October is almost OVER

I wait all year for October.  All year.  Truly.  I know, I know... that's slightly bizarre.  But good things always happen in October.  It's one of the things that I can count on.  Death, taxes and that amazing things happen in October.

This month has been full of happiness and pumpkin patches.  We have eaten pumpkin cupcakes at least three times. Plus, pumpkin cookies.  And maybe even some pumpkin fudge.  Yeah... I should have been running behind the hayride just to burn off all of these pumpkin related calories, but I don't think that's allowed. 

I have so many amazing recipes that I need to share.  Pinterest is a labyrinth of recipes and I have had more explode all over my oven that behave appropriately.  Therefore, I feel the need to share my successes.  I will start tomorrow with my Butterfinger Cookie Bake-off.  Two recipes.  One winner. 

I know.  You can barely stand the suspense, can you?

Try to contain yourself.  And go out and buy some Butterfinger candy bars.  You will thank me later.

Jam Thumbprint Cookies













If you are looking for a cookie that is healthy in any possible way, shape or form, walk away.  Walk away quickly and do not look back, you are looking in the wrong place. These cookies are delightfully rich.  They are perfectly lovely in every way, except if you are contemplating a bathing suit any time in the near future.  Well, that's what they made those ruffled bathing suit bottoms for, yes? 

The ingredients are extremely simple:  butter (3 sticks, room temperature), sugar (1 cup granulated), egg (just one), flour (3-1/4 cup, all-purpose, spooned and leveled) and jam (3/4 cup, any flavor that blows your hair back).  Think you can handle that?  I knew you could. 

First of all, preheat your oven to 350 degrees because I will forget to tell you later.  In a large bowl, beat together the butter and the sugar until your mixture is smooth.  Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Add the egg.  Beat until it is completely combined. Slowly add your flour and mix until just incorporated.  Don't over mix.  Just get it where it is all one happy mixture. 

Now you will need to roll out your dough into about one inch balls.  According to Google, that is about 2 Tablespoons which still really doesn't help me.  I want them smaller than a ping pong ball but bigger than a marble.  That is just how scientific I can get.  I know, you are super impressed.  Place them about 3 inches apart on parchment paper.

Take your thumb and dip it quickly in water so that it won't stick to the dough, and make an indentation in the dough.  You want it about 3/4 of the way down into the ball of dough.  Here is where Martha Stewart and I disagree.  Bake the cookies just like this for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, then remove them.

During the ten minutes that they are in the oven, you need to heat up your jam. (I have used Michigan Sour Cherry Jam and Blackberry Jam, both worked extremely well)  I always do it on the stove, but I am assuming that the microwave would give you the exact same result.  After they have cooked for the first ten minutes, use the end of a wooden spoon to re-indent the cookie.  Yeah, I don't think that's a word. But you know what I mean.  Once the indentation has been reapplied, then add about 1/2 teaspoon of the heated jam. Then, bake the remaining 8-10 minutes.  By doing it this way, you won't have an evaporation line where the jam cooked off for the duration in the oven. 

You want them to be just slightly browned around the very edge.  Once removed from the oven, transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. 

And then you have the most perfect Book Club cookies ever.  They really had nothing at all to do with The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but paired with chai tea and a room full of friends, they truly made for a perfect cozy evening. 

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart.

A New-ish Chapter and Other General Vagueness

Are you ready?  I am going to pretend like I have been posting the whole time without a lapse. And then I am going to make a vague generality while attempting to sound very deep and genius-esque...

I am standing on the edge of a very big change and beginning to really like the way that it feels.

This kid, the daredevil in a blue dress, starts Kindergarten this year.  I won't lie, there will be sadness. Just as there was sadness when each of them left for school and when I ceased to be the one that held their wondering attention for hours upon hours.  After that first day, they came home bursting with stories of new friends and the unending knowledge of their teacher.  I was faced with, "Mom, you know how to spell my spelling words? Are you sure?  Maybe we should check with Mrs. Moore to make sure you are doing it right."

But with Paizlee, it feels different.  She is my last little monster at home.  She is my final attempt at instilling my children with all the goodness in the world before sending her out to get her feelings hurt or having her self-esteem tried upon a daily basis.  Oh, man. I am going to be one huge big ugly mess on the first day of school. In Paizlee's defense, she is braver than all of us put together and she will be more than fine, but I will still be a huge big ugly mess because that is my right as a mother.  That and calling dibs on getting to be first controller for Super Mario Brothers.

So, with all the spare time that I will have on my hands now that I won't have to follow Paizlee around with bubble wrap and bandages, I will get to reshape my days.  Oh, the soap operas and bon bons that will be in my future... oh, wait, that was last year.

I suppose while I am figuring out what next year will look like (especially since I just quit my soul sucking job, gasp!) I will hang out with the monsters.  I am good, no, great with that until I come up with my next genius-esque idea. 

