Bake Sale!

Happy Friday!!

I am a toddler teacher at a Montessori school here in Birmingham.  We operate on a school schedule which means it is SuMmEr!  We have summer camps throughout and this year I am actually working a lot with the camps.  For June there was an art camp for my toddlers!  We painted and painted and painted and painted!  If you have never had 11 two year olds for two weeks and painted everyday, I suggest you DO IT!  :-)  There is something amazing about watching a child experience painting with spaghetti noodles or spray painting a shirt they can actually wear home or making coasters for Mom and Dad.  Their little eyes light up the moment the color hits the canvas. 

This week I am working with some pretty exciting preschoolers in a camp called Healthy Habits.  What does that even look like for 3, 4, and 5 year olds???? For me it looks like cooking and talking about food.  Cooking?  With a 3 year old?  With real knives and hot convection ovens and real food?  YEP! That's right!  This week we have made yogurt parfaits, fresh guacamole, mini pizzas, juiced fruit to make popsicles, and roasted potatoes.  More is on tap for next week too.  My kids love it.  When asked to help me cook, they jump at the chance and almost race to see who can get in the chair next to me first --- after they wash their hands of course. 

Healthy habits all begin in the kitchen.  I love to cook, bake, and all things kitchen.  When WDD and I started dating and shortly thereafter got engaged, he learned exactly how much I loved the kitchen.  After work everyday I would head to his house and we would cook dinner together.  Once we were married, he was in for the shock of his life.  Pancakes for breakfast.  Homemade bread.  Sautéed vegetables.  The works. 

WDD's mom always has some sort of sweet goody baking and his dad makes it all from cheese cauliflower to pizza on the grill.  He, however, never really made a whole lot more than reservations. 

In the past two-ish years we have learned a lot about each other and our likes/dislikes in the food realm.  At first I sort of shunned WDD from the kitchen.  It was MY domain.  MY happy place.  As time wore on I learned how fun it is to share that with him.  To come together to make a delicious meal we will then eat together, how great is that?!  Pretty great, I tell ya. 

I yearn to pass along the joy of cooking to our future children.  I see flour all over the cabinets, eggs dropped and broken on the floor, butter in a heaping pile, and smiles, lots and lots of smiles. 

WDD and I are hosting a bake sale to help aid in getting that Baby Doop home.  We have been blessed beyond measure already by the outpouring of love and support, but this is a long and trying process that includes many many fundraisers and hard work.  Take a look!  Give us a shout! Eat some amazing food!

Freedom Donuts!

Happy birthday, America!!

Fireworks, friends, freedom, and FOOD! That is what July 4th is all about right? :-)

I am incredibly blessed to be an American citizen.  We celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence by making BBQ, being with family and friends, and remembering the brave men and women who fought for our freedom so many years ago. Thankfully, there are still men and women today who sacrifice to keep us free. 

This year WDD and I celebrated A LOT! Our church, Westwood Baptist, hosted a fireworks show.  We got to see some incredible fireworks and hang out with some dear friends of ours.  Oh, yeah, and eat! Then we went to Logan Martin Lake and spent some time with our family swimming, grilling, and enjoying each other.

Let's get back to the eating part......for our gathering at church, we decided to make homemade donuts! Who doesn't like donuts??

First, lets get all of the essentials: butter (LOADS of butter!), milk, eggs, flour, yeast, sugar, powdered sugar, and of course, vanilla!

Pardon my sippy cup.....I can be found with a cup of water/kool aid/sweet tea/etc at all times. It is slightly a necessity.

Yep, you see that correctly, *NSync playing in the background.  Who doesn't listen to boy bands while baking?

Okay, okay. Back to the task at hand....

This strange looking goodness is the yeast mixing with  milk becoming active.  The bubblier and stranger it looks, the better.

Bow chica wow wow!

Everybody needs a smokin' hot kitchen assistant.

Mine is beating the eggs for me before we mix them in. Here is a little tip that I have learned: if a recipe calls for eggs, always always always beat them a little before pouring into the mixture.  I don't have a technical reason why, it seems to mix smoother and a smidge faster. 

So, obviously, I missed a few steps.

Mix all of the dry ingredients.

Add in the wet ingredients.

Mix until the dough clings to your dough hooks and comes easily off the sides of your mixing bowl.

Generously flour your counter.

Roll the dough out to about 1/2 inch thickness.  I made mine about 1/4 thick and wish I would have left it a little thicker in the end.

