Homeboy knows how to make jam.

Get in line ladies.

Summer

A few weeks in UT visiting family, going to the Discovery Museum, camping, hiking. Just having the time of our lives basically.

The Boise Zoo. The butterfly exhibit was awesome. Can you believe what a good mom I am? I have a severe moth phobia (and let's be honest, a butterfly is the moth's fancy sister), so I think I deserve the Mom of the year award for taking my boys through that death trap.

Eagle Island + Lucky Peak is where we have lived the past few weeks. Until the nasty geese at Lucky Peak decided to poo everywhere and contaminate the water with E. coli. Don't worry, because my kids would just inhale that water while they rolled around in it. No biggie.

Go summer!

Buttermilk Pancakes

It's all about food this week, people. You either get pictures of my kids, or recipes....because that is all I really do with my life. And I'm perfectly happy with that.

I made these buttermilk pancakes this morning, mainly because when Wyatt wakes up he says "I want waffles, pancakes, oatmeal, eggs and toast." Ummm, ok, I'll get right on that! But every once and a while I will go all out and make pancakes. And I do mean go all out. Because they are a lot of work. At least for me. I always have a ton left over + a huge mess to clean up. But it's worth the hassle I think. My mom always tells me about how my Aunt Janie (who was the best cook- I remember she made these chocolate waffles which were so so good, and I am still trying to track the recipe down) would make pancakes, waffles, french toast etc. etc., and then freeze them. In the morning, she would just take a few out and warm them up. My mom also remembers her bringing over a bunch of frozen breakfast items after she had had a baby so she wouldn't ever have to worry about making breakfast for her older kids while trying to take care of a newborn. Such a good idea. So I have been freezing my pancakes and then reheating them in the morning, and it works perfectly. This morning I tried this recipe for the first time, and it just might be the best buttermilk pancake recipe I have ever made. They are super thick and fluffy. They come in a close second to my all time favorite Lemon Ricotta Pancakes which can be found on The Sister's Cafe blog.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Stir together in a mixing bowl:

2 eggs

1/2 c. oil

2 c. buttermilk (or if you don't have buttermilk you can substitute it with 2 c. milk + 2 tsp. vinegar - then remove the extra 2 tsp of mixture)

1 tsp. vanilla

In a large bowl combine:

2 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

2 Tbl. sugar

Then add the wet mixture to the dry. Stirring until just combined (still lumpy).

note: You have to have this syrup anytime you have pancakes, waffles or french toast. It's just how things are supposed to be done. This is my favorite recipe given to me from friend Danielle Carly.

Buttermilk Syrup

In a saucepan, bring all ingredients to a boil for 1 min. 

1 cube butter

1/2 c. buttermilk (or 1/2 c. milk + 1/2 tsp. vinegar)

1 c. sugar

1 tsp. karo syrup

Remove from heat and add 1 tsp. baking soda.

Risotto Rice Pudding with brown sugar + vanilla

I found this recipe* today on Joy the Baker's blog (she always has the yummiest treats + might be the funniest person I have never met). So I dragged my poor children to the store with me, again, and picked up some Arborio rice.... and now I'm sitting at my table typing this up while I pork out on a giant bowl of rice pudding. Because I sometimes get a little bit obsessive about food. Sometimes. And this is why: It is freaking good.

You might want to make it. Stat.

* I did make 1 tiny addition to the recipe. I added like 2 Tbl. granulated sugar. Because I wanted it a little.....sweeter. So sue me.

Frrrozen Hot Chocolate

Made this yummy treat tonight. It is starting to get warm here and we needed a little refreshment. This hit the spot. My mom gave me Serendipity 3's "Sweet Serendipity" cookbook a few years back. It has been sitting on my counter, just because it's cute, but I had not made anything in it until tonight. Sean and I are big fans of the Frozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity, but my personal fav has to be the Forbidden Broadway Sundae. Mercy. I had it twice while we were in NYC. That may or may not be why I gained 27 lbs in 5 days.

So you gotta start out with their whipped cream. It's perfectly (not)sweet. Their secret ingredient? Corn syrup. Who knew? I know I sure didn't. It just marries so well with the sweet and creamy chocolate, along with the icy consistency of the.......I'm kidding people. That was for you, Brooke + Aimee.

But seriously. Try it. Thank me later.

Whipped Cream
1 c. heavy cream, very cold
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 Tbl. light corn syrup.

Combine the cream and vanilla and mix well. With an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, start whipping the cream on medium speed. Add the corn syrup slowly while beating. Whip until the cream holds soft peaks.

Frrrozen Hot Chocolate
6 half-ounce pieces of your favorite chocolates
2 tsp. store bought hot chocolate mix
1 1/2 Tbl. sugar
1 1/2 c. milk
3 c. ice

Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place it in the top of a double boiler over simmering water, stirring occasionally until melted. Add the hot chocolate mix and sugar, stirring constantly until thoroughly blended. Remove from heat and slowly add 1/2 c. of the milk and stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

In a blender place the remaining c. of milk, the room temperature chocolate mixture, and the ice. Blend on high speed until smooth and is the consistency of a frozen daiquiri. Pour into a giant goblet and top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Enjoy, friends.

