In the Kitchen: Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am always trying new chocolate chip cookie recipes. If I see one that is claiming to be the best, then I have to try it. I saw this recipe on pinterest and it led me to the to the blog Not Without Salt. So, no this is not my recipe and no I am not going to type up the whole recipe on here since you can just go straight to her blog to get it.

 Get the recipe here.

 These are delicious cookies, which is why I bothered to share them, even if they are not my creation. I still need to try the NY Times chocolate chip cookie which is all over pinterest and claims to be the best. So, whenever I make that cookie I will post it and let you know what I think.

These cookies are nice and chewy. They are bit salty (in a good way), with a pleasant crunchiness to them (which comes form the turbinado sugar). This really is a very good cookie-----but you have to use quality chocolate!!!! No cheapo, waxy chocolate chips should be used here (or ever). If you want to save a little money use the Ghiradelli 60% cacao baking chips or the Whole Foods Dark Chocolate Chunks. They are each about $3.99 a bag, but you can find them on sale sometimes. I used the Whole Foods ones since I had them on hand and they are very good. However, if you have the means, get the good stuff (a Valrhona bar or something similar) and chop it up. It will be delicious.

Elanor approves, so I am sure you will!

Happy Baking!

Thoughts: childhood obesity, working parents, etc.

A few months ago my aunt ordered me the Parents magazine, which I have quite enjoyed. The past two issues have had articles on childhood obesity. The articles highlight families and children who are obese and what they are doing now to help their kids. It also mentions some reasons the children got like this in the first place. However, there is one reason they did not bring up and I think it deserves to be talked about and considered. It is: working parents---as in both parents work. I think this is a legitimate thing to talk about when talking about childhood obesity. Why? Well, I'll tell you. 

If both parents work and get home around 5 or 6 (dinner time), then they are both often exhausted from work and might not feel like making dinner. [I know Tyler does not feel like making dinner when he gets home and I know I do not on the one night a week I teach ballet.] However, everyone is hungry and needs to eat.  So, going out to eat or ordering take-out becomes quite common in families with two working parents. In the article, it did mention that eating out or unhealthy quick fix dinners were a big problem in these families, but failed to mention why these families were eating out all the time the first place (FYI-all the families highlighted had both parents working). I am suggesting that working parents could be a key problem to childhood obesity. I am not saying it is a terrible thing to have both parents working, I just think this problem should be discussed more openly. I think you can eat healthy with both working parents but it is more difficult. Also, there are plenty of stay-at-home moms who do not feed their families healthy food---but it is easier to eat healthy if one parent has the time to make a home cooked meal every night.  I know some people who have the dad at home and it works for them. I prefer to be at home. 

Whatever the case and whatever you might believe,  I do think it is better both for the health of the child and the child's overall well-being to have a parent at home. I personally see nothing degrading about being a stay-at-home mom. What other job could possibly be more fulfilling and difficult? As a stay-at-home mom I have full control over everything Elanor eats, plays with, reads, watches, etc. Plus, I get to spend time with her, learn about her interests, talk with her and I think a super important one: discipline her. Working parents do not have this luxury and the raising of their children is tended to by nannies, day-cares and schools (except on the weekends). Again, I really don't care if you work or want to---I simply think that this is not talked about enough and should be a considered  as one of the reasons why there are so many overweight children and also more children with problems that are being "fixed" with pills (depression, ADD/ADHD, anxiety, etc.).

What are your thoughts on this? 

 I am curious what others think, so I would love to hear some comments!

In the Kitchen: Meat and Potato Pie

I love pie. Fruit pies, cream pies, meat pies---all delicious.  I really, really love savory pies. They are the perfect comfort food. Filling, tasty, warm, and so homey. 

So, today I have a recipe for a meat and potato pie from my handy dandy Harry Potter cookbook. I promise it is easy to make (some meat pies can be a bit more laborious). If you have never made or even tasted a meat pie, this is a great beginner recipe.

Summer Fun

Ready,

 Set,

 Go!

Did I mention Elanor loves water and is not scared of it in the least? She dives, literally dives, into this little kiddie pool and scares away other little children with her exuberant and wild behavior. She even scares me a bit, since the pool is so shallow. She loves "diving" and will do it over and over and each time saying (and also wants me to say), "Ready, set, go!".

Here are a few more great shots:

 Elanor with her friend Eli:

They were talking about how the water was dirty (grass, sand, etc.).

Eli, Elanor and Grey
(I think...he is one of the twins and I can't tell them apart quite yet, sorry...)

