Three Ingredient Homemade Dog Cookies

Well, my friends, the holiday season is here! Time to get started stocking up the freezer and cookie jars with goodies to celebrate this warm, snugly time of year.  This Christmas, don't forget your furry friend!  (Or your friends'/family's furry friends who are visiting!)  Here's a super easy recipe for cutout dog cookies that are easy to whip up, and great for little helpers to practice their cookie making skills (just think - cookies minus the egg, minus caring what it ends up looking like = Perfect for the kiddos!  And because lets be honest, Fido doesn't care if the candy cane is uneven and crooked).  They also make a great addition to hostess gifts (because you're invading their houses,too). You can use any kind of baby food, just be sure to check that its ingredients are safe for dogs to eat (a few good ones are sweet potato, carrot, pea, green beans, apple, banana).  You could even substitute peanut butter.  Here's how Mama makes it:  

Three Ingredient Homemade Dog Cookies

Ingredients:

- 2 c. rolled oats

- 1 medium ripe banana

- 4 oz. sweet potato baby food

Emelina's 18 month update

Happy Half Birthday, little Emma!  In the craziness of preparing for the holidays, I almost missed that fact that your half birthday was coming up.  I've been saying you're "a year and a half" for a couple months now because it just saves time, but you are officially halfway to being a two year old.  Cue the waterworks, dread, and cringing on my end.  Two was not an easy age for your sister, and with your current temper, I'm guessing it won't be easy for you either. 

Your newest favorite word is "NOW."  As in, "milk, NOW" or "mine, NOW" or "Dobby, NOW."  (By the way, Dobby is your pet name for Grandma Cindy.  We have no clue how/why you went from not saying anything, to somewhat attempting "Grandma" to "Dobby," but we've accepted that it's a thing, at least for now.) 


You are talking up a storm lately, saying just about anything that comes to your mind, or out of your sister's mouth (you two are thick as thieves and you've become quite the little sidekick these days). Most of what you say is pretty easy to understand, but some of it would be lost on someone other than our family.  "Thank you" and "Please" are always big crowd pleasers, especially when you drag out the Thaaaank yoooooou's. You call Anna "Sissy" which is super sweet.

Size - mostly 18 month and some of Annalyn's old 24 month clothes.  Size 5.5 shoes.

Teeth- between month 17-18 you decided to fill out almost your entire bottom set of teeth, plus your top molars!  Poor, poor girl.

Accomplishments: 

- starting to learn colors (you know pink, blue, and yellow pretty well and sometimes purple and green, too), though you will also argue that something is "pink" when the rest of us would call it orange.  Maybe you just hate being wrong...

- walking down stairs (scares me to death, but especially outside where we only have a couple stairs, you insist on doing them yourself)

- tons of new words, too many to list. Small sentences, usually 3-4 words max. 

- climb up and go down slides on your own at the park

Favorites:

- books - Duck & Goose, You Are My Cupcake, I Love You Through and Through, You Are My Sunshine
- shows - Minnie Mouse, Wally Kazaam ("Waaaalleee"), Sofia the First ("Fia"), Charlie Brown ("Brown")

- foods- pizza, cake, cheese, pancakes, any fruit, most veggies, goldfish crackers, quesadillas

- activities - bath time, playing outside, watching baby videos on our phones, coloring/painting, trying on mama's shoes and sissy's dresses, spinning in circles (aka dancing), helping us cook, climbing in boxes/baskets/hampers/etc.
- clothes - Fia dress (which is any and all princess dresses), socks, anything with a cat on it, shoes, your apron, hats (which also includes your bike helmet in your book)

Dislikes:

- being told no

- fighting with Anna (it really hurts your feelings when she gets mad at you)

- sharing

- crowds, strangers, most people in general
- your first ear infection - got your first antibiotic on your half birthday.  Poor girl!  You are at least really good about taking the medication.
- being away from us/Annalyn, especially if you're being left
- dogs, especially giant ones.  We're working on that...

best part of decorating?  The tree box!

Overall, this is my favorite of your stages yet!  Your unique blend of growly, sweet, sassy, crazy, shy, independent, and cuddly is adorable.  I can't even tell you how much it means to me that you and Annalyn love each other so much.  Sure makes me understand the big sis/little sis roles better!  Oh, and did I mention that you say "I love you" now?  Sometimes even "I love you, too."  Seriously, just try to get any cuter, Emma.  I don't think it's possible.

