The Crooked Scone

If I were to open a bakery, I'd have to call it the Sunken Loaf. Or maybe the Crooked Scone. And if I did open a bakery, it would have a playground for babies to play in so adults could enjoy their baked goods in peace and quiet and babies would have somewhere to burn off some energy during the cold, cold winters (it's below zero here today; boo!). Then maybe people would come for the atmosphere and not notice so much that my baked goods have .... personality?

Assembled ingredients for scones

I'm pretty proud this week. After 2 months (from Halloween to Christmas) of eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted - resulting in an 11 lb weight gain! - I got back on the Weight Watchers band wagon and tracked, tracked, tracked my points. This week I lost 2.8 lbs! Still a long way to go to get rid of holiday weight, and even farther to go to get rid of pregnancy weight (yes, a year later, I'm still toting it around....), but I know from experience that success breeds success.

All stirred up

So, when I had a hankerin' for baking today (did I mention it's below zero with the wind chill??), I knew just what to make. I've followed Gina at Skinnytaste for some time. Made several of her dinner dishes, and only attempted one baked good - and it didn't turn out! So, I swore to stay away from "skinny" baked goods for good. But, this recipe. Looked SO good. Looked like good-sized pieces.  Low points values (for a baked good). All ingredients I had on hand. Perfect!

Skinny Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Scones
recipe from skinnytaste.com

Ready to knead

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup cold buttermilk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup all purpose flour (Bob's Red Mill)
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour (Bob's Red Mill)
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp chilled butter (must be cold) cut into small pieces
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• cooking spray
• 1 large egg white, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°. Combine the first four ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray.
Combine flour, baking powder, salt, in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Cut in chilled butter with a pastry blender, or you could use 2 knives, until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gently fold in chocolate chips. Add milk mixture, stirring just until moist.
Place dough onto a floured surface and knead lightly four times with floured hands. Form dough into an 9-inch circle onto baking sheet, about 3/4" thick. Using a knife, cut dough into 12 wedges all the way through.

Brush

egg white over dough and sprinkle evenly with sugar.

Bake

until golden, about 18-20 minutes, depending on your oven.

Serve

warm.

First of all, I cut scone dough like I cut pizzas - uneven and crooked. Oh well. I guess some days I'll get a big scone and some days I'll get a small one.  It'll all even itself out.

Cut crookedly!

My scones are decent, but I wouldn't say I did a GREAT job making them. I've never made scones before, so I probably need to perfect my method. And probably - once again - follow the recipe a little better. Yes, I messed up again. I pulled my scones out of the oven and they are very flat, whereas Gina's are very raised. Lo and behold - I read the recipe wrong. I put in one TEAspoon of baking powder; it calls for one TABLEspoon. That probably makes a lot of difference, huh?

 Maybe my bakery should be called "Follow The Recipe" instead.

They taste fine; look a little weird. I think I'll try them - or a variation of scones - again someday. After I read and really pay attention to a few more recipes. :)

Hannah loved it, though. And why wouldn't she? She's only had chocolate a very small handful of chocolate a few times in her life. She probably was in baby baked good heaven!

The whole jar of jam!

I'm raising snackers. Seriously. These kids love crackers, string cheese, graham cracker bunnies. Applesauce pouches, Cheerios, and most of all - Nutrigrain bars. They eat at least 1 each per day. I think it's their equivalent of cookies.

So, I thought "why not make some homemade Nutrigrain bars?" After a quick Pinterest search, I found this recipe from a great blog called From Apples to Zucchinis. The recipe looked easy enough. I had all the ingredients on hand (always a plus), so I gave it a go.


Homemade Nutrigrain Bars

1 c butter softened
1 c brown sugar
1 c whole wheat flour
1 c all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups oats or quinoa flakes (or a combination of the two)
1 tsp vanilla
2 c (16-24 oz jar) jelly or jam

See? All the ingredients were from my cupboard!

