Butterflies, Princesses & Ponies for the Birthday Girl

We started the glorious morning with delectable kamut pancakes in delightful shapes. I put the pancake batter in a plastic squeezable bottle with a pointed tip (like the ketchup bottles or honey bears). It makes it relatively easy to create detailed shapes such as

a butterfly,

a princess crown,

or an initial.

Shiny butterflies adorned the invitations for the party held in the afternoon. We folded the wings before gluing to help them get their flight on.

Princess attire was the only appropriate form of dress for the occasion.The party started with plenteous carousel rides.
Then we had a royal feast of butterfly-shaped pb&js, and fanciful crudités cut out with cookie cutters.
More carousel riding ensued, followed by butterfly birthday cake (100% whole grain, and DELICIOUS!)

Softened Butter

I often make recipes (like cakes) that call for softened butter. Of course, I rarely plan ahead so I need a way to soften the butter quickly without melting it. My favorite method is to slice the butter into about 1/4 inch slices (1 tablespoon or a little less each). I sometimes turn the oven on for a minute then turn it off, open it and put the plate of sliced butter in the open oven. I leave it there, for a few minutes (with the door still open), and it's ready.

Chocolate Class for Enrichment

I taught a class about chocolate and made a whole bunch of my favorite recipes that use chocolate for everyone to samp. Here are the chocolate kamut cupcakes.

Snow shoeing

I only went once this season. I know, it's shameful. I certainly don't take advantage of the snow like I could. It was fun though...we packed the babies with us. Hopefully I'll go another time or two before the snow disappears.

Felt Crafties

I've been making little felt flowers and attaching them to pins, hair elastics and the like. I'm trying to use up scraps left over from the felt Christmas crafts I did in November.

My mom and sister have been crafting away as well making quite a number of little lovelies. Here are just a few of the first ones we made.

Valentine's Day Goodies / Candy Rings

I got excited about making candy rings and this is my first try. I made some to give as Valentine's Day gifts...shhh, don't tell! First I made some from a traditional hard candy recipe. They worked pretty well. Then I tried some using agave syrup. They also worked pretty well, plus they're much easier on the body. The agave candy doesn't get quite as hard as the traditional hard candy, but it is clear and tastes nice. It's the easiest recipe ever:

Ingredient: agave (as much or as little as you like)

Directions:

1 Heat agave syrup in a saucepan on High until it reaches 330 degrees Farenheit or until the syrup forms a hard ball when dropped in ice water.

2 Pour hot syrup into greased candy molds, or onto a sheet of greased parchment paper or a silicone mat.

3 Let cool for 20 min or until completely cooled, then remove candy from molds and eat! You can dust them with powdered sugar then package in an airtight container to save for later.

Helping Opa plow the snow

Brmmmm, Brrrrrrmmm

Chocolate Cake Recipe

Here is the chocolate cake recipe I make all the time (at least every other month).

Moist and Tender Devil's Food Cake

Regular, or natural, cocoa like Hershey's can be used with good results, though the cakes will bake up a bit drier, redder, and with slightly less chocolate flavor. If you don’t have a standing mixer don’t worry, an electric hand mixer works fine.

Makes three 8-inch cakes

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate , chopped
1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups water (boiling)
1 1/2 cup whole grain kamut flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp table salt
8 ounces unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened, plus extra for greasing pans
1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract { 2 to 3 drops of coffee flavoring can be added to make a deeper chocolate flavor }

( This cake is very light and fluffy, sometimes even crumbly because the kamut has less gluten than wheat. Sometimes I add an extra egg to counter this, although I usually do not add the extra egg and it still works beautifully. )

1. Adjust oven rack to upper- and lower-middle positions; heat oven to 350 degrees. Meanwhile, grease three 8-inch cake pans with butter and line bottom of each pan with parchment paper round. Combine chocolate and cocoa in medium bowl; pour boiling water over and whisk until smooth. Sift together flours, baking soda, and salt onto large sheet parchment or waxed paper; set aside.

2. Place butter in bowl of standing mixer and beat at medium-high speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add brown sugar and beat on high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Stop mixer and scrape down bowl with rubber spatula. Increase speed to medium-high and add eggs one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each addition. Reduce speed to medium; add sour cream and vanilla and beat until combined, about 10 seconds. Stop mixer and scrape down bowl. With mixer on low, add about one third of flour mixture, followed by about one half of chocolate mixture. Repeat, ending with flour mixture; beat until just combined, about 15 seconds. Do not overbeat. Remove bowl from mixer; scrape bottom and sides of bowl with rubber spatula and mix gently to thoroughly combine.

3. Divide batter evenly among cake pans, smooth batter to edges of pan with rubber spatula. If baking three 8-inch cakes, place two pans on lower-middle rack and one on upper-middle rack. Bake until skewer inserted in center comes out clean, 20 to 23 minutes for 8-inch cakes (My cake pans are pretty heavy duty and actually require a longer cooking time by at least 5 minutes, sometimes more. Start checking at this point though). Cool on wire rack 15 to 20 minutes. Run knife around pan perimeter to loosen. Invert cakes onto large plate; peel off parchment, and reinvert onto lightly greased rack. Cool completely before icing.

How a foodie family does Sunday dinner

Family dinner with the Blackies is a major affair. We usually arrive around 5 to 5:30. Janet has usually already decorated the dining room. She'll often decorate to follow the theme for the day. This one is Easter dinner 2008.

Everyone snacks a bit either on appertizers someone has prepared, or a dish that get finished before the rest. This time Janet had made a bread bunny, with dip in the belly and veggies all around. Note the darling radish mice!
Sometimes we bring our dishes already made, but there is often still work to do to get the meal ready. The finished serving plates are moved to the dining room.

Everyone dishes up and we eat. Sometimes we don't all get to sit down at the same time. If everything isn't ready simultaneously we go in and out, and eat as we go, but this time we made it all together.I don't know how many recipes we made for this Easter dinner, but we've been known to have up to 27 recipes created for one meal (although it's usually closer to 7 recipes per meal). We've eaten a lot of delicious things this last year since the tradition got started. Thanks to Bridgette for helping get us started on a fun family event. Although we've always gotten together to eat over the years, about a year ago Bridgette started talking about doing themed meals and bringing her multitudinous cookbooks and recipes resources to family dinners to get us all on board. It didn't take long, as everyone is into food around here. Thanks to Janet for the great setting, the fun space and fun toys for the kids to play with while all the adult foodies revel in food fun, and thanks to her for her good spirits and patience in the midst of the chaos. Thanks to Donny for being a great "dish monster". And lastly, thanks to everyone else for all the amazing food, and fun times.

Hide and Seek

This little boy's favorite hiding spot is in the small space between the piano, the couch, and the side tables in the corner of the living room.