Birthday Cake!

My little monsters are turning 1 in just 4 weeks...it doesn't seem possible!  How on earth did we go from this:

Aaron left, Alex right

To this! In just a few short months? 

It should be noted that this was the best picture I could get of both of them together in the last three days.  Each and every shot seems to have at least one blurry spot due to the constant motion these two are always in.

Anyway, back to the cake at hand.  I decided that even though we are not doing a huge birthday bash, just 2 sets of grandparents and one proud set of parents, I did want to make a cake for each boy.  "Smash" cakes are hugely popular right now and I think they look like a lot of fun.  The baby is basically given his own cake to do with what he pleases.  I'm sure rubbing it in their hair and feeding some to the dogs will be top priorities with my two. :)  

I wanted the cakes to be bigger than cup cakes but a LOT smaller than a regular cake.  After some searching and a trip to the craft store, I found these.  The Wilton mini tasty fill cake pans are 4" in diameter and 1 1/4" tall.  Each pan (set comes with four) has an indentation so you can add a filling and then put two cakes together to make a 4" x 2 1/2" cake!  Perfect!  The other day I tested them out to make sure I had the baking times right for these little pans. After all, I don't want my little guys first cakes to be dry or under-cooked!

Simple White Cake, adapted from allrecipes

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 extra large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Grease and flour the pans.  This is a super easy cake to make, the only trick is to really make sure and beat it well so it is nice and fluffy.  First cream the butter and sugar until very fluffy!  Then add in the eggs one at a time, beating WELL.  Now add the extracts, beat some more, the flour and baking powder, beat some more, then finally the milk. Stir in the milk so you don't get splashed. :)  The batter should be nice and fluffy by the end.  Pour it into your prepared pans.  The recipe says that for a 9 x 9 pan, bake 30-40 minutes and for cupcakes bake 20-25.  My little cakes took 20 minutes.  You'll know they are done when the top springs back when lightly touched.  

I was pretty impressed by these little pans!  First time out and they didn't stick and the cakes were cooked perfectly.  Since I am not always the best baker, (remember the brownies?) I was super excited.  Here are some pictures of the process.

I filled them with whipped cream

With the icing and sprinkles

And the middle!

The final cakes will look a lot like this one.  Butercream icing, some primary colored sprinkles, and a number one candle to top it off.  I'm hoping they will look classic and fun; baby friendly without a whole lot of fussiness.  Cause babies just prefer messiness anyway! ;)

How-To Tuesday! Buttercream Icing

Birthday coming up?  Make it special and delicious by making some homemade icing!

Buttercream icing is one of the most sinfully sweet creations out there.  It is also simple to make, easy to use, and even very adaptable.  A few simple ingredients and you can say goodbye to the tubs of frosting in the baking aisle.

First, find a kitchen helper or two

Then get out the other ingredients

Buttercream Icing, from Wilton
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening (like Crisco)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners suger
2 tablespoons milk

(this makes about 3 cups of icing)

In your mixer, cream together the butter and shortening.  Add in the vanilla extract and then the sugar, gradually, while on medium speed.  Your icing will look very dry once the sugar is all added but don't worry!  Add the milk and continue mixing until the icing is nice and fluffy.

You can refrigerate the icing in an airtight container for up to two weeks!  You just need to toss it back in the mixer before using to fluff it up again.

If you would prefer Chocolate icing add 3/4 cup cocoa powder and another tablespoon or two of milk. Craving Peanut Butter?  Just add 3/4 cup peanut butter to the original recipe along with a few more tablespoons of milk.  Wilton has a ton of great recipes and ideas on their website; I'm looking forward to trying a few more. :)

Weekend Rewind, and a Look Ahead

We had another fairly quiet weekend here at 4 Pears, I hope you did too!  Though we watched the non-stop Hurricane coverage on CNN, the only weather we experienced here was sunshine and the sweltering 110+ degree heat that kept us inside quite a bit.

Saturday morning we had to take our poor little Claire in to the vet for a toenail injury.  She broke it really high up and the little girl was limping around in pain.  Alex and I were too wimpy to cut it off ourselves so in she went to the vet, and out she came- with a blue paw and a $100 invoice.  Ouch.

I think her paw looks kind of cute though, and she is feeling much better

Saturday afternoon I made my third and final (for a while at least!) attempt at homemade brownies.  My first attempt could barely be considered chocolate, my second attempt was drier than sand.  The third attempt tasted great!  Chocolate and Peanut Butter Swirl, yum.