MIX ingredients together until they form a coarse meal – I mixed mine together with my hands
press one half of the mixture into a foil lined, sprayed 9 X 13 pan
spread jelly over the crust
crumble the remaining mixture over the top and press down onto the jelly lightly
bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes
allow to cool before cutting into bars


 The Verdict:
I loved the bars, babies loved the bars. But, in analyzing the recipe, ingredients, time, etc, I've come to the conclusion that unless you are a fanatic about knowing & having control over every little thing that goes into your babies' mouths, the box bars are quite good enough. In fact, the Trader Joe's brand are cheaper than Nutrigrain, taste better, and are whole grain. These just aren't worth the trouble - or the entire jar of jam! (Which costs more than a box of fruit bars itself!)

Delicious, but too not worth the work!

We ate our way through Christmas

The holidays are such a wonderful season! Pretty lights on the trees (which B&H called "piddy"), lots of presents to open, TONS of great things to eat. B&H did indulge in the holiday season - cookies, pancakes, monkey bread, etc etc. I have blog posts coming for all those, I promise. But first I need to back track a bit and write about this wonderful banana bread recipe I found.

You might recall that I have trouble with quick breads. They tend to sink, be raw in the middle, and burnt on the edges. It's a curse I've tried to overcome for many years. I've also tried banana bread recipe after banana bread recipe and nothing really works.

Then I got this ceramic bread pan. That seems to help.

And I worked on my patience. Turns out I was taking the bread out before it was done.

Anyway, I did find a good recipe lately that I want to repeat over and over again (which, sadly, could be one of the reasons I'm back on the Weight Watchers band wagon....). There was something about this recipe, which uses buttermilk in it, that made it so tasty that babies barely got any. Whoops.

The recipe comes from a blog called Two Peas and Their Pod, which at first I was so excited about because I thought it had to be another twin family blog. But after investigating a bit more, I think the peas are just a man and a woman who have so much in common that THEY are the 2 peas in a pod. Oh well, they still have great recipes on their site!

Buttermilk Banana Bread

Not sunken!

Cook Time: 50-55 minutes

Ingredients:

 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (3 medium sized bananas)
4 tablespoons buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:
1. Grease and flour 1 large loaf pan (9 1/4 X 5 1/4-inch) or whatever combination of pans you’d like. I used a mini loaf pan and a 8 1/2 X 4 1/2 loaf pan. You can also make banana muffins with this recipe, if you wish. Set pans aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, mashed bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla until the batter is well mixed.
3. Add in the flour, baking powder, salt and soda. Mix until well combined. Divide batter into greased and floured pans and bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Perfect, crackly top. Mmmm.

4. Let bread cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Loosen the bread with a knife and carefully remove from pan. Finish cooling on rack. Slice and serve once cooled.

I love the rich, yellow color of this bread. It tasted as good as it looks.

 You will be happy to know that I have decided to save up my money for a nicer camera, so my grainy, unfocused iPhone photos will soon be a thing of the past. Of course, between taking care of B&H, running this household, keeping up on chores, writing two blogs (visit our other one here), Facebooking, and having time for myself and my husband who knows when I'll have time to use the new camera, but I hope somehow the days get an extra hour in them for me to learn. :)

Where have we gone?

December has been a busy month - actually it all started with Thanksgiving. First I was busy prepping to host Thanksgiving at our house. So I was making goodies for the adults and not much baking for babies happened. But Hannie did get to enjoy a bit of Thanksgiving fun:

Then it was their birthday! I did celebrate with them by making Corn Cakes. Yummmm. Hannah seemed more interested in eating the candle, while Ben happily wanted to share his Corn Cakes with me. I obliged, of course. I'm happy to report I even followed the recipe this time and they turned out better than ever! Who knew?

 

 

After their birthday they sort of stopped showing interest in baked goods and now only want to eat real food: either what we're eating or deli meat, cheese, and crackers. Hannah likes to put the turkey on her head... Silly gal. Ben especially liked the Beef Stew (who doesn't?!)

Then Ben got sick with a double ear infection. No baked goods then.

And now we've been getting ready for Christmas! After much debate, I decided to risk it and put up the Christmas tree. They don't bother it at all, and they call it the "iddy" (pretty). They love to get up in the morning and to look at it. They point at it and their eyes get big with wonder! And when they DO get close to it, I say "no touch" and they shake their heads back and forth and get very serious. I think they are good learners!