Love you so MUCH,

Mama 

Slow Cooker Turkey Breast with Gravy

Here's a super simple way to make turkey and gravy if you only need to serve about 6-8 people or less.  Maybe you live away from family and are having a small Thanksgiving meal. Maybe you have to work on Thanksgiving so you don't have all day to tend to and baste a perfectly roasted bird. Maybe you have only a few people that like turkey and the rest want ham. This is a great way to free up the oven and make turkey and gravy all at once!  I made it this week with a small 3 lb. turkey breast as an easy weeknight meal.  Based on this recipe, here's how Mama makes it:

Slow Cooker Turkey Breast with Gravy

Ingredients:

- 3 T butter

- 1 medium onion, chopped

- 2 large carrots, peeled and chopped

- 2 stalks celery, chopped

- 3 garlic cloves, minced

- 1/3 c. Flour

- 3 c. Chicken stock

- 2 sprigs Rosemary 

- 4-5 sage leaves

- 1 t. Thyme (dried or fresh)

- 1 bay leaf

- salt and pepper, to taste

- 3-8 lb turkey breast (bone in or boneless)

- 2 T. Cornstarch

Making Mama's Kitchen with a 3.5 and 1.5 year old

Every couple years, it seems like I'm struck with the realization that my kitchen is once again changing.  Not just the physicality of it, like new appliances, new flooring, or in this case, new house, but also the feeling of it.  When I first revamped my blog from "Ashley's Kitchen" to "Making Mama's Kitchen," Annalyn was only about 5 months old and I was astounded at how our kitchen had been taken over by bottles, drying racks, and baby bathtubs.  I could see that my kitchen would never be "mine" again. (post)

As Annalyn got older, she hit the I-want-to-help-with-everything stage and learned how to push the kitchen chairs up to our island to help me cook.  I embraced the change, and learned valuable lessons like, don't fill the mixer bowl and plug it in without checking first to see if she's pulled the knob all the way to high (see post here).  My mother-in-law made us matching aprons and we even used a sweet baking photoshoot to announce that I was pregnant with Emma.

Much

Our little Emma, you are talking up a storm lately!  Honestly, from the moment you wake up yelling "Mom-meeee, Dad-deeee! Up, up, UUUUPP!" you are a little chatterbox.  Your doctor asked me how many words you were saying at your last appointment and I couldn't even put a number to it.  Um, anything and everything?  You repeat, you demand, you mimic, you even put together little sentences.  It's crazy.  I wrote a post a month or so ago on my current favorite word, "too", but I felt the need to write a follow up now that I have a new one.  Though "too" is still as precious as ever, I must say that "much" has taken its top spot.

You see, your current bedtime routine goes something like this (when you're not trying to get 5 teeth at a time and a little possessed, of course):

1 - brush teeth with Sissy (another contender for favorite word - "Sis-see")
2 - put on pajamas and/or nighttime diaper and sleep sack (Daddy does this one a lot because to this day, you fight me like crazy when I change you.  By the end of the night, my hands usually can't keep up, especially on work days.)
3 - kiss Daddy and Annalyn goodnight
4 - grab blankie and baby, read books with Mama in the rocker.  You are very specific about which book and the order, though it isn't always constant (makes it very difficult!).  Lately, you are obsessed with the Duck & Goose books.
5 - after reading 3-5 books, you get to flip the light switch, then we sit back in the rocker to snuggle and sing "twinkle" and "pur-pur" (which you always demand, oftentimes switching midsong) aka Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Soft Kitty from Big Bang Theory that is your favorite thanks to Anna singing it to you any time you're upset since birth.
6 - once you've had enough of my singing, you look up, say "tiss" (kiss), plant one on me, then proclaim "ni-night, ni-night" in your all-business tone.  I stand up and squeeze as I tell you goodnight and "I love you sooooo much!"  This usually elicits a giggle and the single cutest word in your ever-growing vocabulary:  "MUCH."

I'm not really sure why "much" is the word you chose to start repeating, but it melts my heart.  At first it was unique to Mama, but now you'll say it to Daddy, too.

Needless to say, we love you so MUCH.

Much,

Mama

Russian Black Bread Crackers

Here was the train of thought that lead me to this recipe:

"I wonder how hard it is to make homemade crackers... It can't be that hard, right?"<looks up several recipes for crackers>

"This doesn't look so hard, I'm going to try it... I HAVE to try this."

<random thought creeps in> "I bet I could make a cracker out of Grandpa's Russian black bread recipe... Rye, molasses, coffee, chocolate..." (recipe)

"And what to put on top of the cracker? Well, Grandpa always liked cream cheese on the bread, so that would be good... Or butter, you can't go wrong with butter. But not stick butter, the soft whipped kind..."

