Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies {Gluten Free}

The Bear and I were looking through a magazine and saw a version of these lovelies (Hershey's has named them Peanut Butter Blossoms) and we ripped it out to make for the holidays.  We even remembered to buy the Hershey's kisses on our next Target trip. As life would have it the recipe which was secured to the fridge via magnetic letters has gone missing.  I imagine it was from either a dog tail whipping by or some sticky toddler hands rearranging things as they do. 

Regardless, we were determined to taste these and as serendipity would have it there was a recipe directly on the bag of red, silver and green kisses. I have made many a peanut butter cookie but never one as decadent and and rich as these.

Kid Bonus:  While you make the batter, have your bears and birds unwrap kisses under your watchful eye! They told me they only ate one each!  Also, when they come out of the oven the big bears can assist in plopping the kisses on the warm cookies!

So, here is the recipe directly from the bag. I must say, while totally out of character, I followed the recipe measurement for measurement! Yay me!  

3 Swaps I Made: 

Real butter for shortening.

All Natural Creamy Peanut Butter for the Reese's Brand 

Trader Joe's All-Purpose Baking Mix for all-purpose flour

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies {Gluten Free}

Ingredients

• 48 HERSHEY'S KISSES Brand Milk Chocolates
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup REESE'S Creamy Peanut Butter
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Additional granulated sugar

Directions:

1. 1
   Heat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from chocolates. 
2. 2
   Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture. 
3. 3
   Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet. 
4. 4
   Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each 
   cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. 
   Makes about 48 cookies.
5. 
   

Eat it and weep.

Breakfast Casserole Fit for Bees

My wonderful Bee-in-laws will be hosting Thanksgiving this year at their home up in beautiful wine country. DaveBee's mama always makes a wonderful spread and she is ultra-conscious of not using gluten ingredients which can be no easy task especially when cooking a large meal like Thanksgiving! She does delectable gluten-free versions of the traditional stuffing and gravy! I am a lucky girl.

I am making a few things to help lighten the meal load!

This breakfast casserole is a first for me.  Two of my sister-in-laws and my mother-in-law make versions of it so here's to hoping it lives up.  Mine is currently in the freezer ready to heat up on Black Friday morning while we are cozily tucked in up in the Sierra Nevada foothills.  If smell is an indicator I think it will be good. With these simple ingredients how can you go wrong?

Simple Breakfast Casserole {Naturally Gluten Free}

3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 bag of frozen Tater Tots (Trader Joe's has some with simply ingredients)
1 pound of Breakfast Sausage (out of the casing)

10 ounces shredded cheese (I used a mexican blend but cheddar or jack would do)

8 eggs

1/3 cup of Milk

Seasoning (Salt, pepper, garlic powder)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook up your breakfast sausage in a frying pan until the are not pink and it is crumbly. Remember to remove casing if there is any.  While cooking up the sausage, layer the bottom of a casserole dish with frozen tater tots. Drizzle evenly and generously with olive oil. Season with salt. Stick in preheating oven to lightly toast while sausage is cooking and oven is preheating.

Beat the eggs in a bowl and add milk and any seasonings you like.

When the sausage is done, pull the tater tots out of the oven and layer the sausage on top.  Next, layer the shredded cheese over the sausage. Lastly, pour the egg mixture over the cheese layer. Place in the oven for 40-45 minutes.  You will know it is done when the top is lightly browned and there is no more liquid egg mixture.

Cool and serve with salsa or hot sauce! (We always have hot sauce with anything with eggs!)

Elfs and Bird Wirds

Ever since watching the movie Polar Express The Bear's wheels have been turning about the North Pole, elves, and everything magical in general.

Today in the car he asked:
"How do elfs make toys?"

I replied that they had a HUGE workshop with any tools they could ever want.

After a long moment of silence:
"I wish I'ma elf."

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Latest Bird Wirds:

"doh" - no
"plo" - pillow
"thee" - smoothie
"sssssss" - nursie
"shhhhh" - fish
"blahktpthpt" - blanket
"moooo" - moon
deep, gutteral, hoarse growl - sound for every animal
"bee" - bee, fly, spider
{She also thinks spiders are everywhere.  She is not scared but she points to black dots everywhere and says "bee" and I have to go through the list of insects that mean bee.  It is usually spider and the black dot is usually just that, a black dot!)

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Bonus: {this is a text I sent my mom the other night when it took about 2 hours to get The Bear to sleep... he is in a scared of the dark and stretch out bedtime as long as possible phase}

Geez...It is always something! "Im scared, sooooooo sooo so so scared.. I'm hungry...just feel my empty body! My peepee hurts...I need some cream!!!"

{He knows all the things to say that I cannot just dismiss!}

If you are a parent, did your kids ever work you at bedtime?

Some Ideas

DaveBee has got to be the most patient father in the world.  I have a pretty strict two book policy when reading before bedtime.  Often I read or sing to The Bird, give her a lil nightcap, tuck her in, and take a shower only to come out to find DaveBee still sweetly reading to The Bear.  Often, they are dissecting a bug book or finding hidden items on a page of his High-Five magazine for the bazillionth time.  Pretty cool stuff.

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While I was out of town for the weekend I called home during breakfast.

I spoke to The Bear.  I asked him what he was up to.

"I don't know but I have some ideas."

Sausage Kale Soup: Quick and Easy {Gluten Free}

I have eaten it. I have loved it. I needed to make it!

I googled the above recipe name, perused the various recipes, and came up with this winner.

