Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Feast Day

So random of a post...

But this precious, yet at times challenging young girl,

 had sort of a name sake feast celebration.

Our Aliza...which is a spin of Elizabeth

 

In honor of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

We made castle cake.....

Or you could call it sour cream chocolate bundt cake

I used this chocolate glaze

 some of us had seconds....it was delic!

Buttermilk Pancakes

I stopped buying pancake mix at the store.  Pancakes are easy enough, I figure I can just make 'em from scratch - being the Susie homemaker I am!  ha, ha! 

I have pinned a few pancake recipes on pinterest like
this one - anything with cinnamon I am all over!
and this one (kiddos did not love em - little too healthy)
or this one - have not tried - who has pastry flour on hand?  is it necessary for the recipe?

Anyhoo, these were pretty good -basic.  It uses 1/4 cup brown sugar which is a little different.  I never have real buttermilk on hand, so I always cheat with vinegar and skim milk. I am sure buttermilk would make a valuable difference, but I don't want all the extra calories on top of all the syrup we use!

But, the recipe I use most of the time is from the all recipes website.  The recipe actually calls for milk + vinegar - love that!  It is easy peasy and super yummy and fluffy!  Try it!  I sometimes add a little coconut oil to my griddle - very yummo! 

4th of July

We made these festive kabobs

(don't mind the ones with grapes!)

We also made these pretty popsickles. 

Although, next time we must scale them down a bit.

Slightly huge

They were the only size cups I had!

Aliza supporting festive attire

The kids club house has the best lighting,

but she just runs crawls crazy up there!

The whole gang.

Minus 2 kids almost exploding from a firework gone astray

 into our garage, we had a nice day.  It was such a close call, like about a 14 inch call, thank Heaven no one was hurt! 

Rice Krispies Hearts for Divine Mercy

For Divine Mercy Sunday

we made these little gems.

I just love how they turned out!

We will definately plan on these for years to come
on this wonderful Feast Day!

Saint Faustina was a mystic from not so long ago who Our Lord chose to be a special apostle of the Divine Mercy Message.  One little part of her story I chuckle at a bit is how she thought Jesus wanted her to paint the Divine Mercy image herself, but then later figured out someone else could do the painting!
However, we know even as Saint Faustina was dying she was never really pleased with the images the artists had come up with but, we know it is the message that the image portrays is what really matters.  Jesus I trust in You!

Salt Dough Crown of Thorns ~ Ash Wednesday

We made a Crown of Thorns out of a Salt Dough Recipe

It was pretty easy, except we rolled out ropes

 to braid a wee bit long initially,

the kids laughed about how Jesus

 would have to have been a giant to have worn it!

But with a bit of water added, we I redid our ropes for a more appropriate size!

Turned out pretty cool!

Materials:

4 c. flour
1 c. salt
Water
Toothpicks

Directions:
Mix flour and salt. Mix enough water to make a stiff clay. (A little warmth helps dissolve the salt.) Knead until smooth to remove any air bubbles. Roll three long ropes and loosely braid them. Form braid into a circle and stick toothpicks loosely throughout the entire crown.  Bake at 350° F for an hour or until it is dry and light brown.



Fat Tuesday

In an effort to have my kiddos begin to learn

and live out the liturgical year

we made these


I do not think they really understood
the Mardi Gras mask idea.


However, this girl had fun making them!

~Miss Queen of Crafts~

Always fun trying to capture the gang

 in the same picture....

We also made King Cake from this recipe.

(that is Baby Jesus that Evan painted

 incase you did not recognize Him)

Since He is wooden we did not bake Him inside!

Again, trying to get a "good one" of everyone

 in the same picture is easier said than done!

This is about as good as it gets!



Candy Popcorn - White Chocolate & Peppermint!

We made popcorn.

I must admit I was a bit apprehensive.

Peppermint popcorn?

But-

If you have any of these left over



This is a good recipe for Valentine's Day

 

White Chocolate and Peppermint Popcorn:

~ 2 packages white chocolate baking morsels (or 16 oz almond bark)

~ 1 cup finely crushed (like sand) peppermints (about 10-12 candy canes or 40 mints). I recommend using a blender or food processor. (Note: mints will scratch plastic if you do not have glass.)

