Doughnuts!

Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day blows my mind yet again. Saturday night I mixed up a batch of their Whole Wheat Brioche, let it rest, and then put it in the fridge.  Sunday morning I woke up and went for a run with my friend, Kristine. After I got back everyone was awake and ready for breakfast. Dave was drinking coffee and it smelled so good. I couldn't wait for what I had planned.

In the time it took me heat up oil on the stove I rolled out a pound or so of dough and cut out doughnuts. I got to use my handy dandy Pampered Chef candy thermometer for the first time as I watched the oil temperature. Very exciting.  When it hit 165 I dropped in the doughnuts. They cooked in two minutes flat and I did about 5 batches. The whole thing from start to table took about 20 minutes (and that includes me making everyone wait while I ran for the camera to take a picture).

I had read online that these doughnuts are more substantial than say, Krispy Kreme. I'm not a huge cake doughnut fan so I was anxious to see what these would be like. But while I like the lightness and the melt-in-your mouth factor of Krispy Kremes they really are way too sweet.

These doughnuts were...perfect. We only buy doughnuts about 5 times a year and, with this recipe, we may never buy them ever again. They were soft and light and airy and perfectly sweet. We ate them all. But we didn't feel disgusting afterwards. According to the book, if you fry at high temperature the water inside turns to steam immediately and "pushes out through pores in the developing doughut crust preventing inward movement of oil." So there you have it. Healthy doughnuts. :-P Our doughnuts only absorbed 15-45 calories' worth of oil each. Yeah baby! The recipe is called Indian Spiced Whole Grain Doughnuts. The sugar you dredge them in at the end has ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves in it. Oooh. I just had a full body shiver remembering them.

I told Dave that, if these were good, I'd order the Pampered Chef biscuit cutters so I could cut the correct size holes. These were too big. Looks like I have an order to place!

The girls were very excited to try their doughnuts. It's a big deal when we have straight-up sweets for breakfast. Solana loved the doughnut holes. I thought they were just adorable the way they poofed into little balls.

Chloe was all business. We didn't get a smile or hear a peep out of her the entire time she ate.

Mmmmm. Doooooughnuts. Think Homer Simpson. That's who Solana reminded me of. :-)

Finally a smile!  Look at that sugar face!

That's What Solana Said - May

5/10/12
-Mommy, when your hair turns white will you color it black again?
-Hmm.  I don't know.
-I think you should. It will look better that way. Here, let me look for a white hair.
-Thanks.

5/20/12
The same evening after getting her hair cut she and Chloe went outside to play in the baby pool. Solana came out in her new swimsuit, stuck one foot out to the side, hands on hips, "Mommy! Don't I look just ADORABLE?"

One of Solana's last mispronunciations has finally phased out. She used to said "entired." For example, "I ate the entired thing!" or "I cleaned my entired room!" Entired seems to have left the building. I noticed it the other day when I also heard Chloe say "Dolana" instead of "Nana" for the first time. Sniff Sniff.

5/29/12
Mommy, guess what I brought home from school! My case! (glasses) It's been there for such a long time and if I hadn't brought it home today I would be DOOMED!

That's What Chloe Said - May

When she needs help she says, "Mommy will help you!" or "Daddy will help you!"

When she's upset at me for telling her "no" or getting after her she tattles on me to Solana (whether or not Solana is home).  Crying: "Nana! Mama ded No Cwowee Bea! Nana!"

Chloe is getting better at saying her sister's name. It's morphing from "Nana" to "Dolana." While adorable, it's also kind of sad. I'm a stickler for pronunciation and grammar but find myself sad whenever her cute baby talk disappears.

Popular phrase of the month: "Like Dolana." Little sister wants to do everything like her big sister. She frequently reports to me when they're doing something together.
"Cwowee Bea eating popcorn like Dolana. Cwowee coloring like Dolana did it. Mommy, I'm ditting on de couch dus like Dolana."

