Our first homemade king cake

It's Mardi Gras season, y'all.

So the girls and I attempted to make our very first homemade king cake.

We made ours with whole wheat flour, lots of cinnamon, 1/2 the called for butter, and about 1/3 of the brown sugar.   Faith did not like her hands being sticky from the cinnamon and butter.

So she just licked them clean.

After it baked, we tucked the little plastic baby inside.

And Grace covered the top with purple, green, and yellow sugar.  King cakes are typically loaded with sugar.  That's why I cut the filling by so much.

And as I was taking a picture of our finished product, I saw Grace licking the counter top.

She said she was cleaning the sugar off for me.  How sweet.

I will say that I enjoyed the baking more than I did the eating.  I'm not much of a fan of crunchy sugar.  In fact, I think I'd just prefer a donut or a cinnamon roll next time, but Faith and Grace both loved it.    Of course, they love anything with sugar in it.

Donuts. Yum.

Faith and I enjoyed a real treat for breakfast this morning.

Donuts!  Krispy Kreme to be precise.

As you can tell, Faith really enjoyed her donut. 

So much so that she was afraid I might take it away.

So she scurried over to her other chair to finish it with the hope that I wouldn't snatch it away.  I didn't, of course.  I was too busy enjoying my own treat.

My little taste testers

When baking at our house, there's always someone willing to test out my mixes.

And clean my beaters.

Both girls agreed the cake mix was yummy.

Really yummy.

Then it was time to try out my spicy chocolate frosting.

Again, they thought it was excellent.

A little messy perhaps.

Actually, make that very messy.

Very, very messy that is.

But delicious nonetheless.

Dirt cake

In honor of spring, Grace helped me make a dirt cake!

 We crushed up a whole box of Oreos in the food processor.

 Well, almost a whole box.

 Grace and I nibbled on a few.

 Then we mixed up the middle (cream cheese, pudding, cool whip, milk, and bit of sugar).

 Grace taste-tested it.  I can always count on her to help!

Faith just watched us.  We'll let her be a food inspector, too, before much longer.

 Then we combiled it all and stuck it in the freezer to cool for a few hours.  Then we dug in and it was delicious!  I wish I had thought to pick up some gummy worms to decorate the top with.  And maybe a few silk flowers.  I wonder if David would have realized it was dessert? 

Little sous-chef

I was in the kitchen chopping some fresh okra for my fabulous cajun oven baked fried okra, when Grace climbed on a chair and said she wanted to help.  So I let her.

I pulled out a small yet sharp knife (most kitchen accidents are caused by dull knives), a chopping mat and let her start slicing and chopping away.  Don't worry, I kept a close eye on her.

Grace was very careful and she looked just like a mini chef!

She was very patient and meticulous and watched her fingers.

And about 15 minutes later, we had an entire bowl full of freshly chopped okra.   Yum! 

I love cooking in the kitchen with my kids.

You say "lunch" and she comes running. Or crawling.

Faith!  It's lunch time!  Come and get it!

And here she comes.

Fast as she can go!

Faith, how is that tuna noodle?

I'd say she thinks it's pretty good...

By the way, Faith always props her feet on her high chair tray while eating.  How funny is that?

Hey y'all, it's Mardi Gras!

Shake it, Grace!  Shake it!

Shake it really good!

What 'cha got in that bag?

Homemade beignets?  Oh my!  Delicious!!!!

Let's take a little nibble of one.  Or ten.

Faith, what do you think of them?

Mmmm.  Those are sooo yummy!

Thanks, Daddy, for letting me have a teeny tiny taste of very first beignet.

It is Fat Tuesday after all.  Happy Mardi Gras to all y'all!

Catching dinner

Seth came in town to visit and stayed until the 4th of July with us.

It was a nice day outside so we decided to go fishing at the pier.

There was a lot of bait fish in the water.

And the fish were really biting.

We were barely outside when Seth caught this flounder.  It wasn't big enough to keep though so we let him go.

Grace wanted to get in on the action so David put a bait fish on her hook.  Poor fish.  (Grace kept insisting that she needed "uh weal hook on my fissin pole" (a real hook on my fishing pole) so we took the toy alligator off the line and put a real weight on with an old necklace hook.)

She was ecstatic with a real fish on her line.

It didn't take long for that fish to get away and she needed another one.

Grace stayed entertained for quite a bit with her fishing pole and I was enamored by the sunset.

Then Seth surprised us all by catching a big one!

This redfish was a keeper!

David showed Seth how to clean it.  Seth thought it was pretty gross.

Finally he got the fish cleaned so I blackened and pan fried it for dinner.  Even Seth, a very picky eater, thought it was great.  In fact, he told me I was a good cook.  Nice!