Homemade Pancakes

I used to use Bisquick for my pancakes before I realized how easy it is to make them yourself. I tried a few recipes online and ended up modifying and combining 2 of them to get the recipe I use now. Saturdays are usually pancakes day in our house and this recipe is a family favorite! The recipe below is for a full batch and I usually half it so I don't have a ton of batter left over. The half recipe makes ~6-7 pancakes using a 1/3 cup measuring cup to pour the batter on the griddle. I find it is perfect for us, but sometimes make the whole batch and freeze the left over pancakes to be popped in the toaster for a quick and easy breakfast.

Pancakes

2 cups All purpose flour

1 tbs baking powder

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

 2 cups milk

1 tbs melted butter

2 eggs (separated)

Combine all of the dry ingredients and mix using a fork.

Add the milk and stir until combined. Add the melted butter and stir again.

Separate your eggs. There have to be a million "tips" for doing this. I find the easiest thing is to crack the egg and pour it into my hand. The white goes through, the yolk is in your hand, you toss it in the batter. Easy Peasy. Just make sure you have clean hands or ewww. After you add the yolks to the batter, stir to combine and get to work on your whites. If you want a little exercise, use your hand whisk. If you are smart, use your hand mixer with the whisk attachment. {Man my arm was tired} Whisk until you have soft peaks, then fold the whites into the batter.

See, only a couple more steps than if I made it from a box and I promise it literally takes 5 minutes. Let the batter stand for 10 minutes while you clean up and get your griddle ready. The whites and the baking powder help the pancakes to be light and fluffy so don't over mix. Use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to pour the pancakes on the griddle. I usually heat the oven to 250 degrees and throw a baking rack in there to keep the pancakes warm while I make them all.

We add all kinds of things to our pancakes. Nate's favorite is blueberries and the hubby like bananas. I like vanilla in my pancakes, Aaron does not. If you do like it, add 1 tsp when you add the milk! On occasion I will toss in some chocolate chips, but if you've met my son, you know he doesn't need any extra help in the hyper department! I hope you enjoy the pancakes! Let me know if you give them a try!

I'm so tired...

...that I hit the snooze button 3 times before I could even fathom opening one eye this morning.

...that I forgot to eat breakfast before I left the house.

...I had to put on makeup so I didn't look like the mugshot version of me at work.

...I put on white socks but am wearing black shoes.

...that I went to the wrong bank to deposit my hubby's business check and by the time I realized it, I was stuck in the drive thru teller line and had to wait for the person in front of me to finish so I could drive through.

...that when the announcer on the radio said, "The situation in Egypt", I thought he was talking about the loser from Jersey Shore.

...I may fall asleep in all one of my 5 meetings today.

UPDATED to add something I just discovered.....

....I put my underwear on inside out.

Kids who wake up 4 times on Sunday night proceeded by the craptastic day that Monday already is suck. Thankyouverymuch!

WTFriday?? - Fido tweets

click on pic to read more about his nonsense

I'm all for social media, but seriously?? Do people really care to know when their dog takes a leak or is licking themselves?? I think not.

Random Ramblings

photo from here

I've had it up to here with this snow. We have had more snow in the past month than the other 4 winters I've lived here combined. Ok I don't really know that for sure, but it feels like it. The only way I will consider stopping my whining is if someone can GUARANTEE we will have an awesome summer. Any psychics out there?

******************************

In 3 days I will have my basement back. Back isn't exactly the right word since I have never really had it. When we bought our house 4 years ago the only way we could afford it was to rent out the in-law apartment in the basement to my, well, in-law. Brother in-law to be exact. It has worked out well over the last four years but he and his girlfriend have decided to move to NY and I'd be lying if I said I'm not ecstatic to have 900 more square feet of space! It's like moving, without all the hassle. Storage, oh the storage, a pantry and I am setting up and official craft room in the next couple of weeks. I promise pics will be coming soon!!

******************************

I am cancelling our cable Fios TV on Monday. I am very excited to save money and not have the boob tube around any more. We will still have Netflix and Hulu for the must sees, but TV watching out of boredom will cease! I don't watch a lot of TV anyway and I am glad to be saving $200 bucks every month! We'll see how I feel about it in a few months!

WTFriday??

Yeahhhh right. I can totally see some guy wearing these. Let alone paying 3 grand for them! ha!

