Soft and Chewy Snickerdoodle Specials

Snickerdoodles are one of my absolute favorite kinds of cookies. The ones that are soft and chewy are the absolute best. I'm not one for crunchy, hard cookies, especially when it comes to my snickerdoodles! These tasty treats are good to eat at any time of the year.

I'm an absolute sucker for almost anything cinnamon. I've made these classic cookies so many times over the years and finally have the perfect recipe for them. I add a special, secret ingredient to my recipe. It makes them even tastier and more wonderful.

The secret ingredient? Nutmeg. Another spice I adore. Just a bit adds a whole other depth of flavor to the cookies. It ups the deliciousness factor, which I'd never thought was even possible with the already-awesome snickerdoodle! Like all my recipes, they are simple to make as well. When you have kids, there simply isn't time to spend too long baking or cooking anything.

I whipped up a big batch of these to give to family, friends, neighbors, A's coworkers, and M2's aide and therapists. Everyone who has tried them so far has deemed them to be "cookie crack" and gobbled them up. These aren't cookies that are going to sit around uneaten!

Once these are baked, package them up in an air-tight container and they'll stay fresh for weeks. Perfect for making ahead at the holidays!

Other Cookie Recipes
Be sure to check out my recipes for these other great holiday cookie treats:
Big & Chewy Butterscotch and Chocolate Chip Cookies
Meltaway Spritz Butter Cookies
Colonial Williamsburg Gingerbread Cookies
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cookies (Coming soon!)
Best-Ever Peanut Butter Blossoms

Baking Tricks
These are the silicone baking mats I use for cookies and LOVE. They are also great for cooking chicken and other foods in the oven. The baking sheets hold up well, I've had my set for a few years now. I'd be lost without my KitchenAid mixer, attachments and a good set of wooden spoons, too!

Soft and Chewy Snickerdoodle Specials

by The Stay-at-Home Life

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Keywords: bake dessert cinnamon nutmeg Christmas Hanukkah Thanksgiving cookie comfort food fall spring summer winter

6076133

Ingredients (4 dozen)

For dough

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• 3/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, room temperature

For Rolling Mixture

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• You can adjust the amount of cinnamon and nutmeg to taste

Instructions

Cream butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and nutmeg until light and fluffy

In another bowl, mix salt, cream of tartar, baking soda and flour

Add dry mixture to wet mixture slowly, mixing continually, until well blended

Chill dough in the fridge 30 minutes

Combine the rolling mixture of sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Form dough into 1.5" balls

Roll balls through rolling mixture

Place on cookie sheet 2 inches apart

Put remaining dough back in the fridge

Bake cookies for 9 minutes, just until set and ever so slightly starting to get golden around the edges

Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes

Remove cookies from cookie sheet and cool the rest of the way on cooling rack

Once cooled, put in baggies or an air-tight container. Cookies will stay soft and fresh for awhile so can easily be made ahead for the holidays

Please vote for me by clicking the pink banner below, then clicking the GREEN or ORANGE button on the next page to confirm the vote! Thank you!!

This post contains affiliate links.

Soft and Chewy Snickerdoodle Specials

Snickerdoodles are one of my absolute favorite kinds of cookies. The ones that are soft and chewy are the absolute best. I'm not one for crunchy, hard cookies, especially when it comes to my snickerdoodles! These tasty treats are good to eat at any time of the year.

I'm an absolute sucker for almost anything cinnamon. I've made these classic cookies so many times over the years and finally have the perfect recipe for them. I add a special, secret ingredient to my recipe. It makes them even tastier and more wonderful.

The secret ingredient? Nutmeg. Another spice I adore. Just a bit adds a whole other depth of flavor to the cookies. It ups the deliciousness factor, which I'd never thought was even possible with the already-awesome snickerdoodle! Like all my recipes, they are simple to make as well. When you have kids, there simply isn't time to spend too long baking or cooking anything.

I whipped up a big batch of these to give to family, friends, neighbors, A's coworkers, and M2's aide and therapists. Everyone who has tried them so far has deemed them to be "cookie crack" and gobbled them up. These aren't cookies that are going to sit around uneaten!

Once these are baked, package them up in an air-tight container and they'll stay fresh for weeks. Perfect for making ahead at the holidays!

