A Play All Day Kind of Day

Jason has been so busy with work lately and the boys can tell.  They weren't getting as much attention from their dad as they usually do and were pretty frustrated about it.  People were getting cranky around here and something had to be done!  I declared last Wednesday as a "play all day" kind of day.  I didn't do any laundry or any cleaning and took the boys sledding instead.  We were at the sledding hill by nine in the morning and spent two and a half hours having fun.  Since we went so early on a school day, we had the hill to ourselves.

This little guy wasn't such a big fan of walking up the hill, so I got my workout in for the day as I pulled him up on the sled a dozen or so times.

I lost track of how many times Henry went up and down that hill.  He was having the time of his life.

A morning of fresh air, exercise, and fun was just what we needed.  If Jason had been there, it would have been perfect.  We spent the rest of the day playing with Legos, tools, coloring, and baking cookies.  It was a pretty great day.

I Like Yo Pantses

It can be difficult at times for me to choose clothes at this point in my life.  After all, I did just turn 30.  I'm no spring chicken anymore but am not ready to bust out the mom clothes.  You all know the clothes I'm talking about.  When fun colored jeans started showing up all over, I really wanted a pair of bright red pants.  I tried some on a couple of months ago but couldn't bring myself to buy them and settled for black instead.  Enter Target.  That store and it's clearance stuff, I tell you.  These pretty pink and green pants were super cheap and calling my name as they hung there.  I bought them and had been having fun wearing them at home.  You see, I wasn't ready to venture out in them for fear that I would be mistaken for a mom who is trying too hard to go back to her crazy days in college.

On a whim, I wore the green pants with my most favorite green shoes to Target.  I stressed about those green pants as I pushed Oliver around with Henry clinging to the front of the cart, which was full of Pull-ups, Cheerios, and other things only moms would buy.  What were people thinking about the mom who would dare to wear green pants?  Then, right there in the toilet paper aisle a little girl poked me on my green pants.  She looked up at me with her pretty dark eyes and curly hair and said, "I like yo pantses."  Well thank you, sweet girl!

That settled it.  This mom wears crazy pantses.

Some Cinnamon Rolls for Your Valentine's Day

Folks, I didn't come up with this idea.  I pinned it on Pinterest from the blog Poppies at Play and wanted to try it out for my three Valentines.  Turns out, making your cinnamon rolls look all lovey-dovey and cute is easy.  Here's what I did to make my cinnamon rolls look like hearts.

Roll out your dough and cover with your cinnamon sugar mixture.

Roll up the dough along the length until it meets in the middle.  You can roll as tight or as loose as you please.

Slice the cinnamon rolls up and place into your pan.

Bake according to your recipe.

Frost and share with the ones you love.

Well hello there, little Valentine rolls!

Have a happy weekend!

And thank you to Poppies at Play for the really cute idea!

Anticipation

I can't wait for this...

 

Cream of Broccoli Soup

We love Martha's recipe for cream of broccoli soup.  Throw in some shredded cheddar cheese and it is an amazing little bowl of soup.

We had a little bruschetta with our soup and it made for a pretty good meal.  Rubbing a clove of garlic over the pieces of toast is the trick to making them taste extra special, or so those cooking show people say.

I topped half of those little toasts with some Parmesan cheese, sun dried tomatoes, and basil.

The other half got some leftover caramelized onions, kalamata olives, Parmesan, and rosemary.


Winter, you're really not so bad as long as there is soup.

Monday Close-ups

Just like last week, here are some pictures of our weekend.

I have yet to kill the herbs that are growing in my kitchen.  Just give me some time.

Crushing your own salt and pepper is loads of fun.

Plus, it smells so good.

Those herbs and the crushed salt and pepper were used to make these shredded beef sandwiches.  I highly suggest you try them!

We also ate homemade tomato soup.

It snowed and Jason was busy with basketball and school work again this weekend.  So, the boys and I hunkered down and did lots of reading in our coziest sweats.

We also went camping.  Don't worry (Mom), the candle is flameless.

And we watched birds.  Winters in Wisconsin can be soooo long.

I always know I should bake something when Jason starts raiding the pantry for chocolate chips.  I did what any good wife and mother would do and baked my boys some goodies.  Also, did you know that it takes forever to unwrap those individually wrapped caramels?  It does.  My hands started to cramp up a little bit.

We made carmelitas and cinnamon rolls.

You are welcome, husband!

What did you do this weekend?

Italian Split Herb Loaf

This is my favorite bread to make at home when we're having soup for supper.  I find it really easy to make and it tastes delicious.  Your family will love you and think you're amazing if you make bread from scratch.  Trust me.  Here's the recipe.

Italian Split Herb Loaf

makes 1 loaf

4 cups white flour

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon Italian herb mix (I use my own dried Basil, Oregano, a little Rosemary, and thyme)

1 tablespoon sugar

3/4 ounce fresh yeast

1 1/8 cups lukewarm water

2 tablespoons melted butter

For the topping:

1 egg white

pinch of sea salt

1 teaspoon Italian herb mix

To begin, you'll need to lightly grease a baking sheet.  In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, herbs, and sugar.  Make a well in the center.  Mix the yeast with the water, stirring until the yeast has dissolved.  Pour the yeast and water into the flour.  Stir in enough flour to make a runny batter.  Sprinkle more of the flour on top, cover, and let sit in a warm place for 30 minutes until a "sponge" starts to bubble and rise.

Add the melted butter and gradually mix in with the remaining flour to form a dough.  Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap, and let rise again in a warm place for 45-60 minutes or until doubled in size.  Make sure to save the oiled plastic wrap because you will need it again.  Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and punch down.  Shape into an oval and place on the prepared baking sheet.  Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 30-40 minutes or until doubled in size.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Brush the egg white over the loaf. 

With a sharp knife, slash along the length of the bread.  You can see that my dough had an air bubble in it that gave it a dimple.  Don't worry.  Dimples are cute.

Sprinkle the Italian herb mix and the sea salt over the top of the bread.  Take care to not put too much salt on top of the bread, as the bread already has some in it.  Overly salty bread is bad news.

Bake for 20 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees.  Bake for 10 more minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.  Transfer to a wire wrack to cool.  Don't forget to embrace the dimple if your loaf sports one.

Slice and enjoy!

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Tatertots and Jello