My hubby and I really like Greek food! One day we order take-out from out local Greek restaurant and decided to treat ourselves to some baklava for dessert. Then my husband (knowing full well what he was doing ;) made some comments about how much he likes baklava and how I would probably never be able to make it at home because it is so difficult. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! I found this recipe and have been making homemade baklava ever since! The best part is that my hubby has told me multiple times that my baklava is the best he has ever had! Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottoms and sides of a baking dish. Chop nuts until they are fine. Toss the chopped nuts with the cinnamon and set the mixture aside. Unroll phyllo dough. Cut whole stack to fit pan. ***Work quickly, you may want to cover the phyllo dough or place it in the refrigerator if it begins to dry out. Place two sheets of dough in pan, butter thoroughly. Repeat until you have 8 sheets layered. Sprinkle 2 - 3 tablespoons of nut mixture on top. Top with two sheets of dough and butter them thoroughly. Then layer with more nuts. Repeat this layering process until you have used all of the nut mixture, or you reach your desired height. The top layer should consist of 6 - 8 sheets of phyllo dough (buttering after ever two sheets). Using a sharp knife cut into diamond or square shapes all the way to the bottom of the pan. Bake for about 50 minutes until baklava is golden and crisp. Make sauce while baklava is baking. Boil sugar and water until sugar is melted. Add vanilla and honey. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Let cool. Remove baklava from oven and immediately spoon sauce over the hot baklava. (I forgot to take a picture of this step!) Let cool. Leave it uncovered as it gets soggy if it is wrapped up.
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This is a comfort food dish! I absolutely love everything about this manicotti. I mean this dish combines some of my favorite things: cheese, pasta, marinara sauce, spinach and of course BACON! Although you can modify this dish to your individual tastes. I think that using shredded chicken would be really great. I have also made this dish for a vegetarian friend of mine. I skipped the bacon and stuffed a few manicotti shells, then I added the bacon to the rest of the filling and stuffed the remaining shells. After the dish was assembled I placed a few parsley leaves on top of the bacon-less manicotti so that they would be easily identified after cooking! This way we were all eating the same meal and both carnivores and herbivores were happy :) Ingredients
DirectionsPreheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 9- by 11-inch baking dish with vegetable oil cooking spray. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the oil and pasta. Cook until just tender, but still firm to the bite, about 6 minutes. Drain and reserve for later. In a large nonstick skillet, cook the bacon until crisp and brown, about 7 minutes. I like to use cooking sheers and cut up the bacon into pieces. I usually take three strips of bacon at a time and cut them into 1/2 inch pieces. You could even cut the bacon directly over the skillet. Drain on paper towels and set aside to cool. In a large bowl, add the bacon, spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, 1/2 teaspoon salt, the pepper, nutmeg and egg. Stir until well combined. Set the ricotta mixture aside and reserve for later. For the SauceBring the cream, milk, flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg to a simmer in a heavy, medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the mozzarella in batches, constantly whisking, until the sauce is thick and smooth. Reduce the heat to low and simmer 1 minute, whisking occasionally. Whisk in the tomato basil sauce. AssemblyPour half of the sauce on the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Fill the manicotti tubes with the ricotta mixture and arrange them into a single layer on top of the sauce. Pour the remaining sauce on top of the manicotti. Top with the remaining mozzarella. Cover the dish with aluminum foil. Bake until heated through and bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes. ENJOY!!!This banana bread recipe is my absolute favorite! This makes the perfect breakfast bread (or late night snack!) I used to make a banana bread with a recipe that I found online, it was very dense and I wanted to find something tastier. I got this recipe from my sister-in-law and have been using it ever since so I have named it "Aunt Ally's Banana Bread"! We love to eat slices of this bread toasted and topped with a drizzle of honey. Enjoy! IngredientsDirectionsBeat oil and sugar together. Mash bananas to a pulp. Add eggs and banana pulp to the oil and sugar mixture. Add sifted dry ingredients. Add the milk and vanilla. Mix well and then stir in nuts if desired. Grease loaf pan. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture onto all sides and bottom of pan. Pour the banana bread batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake at 350 for about an hour and 10 minutes. Cool well and store overnight or dig in!