If the dough is sticking to the rolling pin, or glass cup if you are like me and don't have a rolling pin, keep sprinkling flour on the dough to keep it from sticking.

I also do not own donut cutters or biscuit cutters so I use a glass cup and a Champaign flute.

 Maybe one day I will break down and purchase these items.  Probably not though, I keep things old school around here! :-)

Use your bigger glass to cut out all of the donut outsides.

Pick up the excess unused dough. 

Use the smaller glass to cut out the middle of the donut to make the donut hole.

We floured three cookie sheets to put the uncooked donuts on after being cut out.

After all of the donuts are cut out and on a cookie sheet, cover with a kitchen towel, let sit for an hour or more to rise. 

Grab an iron skillet or a semi deep pan from the cabinet.

Fill the pan about half way with oil.  The original recipe calls for canola, but I used vegetable because it was what I have.

Turn the heat on medium to medium high.  You want to keep your oil hot enough to cook the dough within 30 seconds but not have the oil soak into the dough.  This is a tricky temperature, for me at least.  I tend to get my oil too hot then have I have to remove the pan from the eye to cool a bit.

Flip the donut after about 15 seconds.  Cook the other side for about 15 seconds. 

Pull out of the oil and put it on paper towel to dab off the excess oil.

Place on a cooling rack. 

There is no way you will be able to glaze these jokers right away.

Lets make some glaze!

In a medium bowl mix together the powdered sugar, vanilla, and butter.

It will become a beautiful and tasty glaze right before your eyes!

Go ahead, taste it!  Your life will be changed forever.

After the donuts have cooled enough to handle, place a donut into the glaze.  Remove from glaze and place back onto the cooling rack.  If the donut is still pretty warm, the glaze will not stick very well. 

Once the glaze dries, you can dunk again for a second coat.  I highly recommend this step. 

You will fill up that cooling rack pretty quickly, so keep those cookie sheets handy to help the glaze dry.

You might notice there are less donut holes in the container than in the original picture.  You might wonder where those donut holes went. 

You can continue to wonder, because I'm not telling!

This is the Pioneer Woman's donut recipe and can found here http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/02/homemade-glazed-doughnuts/

The glaze was modified from the Pioneer Woman's.  It found it here:http://www.blessthismessplease.com/2012/07/pioneer-womans-glazed-donuts.html

Enjoy!  I know WDD and I did!

Bring home Baby Doop

Wow! It has been a while since I blogged!  I apologize for letting this fall between the cracks.  There are going to be some changes with my blog.  I am not sure how that change will look in the end, but I know it has to be different to stay organized. 

The Doop's have more than starting back with my blog and talking about changing it going on.  For those of you who have not heard yet, we are adopting!!

Young girls dream about their perfect wedding to their Prince Charming to be followed by getting pregnant and having perfect little babies. 

I am certainly not a typical girl.  WDD is certainly not a typical guy.  He is, however, my Prince Charming.  Our wedding was the perfect wedding for us.  Our children will be the perfect little children God has planned for us. 

As a young girl, I dreamed of my family pictures being taken and I am surrounded by children from all walks of life and all different ethnicities.  Like I said, I am not typical.  I dreamed of me with my myriad of children but I never dreamed of that life happening with my Prince Charming. 

As a young boy, WDD dreamed of a little boy and little girl with his and his sister's amazing hair and little bump in the middle of their nose.  He dreamed of having these children with his wife.  The children of his dreams had his DNA.

I grew into a woman who knew something wasn't "right".  Something within my body wasn't acting "normal".  I use these terms loosely because those are the terms society would use.  This may be a little on the TMI side, but I'm pretty transparent so here we go....I don't have a regular cycle.  Rarely to never do my eggs mature and go through a full cycle within my body.  This causes cysts in my ovaries.  This also impacts many other areas of my life.  I am hairy....I mean HAIRY.  I sweat  A LOT.  I hold extra weight in my middle, regardless of how many crunches I do or how little carbs I eat, I will hold extra weight in my middle.  If I have a period, it is never regular in any aspect of the word.  I do not ovulate. 
These are all things that society would deem as not being "normal" or "right".  I have known for a long time that getting pregnant naturally would require a God sized miracle. 