Oh, and guess what?! We have new neighbors upstairs! They are a super awesome couple with adorable twin boys, who are only a few months younger than Elanor. It has been super fun to play with them! They seem like the sort of people we would be friends with, so we are excited.

Oh, and I promise there will be a recipe up this week! I have not been feeling too well lately (mostly due to my anemia), but I am filling my body up with iron rich foods, so I have been feeling a lot better--thus there will be more posts.

On Being Poor

I don't want to stay poor my whole life ( I want my children to have opportunities, have a real house, etc.), but I have learned a lot by being so. I know people who's parents have bought them houses (while they were in school), and others who's parents paid for all of their schooling, rent, extra everything and  never worked. While my parents were certainly helpful (helped pay for rent when I lived in Corvallis, bought groceries sometimes, loaned us money, helped with car troubles, etc.), they did not do everything for me and I am grateful to them for it. 

 I worked several jobs through out college. I am grateful I had the opportunity to work, go to school and participate in many extra curricular activities. I had a very busy and fun college life. Tyler and I were married most of our undergrad careers and did struggle finically a bit, but being in school is not quite like the "real world". 

We are currently in a sort of waiting place. Tyler needs prereqs and clinical hours before he can apply to PA school. He is busy working full time and taking those prereq classes. While his job pays a decent amount, it is by no means a job we would want to have forever. We often are just scraping along. I am not going to lie, this can be hard. There are so many women who graciously put up with their husbands going through years of school, living in basement apartments, sometimes having over five children before he is done with school. These women should get some sort of award. I met one the other day and all I could think is: this lady is incredible. There have got to be days where she thinks about everything they do not have, but she was so positive about it. I am in/going to be in a similar situation and Elanor will probably be six by the time everything is said and done (and hopefully we will have more kids too!). While this is hard, I am so grateful for this experience. 

I have started to learn about money. I am terrible about budgeting and have never done it before. I am starting to and I am trying to find ways to save money. These "skills" I am learning are sure to come in handy. I have also learned how to do so many new things!  Such as :

1. I make my own laundry detergent, get recipe here. It works great, by the way!

2. I make my own hot dog buns and they are so worth it and so yummy! Recipe here.

3. I make homemade bread--I'll share the recipe with you sometime!

4.  We did cloth diapers, which you all know---and we did have to learn quite a bit about them.

5.  I make my own tortillas. This recipe does not call for baking powder, which we did not have at the time and wanted tortillas. We liked the recipe so much that we kept using it even after we bought some baking powder.

I am planning on making my own liquid dish soap and hand soap as well. You can check out my pinterest for some recipes, if you are interested.

I probably would not have made many of these things if necessity did not require it of me. I have learned and am learning so much. While I do look forward to having a house, Tyler having a real job, and some extra cash for trips around the world, I am so glad I have experienced being poor not only to learn new things, but also to better appreciate what I had growing up and what we will have one day.

Potty Training: the tutorial

I thought my title was funny, especially if someone pins this on pinterest. Maybe it is just me. Ha. This is a bit long, but if you are interested here is our little potty training tale:

We bought a potty when Elanor was 11 months old after reading Diaper Free Before Three. 

{We bought a Baby Bjorn potty and we really like it. It is simple, has the back and only has two parts. It is super easy to empty and clean, plus for when we have boys it has that little guard thing. It was about $30.}

Beautiful Oregon

So, we are back and I will now be a much better blogger. We had a wonderful time in Oregon! We saw a lot of family and friends and saw and did many fun things. I am going to try and keep this post brief and mostly show a ton of pictures of everything we did.

We spent the first half of the week with my family:

We went to the beach (Elanor's first time!)

Elanor with her "Nan" (my mom).

I have been watching the Olympics....

.....thus no blog posts. I have also been incredibly lazy about blogging, simply put I just have not felt like it. Sorry, folks. I have a lot of posts all written down in my head. I have a few recipes (I even took pictures), some Elanor stuff, a few mom posts/Elizabeth's ideas/rants BUT we are also going out of town on Friday (to Oregon) and will not be back until the 19th!  So, I will try to squeeze in a few posts before we leave.  

How about this be my Elanor post (because I know everyone has been missing her), yes? I thought so.

She has been wanting to do a lot of this lately:

As in, she does not want to sit in her high chair and would prefer to sit at the table. I only let her do this sometimes, because she is still a messy eater.

 Pardon the crazy hair... I believe she had just woken up from a nap and insisted putting this princess dress on (the one I promised I would put picture up of).