Russian Tea Cakes

I made these the other week (month?) for my Nana's 80th birthday party.  They've come to be a quick and easy favourite cookie recipe, so I thought I'd share.

RUSSIAN TEA CAKES

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup ground almonds 

1/2 cup icing sugar 

Preheat oven to 325.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a bowl, sift together the flour and salt.  

In a large bowl, combine the butter, sugar and vanilla.  Beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.  Add the ground almonds and stir until blended.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until the dough comes together in large clumps.  

To form cookie, roll dough between your palms into a 1-inch ball.  Place the balls 1 inch apart on the baking sheet.   

Bake cookies until the bottoms are light brown, about 20 minutes.  Let the cookies cool.  

Sift the icing sugar over the cookies.

Enjoy.

We don't usually have unsalted butter on hand, so I have used salted and then just left out the additional salt.  It doesn't seem to make a significant difference.  Also, you could use another nut (like hazelnuts) in place of the almonds.  Finally, I've found that it's easier to form the balls if the dough is sitting on top of the oven --the extra heat helps make them stick together more easily.

Let me know if you try baking these!  I'd love to hear how they turn out.  Alternately, if you have a great cookie recipe you'd like to share, feel free to leave it in the comments.  I love baking!

Bunnies, Baskets and Books

On Friday, The Bean put on his bunny ears for a visit with my cousin's family and my Nana.  They didn't last long, but he made a cute little rabbit.  

The Easter bunny had left a Fisher Price Teapot at my cousin's house for The Bean.  He's been playing with it constantly for the past two days.  Whenever it "sings" he dances.  I'd venture to say it's been a big hit.  Nana came over with miniature copy of Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Benjamin Bunny and a Beatrix Potter piggy bank for him.  

On Saturday we met up with my sister (who is due today!) for some lunch.  The Easter Bunny had left some treats for The Bean with her too!  A beautiful wooden maraca and the book Marshmallow which is the story of a little bunny who comes to live with a cat.  I recognized it, but it's not a book that I was really familiar with.  Both Jen and I read it this morning and agree that it's a sweet story.

And of course, there is a basket here for The Bean.  It has the beeswax crayons and playsilk I mentioned in yesterday's post as well as two new board books I am a Bunny (a classic) and Harry the Dirty Dog (one of my favourites) and some plastic eggs filled with candied ginger --one of The Bean's favourite treats.

This afternoon we went over to my mom's house.  The Bean did an Easter egg hunt there, the eggs were "hidden" in plain sight and he didn't really understand what he was supposed to do with them, but he played along.  There was also a basket there for him, this one containing chocolate-covered ginger.  The Easter bunny knows our boy well I guess. ;)

I'd say The Bean's second Easter was a big success.  I love how he interacts with people and his environment so much now.  It's just amazing to see the changes that the past year has brought. 

I'll try to post a few photos from at my mom's tomorrow and maybe also do a little spring book/Easter book update.  I wanted to do one today, but we got home too late to do a photo.



---

One more note: I took another HPT yesterday morning.  The results are a lot more clear than the photo I posted on Friday, so I thought I'd share another photo.

According to online calculators I'm already four weeks pregnant (I had forgotten how that worked) and the baby is due around December 16th.

I Won!

Back about a month ago now, I was excited to receive an email telling me that I had won a contest on SouleMama.  The prize was a $50 gift card to A Child's Dream Come True.

As most of you know, the past few months haven't been the easiest.  Winning a $50 gift card didn't make everything better, but it was still a nice pick-me-up.

I put it towards a small rainbow silk and some Stockmar beeswax crayon blocks for The Bean as well as a copy of Amanda Blake Soule's The Creative Family for myself.  All things I had thought about purchasing before winning this giveaway.

I've been fairly lucky with winning contests in the past.  I've won other online giveaways for BabyLegs that I gave to my nephew (this was pre-Bean), guitar strings and picks, and probably some other things that I'm not remembering at the moment. 

Have you ever won a giveaway?  What did you win?

BFP

I couldn't just leave it at that, now could I? 

So, it's early (very early) but we figured there was no harm in sharing our good news on the blog as few people who know us in real life know about this blog.  We'll try to wait the customary 12 weeks before telling most family and friends.  I also know that if anything happens I'll appreciate being able to "talk" about it on here.  

I didn't really feel prepared to blog about the TTC process this time around.  Nothing out of the ordinary, I just didn't want to focus any more of my attention on it than I already was.  Let's be serious, when you're going through this it is difficult to think of anything else.  I also didn't know how I would feel sharing about another BFN.  Everyone here was so sympathetic back in January, but I wasn't sure how I'd feel about that month after month. 

In addition to all of that, we've been pretty busy and tired the past few weeks and I didn't really have it in me to blog at all, no matter what the subject.  We had a week where The Bean was up in the wee hours of the morning, with what we suspect was teething pain.  (He has since popped two or maybe even three teeth  --he won't let us get a good look.)  Jen's parents came for a wonderful visit last weekend.  I had my final yearbook deadline and lots of difficulties getting the pages completed and edited.  I also started an online Additional Qualification course, hoping that it will help with job prospects.  So lots to keep us busy, but not very interesting blog fodder for the post part.   