This does not break my heart nor do I believe that I am any less capable to mother.  I believe this is why God placed a yearning in my heart for adoption at a young age. 
There are children, thousands and thousands of them, who are unable to have parents just like I am unable to have children. 
The difference is, I have a family and friends and a wonderful husband who support and love me.  I wake up every morning to a home full of love, encouragement, and support.  These  children do not.  They do not know what it is like to have a Mommy or Daddy hold them at night during a nightmare or wake them up every morning or have their request of "Can Deddy make HIS pancakes for breakfast?" granted. 

God placed in me a love for WDD.  He also placed within WDD's heart a love for adoption.  It was amazing to watch WDD's heart change and a hole grow that will only be filled by the adoption of our child. 


Fast forward a little bit to present day.  The law of Alabama says that a couple cannot adopt until they have been married 3 years.  The adoption agency we are using, Lifeline Children's Services, states in their qualifications for domestic adoption that the couple must be married for three years before filing the adoption application. 

Our anniversary is April 6.  We have approximately 9 months before we can file an application for adoption. 
Adoption, like  birthing a child, is very expensive.  The price for a domestic adoption is approximately $22,500.  (YIKES!) 
We have started a savings account and had a yard sale to start the fundraising.  With both of us being teachers, we do not regularly have $22,500 sitting around so fundraising and savings will be a large part of our lives in the upcoming year. 

We are going to use this blog to talk about our adventure and all the aspects of this adventure.  I am going to keep posting our DIY things and recipes and just things we do on a daily basis.

Please fill free to ask questions, pray with us, help us raise funds, etc. 

Welcome back to this fun and crazy life of mine!!

The Boy Who Lived

After a brief sabbatical from the blogging world, I am back!  Many great and wonderful things have happened in the past few months.
*I finished reading the Harry Potter series!
*I have started using my monogram machine!
*I semi successfully made my first skirt with an elastic waist!
*I have attempted a few random crafts with my Dad's Cricut!
*I am working a lot of hours at two different jobs!
*I actually started exercising again! Woop!!
*OH! I chopped ALL my hair off! You know, as in Anne Hathaway in Les Mis, short!

I know there is the possibility that I could get a lot of flack for what I have to say in this blog, but, I don't care. 

After years of boycotting the Harry Potter series for the simple fact of it being "the cool thing to do", I finally gave in last April.  I told Derek I would read every book before our one year anniversary....SUCCESS!! YAY me! :-) Derek is a huge HP fan.  Owns all the books...movies....Lego building things....scarf...phone cover...yeah...you get the picture.  I, on the other hand, have been less than eager to jump on the band wagon of a story about a boy who is a wizard.

Let me clarify right now, I fully believe there is witchcraft about this world.  I fully believe that it is an evil act.  I also fully believe this is a piece of literature that is not real nor evil.

Everyone still with me?  Hang on tight, here we go...

The more I read Harry Potter, the more interested I became.  The more interested I became, the more I was in tune to a deeper connection to my heart. 

Harry Potter is an image of Christ.

I know, I know...blasphemer...I know....just hear me out.

We each are created dirty rotten sinners in desperate need of a saviour.  Jesus Christ came full of love to take our rottenness and be the one sacrifice for us.  We deserve the most ugly and awful fate we could never imagine.  Instead, Christ took my ugly fate, made it his own, willingly offered himself for me.

Harry Potter is a boy who fought the evil rottenness which surrounded him.  The "bad guy", Voldemort, represents Satan in human form.  He seeks to devour, steal, and kill.  The fate that awaited humanity was one resembling the dirty rottenness found within Voldemort.  Harry took on this fate and sacrificed himself.  It was out of his love that he became the ultimate sacrifice. 

So, there we go.  There is the briefest of the brief statements I have in regards to this topic. 

What are your thoughts? 

Peanut! Peanut Butter!

 

 

The life of a teacher/runner's wife is full of protein of all kinds.  When Derek tutors, his days run about 9.5 hours.  Add running 5 miles at 4:45 am and 3 miles at 4:30 pm on top of that and I have one tired man on my hands. 

 

He is also a create of habit.  Cheese and sausage for breakfast.  PB&J, pineapple, and chips for lunch.  Grilling and veggies for dinner.  Every.  Day.  How then do I add in some extra healthy protein for him?  Peanut butter.....everywhere....all the time.  A spoonful at breakfast.  A spoonful for dipping his afternoon Kit-Kat in.  Or mixed with Nutella and whip cream for his own special mixture of happiness. 

