Spring Break & Spring Muffins

We are halfway through spring break here and today has been the warmest day yet.  Jeannette and I are planning on taking the kids to the beach tomorrow and outlet shopping on Friday.  Yesterday was a pool day and I have the photos to prove it.

Lila W. Emry W. Kylee R.

Ethan W. Emry W. Lila W. Kylee R. Cassidy M.

Kylee R. Ethan W. Emry W. Nathan R.

This particular "get tossed in the pool" game was super fun for the boys.  As soon as they would get tossed they would spin their little bodies 2 or 3 times.  Very cool & superhero-ish.

We took about 10 self portraits with each one grosser than the next.  The children thought it Hilarious of course.  Is everyone craving graham crackers right about now?  


What about Lime, White Chocolate & Coconut Muffins?  With a name like that how could I resist making them.  Perfect for the Spring time, or anytime.

Lime, White Chocolate & Coconut Muffins  


150 grams flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
50 grams sugar
125 grams high quality white chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup coconut


1 egg
100ml milk
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice or coconut milk
50 grams butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp. vanilla
grated rind of 1 lime
segments from 2 limes (no membranes)


1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Line 12 muffin cups
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt.  Stir in the sugar, coconut       and white chocolate.  
4. In a separate bowl mix the egg, milk, lime juice, butter, vanilla         and rind.  Gently mix in lime segments.
5. Pour wet into dry and stir just until mixed.


Bake 15- 20 minutes  ( I always give a generous allowance for time because everyone's ovens are so different)  It is always easier to check the baking process too early rather than too late.

They are as good to eat as they are pretty to look at.  Spring has Sprung.

Wild

Last Thursday was spent at the Wild Animal Park.  It was a school field trip that happened to fall right on Ethan's Birthday.  So of course I took credit for the outing and let it be known that that this was his "party".  I am not big on parties, so this opportunity was too good to pass up.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

                                    This was one of the best moments.  You pay $3 for a cup of nectar and as soon as you enter the bird cage those greedy little birds just swarm you.  The kids were in heaven.  The loved having play time with those friendly birds.  But they were definitely fair weather friends because as soon as the nectar was gone, so were they.

This is classic.  My nephew Nathan had no shoes.  He came to the zoo..........with no shoes!!!  He spent the whole day..........with no shoes.  Jeannette had called me in the morning to see if I could bring Nathan's shoes as he had left them at my house the previous day.  I said of course I would and then forgot all about it.


At his house I guess there was miscommunication between mother and son because on our way there we realized he hadn't grabbed a pair of shoes.  We needed to meet the teachers at the park at 10 to get our tickets so we only had a few minutes to spare.  With no WalMart in sight we stopped at a Goodwill.  No luck.  No more time.  No shoes.


Luckily no one  noticed or said anything to us until we were on our way out of the park. 


I didn't think it was a big deal as I spent the first 10 years of my life barefoot.  Dealing with my kids constantly losing track of their shoes made me understand that with 9 kids, having us barefoot was the best thing for my mothers sanity.

Winner of the week......

Baking, cooking, creating.  It's what I love to do.  So many recipes and so little time.  Unless I truly love something, I usually don't make/bake the same thing twice, save the tried and true classics and staples.

These binders are half filled with recipes I love and half filled with recipes waiting patiently for their time to be created in the kitchen.  All in due time.


I have some winners and not so winners this week to share with you all.  Let's begin.
 
                       Sourdough Bread courtesy of Annie Eats

 

The much anticipated Sourdough bread.  I will not be making this again anytime soon.  I am not sure what the secret is to true Sourdough but I  obviously don't know it.  This bread did result in some very delicious French Toast, so it wasn't a complete failure.  

What made me feel a little better was after making Lentil Soup for dinner last night I ran over to Great Harvest and bought a loaf of Sourdough to go with it and although delicious, it didn't pack that sour flavor.  But their Irish Ale White Cheddar Bread is delectable.  Toasted so the cheese studded throughout the bread was slightly melted, yum.  It went great with the soup, I highly reccomend that!


Salt & Vinegar Roasted Chickpeas courtesy of Angela at Oh She Glows

I had such high hopes for these as Salt & Vinegar Chips are my kids favorite.  I thought, "perfect, a healthy salty vinegar snack".  Emry likes them and they did get eaten, but every time I ate them I thought "do I like these?" and then kept eating more to see if I did, ha ha, please say I am not the only one who does this.


           Baked's Root Beer Cake courtesy of Vanilla Sugar

 

If nothing else I have just given you one of the greatest gifts.  Dawn's pictures are absolutely to die for, her blog is one of my favorites and I am in awe of her photos.  This cake, not so much.  But then again I am not a cake lover.  Bread Pudding, Apple Crisp, Sticky Toffee Pudding, Tiramisu, Yes!!!!!  Cake, not so much.  But it was Ethan's birthday so that called for a fun creation like Root Beer Cake.  


