We're messy — vote for us!

I've entered the Get Messy Contest hoping to win a new kitchen or at least some great Mrs. Meyer's products. You can help by voting every day between now and April 18. Normally I shy away from these type of popularity contests but I think we have a good chance of winning. Look at that face! You know you want to vote for him. Pretty please?

Vote here!

Back story: We were making donuts. Joseph loves to make donuts. And eat donuts. Most recent batch turned out more like warm beignets so I sprinkled them with powered sugar. Soooo good. 

File under why not? Candy corn pancakes

Everyone is talking about apples. No really — everyone. Julia's Bookbag, Design Mom, SouleMama to name a few. So much so that I could't take it any longer and made praline apple bread yesterday. I subbed cream cheese for the sour cream which was okay but not life changing so not planning on doing that again (picture and recipe if you follow the link. I promise it is delicious and even more so if you have the right ingredients on hand). I thought about taking a new picture of the apple bread (mostly because I forgot I already had) but too late now because it's gone. 

But I did take a picture of the candy corn pancakes I made last weekend. When Joseph was three, he woke up everyday asking for candy. EVERY DAY. I am not kidding. It was infuriating because dude, in what world do you think you will get candy for breakfast? You're lucky you get your Lucky Charms. (Which, those days are numbered. Tried of him only eating the marshmallows. Come on, that leaves hardly any for me!) 

He's stopped asking every morning for candy but man, last weekend he was really, really wanting the candy corn sitting on the counter next to the chocolate chips waiting their turn to melt into yummy pancakes. So I thought, let's make a candy corn pancake. That should satisfy the demanding tyrant at my elbow. HA, yeah right. Joseph was not going to try it. But I did. And surprisingly, it was not bad. The candy melts just enough that it tastes like the syrup is in the pancake instead of drizzled on top. 

Here's what I did — First, I did not mix the candy corn into the pancake batter. I laid out of few candy pieces on the griddle and then spooned batter on top. I know, easy. So easy that I'm sure I am not the first person to make these. 

Would I make them again? Actually, the answer is yes. A nice treat for Halloween morning or just any fall morning. What do you think? Would you try them?

Random Thoughts No. 24

Oh, hi there. Still here. Well, not here on the blog but here in general. No one does a good job of explaining how adding a child, and then another to your life really can make it busier. Consider laundry — just going from a couple to a family of four doubles the amount of laundry (or more depending on how much spit up and potty accidents a child has). Each kid has their own schedule of school and events, plus the never-ending cycle of laundry and errands, plus mom or dad or both have jobs, and hey maybe mom or dad or both want to have a little bit of life beyond the kids. Life gets busy.

That's a long way of saying this blog here is not at the top of my to-do list. But I'll still check in from time to time with pictures of the boys or crafts. Now that school is out, I'll have a little more time to squeeze in some writing. Today you get some random thoughts ...

How cool is that AWESOME image there?! My mom had a small embossing label maker — it was so so fun to play with. Would love to find it. Mom and I don't throw things away so one of us has it somewhere. While I look, you can go to this site and generate your own images just like the real thing.

This nearby "yard show" is on my to-do-eventually lists! Unfortunately, it's been on my to-do-eventually list since we got to Birmingham and that's 10 years ago. One of these days ...

Like chocolate? Like pie? I made Jessie's Hot Fudge Pie and it was fight-over-the-crumbs good! No really, go make this pie then come back and thank me.

Okay, that's all I got for you.

Doughnuts!

This picture? The real reason for this post. 

My boys love doughnuts (okay, so does momma!). Nothing like the "Hot Now" sign at Krispy Kreme to lure us in. We even have a Krispy Kreme in town where you can watch the donuts being made. For the easily entertained like me, it's some fun! But sometimes I don't feel like driving (or paying) for the yummy goodness. And darn if the boys aren't sick of hearing "we can make those ourselves" when they ask for something at the store. So I rooted around the Web and found a fairly easy sounding recipe for a cake-like donut. We made them and ate them all. YUM!

Then trouble hit. I went to make the donuts again and the Web site with the recipe was gone. Vanished.  Wouldn't load. Now, there are hundreds thousands gazillons of recipes on the Web so finding another one wouldn't be difficult. BUT, the recipe I found first had this amazing chocolate glaze that tasted just like Krispy Kreme chocolate glaze!!!! Eat-it-straight-from-the-jar-with-a spoon good!!! I was not happy about losing the recipe for the glaze. A couple of week later I found that I HAD written down the recipe on a scrap piece of paper (sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I'm screwed if Pinterest disappears!). REJOICE! So I'm sharing it here so I don't lose it again. And because I know you need some chocolate glaze in your life too.