Other Cookie Recipes
Be sure to check out my recipes for these other great holiday cookie treats:
Big & Chewy Butterscotch and Chocolate Chip Cookies
Meltaway Spritz Butter Cookies
Colonial Williamsburg Gingerbread Cookies
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cookies (Coming soon!)
Best-Ever Peanut Butter Blossoms

Baking Tricks
These are the silicone baking mats I use for cookies and LOVE. They are also great for cooking chicken and other foods in the oven. The baking sheets hold up well, I've had my set for a few years now. I'd be lost without my KitchenAid mixer, attachments and a good set of wooden spoons, too!

Soft and Chewy Snickerdoodle Specials

by The Stay-at-Home Life

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Keywords: bake dessert cinnamon nutmeg Christmas Hanukkah Thanksgiving cookie comfort food fall spring summer winter

6076133

Ingredients (4 dozen)

For dough

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• 3/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, room temperature

For Rolling Mixture

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• You can adjust the amount of cinnamon and nutmeg to taste

Instructions

Cream butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and nutmeg until light and fluffy

In another bowl, mix salt, cream of tartar, baking soda and flour

Add dry mixture to wet mixture slowly, mixing continually, until well blended

Chill dough in the fridge 30 minutes

Combine the rolling mixture of sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Form dough into 1.5" balls

Roll balls through rolling mixture

Place on cookie sheet 2 inches apart

Put remaining dough back in the fridge

Bake cookies for 9 minutes, just until set and ever so slightly starting to get golden around the edges

Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes

Remove cookies from cookie sheet and cool the rest of the way on cooling rack

Once cooled, put in baggies or an air-tight container. Cookies will stay soft and fresh for awhile so can easily be made ahead for the holidays

Please remember to vote for me by clicking the pink banner below!

This post contains affiliate links.

Meltaway Spritz Butter Cookies

Baking cookies one of my most-loved holiday traditions. Every year, I spend hours pouring over recipes I've made before along with new ones deciding what I should make for the holiday season. This year, I'm making seven different kinds. The first ones I made are meltaway spritz butter cookies from a recipe I created myself.

These little gems are a twist on the classic spritz cookie. I looked at recipes for classic spritz cookies to used as my base, poured over meltaway and butter cookie recipes, then picked out what parts of each I liked best. The goal was to have the best parts of each come through in this cookie. Finally, working with a baker friend of mine, I figured out what elements would work well together so I wouldn't be left with something hard or mushy.

In the end, I had an amazingly tasty hybrid cookie that melts in your mouth, reminds you of the spritz your grandma used to make and brings to mind a delicate butter cookie -- all in the same delicious bite.There really is nothing like them that I've ever had before! Anyone else who has tried them said the cookies are amazing and that they were eaten way too quickly.

Other Cookie Recipes
Check out these other great cookie recipes:
Soft and chewy butterscotch & chocolate chip cookies
Soft and chewy snickerdoodle specials
Colonial Williamsburg Gingerbread Cookies
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cookies (Coming soon!)
Best-Ever Peanut Butter Blossoms

As an added plus, these meltaway spritz butter cookies are fairly simple to make. On my first run, I tried using a cookie press. I gave up, I just can't get a cookie press to work how it should. I considered making these drop cookies, but they really need to bake evenly and not for very long. The need for even baking ruled out balls as well. Sprinkles also didn't seem to stick well once they baked, so I factored that into the mix. Thumbprint cookies seemed to be the best idea, but those aren't even. The final outcome is to roll dough into a 1 inch diameter ball, roll it through sprinkles, press the dough down with two fingers so it's is the same thickness all the way across, then lightly press the center ridge you get down so the cookie is even and flat on top. It may sound complicated, but once you make a couple it goes pretty quick.

What is fun about these cookies is you can dye the dough however you like then come up with your own sprinkle combination to roll them through. I mix red and green crystals with regular sugar, little balls with regular sugar and even red and green crystals along with shaped sprinkles with regular sugar. There are so many combinations you can try. The regular sugar helps to stretch the fancy sprinkles (since they cost more) and adds a  touch of sparkle. The ones with the sugar and little balls are my favorites.

