Fun Couple of Days

The past two days have been so exciting for the boys and me!

It seems like everyday they grow up more and more which makes it more and more fun to play with them!

So, it has been absolutely GORGEOUS outside so we have been building forts! :)

They have been loving it! Surprisingly able to play and be happy for 1 1/2 hours out there!

Tonight, once I put the boys to bed, I decided to make some delicious chocolatey dessert.

So, here it is::

The Best Cocoa Brownies

( Courtesy of Smitten Kitchen)

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks)  unsalted butter, melted

1 1/4 cups sugar

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs, cold

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup walnut or pecan pieces (optional)

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line the bottom and sides of an 8×8-inch square baking pan with foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides.
Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a bowl. Stir until the the mixture is smooth. (It looks fairly gritty at this point, but don’t fret — it smoothes out once the eggs and flour are added.)

Stir in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until just combined.

 Stir in the nuts, if using. Spread evenly in the lined pan.

Bake until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool completely on a rack.

Lift up the ends of the parchment or foil liner, and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 or 25 squares.

When the recipe says the Best Cocoa Brownies- they mean it!! Holy Ganache!!

TGIF Tomorrow! Looking forward to a relaxing, boring weekend with the hubby and boys!



Possibility of a Normal Life!

I figure after 3 1/2 months of babies ruling my life and my blog, I should probably show you all what else my life entails.

Throughout the entire pregnancy I had NO desire to cook or bake- which those of you who know me is extremely odd. Baking is usually my Life.  Now that the boys are here, I have gotten my energy back Plus More!

I will start working harder at taking pictures and keeping recipes I make so I can post more baking along with the boys ( Can't wait for them to be able to start helping me bake!)

This week I have made a few things::

Brioche Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce

and

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Bread Pudding

( Courtesy of 'Joy of Baking' )

8 - 10 cups of bread cubes, cut into bite sized pieces

Note: Breads to use - French, Broiche, Challah, Croissant, Italian, and/or Panettone. The bread can be fresh or stale and crusts can be left on or removed. You can also use day old scones.

Fruit: (Optional)

1 large peeled and cored apple, diced

1 cup raisins

Custard:

4 large eggs

1 cup granulated white sugar

1 1 /2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

4 cups Milk

 Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Lightly grease with butter, or spray with a non stick vegetable spray, a 9 x 13 x 2 inch (23 x 33 x 5 cm) heatproof baking dish. Place the baking dish into a larger roasting pan that has enough room around its sides to fill with water.

Place the bread cubes and fruit (if using) in the baking dish.

Custard: In an electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the eggs and sugar on high speed until thick and lemon colored (about 4-5 minutes) (when beater is raised the batter will fall back into bowl in a slow ribbon). Beat in the vanilla extract and ground cinnamon. Then beat in the melted and cooled butter and half and half (light cream).

Assemble: Carefully pour (or ladle) the prepared custard over the bread cubes until completely covered. Press down the bread cubes so they are covered with the custard.

Prepare a water bath. (A water bath is used to provide temperature protection for the egg custard.) Carefully pour in enough hot water so that the water is halfway up sides of the 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Bake about 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Another way to judge whether the pudding is fully baked, is to gently press down on the center of the pudding. If any custard comes up to the top, the pudding needs to be baked a little longer. Remove the bread pudding from the water bath and cool slightly before serving.

 Caramel Sauce

Easiest Caramel sauce you will ever make::

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk

1/4 cup 1% Milk

Take paper label off of can. Place in a saucepan. Cover entire can of milk with water.  Place of stove top and turn onto medium/ medium-high heat. Cover pot with lid.  Let water boil for 3 hours (I know it's a long time but worth it!) Just randomly check the pot to make sure the can of milk is still covered with water.

Allow can to cool before opening.--

Pour caramel into bowl, stir in 1% milk to smooth and thin out the caramel.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

(Courtesy of 'Freckles in April' [Adapted slightly from Mel's Kitchen Cafe])

1 3/4 cup flour

3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup oatmeal
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
10 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. Combine dry ingredients and set aside.

Beat butter, sugars, egg and vanilla till light colored and fluffy. Stir in dry ingredients until just incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

Press into a greased 9×13 inch  pan and bake for 18-20 minutes until light golden brown.



I must say it is so much fun staying busy and still having time to try new recipes and eating delicious foods!

I Like To Eat Apples and Bananas.... Or Pears!

What a Big Big day for the boys!!

Well, I guess I should back track a little.  

I forgot to mention that at their Dr. Appt. at 3 months

Blake weighed 13lb. 10oz.

