magic and other updates

I finished straining my yogurt.  Won't do that again because the thicker chunks grossed me out.  I don't think it made that huge of a difference.  Ok I shouldn't say I won't do it again, because I probably will at some point, but I need a better system.  The picture below is how much I got for $1.15.  Not too shabby.

I am still waiting on my first shipment of my yarn of the month yarn! I know other  have gotten theirs but I haven't.  I am waiting patiently.  In the mean time I made a square.  I received a book of different patterned stitches for Christmas and decided that in between projects I would make random squares out of leftover and probably new (at some point) Spud and Chloe sweater yarn.  I made Ava's blanket out of it and it has held up beautifully, even through washes and regular use for a couple years.  I think it has great stitch definition and feels nice to use.  This is my square in the sand stitch.  It is really a cream colored yarn.  The lighting was bad and I take all my pictures on my phone.

Here is the picture of a sweater I made for my friend's baby this summer.  Nice to see what it looks like on a baby.  I really liked this yarn and pattern and wouldn't mind making it again.

doughnuts!

So I saw a post on Pioneer Woman's blog about her homemade doughnuts. I got inspired and we had a snow day (means that Justin is working from home since we don't have school or anything yet) so obviously that meant that I should make some doughnuts.

It was a family event. Everybody was running the cut out dough over to the tray before it started to rise. Ava stirred up the glaze and dipped some. Rhys and Justin ate them.

I am so often disappointed when I make things for the first time that I love. I have very high expectations. I don't like cakey doughnuts, so I was a little worried. I knew everybody else would eat them but I wasn't sure I would. Can you see them? Can you see the fluff? The were light. They were fluffy. They were amazing! It was like elephant ears mixed with Krispy Kreme doughnuts. They were bliss.

Some of them got a little messed up because they stuck to the wax paper. They tasted fine though. We will bringing some holes to playgroup tomorrow so be ready. We will definitely be making these again.

By the way, Pioneer Woman takes nice pictures of her food. I use Justin's cell phone to take my pictures.

why do I listen?

Sometimes I think to myself, why do I listen to Justin's advice?  Most of the time I trust his advice.  I think he is wise and knowledgable.  Other times, he really is just making stuff up.  Usually this is in the area of baking.  He won't make pancakes because he says he doesn't know how, and then I listen to him when I am pondering something regarding cooking. 

We have all seen what happened when I went to make cupcakes and realized I had no eggs, so on Justin's advice, substituted 3 eggs with applesauce.  1/2 cup of applesauce per egg....

Yesterday I wanted to make some rice crispy treats, mainly because I had two boxes of rice cereal.  I was planning to stop at the store and get some marshmallows but I thought I would make sure we didn't have any.  We had 3/4's of a bag of rock hard marshmallows.  Here is Justin's latest bit of wisdom. "Those will be perfect for rice crispy treats actually."

I started to know things weren't going well when I couldn't get them to actually melt.  They kind of made a type of taffy.  Ava kept asking what we were making and I just told her, "Rejects."   I put them in the pan and let them cool down.  I cut out a couple pieces to try.  They were still warm and Justin and Ava both ate them.  Later, I went to cut a few pieces to bring to work.  I couldn't get the knife in.  I am not exagerating.

rejects from Little Peepers on Vimeo.

Justin tells me this morning, "They are really hard to saw out of the pan, but all you have to do is microwave them and eat them when they are warm and they are fine."

Learn from my experience, hard marshmallows make hard rice crispy treats.


P.S. Justin, I love you! Thank you for always being willing to try my cooking adventures, even when I use strawberry oatmeal to make meatloaf.

canning

I made some jam. I don't know if it is good or bad. Ava likes it. I don't like jam or jelly, so it is kind of hard for me to judge. It tasted really, really sweet from what I could tell. I then sealed it in canning jars. I enjoyed the whole process. Plus it looks beautiful in the jars. Now that I have my basic canning supplies, I am definitely motivated to do more things. This year we have had a lot of fun going to pick fresh berries and other types of fruit this year, so I am looking forward to perfecting the canning process, gathering some recipes and ideas to be ready for next year.

Do any of you can? What do you make? What do you do with all of it? What do you eat? This is all new to me. I don't want to have shelves full of jars of things that I won't use. Suggestions?