Be sure not to leave these cookies in the oven too long or they'll turn crumbly and dry. You don't even want them to be golden yet, just set. Pull them off the cookie sheet and set them on a cooling rack as soon as they come out. The cookies keep for awhile when stored in an air-tight container so you can make them ahead of time without any problem.

Baking Tricks
These are the silicone baking mats I use for cookies and LOVE. They are also great for cooking chicken and other foods in the oven. The baking sheets hold up well, I've had my set for a few years now. I'd be lost without my KitchenAid mixer, attachments and a good set of wooden spoons, too!

Meltaway Spritz Butter Cookies

by The Stay-at-Home Life

Prep Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Keywords: bake dessert vanilla butter almond almond extract Christmas cookie fall spring summer winter

6076026

Ingredients (4 dozen)

• 1 1/4 up powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• Granulated sugar and sprinkles of choice to roll dough in

Instructions

Cream together powdered sugar, butter, almond extract and vanilla extract until very light and creamy

Add in egg and continue to cream ingredients together until well blended

In another bowl, mix flour and baking powder

Slowly pour flour mixture into the wet mixture, continuing to blend as you go until well combined

If you'd like to dye the dough, add the dye and mix well

Put dough in a bowl, cover and chill in the refrigerator at least one hour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Create your sprinkle/sugar blend

Form dough into 1-inch balls and roll in the sugar

Place on cookie sheet about 1 inch apart (you can fit 15 on a standard cookie sheet as the dough won't spread much)

Press each ball down using two fingers until dough is flattened yet still thick. You do not want thin dough or the cookies will break too easily. Dough should be uniform in thickness throughout.

Press down the center ridge that will be created lightly

Bake 12 minutes, or until dough is set but not browning at all

Immediately remove from cookie sheet onto a cooling rack

Cool completely then stack to store in an air-tight container or baggies

Please vote for me by clicking the pink banner below, then clicking the GREEN or ORANGE button on the next page to confirm the vote! Thank you!!

This post contains affiliate links.


Affiliate Links

Meltaway Spritz Butter Cookies

Baking cookies one of my most-loved holiday traditions. Every year, I spend hours pouring over recipes I've made before along with new ones deciding what I should make for the holiday season. This year, I'm making seven different kinds. The first ones I made are meltaway spritz butter cookies from a recipe I created myself.

These little gems are a twist on the classic spritz cookie. I looked at recipes for classic spritz cookies to used as my base, poured over meltaway and butter cookie recipes, then picked out what parts of each I liked best. The goal was to have the best parts of each come through in this cookie. Finally, working with a baker friend of mine, I figured out what elements would work well together so I wouldn't be left with something hard or mushy.

In the end, I had an amazingly tasty hybrid cookie that melts in your mouth, reminds you of the spritz your grandma used to make and brings to mind a delicate butter cookie -- all in the same delicious bite.There really is nothing like them that I've ever had before! Anyone else who has tried them said the cookies are amazing and that they were eaten way too quickly.

Other Cookie Recipes
Check out these other great cookie recipes:
Soft and chewy butterscotch & chocolate chip cookies
Soft and chewy snickerdoodle specials
Colonial Williamsburg Gingerbread Cookies
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cookies (Coming soon!)
Best-Ever Peanut Butter Blossoms

As an added plus, these meltaway spritz butter cookies are fairly simple to make. On my first run, I tried using a cookie press. I gave up, I just can't get a cookie press to work how it should. I considered making these drop cookies, but they really need to bake evenly and not for very long. The need for even baking ruled out balls as well. Sprinkles also didn't seem to stick well once they baked, so I factored that into the mix. Thumbprint cookies seemed to be the best idea, but those aren't even. The final outcome is to roll dough into a 1 inch diameter ball, roll it through sprinkles, press the dough down with two fingers so it's is the same thickness all the way across, then lightly press the center ridge you get down so the cookie is even and flat on top. It may sound complicated, but once you make a couple it goes pretty quick.

What is fun about these cookies is you can dye the dough however you like then come up with your own sprinkle combination to roll them through. I mix red and green crystals with regular sugar, little balls with regular sugar and even red and green crystals along with shaped sprinkles with regular sugar. There are so many combinations you can try. The regular sugar helps to stretch the fancy sprinkles (since they cost more) and adds a  touch of sparkle. The ones with the sugar and little balls are my favorites.

