Monster Birthday

How does one throw a Monster Party for a 3 year old? This was the question I pondered for months as Gwendolyn had requested a monster party waaaaay back in June.

I didn't want a scary monster party, but I didn't really want to do Monsters Inc. either.

So I made some monster cakes and cupcakes (not shown) and called it a day.

My birthday girl was happy... 

...and that is all that really matters.

I dare you to find anyone cuter than this girl

No...I double dog dare you

Happy Birthday, Gwendolyn! 

Lemon Scones

Many people have asked for this recipe and so after hand-writing I-don't-know-how-many recipe cards and developing acute carpal tunnel, I decided to just post it and then anyone can find it, copy it, make it, bake it and eat it! 

(Disclaimer: I am not a photographer, nor do I claim to be one. So some pictures are actually pretty good and some are in fact pretty horrible, however I try...)

The needed ingredients. 8. That's right..8...I like easy recipes.

Put flour, baking powder, brown sugar and butter into the food processor.

Pulse until mixture looks like this. (okay this picture is just plain embarrassing) I tried 27 pictures (no joke) to try to get the lighting right so you could see what it is supposed to look like and finally just carried the bowl outside into

 natural-God-given-light.

Mix cream and the egg together. (that spoon is much too big for that measuring cup. Ha! I just noticed that)

Take your lemon zester and a yummy fresh lemon.

Zest the entire lemon. I always use a paper plate and I don't know why...

Mmmm...look at all that fresh lemon.  Pour lemon zest into flour mixture (I forgot to take a picture of that....sorry)

Next take your handy dandy juice squeezer and squeeze a lemon.

Mmmm...fresh lemon juice.

 Add lemon juice to egg/cream mixture with the giant  spoon.

Pour into flour mixture and mix until dough just comes together.

Dump the dough onto floured surface (I strongly dislike beginning a sentence with the word "dump" It is such an ugly word....anyway, I digress)

Shape dough into a large circle (or two small circles if you want mini-scones)

Cut into 8 equal pieces.

Place in preheated oven. Bake at 15-18 minutes at 

400 degrees.

Until they look like this...Mmmmm.

Meanwhile....melt 1/2 stick of butter in a saucepan.

Now you have a choice...you can add the super secret ingredient of brown sugar (which makes the glaze taste caramel-lemony) or be a purist and have just lemon glaze...its a win/win either way because they are both so good.

Squeeze another fresh lemon. Yummy!

Add the powdered sugar and lemon juice and whisk away.

Oh! heaven on a plate

Now...go for a run and burn off all those calories. I for one, am exhausted from all this typing, so I will eat one more and then take a nap.  Here is the recipe:

Lemon Scones

2 cups of flour

2/3 cups brown sugar

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 cup unsalted butter

2 Tablespoons lemon zest (approx. 1 lemon)

Place above ingredients into food processor and pulse until mixture resembles course mixture. Pour mixture into a large mixing bowl. Zest lemon and add to flour mixture. Set flour mixture aside.

3/4 cup heavy cream

1 egg

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Mix cream, egg, and lemon juice until just mixed. Add to flour mixture and mix until dough just comes together.

Dump the dough onto floured surface and shape into a circle. Cut into 8  wedges. Place on un-greased cookie sheet and bake at 400 for 15-18 minutes.

Glaze

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup brown sugar (secret ingredient is optional)

1-1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/8 cup fresh lemon juice

Melt butter in saucepan. Add brown sugar and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat. Add powdered sugar and lemon juice and whisk until smooth. Drizzle over cooled scones.

He IS mine after all.

I have a love/hate relationship with early release days. I love that the kids are home early, but hate the question: "What can I do? I am bored..." all afternoon long! Which I hear from my oldest child, who has never,  I repeat never, been able to entertain himself.

So I told him to go make cookies. Which he did. Because he is an obedient little boy and he loves to bake. A relief to me, since it assures me that he actually did inherit some characteristics from me (....the love of baking part, not so much the obedient part)

 So his little genius brain figured out the measurements and directions and then he made cookies all by himself (while I documented with my camera)

 Apparently he also inherited my baking habits. (I admit. I have a slight problem of using a lot of dishes and making a colossal mess...something Phil adores about me)

 The end result is phenomenal and delicious.

 Seriously....is this not the cutest face you have ever seen? 

My New Favorite...