How to trick your toddler

Natey at 7 weeks...

...3 months

...13 months

...20 months

...2 1/2 years

Does anyone notice a trend here?? Yep, the boy has had this green "bankalee" since he was born. I noticed he was becoming attached to it right around a year old. After I got over the hilarity that I, a blankie sucker in my childhood, had birthed a fellow blankie sucker, I realized what I had to do....run immediately to Target and buy more! I had one special blankie when I was growing up. My mom literally had to pry it out of my hands to wash the thing. When a kid sucks on a blanket, it doesn't end up with the freshest smell after 1 or 2 days. My blankie was in tatters by the time my mom finally made me throw it out. I knew if I could get a few of them, I could rotate them without issue. Then a problem arose.

I went to Target and they only had 2 left. One was exactly the same and the other looked the same but had a slightly different texture. I figured he wouldn't notice and bought them anyway. Yeah, he noticed. He completely turned his nose up at replacement bakalee number 3, but number 2 was happily added to the club. I figured we could get away with having 2. He could use one while I washed the other.

Fast forward to age 3 1/2 and we're at his cousin's house (whose mom bought him the first blankie) and she had tried the whole replacement blankie thing too, but her daughter didn't want anything to do with the newcomer. To my surprise it was exactly the same as the 2 blankets that he loves. I figured I could just bring it home and slip it into the rotation. No deal. We even tried to tell him that it was his bankalee that he had left at his cousins a while ago, but he was not having it. I washed it and tried to sneak it in. One sniff of the blanket and he started the protest. Apparently kids who suck on their blankets know their scent. Ewwww.

It was then that I hatched my master plan. I will assimilate this blankie into the rotation without him even realizing it. I started out by washing it several times with his other blankets just to get the other smell out. Then I took it a step further. I took one that was due to be washed and I rolled it up with the impostor blankie. I let it sit like that for a few hours. Then I washed them again. I did this a total of 4 different times. I'm nothing if not persistent. Then I washed all 3 of them together and gave him the new one. He took it like it was his own. Score one point for me!

I guess in a way a child is like a mother cat...you can trick it into loving an impostor if it has the right smell.

Arielle at 14 months

Didn't I just do a 13 month update about you baby girl?

 *sniff*

Well, you are 14 months old now and trucking right along...all except in the hair department. When are you going to get some real hair?? I can put the back into a ponytail, but then you'd look like Ben Franklin or something. Let's work on growing the top of your hair please. Thanks.

You have mastered the closed mouth smoochy kiss. The only problem now is you wanna make out...all.the.time. When you just wake up or I'm putting you to bed you want to practice your pucker by kissing me repeatedly. I crack up and try to offer my cheek for you to plant one (or 12) on but you grab my face and insist on smooching me on the lips. You also get irritated if I don't smooch back.

Your left bottom molar finally made it through. I'd check on the top but you are not all that cooperative with letting my finger or even a toothbrush in your mouth. I'm trying to brush your teeth a lot now but it is a slow going process.

New words this month are eye, eeeer (ear), bath, ba ba, nana (banana) and a few others.

You are into everything lately. I can't take my eyes off you for a minute. The desk in the breezeway is of particular interest to you. I can't baby proof the drawers and you will not stay out of them. You also emptied a box of tissues in 6 seconds flat. I now am locking the bathroom door lest I find you with your hands in the toilet. *shudder*

You can point to my eyes, ears, nose and mouth but will only point to your nose when I ask.

When you are tired and ready for a nap or bed, you will walk to the door of the family room, lay your head down on the step and tell us, "Ni Ni". I wonder if any other babies ask to go to bed.

You still take a bottle in the morning and right before bed. I am going to start the weaning process and try to get you to drink milk with your meals instead. I am not looking forward to this.

You are going to be pissed.

You totally know what phones are and how to use and "talk" on them. I love watching you carrying around our old phone (battery removed) and mommy's lunch box.

You love your brother something fierce! You want to be around him all of the time. I just have to make sure he doesn't "love" you too hard. His "hugs" aren't always the gentlest, but you are a tough cookie.

Your sparkly eyes and squishy faced smile melt me every day. Stay my sweet baby girl always!