Be sure not to leave these cookies in the oven too long or they'll turn crumbly and dry. You don't even want them to be golden yet, just set. Pull them off the cookie sheet and set them on a cooling rack as soon as they come out. The cookies keep for awhile when stored in an air-tight container so you can make them ahead of time without any problem.

Baking Tricks
These are the silicone baking mats I use for cookies and LOVE. They are also great for cooking chicken and other foods in the oven. The baking sheets hold up well, I've had my set for a few years now. I'd be lost without my KitchenAid mixer, attachments and a good set of wooden spoons, too!

Meltaway Spritz Butter Cookies

by The Stay-at-Home Life

Prep Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Keywords: bake dessert vanilla butter almond almond extract Christmas cookie fall spring summer winter

6076026

Ingredients (4 dozen)

• 1 1/4 up powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• Granulated sugar and sprinkles of choice to roll dough in

Instructions

Cream together powdered sugar, butter, almond extract and vanilla extract until very light and creamy

Add in egg and continue to cream ingredients together until well blended

In another bowl, mix flour and baking powder

Slowly pour flour mixture into the wet mixture, continuing to blend as you go until well combined

If you'd like to dye the dough, add the dye and mix well

Put dough in a bowl, cover and chill in the refrigerator at least one hour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Create your sprinkle/sugar blend

Form dough into 1-inch balls and roll in the sugar

Place on cookie sheet about 1 inch apart (you can fit 15 on a standard cookie sheet as the dough won't spread much)

Press each ball down using two fingers until dough is flattened yet still thick. You do not want thin dough or the cookies will break too easily. Dough should be uniform in thickness throughout.

Press down the center ridge that will be created lightly

Bake 12 minutes, or until dough is set but not browning at all

Immediately remove from cookie sheet onto a cooling rack

Cool completely then stack to store in an air-tight container or baggies

Please remember to vote for me by clicking the pink banner below!



This post contains affiliate links.


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Vanilla Butter Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

A few special events took place in our family lately. For us, special events mean special cakes. Rather than spending lots of money buying on at the grocery store on a cake that's not from scratch and probably doesn't have as wholesome of ingredients, I made them myself.

I've made four vanilla butter cakes with vanilla buttercream frosting in the past month. Each was so good and got rave reviews from the eaters. I didn't have to argue with guests too much to get them to take home the leftovers so I wouldn't eat it (though I really wanted it). A's co-workers got their own cake and devoured it. This cake is great for birthdays, holidays, or other special occasions.

Vanilla Butter Cake

This recipe make three 8-inch rounds. You can stack them all, or make a 9x13 and one round, or a stacked two-layer and a single 8 inch. I've never stacked them all, I like having the extra cake in case more is needed at the party or to send to work with A.

Ingredients

• Four large eggs, separated, at room temperature
• 3 1/2 cups cake flour (must be cake flour)
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature (do not use margarine)
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk at room temperature
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Spray cake pans with non-stick spray, line with parchment, then spray parchment
Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt
Beat butter until soft (about 2-3 minutes)
Add 1 1/2 cups of sugar and beat until mixture is light and fluffy (about 5 minutes)
Add room-temperature egg yolks, one at a time, beating as you go.
Add vanilla, beat until combined
Set mixer to low and add flour mixture and room-temperature milk in five parts-- flour, then milk, then flour, then milk, then flour
In a clean bowl, use electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment to beat egg whites until foamy
Add cream of tartar, continue to beat until soft peaks form
Add remaining 1/2 cup of sugar gradually
Beat until stiff peaks form
Using silicone or rubber spatula, fold a small amount of the whites into the batter
Fold in remaining whites until combined, being careful not to over-mix or it will deflate
Divide the batter evenly between the pans, smoothing tops when done
Bake 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean
Cool cakes in pans on a wire rack for about 15 minutes, then remove cakes from the pans and cool on the racks
Frost and decorate the cakes once they are completely cooled  

To layer the cakes, put the first one top down, put frosting in the middle (I added sprinkles to one of mine as well), then put the next cake on, bottom down. This helps eliminate gaps and sliding. Keep frosted cakes covered in the fridge. 


Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened (do not use margarine)
• 1/8 tsp salt 
• 3 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1 tsp milk
• 1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• Food coloring, if desired

Directions

Combine butter, sugar, and salt. Beat until creamy.
Add milk and vanilla
Beat until smooth and creamy, at least 5 minutes
Add food coloring, if desired, beating until well-mixed

To make cakes easier to frost, I love using frosting knives. This set that I got doesn't cost very much and works great.


This post contains affiliate links. For more on affiliate links, view the disclosure and policy page.

Make Baking Easier with Silicone Baking Cups

I got to try Brighid's Kitchen silicone baking cups  free. For something new, I'm doing a video review this time in conjunction with my usual review. The video adds to the review, so be sure to watch it.

Ratings Out of 10

Overall 10
Thickness 10

Price 9

Appearance 10

Ease Peeling off Baked Goods 10
Ease Filling 10
Ease Baking 10

Ease of Cleaning 10
Stability 10

Ease of Storage 10

Recommend Yes!!

 

I've always wanted to try silicone baking cups because I hate using paper cups or just spraying muffin pans. Neither works well. Enter Brighid's Kitchen silicone baking cups. Will they save my baked goods and sanity?

The first thing I noticed was how colorful the baking cups are. The six colors are vibrant and so pretty! All 12 cups come stacked in a sturdy box that you can keep them stored in. According to Brighid's Kitchen, the cups are safe to use in the oven, microwave, freezer, refrigerator, and dishwasher with temperatures from -40 to 446 degrees. The manufacturer also notes that the cups are FDA approved food grade silicone and BPA free for safe use by you and your family. There's even a no questions asked one year replacement guarantee. Some of the uses Brighid's Kitchen suggests for the cups are:

• Baking cupcakes, muffins, cheesecakes, egg muffins, etc. 
• Creating large ice cubes, ice cream cupcakes, etc. 
• For gelatin and pudding. 
• In the microwave with fast cook recipes. 
• Mini snack bowls for nuts, chocolate, etc.
  

Unlike many silicone cups, these are soft and flexible. Not at all rigid and hard. I love the feel. They're so thin, yet don't tip over when being used, even without using a muffin pan.

I tested the cups out on cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day. They are wonderful! When filling them with better, they never tip or spread out. Baking is the same as usual. Once they're done, they pop right out. You can take them out with one hand, no problem. The cupcakes were extra moist, too. I think I need a second set!

You really should try these cups. EXPIRED!! To make that easier, just for our readers, you can get 20 percent off Brighid's Kitchen silicone baking cups EXPIRED!!

For even more fun, we're giving away a set.* The winner receives a coupon code for Amazon to get the cups and shipping free (an $8.99 ARV). The giveaway ends March 31. May the odds be ever in your favor!


a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

Affiliate links are included in this post. You can find our disclosure and policy here. I received this product at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Your experiences may differ. 


*The giveaway is being handled directly by Brighid's Kitchen, I have no control of the outcome or ability to know or contact the winner, nor to get or send the coupon code. Available to U.S. residents only.

Looking Ahead to 2015

A new year means new plans. New goals. New hopes. New dreams. So much new comes when the clock ticks over to midnight January 1. For me, I have a number of these for the blog, my family and myself this year.

M2 is finally old enough to start  doing more crafts. I've got a number of ideas in my head and on Pinterest I'm excited to do with her this year. Even before she was born, I was thinking of all the fun things I could do with her.

Usually, I do baking and cooking for the holidays. None of that happened last year with pregnancy and a new baby. I just wasn't up for it. My KitchenAid mixer and other fun baking gadgets, many that I've never gotten a chance to use, are torturing me with their presence, whispering, "use me! use me!" All the recipes I stock piled, from tried and true to new-and-nifty looking are on the roster for creation and sharing. Some of the baking I'll be having M2 help with. She's already showing an interest in baking.

A previous creation.

I had planned a veggie garden last spring then realized with morning sickness and pregnancy it wasn't the right time. Those plans are back. Having two kids, including a newborn, means the garden will be scaled down. Maintaining a huge one, without having experience, just doesn't seem wise. It'll go in this spring as my first attempt at putting in a garden and at growing veggies.

