This Kid

This kid woke me up at 4:30 this morning to show me the tooth he had just pulled out. Why he was pulling out teeth in the middle of the night is beyond me. FYI, the tooth fairy does not come when notified at 4:30am.

Saturday at the Farm in Photos

In the midst of the crazy on Saturday, Max, Sophie and I stopped by Holz Farm for their fall festival. It is a free event with $0.50 tickets for things like tractor rides and soda pop. Calvin did not get to join us as he was enjoying himself at a swimming birthday party in Apple Valley. The farm is not a five minute drive from our house and reminds me of New England.



Why are these bunnies so cute and fuzzy when the ones who eat my tulips are rotten vermin?


FYI, this is not an effective way to catch a chicken.


Nor, is this.


Yes, these kids are too large for these tractors. They did not care. I was the mom on the sidelines calling out "I see London" to Sophie.

After School Fingers

After school snack on Friday. The kids were very impressed by what is essentially microwaving some chocolate. A tip for you: always put these molds in the freezer to cool. If you do this, they will pop out easily with a smooth, shiny finish instead of clinging to the mold.

This Cake Kicked My Butt

I'm not going to lie to you. This cake kicked my butt.

Evidently, I did not have my cake baking mojo working on Friday. I had to bake the cake twice (multi-tasking = overcooked cake), run back to the store for MORE chocolate, one of the fillings did not want to cooperate, the fondant colors (all 6 of of them) took a lot of experimentation, the cake did not want to split smoothly, the white clouds had to be cut by hand, etc. etc. etc.

I breathed a hush sigh of relief when this one was done. I love baking, I find it therapeutic, but this cake made me realize how much more I have to learn!

Dark chocolate cake with alternating layers of whipped white chocolate ganache and whipped bittersweet chocolate ganache, covered with buttercream and homemade fondant. Hopefully the little boy loved his airplane cake!

Thursday Field Trip - Back for More Berries!

This past Thursday, Marsha and I took the kids back to Hastings for more berries. The weather was beautiful, and they had so many ripe berries. We filled six pints without having to move more than five feet.


After berries and apples, we drove across the street to the the other orchard where we had a picnic lunch and played before heading home for naps! Thank you Marsha!

Ouch!

An Indonesian woman has given birth to an 8.7-kilogramme (19.2-pound) baby boy, the heaviest newborn ever recorded in the country, a doctor said. The baby boy is pictured here next to a baby of average size at a hospital in Medan, North Sumatra.
(AFP/Dede)

Making the Kids Laugh Tonight

Thanks, Tor for the link.

Does Your Saturday Look Like This?

Wish me luck.

What we did with those Raspberries

I took some of these . . .



. . . and made these . . .



. . . and these.


Notes for you. This muffin recipe sucked. The batter was so thick that it looked like a very wet bread dough. As I feel recipes are just suggestions, I started adding heavy cream, and when I ran out of cream, I added some of the apple cider I was drinking. I had to get the batter to a place where I could actually fold in the berries and chocolate chips. The muffins actually tasted great (lots of fresh nutmeg), but I'm sticking by by original assessment. The muffin recipe sucks - thus I am not going to share it with you. Go find a better one.

The cheesecakey brownie things tasted great but were RICH in a "too much of a good thing" kind of way. These are refrigerated over night and so they have almost a fudge like texture to the brownie. I would serve these in very, very small portions.

FYI - I have lots of the muffins in the freezer and lot of the brownies in the fridge just in case you stop by.

Views from my Window - The Battles are Fierce

Gone in Two Minutes Flat