Whoopie Pie

Lauren and I made Whoopie pies- pretty easy to make and Oh so fun!

Recipe:
Devil's food cake- I have a  recipe from Jeff's grandma that is my personal favorite (modified for Lauren's allergies). Of course you could make this from a box mix as well. I messed up and substituted too many "eggs" with flax and they turned out totally fine.

Spray a cookie sheet or baking stone with non-stick spray. Take a tablespoon of batter and drop it on the sheet, then spead it into a round shape mound with the back of the spoon. The more uniform in shape and size your mounds turn out, the easier the next part will be. My recipe made 24 mounds (12 pies). Bake about 12-15 minutes until the spring back when touched and a toothpick comes out clean. (my baking times are not that accurate- since I make so many substitutions and bake at altitude- just check yours and figure out your own times). Allow to cool on the baking stone for a few minutes then transefer carefully to a cooling rack. I allowed them to cool completely while Lauren napped. If they are not cool enough, I imagine frosting will be a mess.
Next, flip over half of the pie pieces and drop about a tablespoon of frosting in the middle, and spread it out with a knife almost to the edges. I used jar frosting because it is dairy-free and  I have not perfected this one yet.  Match each "bottom" with a similar sized top and press together until the frosting oozes all the way to the edges. Lauren loved helping with this part. It got messy, but who cares?
Final step- put sprinkles in a bowl and roll the sides of the pies until the frosting was coated in sprinkles. This part was all Lauren- she did a great job!
Viola! Ready to eat! I stored them in a tightly sealed tupperware, if you refrigerate them remember to warm to room temp prior to eating - the frosting is better when it is melty and not too stiff.

Life is all about licking the bowl....

Stop and enjoy the simple pleasures in life....

Hiking

We took a family hike for Jeff's birthday- Lauren called it camping. That works!

Salsa Garden

Our garden consists mainly of salsa ingredients. We grow GALLONs of tomatoes, and way too many peppers. There was basil, but I could hardly get at it since the tomatoes got so big. Yummers!

Recipe:
Tomatoes- LOTS of them. Hand chopped, please.
1 bunch winter onions
1 onion chopped.
Jalapenos- many if you can handle the heat.
1 bunch fresh cilantro
2-3 limes squeezed for the juice
2-3 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp vinegar
1 tsp salt.

Peach Tart (pop tart?)

Jeff isn't a big cake fan- so for his birthday Lauren and I made him a peach tart with the tasting Colorado peaches that we got at the farmers market. She is always a big help and today was no exception. While it was baking we watched it in the oven and she kept calling it a pop-tart. Really child? I peeled and sliced all of those peaches and I get the credit of a pop tart?? I went light on the sugar because I like it a bit sour, Jeff was a fan and Lauren had a shudder that reminded me of her baby days eating fresh peaches- too cute!
I forgot to take a picture - it turned out cute!
Happy Birthday Jeff! He turned the BIG 4-0!! Our celebration was of course low-key. I had thoughts of planning a bash to surprise him, but following repeated warnings to do no such thing, I abided and we went to dinner together as a family. Just for the record- I do NOT like to celebrate low key. When I turn 40, I want a big ole stink made about it.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I did it! My first attempt at dairy-free, egg-free chocolate chip cookies, and they are delicious. I found some dairy-free chocolate chunks at target, and away we went. Jeff and I baked them together after Lauren went to bed- yummy! Here is my recipe, adapted from the toll-house recipe and adjusted for high altitude and food allergies:
Chocolate Chip Cookies at 5280 feet, dairy-free and egg-free

2 1/2 c flour (2 1/4 c at sealevel)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c shortening
2/3 c sugar (3/4 c at sealevel)
2/3 c brown sugar (3/4 c flatlanders)
2 Tbsp milled flaxseed
6 Tbsp water
12 oz dairy-free chocolate chips or chunks

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Combine first 3 dry ingredients and set aside.
3. Using mixer, cream together the shortening and both types of sugar. Then add the flax and water.
4. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients until well blended.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips.
6. Form into round little balls with your hands, and arrange on a baking sheet. ( rolling them makes perfect round cookies).
7. Bake 10-15 minutes, I sometimes need to bake even longer. The flax seems to make them take longer than with eggs. Once my baking stones warm up, they bake a lot faster, the first batch was almost 20 minutes.
8. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy with a glass of soy milk!

Sick!

Casey has a urinary tract infection and started antibiotics yesterday. Lauren has had a cold for 2 weeks and her cough started to sound pretty scary the last couple days. Today it is really bad, so we went to the pediatrician. She has mycoplasma pneumonia- walking pneumonia, so now she is on antibiotics too! Both of them dont really seem too sick - other than Lauren's horrendous sounding cough (the singing movie was taken last night, if that is any indication of her "illness")- but MAN! For a family who tries to never take medication, we are going through some drugs this week!

