Pudding Pops!

Heaven, I thought thy name was pudding.

So creamy and chocolaty. Oh so easy to make. The time investment to make you is so small but the flavor payoff is so big.

Then I found Ikea (another name for heaven. I swear they pipe oxygen into that place to make it so blissful, but I digress...)
And within Ikea I found these wonderful popsicle molds. My mind raced with the possibilities. I saw a blissful summer with my children eating homemade goodies instead of store bought, artificially colored, corn syrup ridden frozen treats. As soon as I got home I made grape juice pops (fab), green tea pops (sweetened with Agave nectar, also fab) and a green tea/ grape juice mix (super fab.)

Then like a bolt from the blue it hit me - put pudding in them! Heaven. Just heaven. The recipe* I use to make pudding freezes brilliantly - no frosty yuk on the outside, firm yet easy to bite into, oh did I mention they are only 120 calories?

They are also kid (and husband) approved. Yes that is pudding on her face - shame on you for thinking otherwise!

*So the recipe I use is from Smitten Kitchen. Very easy. Three steps, that's it. Take that instant pudding! I make a few changes when I make this for my family, though. I am the only member of my family that likes my chocolate as dark as I can get it, so I cut the chocolate back to 4oz and I use 2% milk. This is why my calorie count is down a bit from the original recipe. I also don't use the double boiler to cook the pudding, I just put it straight in the pot and stir constantly with a whisk. This process cuts about 10-15 minutes off the prep time. This recipe will make 12 pops.

Crazy, yet cool...but kinda not.

What you are looking at in the image above is condensation on the back of my car this morning. All of those little curly lines in the wetness are from small beetle larvae that are currently raining from my giant tree. I thought is was cool because, well look at it! It was gorgeous in the morning sun. It is not cool because 1. Those beetle larvae also fall on you when they are hatching, and 2. they are killing our tree. We will be spending some quality time with the extention service this summer trying to save our favorite tree!


Below is a pic of my little girl just because. She makes me smile, so I thought she might help you out. she is wearing the perfect shirt for our household: Spiderman holding a camera.

Happy Birthday to me!

It was my birthday yesterday. It was a quiet affair. My husband made a dinner of foods I never get to enjoy guilt free ( BLT's and mashed potatoes) but since it was my birthday, I enjoyed both. We had considered going out to dinner, but nothing sounded good. We have a slight problem in that I have been cooking more. I have figured out most of my favorite foods (except for Indian!) so the best that can be said for a lot of the restaurants we usually go to is"At least I didn't have to clean up!" Eating out just doesn't happen often around here anymore!

Here is my girl enjoying her cupcake!

Here is my solution to the icing on the Guinness cupcake issue: over fill the centers! Alright, it looks a bit like poo, but it is really good - I promise!

My Irish eyes were smiling.

I took the kids into the back yard in an effort to take some pictures of them on St. Pat's day. They were not amused.

Grumpy.

Daddy's girl.

Up to something.

This will be their first album cover.

Happy St. Pat's day.

Oh, I miss Ireland. It is my most favorite place in the world. If I hadn't had children, my husband and I would probably be in the Celtic lands now instead of the Midwest. Oh well, I can't complain I gave the world two more Irish! I wanted to post the song I heard on WNKU today by Gaelic Storm called " Don't Let the Truth Get in the Way of a Good Story." I think this is becoming my son's theme song. Like all good Irishman, he loves to tell a tall tale. I have another Bard on my hands. Since I couldn't find a good copy on youtube, I'll share this:

Getting ready for St. Patrick's Day.

So I found a recipe for Guinness cupcakes over at Smitten Kitchen , and decided that a St. Pat's potluck was the perfect excuse to make this decadent little treat. Three words can describe these cupcakes : Oh My God.

The cupcake itself is flavored with Guinness and cocoa powder. Very soft and delectable. Then you hollow out the middle ( I used the Jameson lid and a melon baller) and fill that space with an Irish whiskey ganache. I love this process because, well, do you see that little pile of cake forming in the back of the image above? Guess who got to eat it! Waste not, want not and all that stuff.
The recipe also includes a Bailey's Irish Cream icing. I went with a run of the mill vanilla with green sugar to make it all purty. I was afraid the Bailey's icing wold be too much. I don't know if I will do icing at all next time. Don't get me wrong - I love icing - but it pretty much took over. I loved the delicate flavor balance of this cupcake before it was iced and I think it got a bit lost. I also really like how the cupcakes look pre-iced as well. They are as pretty as a thumprint cookie.

Special Girl

All girls are special. I should just put that out there.

But this little girl is daddy's girl. Wrapped around her tiny three month old pinky, he is!

She has a very special name. One that she shares with her father's close friend who was taken from us shortly after we learned she was on the way. The tattoo on his arm is in honor of this friend.
(Not to change the subject, but don't you just want to eat up that belly?)

I will post more pics of her soon, but I just had to share these.

Twitter?

I laughed til I cried while listening to this on NPR. It pretty much sums up why I don't Twitter.
"What are you doing right now?"
" Nobody cares!"

No one needs to know every time I change a diaper!