Gnomes and toadstools

For munchie's birthday I really wanted to make some sugar cookie cutouts. I found a set of cookie cutters on ebay in the shape of gnomes and toadstools and thought it would be perfect to go along with our theme. In case you don't already know, I kind of have this thing about metal cookie cutters. I really and I do mean really love them. Sure the plastic ones are fine with the kiddos but honestly, I think no baker's pantry is complete without a good bunch of metal ones.

So here they are the finished products: 

 Here is a close up of my gnomes just after I finished flooding them:

I don't think they turned out too terribly bad seeing as I have never decorated a sugar cookie like this ever. I have only decorated them with a big slab of frosting, sprinkled some colored sugar on them and ate them up. I did learn a few things though and I will add my tips so that you can keep from making the same mistakes that I did.

I found my recipe for the sugar cookies on another blog that I follow as I didn't have a good one for cutouts of my own. These were really tasty and I don't think I will look any further for another cutout recipe.You can also find a really nice tutorial on how to decorate your cookies here: clicky

Ella’s White Sugar Cookies adapted from Annie's Eats
Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ t. almond extract
1 t. vanilla (I added 2 tsp as I am more a fan of the vanilla taste than the almond)
1 t. salt
2 ½ c. sifted flour
Directions:
Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm. Roll to ¼” thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool. Yields ~40 cookies.

Royal Icing courtesy of Wilton

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons meringue powder
4 cups (about 1 lb) confectioner's sugar
6 tablespoons warm water

Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer).

Makes about 3 cups of icing.

----
Here are a few things I will do differently next time:

--I won't add too much water. I added too much to the icing I was going to use to flood the cookies and it came out a lot thinner than I would have liked once it was on the cookies. So you can see it is very flat and shiny.
--I won't use Wilton colors for red or black. I really like the Wilton gel food coloring but I needed an entire container of color and still couldn't get the right shade of red or black. It was very matte and almost pastel like in nature. It just did not have that pop of bright that I was looking for. Upon further research I have learned that for red and black you should use Americolor gels in super red and super black. Now I know and I will be adding these to my list of things to get before my next cookie baking session.
--These were pretty time consuming so I would say if you are doing really big batches, carve yourself out an entire day to make these. I made the cookies a couple of days ahead, stored them in an airtight container and then decorated the night prior to the party. If done differently, I would have decorated a day earlier and given myself more time to let everything dry before flooding. I gave myself an hour, but definitely could have used several more between piping and flooding details.

In all these turned out really good, had a nice flavor and stored very nicely. I can't wait to hone my skills a little more and try these two recipes with my next batch of cutout cookies.

A winter gnomeland birthday

Munchies birthday party was a success. Everything turned out nicely and though I didn't put up all of the decorations I had planned for originally, it ended up looking pretty good.

Here are some photos from the big day:

 Gnome and toadstool cookies

 The cake

 Sandwich and veggie trays

 Arctic punch

Gnome favor bags

The birthday boy behind his balloons

Decorated high chair

Inside of cake

Cake smash

I do this every time. I promise to update and then I don't for a long, long time. Well I am busy and my life for the most part is boring and not entirely blog worthy. I am not just a mother but a wife and I watch other people's kids besides my own. I just don't always have the time to get on here and quite frankly it is always the most mundane of things that fill my day. I suppose I could carve out a chunk of time, but who am I kidding, I love my sleep, so I choose it instead. Plus, I am pretty sure you don't want to hear about every. single. thing. I. do. Legit, I don't want to share it with you either. Just take my word for it that it is boring.

I am going to sum up what we have been doing and then I will proceed over the course of the next few days to post about certain things that come with great recipes, some pictures and whatever else you may or may not even care to be interested in.

So to start with my son is a year old. I don't even know where to begin to start with that one. But I will do my best. We had a wonderful birthday party for him this past weekend. Despite many cancellations, we did enjoy ourselves immensely and my hard work did not go unnoticed. I also learned a great many things that day. Next time, I probably won't try so hard. Lies. I will probably try harder and hope for more people!

Secondly, my parents are coming to visit all the way from the West coast. I cannot wait. I am so excited to see them as I have not seen them in several months. I cannot wait for them to see munchie either, he is so much bigger and more on the go than he was the last time they saw him. He is also way more fun now. I am planning for this to be the best Christmas ever and that is saying a lot since last year was pretty much the best Christmas ever because I had a brand new baby in my arms. Also saying a lot because it was the redeeming moment for the prior Christmas which sucked so much ass I almost banished Christmas from my entire existence. I know what you are thinking...ME become a Grinch? Oh yeah, it almost happened. But that is a story to be burned to ashes and never really spoken of again.