 

We happened to have a container of peanuts left over from a recipe I never tried so what did we do with it? That's right! Made home made PeAnUt BuTtEr!!!

 

Here's what you will need:

•  Peanuts (any kind! Honey roasted, dry roasted, salted, mixed nuts, etc)
• Food processor
• Oil (veggitable, peanut, olive, any kind will do)
• A container to put the peanut butter in (I used a square Rubbermaid so you can use anything if you don't have a free mason jar)
• A small spatula to scrape the edges of the processor
   

 

 

 

Here are my peanuts!

 

 

I did batches because my food processor is small.

Pour about 1/3 of the peanuts into the processor.

I only have Chop and Grind on mine so I chopped for about 1-2 minutes.

The peanuts become like powder. 

Then Grind for about 4 minutes.  Scrape the sides of the processor to help mix every now and then.

 

You might need to add a teaspoon or two to the peanuts throughout the process. 

Of course, this is completely up to you.  If your butter looks a little dry, add some oil. 

 

Voila! 

 

The more you mix the creamer your peanut butter will become.

 

Of course, Derek had to do a "taste test" throughout the process. 

He found that it was a little bland so we added salt while mixing.  I think that if the peanuts were salted that probably wouldn't have been a problem.

 

 

Peanut butter has become so expensive and it's SO much fun to make things with Derek. 

 

I can't wait for our next adventure! 

Hung by the chimney with care

Christmas is not my most favorite time of the year.  Christmas can be a very difficult time for my family. 

 

I was wrapped around my grandfather's little finger.  I am the only girl born into my dad's family for generations which made me special.  PawPaw adored me.  Hot June and July afternoons were always filled with laying in his lap as he scratched my back and sang Christmas carols to me.  Yep, Christmas carols in June and July! 

 

He loved, and I mean LOVED Christmas.  He was sick for a long time and one Christmas morning he had seen all the Christmases on this earth his frail body would let him.  It is only perfect that the last song he sang me was Bing Crosby's White Christmas that Christmas Eve just hours before he went to be with his Jesus.

 

Time heals hurts.  So does a little Bing Crosby.  And some fabric and a sewing machine. :-)  PawPaw would be GIDDY at seeing this...even if my stocking is lopsided with Alabama hounds tooth.  He would still love it.  This is for him.

 

 

This is what you will need: Fabric, ribbon, rotary knife, backing (optional), sewing machine.

Extras:

1. If you are making a cuff for your stocking, make sure to get a different color/pattern than the main stocking.

2. Each stocking will take about 1/3 of a yard.  I was able to use 1/4 of a yard per stocking because I played with the pattern to get it to fit before cutting it out.

3. Pick your fabric wisely.  Think about what you are using this for....to hang up and put objects in.  I used flannel and an upholstery fabric.

4. Pick your stitch wisely.  Same as above.  You will want your stockings to last and not pucker.  Pick a more complicated stitch that will give you forward, backward, and side stitches. 



 

Okay, let's do this....

Here is the pattern I used Stocking Pattern. Print it out, cut it out, tape it together. 

 

 

This is what the patter looks like put together. 

Leave your fabric folded in half.  You will only trace and cut once with the fabric already on top of each other.

 

 

Pin the outside together before sewing.

**Make sure you are using a size 14 needle and a quilting foot on your machine.  These are thick fabrics that need heavier needles.**

 

Time for the cuff.  With your rotary, cut your cuff 15x9 inches. 

Fold your fabric in half.  It should now be 15x4.5 inches.  Sew the narrow edges together.

 

When picking your ribbon, try to get a wider ribbon.  1inch will do just fine.  Cut strips of ribbon 6-7 inches long and fold in half to create a loop. 

Keep your stockings inside out while you attach the cuff and ribbon. 

Slide the cuff onto the stop of the stocking.  You want all rough edges from the stocking and cuff to be together. 

Slide the ribbon between the top of your cuff and stocking.  You should have one layer of stocking, edges of the ribbon, then 2 layers of cuff (because you folded it, remember).

Pin the ribbon in place.

Sew cuff and ribbon to stocking. 

 

Pull the stocking ride side out.  Fold the cuff over.

Viola! Hang them by the chimney with care for St. Nick to fill with coal. :-)

 

If your stocking does not hang as "stiff" as you would like it, here is a tip --- add backing.  When first cutting out the stocking, add a layer of backing to your stocking before sewing.  You would then have a fabric sandwich. 

