Cupcakes for Two.

I found this on Pinterest. Cupcakes for two! I put baby Walt down for a nap. Ellie and I whipped the treats up. Made the same amount of mess, same amount of dishes, but it was fun! (Baking with children is not usually fun for me.) Elizabeth decided against any frosting and desperately wanted a candle. She requested I sing "Happy New Year" to the tune of the birthday song.

The cupcake tasted awful. I don't recommend the recipe, other than the time spent together. I DO have a recipe for cupcakes that I can recommend.

 Aren't they pretty!? George frosted them for me.

These are White Wedding Cupcakes (another Pinterest find!) I made them with the accompanying buttercream frosting (BEST buttercream I have made, hands down.) Recipe Girl is a site I could get lost on. She has so many fantastic recipes. Check out her Kit Kat Cake! Uhhhhh, hello! Will someone make me that for my birthday, please? (I just asked George. He said yes. <3 )

Defeat.

I am drowning in laundry.

I feel old because I do not understand hashtags.

That is all.

Recipe of the Week - Green Smoothies

I watched Hungry for Change a couple of weeks ago on Netflix. A documentary that I finished and immedietely wanted to Do Better for myself. So I recommend it. Nothing extreme, things we already know. Anything that gets me jazzed up about vegetables is a good tihng in my book. Veggie juicing is stressed at the end. I don't need another appliance, nor do I want to spend money on one. So a juicing machine is out for me. (I totally had it in my Amazon.ca cart and then showed some restraint.) I tried a green smoothie in my Ninja blender and it worked just fine.

Nora's Green Smoothie

1 cucumber (leave peel on if organic)
big handful spinach
big handful kale
1 orange
1 peeled carrot
1 apple
frozen strawberries (or ice if you prefer)
1/2 cup yogurt
water to desired consistency.

That's a lot of veg and fruit, right!? It was a full meal deal for me and my 3 year old.

So, that was just me throwing whatever I had in the fridge into the blender. This is a recipe I found, and here is another. Have fun!

Recipe of the Week - Apple Nonsense

So much better than any other apple recipe, ever. 'Nuf said.

Mom's Apple Nonsense

4 cups thinly sliced apples (Mom says green but I use whatever I have)
3 tbsp butter, divided
1/4 cup hot water
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup ground nuts (filberts preferred but walnuts will do, too)

Place apples in 10" pie plate or shallow dish. Melt one tablespoon of butter in 1/4 cup of hot water. Pour over apples. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Place in 350 degree Fahrenheit oven and prepare batter.
Cream remaining butter with sugar. Beat in eggs. Blend and stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Remove apples from oven and pour batter over evenly. Sprinkle with nuts. Bake 30 minutes or until batter loses shine. Serve with ice cream or a healthy heap of whipped cream. Go back for seconds. While cleaning up kitchen, eat remainder out of dish.

In the Neighbourhood

It was one of those gorgeous Alberta Winter days -- sunshine, blinding white and bright blue sky. George and I bundled up the kids - Walt in the carrier with G and Ellie in the sled pulled by me - and we took Ellie skating for the first time on the rink down the road. We were given a pair of skates for Ellie last year. Little white and pink Bauer's that I figured she wouldn't fit into for at least another few years. It's as if I blink and she grows up a bit more.

So we went. I didn't know what to expect, but the sun was shining and I felt a bit of freedom after being cooped up for a few days of a cold snap.

She was a natural.

We zoomed around until the sun went down. Around 4pm in this neck of the woods. Afterwards we sat at the picnic bench and enjoyed the hot cocoa we had brought along. Baileys in a travel mug for me and George. (Side note: this kind of behaviour seems acceptable until you remember it is no longer Christmas break.) As we sipped away, George looked at me and said that I was really great with her out there. I know my patience has not been at it's best these days, nor my general attitude about life. These hormones people. They do crazy stuff after having a baby. But I enjoyed myself. It was a new adventure for Elizabeth. And I was there, present and really in the moment.



Recipe of the Week - Sour Cream Coffee Cake

If you're anything like me, you buy the large sour cream tub thinking, why yes of course we will use this much for the one time we have tacos. Of course you use one-tenth of it. This is a great, easy recipe to whip up before you have friends popping by for coffee. It doesn't last a day in our house.

Aunt Sharon's Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1/3 cup unsalted butter
2/3 cup gran. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 and 1/4 cups flour
1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup sour cream

1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon (you could easily add 2 tsp)

Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well.
Combine dry ingredients. Stir into wet, alternating with the sour cream. If dough seems too stiff, add some milk.
Pour half into 9x13 pan. Sprinkle half cinnamon mix evenly overtop. Add remaining batter and top with other half of cinnamon mix.
Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes.

Silence

I went to clean. Voluntarily. "No, no, let ME do it!" GIVE ME A MOMENT TO MYSELF. PLEASE.

My three year old joined me. She wanted to help. Well, mommy is cranky and says that she can help as long as no one speaks a word for 5 minutes.

She chattered nonstop for 18 minutes. I timed it.