Most people only detected the Root Beer once they knew it was there.  Once you know you go, 'oh yeah, I can taste root beer'.   But it was choclatey and dense and I think everyone really liked it........just not me.  Oh yeah, I am also not a fan of frosting, I know, shameful.


Chocolate Crunch Dessert Granola courtesy of Angela at Oh She Glows

 

Perfection!!!  As I've said befor I am a self proclaimed Granola Connossieur.  I love Granola so much.  Jeannette and I have been making granola since we were teenagers in our little kitchen on Sunwood Drive in San Jose.  And as I've said homemade beats anything you could get in the store by a million miles, and it is so easy (and easy to cater to your specific taste) so why not.  


This is more of a granola you would eat in the afternoon with bananas and milk, or with frozen yogurt.  It has a lot of chocolate so it's more of a snack than a breakfast food.  But if you like a healthy dose of chocolate with your breakfast, who am I to judge?


This recipe calls for Brown Rice Syrup.  I was a little hesitant to buy a $5 jar that to me looked a whole lot like honey .  I happen to have about 100 lbs of honey in my garage that is routinely used for granola.  But Angela said the syrup provided the clump factor, and I want clumpy Granola, so I bought it.


So Glad.  I am sold on Brown Rice Syrup for my Granola.  Thank you Angela.  I am actually making more of this today.  And you should too!

Birthday Boy

My baby boy turned Six today.  I guess technically he's not a baby anymore.

March 2006 Ethan turns 1

 

March 2007 Ethan turns 2

(no this is not me but my bestie Shauna, people think we are sisters)

 

March 2008 Ethan turns 3 

f 

2009 4 years old, with his cousin Nathan

                                                                
                                  March 2011 6 years old

We spent Ethan's birthday at the Wild Animal Park in Escondido, Ca.  I love this boy. 

  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ETHAN!!!!!

Great Expectations

Here is the dough lovingly made from my homemade Sourdough Starter.  I babied it.  I stirred it every day for a week and thought of the day warm Sourdough would come out of my oven.  My kids love Sourdough.  They could eat it every day.  They will love me and declare me the best mom ever for making this.  I will feed my starter and make sourdough bread, waffles and pancakes often. 

Here is the bread that came out of the oven.  I baked it on a baking stone as directed.  I turned down the oven temperature after 10 minutes as directed.  I set my timer and took it with me when dropping off the girls at a church activity.  Rushing home to take my precious bread out of the oven.

Here is the mouth-watering bread sliced up and ready to eat.  There is nothing better than the aroma of fresh bread hot from the oven.

Here is the bread's new home.  In the outside freezer next to the chocolate chips and edamame (underneath 4 gallons of ice cream).  The bread was awful.  How can homemade bread be awful?  I didn't think it was possible.  How did this happen?  It had zero taste whatsoever.  Glenn agreed, the kids agreed.  No one liked it.  It didn't hurt my feelings.  I was proud of them for recognizing bad bread when they had it.  That 1 Tablespoon of sugar should have tipped me off.  How can 1T possibly be enough for 2 huge loaves of bread.


This bread will be used for french toast.
The starter will be thrown away.
I will be normal and buy my Sourdough from now on.
I will justify my fail by telling Glenn that  in order for true Sourdough to turn out I need to live right by the salty water on The San Francisco Bay.
My kids will ask for the next 10 years when we're moving.
We might be moving.

Churros

What would cause a 10 year old to suddenly want to make churros on a Sunday afternoon.  Could it be that reading Martha Stewart's Living for the one millionth time has finally caught up with her.  I have several copies in my car so I have reading material while inevitably waiting for the kids.  I am sure she has the Oct. 2008 issue memorized as it has all kinds of cool Halloween crafts.  And it also happens to have a recipe for churros.


I buy Oprah and MS Living at a local Goodwill and it thrills me to no end to get about 2 years worth of magazines for the for the cost of 2 new ones.


Back to the churros.  These were super easy (after borrowing eggs from our neighbors) and the kids pretty much made them all by themselves.  Getting more creative with the shapes with each batch.

This dough was more of a cream puff dough.  Actually it was exactly like a cream puff dough.  I am not sure if this is how all churros are made or if this is just how Martha does it.  I guess we will just have to make more in the future.

Emry was very careful around all that hot oil.  Look how serious she is about the browning of her churros.

Ethan loved his job of coating them with cinnamon sugar.  He too takes his job very seriously. 

The whole batch was gone as soon as they were finished.  They were happy kids.  I was probably the happiest though as there is nothing as fun as seeing your kids working (somewhat) happily together creating yummy things in the kitchen.