Happy, Happy Easter

I had to post these pictures of Monroe. Time is slowly running out to have Monty all to myself. He just keeps getting cuter growing so fast! I love him and enjoy listening to everything he's learning and how he filters his environment and communicates it back to us. 39 weeks... he'll be a big brother any day now!

Labels... gone but at least I've been busy

To view the rest of these creations or to order, visit my Etsy shop. They are 20% off until 11/30/12!

Whenever I start working someplace, I remember why I like creating my own designs. I've been working at a design agency for the last few months as a production designer. Which basically means just redoing and doing again oh yeah and one more time please... other people's templates basically. The last couple weeks I needed to vent creatively and make something for me. I needed to make it a little bit productive so I created some holiday mailing labels. Here is a sample of my favorite!

D.I.'ing it up

The D.I. is the place you can tell Monroe is my son. Where Kirk won't even step inside, Monroe and I can spend over an hour just browsing through the aisles of treasures. Kirk has set some boundaries for his woman, and asked me to stop bringing home items from the D.I. Seeing that we have also been a on budget, I've found a way to still get my D.I. fix, but not make any purchases.

I have a list of people that I send photos to of items that I think need a good home. This week I found a mid-century headboard (just gorgeous) for $8, a breadbox with kitchen canisters for $6 (for the set!) and a peda-stool table with a leaf for $15. I sent out my mass text to my adoptive parents and found a good home for the headboard and bread box.

These items are just too dear to let go unnoticed and it makes me so happy to find people that appreciate them. If you'd like to get added to my D.I. list, just leave a comment. I'll get your number added!

Commitment Issues

Alright, I'm recommitting myself to blog more often. I need to keep up with all the cute happenings that go on with Monroe. It's going by too fast to miss! Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to. We were able to go up to Idaho on two separate occasions. If you haven't ever experienced and Idaho spring/summer you're missing out.

Monroe got to spend time with all of his cousin at his Opa and Nana's house in Idaho Falls. We roasted hot dogs, made smores, built a tee-pee and had a slip and slide party. Can't get better than that.

Back in April, we got to go to Boise with Abuelos to visit my grandparents. It was so much fun and Monroe got smothered in love and attention. We had a busy schedule so there weren't many pictures but we got one with the cutest great grandparents in the world!

Lastly, I finally got a picture (maybe not the best) of the beautiful tulips that come up every spring in Logan. It's one of my favorite explosion of blossoms!

We love our family and the time we get to spend together.

Hail Deustchland

I've had a fixation with German pancakes and thought I'd share the recipe. It's one of Kirk's families recipes and I've made them before but never fully embraced the recipe. It calls for topping the pancakes with sour cream, brown sugar and strawberries. In my mind, nothing sounded worse... until I tried it. Now I just can't get enough of it and neither can Monroe. Please try this, I promise you'll find a new love!

German Oven Pancakes
1/4 Cup Butter (of course)
3 eggs
1/3 Cup Sugar
1 1/2 Cups of Milk
3/4 Cup of Flour
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 450º. Put butter in 8"x12" Pyrex plate and bake until butter melts and bubbles. Put remaining ingredients in a blender, and mix on medium until smooth. Remove plate from oven and immediately pour in mixture and return to oven. Bake for 20 minutes (until edges are puffed and brown). Spread with sour cream brown sugar. Top with strawberries and enjoy!

Mother of the Year Cookies

My mother and sister-in-law introduced me to a little trick that can make you the mother of the year in your children's eyes. Have you ever made frozen cookie balls? It allows for you to have fresh baked cookies anytime or any day within 10-12 minutes, and no mess! The recipe that we use makes enough for 4-6 dozen cookies (depending on cookie size).