Letters of Intent

Dear Tyson,


I was innocently watching a show with my uber-impressionable 3 year old the other night when the new commercial, advertising your chicken nuggets, came on. As I watched each child tell me what they didn't like to eat, I waited for the positive message that I was sure HAD to be coming at the end. You know something along the lines of how we should eat our veggies or try new things. That would have been a good message to send to the kids. Instead the "Ah-ha" moment of your nice little commercial was, since your child doesn't like real, nutritious food, you should just feed them Tyson frozen chicken nuggets instead. I understand that some children are picky eaters. That doesn't mean that parents should give up and feed their kids meals from the freezer every night. Children's palates should be cultivated, not catered to. How are they supposed to learn to appreciate good food if we stop offering it to them?

Now, I know you claim your nuggets are "all natural" and everything, but I seriously have issue with the fact that in 1 serving of your nuggets (6 nuggets) there are 21 grams of fat. That is 32% of the RDA of fat based on a 2,000 calorie diet!! Since my child is 3 and should consume roughly 1,200 calories a day that would be ~53% of his recommended daily intake of fat. Just in case you didn't know, that is actually MORE fat (4 more grams) than there is in a 6 piece Chicken McNuggets from McDonalds, and yours are baked!!!

I'm actually very happy that my son is a wonderful eater and doesn't especially like your frozen nuggets. We eat dinner as a family almost every night and he eats what we eat. He is not allowed to simply look at a food and say he doesn't like it. We live by the 2 bite rule. He has to eat two bites of something before he can decide he doesn't want to eat it. This doesn't mean he won't have to try it again! The next time I serve it, the same 2 bite rule applies. I can count the number of food items on one hand that he doesn't like. If I had just thrown in the towel and offered him nuggets the first time he didn't like something, he may have turned into a picky eater. I'm glad I didn't. You shouldn't tell parents that they should either.

Sincerely,

The mom who will not be buying ANY more Tyson nuggets

   
 
If you have something you want to get off that chest, head on over to Julie's and share it with the group. It's like therapy, only cheaper.

If you can't beat it...

Hi. You might remember me. I'm the owner of this sad blog. This poor neglected space that houses my thoughts and pictures. I could bore you with how busy I've been or the plague that recently ravaged my house, but who cares about my excuses. The important thing is I'm here now. Right? Ahem..I said right?? Ok then.

I'm a California girl. Granted I've lived in this God forsaken lovely state for 5 years now, but I will never be a New Englander. Why you ask? I hate snow. Ok, I don't completely hate it. I just hate driving in it, shoveling it, getting dressed in 800 layers just to go outside in it, getting my squirmy screaming 3yo dressed in 800 layers to play outside in it for 5 minutes, driving in it, the fact that it makes my nose, ears and any other extremity frozen while the rest of my body is sweating from the 800 layers of clothes that I have on, falling on my a$$ onto it, oh and did I mention driving in it?? Yeah, I really do hate it. We have been pummeled with 3 feet of snow since Christmas. I am perfectly content to stay inside in my jammies and watch it fall. I usually have no desire to go out into it intentionally. The inconvenient truth is, I have kids. These kids, being born and hopefully not raised, I can't live in this cold the rest of my life New Englanders are probably going to want to play in this cold white crap from time to time so I finally sucked it up and we took them sledding.

We went to our friend's house in South County. They have a small hill behind their house. It was a good start for this season.

Look at this poor ragamuffin child. I didn't even have the proper gear for her. Those boots belong to a 4 year old and had inserts. She could barely walk in them. She had cut off sweats on over her clothes. Luckily after a quick ride on the toboggan she rode in the baby sled they had and happily sat there the whole time.

 Nate seemed to like it. He is a very lazy sledder. He must get this trait from me. He would get to the bottom and want to be pulled back up to the top.

 He did, however, manage to stay out in the snow for 45 minutes. This is better than his previous 7 minute record. With the time and effort it takes to get this kid dressed I was pleased with the return on investment this time around.

 He rode this thing up and down about 3 times, pushed and pulled by me. I then realized it was defeating the purpose of the sledding. I wanted to go to wear HIM out not me, so I told him no one rides for free and he had to walk back up. He could have stayed like this all day. (Sorry for the random edit thrown it. I am playing with CS5!!)

 Does she ever stop smiling?? The answer, of course, is no. I love my chubby little punkin pie!

It was a nice day. Not too cold. Aaaand, I may even have had a little fun. I also may be stupid enough to try it again this weekend! God help me!