Hundred Days

New York schools don't start up until after Labor Day.  While children all over the country have been celebrating the 100th day of school for the past several weeks, we won't have our Hundred Day celebration until next Thursday.  The children were asked to pull together a project using 100 items.  The sheet sent home suggested beads, stickers, macaroni, etc.  But in this house, Legos are king.  Remember the Lego table I made here?

When SB was charged with coming up with 100 things to bring in for the Hundred Day celebration, right away he decided to count out Legos.  It was quick work to count them in groups of 5.

He grabbed a Lego plate and after writing on it with a dry erase marker, began placing his bricks.

100 was too many for one layer, so he built the number up, using up all of the counted out bricks.  See that tub behind SB?  We have 4 of them, all full of Legos.

A printed out label, and his project is ready for school.

Thanks for popping in and crafting with SB.

Tissue Paper Flowers

For as long as my boys have been in school and sports, I've always been room mom, team mom, etc.  One of the duties of a room mom is to organize the class parties.  That usually means coming up with a theme, snacks (like the snowmen cookies for the winter party,) book to read, and age appropriate craft.  For this year's Valentine's party we'll be having a chocolate fondue with fruit & pretzels, and making bouquets for the kids to give their moms or someone else special.

Tissue Paper Flowers are easy to make and make great decorations that can be brought out every year.  You first start by cutting out tissue paper squares.

I stack 3 sheets and begin accordian folding.  Stacking more sheets will create a fuller mum-like flower.

Once the sheets have been completely folded,

I take a pipe cleaner and wrap it around the middle, securing it tightly.

Begin pulling apart the layers.

Your rose should look like this.

After accordian folding, you can use scissors

to cut the ends into a point or rounded curve

to create different looking petals.

Tissue paper flowers look great pulled together in a bud vase or en masse on a wreath form.

Thanks for popping in and crafting with me.

PBJ & Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

Are you ready for some football?  I am.  After this past week with the flu, I have a little extra room to indulge in Super Bowl snacks.  Nothing quite like staying in bed to drop 5 lbs just in time for munchies overload.  The Super Bowl is that special game where you don't want to miss any of the game, or any of the commercials either, so that means easy finger food.  Instead of another football cake, which would involve cutting, I made football shaped PBJ & Chocolate Sandwich Cookies.

I started by mixing up my basic peanut butter cookie recipe.  This same dough can be used to make the traditional fork hashmark peanut butter cookie.  These amounts are for a double batch.  Whisk together 1 1/4 cups potato starch, 1 cup garbanzo & fava bean flour, 2/3 cup tapioca flour, 1/2 cup sorghum flour, 1 1/2 tsps baking soda, 1/2 tsp xanthan gum, and 1/2 tsp salt.

In your stand mixer beat together 1 1/2 cups peanut butter, 1 cup shortening, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup + 2 tbsps milk, and 2 tbsps vanilla extract.

Beat in the dry ingredients.

Line 2 - 11"x17" jelly roll pans with non-stick foil.

Spread half the mixture on each lined pan.

Bake at 325 for 18-20 minutes.  Moving quickly while the pans are just out of the oven, cut your football shapes.

Cut them as close as you can to not waste too much(not that any of it was really wasted, I nibbled on the scraps while waiting for the cookies to cool.)

Let the cookies cool completely.  Flip them over to the flat side and cover half the cookies with some Brownie Dip.  I use Alison's recipe, but omit the flour.  I spread strawberry preserves on the other half of the cookies.

Sandwich the cookies together and Yum!  I added some icing laces for the finishing touch, but even without the piping they still look like footballs.

Thanks for popping in and baking with me.  I'm linking up to Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesdays and Something Swanky's Sweet Treats Thursdays.

Sicko

Sorry about the radio silence the past few days, but I've spent a good chunk of the week curled up in a ball and wanting to die.  I've had the flu.

Fever, aches, chills, head-in-a-vise congestion, and never ending cough.  Luckily, I had prewritten that waffles post to launch, otherwise it would have been an entire week of silence here.  I'm finally on the tail end of this and I feel like some fresh air might do me good.  Unfortunately the outdoors here is a nippy 32 that cuts through my lungs like a knife.  So I'll just have to imagine I'm enjoying one of these gorgeous lanais.

image via

Can't you just hear the ocean?

I'd love to be stretched out on one of these lounges with just a sea of blue in front of me.

image via

Love these lounges!  Can you believe they're Ikea?  So affordable at $169.  As much as I love the lounges, I'd probably be found in the hammock at the far end of this lanai.

Thanks for popping in and getting some {imagined} fresh air with me.

Banana Maple Waffles

Waffles are a favorite breakfast around here, and I like to mix things up with different flavors depending on what kind of fruit I have in the house.  The other day, I had some bananas nearing the end of their usefulness sitting on my counter and Banana Maple Waffles were born.

I started by whisking together 2/3 cup brown rice flour, 1/3 cup white rice flour, 1/3 cup coconut flour, 1/3 cup tapioca flour, 1/3 cup potato starch, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt.

In a large mixing bowl, I whisked together 4 egg yolks, 2 1/4 cups milk, 6 tablespoons melted butter, and 1/4 cup maple syrup.

I mixed the dry ingredients into the wet,

then added about a cup of mashed bananas.

I whipped 4 egg whites to a stiff peak and folded them in.

I poured a cup of the mixture into my hot waffle iron and baked for 4 minutes.

These were topped with some caramelized bananas(butter, maple syrup, sliced bananas and a hot skillet,) and some more maple syrup.

You could add nuts to these for a protein boost, but they were delicious as is.  Thanks for popping in and cooking with me.  I'm linking up to Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesdays.