Had to take a picture of Sophia in her outfit this morning. Only when you are 2 years old can you get away with wearing a red and green plaid dress, pink polka dot stockings and a pink hoodie with a bright red apple on it and still look cute. She whipped the hair pin out of her hair as soon as the picture was taken. Why doesn't she like wearing hair accessories?!!

She's about to go out with papa to do some errands.

I've been opening big bins of old Alex and Rachel clothes this morning. Sophia has LOTS of clothes. Seriously...I don't have to buy her a thing EVER. Which is good and sad at the same time. Good since I don't have to spend any money but sad because she will forever be wearing hand me downs. I think it's so special since she wears all of her big sisters' clothes but maybe I'm scarring her for life.

My Friday Morning Sunshines

Waiting for the school bus on this beautiful Friday morning.

Mmmmm Yummy

OK. So are you sick of seeing what we are eating yet? It seems like I'm obsessed with cooking and baking these days. This is completely new. Since I'm usually the type of person to make something quick and easy. It seems like too much work to make a big meal not to mention all the clean up. Well I think since I haven't been able to lose weight with my exercise program I'm kind of saying 'screw it' to the exercise and baking and cooking up a storm in protest. Much more fun and much more productive with my time. haha.

So we started with a dough. Guys!!! I made homemade dough. I'm so proud. Used yeast and all that jazz.

Saying the girls were excited to bake with me would be an understatement. Ever since they found out that Sophia had helped me bake a cheesecake, they have been asking what they could help make.

We rolled out that doughy goodness. (Wow, my kitchen is messy)

Added some brown sugar, white sugar and salt on top. Oh ya, and lots of butter and vanilla extract.

We added some chocolate chips and pecans and rolled it up. This is another Pioneer Woman recipe.

This is how it looked like before putting it in the oven. We were so giddy with happy anticipation.

And after pictures.

We were over the moon with the smell of sugar and butter in the air.

After waiting for what seemed an eternity (5 minutes) we poured on the most delicious cream cheesy icing.

The girls said that this was the best buns they EVER tasted. Even better than the cinnamon buns we get at the Farmer's Market. Yeah!

And for dinner was this delicious Asian Noodle Salad. So crunchy. Full of garlic, ginger, sesame oil, soy sauce and cilantro. Now I'm FULL. Really FULL.

1st Hockey Game

We went to our first hockey game as a family. The stadium was packed full. I was shocked to see the parking lot full to the max. Obviously there are a lot of hockey fans in this town.

When there was a goal the girls were covering their ears because of the noise. I told them that usually you were suppose to clap and cheer and NOT cover your ears. haha

We lasted 2 periods. Long enough to have some fries, chicken fingers and some fruit jub jub candies that I found at the bottom of my diaper bag. When those were finished and I couldn't entertain Sophia any longer we decided it was time to leave.

On our way out there was a smokie stand that smelled really good so we stopped and had a smokie for our walk back to the car.

We enjoyed the junk food as much (or possibly more) as watching the hockey. Is that normal?

Blackberry Yumminess

So remember all those blackberries we picked? Well, there were a lot of them. Papa has been juicing them with lots of other fruits every morning but there were still lots of them. I was thinking about possibly making jam with the berries so I started looking online for some recipes. Instead of jam I found this delicious recipe for Blackberry Cheesecake! I was so excited to try this. Now I am so excited to eat this!

I got Sophia to work crushing up the wafers and pecans. There was lots of power in those strong little arms of hers.

All blended up nicely with melted butter and vanilla.

3 packages of cream cheese!!! Plus FOUR eggs and sour cream. Any recipe that I've tried baking with that included sour cream is always so yummy. Wowzers. I don't even want to know how many calories in a slice.

Monster Blackberries. Hand picked by the Chung Chungs.

The house smells SO SO good right now. Sophia and I ate some of the little pieces from the top.

Poured the syrupy goodness on top and it is now in the fridge chilling. Dessert at my place tonight?

Peach Galettes

Recipe for Peach Galettes:

What you need:

Pastry:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

3/4 cup unsalted butter

3 to 4 tablespoons ice water

Filling:

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon flour

4 large ripe peaches pitted and cut into 1/2 inch slices

1 tablespoon lemon juice

What you do:

Combine flour, salt, sugar and butter and pulse in a food processor, or cut the butter into the dry ingredients with two knives until it is the size of small peas. Sprinkle in just enough water to bring dough together. Use your hands to gather dough into a ball. Wrap dough in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Cut dough into 4 pieces and roll on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick. Rounds will be about 7 inches in diameter.

Preheat oven to 375F.

Combine sugar and flour. Add peaches and lemon juice and toss to coat. Set aside.

Place rolled out dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Pile peaches in the centre of each pastry round, leaving 3/4 inch border around the peaches. Loosely crimp pastry so that you have an edge that stands up about 3/4 of an inch all around the peaches. Use your hands to fold the pastry edge in towards the centre to enclose peaches slightly. This will prevent pastry from collapsing.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until pastry is golden and juices are bubbling. Makes 4 galettes.

First day of Grade 2

Last day before the girls head out to school. Summer holidays are officially over.

I wanted to spend a fun day with the girls. So we went out to an organic farm close by and picked lots of fruit and veggies. The blackberries were HUGE. Papa was calling them 'monsters' and was making it a game to find monster blackberries and monster strawberries.

The fruit inspired me to finally make galettes. I've had a recipe that I cut out from the newspaper YEARS ago and have never gotten around to making it. The girls love to bake so we washed our hands and rolled up our sleeves and attempted to make these yummy desserts.

We had so many ripe peaches so I used those and some blueberries for the filling.

We made the dough. I actually used 2 knives and cut the butter. I felt so cool. haha I see that in so many recipes and have never really attempted it myself. Turns out it is easy as pie.

Our yummy dessert. It was SO SO delicious. Rachel had this brilliant idea that we should top these with whipped cream.