Fred-n-Sara

I’ve been getting Better Homes and Gardens magazine for a few months now (thanks to my wonderful grandma!) and each month there’s a handful of recipes that peak my interest.  I’ve tried a couple chicken recipes and have a couple cookie recipes to try when I get a chance, but when I saw these, I was reminded of the yummy, gooey marshmallow fluff filled chocolate cookies from Amish country.

Add chocolate chips and peanut butter and you’ve got a recipe that I couldn’t not try!

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies

1 12-oz. package of miniature semisweet chocolate chips

1 tbsp. milk

3/4 c. butter, softened

1/4 c. creamy peanut butter

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

2 eggs

1/2 c. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

2 all-purpose flour

1 recipe filling

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, F.  Set aside 1/4 cup chocolate pieces to sprinkle on cookies (I didn’t do this).  In microwave safe bowl, combine 1 cup of the chocolate pieces and 2 tbs of milk.  Microwave on 50% power (medium) for 1 minute or until melted; stir once. Set aside.

2. In bowl beat butter and peanut butter with electric mixer until combined (or in your stand mixer, which is much easier, in my opinion).  Add sugar, soda, baking powder, and 1/2 tsp of salt; beat to combine.  Add eggs, 1/2 cup milk, vanilla, and melted chocolate; beat until combined.  Beat in cocoa powder and flour until combined.  Stir in remaining chocolate pieces (or all of them, like I did).  Drop by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Sprinkle with reserved chocolate chips (I didn’t do this).  Bake 9 minutes or until tops are set.  Cook on sheets 1 minute.  Transfer to wire racks; cool completely.  To assemble, spread flat sides of half the cookies with Filling; top with remaining cookies.

**This should make 30 sandwiches, unless you make them really big, like I did.  I think I only had about 18 sandwiches.

Filling: In bowl, beat 1 cup softened butter, 1 cup creamy peanut butter, 1 cup marshmallow creme, and 2 cups powdered sugar with electric mixer until combined (I beat the mixture on high until whipped).  If needed beat in 2 tbs milk until spreading consistency (I didn’t need to add any milk).

These cookies were great!  Oliver especially liked them.

Hehe, just kidding!  He’s a little young for so much sugar and peanut butter.  The picture, by the way, was Fred’s idea.  Oliver would rather have mushy carrots and rice cereal anyway:

I think they’ll be a good addition to the boys’ birthday parties or class parties when they are older; as long as I don’t make them so big.  For now though, we’ll just enjoy them at home, or with friends and family (I made them this weekend because we had some friends over for dinner).

This week, instead of a conversation topic, Paige, from The Baby Dust Diaries and the head of our ADM blog hop, awarded us all with a “Beautiful Blogger” Award.  Thanks Paige

There are a couple rules for the award:
1. Thank the person who gave it to you. (Done!)
2. Pass this award on to 15 bloggers you’ve recently discovered and think are fantastic. (see below)
3. Contact the bloggers to let them know they’ve won. (yep!)
4. State 7 things about yourself. (see below)

Unfortunately, there’s only a one blogger that I follow that Paige didn’t already give the award to (check out all the great mommy bloggers here).  So the very special blogger and mama-to -be is my good friend Michelle.  Check out her blog!

On to the 7 things about me:

1. I love to read.  Right now I’m working on Janet Evanovich’s Finger Lickin’ Fifteen, but I’ll read pretty much anything, as long as it’s somewhat interesting!
2. I’m two classes away from having my Master’s Degree in education from Walsh University.  I’m planning on taking my last two classes this coming fall and graduating in December!
3. My middle name is spelled funny: Kathelene, but is still pronounced like Kathleen.
4. I want to visit every national park in the U.S.  So far I’ve visited 4.  I have a long way to go!
5. I’m terrible at trivia games (but Fred is great at them and always wins).
6. Thunderstorms make me nervous.
7. The farthest west I’ve been is Denver, Colorado, the farthest north is Niagara Falls, farthest south is just south of the Texas border in little Mexican town that I can’t even remember the name of, and farthest east is Ocean City, MD.

