Move Over Jamie Oliver...

There's a new Naked Chef in town!

OK, ok...so he's not naked. BUT, he's definitely cooking without any pants.

I'm a Regular Martha Stewart

I kicked butt today. I was little Suzie Homemaker.

I made carrot cake cupcakes for Ben for a belated birthday treat. Ben is a huge fan of carrot cake (and especially the cream cheese frosting) and he requested it in cupcake form this year. I was a little skeptical but I think they turned out great. I usually destroy any cake or cupcake while applying the frosting but I was tried a new technique this time. I actually put all the frosting into a Ziploc bag and cut one of the bottom corners off...sort of a home made pastry bag. Then I was able to just pipe the frosting on to the top of the cupcakes. Clearly my technique is not, yet, perfected...but it served its purpose.

While the cupcakes were baking and cooling, I did a little decoupage. I totally hate the name...it sounds so fancy and pretentious when it's the furthest thing from it. I started with a plain old unfinished wood magazine holder from Ikea. I coated it with decoupage medium (basically fancy glue) and wrapped a piece of green paper around it. I chose a something similar to tissue paper but woven with paper fibers to give it more texture or interest. After it dried, I slathered on two more coats of the decoupage glue and voila! I think it looks far more interesting and a whole lot less Ikea.

It was so easy. After I finish the second one this week, I'm going to hunt around the house for other things I can improve with a little decoupage. I've got a couple of boxes from Ikea made out of the same type of cheap, unfinished wood. I think I'm going to look for some cute kid's print papers to cover then and give them to Carter to store his millions of Lego pieces.
OK, so I know that you are already impressed but that's not all I did today.
I spent some time in our garden weeding and pruning back a rose bush. I made spaghetti sauce from scratch. And, I can't forget the fruit salad that I made to take to a friend's house for brunch this morning.
I was a regular Martha Stewart today...cooking, baking, gardening, crafting...just no insider trading or jail time.
I do have to admit, I didn't get everything done on my "to do" list today. I didn't get around to coloring my hair. Fortunately my husband isn't even looking at me, he's so distracted by his carrot cake cupcakes. Now I just need to find time to color my hair before all 24 cupcakes are gone.

Future Jamie Oliver or Emeril? Watch Out Iron Chef!

Ben and I have been trying to engage Carter in food prep & cooking lately as a way of getting him more interested in different foods. Carter has a very limited diet and we are really trying to expand on it. "Experts" claim that cooking with your children can help get them interested in trying healthy (or different) foods they might normally refuse. In addition, if Carter is in the kitchen cooking with us, it means more time spent together as a family and less time for Carter to veg out in front of the TV after school.

Carter helped me make Apple Walnut muffins yesterday. He helped me measure out ingredients with measuring spoons. I also had him use a stainless steel measuring cup as a "mallet" to break up the walnuts into little pieces. He especially loved this as it was an opportunity to make lots of noise. Carter got a kick out of watching me shred apples in the food processor. He even helped a little with the mixing.

I especially like this picture because it looks like he's reading the recipe.

The best part of it all: he couldn't wait until they were done baking. As soon as they were cool enough to eat, he ate four of them (granted they were mini-muffins). This is a much better snack than Goldfish crackers!

Today, Carter helped Ben with a homemade pizza. We figured this is a healthier option than delivery and it would be fun and easy for Carter. He was really into sprinkling the cheese very evenly over the entire pizza. When he was finished, he shoved a few handfuls of cheese into his mouth for good measure! He stood by the oven and watched it cook.

One thing is for sure, we sure have a lot of fun together and it really gives him a sense of accomplishment. Next task - a vegetable garden. Once the weather is finally warm enough, I am going to have Carter help me plant a small vegetable garden. Hopefully planting the veggies and watching them grow will get Carter a little more interested in actually eating some of them.