1. Have your child create "Play-dough Cookies"! Form shapes out of the play-dough and allow your little one to press buttons (or pony beads / any other small colorful objects) into the "cookies" to decorate them. For more advanced play you could let them use a real cookie cutter to make different shaped "cookies"! My daughter loved this activity. She was very serious about placing the button exactly where she wanted. She even decided to put only yellow buttons on the yellow play-dough for a little while. She also enjoyed being able to move the button around from "cookie" to "cookie". 2. Go on a nature hike (or just a walk around the block!) and and let your toddler collect different items that she may find on the way! When you get home have your little one make impressions of the different natural things that they found. Have them press each item into the play-dough. This is an excellent opportunity to discuss textures! Have your child explain to you why the different leaves are different (some with ridges, some smooth, some big, some small)! *** You may want to rinse off some items so as not to get your play-dough dirty! I learned this the hard way with a piece of red mulch that my daughter picked up! 3. I saw this on Pinterest and decided to give it a try. You need a few pieces of raw spaghetti and fruit loops to do this activity. You use the Play-Dough to act as a base to stick the spaghetti in. Then your child can practice eye/hand coordination by threading the fruit loops down the spaghetti. For a more advanced activity use multiple Play-Dough bases and encourage your child to match the fruit loop colors to the spaghetti with the correct base. 4. This was my favorite activity that we did this week! I created a Play-Dough Dots worksheet. Then my Little One was able to pull off pieces of play-dough and press the pieces into the correct dots on the worksheet. This activity uses both fine motor skills as well as color matching. I had her tell me the name of each color as she did the activity. She had a blast and I enjoyed watching her. When I set up this activity she immediately knew what to do without me giving her any directions. She just started matching the colors all by herself!. 5. For this activity I found a few different cookie cutter shapes. I let my Little One use the cookie cutters to make different shapes from the play-dough. She played with the cookie cutters for the longest of any of the play-dough activities. She loved telling me what color and shape she made! She was able to describe thin gs like "blue star" or "small heart"! We had so much fun playing together! These Velcro Popsicle Sticks are a great homemade activity for your child. They can be used to teach colors, shapes, eye hand coordination, counting and just about anything else you can think of. This is a quiet activity that you could bring with you to restaurants or other public places to entertain your child without using technology. This activity travels well and is very easy to make! Supplies
Creating the Velcro Popsicle SticksPlace a Velcro dot on one end of the front of a Popsicle stick. Place the counterpart Velcro dot on the other end of the back of the same Popsicle Stick. Repeat this process until you have your desired number of Velcro Popsicle Sticks. Activities
2. Color Chains: Encourage your child to build chains of all one color Popsicle Stick. For more advanced play have your child connect the Popsicle Sticks in a recurrent pattern. (For example: red, blue, green, red, blue, green) You can make the pattern as challenging or as simple as you deem best for your child. 3. Making Shapes Worksheet: Use the provided worksheet to teach your child about different shapes. They can use the images on the worksheet as a guide for building the shapes. Enjoy Creating!I love making my own marinara sauce! The best part about making it from scratch is that you can play with it while you cook. I usually add more salt or garlic until it tastes perfect. Use the quantities of spices that I have listed to get you started but have fun and mix it up while you cook :) I used to make this with meat sauce but my hubby prefers meatballs so we settled things the way we settle most disagreements...with a best two out of three rock paper scissors contest. Ever since then I have been making my spaghetti with homemade meatballs! Ingredients
Making the Marinara SauceChop the Onion and the Parsley. Set a large stock pot over medium high heat. Add the olive oil and onions and cook until the onions are softened. Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, water, parsley, salt, sugar, garlic powder, minced garlic, pepper and oregano to the the stock pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and stir frequently. Cook the marinara sauce for at least one hour. ***The longer you cook the sauce the better it will taste! I usually cook mine for about 2 1/2 - 3 hours. If your sauce becomes too thick add more water to thin it out. While the marinara sauce is cooking prepare the meatballs. Making the MeatballsPreheat an oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl or stand mixer combine the ground beef, salt, onion, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, oregano, crushed red pepper flakes, Frank's Red Hot Sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. Mix until well combined. Add the milk, Parmesan cheese, and bread crumbs to the mixture. Mix until all ingredients are evenly distributed. Form 1 1/2 inch meatballs and place them onto a baking sheet lined with foil. You can bake these right away or you can place the baking sheet in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them! Bake for 20 - 25 minutes. When the meatballs are finished cooking set them aside until the marinara sauce is finished cooking. When the marinara sauce is finished cooking add that meatballs to the sauce and stir so that the meatballs are evenly coated in the marinara sauce. Turn the burner on low until it is time to assemble the spaghetti and meatballs. Top Cooked Spaghetti with the Meatball Marinara and Enjoy!1. My husband frequently uses my hair straightener to iron the collar of his dress shirts. He can quickly fix a wrinkled collar while he is wearing the shirt! This is helpful for when he has an early morning and doesn't want to get the iron and ironing board out. 2. I always use my pizza cutter to cut up fresh herbs when I am cooking. It is so much easier and faster to run the pizza cutter over a bunch of herbs than to use a knife. It is also safer because you are less likely to cut yourself! I have been doing this for years and I will never go back to using a knife for cutting herbs. 