Our very special dog, Wrigley, is spending the day at the pet hospital today having a mass removed.  We are very hopeful that we caught this early and if it is Cancer they get it all today!  We thought that we better make her a special treat so that when she gets home she “gets well soon”…  I found this recipe online and happened to have all of the ingredients at home…

1 1/8 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/8 cup  unbleached white flour
1/2 cup peanut butter or other nut butter
1 cup water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Blend wheat flour and white flour in a bowl. Set aside.  Combine  vegetable oil, peanut butter, and  water.  Add flour, one cup at a time, forming a dough. You will need to blend the final flour by hand, kneading until a nice firm ball of dough is formed. I used my dough hook on my kitchen aid and that seemed to work pretty well…  I also added a tiny bit more flour for high altitude!  Let ball of dough stand for about 10 minutes to allow the gluten to relax. This makes it easier rolling.

Roll dough to about 1/4 inch thickness on a sheet of waxed paper or silicone liner. Cut with desired cutter ( hearts, circles, dog bones, houses, etc..). Re-roll scraps to make more biscuits.  Score the tops of the cookies with a fork or write your puppy’s name with toothpicks, so the steam that builds up inside the cookies will release.

Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for about 25-35 minutes, turning the pan a couple of times during baking. Cookies should be hard to the touch before removing from the oven. You may need to increase baking time. Do this in five minute increments.

Cool, then store in a zip-lock baggie on the shelf. No refrigeration necessary.  Feed them to your doggie fast!

I found a second recipe on Martha Stewart’s website but didn’t have the wheat germ so wasn’t able to make them… I’d like to try them soon, however!

Happy Mardi Gras everyone!  I hope this day finds you in the spirit!  We are not huge into celebrating Mardi Gras at our house, but music and dancing are always a huge hit with our boys.  This morning I downloaded two songs, “Mardi Gras Mambo” by Buckwheat Zydeco and “Oh! When the Saints” by Irakli Jazz Band.  We are going to celebrate Mardi Gras with a bit of a dance party/band sort of a gig.  I gathered up all of our instruments and even made some out of pots, pans, and spoons.  We are cranking the music and playing and dancing along.  I’ll try to post a video of the big show (OK I can’t get the video to load, sorry, I’ll post it on our FB account)!   Just a fun way to get moving on a special day!  Happy Fat Tuesday!

We made these this morning before breakfast and it led to a bit of a discussion on Abraham Lincoln during our meal… With the age of our boys, we just touched on the “highlights” of Abe’s life.  I’m pretty sure the log cabin was their favorite!  I think they might enjoy making cabin’s out of pretzels so we might try that later!  We talked about him being honest and I tried to touch a little bit on slavery, but they are still pretty young so I didn’t go into it much. I think that if you have older children they might be interested in learning more about Abraham Lincoln and his efforts as our 16th president.  I found a lot of interesting information on the web about why he was called “Honest Abe” and when I explained how honest he was to my boys, Sutton wondered if all the presidents were honest.  It was a great opportunity to talk about how everyone should try to be honest and honesty builds trust!

I used to make these Abe’s in my classroom and I would always have the students write a few facts that they learned about Abraham Lincoln down and attach them to the project.  You could also cut out a few extra face shapes and have them write one fact on each face shape and make a little Abraham Lincoln book.  Either way I think it will help them learn and remember a little bit about our 16th president!

Enjoy your Presidents’ Day with your family!

These were an accident …

Well kind of an accident…

You see, I was making some chocolate dipped strawberries for our small group from church.  Upon completion of said strawberries I realized I had an abundance of chocolate left, melted, with no where to go…  I could not waste chocolate-that would be awful!  I literally went to my pantry and searched for something I could dip in chocolate.  We didn’t have tons of options, but we did have these “Honey Graham Sticks” and marshmallows so I thought – Mini S’Mores!  I ended up cutting the marshmallows in half because I thought they were too big on the graham stick whole.  I just dipped the graham and stuck on the marshmallow-so easy, but SO YUMMY!   They were a hit!