My American Idol

The girl loves to sing and dance- what can I say?

Zoo Trip

The zoo is about 10 minutes from our house, and we bought a family membership this summer- great investment! Some random cute shots of Lauren. (Seriously- could she be any cuter???)

Waiting at the Vet....

Aren't they cute? We found out poor Casey will need surgery again for his bladder stones..... poor little buddy...

Dinger

they both have their belly sticking out under their shirts!

The Joint Commission

The Joint Commision is in the joint. They are the major accrediting body for hospitals and they strike fear in the hearts of healthcare workers all around. Our survey started today and I already spent some quality time with the surveyors. It is kinda like the FBI and the IRS spending a week at your home and asking a million questions.... i have a headache.....

Birthday Parties!

Lauren was invited to a 3rd birthday party at "Pump it Up" which is a place filled with jumping castles and slides and such. What a blast! They ended the party with pizza, cupcakes and ice cream- all of which she could not eat. I brought her a Cliff kids bar and a dairy/egg-free cupcake and she was fine with it.  She is still talking about Garrett's birthday party...

Taste of Colorado

Although we always work on Labor Day weekend, we try to make it down to the Taste of Colorado. On Friday afternoon Lauren and I walked down there and waited for daddy to meet up with us. He never made it (ended up working till after I was in bed) but we had a blast- it was dead and we hit all of the kid stuff. She made crafts, watched puppet shows, ate corn on the cob and played at the lego-land.  This was also where she rode in the hamster ball thing. We had hoped to ride the rides, but they didn't start until Saturday. On Monday we headed back down there after Jeff got off work and tried again. All of the fun rides had ridiculous height restrictions and she could only ride the (overpriced) kiddie rides. She had a blast! She also played carnival games and won a stuffed frog and a turtle.

so serious...

Thelma and Louise
Lauren and Evelyn became fast friends while driving a Hummer

Candy Apple
Didnt know what this was, but she loved it. Not too many dairy-free options to choose from, this seemed the healthier fair food option versus cotton candy. It is an apple dipped in cherry lollipop- a big hit with a 2 year old.

TGIF

Knuffle Bunny

Knuffle Bunny is another fantastic children's book by Mo Willems - I cannot remember who recommended it - maybe Catherine or Krista? Somewhere, someone recommended this and I say THANK YOU! The pictures are cute- real sepia photographs of what appears to be NYC with colorful cartoon characters drawn on top. Lauren loves the pictures and thinks that the people live in a castle (brownstones in NYC with bars on the windows- she cracks me up!) The story is about a little girl named Trixie who cannot talk yet, and she goes on an errand with her daddy. They forget her stuffed bunny at the Landromat, and she attempts to communicate this with her daddy, but he has no clue. In an attempt to get him to go back, she turns "boneless" - I burst out laughing when I read this- so true! Don't all kids do that, turn floppy so you cannot make them come with you? Anyway, as soon as they get home Trixie's mom immediately knows what the problem is (also so true) and Trixie gives her dad the "I told you so" look. Lauren always makes me read the story 2 or 3 times in a row, and this is actually a book I don't mind reading over and over- it makes me laugh too. Also, the pigeon appears in each of Mo Willems' books- and this is no exception- we love to find him and point him out!

The Help

I recently finished this book, seems like everyone is reading it and I am not one to be left out on such things. Quite intriguing, and I really liked it. Didn't love it, maybe it was all the hype- maybe it just needs to marinate in my mind. But, certainly worth picking up for a quick read. If you are planning on seeing the movie, I always recommend reading the book first- I find the characters I create in my mind are more exciting and vivid than the characters in a movie- if you watched it before reading the book I suspect you would loose all that.

The story is about the lives and complex relationships between black women who work as maids for white women in Jacksonville in the 1960's. It is thought provoking, and relatively light-hearted although it deals with some difficult topics such as racism and class divisions in society. I would be interested in hearing what you all thought of this book (since everyone is reading it, I am guessing you have too!!)

Sometimes I blog.....sometimes I dont

We are well here, having a great summer! I have lots to post and talk about, just too busy living it so it may never happen. I am not a committed blogger, it seems. I post when I want to- and lately I haven't had the urge. Sorry to cut you off- guess we will have to revert back to the good old world of talking...............

Hamster Ball- youtube version

This is the youtube version (see post below). For me, this is the one that displays/ plays the best- please leave a comment and let me know which one works best for your. I have to dump a bunch of video off my phone, and plan to post some more.

Hamster Ball

Lauren at a festival this weekend- she wanted to try this so bad, and I thought she was too little and would be scared. Man, was I wrong! I am going to try to post this two different ways- this is the blogger version. I am going to post the same video with a youtube link. My feeling is that youtube is the best way, but please leave me feedback about which method of posting video is the easiest for you to see.