My budget is getting revamped after tax time to establish where we stand and figure in a fourth family member. Another year of tweaking the budget as we go is on the horizon since we've never had two kids before. Last year it changed over the first few months as we'd never had a house of our own before.

Having two kids is the biggest endeavour of the year. Learning how to raise a boy (I'm used to girls), keeping up with two kids, reaching the toddler stage, making new mom friends, finding friends for the kids, helping M2 with her speech and overall learning, keeping her active and busy, along with joining a local church to give us better roots and meet people are all current and upcoming challenges.

I'm not great at meeting new people as I'm quite shy at first and don't have the best confidence in doing it so joining a church, and joining a new mom-and-baby playgroup are more difficult for me than you'd expect. Even going to library time to meet other moms is hard--I'm not the type who can just walk up to someone and easily start a conversation. Though, oddly, in the professional world I have no problem with it. Go figure. These things are important for finding the kids friends and making my own though, so I'll be doing it.

Weight loss is a big focus of the year. I have 25 pounds of baby weight to lose (I lost about 45 so far). Before getting pregnant, I was working on losing a substational amount. Once the baby weight is off, I'm going to continue on that journey. I'm going to be looking at is as giving up extra weight as that sounds more positive and happy than having a loss.

Focusing on the positive and being more upbeat are both things on which I'm working. I'm a worrier so I tend to see all that can go wrong which can get in the way of things. So does being a perfectionist. I need to focus more on the good, rather than the things that aren't prefect. Because, let's face it, nothing in life is perfect.

The kids' clothes are organized already.

Organization is something I work on bit by bit each year. We've lived in this house for almost two years so it's overhaul time. In preparation for baby B, we cleaned out lots of stuff from the basement. Now, it needs to be organized. I've got a few organization projects on the horizon. The extra food storage already got a good clean out last week. Being able to know what we've got, what we need and that it's all easily at hand is nice. Side note: had I done it sooner, I would have known we had a solid shelf of just pasta. Should the zombie apocalypse come, we'll be eating pasta and canned veggies. Those two things alone will allow us to stay fed for quite some time.

Being a better mom is an important goal for me. I don't think I'm a bad mom, there are just things I'd like to do and be better at. For example, the finding the kids  more friends that I mentioned earlier. Family day trips are something we don't do often enough. I plan to change that. I'd also like to see the ones we do have more often. This is also part of improving myself as a person. Many little things make up these two goals.

A previous zoo trip.

Daily life is a bit rocky right now. Our schedules are still being fleshed out. I had the cooking, cleaning, child care, errands and playtime balanced pretty well previously. Getting back to that will help me be less stressed and be able to fit in some of the other plans I've mentioned. The daily activities are what we spend most of our time doing. It takes up most of our lives so I want it to be enjoyable, stress free and easy rather than hectic, disjointed and craycray. Well, at least as much as possible. As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens while we're busy making plans." I want to enjoy that life and those plans.

All of this will find its way onto the blog throughout the year. My goal here is to post more, bring in more traffic and grow as we get into our second year in a few months. The first year has gone great, better than expected in fact. It's important to me to keep that momentum going. You can expect more of the things we usually talk about with new topics thrown in to liven things up. K and I appreciate all our readers and are so happy you join us for our stay-at-home mommy adventures.

Fourth of July Peach Crumble Pie

Now that I'm in the second trimester and have some more energy, the Fourth of July is the perfect time to do some yummy summer cooking. I've been craving homemade peach pie with vanilla ice cream on top, our family recipe macaroni salad and grilled corn on the cob. All of that is in the works, along with grilled cheeseburgers and baked beans. It's my first time making peach pie. Not all taste good (I'm picky), so I'm hoping mine will be delicious. I've scoured recipes and combined a few to give the one below a go. The crust is another recipe I put together and my first time at doing homemade.

I was going to make the pie day-of, but the peaches I got were so ripe they started splitting on the way home. Rather than letting them go a bit bad over night, I made the pie tonight. Once we cut into it tomorrow, I'll add a picture of the finished product's inside. After it backed, a few pieces of crust broke off so I got a small taste and mmmmm is it good! The crumble got a bit darker than I intended because I accidentally set the oven to 450, but it's not bad at all. I can't wait to eat it! M2 kept peering at it as I made it and got a whole bunch of sliced peaches. Those disappeared FAST! We'll be putting vanilla ice cream on top as well. To me, homemade pie isn't complete without the vanilla ice cream.

