake - which I made into a bread instead.

You can find the recipe here: A Spice Perspective.

The only thing I really did different was the baking temperature. I had mine at 350 degrees and baked it for about 60 minutes. I didn't use Greek yogurt either. I stopped buying it because it's twice the price of regular yogurt. We used just simple, plain yogurt. I also probably put a bit over a tablespoon of lemon juice as well because I love baked goods with an actual taste of lemon, not just a hint of it. There were also almost two cups worth of diced strawberries.

I didn't do the glaze either, mostly because I forgot to take those ingredients out of the cabinet. The bread was fine without it and definitely sweet enough and I have proof - I ate a piece and proceeded to have heartburn for the next six hours! If there is one pregnancy symptom that just kills me it's the heartburn whenever I eat anything sweet or any kind of carb. I guess this means I'm done with carbs for the next four months. I did try a home remedy and it appears to be working: toothpaste. You just stick a dab in your mouth, swish it around, and swallow. The last ten minutes have been fairly painless. I'm a believer!

This is why I can't stand the stuff! It's such a mess! Cute, yes, but still a mess.

Advent: Days 18-22

Day 18 Verses: Matthew 1.18-25
Day 19 Verses: Luke 1.39-56
Day 20 Verses: Luke 1.57-66
Day 21 Verses: Luke 1.67-80
Day 22 Verses: Luke 2.1-7

What a day today! It's finally ending with me in at the dining room table, blogging, and listening to Baby Girl gibber-gabber away to Pastor Husband as he gives her a bath. He takes such good care of her when he's home. He's a very hands-on, active daddy and she absolutely loves him! Pastor Husband even took her to run some errands this afternoon.

Today I have been one with my kitchen. So much so that I took a nap while still wearing an apron. Yeah. I started on what I am bringing to Christmas Eve - salsa, pumpkin cookies and Oreo truffles. The cookies and truffles will be made tomorrow. Today I made salsa and chips. It was my first attempt at salsa and I used the recipe from "One Particular Kitchen". So good! I only used 15 serrano chilies though because Pastor Husband can't stand the heat, but it still came out pretty dang hot, I think.

So, even after being in the kitchen all afternoon, I decided to make a family dinner and we had enchiladas and rice (I was feeling very brown today). In the enchiladas I put black beans, corn, diced tomatoes, and shredded turkey. Baby Girl ate the same only minus the tortilla. She left her plate clean. Pastor Husband left his plate clean.

Food making was a success today!

Homemade salsa on homemade chips...yes, please!

After pulverization

I was watching an Ellen comedy special - here are the ingredients before roasting

Can't wait to massacre these ingredients!

"Making Christmas"

Christmas started early in the Jahn home this year. We decided to decorate yesterday because I usually like to decorate the day after Thanksgiving - keeps me away from the crazies who Black Friday - however, we'll be in Big Bear so of course that meant I needed to do it a week before! The only thing missing in our home is the tree. Hopefully, that will go up before we leave. Don't worry, it's a fake tree. I've grown used to it. I'll just snag some branches from Big Bear before heading down the hill.

Christmas is starting in the church too. We're decorating tomorrow and Tuesday. It's my favorite time for decorations because we kept up the same lights and Christmas trees for our wedding. It's like the church celebrates our anniversary every year.

Today, I decided to continue the festive mood and make my first batch of Christmas cookies. I made pumpkin cookies with brown sugar frosting. I'm pretty proud of these because it is my first time truly creating a recipe! I actually made it up out of my own head. The cookies are from a recipe, but the frosting is my invention. I'll leave you to using your own pumpkin cookie recipe, there are so many out there, but I will lay out the frosting recipe. I hope you enjoy it! I know it is now my favorite frosting!


Here is what you need:
3 1/2 cups Confectioners Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 1/4 Butter
1/4 Evaporated Milk
2 tsp Vanilla

Step One

Melt the butter with the brown sugar. Swish it around so it all mixes well and doesn't burn. You want to keep cooking it until the butter browns a bit. It takes a few minutes.

Step Two

Add the melted butter/brown sugar to the confectioners sugar. Add the evaporated milk and vanilla. Stir until smooth.

That's it! These cookies are probably the prettiest I have ever made so if I ever open my bakery called "Homely Goods" I don't know if they'll fit because they are just too pretty. One day...we shall see.

Linda Eder Christmas Concert - She's my favorite!

Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Sugar Frosting

On the Menu

Is it bad that I've only had a few, day-old donut holes to eat today?

It's one of those days where the only food in the kitchen is food you have to prepare and cook.

Don't worry, dinner will be nutritious for all!

Kitchen Action

I didn't think there was going to be much going on in my kitchen today other than breakfast - made by Pastor Husband, not by me. He wakes up way too early for me to get up and make food. So, usually, he gets up and makes enough oatmeal for himself and Baby Girl. Lunch wasn't at home either because there was a chicken bowl fundraiser after church. We were raising money for the young adults' retreat.

**Pastor Husband just confessed! He used one of Baby Girl's frozen fruit cubes for his own oatmeal! Haha, I told him he was going to have to tell Baby Girl about it.**

After that, once we were home, we ALL took a three hour nap! Baby Girl would have kept on sleeping if I hadn't gone in there to wake her up. It was around 5pm when we all rolled ourselves from slumber and remembered that the world was still spinning. We decided to go grocery shopping and eat as cheaply as possibly at IHOP. A great thing about this place - kids eat free every day! Baby Girl might have had some pancakes and eggs. It was cute too because we just cut it nice and small and she ate it all by herself. Picking up one piece at a time. I almost cried.