Moving along.

So this is how I felt the day of my son's birthday party: 

I slaved away for two days prior trying to get all of the cookies and the cake done and then no one was able to make it to his big day. I was understandably pretty bummed out. Meaning, I almost cried in front of our only guest and her husband and kids. But I managed to suck it up until the end of the day when the baby was well fed, pooped out, and snuggled in bed. Then I let it loose. I cried for at least a good few hours. I was so sad for so many reasons.

A lot of it was because I really miss my family and I really wished that they could have been there to celebrate such a tremendous event in my little boy's life. I know it means so much more to me than to anyone else, but I guess I had an idea of what it would be like in my mind and I was surprised to have been let down so badly by its differences. I didn't expect myself to have such overwhelming feelings of disappointment and sadness on a day that was supposed to be full of jubilee. In all, it was a great day and everything turned out pretty well.

My son in the hospital:

My son today:

Happy Birthday my darling little boy. You are the most precious thing in my life. <3

Ghosts and goblins, oh my!

I have always found the holidays to be important. Not just for the chance to gather with family but for the chance to create traditions. I grew up in a family that made a big deal out of all of the holidays. We had an Easter bunny, a Santa Claus, and hundreds of potlucks to celebrate every little moment. So it is no surprise that I like to do something even though we live about 3500 miles away from all those people, potlucks, picnics and traditions. My husband and I are forging our own traditions here on the opposite side of the map. Halloween is no exception.

Despite our snowpocalypse the weather warmed up a tad and the snow disappeared just enough to venture out and do a little trick or treating. It was cold but munchie really enjoyed seeing things go into his little pumpkin bucket. The look on his face was joyous for me and made that bitter sting of cold on our cheeks worth every second.

A little photo recap of Halloween:

A little taste of Hawaii

If you have ever been to a Hawaiian luau then you know how delicious Kalua pork is. It is moist, salty and pretty addicting. If you have not been to a luau and you are wondering what in the world a Kalua pork is well let me tell you what it is. You build a fire, top it with rocks, take a pig and wrap it up in banana leaves, wrap it in burlap and then top with sand, and then let the heat cook it. That is how it goes in a nutshell. The Hawaiians know their pork (that is saying a lot from someone who doesn't eat pork).

I told my husband I was making Kalua pork and he made a funny face and was like I don't like that. I immediately knew he was picturing the drink in his mind so I told him about the pig we had in Hawaii and he lit up and agreed he was looking forward to it. All you need is your ingredients, a crock pot and 16 hours to cook. Pretty easy; nothing crazy. Also be prepared because the minute he walked in the door from work he was salivating over how delicious this smelled. You may need a stick to beat people off the pork before you get it to the table!

Crock Pot Kalua pork

3 lb pork shoulder, trimmed of fat
sea salt
2 tablespoons of liquid smoke

Add your pork shoulder to your crock pot and stab it with a knife in several places. Rub the pork with sea salt and then add the liquid smoke. Cover and cook on low for 16 hours. I put mine in before I went to bed and took it out in the morning. Take out of crock pot when done and shred with two forks. Reserve the liquid to help keep this moist.

I stored this in a crock pot and saved all of the liquid, I also added a bit more salt at the end to make this just right.

Cottage pie and snowpocalypse!

We had a pretty wicked snow storm here on the East Coast this weekend. We got a total of 18" of snow when all was said and done. I took my munchie outside for his very first romp in the snow. He was more interested in eating it than playing with it, but he did quite enjoy the snow and was not a happy camper when I took him out to warm up.

A little picture of fun:

So with this giant mound of snow comes cold weather and nothing is better in cold weather than comfort food. In a New England winter comfort food needs to be hearty and delicious. My husband loves a good cottage pie. (Shepherd's pie if you add lamb). This one turned out really tasty this time and had the perfect amount of broth to it.

Cottage pie:

1/2 lb of ground beef
1 can of cream style corn
1/2 jar of Heinz beef gravy bistro au jus
2 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp of liquid smoke
1 tbsp of garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
Mashed potatoes to top

Add the beef to a large frying pan to brown. Add garlic powder, liquid smoke, salt and pepper and Worcestershire sauce and cook until there is no pink. Add the can of creamed corn and the gravy. Cook for one minute stirring occasionally. Add to a 3 quart casserole dish and top with mashed potatoes. If you like you can sprinkle with Italian breadcrumbs. Bake in the oven at 350* for 30 minutes just until the potatoes are browned up a tad.