Heaven help us.

I have no idea what I'm doing. No. Idea.

Wyatt doesn't seem too worried about it though. Clearly.

He has yet to relieve himself on the porcelain throne, but he sure is excited about his potty chart. And the anticipation of putting a sticker on said chart is almost more than he can bear. Let's just hope that he feels the same excitement tomorrow and he can produce some results. Go, Wyatt!

NYC

Sean and I took our very first vacation without Wyatt and Jude this past week. My little sister Aimee and her husband Brandon were nice enough to take almost an entire week off of work to come and play mom and dad for us! I was a little bit nervous to leave my babes for the first time. I typed up a "schedule" for A+B (it may or may not have been 4 pages long. Single spaced. With extended margins.). It was detailed. And I am OCD, so there may have been more information in said schedule than was needed, but whatever. Thank you to the Gurr's for taking such great care of our offspring. It really meant the world to us. And I'm pretty sure they had more fun with you two than they do with me everyday. You did good.

So while we were away, we enjoyed ourselves some NYC. We attended Sean's "big" graduation and were lucky enough to have both of our parents there with us! It meant a lot to us to be able to have them there and see Sean officially graduate. While they were in town were also able to go see the play Billy Elliot and afterwards Sean's steak dreams came true when we ate at Del Frisco's. So happy graduation to Sean! We love you, and are so proud.

A few other highlights from our trip included: Seeing some of our very favorite friends. Who we miss. A lot. Subway riding. Much needed walking. Having a slumber party with the Whitings. Going to a taping of Jimmy Fallon. Eating a ton of food. Eating a ton of food and eating A TON of food. Should I name a few of the places we ate at? Sure, why not. Shake Shack (4 times. You wouldn't think that would be possible in a 6 day period. But we made it happen. Don't judge me). La Esquina. Wafels & Dinges (2 times. Worth every calorie). Stand 5. Blue Smoke. The Meatball Shop. Dessert Truck. Dean & Deluca. Juniors. Serendipity (2 times. We are so gross). Some pizza place. Del Frisco's. Sprinkles. Did I go to the Doughnut Plant you ask? NO. Ask Sean and Kathryn why. 

So 10 (combined) extra poundage and 6 days later, Sean and I are home. And happy to see our boys. And missing NYC....again.

Pictures by Kathryn + Sean's phone.

Spring. Hopefully.

Yesterday we went to the park with some friends. It was warm + sunny! We had a ball. We headed home for naps, and when Wyatt and Jude woke up, they were both red and hot. I kept taking their temperatures wondering why the thermometer was reading normal when clearly they had fevers. Then I realized this foreign pink coloring on my children's normally pasty white skin was a little sunburn. Apparently that is what happens when we finally get to leave our house and play outside (+ forget sunscreen). It's been a long winter.

Happy Birthday Sean!

Sean turns 33 today! I looked back on what we gave him a year ago for his birthday while also trying to track down the post of our USS Intrepid birthday outing. It's no where to be found. Maybe because I never posted any pictures? Of course I didn't. Sad. It was a fun day. This year we may not be able to brave the drunken leprechauns in NYC, but hopefully we will still be able to make Sean's day extra special. He requested Lomo Saltado for dinner tonight. What? This will be interesting. And of course we had to make him a batch of his favorite shamrock sugar cookies + some peppermint "patty's". We don't mess around.

Sean we love you and think you are the best. Can't wait to party with you. Boise style this year.



Don't feel too bad if your kids aren't as photogenic as ours.



You might want to try these.

Should I be ashamed that I made both of these this week? Well I'm not. Because they were delightful. And I'm a pig. So sue me.

Lemon Blackberry Souffles

Oreo Truffles

Don't judge my crappy pictures. Just know that about 99% of them come from my phone. And the other amazing 1%, from back in the day, were taken by Kathryn. Who no longer lives by me, and can no longer document my life or our baking dates. Sad.

Today I'm going to try out a Levain Bakery copycat recipe. I don't think I can even put into words how good these cookies are. They are about 8lbs a piece, and are borderline raw. So they are cooked to perfection, basically. If you are ever visiting NYC, you probably should eat there for dinner.

Lookin' sharp, Jude. Lookin' real sharp.

Before

During

 

After

In remembrance

My name is Jill, and I love treats.

If you know me at all, you know I love to eat treats. And I just so happen to love to bake treats. It's not always a good thing. I end up eating. A lot. I start to get a headache if I haven't had a huge piece of cake by 3pm. It's sad actually. And it's something I'm working on. And I feel partly bad because I have somewhat ruined Sean. When I met him, he didn't really care for treats. But I insisted he snack right a long with me. And now he has taken on the bad(?) habit of having to eat a treat after dinner every night. I thought that was normal. Apparently it's not.

So in an effort to become more...healthy, I've been trying to keep my treats down to 1 per day. It's a struggle, I'm not gonna lie. I usually save it for right after dinner. It gives me something to look forward to each day. And maybe one of these years, I'll get it down to say...5 treats per week. But I refuse to go any lower than that.