3. I use baking soda and vinegar to clean the tracks of my sliding glass doors. Over time the dirt that gets trapped in the track becomes stuck on and is very difficult to clean with other cleaners. I wipe as much of the dirt out as possible and then I sprinkle the track with baking soda and pour the vinegar directly onto it. It will bubble for a few minutes and when it stops bubbling you will be able to easily wipe your track clean! 4. We have several silicon mats that we use when we are baking. However we do not have a lot of storage in our kitchen and these silicon mats always end up getting in our way. The solution that we came up with is to roll up the mats and wrap empty toilet paper rolls around them. You will need to cut the cardboard rolls first so that they can easily fit around the mats. The toilet paper rolls do start to lose their shape when you have used the silicon mats several times, but that is never a problem because there is always another roll available to replace it! 5. Use a dryer sheet when planting in pots. Simply place the dryer sheet at the bottom of the pot and cover with soil. Be sure to keep the soil from getting behind the dryer sheet. This will keep the soil from escaping when you water your plants! This is a great activity to do with your Little One! It combines color identification, sorting and fine motor practice. The color pockets can hold any small object so the possibilities are endless! This project is simple and easy to do. I finished it in less than 15 minutes! MaterialsStep One: Fold a piece of construction paper to form a square. Creating the PocketsStep Two: Cut off the excess paper. (Do not discard! You can use these scraps to make the shapes for your toddler to use for the activity.) Step Three: Fold the paper square in half to form a triangle. Step Four: Fold the point of the right bottom corner to about 2/3 up the other side. Step Five: Fold the point of the bottom left corner up so that the edges of the paper are in line with each other. Step Six: Fold the front of the top corner down and tape or glue it in place. Step Seven: Fold the back of the top corner down and tape or glue it in place. ***Repeat this process on all of the remaining sheets of construction paper. Making the Color CatcherUsing the hot glue gun, attach the color pockets and the Color Catcher Sign to the poster board.
How to Make Decorated Sugar CookiesThese are my favorite sugar cookies to ice! The cookies them selves aren't too sweet so you can really pile on the icing (which we all know is the best part ;) I make these anytime I want an edible decoration for a party or event. As a tradition we decorate these cookies as a family for Easter. I first bake the cookies shaped like eggs and ice them with a few different background colors. The next day we sit around the table and decorate the "eggs" with white icing. Everyone has a blast with this activity and it won't stain my toddler's Easter dress because she is only using the white icing. Then we place the decorated cookies onto a platter as decoration for our Easter dinner! ![]() Ingredients:
Directions: Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. When the cookies are cooled completely ice them however you desire. I find it easier to use store bought icing but you can also make your own! ***I always have enough dough for one cookie that isn't enough for the cookie cutter. I have a habit of making a heart shaped cookie by hand and giving it to my hubby! Happy Decorating!![]()
This week has been absolutely beautiful here in Florida! The weather has been warm and sunny which is perfect for toddlers to go out and explore the natural world around them. On Saturday my Little One had her second birthday party and one of the highlights was an unplanned adventure discovering the wildlife living in our own backyard. We also have a lot of new life developing, consisting of both flora and fauna. It has been a fun filled week with lots of outdoor observations and activities. At my daughter’s birthday party we had some activities that were in the backyard. The children quickly began wondering around and discovering some new and exciting things. One of the main things that they noticed was the multitude of monarch caterpillars that are currently devouring our milkweed plants. Then my husband began to show off the chrysalises that were formed above the children’s heads thus sparking a conversation about the amazing transformation that was occurring. I personally can’t wait to see the butterfly’s that emerge! I have been reading my daughter The Very Hungry Caterpillar to help reinforce the process of the metamorphosis. On Sunday my husband discovered a bird’s nest with three tiny speckled eggs. The next day I went to check on the eggs and found three newborn baby birds! Their mother has been with them most of the time but occasionally she goes off to forage and we are able to peek on the babies. Throughout the week I have noticed that they are getting stronger and are starting to move around their nest much more. We also found out that they are cardinals and through observing them we realized that both the mother, who is brown, and the father will feed their young! I also noticed that both the mango tree and the avocado tree on our property have begun to fruit. This has giving me the opportunity to explain to my Little One that fruit comes from trees. And that fruit starts as small “baby fruit” and grows into “big fruit” before you can eat it! It will be so much fun to engage her sense of taste and touch when the fruits have ripened. I love being able to share all of these amazing experiences with my little girl and I plan to continue to look for new and exciting things for her to learn.
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Photo used under Creative Commons from ViaggioRoutard