A Sunny Spring Day

SPF slathered on Em and Ro to protect pale winter skin while riding bikes, tumbling, skipping, ... in shorts for the first time in a while.

Barefooted crocheting - quickly abandoned for giggling and photographing wee ones silly antics!

Sleepy arms raised from the grass to call out the shapes of the clouds and following the flight of bees on newly blooming trees and shrubs.

A great Spring Tuesday!

A rainy Sunday

It's raining! 

The rain arrived sometime last night and has been steadily coming down all morning.  Right after breakfast, Em and Ro bundled up and went outside.  There are puddles to splash in, the tree house to play in (to observe the rain and watch the birds and... and...) and they are having a blast.  When the get cold, they'll come in for hot chocolate and a towel.  Soon I think.  Maybe in a bit we can head out for an observation walk as well.

I hope you enjoy your Sunday!

Chalk improvisation

Em and Ro's fish Oscar died and we needed to have some cheerful moments after the fishie funeral this afternoon.  By some weird chance, I ran out of sidewalk and forgot to pick some up.  The boys reeeeallllyyy wanted to make a car obstacle course on the concrete outside, so we improvised. 

I grabbed the large roll of painting paper and taped it down on the concrete and took out the other chalk (that stains sidewalks) and let them have at it.  Each embellished their course with rainbows and lava and zombie chickens crossing the road ( ? ) and grassy hills and the races were on!  Two hours later they are still at it.

A nice ending to a sad afternoon I must say.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies With a Kick

So, my latest order from King Arthur Flour arrived last week and I finally got to put one of my new ingredients to good use.  I've had my Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe for forever... they are a staple in our house.  But, everyone has their own version of chocolate chip cookies, so I never posted mine.

This weekend, I made them again, with a bit of a new ingredient and wowie were they yummy!  As you can see from the decadent photos, the cookies are big and perfect for ice cream cookie sammies.  I hope you like them as much as we do!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies With a Kick!

Note:  This is a BIG batch of cookies to match my large KitchenAid mixer.  I typically bake half of the dough and freeze the rest for later to avoid having stale cookies.  Or, you can halve the recipe if you prefer.

Makes about 6 1/2 dozen 3 inch cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 pound (4 sticks) of unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups packed light or dark brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tbsp. plus 1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract (yeah, it's a lot!)
• 4 Large Eggs
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• Heaping 1 tsp. King Arthur Flour's Espresso Powder
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 3 cups chocolate chips
• 1 cup toasted pecans, chopped (optional - but if you do not use, do not increase choc. chips)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, sift flour, espresso powder, salt and baking soda and set aside.
3. In stand mixer, combine butter and sugars until fluffy.
4. Add vanilla and combine.  Add eggs and combine.
5. Add flour mixture in two parts to avoid flour/dust cloud and combine.
6. Add chocolate chips and pecans until just combined.
7. Take heaping tablespoons and plop on cookie sheets about 3 inches apart.
8. If immediately making ice cream sammies (which is pretty darn tasty I must say), take out ice cream.
9. Place cookies in the oven for 6 minutes, turn cookie sheets and bake 5 additional minutes.
10. Let cookies cool 1-2 minutes.  (If not continuing on, place cookies on cooling rack and repeat steps 1-10)
11. Choose two similarly sized cookies to make ice cream sandwiches.  Place cookie face-side down, add ice cream, add 2nd cookie face-side up taking care not to break cookie.  Listen to the oooh's and aaah's of your dessert loving recipients and enjoy!

Spring is on the way

I hope everyone is adjusting to the "Spring Forward" that most Americans are experiencing today.  We've been prepping for Spring both inside and outside this weekend.  A bit of cleaning... well, a lot of cleaning, a bunch of garden planting, breathing in the wonderful air, freshly perfumed from blooming trees.

I have much coming up soon so I hope these fun pics will suffice for now.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

A donut kind of morning

Most weekend mornings, I am the first one up and a warm coffee cake is already baking before Rob and the boys are out of bed.  Some mornings, my brain hits the snooze button and I sleep in 'til 7:30!  This morning was one of those mornings... perfect for a run to our local donut shoppe!

 

Fresh apples and blueberries all around with gobs of cakey, sugary donuts.  Coffee for Rob, tea for me.

 

 

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

Blogs in the works:

• The new grilled chicken recipe I continue to tweak should be up this week
• Remember my marshmallow recipe?  Well, coconut loving Em and Ro have modified it!
• A new crochet pattern
• A new sewing pattern or two
• A blog about soap... Soap is this months project topic on Unplug Your Kids.  You should check it out!