 Of course it wouldn't be Christmas without some cookies. And you know this Momma LOVES her Christmas cookies. In fact, we are staying home for Christmas, only visiting with my brother's family and my dad for a bit, but I still managed to make 6 different kinds of cookies. No wonder my pants are a little tight right now.......

Momma, that's enough cookies!

First Christmas cookie: a Spritz!

Mmmmmm. Give me more!

 So, as the New Year approaches, I'm hoping to get bakin' for these two TODDLERS again (though they technically don't toddle yet...). I've got a stock pile of recipes ready to try out!

And, as if keeping up 1 blog isn't enough work, I've decided to start a second one, one that shall serve as a baby book of sorts. Some of you have been to our Web Site, but I'm finding it harder and more cumbersome to update using that program, so we're moving to a blogger site. Our new blog is called The Cutie and the Beauty. There currently isn't anything on it yet, but I hope to post soon - about our first words!!

Merry Christmas all and safe travels to you and yours!

The Best Baked Good of All

Mmmmm. Cake!

Today was our First Birthday Party! We discovered the best baked good of all: Cake. Actually, the frosting is what we liked. Yum Yum!! When is it our next birthday? :)

Lunch for Breakfast (but not brunch)

Have I mentioned my new favorite past-time? No, not something crafty, though I have been doing some crochet lately). Not exercising, though I try to go to the Y 3 or 4 times a week. Not cooking, though I do make most of the meals my family eats. My new favorite past-time (er.... time waster!) is browsing around on Pinterest.

Have you joined Pinterest yet? If not, I suggest you do. That is unless you have many pressing priorities. Like a job. Or housework. Or kids for that matter. Once you join, all your free time will be sucked up into pinning. I'm not lying. Go ahead. Try it. And when you do - follow me. I promise I'll follow you back.

And, I hate to admit it, but sometimes I get sucked into Pinterest while the babies are playing in the living room. (I'm in there, too, on the laptop). If I don't pay attention, here's what happens:

Messy, messy living room!

Anyway, while pinning one day, I found this recipe for fried rice with ham and eggs. I'm pretty sure this recipe is meant to be for lunch or supper. But not me. I saw "ham and eggs" and thought breakfast. So, what did this family do? We turned our day around and ate lunch for breakfast today. It was delicious! Daddy even stayed for breakfast today. YUM YUM.

Fried Rice with Ham and Eggs

by Get off Your Butt and Bake

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups Kraft Minute – White or Brown Rice

3 cups water.

Bring water to a boil, stir in rice; cover. Remove pan from heat.

Let stand 5 minutes (covered), or until water is absorbed. Fluff with a fork.

DON’T WASTE THAT 5 MINUTES ….BEGIN PREPARING:

2 cups cubed ham.

1 Teaspoon Onion power

1 to 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

Place a large skillet over medium heat, and melt 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon margarine. Toss your ham pieces into the hot butter. Now season the ham with onion powder and Brown sugar…stir constantly while the ham browns a little, and the brown sugar turns into a delicious syrup.

Push these ingredients to the back of the pan, and add a little more margarine to your skillet. Next you will need:

3 to 5 Eggs….scrambled.

Crack your eggs into the pan, and stir the egg until fluffy. Continue to let cook, stirring every now and then. You want your eggs to be the consistency of scrambled eggs. Once the eggs are done, stir in with the browned ham.

Now your RICE should be done. Toss it with a fork, and make sure all the water has been absorbed.

Add all the rice to your skillet.

Toss everything together.

Now I add a little more onion power, Salt and Pepper, a couple shots of soy sauce.

Continue to heat on low, while the rice browns slightly.

* You may add snow peas, bacon, broccoli, green peas or anything else you would like.

Instead of making rice this morning, I made up some non-minute rice last night and had it in the fridge ready to go. I also totally cheated and used pre-diced ham from the store.

A little heavy on the ham... the way we like it!

It turned out delicious! B, H, Daddy, & I polished off nearly an entire recipe. YUM YUM.  