Chloe can count to 20.
Name the following shapes: circle, oval, square, rectangle, triangle, octagon
Name the following colors: yellow, red, blue, green, orange, purple, pink, white, black

Sick Day

Everyone in the house is sick except for me. Dave was completely miserable yesterday - barely able to do anything. Fortunately, the girls aren't quite as bad off as him. But they have a nasty cough, sore throats, little appetite, and Chloe won't drink. We're going to have a wonderfully boring TV-filled long weekend. We did, however, manage to sneak in a tiny bit of fun yesterday.

We were out of eggs but I was really craving chocolate baked goods so I decided to try flaxseed meal as an egg replacement and it actually worked! Solana made the brownies all by herself. I just brought her the ingredients and reminded her which measuring utensils to use. My counter and cookbook have never caught so many spills! LOL! 

Chloe was begging to go outside all day but it was pretty warm out and she'd barely drunk 5oz of water. Finally, I relented. We stayed in the shade and kept it short. I'm glad we did it, though. They had a blast.

I used to think that Chloe wouldn't be able to see bubbles. Oh she can definitely see them.

Mommy! I pop bubo with a stick!

 Pop the bubos. Pop the bubos. Pop the bubos.

 Mommy! I pop bubos just like Dolana!

Bubbles Bubbles Wheeee! Bubos Bubos Wheeee!

 Chasing the bubbles.

Locks of Love

Solana and I had our hair whacked off yesterday and will be donating it to Locks of Love.  It's easy for someone like me to donate hair. I hate getting my hair cut. Well, ok. Fine. I hate paying to get my hair cut. So every couple of years I chop it off to donate and start over with a short new 'do. Then I neglect it for a really really long time until it's so long that my only option is to wear it in a pony tail. Solana's hair is so thick that it's a couple hours long event to wash, comb, and braid it. She was seriously over her hair and ready to donate. This is her second time and my third.

We actually had a pretty busy day prior to the pictures. Dave played golf in the morning and then we all went to the park for lunch. Solana and I walked over to a "Garden Party" at Bill Yeck park while Dave took Chloe home for her lunch (since she refused to eat at the park). The event was hosted by our Parks District - which we LOVE. It was pretty neat. Solana ate cookies, drank lemonade, made a hummingbird feeder, a paper caterpillar, and had her face painted twice. Definitely worth the hike through the trees. Then we came home, put Chloe down for a nap and took off for Great Clips. (P.S. That entire paragraph was meant to be explanation for why I'm not wearing makeup in this picture. :-)

BEFORE

AFTER
Solana's hair actually ended up being much shorter than I'd anticipated. When they measured and put in the pigtails for cutting I hesitated. "Solana, that's going to be really short. Do you want to just get a trim today and donate later?" She insisted. The lady about to cut her hair kept asking, "Are you sure?" She really didn't want Solana to cut her hair. Finally, Solana said, "I'm sure. You can stop asking me if I'm sure now." Then the lady cut off the pigtails nearly developing carpal tunnel and having a heart attack in the process. Solana watched her hair come off and spun to look at me with the biggest smile and eyes I've ever seen. She was soooo excited! Then she turned back to the mirror, "Umm, I think my hair's not even." LOLOL! I think I was 25 before I had the nerve to ask a stylist to fix my hair. I love this kid. She's a hoot! After she was done Solana flitted around the place showing everyone her new haircut and basking in compliments.

This little girl has the thickest hair! One of her pigtails was thicker than my ponytail!

First day of school in her new haircut. We were running late. You can see the bus on its way to our house. If we'd had more time I would have chosen a backdrop other than our neighbor's weeds and gotten a smile. She still looks like a little doll, though...

Dazzling

Solana and her friend, Maria, are playing with "makeup" (lip gloss).



"Maria, your eyebrows look DAZZLING!"

"I think you look dazzling."

And on to the nail polish. Solana recently told me she wants to stay a little girl forever. I know why. It's just dazzling!

Vroom Vroom!

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