But it stuck to the pan.  As you can see, we ate them anyway.

The brownies will not best me; I will try again.  Just not for a while.  I need a brownie break.  If anyone has a great homemade recipe, please send it to me!!

Saturday evening Alex hung out with friends and watched people trying to kill each other  the UFC fight, while I relaxed at home with a good book and ate leftovers from a BBQ we went to on Friday.

Our only excitement Sunday was a trip to Whole Foods for some fish which we poached for dinner.  It was our first attempt at poaching fish and it turned out really good.  We'll definitely work on perfecting it so we can pass it on.

On to a new week! Here's a look at what's to come.

Tuesday- How To Tuesday- Buttercream Icing!  Super easy and delicious, versatile and easy to work with...no need to buy that tub at the grocery store ever again!

Wednesday- We'll put the buttercream icing to good use on a trial run birthday cake.  Two handsome boys are turning one in just a few weeks!  I bought some little cake pans so they can each have their own cakes and I want to test them out, along with a new cake recipe, before the big day.

Thursday- Burgers...did anyone notice?  I was supposed to post about burgers last week and totally forgot due to the awesomeness that is Pineapple Fried Rice.  I promise to remember to share the burgers this week instead.

Friday- Homemade Challah.  Challah is the best bread for French Toast!  This dense and eggy bread is so pretty and though it does take a few hours from start to finish, it really isn't hard to make.   

Lots of yummy stuff to look forward to this week. I hope you enjoy it. :)

What the Twins Are Eating - 11 months

11 months old!  Ah!  It is crazy to think they are almost a year old.  The "baby" things are on their way out the door.  We said goodbye to purees at 10 months; at 11 months we say goodbye to formula...and bottles.

We started the switch to whole milk a little over a week ago rather than right at 11 months.  (Mostly due to our dwindling stock of formula and our complete lack of desire to buy any more).  We were very happy to find that the boys love whole milk!  Organic whole milk!  And here I thought we'd be saving some money by switching from formula...we may need to buy an organic cow for the backyard.  Anyway, they love the milk.  And milk goes in sippy cups, not bottles.  I told myself I wouldn't put milk in a bottle if I didn't need to, and we don't, but it makes me so sad!  Sad in that sappy, sentimental Mom way.  We have worked down to just one last bedtime bottle, and only enough formula for two more.  So tonight: goodbye formula, goodbye bottles.

Tonight I'll hold each of my sons and look into their eyes as they drink their last bottles in my arms.  I'll try not think about how much I'm going to miss holding them that way.  I'll try not to cry. Instead I'll remind myself to be proud of how big and strong my handsome boys are growing. There are so many good things to look forward to, even if the baby days are already starting to slip by.

Pineapple Fried Rice

Alex and I got married at the Wynn hotel here in Las Vegas almost five years ago; our anniversary is next week!

That may make us kind of partial to the place but they really do have some pretty great restaurants.  One of our favorites is Wazuzu at Encore.  Wazuzu is a Pan-Asian restaurant so you can get sushi and dim sum, Thai or Indian food.  And you can get Pineapple Fried Rice.

Since dinners out are much less frequent now that we have twins running (well, crawling) around, we figured we'd try making this dish here at home.  We found a recipe from The Neely's on foodnetwork.com, made a couple of changes, and we are in love. With each other AND the rice ;)  Our recipe unfortunately doesn't include roast duck, and we've substituted bacon for the Chinese sausage, but it's still pretty darn delicious.

Pineapple Fried Rice, adapted from The Neely's
1/4 lb bacon, chopped
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1-inch knob of ginger, peeled and diced
2 green onions, sliced (both white and green  parts)
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 thai chili, chopped
1 cup diced pineapple
4 cups cooked rice (can be a day or two old!)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined

Put the chopped bacon in a large cold skillet, bring to medium-high heat and cook.  Set aside.  Add peanut oil to the pan and once it begins to shimmer, put in the onions, garlic, ginger and green onions.  Cook them until they are softened, about 5 minutes.  Add the bell pepper, thai chili and bacon to the pan and cook for an additional 3 minutes or so.  Now stir in the rice and pineapple.  Saute the rice for about 5 minutes or until it begins to turn a light brown.  Stir in the sesame oil and soy sauce.  Once combined add the shrimp.  Cook just until the shrimp turn pink, about 5 minutes.  Transfer to a bowl and serve!