All you have to do is whip up a huge batch of cookies, and place your cookies on a cookie sheet as usual. But rather than bake them, place them in the freezer (or outside if you live in Logan, haha). Once the cookies are frozen, pull them off the cookie sheet and place them in a gallon Ziploc bag. Then whenever you're feeling in the mood for cookies, need a treat to run over to your neighbors or just want frozen cookie dough... there they are awaiting you! Here's our family recipe, with just a little tweaking:

Frozen CC Cookies
4-6 dozen

3 1/2 Cups Brown Sugar
1 lb. Butter
4 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
5 1/2 Cups of Flour
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Soda
3-4 Cups of Chocolate Chips

Cream sugar and butter for 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, beat for 5 minutes. Mix all dry ingredients in separate bowl, add to creamed mixture. Add chocolate chips. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350°, or freeze. If frozen, bake for 10-12 minutes instead.

Happy Easter!

Thanks Sis. Gianni!

Pokey-Man

We had a lot of fun taking Monroe to see all the baby animals. It was a lot of work getting there but definitely worth it. I loved seeing him with his chubby finger, poking/petting all the animals. He was great with all the big animals, and even baa'd with the sheep. The smaller animals (chicks, ducks and bunnies) I was nervous that he would squeeze to death. He was responsible and only extended a finger to pet their delicate little bodies. It was different than other years, since this year Kirk and I were mainly watching our baby and waiting for his reaction. It was so enchanting watching Monroe's expressions, and he only cried with the piglets. Love that little guy!

Baby Animal Days!

It's baby animal days this weekend, April 5th-7th. It's honestly one of the sweetest traditions here in Cache Valley. I always forget to tell people about it so I wanted to be sure to get the word out. If you're going to be near Cache Valley, it's worth the visit. They have baby horses, sheep, piglets, goats, chicks and ducks that you can hold and one year they even had baby buffalo! The twins (Kirk's siblings) have always gone, even though they had no kids and were in their twenties. It really is fun for any age group. We're going to make it Thursday before all the chicks and ducks get squeezed to death by sweaty little kid hands, haha.

You can visit this website for more info.

Pupusas, heard of them?

My mom is from El Salvador as most of you know. And in El Salvador the pupusa is what eggrolls are to China. Pupusas basically consist of a corn tortilla dough on the outside with beans, cheese and a pork mixture called chicharon stuffed inside. They are eaten with a pickled cabbage mixture called curtido. It is definitely one of my comfort foods. While I was in Las Vegas this past visit I learned more in the art of pupusa making. Since there is a filling on the inside it's tricky to get the inside to stay in. I took some pictures of my mama with her master skills and wanted to share.

Under careful supervision, I was able to make the curtido and it was amazing. I'm going to include the curtido recipe below. I'm not quite ready to have a step by step on how to make pupusas, but I will include it sometime in the future (when I don't end up with a cheesy mess of a pupusa). Even if you don't have a pupusa to eat this with, it's a great topping on tacos, enchiladas or an alternative to salsa. Enjoy!

Salvadoran Curtido, 30 minutes
(the beauty of this recipe is that there is no cooking/boiling, which is a lengthy process that a lot of people use)

Ingredients:
1 head of green cabbage, thinly sliced and cut down into 1" in length
1 onion, thinly sliced from end to end
2 carrots, grated
1/2 chopped cilantro
1 jalapeno cut into thin rounds
3/8 cup of coarse salt
1 cup water
3 cups of apple cider vinegar

Add cabbage, onion, carrots and cilantro to a large bowl, mix. Add coarse salt to mixture. Using your hand, mix in the salt and squeeze cabbage. Continue to squeeze cabbage mixture and mix with hand. The point of this is to extract the water from the vegetables. You know you're done when there is about a fourth an inch of water at the bottom of the bowl.

Prepare a container with a lid, grab a handful of cabbage and squeeze out all the salt water, place it in your container. Do this until all your cabbage mixture is in your lidded container and only salt water is left in your first bowl. The purpose of this is to remove the salt from the cabbage mixture.

Add jalapenos (do not add before, as they may cause heat burn), water and vinegar. Seal with lid and allow to sit at room temperature for at least 3 hours before using. And done!

(Pupusa recipe soon to come!)