Mardi Gras...

I volunteered to bake for Mardi Gras at home for a not a particular reason. What did I just did, Yes, I googled what is Mardi Gras meant. (Ha… ha… good start…) I guess you learn something new every day. Well with the history of Mardi Gras festival and a recipe from Food Network I head to the Kitchen. This is the most complicated recipe I have ever worked on. You have to bake it with a plastic baby inside, I am concerned that it might melt some have the same opinion other say its fine to bake with the baby I guess the Louisiana way.
Then I decided to read the reviews as you can see I have not been doing my homework, started to read as I go down the ingredient list this is a whole mess…
The whole process takes 12 ½ half hours just to make the darn cake no wonder it called the KING CAKE in Louisiana and they do need a day off in order to make this. Now it makes sense why it’s celebrated only in Louisiana ha… ha…
According to the legend… who ever finds the baby/ bead has been blessed with luck,gets to be crowned as King/Queen also the privilege to bake the cake following year. This is practice in some parts of the Louisiana state…

I am bit frustrated with this recipe… I started to pay attention to the details half way through my mistake.

Well it’s lunch time need to get lunch ready for kids, my older one is celebrating the President’s Day during this whole week at home double the FUN!
Here is the link to this recipe.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/search/delegate.do?fnSearchString=king+cake&fnSearchType=recipe

If any of you have any bright ideas how to make this or opinions please feel free to post them…
By the way this baking continued till Tuesday… but I am glad it is done…

Addiction...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I have to admit, I am now officially addicted to knitting hats can’t wait to discover the beauty of knitting baby sweaters… I know eventually I will get there. Any way after posting the first smile box of all the hats I have been busy knitting, went back to my needles to knit some more hats. I finally thought I will post another smile box of my baby knitted hats. So here we go again with my second smile box of baby hats.

I have slow down a little bit now but I feel like I want to learn something new every day so I always run to my knitting needles. I don’t think I have ever wasted 50% coupons from the local craft store I am there all the time hitting sales to get the best deals with needles and yarn.

Now I like to upgrade my yarn but it can get so expensive I guess the labor and quality speaks value. I am surfing the net to get better deals with quality yarn all the time. I guess some interest can get very expensive…

I still think this is better and keeps me occupy all the time by making that statement I have to admit my daughter has more hats than anyone else in this block. Well her head and ears were very warm this winter of 2009 and so as my older one…

I am slowly venturing to knit boys hats specially TEENAGE did you notice the capitalization… being a teenage a is different than being a parent of a teenager I don’t know how my parent’s handle me but this is for me a certainly a learning curve… I would say… attitude… language… respect… responsibilities… commitments…. I don’t know where to stop… I can type up a never ending list but I am doing the best I can.
All I can say I work hard to raise a responsible, law abiding, loving & kind citizen… I don’t think I am demanding too much… K, enough of that… Silence is a refuge and a teacher in some occasions ha… ha…

Enjoy!

Monkey Bars

Baking… Baking… Baking Monday… I really didn’t feel like baking today but we don’t have anything to munch. Since I finish my Poncho & a Hat project I wanted to take it easy because I have a kind of a sick one at home under the weather… But I lifted my lazy hinny and drag it to the kitchen to make Monkey Bars seriously monkey bars…
Everyone love monkey Bars and the bananas are rotten enough to make them if I keep them some more it is going to be disgusting to handle. So I decided to post the recipes if someone interested to make them have fun and enjoy! Because they are super easy to make… don’t have to throw away your bad bananas…

Ingredients
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for preparing the pan
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 very ripe bananas, peeled, and mashed with a fork (about 1 cup)
• 1/2 cup toasted walnut pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon of orange essence (optional) This really add a kick to this
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (why not)

Directions

Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl, set aside. Whisk the eggs and vanilla together in a liquid measuring cup with a spout, set aside. Lightly brush a mini muffin pan or a 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan with butter. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually pour the egg mixture into the butter while mixing until incorporated. Add the bananas (if you like texture add them last)

With a rubber spatula, mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Fold in the nuts and transfer the batter to the prepared pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes mini muffin pan or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.
Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. I sometimes use sheet pan in this way you could cut bars and also makes a batch of mini muffins great snack for little ones.

Poncho & a Hat

I wanted to make this Poncho because I was inspired by a Mom at the Library. So I went all the nine yards to make this one. I bought the fleece and cut a hole started to stitch using the blanket stitch. Then I wanted to make yo-yo’s and add it to this project. I kept stretching my ability to create.
Initially I just wanted to make the Poncho, since I take my little one thrice a week to local library to story time it’s been a hassle to get her in and out of her jacket four times a day including the drop off her big brother at school.
Of course I loved her fleece Poncho idea. It took couple of days but I also knitted a hat to go with it and incorporated some fun fabric ideas. Yes, I am a mixing media gal; I used tulle, button and fabric with this hat. I loved it!
Hope whoever takes a peak on this blog would like this project.

I found that I am a schedule oriented person, so I decided to plan my week the best I can. So Monday is my baking day, this way we have something to munch on everyday of the week. Also it is my knitting day. Today my buddy called off, so I decided to blog a little about my day.

I can hear the oven beep it’s giving me the heads up I have 1 minute,I might have to stop this half way and attend to it …

Today I made a spinach, artichoke, bacon & feta, quiche, and 2 lemon tarts… Yes my little one was busy in and out of the kitchen trying all the ingredients. They both love lemons… nothing can go wrong with lemon in our house…

This was my first time making a spinach quiche so I change the ingredients a little bit add and remove things to my pleasure. I am getting much confidence in changing ingredients in recipes and thinking outside the box.
All I did was make the basic dough and whip eggs with milk 2% and add cheese. Of course I sautéed the garlic, leek, spinach, and artichoke (which I have come to like very much now). Also add some feta on top.

Now let me write about these lemon tarts. This is so easy to make if you are a tart person, it only requires a basic tart recipe, lemons, sugar, eggs and lemon zest it is so easy to make. If you are missing Mr. Sun this is a good one to enjoy specially the cold boring winter days. It really add a zest to our home…
Hope you enjoy reading this…