What We're Eating Wednesday: Lunch

Today we had our ECFE class again, and instead of separating out of the room for parent education time, I spent the afternoon with all the babies and infant teachers in the room helping out. It was great fun to watch B&H play with other babies. Luckily, B&H continued their cry-free streak from separating - but not all other babies were so happy with their mommies or daddies gone. In fact, I spent much of my time comforting some criers. It's a bit anxiety-ridden when you don't know a baby who is crying and crying and you don't know what to do!



But, let me tell you what I learned from my day: B&H are HUGE! The 3 other babies I had to hold to comfort were light as a feather. I kept asking them where the rest of their bodies were! Granted, they were all younger than B&H, but still. I am pretty sure even at 9 months my kids were bigger than the babies today.

Perhaps..... just perhaps..... they are so big because their appetites are big. Just look at what they ate today:

Trader Joe's mini ravioli, diced chicken, mandarin oranges & yogurt

It's The Great Pumpkin Muffin, Charlie Brown

Here's a Thanksgiving confession: I really, really, really dislike (almost to the point of hate) pumpkin pie. It's oh so very gross to me. I don't often tell people why I don't like it, because the reason is also gross, so let's just leave it at the fact that I don't like it. The taste, the texture, the smell. YUCK.

BUT - in recent years I have discovered that I like other pumpkin baked goods. Pumpkin bread: good. Pumpkin pancakes: good (here I go raving about those pumpkin pancakes again....). Heck, even a pumpkin spice latte now and then is good. But the best of all is pumpkin muffins. YUM YUM. I have an old trusty recipe that I've used for a few years now, but there's not much healthy in there (aside from the pumpkin). While that is probably why it is so good, I was looking for something with a bit more nourishment for the babes.

So, after a brief Pinterest search, I found this great web site I hadn't been to before called Carrots N Cake. It's written by an author of one of my favorite magazines, Health. After reading about her on her blog, I found that Tina is an avid runner who has maintained a weight loss for 6+ years. What motivation! I plan to read a lot of her recipes, tips, blog posts, etc. Starting with this recipe for Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins.

 

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins
Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4 cup canned pumpkin pie mix
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup walnuts

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375*F
• Coat muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray or line muffins cups.
• Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl; blend well.
• Pour batter evenly into muffin tins.
• Bake for 18-20 minutes.
• Allow to cool, and enjoy!

I made a few changes to this recipe. First, I doubled it. Nine muffins would not last long in this house, especially since I planned to take some to my friend Kat for letting me store my Thanksgiving turkey in her freezer. :) When doubling, I used 1 c. all-purpose flour and 1 c. whole wheat flour. I used just plain canned pumpkin, not the pie kind with all the spices mixed in already, and I used 1 whole can. As I was mixing, the batter seemed really thick, so I added 1/2 c. of natural applesauce and it came together nicely. They're DELICIOUS!

With chocolate chips, they are 5 Points Plus per muffin; without chocolate they are 4 Points. Worth it!

And only a little but ugly, right? Much better than this pumpkin creation.  

The First Pancake Phenomenon

To my husband's dismay, I am a fan of Gilmore Girls. Wholeheartedly a fan, in fact. In the pre-babies lazy days of summer vacation, I watched entire seasons of the show. It's so addicting. Don't you just always want Luke & Lorelai to end up together? And even though you know what happens at at the end, you get so nervous when she marries Chris! Oh, the drama.

Since the babies came along, I've not indulged much in GG. But lately on the weekends I've vowed to take a break, do no chores, and relax. It just so happens this occurs during afternoon nap, which also occurs during Gilmore Girls. Yay!

What does Gilmore Girls have to do with babies and baked goods, you ask? Well, last weekend there was an episode about Rory throwing a baby shower for Lane and something comes up where Rory explains the First Pancake Phenomenon:

Rory: Yes but Mr. Nash, you are forgetting about the first pancake phenomenon.

Lorelai: Eh?

Rory: Yes the first pancake you know? You always throw it out...

Lorelai: Why do you throw out the first pancake?

Rory: Cause the griddles too hot it gets burned.

