Homemade Buttermilk Bread

I enjoy baking and decided I should venture into the realm of sandwich bread.  Ok, to be honest, I also had some buttermilk that I needed to use up!  This recipe is SO simple and the results were amazing.

I used the Cooks Illustrated Buttermilk Sandwich Bread recipe.  It involves dumping your ingredients in the standing mixer and letting the machine do the kneading for ten minutes.  Then you let it rise twice and bake.  Total time is about three hours, but it is mostly hands-off.

The bread smells fabulous while baking and once it cools, the bread has a nice texture and crumb.  Great for making sandwiches.  If you plan to sneak a slice before it cools completely,  cut carefully.  The bread is delicate while warm and will squash into a funny shape. Ask me how I know....

Bento SCORE!

The kids needed new lunch boxes.  The sandwich size boxes and two-tier boxes no longer hold enough food to fill them up.  These are growing kids!  I have been searching and searching for a good replacement.   Laptop Lunchboxes and LunchBots have been high on my "coveted" list.

Last week, I almost broke down!  I had a shopping cart ready to go with a Laptop Lunchbox system for each kid..to the tune of $60+ !!  For some reason, I couldn't pull the trigger.  The very next day, I went garage sale-ing and SCORE!

That's right, a BRAND NEW laptop lunchbox set plus two Buddie add-on sets and a napkin.  The mom said her kids did not like the sets!  I paid $2 for everything in this photo!!!  TWO DOLLARS!  I was beyond thrilled!   I also scored four brand new (tags still on!) wide-mouth lunch thermos for $3 from the same lady.  Talk about a bargain shopping high!

It gets better though!  I went to a church rummage sale yesterday and found ANOTHER blue Laptop Lunchbox system for $1.  This one was used and was missing a small inner container, but who cares?  I have plenty of spare inner containers and now I have two outer containers.  $60 plus worth of lunch boxes for $3.  So great!!

First Day of School

The First Day of School!

I wasn't really prepared to make fancy lunches.  There were forms to fill out, backpacks to pack, school supplies to purchase...lunch was at the end of the list.  I did manage something nice though.

M had a sandwich stamped  "first grade" and "I love you". She also had cut fruit and a yogurt (not pictured)

W had stamped McQueen and Finn McMissile sandwiches along with cut fruit and a Mater pick.  He too had a yogurt.

Scones!

A friend suggested the Cheese Board Collective cookbook to me.  The recipes are AWESOME!  I have made the scones numerous times now.  I cut the scones in half  before baking to make 24 small scones.  They are delicious and satisfying.

Chocolate Chip Scones and plain scones awaiting a maple icing drizzle.

Mars Birthday!

Mars Rover Curiosity was scheduled to land the day after my birthday.  I showed my kids the Seven Minutes of Terror video.  They were fascinated and intrigued.  Both kids wanted to know more about Mars, space and the planets.

W kept associating the landing of Curiosity with my birthday.  He would come up to me with great anticipation and say "Mom, are you ready for your MARS BIRTHDAY?!?"

Clearly, I had to make a Mars Rover Curiosity cake to celebrate my big day.

I used the same Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake that I used for W's birthday.   I tinted the leftover Magnolia Bakery frosting and used extra chocolate rocks too!  (talk about frugal!)   We happened to have a little rover toy that W got from the Children's Discovery Museum.  It worked perfectly on the cake.  M took care of the flag and awesome alien!

Overall, it was a great cake!  This time there were even leftovers for me to enjoy the next day!

Construction Party!

My boy turned four!  He wanted a Construction Party.  In addition to filling our back yard with tons of cardboard boxes to paint, 200 lbs of sand to dig in and numerous other construction related activities, I baked a cake.

This was one of the easiest cakes I have ever decorated.  The theme was CONSTRUCTION, people.  It didn't matter if the cake stuck to the pan or broke, it was going to be demolished anyways!

I used Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake recipe with icing for the cake.  I also made cupcakes using Magnolia Bakery's Vanilla Birthday Cake and Frosting.   The cake was a huge success and VERY tasty.  There were no leftovers. I highly recommend the Hershey's recipe.

The sand is pulverized Nilla wafers with two Oreo cookies added for color. The dirt is pulverized Oreo cookies.  The rocks are chocolate rocks that I purchased from a local candy store.  The kids helped me decorate.

My favorite part of the day was when W walked into the kitchen, looked at me with a cheeky grin and then pinched a chunk of his cake.  He declared "It is my birthday and my cake and I want a bite!"  It didn't hurt the look of the cake, so I didn't argue!

4th of July Bento

Yes, it is true, my kids go to school during the summer.  It is mostly summer camp with a month of actual school thrown in!   I pack lunches year round!

To celebrate American Independence Day, I made the kids a patriotic lunch.  It consisted of an open-face harvarti sandwich with USA gummy letters on it, some salami slices, grapes and some raisins.