Aren’t you glad you now know these new random facts about me?

For the last few years, I’ve been participating in the March of Dime’s WalkAmerica to support local programs that help moms have healthy, full-term pregnancies as well as funding research to find answers to the problems that threaten our babies.   For every dollar raised, March of Dimes will spend 76 cents to support those programs and research to help families and babies lead healthy lives.

I’ll  be walking in the Akron walk on May 8, 2010.  Last year Calvin walked with me, so I think this year Oliver will join us (thanks to my double stroller!).  I know times are tough and everyone has a tighter budget, but if you can, please support this cause! You can donate to my online page through the badge below, or sign up to walk on your own.

This year, I am walking with the Team It’s All About M.E. (Mallory Elizabeth Neal).  Please take a look at our team page to learn more about our inspirational angel, Mallory who was born and died January 14, 2010.

Thanks for all your help!

It’s time for the ADM blog hop again!  If you’d like to join (Ahem, Michelle!), just include the McLinky code (see link for directions) in your post.  Be sure to check out the other blogs too!

This week’s topic:

Here in Cleveland Akron we are snowed in but everywhere has days where cabin fever can creep in.  What are your favorite indoor activities to do with your kids?

I originally was going to make this post comical and show you the ways Calvin uses the house as his own personal jungle gym complete with pictures of him climbing furniture, sitting in cupboards, ect (none of which he is allowed to do, but he’s a persistent guy!).  But then I had two snow days this week (personally I think they were flukes, none of the other districts in Summit County were off, but I’m not going to complain for 2 extra days with my boys!) so I really had to find things to to at home with the boys.

So, to keep a toddler and his baby brother busy on a snow day, I have a few tricks.  First, make it a pajama day!  It’s nice to just bum around the house in jammies every now and then (and it makes the laundry load a little lighter!).  Second, keep lots of story books on hand, these boys love to read (in their own baby way) and be read to!  Third, keep a few fun activities like these, in mind:

Dance-athon

Round up some kids music; we like Raffi or the Wiggles or anything by Dr. Jean.  However, lately we’ve been listening to the children’s music on Pandora Radio.  Anyway, Cal and Oliver both think it’s the funniest thing to dance and move to  music in the basement or living room.  Maybe they just find my dancing that laughable…

Indoor Snow Fun

1. Gather some snow from your yard in a big bowl (if you live anywhere in the North East U.S. this shouldn’t be a problem right now).
2. Put the snow in a water table (or wash tub or anything big enough to hold it) with some kitchen utensils (I used measuring cups, a wooden spoon, a regular spoon, a whisk, and a soup ladle).
3. Lead your toddler to the table and let him go!
4. Take a little snow and a cup to baby as he sits in his bumbo seat.

Baby Smash

Cal loves the computer, probably because he sees his parents on it so often (not that often!), or maybe it’s the colors on the scree.  Either way, he loves this game I stumbled upon (from someone on ADM, actually) called Baby Smash.  It’s a free, downloadable game that turns your keyboard into instant entertainment for your toddler.  By hitting the keys (or smashing the keys), letters, numbers, and shapes appear on the screen with coordinating sounds (we have it set to baby laughs, they are very cute).  It’s a good cause and effect game.   We’re working on not smashing the keyboard anymore, but hitting the keys gently.  Of course, we can only play this game while Oliver is napping.

There are always the fall back activities as well;

like climbing the basement stairs,

playing with my pots and pans,

coloring (or eating) with crayons,

and the most obvious; playing with their own toys.

All of these are acceptable snow day activities too, as long as they result in 2 tired boys ready for naps!

If my photography skills were better I would have gotten a great picture of them both smiling as Calvin hugged his little brother, but alas, that one was super blurry and dark and I couldn’t get Calvin to do a redo!  So this is as good as it gets!