Life on the Road

Nick turned 14, and we haven’t really had a party, but…

We spread out the fun by allowing him to open one present each hour.

We took him to Cici’s for an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet, which is pretty much his idea of nirvana.

And Papa got up to his cake decorating tricks again.  I baked a cake using the same Wonder Woman cake pan we’d used for Jewel’s birthday cake, but he decorated it up as Nick’s bud, Wolverine!

Pretty clever guy, eh? 

It’s hard to believe Nick is 14 and starting High School…  Where does the time go?

During the Knaus Berry Farm season, I’m making dough for cinnamon rolls, cookies, brownies and bread all day long. Then I smell the fresh baked goodness fill the air as they are baking … Yes, I break down and eat some almost every day. Especially when we try a new item.

We spent several weeks working on a new recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies.

We would make some and I would bring them home for the whole family to critique.  We reworked the recipe twice, so we had three different varieties of the cookie, and, of course, I had to bring some home every time.

As we were tasting the product everyone would comment on the cookies having this taste or that taste. It came to our attention that we don’t usually sit and make comments and comparisons about everything else we eat. That’s when we decided we should compare and critique other foods.

I decided to start with chocolate chip cookies.

We went to the grocery store and picked three name brand cookies (Famous Amos, Keebler, and Nabisco) and the store generic. I reminded everyone what flavor we were trying to pick out: a little vanilla, chocolate chips, and lots of sugar.

The family was pretty well in agreement, so I’m just going to share my ratings on a scale of 1 to 5:

Store generic - (0)  Cookie was floury and not very sweet, not many chips and not really good chocolate flavor. Oh, yea, and the cookie was a little over done.  Jewel wouldn’t eat these after a taste.

Famous Amos - (.5)  Not a very sweet cookie, the chips were better, but not enough.  Jewel wouldn’t eat these either.

Keebler - (1)  A little better cookie and good chips.  Jewel ate these, although she clearly preferred…

Nabisco (”Chips Ahoy”) - (4.5)  You could smell the difference when you opened the bag. Very good cookie and chocolatey chocolate chips.  Jewel really enjoyed these.

I really didn’t expect that big of a difference in the name brand products.

…And I have to add that the Knaus Berry Farm cookies have them all beat hands down - even if I do say so myself! 

God bless you all …

Wolf

Last night we FINALLY had Jewel’s birthday party - I caved and did Chuck E.Cheese, since the weather is either too hot to bear and/or thunderstorms all the time. 

I hate that place - so noisy, so overpriced, bleah!  And the kids all go running off to play, so Jewel didn’t really spend time with them - although SHE was perfectly happy with it, as she also went running off to play (with Papa in tow).

We did a “Super Hero” theme (to include the boys), since Jewel is such a Wonder Woman fan.

The stars of the show were Jewel (in her “everyday” version of her WW costume), and the Wonder Woman cake we made for her:

I saw this cake pan on Kristin’s Etsy site, Ropa Vieja, and knew we had to have it.  Later, in looking for decorating details from Wilton, I discovered that it originally came with a plastic face!  Off I went to eBay, and hunted one down with the face and original instruction booklet. 

Anyone want to buy an extra Wonder Woman cake pan?

So I got the pan, accumulated all the decorating equipment we needed, and laid all the plans.  But in the end, between R.T. and not feeling well, it was Wolf who stepped up and made her lovely.  What a guy!

This morning Jewel’s enjoying playing with her Play Doh birthday gifts … who knew a 3 year-old could spend 5 hours doing something?!

Many, many thanks to Nataly of Beeutiful Graphics for the terrific new look over at our fun blog about the Knaus Berry Farm Bakery.

Yes, those are real Knaus Berry Farm cinnamon rolls in the header and next to the titles…  Makes me hungry just reading the blog now! 

Nataly also designed the adorable “Sleepy Cat” theme we use here…

I wonder if I can figure out how to ship some hot baked goods to her, to show my appreciation…

I think Michelle is on to something:  Kids are more willing to eat things they help prepare, and you can use this to your advantage to sneak healthy food into your family menu.

I think I may be outside the optimal kid age window for this, though.  At 13, Nick is not likley to think something is cool just because he helps - his tastes and opinions are already very strong.  And at 2, Jewel’s a little young to do much, or care much… 

Hmmmm…

She also has a lot of fun cooking- and food-related gifts and products on the site, so it’s definately worth a look, regardless of kids’ ages. 

You know, Thanksgiving has come and gone… and I never did stop for Thanks Giving.

Getting up at 4 am to drive Nick to the airport, then spending the holiday with just an exhausted hubby and a cranky two year old just someone didn’t resonate the same way things have in years past.

I did cook a turkey breast, and did candied yams with marshmallows, and Wolf brought home some of the delicious pies and dinner rools from the BerryFarm - so it isn’t that we didn’t do ANYTHING.  I just don’t know that we FELT anything.  Pretty weird…

But I truly am thankful.  God has blessed us so very much - and this aside from the “big picture” gifts, like Jesus! 

• The incredible leading that started with selling our home in Arizona, through 8 months in an RV, through meeting friends in Ohio who led us to this opportunity in Florida…  Wow!
• My husband, my hero always!
• My handsome son, my baby who is becoming a man.  That little shadow of moustache, his voice…  Yikes!  And tomorrow he starts playing his clarinet with the “Cross Winds” group at the main service at our new church home (First Baptist Church of Homestead).  Wow!
• My beautiful Jewel.  She talks so much, and has such a personality!  I treasure the gift that God has given us in having her.
• Baby Blessing.  I thought Nick would be an only child, now he’s going to have TWO siblings!
• Our four rescued kittens, even though they drive me nuts.
• The longevity of our two old lady cats.  I’m just not up to grieving right now, so I am very grateful that they are staying healthy.
• Family and friends, even though most of them are distant.  I’m so happy Wolf’s brother is coming for a short visit in two weeks, and my mom and sister are coming for Christmas!
• A loving midwife practice to help us bring Baby Blessing into the world joyfully.
• The delicious goodies from Knaus Berry Farm! 
• The entire extended Knaus family, and the warm heart of Mr. Herb, in particular, who Jewel adores, and has done so much to help us feel welcome and at home here.