Lorelai: Oh my God. Next year no excuses. We are make you that audition tape for Top Chef.

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gilmore_Girls/Season_7)

So, I'm evoking the "First Pancake Phenomenon" on these sweet potato pancakes I made yesterday. They don't need to be thrown out, but there was something just not right about them...... I tried to tweak this recipe a bit, and the results are just not what I had in mind. Granted, I'm still hooked on those Pumpkin Pancakes, so maybe that's why I am not in love with these. Anyway, I'm keeping these in mind, and trying again. Isn't the unspoken rule of the First Pancake Phenomenon that you try again with a Second one?

Sweet Potato Pancakes

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoons cinnamon
• Pinch nutmeg
• 2 cups milk
• 4 teaspoons melted butter, plus more for greasing skillet
• 2 whole eggs
• 1 sweet potato, cooked until tender, peeled and pureed

Directions

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix together and whisk until smooth. Cook batches in buttered skillet on medium high temperature until bubbles form on the surface, then turn over and cook until dark golden brown. Serve with pecan butter and maple syrup.

In my old age, I can't remember what I did to change the recipe, but I know I halved the it. And I think I added some vanilla and guessed about the amount of sweet potato since I had a tupperware full of mashed taters that I made earlier this week for the babies. Maybe that was my problem.... too much or not enough sweet taters? I used my cookie scoop to make these silver dollar pancakes - perfect size for babies.

They look good. They made a lot (21), but I bet the Second Pancake batch will be better.

 The best news about these pancakes - I plugged the recipe in to Weight Watchers and if you make silver dollar pancakes (about 1.5 T. of batter per pancake), they are only ONE POINT per pancake. Awesome. I hope the second batch turns out better so I can enjoy lots of pancakes. :)

 

 

 

 

 

What We're Eating Wednesday: Lunch

So, imagine this. You are a baby. You just woke up from nap. You're hungry. Momma gives you food .... and then your sister grabs for it. The nerve!

Lunch was pretty basic, yet plentiful today. They had cottage cheese, Trader Joe's cheese tortellini (a FAVORITE around here), and mashed sweet potatoes, as well as cooked peas and Trader Joe's turkey meatballs (not pictured with B above). It was very messy, but they loved it.

And guess what? We made it to ECFE on time today! Bonus!

What are you eating today?

What We're Eating Wednesday: Dinner

Wednesdays are so busy for us! We have our Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) at 12 noon, and it throws off our whole day! When I registered, it was the best time for the babies' nap schedule - and it still is since they are pretty set on a 9:30 nap and a 2:30 nap. But, I just wasn't thinking in Twin Time when I registered. Sure, they are up by 11/11:30 most mornings, BUT - I have to get them changed, dressed, fed, jackets on and out the door by 11:40 to make it to ECFE on time. Impossible. Today we were 15 minutes late. I take comfort in the fact that a singleton mother was even later than we were. But Twin Time + Ust Time is a disaster!

The point of this story being I didn't have time to document breakfast (cottage cheese pancakes. YUM!) or lunch (jarred babyfood - see above as to why we were running out of time). So, finally. Here's What We're Eating this Wednesday evening:

Cannellini beans, Trader Joe's turkey meatball, Fall Flavors Bread/Cake (more on that tomorrow) and mixed veges.

I did have time to play around with my camera (not new, not fancy) and discover some fun settings. Why I chose to focus on the beans, I don't know, but the photo is a bit more interesting than any photo that comes from my iPhone. Though, I still don't hold a candle to any of the wonderful food photogs out there!

I shan't ever make regular pancakes again

I'm not going to lie. I'm a big pancake fan. Always have been. We frequently ate them for supper when I was growing up, which was always fine by me. But I've never been that great at making pancakes. Probably because my recipe is the box of Bisquick. So, when I go out to eat for brunch, I do often get pancakes. My favorite ones (especially in 2010 when I was pregnant with the babies) were some delicious buttermilk oatmeal pancakes from The Highland Grill, our favorite neighborhood eatery. I used to say the babies would love pancakes when they were born because I ate so many of them. haha.