Zucchini-Corn Fritters

My little guys may just turn into zucchinis before the summer is over, or maybe watermelons... Zucchini is just such an easy veggie and the kids are eating a lot of it these days.  Zucchini is inexpensive and on top of that you can chop and saute it in olive oil and be done in just 5 minutes (which is awesome when you have two screaming and hungry babies). You can bake zucchini into banana bread without anyone becoming the wiser...or you can make these fritters.  These fritters are delicious, easy to make, and great for freezing.  And while they are perfect for little hands, they are so good I have a hard time not eating them all myself.  

I was actually making veggie fritters before I found this recipe in Food Network Magazine.  A fritter is a pretty simple idea: grate veggies, mix with flour and egg and fry until golden.  Easy peasy.  This recipe mixes cornmeal along with the flour though, which I really love.  The little cakes are light and sort of sweet with no sugar added at all!  These are a definite finger food favorite but they aren't just for the kiddos, I'm pretty sure Mom and Dad will love these too.

Zucchini-Corn Fritters, found in Food Network Magazine, September 2011

2 medium zucchini, grated ( I use the food processor)

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/2 small onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 ears of corn, kernels cut off

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

freshly ground pepper

3/4 cup buttermilk 

1 large egg

vegetable oil, for frying

Toss the zucchini with 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt in a medium bowl.  Allow it to sit for about 10 minutes.  The salt will help to extract excess moisture.  After 10 minutes turn the zucchini onto a kitchen towel and squeeze out as much water as you can.  Set the zucchini aside.

In a large frying pan, melt the butter over medium-high heat.  Cook the onion and garlic until softened, about 4 minutes.  Add the corn and cook for an additional 3 minutes.  Set aside.

Combine the cornmeal, flour, baking soda and pepper in a large bowl.  Add in the eggs and buttermilk and whisk to combine.  Add the veggies and stir to combine them all.  

Now heat about 1/8 of an inch of canola or vegetable oil in your large frying pan.  Once hot, spoon about 1/4 cupfuls of the batter into the oil and flatten slightly with a spoon.  Turn the cakes when the edges begin to brown, they should cook about 3 to 4 minutes on each side.  Remove the cakes to a plate lined with paper towels and serve either warm or at room temperature.  I freeze these and then just thaw them in a small warm frying pan when I'm ready to serve them.     

Enjoy, and try to chew with your mouth closed ;)

Greek Couscous Salad

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only Mom out there who "forgets" to eat lunch on a regular basis.  Sometimes I do really forget, I'm just too busy doing other things and by the time I notice I'm starving it's 3:00 and I figure I'll make it to dinner.  Sometimes, though, I'm just too lazy to make myself lunch.  After making, feeding, and cleaning up after two kids' meals twice in the day already, sometimes I just want to sit on the couch for a few minutes and breathe.  (God Bless Naptime)

So in order to combat starvation-by-laziness, I like to make up a lunch I can keep in the refrigerator for the whole week.  Usually it is some type of salad I can eat cold, no further preparation involved.  I really like to make pasta salads but recently a friend sent me a recipe for a couscous salad that is pretty great.  This salad is nice and light but filling too.  The lemon vinaigrette and chopped kalamata olives really give it a bright fresh taste. So to all the busy Moms....this one's for you.

Greek Couscous Salad, adapted from MyPanera
2 Tablespoons pistachios
1 3/4 cups vegetable (or chicken) stock
10 ounces couscous
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 can chickpeas, drained
4 oz crumbled feta cheese
1/4 chopped pitted Kalamata olives
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

To begin, put the pistachios in a dry pan over medium heat and toast them until they are golden brown, shake the pan often to keep them from burning.  They will toast in just a few minutes so don't walk away! Set them aside when done.

Now bring the vegetable stock to a boil in a medium saucepan.  Once it boils, stir in the couscous, cover and remove the pan from heat.  Let the couscous sit while you chop those veggies.  Once the veggies are chopped, put them and the couscous and cheese into a large bowl and stir to combine.

Lastly, make the vinaigrette in a small bowl. Put in the lemon juice, salt and pepper first, then slowly whisk in the oil.  Once all are combined pour the dressing over the salad and stir it to combine.

You can eat this salad right away or refrigerate it for about 4 days.

**PS. Sorry for the lack of photos these last two days, I am having some technical difficulties with Picassa.  I am much better with a wooden spoon than I am with a computer. ;)