I really could go on, but I think those are the “biggest” ones on my heart right now. 

Any day is a good day for an Attitude of Gratitude!

He’s moved to South Florida.

I have now survived the worst of it … or so they tell me.

Remember the old Dunkin’ Donuts commercial?  You know the one, a guy walking out the door saying, “it’s time to make the donuts”.  By the end of the commercial he meets himself comming in the door while he is going out.

The Thanksgiving holiday week is supposed to be the busiest week for Knaus Berry Farm.  For the past two weeks I have been rising at 4:00 am to start making dough at 5:00.  This makes for a really long day when I drag myself home for dinner at 5:30 pm.  Yep, twelve hour days have been the norm for the past two weeks.

Cinnamon roll after cinnamon roll has gone out the door.  We have been averaging about 10,000 per day.  And that doesn’t include all the dinner rolls and loaves of bread and cookies and brownies and pies.

It wasn’t all work though. I do get Sundays off, and Thanksgiving day of course.  And now - supposedly - we are going to move on to a slightly slower pace.  Everyone says the weekdays are slower, but Saturday is hectic.  The running joke was that Thanksgiving is a week of Saturdays.

So, what else is happening? After the first couple days at the bakery I decided I didn’t want to wear those funny little paper hats — so I buzzed my hair off.  I’m actually starting to get used to it now.  No more worrying about how to style it … BUZZZ … there you go.

And my new wardrobe… Have you ever heard that Einstein wore the same thing every day so he didn’t have to waste time figuring out what to wear?  I now have something in common with one of my heroes. I wear scrubs into work every day.

See how the background is pitch black?  That’s because it’s 4:45 am - the rooster next door has just started crowing, but most sane people consider this the middle of the night. 

I’m here by God’s grace … this proves He has a sense of humor.

This is the second in a series of “Photo Game” themes being posted as part of a contest over at Two Moms in a Blog (go check it out!).

This one is called “See My Name in Lights,” and the challenge was to spell your name out of something around the house. 

Here’s Champion-Photo-Gamer Nick’s creation:

That’s a carrot “N,” cobs of corn and an apple for an “i,” most of one of our famous Buttermilk Pies as “c,” miniature marshmallows in a “k” . . . and Nick! 

I made a wonderful discovery! 

I was trying to think of a way to take some snack foods in the car for Jewel the other day…  I have resisted buying a bunch of overpriced and over-specialized dishes for specific purposes like that, so I didn’t have anything really suitable.

Then I stumbled across the Tupperware spice container set that I bought recently, but haven’t yet filled with spices:

One side of the lid lifts to shake, the other side opens for pouring/spooning - or toddler fingers!  The small size is perfect for M&M’s, the large size is great for Cheerios!  Oh yeah, and I have the rest filled with spices, now, and that’s great, too…  LOL  Nice to know we won’t just be giving them to Goodwill when the princess outgrows them.

 If you want to check them out, just visit http://www.TupperwareBlitz.com and type “spice container” into the search box in the upper right.  (You can order securely online, and Tupperware will ship it right to you!)

P.S. Tupperware is having a great promotion right now for online orders - every 10th customer gets 10% off their order, and every 100th customer gets their entire order FREE!  VERY nice…

No, that doesn’t say “Fast Food that is good” - it says good food that is quick! 

Once upon a time, I made my own meal replacement bars.  When I only had one child, such things seemed possible.  Today?  Not so much.

Sometimes I do eat the commercial bars out there … Zone, Luna, PowerBar, and that sort of thing.  But they’re pretty pricey (over a dollar, even in bulk), and they do have some stuff in them that’s just as well done without.

So I was excited to read about Bizzy Lizzy Bakery’s “Hearty Cookies” (aka “Breakfast Cookies”).

We tried the Hearty Chocolate Chip variety.

I was surprised as soon as I opened the box.  Each cookie is sealed in an individual airtight baggie!  I guess you CAN keep the fresh-baked taste, at least for a little while…

My whole family loved them!  Nick would have eaten a whole bunch of them a la “cookies and milk,” if I hadn’t stopped him to save some for the rest of use.

They’re not just “cookies,” and they deserve more respect than that! 

They taste good enough to be cookies, but they’re full of nutrition, and could actually be a hearty snack.  I wouldn’t call one cookie “breakfast,” even with milk…  But we still eat largely on the bodybuilding schedule of five or six small meals a day., and a cookie and milk makes a perfect mid-meal meal!

The price intimidated me at first:  $24.95 sounds like a lot for some cookies! 

But shipping is included, which would probably add a lot to the back-end, as these babies are heavy!  And most importantly, they aren’t “just cookies” like your average oreo, so that’s not a fair price comparison.  Remember back at the beginning of the post where I said PowerBars were over $1 each, even in bulk…  Well there ya go!  And these are better, too.

There’s also one other magic ingredient that other snack bars don’t have:  they’re made just for you, with love.

“Lizzy” is a real person, and the family business is to make these fresh goodies just for you.  Can’t beat that…

P.S. Aside from their everyday usefulness, I’m going to sock some away in the freezer for those tough days at the end of the pregnancy, with a brand-new baby, and as snacks by the nursing chair!