Easy peasy cakey donuts

2 cups Bisquick*

2 T sugar

1 t vanilla

1 egg

1/4 cup water

a little bit of cinnamon

a tiny bit of nutmeg

*According to Wikipedia, one cup of Bisquick can be substituted with one cup of flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of oil or melted butter.

I didn't write down any of the instructions so basically mix everything together, roll out on a well-floured surface and cut out doughnuts/holes. Heat oil and fry (here's where a deep fryer would come in handy but I don't have one). They will cook very quickly so keep an eye on them and flip! Let cool on paper towels. Pop them in a bag with cinnamon and sugar to coat or cover them with chocolate glaze. 

Chocolate glaze 

2 squares unsweetened baking chocolate

3 T butter

1 cup powered sugar

3/4 t vanilla

2-3 T hot water

I didn't have the squares on hand so I used 3 small handfuls of chocolate chips and it turned out fine. Melt the chocolate and butter on the stove. Remove from heat, add remaining ingredients. Try not to eat the entire pan in one sitting. 

ENJOY!

Random Thoughts No. 23

Been doing a lot of fall cleaning these days. (I'm sure it was on my to-do list in the spring but I found other things to distract me SQUIRREL!) Or as Chris likes to call it — making a mess. There is a method to my madness messes. I like to take everything out of the closet or cabinet and then put back what belongs in its rightful space. What, you think that's crazy too?

In other happenings ...

I stepped on a rusty nail. And our van got a flat tire. But hey, we finally got our new roof! I do not recommend stepping on a nail. No one likes to hear about such things so I won't go into detail. But it hurt, I mean really hurt. For days. And my arm hurt too because I was at least three years overdue for a tetanus shot. It been about two weeks but I'm mostly back to walking normal.

Pictured above is the best banana bread I've ever made. Actually, it's the second loaf. I know a recipe is a keeper when I want to make it again! I've been searching for a good recipe for years. It takes time because there are a bazillion banana bread recipes. Thank you Flour Bakery in Boston!

Will got a watch. It makes him look even more grown up. He's liking school. We're dealing with our first homework — about 15 minutes a night so not bad. Joseph is finally back to school too. He's excited to be upstairs in the big 3K classroom. Word on the playground is they get to play in the big gym. Just ask and he will tell you all about it. I'm also back to school, helping out in the nursery at Joseph's school. Holding babies is soooo much fun and I get paid to do it. Sweet deal!

We're gearing up for the leaner days ahead. Turned the A/C off. Cut the strings on the satellite. We still have Netflix so it's not cold turkey around here. Joseph is loving "Go Diego Go" and pretty much any animal documentary you'll turn on. Will has discovered the freakin' coolness of "Mythbusters." Chris is catching up on "Breaking Bad." I'm really missing my BBC America, especially weekends with The Doctor. But I've got big plans to finally getting around to watching a bunch of stuff — "Weeds," "Twin Peaks," "The Tudors," "Being Human," even "Mad Men."

What am I missing? I'll add it to the instant queue.

When life hands you crumbs

I had three kids over on a recent Saturday (plus my two makes FIVE!) ranging in age from 8 to 2. As the afternoon turned into evening, I knew I would have to put something on the dinner table that was pleasing to all. Everyone likes pizza! 

I turned to my Pinterest cooking board Dinnertime! and found the recipe for Bubble Up Pizza Bites from the blog, Hey What's for Dinner Mom? 

For the recipe you need dough ... either bought or homemade. Being the overachiever I am, I made the dough using another Hey What's for Dinner Mom? recipe: Best Easy Homemade Bread. It was easy, even with five kids running around. 

The bread recipe made enough dough for the pizza bites and a loaf. Look how pretty the loaf turned out! One of my bucket list goals is to learn how to make bread ... consistently yummy, good-looking bread. The recipe definitely delivered in the looks department. But it didn't taste great — not blaming the recipe, I know it was something I did. 

I didn't want to waste the loaf so I used it to make bread pudding. Some of the best bread pudding I've ever had. People may give Paula Deen a hard time about her love of butter, but I enjoy her recipes. Just writing about that bread pudding makes me want a big slice right now. I'm going to need to come up with an excuse to make some soon. Well, today's Tuesday — that sounds like a good reason!

Any recipes you've tried lately and loved? Please dish!