For our garlic bread I used a kaiser roll cut in half which I spread with butter and sprinkled parsley and garlic powder on. I popped these in the oven for 10 minutes.

Simple easy dinner for a busy night that packs in the heartiness and taste my husband requires to get him through the day.

Munchie's first ambulance ride and a broken momma.

I am on a roll of not updating often again. Only this time I have a really good excuse: It is hard to type a bunch of words with one hand. Don't get me wrong I can do it, and I am fast but not enough so that I could update this.

A couple of weeks ago I took our dog Oskar out to the bathroom. When he was done I went to shut our door and my hand slipped off the center wood piece and went straight through the window. The place we rent was built in 1913 and our front door sticks really bad and is hard to shut. To my knowledge it is the original door. So super thin glass.

As you can imagine my first reaction was "Oh F*CK!" Literally, first words out of my mouth. Proceeded by a recurring line of oh shits. I immediately applied pressure regardless of the potential for glass being in and ran inside to call 911. Luckily munchie was in his room so I didn't have to worry about him getting glass on him.

Since we live just down the road from the rescue garage it was literally two minutes after my call that the paramedics accompanied by local police showed up at our door. Within seconds I was surrounded by seven people asking me if I was okay, if there were anyone else in the house, how I cut my arm, if I had hurt myself, if someone had hurt me. After the questions they took a peek and of course sent me straight to the hospital, also just down the road so I could get some stitches.

So munchie got to take his very first ambulance ride. He was in awe of the flashing lights and siren and the little bear they gave him for taking a ride. He was his normal calm self and when we got to the hospital he was flirting with all the nurses like usual. I had to call some friends to pull my hubby from work so he would know what was going on.

I wish I had a picture of what the wound looked like, it was gnarly but that was not on my mind at the time. In all I cut deep enough that bone and tendon were exposed. I had several bleeders that wouldn't stop and some tendon damage. When all was said and done I ended up with about two dozen stitches. Ten on top to gather the skin and the rest underneath.

I have lost a bit of range of motion and though I got my stitches out, they added some liquid stitches and steri-strips to hold it together for a few more days as the one part wasn't quite healed up enough. I will have to do some physical therapy and as of right now it is hard to tell just how much I will regain the use of my wrist. The good thing is I didn't hit the vein and aside from the gnarly scar I am going to have it is not as bad as it could have been.

So here is to a little more gap in my updates until I am fully healed and can function. Because you better believe I hired a housekeeper to do the cleaning since I can't do anything and the husband has been in charge of dinners. :-D I am kind of liking this "vacation."

Zuppa remix

Many years ago when I was a kid I remember going to Olive Garden for the very first time. It was delicious. Their Zuppa Toscana soup has been my favorite thing ever since. My dad loved it so much that he asked for the recipe. The local branch brought their chef out and he handed him a little piece of paper with the ingredients he was allowed to release. So here it is straight from the chef, except I added a few things this last time.

Zuppa Toscana soup:

2 3/4 cup chicken broth
1 medium russet potato
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cup chopped kale
1 pound Italian sausage

Things I added:

1 leek (only the white part, diced)
1 tablespoon of garlic powder
2 tablespoons of butter
salt and pepper to taste

Combine the stock and cream in saucepan over medium heat. Slice the unpeeled potato into 1/4 inch slices then quarter and add to soup. Add the kale. Grill or saute the sausage in another pot. When cooked and cooled add to soup. Add spices and leek along with butter and let the soup simmer for 1 hour; stirring occasionally.

Vegan night

My husband came to me a bit ago and said he wanted to be a vegan. I of course laughed because he is your typical southern man: he loves his meat and he loves it smothered in BBQ sauce. Nevertheless, I opted to take him seriously and try slowly introducing him to a meat free night of tasty food.

I made black beans and rice with corn tortillas. These were delicious, simple and even I didn't miss the cheese.

Vegan black beans:

2 cans of vegan black beans
1 cup of red, orange, yellow or green bell peppers diced (I used a combination of all four)
1 /2 cup of onion, diced
2 tbsp garlic powder (you can adjust to your desired amount of garlic)
1 tsp lime juice
salt and pepper to taste

Mix the above ingredients together in a pot. Let heat on medium for about 10 minutes, stirring often.

Take a corn tortilla and spread with your favorite hummus. Top with rice and black beans. Add guacamole.

You can also add salsa if you prefer.

Yeah yeah it has been awhile, suck it.

