It's Friday..

...at least for this blog it is since I missed yesterday's weekly posting. To make up for it here is a two-for-one picture!

Kitchen Duty

That was my assignment for today. My chalkboard list consisted of: sprinkles, baby food (carrots), fruit salad, jar garlic. And, due to the wonderful presence of Gma (my mommy!), I was able to cross out every single item! It was a long day, which had even Baby Girl wanting to go to sleep around 7pm. I managed to keep her entertained until 7:30, fed her - her eyes rolling to the back of her head - and put her down in her crib, quietly snoozing. Twenty minutes later...she is now hollering for all the world to hear. Pastor Husband hasn't seen her all day so he is going to rock her. The last two nights she has been going to sleep later than usual and waking up earlier than usual. Please, I hope!, she sleeps till her normal 7:30am-ish time for tomorrow.


Back to the list...done, done, and DONE.


The garlic took forever because I don't have two metal bowls to do the fancy trick of peeling garlic. So, it was by hand for me. It wasn't too bad. Nice, repetitive, easy work and I now have garlic cloves ready to be used when needed and my oil is being infused with the tastiness of garlic (thanks Shelby for the idea!). I'm very excited to try out the fruit salad tomorrow morning for a yummy breakfast. The carrots are in the process of freezing into nice ice cube shapes and will be thrown into a freezer bag tomorrow. The sprinkles are being used tomorrow for our last church meeting. I won't be using them because they're going to sprinkle them on top of ice cream - the whole lactose thing stops me - but they were super easy to make so I don't mind. I wish I had bigger granules of sugar, but it's okay. They still look pretty and are just teeny-tiny sprinkles. Try them out!


Here is what you need:
Sugar
Food Coloring
Containers for coloring
Containers for storing

Step One

Clean off your counters - you'll need the room!

Measure how much sugar you want for each color and put the sugar in separate jars, containers, or bags. I used sandwich-sized bags. 

Step Two

Color, color, color - use your food coloring to make the colors you want. Shake them, swish them, squish them to get the color throughout the sugar. Then let them air dry for an hour. I let them dry for two hours using the end of Baby Girl's nap as my timer.

Forest Green, Purple, Watermelon Red, and Teal - all from...

...these four colors. "God must be a painter. Why else would we have so many colors?"

Step Three

The sprinkles will keep for a very long time so place the finished product in appropriate sized (unlike me) containers. Enjoy!

Next time, I'll make more.

...and more cake

The last class of cake decorating finally occurred this morning. It was a lot of fun and my sister and I love to take classes of almost anything to learn something new. My goodness though...the time it took to just get ready for each class and the money was just crazy. I would love to take a cooking class only if the class provided all the food and all I needed for the class was two good-working hands and an apron.


We'll see what we sign up for next.


Here are our final masterpieces...

We call this beauty the "Funeral Cake"

We call this the "Creative License Cake"

Frosting on the face - you know the artist was hard at work.

Pseudo-Quiet

When you're in the shower, you don't hear Baby Girl waking up extra early this morning :)


I'm in love with this song we've been singing at church recently...I hope you enjoy it too!

Friday?

I tried posting from my phone last night and it was just not having it. This is another argument as to why I need a better phone. Anyway...


...yesterday, I did not get a picture of Baby Girl in something, something on her head, or just a cute picture in general. Why? Because she is growing up and cutting her first tooth! It makes me want to celebrate, but makes her want to cry. Gee, I wonder why?


I actually felt it when we went to the movies on Wednesday. If you haven't tried it or haven't heard of it you should do it. At Ultra Star Cinemas they have Parent Movie Morning. They pick a movie and at it only plays once at a certain time. The theatre is not as dark, the sound not as loud, and there is a changing table set up for your baby. They also say to expect crying and feedings so no one is surprised. Well, we finally made it this last Wednesday and saw "Rock of Ages". So good! If you love 80's/early 90's rock then you will love this movie. I sang every song to Baby Girl. I couldn't help myself. She watched some of the movie, had a feeding, a changing, and even a nap. It was so great!


So, I apologize for not having a new adorable picture for you to marvel at, but here is one of the first pictures I took of Baby Girl in something...enjoy!

Two Months Old

Too Much Zucchini!

Our summer garden is so sad this year. Last year we managed a couple of cucumbers and about a million tomatoes. Two of my most favorite pieces of produce. This year we decided to plan strawberries - doesn't work with dogs stomping on them and peeing on them! - tomatoes - a different variety, which just doesn't seem to like our yard - and zucchini - it won't stop. There are small ones, medium ones, and giant ones. All the time. Every day I explore through the jungle of zucchini leaves and find...more zucchini!


So, to take care of the problem, I've been pinning a bunch of zucchini recipes. Luckily, Pastor Husband loves zucchini every which way. I, on the other hand, only love it when it doesn't taste like zucchini. Last night's dinner was a success for both of us: Zucchini Pizza.


Here is what you need:
Zucchini - how ever many you feel like making
Garlic
Olive Oil
Lemon
Pepper
Bread Crumbs
Tomatoes (mine were store bought, so sad!)
Cheese


Preheat Oven: 350 degrees

Step One

Make the Olive Oil spread

Mix together some olive oil and lemon juice until there's a good balance between the two. Then add some ground pepper and minced garlic. Taste it as you go along. (Remember you're the chef in your house...always taste before serving!)

Step Two

Prepare the Zucchini

Slice the zucchini in half and then thinly slice the bottoms so they don't wobble. Scoop out the seeds. Brush all of it with the olive oil spread and then make your pizza. I did a layer of tomatoes, cheese, pepperoni, and then more cheese. Then sprinkle with some bread crumbs

Step Three

Bake!

Place the zucchini on a cookie sheet, baking dish (lined with foil for easy clean-up), whatever works for you. Bake, uncovered, for about 20 minutes. You can, afterward, add more cheese and broil it, but we were hungry now and one more step was one step too many.

The zucchini isn't mushy and the olive oil spread plus the spicy pepperoni made me almost forget that I was eating zucchini.

BONUS STEP!

The noodles were just spaghetti and the great thing was that I used the left over olive oil spread for the sauce. Yummy!

see...giant size and baby size

more cheese for Pastor Husband than me, he loves it, I do not

how did my napkin holder turn into this?

The End

CUPCAKES!

This morning was all giggles and frosting during cake decorating class. Sometimes I wonder if the instructor does not regret canceling the class when she had the chance because once my sister and I get going it's very hard to get us to stop. We sure have fun though!

Here are a few of our creations...only one more class to go!

All our end results for the morning

Apparently a mum is a hairy flower

This is mum that turned into a Muppet character