Patience!

So looking back at my posts, I've come to notice that I haven't posted any about what we've been doing homeschooling-wise lately. I just wanted to let you know that we have been working on Jungle Week and it is so much fun! The worst part about jungles is that you always keep finding stuff to add, new animals, new plants, new information. I guess I'll eventually have to draw the line somewhere but right now is not the time! So be patient and I'll eventually have Jungle Week posted for all to read about. In the meantime please enjoy this sneak peek

Pancake Sunday 2.27

Carrot Cake Pancakes

with

Honey Butter

These were the best pancakes by far, in fact I'm thinking about scrapping Pancake Sunday posts and just making these every Sunday for the rest of my life. They were so good! And lucky for you I am posting the recipe to these pancakes because I happened to get it off a public recipe site instead of out of a book. So you can enjoy them too! 

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!

Flour mixture of: flour, baking powder, salt, walnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger

I've always been fascinated by the patterns vanilla makes when added to milk

Grating carrots is a messy and time consuming job

Fold in carrots gently!

Mixed until just moist

I love pancakes that have some color!

BEST. PANCAKES. EVER.

Get your pens and paper ready!
(here's the moment you've been waiting for)

Carrot Cake Pancakes

1 1/4 cp flour

1/4 cp chopped walnuts

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp nutmeg

dash of cloves

dash of ginger

(I like spice so I used a few more "dashes" of all the spices...add as much as you want, you know what you like)

1/4 cp brown sugar

3/4 cp buttermilk

1 tbsp oil

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs, beaten

2 cp finely grated carrot (I used a whole 1lb bag)

Honey Butter

3 tbsp butter, softened

2 tbsp honey

Directions

Combine flour, walnuts, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, cloves and ginger in a large bowl.

Combine brown sugar, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and eggs in a smaller bowl.

Add milk mixture to flour mixture, do not over stir.

GENTLY fold in carrots. (I combined milk and flour mixtures before grating the carrots to allow them to rise slightly)

Pour 1/4 cp batter on hot griddle and cook cook cook! (I got 13 pancakes out of this recipe)

For the honey butter just combine the honey and butter (I set it in the fridge to set up slightly)

Serve pancakes with honey butter and whatever else you want, I also topped mine with whipped cream but I tried them with just the honey butter and they were still the best things ever.

Go out and buy the ingredients for these pancakes now!

Pancake Sunday 2.20

Heavenly Cloud Cakes
or so they claim...

Beaten eggs

Egg and sour cream mixture

Pancake mishaps do happen at my house!

These pancakes definitely had pros and cons about them. 

Pros: Easy, fast to whip up, only 5 ingredients

Cons: Hard to tell when done, not a very good plain flavor, didn't keep well in fridge

There are only 5 ingredients in the recipe which make it awesome: eggs, sour cream, flour, baking powder and salt. The problem with the eggs and sour cream is that it makes it hard to tell if the pancakes are set in the middle, they got firm but not fluffy like, more like the texture/consistency of an omelette. The trick with these is to cook them over lower heat than usual.

The other problem with the sour cream is that it made the pancakes a bit too tangy for my taste. I like to snack on pancakes straight from the fridge throughout the day and these weren't very good to do that with, they were delicious with butter and syrup though!

The eggs gave them a rubbery texture after being in the fridge too...bleeehhh

Overall, I'm not sure if I'll make these again. Maybe as a "I'll keep the ingredients in the fridge" last resort.

Rambling...

Man, I sure have been AWOL from the blog lately haven't I?
I feel bad, but not really...
The weather has been really nice so I've been out taking advantage of it. Today we went to the zoo tomorrow we're planning a beach excursion.
I haven't just been being lazy though, I do stuff, I swear!
I got the floor in the art studio painted.
I officially launched the blog and the Facebook page for Dilly-Dali Art and the art group for spring filled up within 24 hours. HOLY COW!
I debuted a logo and launched a Cafe Press store with merchandise that has the logo on it.
I created a team for this year's March for Babies (all are welcome to join the team!) if you can't join consider donating, it's for the sweet little babies.
I've completely ignored the dishes this week. I'm getting really bad about that but seriously, who wants to stand at the sink all day doing dishes!?
I've been reading reading reading art books from the library and I wish I owned them all...I love having reference books around the house, just ask the 192359099083245098.6235345 textbooks I have on my bookshelf...
I honestly can't tell you the rest of the stuff I've done this week because I honestly don't know what day it is! Sometimes when you spend your days with 2 small kids that don't care what day it is you start not caring what day it is too...here ends my mindless ramblings for tonight.

Pancake Sunday 2.13

Whole Wheat Apple-Raisin Pancakes

with

Apple Cider Syrup

These pancakes were so good! They tasted like apple pie!

YUM!

What. A. Week.

Holy cow, oh my goodness it's good to be back to blogger world. Seriously it has been a crazy week full of sickness. First one girl, then two girls, then Mommy, then the girls again...like a never ending cycle of sickness! And to top it all off it snowed last night!

WTF! 

I am very done with snow. I think I've had my fill of snow for the rest of my life.

Anywho, before I came down with the plague I had been working on a blog post (not this one) to let you know about the progress of the art studio and the toddler art group. Well I scrapped that blog and started writing this one because sometimes it's better to just start all over again.

Before I get to the studio let me tell you a funny story...

My Mom came over the other day and had need to use my computer. My computer is in a tiny room off of my bedroom, it reminds me of a cave. Either way, she enters my cave and exclaims, "O.M.G." Confused I ask, "What?" She points at a huge yellow bag on my desk.

UH OH.

That's right folks, she found my huge 36oz bag of chocolate chips. I blog mostly at night when the girls are sleeping, in my cave with all the lights off snacking on chocolate chips! The secret is out! Don't judge me!

The Cave

Now that you know my deepest, darkest secret, time to move on to the art studio!

I am happy to announce that we have two tables in there for the art group! There is still a lot of work to be done but we are getting there and should be ready by the time we have our first meeting in March. I have also started a facebook page and a blog for the art group so please check them out and follow and like and tell everyone about them! I am very excited to launch this group and I can't wait until we get our first toddlers/preschoolers signed up!

Everything is coming together swimmingly!

Wordless Wednesday: Investigating New Things

Pancake Sunday 2.6

Luscious Lemon Pancakes

with

Fresh Berries 

The darned zester sliced my pinky open!

Love how these puffed up like little souffles

Fresh berries and powdered sugar to top these delicious pancakes!

This was the best Pancake Sunday yet! The pancakes were fabulous! A very egg based batter, with whipped egg whites, I managed to not over beat the whites (like I did to these) and they puffed up beautifully! The only lemon in the batter was fresh lemon zest and it created the perfect hint of lemon flavor. Not too sweet which was great for topping them with powdered sugar and fruit. 

Deeeeelicious! 

We WILL be making these again...contact me if you'd like the recipe!