 

In the picture, the red hounds tooth are mine and Derek's while the red plaid are Mom's.  I'm pretty excited to be hanging them up this year!!



Homemade Goodness

Wow, it has been WAY  too long since my last blog! Sorry for that but you all know that when life gets busy, Life. Gets. Busy!

Anywho...I know not everyone enjoys sewing and crafting as much as I do so here is an amazing recipe for you who likes a little adventure in the kitchen.

You must be forewarned that this recipe takes a L O N G time to finish, but it is more than worth it in the end.

I love football as much as Derek does, but if I'm not interested in the teams playing I am really not interested in the game.  Thankfully Derek shares my sentiments.  I know there are MANY of you gals and some of you gents out there that are not interested in the slightest.  What is there to do then for the FOUR hours your significant other is enthralled with something on television?  BAKE!

A mom living in Alaska blogged a recipe for Caramel Apple Pull-Apart Bread.  I fell in LOVE.  Derek fell in love.  Our waists got a little wider too.  For those of you watching your figure and looking for healthy foods, this is most definitely not for you. 

The recipe calls for Active Dry Yeast.  If you are anything like me, you are going to search the web for any kind of substitute for this just to keep from going to Wal-Mart to buy some.  Go on.  Cave.  You will not find anything.  Go to the baking aisle of your nearest grocery store and get the jar of Active Dry Yeast.  Trust me, it will be the best $5 you have ever spent.  You will only use 3Teaspoons of the yeast for the entire recipe and have a ton left over.  If you aren't a big bread lover, there are small packets for $1 so you can throw the rest away and not feel bad about it.

I am not a fan of cleaning cooling racks so, instead of taking the loaf out of the pan and putting it on the rack, I left the loaf in the pan, put it on the rack, then poured the caramel glaze on top for it to drip down into the pan.

DELISH! Enjoy both the taste and the smell!

Caramel Apple Pull-Apart Bread

Yield: 1 loaf

Bread recipe adapted from The Craving Chronicles; Glaze recipe from Food.com

Ingredients

For the Dough:
• 2-3/4c all-purpose flour (plus 1/4 cup or more, if needed)
• 1/4c sugar
• 2-1/4t active dry yeast
• 1/2t salt
• 4T butter, melted
• 1/3c milk
• 1/4c warm water
• 1t vanilla extract
• 2 eggs

For the filling:
• 3/4c brown sugar
• 2t cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 3T butter, melted
• 1 large tart apple, peeled, cored, and diced (Golden Delicious or Granny Smith recommended)

For the Caramel Glaze:
• 2T butter
• 1/2c brown sugar
• 2T milk

Instructions

1. To the bowl of a stand-mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine warm water and yeast.
2. In a microwave-safe dish, heat milk and butter together until butter is just melted, but not too hot. Add vanilla.
3. Add flour, sugar, and salt on top of water/yeast mixture in mixing bowl. Turn mixer on low, add eggs, and stream in milk/butter/egg mixture gradually until a soft dough forms. Add flour by the tablespoon until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and forms a ball. Turn mixer up to medium speed and knead 3 minutes. Cover and let rise in a warm place 90 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, in a small bowl mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt for the filling. Set aside. Prepare your apples and melt butter just before the dough is done rising. Grease a standard 9x5 loaf pan.
5. Turn risen dough out onto a floured work surface and roll out into a large rectangle (roughly 12x24 inches, but it doesn't need to be perfect). Dough will be rather thin.
6. Brush dough with melted butter. Sprinkle the entire surface with the cinnamon sugar mixture.
7. Using a pizza wheel, cut dough into equal-sized, long strips. Sprinkle the first strip with 1/6th of the diced apples. Lay the next strip on top of the first strip. Sprinkle with apples and cover with another strip. Repeat until all the strips are stacked on top of each other.
8. Cut the stacked strips into 4-6 equal stacks of squares (about 4-5 inches in size). Stack the squares vertically into prepared loaf pan. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise 30-45 minutes.
9. Preheat oven to 350. Bake the bread on the middle rack of oven 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through (check center for doughiness). If the bread gets too brown on top before it is done cooking in the center, cover loosely with foil for the remainder of cooking time.
10. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the glaze by adding the butter, brown sugar and milk to a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute.
11. Turn loaf out onto a rack with parchment paper underneath it. Drizzle the loaf with the warm caramel glaze.
12. Best enjoyed the same day it is baked

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