My mom stopped by in rush hour traffic to try it, DaveBee wants it to enter our weekly rotation, and there is ONE small bowl left over.  This is a MUST make this week! Check it out:

Sausage Kale Soup

Ingredients
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Yellow Onion chopped
10 Small Potatoes chopped to about 1/2 inch pieces
2 - 32 oz. Boxes of Broth (chicken or vegetable, gluten free)
5-6 Italian Sausages (uncooked and gluten free)
1 Head of Kale chopped (or 3/4 bag of Trader Joe's organic cleaned and cut kale)
Red Pepper Flakes
Salt to taste

Directions
Saute 2/3 of chopped onion in olive oil at bottom of a dutch oven (can use a soup pot too!) on low-medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Add broth and potatoes.  Bring to boil then turn down to simmer.

Add red pepper flakes to pot.  Start light and you can always add more later if you want more of a kick.

While dutch oven simmers and soften potatoes, saute the rest of the onions and cook sausage in a separate frying pan.  When sausage is cooked, cut into 1/2 inch pieces.

Add sausage and contents of frying pan (optional) to the pot.

Add chopped kale.  Add salt and red pepper flakes to taste.

Stir it up and simmer until dinner time!!

So, go and make it.  Tell me your variations. And impress your loved ones. 

Colorful Bandaids: The Shifting of Sibling Rivalry in the Beehive

For a while there, it seemed like the kids would never be friends. Ever.

The Bear could not walk by The Bird without giving her the shoulder. Consequently, when he would get near her she would start yelling and crying whether he engaged or not.  

DaveBee and I felt like we were walking a tight rope teaching them compassion, empathy and right from "she's too little swing around by her arm!" We were so careful in choosing our words and sometimes we chose to say nothing and let them work it out and other times we had to intervene! 

"No, go pick her up and give her some love!"

"You need a break because that is the 27th time you have done that today!"

"Now, don't cry if he simply walks by you without touching you."

"Wait, get back here and help her up, first!"

"Wait, he's just trying to give you a hug!"

"She does love you she is just used to you knocking her over...that's why she doesn't want a hug."

UGH!

But, today something momentous happened. A series of things, really.  Some of these things definitely have occurred in the past but were usually fleeting.  I feel like an axis is tilting somewhere and balance is becoming restored in the Beehive!

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The Bear and The Bird came in the big bed early for a snuggle.  Instead of The Bear sliding out of bed the moment The Bird arrives he actually stayed.  He reached over the sleepy lump that was me and caressed her sweet cheek and said "good morning, sugar plum."

I immediately put on my glasses to double check that it was truly The Bear in the bed!

The other awesome part of this is that The Bird received the caress with a sweet, sleepy smile instead of grunting in response. 

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After shopping today The Bear held out his hand to The Bird when we started walking outside.  She gladly accepted.

These are the rare moments I just keep my mouth closed.

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The Bird was upset about her mean 'ol mom not letting her roll down her window on the freeway. While she was crying The Bear said, "It's ok sissy, we can roll them down soon!"  The Bear then proceeded do something to make The Bird laugh out loud. 

 The gravity of this relationship formation starting hitting me fully when he jovially said to me: "Sissy is so silly.  She is so sweet and so silly."  

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When The Bird got up from her nap she had this unrelenting scowl because she had discovered this microscopic, ancient scab on her foot. 

I tried to no avail to distract her while The Bear simply went and got the colorful bandaids.  He gently put it on the scab and contentment was restored.

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This is not to say that between these gentle moments there wasn't discord 

but 

for a brief moment I could feel this new balance happening.  It may not be our parenting, it may be that their age difference is becoming less noticeable, or, who knows, it may even be because the actually like each other. I even had flash-forward of a beautiful friendship in their future.  Stranger things have happened.

Naps. 5 Things You Can Count on During Naptime.

Naps.  Where do I begin.  Naps are glorious.  Naps can also be detrimental to your psyche... especially when it comes to putting your own child or kids down for one.

You read the books.

You listen to your doctor.

You listen to your friends.

You listen to your mother.

There are things that they prepare you for and others that we must all experience for ourselves.

I think we might all agree that kids function better on a schedule or a rhythm or whatever you want to call it. Up until a certain age, part of most kid's schedule consists of naps, and eventually, a nap, and ultimately, no nap.

How our children go down for naps {breastfeeding to sleep, crying it out, driving around, etc.}, where they take their naps {crib, your bed, on the middle of the living room floor where they collapsed}, and nap duration {The Bear frequently treated me with 3 hour naps from age 0-3 while The Bird's maximum nap time has always been 2 hours.} vary so wildly.

Yet I think we all have encountered the wrath of Naps.  So, I give you:

5 Things You Can Count on During Naptime

1. The exact moment you FINALLY get said baby to sleep inevitably it is the exact moment your neighbor starts mowing their lawn, taking out their garbage cans or using this log splitter {yes, this happened}.

2. You put your baby to sleep, you sneak out of the room, and you begin madly attempting to complete every task you've been half-assing all day.  The moment you're done and you lay your head on a pillow to rest... they wake up.

3. You put your baby to sleep, you sneak out of the room and you step somewhere new on the floor that makes an excruciatingly loud creak and the baby wakes up. And you thought you knew every squeak and creak in that floor!

4. You put your baby to sleep and the neighborhood dogs go berserk over the mailman, utility worker, church group outreach, { enter your own  } milling the the neighborhood.

5. You put your baby to sleep. Then, you start your routine to put your big kid to sleep {milk, book, etc.} and then have to return them to their bed 1000 times.  Finally, they are both asleep.  You either lay down to catch up on some lost but not forgotten zzz's or sneak around the house doing chores.  Just when you're entering your REM cycle or have gotten knee deep in laundry... the baby wakes up.  Which,  in turn, wakes up your big kid.

Does this sound familiar?  Regardless of our parenting styles I think we have all been there.  For all of you with only one child and one on the way... just wait!