"Ah-hah! I'll make my own butter! Fresh  soft butter, that will do it justice!" <see how to make butter post here>

And without further random thoughts, here's how Mama makes Russian black bread crackers:

Russian black bread crackers 

Yield:  about 3 dozen crackers

Ingredients:

- 1 stick of butter

- 1 c. Rye flour

- 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

- 1/4 t. Salt (if using unsalted butter)

- 1 t. Sugar

- 1 T. Instant coffee

- 1 t. Crushed fennel

- 2 t. Cocoa powder

- 3 T. Molasses

How to Make Butter

Until I had done it myself, I would have never imagined how easy it is to make your own butter.  All you need is some heavy cream, a little salt, and a mixer and in a matter of minutes, you have fresh homemade butter.  From there, you can obviously add things like honey/cinnamon, garlic/herbs, etc. to make flavored butter spreads.  For today, we stuck to the basic, lightly salted butter.  It was a great learning opportunity for Annalyn - we talked about what goes in the bowl (cream, salt), where cream comes from, what we do to the cream to make it into butter, and what we call the liquid that comes off when the butter forms (buttermilk - pancakes, anyone?).  Emma liked to be picked up to see each step, too, but her favorite part was definitely sampling the end product on saltine crackers (and later our homemade crackers.)  Here's how Mama makes fresh, creamy, 2-ingredient butter:

Homemade Butter

 

Ingredients:

- 2 c. heavy whipping cream

- 1/4 t. salt (optional)

yields:  1 c. butter plus 1 c. buttermilk

Apple Cider Coffee Cake

Here's a fun fall twist on one of my favorite family recipes, my mom's coffee cake.  The way I see it, you can never go wrong with adding apples to any baked good during the fall and winter months. I made this one in honor of the apple trees Michael planted for me as a birthday gift. Starting a home orchard has been a dream of mine for awhile now and I can't wait to use our own apples for fall baking here in a few years! But for now, here's how Mama makes apple cider coffee cake:

Apple Cider Coffee Cake

Ingredients:
- 1 c. sugar
- 5 T. shortening
- 1/2 t. salt
- 1 egg
- 1/2 c. apple cider
- 1/4 c. milk
- 1 1/2 c. flour
- 1 1/2 t. baking powder
for the topping:
- 1/4 c. sugar
- 1/4 c. brown sugar
- 1 t. cinnamon
- 1 T. flour
- 2 T. cold butter
- 1 apple, peeled and finely chopped

 (I actually made 1 and 1/2 times this recipe in a 9x13" pan since my whole family was visiting)

Annalyn the Time Traveler

Today, we dabbled in time travel. Not sure the exact year, but I'm guessing 1969ish, when my mom was 5 and wearing this dress :) 

I wonder if she was as equally cute and curious as her granddaughter. Something tells me yes...

Too

My little Emma is quite the chatterbox these days.  All of a sudden, her language development is taking off.  She parrots everything we say, in addition to saying so many words on her own (I couldn't even count them when her doctor asked).  Words like "shoulder" and "elbow" are pretty cute to hear her attempt, words like "pink" make me sad that she's hit the princess stage so soon, and words like "kiss!" are just precious.  But I have to say, of all her words right now, "too" is my favorite.  ("Wal-ly!" for Wally Kazaam is a close second.)

Annalyn asks for a snack and Emma runs over saying "too!"

Annalyn puts on a dress and Emma pulls one out of her (or Anna's) drawer, "too, too!"

Annalyn sits down to put her shoes on and Emma brings me hers "Too, shoes, too!"

Annalyn pulls a chair over the island to help me cook, and you guessed it, Emma follows "tooooo!"

Annalyn gets a book off her shelf and Emma reaches up "too! Goose, too!" (Duck & Goose is her favorite book series at the moment.)




I've started realizing that I naturally address Annalyn first, then when Emma pipes in, I respond with "you, too, Em?"  That probably explains her latest "too" trend. That and the fact that little Emma is obviously pretty smitten with her big sis.  They are best buds and little rivals at the same time.

It's so different seeing the big/little sis roles from a mom's point of view. As a kid, I always hated when my little sister (5.5 years younger) insisted on copying everything I did/said/wore/etc. Now, of course, I think it's adorable and I can see how much she loves and adores Annalyn.  Sorry, Linz, I didn't understand back then.  Love you, too. ;)