tifi

I took the day off because I felt a wicked cold coming on yesterday. I spent the morning doing Dora puzzles and then taking a nap. The restorative powers of a nap are amazing! When I woke up, I listened to the kids’ daily reading and did math with them , then we had a short science lesson which involved parrots, wikipedia, and calling Grandma, heh. We baked cookies because we felt like it and now DD and I are heading to the library. Not every day was like this when I was at home, but a fair amount were. And I miss them.

I should be so proud of these cupcakes. Seriously, it’s un-natural. But I am. I was beaming when my co-worker said I couldn’t possibly have made them, and that I must’ve stolen the photo from a Martha Stewart magazine. Does Martha Stewart cover her table with grocery circulars so there won’t be a huge mess to clean up? I think not!

Said co-worker actually inspired me to make them. She gave me a parenting mag with pics of Easter cupcakes and I decided they didn’t look so hard to make. I baked these from scratch and then ended up going in a totally different direction for the frosting. I let the kids have at it. Tada.

My life otherwise is utterly depressing, so looking at these cupcakes makes me happy. Hey, whatever it takes to get through the day, right?

So I came upon this recipe at one of the blogs I mentioned last week and knew I had to try it right away. I had all the ingredients, and that is mostly how I cook, I rarely go out of my way to buy specific things a recipe calls for. I’m a winger. When I bake, with the exception of a few items, I am not quite sure what I am doing. But I made these pretzels…and they came out perfectly! Everyone liked and ate them…not just to appease me either. Wow! We did some with brown sugar, some with garlic, some with sea salt. All fabulous. With lemonade to drink. The kids had a blast deciding what shapes to make the pretzels in, and we talked about why dough rises, so we had a little science thrown in there too. Best of all, it was super simple, my favorite kind of project.

Bebe wanted to hear some music today. He wanted to listen to his favorite group: They Might Be The New York Giants. I hope you’re enjoying your Saturday. My red velvet cake is calling, I have to go answer.

Look at what I made yesterday! My first pound cakes! One is going on our picnic at the lake today…

Recipe