The whole process was fairly uneventful.  Blood work and ultrasounds on Day 3 and then from Day 10 on.  The IUI was on Day 15 which I thought was late, but the lab work indicated was PERFECT timing.  And I guess it was.  The same doctor who did the insemination when Jen got pregnant with The Bean did my insemination this time.  I did some acupuncture seven days post IUI to help with implantation (increases blood flow).  Anyway, it seems that it all worked out. 

The photo earlier was from our first HPT, taken this morning.  I waited to take the photo (since I took the test at 5am) so the line isn't as clear as it was initially.  I took it back into the bedroom with a flashlight to have Jen look and confirm what I was seeing.  Of course, I wasn't able to fall back asleep after that.  I'll do another HPT tomorrow morning.  Tuesday is the follow up blood work at the clinic, and if that comes back positive they'll do second batch of blood work on Thursday to confirm. 


I know it's early.  I know things could change.  The test could be wrong.  But I'm still so excited. 

There's a baby in there. 

{this moment} (Really) Good Friday

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Inspired by SouleMama.  

{this moment} Swinging

 A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Inspired by SouleMama. 

Wordless Wednesday: Spring

 

Homemade Playdough

I think we've mentioned on here how much we LOVE the daycare that we found for The Bean.

The daycare provider is so wonderful.  She has a strong background in early childhood education and more than that, you can tell that she really cares about the kids in her care.  She does arts and crafts, lots of outings to the drop-in centre, library and parks, and she also places a strong emphasis on the idea that a child is never too young to learn. 

The kids there are also great.  There are only five kids including The Bean.  The next oldest is a two-year-old who is also there full-day.  The older three are ages four and five and spend the morning in kindergarten then come to daycare in the afternoon.  All of the children are only-children and they seem to care for each other in almost a sibling-like way.  When Jen went to pick up The Bean early one day last week the little girl there came over and gave him a hug goodbye.  So sweet.

Anyway, being so happy with everything there and having time off this week to do extra little projects, I thought I'd make a "Happy Spring" gift for each of the kids.  I found a playdough recipe online and made two batches.  

Here is the recipe I used: 

HOMEMADE PLAYDOUGH

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1 tablespoon powdered alum
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil
2 tablespoons vanilla
food coloring

Mix all dry ingredients in a frying pan. Add oil and water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until reaching the consistency of mashed potatoes. Remove from heat and add vanilla and food coloring. Divide into balls and work in color by kneading the playdough. 

I found the final result to be a little dry.  It's possible I overcooked the dough, or maybe it could just use a smidge more oil.  In any case, I think it will be fine and that the kids will enjoy playing with it.  I added vanilla to the green playdough, just like the recipe called for, but I used some lavender essential oil in the blue playdough (which I wanted to be purple, but alas, we were out of red food dye)  and it smells heavenly.  I imagine you could use a few drops of any essential oil to add your desired scent.

To finish things off I rolled the dough into balls and stamped it with a flower-shaped cookie cutter we have, stuck it into plastic baggies and then added a label using some scrapbook paper I had stashed away.  I think they turned out pretty cute.  

I may try a different recipe next time.  I know the Junior Kindergarten teacher at school has a good one she uses all the time.  I'm also interested in experimenting with natural dyes like beet water to add color.   Do you have suggestions either for recipes or dyes?  

Hope you have a wonderful start to your spring! 

Out and About

This past week was a busy one.  I'm currently off for March Break and I think in my excitement of having time off I over scheduled us a bit.  There was a lot of running around and appointments earlier in the week, but we had some nice visits over the weekend. 

On Friday afternoon we met our friend Ashleigh and her adorable twin girls, Teagan and Quinn in Little Italy.  We were embarrassingly late.  (I hate being late.  Pre-Bean it was UNHEARD of for me to be late, but things seem to be different now.  A late nap for The Bean really threw us off our schedule.)  When we arrived Ashleigh and her girls, plus their dog Finn and friend Kate and her sweet girl Hannah were sitting out on the patio of Playful Grounds which is a coffee shop that caters to the parent-crowd.  The Bean had a good time playing with the train table and kitchen set they had inside while Jen supervised and I was able to catch up with Ashleigh, get to know Kate a bit, and spend some time bouncing the three sweet girls. 

Saturday we had a surprise 80th birthday party for my Nana.  Mostly family attended, but it was still a pretty big crowd.  My aunt did the majority of the party-planning, but I helped co-ordinate the rental space and helped set up.  Oh, and I made cookies.  They were yummy, but not as yummy as the huge assortment of cookies my cousin made.  He's quite the baker.  We had a nice lunch, dessert, and a slide show of my Nana's life so far with a lot of the music that she loves.  It was a really nice way to celebrate. 

Sunday we met up with Shannon and her son Ian, and Stacey and her kids Riley, Jackson and Quinn at Beans and Babes in Whitby (just outside the city).   It was a great space for the kids to play.  All the kids, from one year old to five seemed to have a blast playing with all the toys there and going down the big slide.  It was nice for us to see everyone again and chat about what we all have going on in our lives.  Hopefully we'll be able to get together again over the summer, if not sooner. 

I have this week off as well, but don't have too much planned so far.  I know we'll keep busy and the time will still seem to fly by, but I'm trying to relax and enjoy spending time on things that seem to get put-off for the most part.  Maybe I'll go now and do some work on The Bean's baby book... or try some sewing... or go for a walk... yes, maybe I'll go for a walk.  It's a beautiful day outside. 

Hope you had a lovely weekend and that your week is off to a good start too.

{this moment}