There was a baby shower at my house today (I didn't attend, just hosted, but not really....it's a long story) Anyway, I found these AWESOME balloons that measure 3 feet! I love them!

They are so pretty and fun.

These would be stunning Christmas decorations. If I could figure out how to keep them full of air for 5 weeks. (hmmmm...something to think about)

Here is how BIG they are in relation to a human's head - in this case Phil's head which is a bit on the small size, but stuffed full of brains, I assure you. (I think he wants to remain anonymous, thus the back of the head shot...ha!) 

P.S. Sorry about the lighting...my camera setting is apparently set incorrectly.

How early is too early?

I remember when I was little how I loved to look through the  Christmas toy catalog when it came in the mail (remember the Sears Wish Book?!). I would dream of all the toys that I would never actually receive, but that I believed my happiness depended on!

 And now that I have kids (well the kids pictured above aren't actually my kids although they're pretty close) I love to see the excitement over the Toy Catalog - only this time it's the Walmart catalog, not Sears. Whatever happened to the Sears Wish Book anyway...do they even make one anymore? Sad.

There is just something about dreaming and anticipating that seems to be fading as I get older. I focus too much on what needs to get done; the cleaning, laundry, cooking, etc. And yet, when I see my kids (and this one pictured above is actually mine) excited about toys they know they will never receive and anticipating the fun and joy of Christmas, it makes me think that maybe my children are God's way of helping me to keep my ability to dream and anticipate.

So in light of that revelation or thought or whatever it is. I am thinking about decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving (gasp!) Phil is adamant that this is unheard of and simply not the way it's done. So I am conducting a poll. Please vote and tell me if you think that I should break all Lohrer family rules and decorate before Thanksgiving or continue to be a law abiding citizen of the Lohrer household and wait until the day after Thanksgiving.

Broken Cookies

I originally posted this post on my other blog, two years ago. However, every time I make cookies (which is often) and inevitably break one... or two... or three (sigh) I think of this post:

My friend Tarrah laughs at me because I tell her to frequently ask me; "Are you following the broken cookie principle?" This principle has become my new standard of operating.

My top gifts that God has given me are giving and serving. And I feel filled up and joyFULL when I use my gifts. However, awhile back I had a shocking realization - which led to the "broken cookie principle."

I had finished baking cookies and Phil came in the kitchen. He started looking around on the counters and finally after a few minutes, asked:

"Where are the broken cookies?"
"There aren't any this time...I actually made a perfect batch!"
"Oh...that's too bad"
"You can have one from the cooling rack"
"Really?"

Now that may seem like an innocent conversation, however, it hit me soooo hard and made my heart hurt! I realized that I was giving my family the leftovers. In all my baking, cooking, serving others, I had made my family feel second best, second place. AND sure enough, Lukas came into the kitchen a few minutes later and we had the same conversation. "OKAY GOD....I GET IT!" Then Evalin, in her sweet voice "I get a beautiful one today!" OH MY HEART! (Kathryn and Isaac haven't observed the pattern so they were as equally happy to get a perfect one as a broken one because....SUGAR!!!!!!!!! HA!)

Needless to say, lesson learned! This is also why my blogging has hugely tapered off....I can't sit and blog all while saying: "No, honey, I can't read you a story, because I am writing our family's story for the world!" I exaggerate, but truly, they can't have my leftovers...including time. So when I have extra time (extra time...that's a good one) then I will blog.

So if you see me walking around.... you have my permission to ask...."Have you served any broken cookies lately, Amanda?"

Next year I am going to be Martha Stewart for Halloween...

I found orange bags at Michael's for only $1 and thought "we can have craft time and paint these while sipping apple cider and eating homemade pumpkin cookies...it will be perfect" You would think I would have learned better by now.

During our craft time, I didn't make pumpkin cookies and no one wanted apple cider. One of my kids was sent to their room for...well, I'll leave that part out. One child painted all over their arm with permanent fabric paint...did I mention it was permanent?  So my dream of afternoon bliss evaporated just like that. (sigh)

However, even though no one was sipping cider and eating cookies - all while arising and calling me "blessed" - all the kids had a great time (well the one in their room might have a different story...) and the bags turned out wonderful. Each bag representing the personality of the person who made it.

Gwen had a little bit of help from Lukas.

 So the day didn't turn out like a page in Living magazine, but I am not living in a magazine. I am living my life...and I wouldn't trade it for all the homemade pumpkin cookies in the world!