Eli weighed 13lb. 12oz.

I'm pretty impressed with how close their weights have stayed so far!

Yesterday was Mother's Day! My very first Mother's Day! Super exciting!

Saturday, we spent the day with my mom- we visited an Organic Dairy Farm! They boys' first "field trip" and what did they do??....SLEEP the entire time! They weren't the least bit excited about the little piggies or chickens. Ha!

We also went to a Nursery and bought our plants for our garden and Mom bought a few plants for herself and her mom.

That night we put the boys to bed (which was the Easiest ever since they were exhausted!) and we went out and planted our garden!!

We officially have 12 Tomato plants, 8 Bell Pepper plants, 4 Jalapeno plants, Celery, Onion,

Green Beans, and Yellow Squash!! Hopefully we get a TON of salsa made this summer/fall! YUM!

Sunday, we went down to the in-laws house. They have recently been adding on to their house and WOW it's incredible!  Spent the entire day/afternoon with them and it was wonderful!  The boys gave me a Mother's Day gift and took a 3 hour nap at their house so we were able to hang out with them with no kids for a bit!

That brings me to today (Monday).  Yesterday Blake ate 10oz of formula! And kept it all down.  We have been talking about how obviously hungry he is and liquid is just not enough to fill him up anymore. So this morning, we tried out our first adult foods!!

PEARS. 

(I  have been making my own baby food purees and freezing them so right now, I have a massive storage of the basic baby foods, pears,apples,bananas)

Eli took to the Pears great! He ate about 2tsp then took 6oz of Formula

Blake wasn't quite as happy about the switch - he ate 1 tsp of Pears and 7oz of Formula --Blake still seems to have the tongue reflex of pushing things out of his mouth- which is fine! We will just keep slowly working on the baby food :)

An exciting day and the day has just begun!

Happy Monday to All!

Meeting Some Milestones

Well, since turning 3 months, we have accompished a few milestones!

3 months + 1 week - Unfortunately, Mommy got sick. Which means that Blake and Eli were almost sure to get it.  And Yep! Blake started getting a fever on Sunday. Got up to 101 very sad and tired boy. It broke my heart.  Then Monday, Eli started getting a fever. His got up to 100.4 .  It took about 24 hours to break their fevers, after 3 days, they are just down to snotty noses- which I might say is just as yucky as a fever is..

You spend hours rocking, holding, kissing, and cooling off your baby when they are sick.  I never thought seeing them sick would be so hard for me.   I cried and cried.  Thank goodness they are better now!! Happy boys back on their daily schedule = a happy mommy!

Now, just yesterday (May 10th)- Blake woke up crying hard in the middle of the night. I went in to his room, calmed him down and he fell back asleep.  I swear, 15 minutes later, he was crying again! I went into the room again- Blake had totally flipped over onto his back! (we have them sleeping on their tummies).  He obviously didn't know what to do on his back or how to go back to sleep.  Then today, he flipped over again during his morning nap!

Clearly I am going to have to start training both boys to sleep on their backs just as well as they sleep on their tummies.  Otherwise we are looking at ZERO sleep in the upcoming months!

Now we are just waiting for Eli to start rolling over- but until then he is talking up a storm! Makes me smile non-stop!  He has even started pronouncing his 'goo'.   Love my little chatter box :)



Three Months and Survived!!

  Dropping in for an update! We officially made it to their 3 month stage!! I will say, this last week has been HELL getting them to their 3rd month.  

I had heard that the 3 month growth spurt was the worst in their entire first year, and man do I hope it is the worst!   These two boys wanted to be held non-stop (which is impossible with two babies!) they wanted to eat Non-stop and if they weren't eating, they just wanted to sleep!  Which means NO FUN for Mommy!!

So, they jumped up to eating 8-9 oz. at each meal and slept 2-3hours at all 3 naps during the day and were still sleeping all 12 hours straight at night! Crazy week! I'm so glad it's over.

Milestone Updates::



-- 2 months went up to Size 2 Diapers



-- 12 weeks we switched to 6 month clothes

Starting at 12 weeks, Blake started gurgling and blowing bubbles! It is the sweetest noise when I go in their room in the morning and he is cooing and ooing and buzzing his lips as he smiles at me!! :D

And at the same age, Eli started reaching out for toys and grabbing them to play with. He can clearly control his hand movements

Now we are at 13 weeks both are SO SO Close to rolling over! We put them on their bellies and they can almost turn onto their backs.. almost.

And both boys are getting really good at putting weight on their legs when I help them stand up :)

Well, Bed Time for mom!

Good night!