sugar coated transportation

I do love this whole grain baking book. Parker and I made transportation shaped cut out cookies as it rained a couple days ago and they turned out tasty. I usually don't have patience for cut-out cookies but this batch was alot easier to deal with - minimal sticking and no crumbling or breaking. Parker was nice enough to take most of them to school for his friends so I didn't eat them all up. Here's the easy recipe for thin & crispy wheat cookies:

3/4 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup orange juice
2 teaspoons vanilla (Parker did this part so there was a lot more and tasted great)
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

beat butter, sugar and salt in medium bowl, then add orange juice, vanilla, flour and baking powder and mix.
divide the dough into 2 pieces, wrap each piece in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Pre-heat oven to 350*
line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
working with one piece of dough at a time , roll into a circle in about 14 inches in diameter and use your favorite cookie cutters. re-roll and cutting the scraps too. place on cookie sheets and can be close together as they don't spread much.
we decorated ours with sugar sprinkles before they went into the oven.
bake the cookies till they are brown around the edges about 14-15 minutes. switch pans half way through cooking time (top to bottom, bottom to top)
yum!

three

My little man is 3!

Wafer Madness

So a while ago I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this at Smitten Kitchen...an amazing looking ice box cake made with the notoriously hard to find Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers. Well, the Brooklyn Pathmark has loads of them in stock so here is my first attempt at this tasty looking pile of goodness. I think it looks cool but I have to say that Deb's original at Smitten Kitchen is a masterpiece and her photography skills are awesome plus it's nice that she has shared the super simple recipe. We will be doing a taste test tomorrow with friends who are visiting from Virginia Beach.
We are also gearing up for Parker's 3rd Birthday Party. He has requested a Wonder Pets! party...which is the super cool Nick/Noggin show about school house pets travel in their "flyboat" to save animals in trouble ... The show is fairly new so unfortunately there is absolutely no merchandise/party supplies available to purchase. It's gonna be a handmade b-day. Any and all ideas are welcome!

sneaky cupcake

I had to try this tasty looking cupcake which I found my way to last week at 52 Cupcakes! I was hoping that Parker would actually eat a strawberry if it was hidden inside the cupcake...but he just took it and gobbled up the cake. Very good and fun to make!
We also got inspired by the felt bunnies from someone's crafty blog. I thought that I bookmarked the location so I could link to it but I can not find the cute felt bunnies anywhere. But we used the pattern and cut them out of colored cardstock, added pom pom tails and they will be easter dinner placecards.
We had planned to color eggs today since it has been raining here in Brooklyn but a leaking pipe in the building led the crack smoking matinence team to our apartment and we've spent the day with hordes of men removing our kitchen cabinets, busting open the wall and making a mess of our home only to realize that the need to order a part and will need to come back tomorrow. My temperment hasn't been on the good side lately so it's an added stress that we didn't need - but venting here makes me feel a little better!

No Sleep Till Brooklyn

Wow - it's been weeks since my last post! Parker & I went to Pittsburgh to visit my Mom who was going to have a "simple" medical procedure. Unfortunately, she has to have "serious" heart surgery and just 2 days later she was on her way home but suffered various complications which still have her in the hospital. The good news is she is doing better every day and is on the road to recovery. We did get to spend some time with her before her surgery, so Parker and Grammy made some tasty, colorful muffins! We got quite a taste of suburban life...I am now a pro at getting Parker in and out of the car seat without hitting his head on the car ceiling or the door. I was also surprised at how fun grocery shopping can be when Parker can sit in a cool red truck and "drive" the cart around as we shop!
There is also an awesome indoor playground at the brand new mall, which also has a carousel, a movie theater, his new favorite restaurant, Johnny Rockets, an indoor glow in the dark mini golf place, a chance to drive "Arthur" to school
plus he even learned about "self serve"...
No worries, it's not a real gas pump! If you are ever in Pittsburgh, Pa. check out the Children's Museum. It's awesome and blows Manhattan & Brooklyn Children's museums away. It's not so much fun being at Grammy's house when she's not there so we are back in Brooklyn and look forward to visiting her when she get's home. Parker is ready to go on the airplane again - much to my surprise he snagged the jet blue headphones!

star muffins

With the wind chill hitting in the negative numbers yesterday, Parker and I spent the afternoon indoors and at some point he asked for a muffin. So I pulled out the my new purchase from a recently opened neighborhood thrift store, Housing Works, and we got busy in the kitchen. The New York Times Natural Foods Cookbook from 1971 is packed with some pretty tasty sounding goodies and their recipe for "Fruity & Nutty Tea Loaf" made wonderful muffins in our new star shaped muffin pan. Parker really got into baking this time and was able to recap all of the ingredients to his Dad later that night. Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup blueberries
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oatmeal
2 lightly beaten eggs
1/3 cup softened butter
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup raisins (we also added cranberries)

pre-heat oven to 350*
1) sprinkle blueberries with two tablespoons of flour
2) mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt & oatmeal in on bowl
3) mix together eggs, butter & bananas. Add dry ingredients , stirring until combined.
4) add pecans, raisins ( & cranberries) & blueberries gradually and stir only enough to distribute evenly.
5) if making in a loaf pan - bake 1 hour. we made muffins and baked for 25-30 minutes.
YUM!

I wanted to thank domesticali for the huge shout out on her site and warm welcome to the world of blogs from all of her friends. Gracias!