Eff me it has been too long yet again. I do this to myself every time. I promise I will blog more and then I don't. Want to know why? Because I have a baby that is why. A baby that refuses to sleep! Have you seen the book go the F*ck to sleep? No, well I have and it is my freaking mantra right now. I love my kid. He is cute, he makes amazing funny faces but dammit I like my sleep and cannot for the life of me figure out why he hasn't gotten on that bandwagon too. I silently say it to myself over and over. Go the f*ck to sleep, go the f*ck to SLEEEEEP. I am pretty sure if I even attempted to say this out loud he would give me this face:

                                                         "Momma, I will knock you out!"

For serious though, PLEASE, please go to sleep child. Uuugh I know he can't help it. Devil be damned he is getting teeth. At least two and with my luck probably more. My usually sinfully sweet child has become a raging dragon. So reminiscent of his momma when she is ragging. Yupp. A hormonal beast who will chew you up and spit you out faster than you can blink. I suppose this is karma for being such a raging whoore to my husband at least once a month. The penis brigade is out to get me. Eff my life.

So I guess I am just going to stop promising that I will update you with every time I wipe my kids ass and every new blah blah he blurbs and just suck it up and tell you the truth. I will get to it when my kid finally learns to go the f*ck to sleep. Or better yet when my darling husband learns to wake his ass up from his nap and give me some mommy time. I know he works hard but dammit does he not realize I am a MOM and that job totally trumps whatever he does at his "job." Just kidding dear I love you.

Seriously, though....mommy time? Can I haz it!!?

Day 6

I have lost 8 pounds. I struggled through going to the fair and smelling all those wonderfully bad for you but oh so delicious foods, a BBQ and a wicked craving for the best pizza I have ever had. But here I am almost a week in and I have actually seen some progress. Challenging in so many ways but the end result will be every bit worth it.

The diet itself is really not so bad and once you really get into it and your body adjusts from the lack of carbs and sugar you feel SO much better. I have energy, my stomach no longer hurts constantly, and my skin even looks better.

I have to say I miss my summer fruit and corn on the cob and my carbs, but I will not miss all the weight I want to lose. So here is to being a hot mom not a moo.

Confessions

Hello,

I am Kris. I am 25 years old and I have liver disease. I am about 50+ lbs overweight, I have one biological son and one step son and I want to live long enough to see them both grow old, get married and have children.

I need to make changes now in order to live long enough to see this happen.

I have no one else to blame but myself and my lack of will power against my sweet tooth. I lack the tools necessary to know what is healthy because I grew up on Schwann frozen food and convenience meals.

This is the start of a new chapter and I am on the road to recovery.

Thanks for listening.

------

So tonight I am attending my first seminar on the ideal protein diet and I am hoping to get started so I can be on my way to a better, healthier me. My weight loss goal is 70 lbs total.

Things I want to come from this:
I want to wear a sexy Halloween costume this fall for the very first time.
I want to wear a pair of shorts for the first time.
I want to wear a tank top in public and look good in it.
I want to wear a summer dress.
I don't want to have to hide behind long sleeves and sweaters and pants any more.
I want to wear skinny jeans and BE skinny.
I want to cure my liver disease.
I want to get my blood sugar levels back to a normal range.
I want to live a long and healthy life for my kids.

So here is to a new start!!!

I am back!

Well I have been gone a month. I went on vacation for three weeks to visit my parents and my family back on the west coast. There are TONS of pictures I am sifting through still so more on that to come later.

We spent five days in a car riding back and then Dorian and I flew back at the end.

Now that I am home, my hope is to get back into blogging. We shall see if I can make it happen.


So for a little update:

Dorian  had his first taste of blueberries...he resembles the joker in this picture no? 

 

 A little break playing in the yard 

A little outing in Boston

Every year we go on a vacation for our anniversary and this year we opted to go to Boston. We spent three wonderful days there and got to see a little history, a little culture and have a little relaxation.

Our first day there we went to the aquarium. Dorian loved looking into the tanks and watching the fish swim around. Since the Bruins had just won the Stanley cup the other night everyone was showing their support. As you can see the scuba diver in the fish tank had his Bruins Jersey on. 

We went to Faneuil  hall and Quincy market after the aquarium. We were lucky to see this man who made an amazing living statue. Something I had never seen before. Both Jay and I were very fascinated with how lifelike he looked.

 The next day we walked around Boston Commons and happened upon the Old Granary Burial Ground where Paul Revere was buried. There were so many cool headstones.

