I ♥ Noodles. Do You?

For the first time last night, I tried making Japanese noodles. Not from scratch. From the Asian aisle (which shares retail space with the Hispanic aisle) at the grocery store.

I made Sweet & Sour pork (with green peppers and pineapple chunks) to go along with the noodles.

I found those cute yellow lunch trays from a thrift store. They were a quarter a piece. I picked up 12. I thought they would be fun to pull out and use for our little meal. The kids didn't like the fact that they had once been used. Drama*Peeps.

I added a little salt, ginger and garlic to the noodle water and the noodles came out delish. This is definitely a meal I will be making again. Took no time at all and it was GOOD!

Donut Pillows in under 5 Minutes

I've mentioned before (too many times to link to) that we live on the outskirts of Phoenix. Way outskirts. And when we bought this house, there wasn't much out here. But a Dunkin Donuts did open up just down the street. And my, over the past two years, it's been so easy to just stop in and grab a box of donut holes. But seriously, the last few times we did that, the donuts were not so desirable. They were HARD-ish.

Today marks Day 1 of our Vacation (maybe Staycation?! We will see) - and I decided to get up and make the kids a treat for breakfast.  Take note - these babies are EASY PEASY!

Here's what you will need. Brand does not matter. ;)

Here's what you do:

We are so still under our five minute mark, people!

My momma taught me how to make these... and the kids LOVE them. You can't official call them donut holes, because 1) they aren't round and 2) they didn't come from the center of a donut. So we settled on Donut Pillows.

Soft. Airy. Perfect.
Don't rest your head on these babies, though... The Cinnamon/Sugar mix is probably great for exfoliating, but is a bugger to get out of your hair. ;)

Wake & Bake

First things first - I finally found a rooster.
Now, it ain't much - but it will do. Especially since it was a mere $5 at Wally World.
I completely forgot to take a before picture. Not very smart, huh?

To help you understand the color 'before' - I will borrow words from the great master-mind himself, Mr. Nico. He said, "Mom, it looks like an animal cracker."

There. That should tell you that it was a very blotchy, beige-y, beige.

After some time outside yesterday and a coat of Ivory spray paint, allow me to introduce Roo, the rooster.

 

And here he sits, in his new home.

Isabel was joking at dinner last night..."What if the rooster wakes us up in the morning?!" We just laughed at with her. Silly girl.

Do you want to know what DID wake us up this morning?!?!  The alarm.
As in the HOUSE ALARM. As in Nic just wanted to know what the weather felt like. Oye ve. Our alarm company is going to LOVE us!

In food news, look at what I made yesterday.

My very first apple pie. Ever.
Last year, I made my very first pumpkin pie.
I will admit - for this particular pie, I did not make the crust. Marcos was begging for this pie, and I just wanted to get it over with, so I bought the pre-made crust.

Shame on me. I had NO IDEA that the apples and spices would be soooo good that they would be over-taken by the eh - so - so crust. I know I can make a nice, flaky crust. I've done it before.

So, I think I am going to give Apple Pie # 2 a shot. And really knock the socks off my hombre.

Next weekend, of course.

There you have it: Wake & Bake!

P.S. Lots of little crafts to share with you through out this coming week.

File This Under: Yum!

The husband has had a hankerin’ for Pineapple Upside Down cake for a while now.

Too bad someone ate the can of pineapple rings. All we had were chunks.
He enlisted the kids to make a cake with whatever we had on hand.
And then he said – “hey, make them cupcakes!”

My mind can only imagine the mess. I mean, you know how hard it is to flip a real, full sized cake right-side-up.

Now imagine cupcakes. I could feel my anxiety rising.

The kids were insistent.

So – Alex took the pineapple cake mix and followed the directions. And as advised by me, they add a little pineapple juice to the mix (prolly two tablespoons full).

We then took cupcake liners (all we had on hand were pirate ones) – and filled our muffin tins. We first sprayed the liners with baking PAM – a good dose. We were replacing the butter. Then we took a tablespoon (or so) of brown sugar and made that the first layer. Then Isabel added two pineapple chunks.

And then I added one cherry. And then we poured the batter over the brown sugar, pineapples and cherries.

We baked them at 325* (because of our darker coated pan) for 22 minutes.

We took them out to cool. And then watched the CMT Music Awards – which was the only decent thing on our DVR. Meanwhile, the kids were outside having a water balloon fight.

After they cooled, mostly – I asked the husband if he wanted his ‘as is’ or if he wanted me to take off the liner and right-side up his cupcake. He opted for the latter.

Let me tell you... This is the BEST cupcake I have EVER tasted. Not just because it was Pineapple Upside Down... but because the cake was PERFECT.

I wish I could share them all with you – because they are THAT good! And they were sooo easy to make!

Off to have another one!!

:)

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