Honey Wheat Beer Bread

Kwille loves beer, I love carbs (too much). Why not put together the two things we love? So that's what we did with our Honey Wheat Beer Bread.

You'll Need:

• 1.5 cups of wheat flour
• 1.5 cups of white flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (melted)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 12 oz. beer (This is where it gets interesting, Kwille likes to bring home different types of beer. I've tried Bud lite, Michelob, Miller lite, Hamm's, Boulevard, but my favorite is PBR (it just cooks really well and has a good flavor))

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine the two flours, sugar, salt, butter and baking powder in a large bowl.

3. Add the beer and stir until completely mixed.

4. Add the honey (I use Pam on my measuring cup to keep the honey from sticking) and mix.
5. Pour batter into bread pan and bake for 60 minutes

This bread is great with soup and chili.

Strawberry Orange Jello Cookies

This past weekend I needed to make a dessert for a baby shower at work. My killer reading and note taking skills caused this very delicious mistake to occur!

You'll Need:

• 3.5 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1.5 cups butter (softened)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 pkg (4 serving size each) of Jello - any flavor - for this I picked orange and strawberry (you're supposed to get two of the same flavor, but that's where I goofed)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream the softened butter and sugar. Add one package of Jello (I added orange) and mix thoroughly. Add egg and vanilla and continue to mix.
3. Add the baking powder and flour gradually to the mixture.

4. On a greased cookie sheet, shape the dough into small mounds. Flatten with a bottom of a glass (I spray Pam on the glass before I flatten - it helps the dough from sticking to the glass).

5. Sprinkle the remaining Jello on the dough (I used Strawberry).
6. Bake for 10-12 min, remove and let cool.

Yields: 3 dozen to 4 dozen cookies depending on your mound size.

With the left over Strawberry Jello, I added it to my morning yogurt to give it some extra flavor.

 

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Over the eleven months that Boone has been a member of our family, I have taken numerous photos of him sleeping or attempting to sleep.  "Why?" you ask, because 1. he's just too darn cute 2. the positions and places he rests in are pretty funny and 3. Kwille has asked me to stop taking pictures of him (Kwille)... (not of him sleeping of course - that would be weird)

9 wks old - in the car on the way home for the first time - I can actually say he's completely comfortable with me... he's sleeping belly up and we've only known each other maybe an hour

After his first trip to the vet - being violated really tuckers him out

Laying in Kwille's lap is priceless

Laying in Kwille's lap at 75lbs - looks like Kwille is paying the price

Moving pillows, blankets or the occasional mom or dad... that's not Boone's style

Boone's absolute favorite position and place to sleep: Mom and Dad's bed. Once we leave the room, he takes over the bed, laying his head on the pillows and if he's cold he some how manages to get under the covers. We are trying to break him of this habit... as you can see we're doing a great job!

Pumpkin Cookies

Since fall is almost here, I thought it was time to make my pumpkin cookies.  This was the perfect morning to do it - Seven o'clock on a Sunday morning, Kwille and Boone are asleep (Boone has taken over my spot in bed by this point), I make some vanilla biscoti coffee and begin one of my favorite fall traditions.

 

You'll Need:

• 1 stick unsalted butter (melted)
• 1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup canned pure pumpkin puree
• 1 tbs pumpkin pie spice
• 1.5 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 2/3 cup flour
• **Surprise Ingredient (optional) - see below

 

Steps:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.  In a large bowl, mix together the melted butter and brown sugar until smooth.

3.  To the sugar/butter mixture, add the eggs, vanilla, pumpkin, pumpkin spice, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix thoroughly.

4.  Fold the flour into the mixture.

5.  On two baking sheets, drop 12 mounds of batter on each sheet.

6.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.

7.  Remove and let cool for a few minutes - **Surprise Ingredient - to each cookie add some freshly grated

     nutmeg (gives a boost of flavor)!

Enjoy!

Makes 24 cookies

R.I.P Chic Apothocary

I recently became the proud owner of an apothocary and couldn't wait to create a spooky halloween scene to go with my fall decorations.

I love Michael's Craft Store, they seem to have the creepiest and cutest decorations for fall.  I usually leave Kwille and Boone at home when I go to Michael's since I end up walking down every aisle looking at everything and filling up my cart. Then I usually change my mind a few times and unload and reload my cart. Funny how you can spend your time coming up with different things, but in the end you return to your first idea.

Matierals:

• Apothocary
• Halloween garland - (black/purple grass)
• Deep purple roses
• Mini Tombstone
• Pillar Candle Holder
• 3 Sparkly spiders

Once I got all of the matierals laid out, I started with the pillar candle holder, since that will hold the tombstone up. Then I began adding my matierals to the apothocary and played with the positions of everything.

Here is the Finished Product:  R.I.P. Chic

Power Plant: 3 out of 10 Sprouts Ain't Too Bad

Well here we are two weeks later and out of the 5 parsley seeds I planted in the Power Plant, only 3 have sprouted and are actually starting to grow. The 5 basil seeds I planted started to sprout... then dried up...then molded.  (Note in the picture: Mold is on the left side of the nutrient sponge)

You may be thinking "this is not a good sign Kwille's wife, you should start over" or "throw the stupid thing away, hydroponics is for fools". Actually this is the best "crop" I've had so far since Kwille got this for me in April.  I'll keep forging ahead and hopefully I will be having a homemade meal with my three sprigs of parsley soon!