Baking Monday - Week 5

Caramel popcorn, from my grandma's recipe. Long time eater, first time baker, and found out that grandma's recipe needed a few adjustments! One batch of this went to the Monday night pool team and four more travelled with us to Maryland for Thanksgiving. Good, good stuff.

Declaring Birthday #3 Officially Over!

... after a week-long celebration. Family party last Saturday, actual birthday on Wednesday, birthday snack at school on Thursday, and friends' party on Saturday. This was the year that he really got into his birthday, which was so cool to watch. He loved the singing, the candles, the presents and all the attention. Many celebrations meant lots of baking for me and a chance to use some new cookie cutters.



Family party: rockets, football helmets and race cars.



School snack and playgroup friends: number 3 circles.



Friends party: ice cream cones and presents.

Lots of work, yes, but look at that face! You'd do it, too.



Clark picked out this great robot pattern at Target way back in the fall. I put together little gift bags: wind up robots, glow bracelets, energy bar plus a plastic microphone for making robot voices.

Baking Monday - Cocoa Sandies

Week 4: Cocoa Sandies with mint chocolate glaze. These cookies are very shortbread-like, one of my favorites. The original recipe calls for dipping half the cookie in the glaze. I chose to drizzle, because it's easier, but I think the dipping looks prettier. However, as Jeff pointed out, this way you get a bite of frosting with each bite. Yay!



In other news, today was hat day at school. Clark wanted in on the action.

Baking Monday - Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

Week 3? Did I miss Week 1 and 2? Is the question you are probably asking yourself right now. Haha! There was no Week 1 and 2. I mean, there was, but I did not document it. Which is a bummer, because Week 2 was awesome.

Jeff plays pool on Monday nights. A couple of years ago, I wanted to take a cake decorating class on Monday nights. He agreed to be late for pool for a few weeks as long as he got to bring along the cake class leftovers for sharing. Win-win! Anyhow, apparently there was some discussion recently about the lack of desserts during pool play and Jeff challenged me to try out some new recipes for the team to share. I'm happy to oblige, since I love baking but reeeeeally don't need all those sweets around the house.

So! For Week 1, I made peanut butter bars from my friend Kerri's recipe. She made them for an event this past spring and I could not stop eating them. Very yummy. Week 2 was mocha chocolate chip cookies. The recipe came from a magazine, and I had only made them once before for my friends Steph and Chris when they used to live in NYC. The cookies were a big hit, but they also have like three cups of coffee in them, and since I typically now only bake for family events with small children around, I haven't had another opportunity to make them again. They were fabulous.



Today was Week 3 ... peanut butter chocolate fudge. The recipe is from Bakerella.com. Very sweet, but very delicious. Lots of stirring involved, which made today one more day that I am happy to have my heat-resistant rubber spatula. (Thanks, Carrie!)

Happy Birthday, Sesame Street!

Our local PBS station had a party to celebrate Sesame Street's 40th birthday this week. I am happy to say that I am not as old as Sesame Street ... yet. They put on a great party, including a snack room with tables full of granola bars, teddy grahams, pb crackers, pretzels, fruit snacks and rows and rows of juice boxes.



Clark ran right up to Elmo and gave him a hug and a high five, without hesitation. I was happy to get my camera out in time.



Clark checking out the green screen, this was his favorite thing to do. He was watching himself on tv with the Muppets.



Theo's traditional Elmo rendering.



Dora's own interpretation.

What's Bugging Me, Monday Edition

I've spent the last few days arguing with my almost three-year-old over impossible requests. He engages in these go nowhere conversations almost constantly.

"I want to watch Peep Makes A Friend."
"We don't have that."
"But I want to watch Peep Makes A Friend."
"I know that you do, but we don't have it."
"But I want to watch it."

"I want bacon."
"We don't have any bacon."
"But I want bacon."
"I understand that you want bacon, but it is physically impossible for me to produce bacon at this moment in time."
"Can I have some bacon?"

I won't torture you with any more, but imagine these discussions going about 10 rounds. And no, offering alternative options does not work. Eventually, one of us throws up our hands in frustration and moves on. Really, I love the kid to bits, but I'm ready to bang my head against the wall with this new trend.