We drove through Cambridge and got to see Harvard University. 

And on our last day we enjoyed a relaxing morning before heading back home.

As you can see my darling child is practicing to be a plumber. But I would much rather look at his cute little tooshie than some big old fat dude with his hairy dingle-berry infested crack hanging out.

Letting go.

Let's talk about pets. Before there are babies there are your other "kids." The kind with fur and sad little eyes that make you cave to their every little stare. The ones that pee in your shoes after chewing them to bits. Of course you can't forget this furry little creature that manages to get into the garbage can you paid lots of money for because it promised to keep the dog out and yet there you are standing in a room filled with chewed up bits of food and rubbish and you swear that is the last straw. Of course the very next day they rub their ass from one end of your carpet to the other all the while staring at you as if you are impeding on their space and that there is your last straw (True story). Of course they drive you up the wall but you love them nonetheless and you swear you will never get rid of them because pets are for life.

Well, enter the real kiddos. The kind with ten fingers and wiggly toes and are a little bit of your good looks and your husband's witty charm. All of a sudden you find you have no time for your furbabies any more because your real baby is sucking the life right out of you. If you go down the list of important people to take care of you find yourself squeezing in a nap because by golly the kid actually fell asleep all the while your dog stands at his dish wondering where the hell his food is. Well then you realize it is time for adult decisions when your dog is actually standing in his dish trying to suck up whatever crumbs he can find inside his dish.

I did have two dogs prior to Dorian entering the world. A silky yorkshire terrier named Oskar and a schnauzer/american eskimo mix (schnauzimo) named Ace. I loved Ace, he was snuggly, loving and reminded me of a precious moments doll with those big sparkly eyes. Despite that he was a handful. That dog was so wound up all of the time I swear a jar of ritalin wouldn't even calm him down. It was easy to deal with it when I had nothing else eating up my time, but once I got pregnant it was getting harder and harder to give him what he needed. By the time Dorian actually arrived I knew that I had to send him off to a better home. It was a very difficult decision and I shed many a tear over saying goodbye.

Fast forward to today and although I miss him I am content in knowing that he is in a better home with people who have the ability to actually take care of him. It is much more selfish to keep an animal you can't properly take care of.

So here is to me being a grown up and here is to Ace having a new home. 

A little catching up to do.

In the world of babies so much happens so quickly that there is hardly time to actually keep up. So here is to playing catch up.

My gummy bear now has two teeth.

He rolls and rolls and rolls all over the place.

He is trying as hard as he can to crawl but is definitely doing the backward scoot.

He sounds like a screeching pterodactyl, he especially loves to do this at restaurants.

He has now eaten oatmeal, bananas, mango, peach, peas, green beans, broccoli, avocado, pears, apples, prunes, watermelon, sweet potato, and butternut squash. Next up are blueberries, strawberries, zucchini, asparagus and kiwi.

Milestones and memories

Has it really been 6 months already since I gave birth to the most amazing little creature I have ever laid my eyes upon? Apparently it has and my little gummy bear is not so little any more. He weighs 20 lbs 13 oz and is 27-1/2 inches long. Oh and he has a tooth. A very tiny sharp tooth beginning its journey out of the gums. I felt it the other day and immediately I got a little weepy. Crying and overly proud excitement makes for a wonderful mom moment and lots of "are you nuts?" looks from my husband. He doesn't quite get the need for exuberance over a tooth, but regardless I am a pretty proud momma.

Today also marks two years since I married my best friend and the love of my life. The person who has been by my side for the last 7-1/2 years. Here is to hoping we have many many more happy years ahead of us.

Carrots!

We started carrots yesterday morning and again some funny looks to begin with but he warmed up to them in the end. At lunch time he was much more interested in the taste.

You will notice that we start our new food introductions in the morning. I read that this was the best time to introduce a new food so that if there were any allergies, or stomach upsets that baby wouldn't wake up through out the night.

So far we have done pretty well and there seems to be no intolerance.

I am pretty sure he was thinking that if I fed him carrots his curly little fuzz head was going to get more orange. He doesn't seem to approve.









My smiling little gummy bear. I have never met a more happy baby. I am the luckiest mom in the world. <3

I know that some parents aren't for the early introduction of solids and I was one of those before gummy bear came along. My original plan was to breastfeed until at least one year and do baby led weaning at around 8 or 9 months. Of course we had to divert from our plan and start formula and this has left me with a baby who seems more ready to start on purees. So we opted to start a couple weeks before the 6 month mark and I am following his lead in determining his readiness.