~ 2-3 bags microwave popcorn or (4 quarts popped popcorn)

Slowly melt white chocolate or almond bark in the microwave. Stir often to keep chocolate from burning. Stir 1/2 cup crushed peppermints into the white chocolate. Place popped corn into a large bowl. Pour melted white chocolate and peppermint mixture over the popcorn. Gently stir to coat popcorn while sprinkling remaining crushed peppermints over the popcorn. 

Pour onto parchment paper and let coating harden!
 

I used

See my big chunks of candy cane.

This pic is BEFORE I got wise and used my blender!

At first I was easy on the candycanes -

(I did not know what it would taste like)

So I only put a few candy canes in a plastic bag and used a rolling pin -

Not fun - lots of holes in the plastic bag, candy pieces flying everywhere!

(So I do recommend a blender - just drag it out, it is worth it)

I did discover

the mintier the better too!

It was really yummy!

This is where I saw the post -

she has better pics!  Seems like her candy canes had more red - prettier that way!

And just for fun!

They have the Valentine Spirit already!

Chocolate Chip Treasure Cookies

OK, I know lent is tomorrow, so not exactly prime time to post a sweet treat! But we made these for a friend today, knowing her she gave up sugar for lent, so she may have to freeze or eat up tonight!
Anyway, these are the best darn cookies on this side of the Mississippi - I am not kidding! This recipe is from Melanie's blog - love her recipes!

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 25-30 squares)
1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cups coconut
2 cups (1 package) semisweet chocolate chips - (I used a tad bit less)
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs, flour and baking powder. In a large bowl, beat sweetened condensed milk and butter until smooth. Add graham cracker crumb mixture; mix well. Stir in coconut, chocolate chips and walnuts. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 9-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

NOTE: I had to bake 1-2 minutes longer and I think it could have used a slight more amount of graham cracker crumbs.

Flaxseed Pancakes

We seem to eat a lot of pancakes around here. I always add flax seed to them so they are "healthy", right?! I have also made buttermilk pancakes from scratch, which are yummy. However, after reading MckMama (yes I check out her blog) I discovered you can throw in some extras and have really really yummy pancakes, even better than homemade buttermilk ones - and you do not have to have buttermilk on hand!

I did not have the exact ingredients that MckMama (yes, her pseudo blog name if you do not already know - I could not make that up) did. So, I improvised with the following:

And they were delicious. At least the kids and I thought so!

I started with 2 cups of store bought pancake mix and about 1/2 cup flax seed. Just mixed in 1 egg, a bit of honey (a little less 1/4 cup), dash of cinnamon, a 1/2 tsp of almond extract, a bit of yogurt (all I had was baby strawberry/banana), about 1 Tbs. of oil, and desired amount of water of consistency.

Really put in whatever sounds good. I never would have tried this myself as I am not much of a cook, but they were pretty good if I do say so myself!

BPA Free Dishes

We have had these little gems for awhile. Any of you moms out there trying to limit your kids exposure to BPA (Bisphenol A) these are a great solution. If you have not heard about the potential health risks to humans that BPA could cause I highly recommend googling it -- I am not trying to be an expert here by any means and I certainly try not to go "overboard" with "everything" as we cannot live in a bubble!! I think a lot of the chemical is released when it is heated - so even more important watch out with baby bottles if you use them!

Anyway, these are from IKEA - BPA free, microwavable (although I don't) and dishwasher safe!! Many of you may already have them!! But if you do not and you do not live near an IKEA - as I do not - someone is genious and selling them on ebay - brand new!! And HONESTLY I have absolutely nothing to do with that! Just glad I was able to purchase them!

Winter Activities

I just liked this picture....such a silly face!

March is my least favorite month of the year...it is long and we have beened teased with some nice weather, yet still mainly cold. Hence winter "activities"...
Banana bread.....this is the BEST banana bread recipe I have had in awhile! At least the kids and I have been quite enjoying it! I know, I know people get tired of banana bread....but this is a "white" version with buttermilk (I had to subsitute my buttermilk with make your own with vineager, even though she says not too - I did, and my mini loafs turned out awesome!!) Anyway the recipe is from http://www.mykitchencafe.blogspot.com/search?q=buttermilk+banana+bread
She has fabulous recipes!

On a bit different note - I am done baking with children for awhile... way too many hands everywhere!
Oh, the craft projects we do around here!! Evan is into "recycling" anything. So sock puppets from daddy's old socks. We had a good time. Then he put on a "show" for me!