Delicious peach crumble pie

Ingredients
Crust

Dry ingredients ready to mix with peaches

1 9 in. store bought crust, no top

Crumble
1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup oatmeal (not instant)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Filling
6 cups fresh peaches, sliced (about 12 medium peaches)
1 cup sugar

Lots of juicy peaches

1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp butter, melted

Directions
Crumble

1. Combine all ingredient except butter
2. Cut butter into dry mixture with pastry blender until it is well mixed

Filling

Peaches put into the crust

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Wash and slice peaches. If you'd like, you can leave the skins on. I did.
3. Combine dry ingredients
4. Mix peaches with dry mixture
5. Spread crust into 9 in. pie plate; follow directions on container to determine any pre-baking; use pie weights to keep crust from bubbling during pre-baking
6. Add filling
7. Drizzle a bit of the melted butter on top. Brush the rest on the edge of the crust
8. Put crumble mixture evenly over top
9. Cover edges with foil to prevent burning, remove the foil for last 15 minutes of baking. If crumble starts browning too much, cover it with foil also
10. Bake 30-45 minutes, until crumble is golden and filling bubbles

Ready to bake

Easter Dinner Redux

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! We celebrated as a family on Saturday then M2 and I spent the actual day with her cousins, uncle and aunts. She had a ball and has spent most of today sleeping to recuperate. Her Easter basket of books, tub toy, stuffed animal and plate and bowl set was a hit. The little chair, giant ball and Cozy Coupe went over even better. She even figured out the egg hunt quickly and loved that, though she insisted on opening every egg (once she figured out they opened) as soon as she found it and bit a few head off some chocolate chicks and bunnies--foil and all.

As I mentioned in my Easter Dinner post here, I'd planned to share the recipes. However, I ended up not making the cheesecake, Jello salad or bunny rolls and the monkey bread went a bit screwy. It was still edible and not horrid by far, but wasn't what it should be or good enough to share. I'm still not entirely certain what went wrong, all the yummy goo just disappeared or turned hard. We were left with a pan of biscuits covered in cinnamon and a bit of goo here and there. M2 loved them, though she's also never had the really good ones so isn't the best judge.

The macaroni salad turned out well, that one is hard to mess up and I had A do it. It's his family recipe so he knows what he's doing. I'd share that recipe if I weren't afraid of making the family angry. Though, it'd probably be worse if I gave out the pierogi recipe that's been passed down through the generations. In my family, it's the sugar cookie recipe that's kept under tight lock. We'll be enjoying the leftover ham, veggies and mac salad this week.

How was your Easter?

Delicious Hummingbird Cake

The hummingbird cake is the cousin of the carrot cake and is perfect for Easter (or any time, really). After researching the name, it seems no one really knows how it got its name. It's possible it came from the "mmm" you say once you have the first, unexpected bite.

The recipe I used is adapted from one originally printed many years ago in Southern Living magazine. It seems the recipe is the most-requested one ever since it first ran back in the late 70s. My cousin first introduced me to it and I'll be making it many more times, I'm sure! M2 loves it since it has bananas.

Delicious Hummingbird Cake

by The Stay-at-Home Life

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

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Ingredients (Two Layer Cake)

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 3 beaten eggs
• 2 1/4 pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup oil
• 10 oz crushed pineapple, if from can undrained
• 3 large bananas, mashed

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon in a stand mixer and mix on stir setting until blended well.

Add eggs, vanilla, oil, pineapple and bananas and mix until all ingredients are moist

Spray two 8 inch round cake pans well so that the cake will come out easy after baking. Divide batter between the pans, they will be very full.

Bake 35-45 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the centers come out clean.

Let cake rest in the pans 30 minutes then take them out and place on cooling rack to cool completely.

Make your favorite cream cheese frosting.

Once cooled, put one half upside down and frost. Then place other half on top, ride side up, and frost.

Decorate as desired. Mine was for a spring party, so I dyed the frosting robin's egg blue, added chocolate sprinkles to symbolize a nest and dusted with clear sprinkles for sparkle.

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I mashed the bananas in the peel to make it easier.

They rise nice and high.

Yummy!