This is one of our favorite meals…  I have another recipe that a friend gave me that takes FOR EVER, has to sit overnight, etc..  and I do love it, but this one is much quicker and much easier!  I hope your family enjoys it as much as we do!  YUM!

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon minced onion
• ½ cup flour
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups cooked wild rice
• ¹⁄_{3 cup cooked chicken (I used 2 chicken breasts)}
• ½ cup carrot, finely shredded
• 3 tablespoons slivered almonds (optional)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup half and half
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry
• snipped parsley or chives for garnish

These are just some last minute valentines we made for all of the boys teachers…  Super easy, cute and a little treat for them.  I used swedish fish as the “treat” and construction paper for the fish bowls. The boys used crayons to decorate their fish and the water… I typed out the message we wanted and then cut it in the shape of a fish.  Like I said this was really easy!  You could use these for classroom valentines as well and say something like “I’m glad we swim in the same school” or “You’re the only fish in the sea for me”…  I’m sure you’ll think of something creative!

Shaeffer wanted tigers, what can I say, they don’t make it easy on me!  This is what I came up with for a tiger face with a few hearts to make it a little more valentine-ish!  I’m guessing you can just copy these based on the picture….  We used heart stickers for the nose and he drew the stripes and face with marker…  The rest we just cut out of construction paper!    I thought we’d write “YOU’RE TIGER-RIFIC” on the back…  Cheesy, I know, but Valentine’s Day does have a certain amount of cheese factored in, right???

Watch Out… These two have escaped their cage (that is my hubby’s joke for the day)!  HAHAHA

Sutton has been working for days on making his classmates each a little penguin Valentine.  You see it is my FIRM belief that my boys should make their Valentines as long as absolutely possible.  I know the day will come when they will want to buy some crazy karate guy valentine that says “I get a kick out of you” or something like that, but for now, we are going the homemade route.  Last year we made owls, the year before that we made shovels that said “I dig you”.  This year Sutton is making penguins (Shaeffer’s will be posted next-oh the suspense).

On the back of these cuties Sutton wrote “You’re Cool” and then signed his name.  We are foregoing candy or any gifts this year, for the pure simplicity of a hand made valentine!

Here’s the scoop:  You can probably figure these guys out just by looking at them.  We cut out circles and hearts and used construction paper crayons for the face..  We glued them all together with glue sticks and TADA…  My favorite part is that each one is a little different!  Good Job Sutton!

When you got married did you get one of those cookbooks for newly weds?  Well this recipe came out of the one we’ve had for years….  Of course I had never made this popcorn before and now I’ll probably be making it every week!  It was a huge hit at our super bowl party and I highly suggest making it…      I promised Mr. Dustin I’d pass on the recipe, so this one is for you…

Herbed Buttermilk Popcorn

Adapted from The Bride and Groom First and Forever Cookbook By Mary Corpening Barber and Sara Corpening Whiteford (it’s an awesome cookbook)

1 Tablespoon Powdered Buttermilk (SACO offeres a buttermilk powder that I had no problem finding in the baking section of my grocery store)

1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder

1 Teaspoon Onion Powder

1 Teaspoon Lemon Pepper

1/2 Teaspoon Dried Dill

1/2 Teaspoon Kosher Salt

1 Tablespoon Corn Oil (for popping the corn)

1/3 cup un popped popcorn kernals

2 Tablespoons Butter

DIRECTIONS:

Combine the buttermilk, garlic powder, onion powder, lemon pepper, dill weed, and salt in a small bowl.  Heat the oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat.  Add the popcorn and cover with a lid.  We used our Whirly Pop popcorn maker that you put on the stove and that worked just as well… You could probably do microwave popcorn too…  Pour the cooked popcorn into a bowl.  Melt the butter.  Pour the butter over the popcorn, tossing to distribute evenly.  Sprinkle with the flavoring mixture and toss to coat.  VIOLA, yummy goodness!  Enjoy!