Delish

Lately I've been a bit obsessed with pinterest.com, it's a way to catalogue all the things online that I like. Recipes being one of them. I found this recipe for S'mores cookies and they are delish.

They are from lovintheoven.com
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.
Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over dough. 2 king-sized Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick. Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together).
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

*I doubled the batch, and made them on a cookie sheet. I also only cooked them for 25 minutes. I'm not sure if because I doubled it and used a bigger pan it cooked faster, or what. But they were GOOD! For doubling the batch, I bought 2 jars of marshmallow creme, and use 9 regular size candy bars.

Granola Bars

I work in an autism class and we do cooking every week. A few weeks ago we made homemade granola bars and they were so good! I add a few things to mine, some flax seed in the mix and then I drizzled melting chocolate, because I know my kids would not think it was a granola bar without chocolate. The dried fruit I added was currants. As a kid, my grandma would put on tea parties for myself and my cousins and we would always have currants. They bring back so many memories.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces old-fashioned rolled oats, about 2 cups
• 1 1/2 ounces raw sunflower seeds, about 1/2 cup
• 3 ounces sliced almonds, about 1 cup
• 1 1/2 ounces wheat germ, about 1/2 cup
• 6 ounces honey, about 1/2 cup
• 1 3/4 ounces dark brown sugar, about 1/4 cup packed
• 1-ounce unsalted butter, plus extra for pan
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 6 1/2 ounces chopped dried fruit, any combination of apricots, cherries or blueberries

Directions

Butter a 9 by 9-inch glass baking dish and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread the oats, sunflower seeds, almonds, and wheat germ onto a half-sheet pan. Place in the oven and toast for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In the meantime, combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, extract and salt in a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook until the brown sugar has completely dissolved.

Once the oat mixture is done, remove it from the oven and reduce the heat to 300 degrees F. Immediately add the oat mixture to the liquid mixture, add the dried fruit, and stir to combine. Turn mixture out into the prepared baking dish and press down, evenly distributing the mixture in the dish and place in the oven to bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares and store in an airtight container for up to a week.

*The next time I make them, I think I would toast the oat mix for a less amount of time and cook them less in the end. They came out pretty firm.

Bring Your Pirate to Work Day

Ian's work has been celebrating their nursing staff all week with different theme days and activities. Today was "pirate day," so we thought we'd make an appearance. Addi's best "arghh!"
Bubbs. They kids have been looking forward to this for the past week as I have been putting together their costumes. I made two pirate costumes for $7. Not bad! I found the pattern for the vest on dana-made-it.com. I simplified the vest, it's just made out of felt, I didn't even finish the edges. And the hats and eye patch are made out of craft foam.
The kids love the gardens, probably because we don't have a yard. It's one of their favorite parts of going to daddy's work.

Lipstick Jungle

I put Von down for a nap on Monday. He decided instead to take everything out from under the vanity in their room and give himself a makeover.
He was so embarrassed when I caught him, these were the best pictures I could get.

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, Ian gave me a kid free day! On Saturday, we drove down to Carlsbad and met up with Jaime and Dan and the kids. The guys took all four kids ages 5, 4, 2, and 6 months to Legoland ALL DAY. They were there when it opened at 10 and didn't leave until it closed at 5 and said the kids did great. Jaime and I had a fabulous day shopping sans kids. Thank you thank you Ian for a great day. So, on Sunday we had a mellow day. We went to church and ended our day going to the beach to watch the sunset. It was SO windy. We actually didn't make it all the way until the sunset, but watched it as we drove down PCH. I love living by the beach.

Easter Morning

I know the lighting in this picture is horrible, but this is such a typical sight we see I had to post it. Von and his Boo Boo. He is either chewing on it, smelling it, or dragging it from room to room all day long.
Addi and her basket. The kids were so excited, it was like Christmas morning all over again (not quite). Ian actually did all of the shopping for their baskets. He did a great job picking out special things he knew they would each love. Von got stuffed Mario and Luigi dolls. Ian and the kids at night will play video games together, one of which is some sort of Super Mario game, which is Von's favorite. He constantly asks for, "Mario! Mario, Daddy!"
The hunt.
And the loot...again.
I only managed to get a picture of Addi in her easter attire. Our pretty girl.

Twins?