Fast forward 11 months (on a side note, I'm in awe that they are 11 months! Where did the past year go?!) and indeed, I have babies who LOVE pancakes. You'll recall the hit that was the cottage cheese pancakes. And the corncakes. Don't forget the corncakes.

We all loved those pancakes. But these. These are beyond. Ben ate 4 of them in one day. That's how good they are. (I also ate 4....). I never thought I liked pumpkin stuff - I loathe pumpkin pie - but when you make it up in the form of a pancake, it turns to heaven on a plate! The recipe is from my friend (and fellow twin mom) Kat. I have no idea where she got it.

Kat's Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice
• 1 cup milk*
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• Oil or oil spray, for frying

Directions:

1. Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt, nutmeg and cloves in a medium bowl.
2. Whisk together the milk, pumpkin, butter and egg in a separate bowl. Fold this mixture into the dry ingredients.
3. Heat oil or spray oil in a skillet over medium heat.
4. Pour 1/4 cup batter for each pancake and cook approximately 2-3 minutes per side.
5. Serve with butter and maple syrup, brown sugar, or honey apple butter.

*If you like big, fluffy pancakes; reduce milk to 3/4 cup.  1 cup milk makes flatter cakes.

 

In my batch, I used brown sugar instead of white sugar, buttermilk instead of regular milk, and skipped the ginger since I didn't have any on hand. They were DELICIOUS and nice and thick (I didn't have a full cup of buttermilk).

 

I am never making regular pancakes again. They were moist and fluffy and just the right amount of spice. YUM YUM. In fact, they were so good I didn't even snap a picture of them before we gobbled them up. And I would make another batch, but I'm out of flour! Too much bakin'!

 

 

What We're Eating Wednesday: Brunch

What constitutes brunch? Does it need to replace both breakfast and lunch? Or does it just need to be breakfast-y foods served for lunch? Hmmm.... At any rate, these babies (and this momma) love breakfast foods, so that's what was served up for lunch today. Thus, I'm deeming it "brunch."

On their plate: Pumpkin Pancakes (more on those tomorrow), scrambled egg, cottage cheese, and a banana. I ate the same thing, but my pancakes had 100% pure maple syrup on them. Oh YUM.

It was a delicious brunch, but we didn't get the time to savor it like we should have. Naturally, I started cooking the pancakes at 11:15 - and we have Babies and Me class (ECFE) on Wednesdays at noon. It was a "shovel-it-int-we-gotta-go" sort of lunch. But of course, I stopped to take a photo. :)

Eatin' Soup with Our Hands

I know everyone thinks their mother makes the best food (unless, of course, your mother is a bad cook). And someday I hope B&H say I'm the best cook. But - I am not lying when I say my mom makes the very best homemade chicken noodle soup. I could eat bowls and bowls of it - and lick the bowl to get the very last drop of yumminess in my mouth.

And so, when I decided a few weeks ago to make a new tradition of "Sunday Night Soup Supper" AND whole chickens were on a ridiculous sale at Target, I knew I'd have to attempt Mom's recipe. It only took me 2 pre-cooking calls and one during-cooking call to figure it out - and I think I got it right!

Now, here are my mom's (whom the babies call "gaga") directions. Very precise... which is probably why the soup is SO GOOD.

Gaga's Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients
Broth:
1 whole chicken cut up
3 carrot sticks washed and rough chopped
1 onion washed and rough chopped
3 celery stalks washed and rough chopped
3-4 bay leaves
basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary - whatever spice you have on hand and like
S&P
"enough water to cover it all up"

Soup:
Cooked chicken, removed from bones
3-4 carrots washed, peeled, and diced
3 celery stalks washed & diced
1 bag of Reames frozen noodles

Directions
Place all broth ingredients in a large stock pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for about an hour. Remove chicken and reserve. Remove vegetables & bay leaves and discard. Let chicken cool in fridge. Put stock pot in fridge. A while (an hour or two) later check the broth - if there is any fat that has solidified and risen to the top, remove it. Remove chicken from bones and discard bones and skin. Continue to making the soup.