Lessons Learned

We survived Maddux's first year of football. Just in case you are wondering, I did not rush the field or yell anything embarrassing. Shocking, I know. But I did learn a few things...

1. Just because he was the smallest kid on the team did not mean that he couldn't be tough. Please remember that this was the kid dangling from the side view mirror on his first day of Kindergarten because he didn't want to go. He has also been known to cry when someone looks at him weird. This kid was a whole new kid. This was Maddux 2.0. He flattened kids that were a whole head taller. It was *awesome.*

2. Just because he is tough, doesn't mean that I am. I tend to go all mother bear when something is said about my kid. Brad says my mean, outraged face is quite entertaining. At least he thought so until I turned it on him.

3. White football pants have to be the most stupid idea on the face of the planet.

4. Little boys in football pads have to be the cutest thing on the face of the planet.

5. Watching football on television, or even in a stadium is way easier than on a field with ten thousand little kids running around. I spent a lot of time saying, Where did he go? Do you see him? Did he do something good? The fact that they were Cowboys for the first half of the season until their Packers jerseys came in didn't help matters.

6. The dentist will automatically get you in that day when you tell them that your kid knocked his teeth out at football practice.

Never a dull moment at our house. Brad is now trying to convince him to try out wrestling. I can't be concerned with that, I am trying to secure enough bubble wrap for Paizlee to start gymnastics.

Wonderful

Oh, monsters. Today you spilled like a gazillion cheerios across the kitchen floor and then proceeded to stomp on them because they made a cool noise when smashed to dust. You insisted on listening to Selena Gomez on repeat in the car until even I was singing "Love You Like a Love Song" and the lady in front of me in line at Kroger looked at me weird. You hid the remote control before you left for school so that I wouldn't play Mario Kart and beat your high score. You whined, you smelled weird, you begged, pleaded and drove me bonkers. You ganged up on me in an unsuccessful attempt to eat all remaining Halloween candy for dinner.

And then you smiled sweetly. And I remembered just how wonderful you guys are.

Paizlee Brings It

You have met Paizlee. The breaker of bones. The manipulator of parents. She is a force to be reckoned with. One day, she will rule this planet. However, she has a delicate side. I know, you can laugh and shake your head disbelievingly. I get it. I hear you. Maybe it isn't so much a delicate side, but a side that is slightly less let's jump off the deck on top of the neighbor's cat! Her slightly delicate side gets shoved weekly into ballet tights and scuffed tap shoes.

And when I say scuffed, I mean scuffed tap shoes. As in, I do believe that these were once black, but have no remaining vinyl to prove it. She thought that the added reinforcement on the bottom of the tap shoes (the tappy part, duh) would help her accomplish her most pressing goal: climb the tree in the backyard. And to her credit, she did make it to the top of the tree. However, the tap shoes did absolutely nothing to help her return to the ground. She took them off and banged them together until I went searching to determine the cause for all of the noise. Construction workers? Deranged woodpecker? No. 4-year-old stuck up a tree with tap shoes.

When it came time for the recital, or the Paizlee Show as she happily called it, she was ready to wear the cowgirl costume and rock it out. This child has never met a spotlight that she didn't like. She flounced and twirled with the best of them. She moved, gasp, gracefully. She blew kisses to the audience and bowed like any typical girly girl. It was shocking. And endearing. And I may have cried just a little.

Ballet is on summer break until August, so all remnants of graceful have long disappeared. Until dance begins again, we will have to deal with this...

Hell.on.wheels. Literally and figuratively. Love this kid.

Desperately Seeking Sugar?

It is a gazillion degrees at my house. Give or take a few degrees. Regardless, with all of the birthdays and end of the year stuff going on my oven has been working overtime. In case you are desperately seeking sugar, I know where to direct you.

Breuklyn wanted blueberry cupcakes for her birthday, so I adapted this recipe from Martha. I loved the light and fluffy frosting. yum.yum.yum.

I finally jumped on the Whoopie Pie bandwagon with these Raspberry-Lemon Whoopie Pies. The secret to making the cookies similarly shaped is to trace circles on parchment paper and then fill with the dough piped from a bag...

We all know that I can't ever make perfect circles without cheating a little.

Ah, the genius of Bakerella. She made Paizlee's preschool class very, very happy.

Lemon.lemon.lemon.lemon. Need I say more? Glazed Lemon Pound Cake.

These Pineapple Cupcakes with Toasted Coconut Frosting were the absolute hit of Maddux's Kindergarten luau. I think it may have had something to do with the umbrellas, but I can't be certain.

If you happen to see me walking 14 miles to the store along the side of the road somewhere, it's either because I ran out of flour or I am walking off all the sugar. Either way, happy baking!