Until that happens, I will continue to peruse the Internet, in search for delicious treats during nap time each day. It really makes me so happy. And I still expect my sister Lindsey, and friend Kathryn to keep up the good work, and send me at least 1 good recipe a day. That's not asking too much, right?

Sweet & Salty Cake
Best cake I've ever made/eaten*. Hands down.

Recipe from the Baked cookbook (found on The Culinary Couples blog), which I need. Immediately.

Next on the list:

Oreo Truffles

Chocolate Bread Pudding

Cookies N' Cream Brownies

Lemon Blackberry Souffles

 *The cake recipe calls for dark unsweetened cocoa powder, dark brown sugar and dark chocolate. I'm not a huge dark chocolate fan, so I opted to use regular cocoa powder, brown sugar and a milk/semi sweet chocolate combo.

Lately

We have been really, really busy. Not really. We have just been at home. Eating a ton of Valentine's Day candy and watching Jude face plant a dozen or so times a day. He really fancies himself walking, but tends to over-estimate his bipedal abilities, which then causes him to eat it. Constantly. I will be surprised if he makes it through his 2nd year of life with a full set of teeth.

Oh, and we have really had a ball playing in the toilet. Apparently it is Wyatt and Jude's favorite new discovery. I guess nothing beats unraveling an entire roll of toilet paper, letting it fill up the bowl, and then flushing it. However, I think their favorite part of this activity is watching me frantically plunge the crap out of said bowl in hopes that I can avoid major spillage. It's a good time.

Yesterday Wyatt thought he would mix it up a bit and take a cup, scoop up a nice helping of toilet water, laced with feces, and take a swig. I almost called Poison Control.

Maybe I should just watch my kids instead of blogging?

Don't they look sweet?!

And yes, this is the best picture I could get. After about 4,789 attempts. I give up.

This is my weak attempt at catching up

So I added like 80 pictures that I found on my phone/computer and jammed them all together. To be honest, I'm not really sure what is in this little "video". Probably several duplicates, and maybe inappropriate bath pictures. So I apologize in advance.

Things that we have been up to that should be (but maybe aren't) in this video:

Halloween

Our move from NY

Thanksgiving in AZ

Christmas in UT

Jude's 1st Bday

Jude's 1st steps

Our move to ID

I guess it's been a while since I updated this?

In a nut shell...we moved. From NY to ID. I'm still a little bitter about it. I love you NY, and miss you. ID you have some serious kissing up to do. All I gotta say is, livestock...watch out. I finally passed my written exam. 2nd times a charm, right? I'm an idiot.

The Cornell Grad

He did it! And I couldn't be more proud. Way to go Sean. All your hard work has finally paid off, and you have a MSHSPA to prove it.  I may or may not know what 1/2 of those letters stand for, but still, I'm proud. And we love you.

These past 2+ years went by way too fast. We are so sad to leave, but excited to see where the future will  take us. We will miss you NYC, and all of the great friends we have made here. Hope to see you often. xoxo

It's Fall

My favorite time of year. And we finally made it out to a cider mill, where we were able to get some yummy doughnuts with friends, Wyatt was able to "pick" his very first pumpkin and we were able to check out all the bright yellow, red and orange leaves. We loved it. Here are some pictures.

Wyatt wanted to get in on the action. He ran up saying "bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk bawk!!!!" These roosters were not happy with each other.

Hi Jude.

Love you pumpkins.

Check out that family pic.  Perfection.

We finished off the night with dinner at Cheesecake Factory, in celebration of Sean's graduation tomorrow!! Way to go Sean, you are the smartest, cutest, sweetest, funniest, most popular person I know. xoxo.

Wyatt wants to be a bus driver...

After visiting the NY Transit Museum today! There are a few things that I want to do before we leave NYC, and going to this Museum in Brooklyn was one of them. We stopped for lunch at Buttermilk Channel (featured on Unique Eats on the Cooking Channel of course!) in Red Hook, then headed up to the Museum for some serious fun. Wyatt was a maniac, but loved every minute of it. Running around inside the old subway cars, driving his own bus, and seeing all the trains. He didn't want to leave. Literally. He was hysterical. And after making the bad bad decision of taking him into the gift shop where all the books and toy subway cars, trains and buses were, he officially lost it, and then we headed home. But I'm so glad we went, it was worth every one of Wyatt's tears. See for yourself:

                          

Funny story? I wanted to see if Wyatt could hold himself up. Well he could, for about 5 seconds. You can't really tell, but he wasn't positioned over the seats, like it looks. He was really a few feet above the ground. And yes, I almost didn't catch him. See below. Sean was not happy with me.

            

Subway car to ourselves

                                                  

Bus driver in training

Sean took his job very seriously.

As he ushered the riders on.

Pure happiness

A lot of our pictures were blurry, but you will just have to trust me, the subway cars were awesome. And there were TONS. All different styles, from different eras.

It was hot down there, ok?

Family picture attempt

Blurry bus riding