Bad Blogger

I am such a bad blogger. I haven't posted in almost a month. We have just been so swamped! I was barely cooking anything in December unless it was something quick from the freezer, let alone baking. I made a couple of batches of Christmas cookies, but that's it. Between being busy with the holidays and doctor's appointments and MRIs and all that, I just didn't have the time or desire to be in the kitchen. But I am going to readdress that. I found some pictures that I took a loooong time ago and will start posting those things and then get back into Tuesdays with Dorie!

TWD: Sables

I'm back baby! I took most of November off because we were sick, then we were in Aruba for Thanksgiving. So now I am hopefully back in the swing of things. This week's Tuesdays with Dorie is Sables chosen by Barbara of Bungalow Barbara. These are light buttery shortbread cookie and oh so good. They are a little on the plain side, but I spread them with some Chocolate Caramel Spread(like Nutella) that I got at Cost Plus and that made them to die for. There are a lot of different options to play around with, they are very versatile. I highly recommend them since they are so easy!

TWD: Sugar Topped Molasses Spiced Cookies

November is a crazy month, so instead of having specific recipes due on specific dates, we have all month to do the recipes as we wish. So this week's Tuesdays with Dorie is Sugar Topped Molasses Spiced Cookies chosen by Pamela of Cookies with Boys. I have never used molasses. But as you all know, I love cookies, so jumped on the chance to make these. I have to admit, when I was mixing these, I almost threw them away because they smelled so bad. I used the best kind of molasses, but it still takes some getting used to. I am so glad I kept them! The cookies were really good. They came out huge--I definitely could have gotten a lot more cookies out of it, but divided it as Dorie suggested. I am the only one eating these, so I am going to try popping them in the freezer and then mailing them to my cousins and see how they fare.

Book Review: The Well Behaved Child

I love reading. I typically pick some kind of fiction, but every now and then will pick up a non-fiction book. I was chosen to give my first ever book review! My kids are typically pretty good kids. They fight with each other, don't pick up unless I threaten them, and are occasionally bad. But overall they are great kids. So I chose The Well Behaved Child Discipline that REALLY works! to see if I could learn anything new to try.

I'll be honest, this book started out pretty crazy. One of the first things the author, John Rosemond, states is that ALL kids are bad. I simply don't agree with that. There are of course some kids who really are bad kids, but there are way too many kids who are good kids. But I plowed through that insane part and I am so glad I did! There were some excellent ideas.

I've already tried one and so far, it is working! TJ has been sleeping in either Tim's or my (although it's 99% Tim) bed most nights of the week. He has a "tummy ache" or a "bad dream". I really don't buy it. He's healthy and frankly, I don't think he has that many bad dreams. So I told him that from now on when he sleeps in one of our beds, he can't use electronics the next day. So far in the week I have implemented it, he has only slept with Tim 1 night and not at all with me!

We are going to be implementing a couple of other strategies and hopefully they will be as successful! If you are having problems with your kids, big or small, I think this book is worth a read.

TWD: Sweet Potato Biscuits

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie is Sweet Potato Biscuits chosen by Erin of Prudence Pennywise. Growing up I hated sweet potatoes. My mom would make this Sweet Potato Casserole every Thanksgiving and I would turn my nose up and ignore it. And then one day a few years ago I was having lunch with my mom and she got Sweet Potato fries with her lunch. So I tried one. And OMG I have been a sweet potato convert ever since. I love sweet potato fries, sweet potato casserole, golden mashed potatoes(regular and sweet potatoes mixed), roasted sweet potatoes.... you get the idea. I was excited about these biscuits and then I read people were having problems with rising. I tried to avoid overmixing. But I still got flat little biscuits instead of puffy perfect biscuits. They were still good, especially with the cinnamon honey butter Tim bought at Costco a couple of weeks ago, but they didn't look very pretty.

TWD: Allspice Crumb Muffins

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie is Allspice Crumb Muffins chosen by Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table. I love making muffins. I love the kids being able to eat something good and relatively healthy for breakfast. TJ loved these, Gabby not so much. I thought they had a great texture and taste, but were sorely lacking. They needed some chocolate chips, blueberries, or nuts. Something to jazz them up. They were just too plain. I'll definitely try making them again adding something extra.

TWD: Split Pudding

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie is Split Pudding chosen by Garrett of Flavor of Vanilla. I love pudding so I was pretty glad to be making this. I especially like the timing of this since I had extra ganache from last week to reuse. I didn't do this in the food processor because last time I made something liquidy in it, it was a disaster. Frankly, I don't think the food processor was made for liquids. I just whisked it for the beginning part. After it thickened up and it was time to add the butter and vanilla, I threw it in the Blend Tech and finished it up in that. It worked beautifully.



I opted to serve it in wine glasses and martini glasses so it would look pretty. For some reason, the plastic wrap left weird marks on the top. It also separated funny once I started eating it. I'm not sure why, but the vanilla part seemed to slip right off the top of the chocolate. Frankly, I wasn't that impressed with this. The vanilla alone was fine. The chocolate alone was fine. But together it was just meh. I probably won't be making this again, but oh well.