We decided to go shopping tonight rather than tomorrow because I wanted to do that thing where you make ready-to-throw-into-an-oven meal for a friend of ours. She needs some help and I remember the days of working full-time and the last thing you want to do is make dinner after a long and no-good-very-bad-day. I can't imagine doing that while pregnant and raising two young boys. I took on the challenge of making four meals, none of which take any type of cream-of-anything soups. For about an hour my kitchen had chopping, boiling, and measuring. Here are the results: Cilantro Lime Chicken with Corn and Black Beans, Pineapple Chicken, "World's Best Chicken", and Garlic Lime Chicken. Thank you to "Pretty Providence" for your easy recipes!

Baby Girl's e-ticket ride.

The beginning of the action!

My Autumn centerpiece until we eat them!!

After the action.

Time for Dinner!

We've had a couple of yummy dinners this last week. I can tell how often I've been cooking - or not cooking - by how many forks come out of the dishwasher. If it's mostly spoons that means really only Baby Girl has been eating homemade stuff while her parents have been eating out. This week, we've been very good about eating at home or at least food made from our own kitchen. Our fridge has actual leftovers in it! We're a real family now.

The first dish just screamed fall to me and I really wanted to stand next to the stove all afternoon and eat it out of the skillet. It made the house smell all warm and cozy on an above 90-degree day (ugh! Today is the first day of fall and you would never know it!). It was a sausage, green beans, and apples cooked in vinegar and beer. I used just the original flavor of Blue Moon beer (I know nothing about beer and really despise the taste of it so I went with what seemed safe and popular). I also used an apple cider vinegar. I figured with the wheat beer it needed a somewhat sweet yet harvest-y flavor. It was so good! The flavors of the entire dish was like eating a perfect fall day where you get to wear a scarf in Southern California.

The second dish we had tonight. Apparently, we decided to be vegetarians for about an hour. Our main course was Penne Pasta with Roasted Asparagus. Another just yummy dish that you really could just stand and pick at from the pan. The asparagus gives it a very fresh taste and you toss it all together with a great reduced balsamic vinegar that has brown sugar and pepper in it. That is what keeps me going back for more.

As a side we had a Broccoli Salad. This was tempting to make because I like homemade dressings, which always seem hard, but they're really not and the recipe called for shallots. Curtis Stone used these all the time on his "Take Home Chef" show and I always wanted to try one. I'm glad I tried it raw for the first time versus cooking. In the salad they are sliced thin so they easily get lost in the salad, but when you bite into them it's the texture of an onion and the flavor of garlic...well, almost like garlic. I enjoyed them and I look forward to cooking with one next.

Give these recipes a try when you can. They are simple and delicious.

Sausage, Green beans, and Apples

Penne Pasta with Asparagus

Broccoli Salad

Where Am I At?

I'm a day behind on my stuff to make for the birthday bash. Ugh, I can't stand it when that happens. I ran out of chocolate for the choco-bananas so I got about half done yesterday. I have a little bit of OCD and need bookends to everything I do - a beginning and an end. The end being a completed project. Oh well, I'll have more chocolate on Friday and will finish then. So, for today, I am making cupcakes and the official smash cake! I'm going to do the can cake that I did for one of my Youth girl's a couple of months ago. This time I'm going to follow the official recipe and, hopefully, it won't take over an hour to bake. We shall see...

Waiting for Pastor Husband's soccer game to start...He's a studly ref :)

Oh my gosh! Two days to go!

Yummy Dinner

This is from about a week ago, I believe. I decided we were going to be Filipino for a night and made Pancit Bihon (don't ask me how to say it, at least not properly). It was so tasty! It was really easy too.

You can find the recipe here: Cooking with Crouton

Before noodles.

After noodles. I wish this was a scratch and sniff sticker!

Baby Girl only took an hour nap this morning, but I still love her :)

What's Been Cookin'?

Yes, I have been cooking. Yes, Pastor Husband has been eating. Yes, Baby Girl is actually sharing dinner with us at times rather than having to eat her own baby food. I told her not to get used to it though because I made a ton and it will all end up in her belly. I've not been very good at these food posts, but food has found its way into our house and onto the stove or oven.

Here's a bit of what's been cookin':

The beginnings of Martha Stewart's Strawberry Bread.

Yes, that is a Martha Stewart whisk. She's sorta my hero.

Strawberry Bread!

May look like a murder scene, but it's actually a yummy dinner!

I have to write about the above because it came out so much better than I thought. This is an invention dinner. I needed some empty cans (and you'll see why below) so I had to open up a can of tomatoes. What to do with it? Stick in the Martha Stewart cast iron pot with some garlic, spices, and chicken. As a result you have a scrumptious dinner to go with some green beans (another can) and brown rice. Yum! Baby Girl got to share this dinner with us.

Sushi Food Truck ::drool:: "Please sir, may I have some more?"

Hello Can Cake!

Hello to my mini-tiered cake.

The Bday Girl with her cake.

Oh yeah, always working on bday stuff for the Baby Girl...only two months away!

I didn't take a picture of dinner tonight because it was not pretty, but it was yummy. There just wasn't any fun color to it other than the salad on the side. Basically it was chicken, cream of mushroom soup, and some stuffing. Pour all the stuff together and bake. Simple, kind of quick, and use one dish. Works for us!