i love butter

I am determined to raise girls who are not afraid of butter. With all the challenges that face them, I don’t want them to have to waste their energy on butter angst. Everywhere I turn, there are butter substitutes, diet regimens of dry toast, and errant comments about the caloric dangers of butter. If my girls can continue to taste the treats that make them happy with as much joy as they have now, unmarred by guilt or fear that the bite will ruin their beauty, then I feel I have done something right. And if, somehow IF! I can help them to transfer all the energy they might spend hating their own bodies or feeling guilty about what they had for lunch? Well, with all of that energy, world, watch out. My girls are taking over.

i love this paragraph... the original post can be found at this site. 

following directions

apparently when the directions say to cook the squash and carrots for eight minutes they don't mean leave the room and actually cook them for ten.  

yummy soup and other recipes

my son loves loves loves soup. and not the campbell's variety (in nine years i think he has only had two bowls of canned soup and that was when he was sick) he loves home-made authentic soup. this is a winner in his book and mine too. i did make a change to the author's recipe by not adding fire roasted diced tomatoes. i simply cut up a tomato and added it to the pot; the youngest member of the family does not like added fire to her food. not only is the next recipe pretty but i got a unanimous five thumbs up for this one. yes, i made a change to this one also... i do not eat mayo so i substituted plain greek yogurt. one more easy one for you to try is chicken stuffed with zucchini and cheese, yeah, you had me at cheese. of course my change here is to not measure the cheese, seriously, 3 oz. or two handfuls are probably about the same anyway. hope you enjoy these soon because they were all delicious and easy to make!

tie dye cupcakes

we have had such fun making the rainbow cake for different birthdays we decided to experiment with cupcakes.   little man and m1 successfully cracked eggs into the batter... this was m2's attempt. she is only three so we have time for her to learn. below are my helpers working on the food coloring; part of the fun is layering as many different colors as you can into one cupcake.

nice puffy crowns perfect for homemade icing... but for some reason i have no picture of them completely finished. this is the mess that remains... why is it that fun sometimes equals making a mess?

colorful utensils in the dishwasher... i should have gotten a picture of the colorful tongues that licked the utensils.

...lead us not into temptation...