Add chicken, vegetables, and noodles back to the broth. Bring to a boil and boil for at least 30 minutes. (I did mine for 45). The longer you boil, the softer the noodles will get.

Keep warm until ready to serve. Eat with Club crackers, B&H's daddy's favorite!

To serve it to the babies, I used a slotted spoon and dished out the soup (without broth) on a plate and let cool:

Brothless soup for babies

Then I dished it up and let them go. I think they like it! But shhhh. I am going to tell them it's my recipe, not Gaga's, so they think I'm the good cook. :)

Sunken Sweet Potato Bread

Technically, the recipe is called Maple Glazed Sweet Potato Bread (and could easily be called SCRUMPTIOUS Sweet Potato Bread), but I have a problem when I make breads. It always happens.... they sink in the middle! See:

Minutes after being taken out of the oven, my breads drop!

I know there are many, many better bakers than I out there.... so I ask you, what is wrong with my quick bread baking skills???

I shouldn't let this negativity distract from the heaven in a loaf pan that is Sweet Potato bread. It's SO very scrumptious and comes from a new blog I found called Mother Thyme. I love this blog for many reasons - good, down to earth food, easy to follow recipes (I'm sure the bread sinking is NOT the recipe but rather the cook), and  -- the woman who writes it has twins, too! I find it amazing that she has time to create such a beautiful blog and invent such wonderful recipes. I'm slightly jealous. Perhaps she doesn't spend hours on Pinterest like I do, though.....

Again, I digress. This bread is SO delicious. I did make it for the babes, but I admit I ate more than I should have (and at 6 points per 1/12 of the loaf... yikes!). They love it, too - it's a perfect accompaniment to scrambled eggs for breakfast.  I didn't make the maple glaze for this initial batch, but the bread was so good that I went out to Lund's and bought like 6 more pounds of sweet potatoes AND a jar of pure maple syrup. The next batch is in the works for tomorrow.

Mother Thyme's Maple Glazed Sweet Potato Bread

Makes 2 9"x5" loaves

Ingredients

1 cup vegetable shortening

3 cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 cups pureed sweet potatoes

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ cup milk

For Maple Glaze

1 cup confectioners sugar

½ cup pure maple syrup

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 2 9”x5” loaf pans and set aside.

Using an electric mixer on low speed cream together shortening, sugar, eggs and sweet potatoes.  Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and cloves.  Gradually add flour mixture sweet potato mixture alternating with milk until all combined.  Pour equal amounts in to loaf pans.

Bake for 55-60 minutes until tester inserted in to center comes out clean.  

Cool on wire rack in loaf pan until cool.  Run butter knife around side of loaf pan, turn upside down to remove loaf.   Set on wire rack to continue to cool.  

For glaze-

Stir confectioners sugar and maple syrup until creamy.  Drizzle over loaves and let dry.

Notes:

To prepare sweet potatoes:

Peel sweet potatoes and cut in to large wedges.  Lightly toss in vegetable oil and salt and place on a baking sheet.  Cook in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes turning half way until tender.  Remove and let cool.  Put wedges in food process and blend until smooth.  

 

For my variation, I made 1/2 a recipe and got 1 loaf (at the time, I didn't have enough sweet potatoes). I also didn't have cloves so I used nutmeg.

See? Even my photo taken on my iPhon can show how delicious - even without the glaze!

Miss Monkey H

Mr Monkey B

 I, unfortunately, don't have a photo of the babies enjoying the bread, but I do have 2 cute photos of them dressed as monkeys for Halloween!










Now, for the last order of business. I've decided to do a give-away. I will be giving away a magazine subscription to Taste of Home, one of my favorite sources for finding fast, easy food for the family. Now, I'm sure you've noticed, I don't have ads on my blog. I also don't have tons of links to or from here. So, I'm small potatoes over here. But I do want to grow. So, my giveaway will happen under 2 stipulations. First, I must reach 1,000 hits (I currently have 400-some). Second, I must get 10 people to follow the blog (I currently have 2).

So, when those two things happen, I will post and ask for your entries. A random winner will be selected and my gift to you will be a year of recipes. YUM YUM!

Now, get out there and spread the word about these babies and their baked goods!