Sample Saturday

Good Morning! Please spend a few minutes this Memorial Day weekend to remember and honor those who have sacrificed for our freedom.

Here are some great blog posts from this week.

Kisses and Kiddos

Forming a Baby-Sitting Co-Op - To Love, Honor, and Vacuum shares a great idea for swapping baby-sitting nights with other young families. There’s even a link to another online resource for finding “official” co-ops.

Right and Wrong Reasons to Want a Healthy Marriage - This post from The Romantic Vineyard is very challenging. Striving for a healthy marriage is good, but the motivation is important as well.

The Importance of Prayer- A powerful reminder from The Confident Mom of the blessing and responsibility we have to pray for our families.

Yumminess

Homemade Ranch Dressing - In my opinion, ranch dressing is the only thing that stands a chance of making vegetables remotely edible, and this recipe from Joy the Baker looks fabulous.

Blackberry Lemonade - Lemonade is one of the best things about summer, and this homemade version from Pink Parsley would be perfect at any barbecue.

Cheeseburger Quesadillas – Add a Pinch has this interesting take on the classic cheeseburger-and-special-sauce routine.

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream- Tasty Kitchen shares this recipe for another summer treat: homemade ice cream. I love the chocolate graham cracker mix-in.

Just for Fun and Giggles

I’d Rather be Short- I found this set of funny cartoons celebrating short-ness over at Chipper Things. As a short person myself, I loved this set of doodles.

Making Sure Everyone Knows Your Fiance Isn’t Living with You – Stuff Christians Like talks about some of the crazy things Christians say to make sure others know they aren’t “living in sin.” It’s been a while since Big Man and I were engaged, but I think we used a few of these, especially around people we met at church functions.

And here’s a final giggle for you.

Enjoy your long weekend!

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Sample Saturday

Good Morning! Here’s this week’s post roundup!

Kisses and Kiddos

Are Boys Growing up Without Men? – To Love, Honor, and Vacuum takes a look at how an increasingly female-dominated society can be harmful to boys. There’s also some great commenting on this post and a couple links to additional posts on the subject.

Finding Time for Mom - I love this idea from The Confident Mom to have a go-to list of relaxing things to do and how to carve out a little mommy downtime during the day.

What Would it Take?- The Generous Wife has a really thought-provoking post about how to work through the more difficult parts of the marriage relationship.

Yumminess

Warm Potato Salad with Bacon and Onions - This recipe from Add a Pinch looks like a great twist on the usual mayo-based side dish. Plus, it has bacon!

Peanut Butter Fudge Cake - I’m generally a bake-from-scratch girl, but sometimes I enjoy a “dressed up mix” recipe. This treat from The Cookbook Queen looks delicious.

French Onion Soup Sandwiches- Joy the Baker has taken this classic soup and turned it into a beautiful sandwich, a perfect recipe for a rainy spring day.

Milkshake Roundup - Check out That’s What We Said for this great list of yummy shakes and smoothies. The S’Mores Shake looks soooo good!

Just for Fun and Giggles

How to Paint a Faux Copper Patina- This is a really cool step-by-step lesson from EPBOT for all you crafty types out there on how to take an ordinary figurine and make it look all aged and interesting.

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Movie Music – The God, Guts, and Glory blog has a fun and geeky list of cool music from sci-fi and fantasy movies. It includes some of the all-time great scores (like LOTR) and also some individual tracks, which is nice if you are looking to round-out your playlist with sometime a little bit different.

And here’s a final giggle for you.

Enjoy your weekend!

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PPQ: Strawberry-Nutella Loaf with Vanilla Glaze

I’m going out on a limb with this one. I adapted this week’s Project Pastry Queen recipe quite a bit, so I feel kinda guilty even listing it as a PPQ dish, but here it is. This week’s PPQ challenge of Mini Apple Cinnamon Loaves with Calvados Glaze was hosted by Emily of A Gilt Nutmeg, and you can see her post with the original recipe here. You can also click here to see how the other members made the dish.

As you can see, I made a few adaptations to the bread. Here’s a list:

~I cut the original recipe in half and made one 9×5 loaf

~I left out the pecans

~I replaced the apples with chopped strawberries

~I left out the cinnamon and nutmeg, and added 1 tsp vanilla extract to the batter.

~I added Nutella. Just spread half the batter into the loaf pan, added about 3 tablespoons on Nutella over that, and then covered with the rest of the batter.

~I replaced the apple brandy in the glaze with vanilla.

Honestly, this results of the recipe were. . .unexpected. I was expecting a quick bread consistency, something similar to banana bread, but my loaf was more like a giant cookie. Not that a big strawberry-Nutella cookie is a bad thing, it just wasn’t what I was expecting. I let the loaf cool in the pan about 15 minutes before removing it and glazing it, and once I got it on the cooling rack it fell. We’re talking hardcore deflation here. I ended up with a “loaf” that was about an inch tall. I couldn’t very well cut it into slices, so Big Man and I just ate it out of a bowl with spoons. Tasty, but not very pretty.

Now, I deviated pretty far from the original recipe, so that may be the reason for the inconsistency. Also, I didn’t make any compensation for the high altitude here, so that may have contributed as well. Either way, when I make this again, I will probably make it in a pie plate and just call it a giant cookie. I will also probably add a couple tablespoons of extra flour for the high altitude here.

The actual flavor of the bread was nice, not too sweet, and the strawberries and Nutella went really well together. The recipe was really easy and quick too, which is always a plus. I might even leave off the glaze next time, as I don’t think it was really necessary.

I hope you get a chance to try the original apple bread recipe, or my strawberry-Nutella cookie version.

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