Sassy Priscilla's Craft and Life Journal

Rhymes with Luck

My poor sister and sister-in-law. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that has given them a hard time about their choice for a baby name. I photographed the bunting without the first letter of the name. Start your guesses now!

Anyway, a few weekends ago, my sister Heather and her partner, Susannah, were given a baby shower for their upcoming baby boy. Susannah's sister and step-mom hosted the shower and flew in along with several other family members for the shower. They paid for the food and made the arrangements. My mom did flowers. My sister Missy did the games. I hardly had to do anything. Score! 

I did make this bunting for baby "Uck's"  room. I bought a crib sheet from the collection they've selected to decorate his room. I used letters from an alphabet fabric - the name escapes me. I used a pre-made bias tape which I thought coordinated nicely. I also made some burp rags which I forgot to photograph. 

The shower was lovely. My grandma and aunt made the trip for the shower. Family friends were there. Susannah's family was real fun to be with.

We are very excited about having another boy in the family. Missy has two boys, I have one and now we'll have baby "Uck." Want to know his real name? It is after the jump!

Homemade Honey Graham Crackers

For the last several months, I have found ways to eliminate partially hydrogenated oils and corn syrup from our home diets. 

I've also worked to find ways to eliminate BPA products that our food is stored in. It is difficult with the canned goods - especially tomato products. I make all our own pizza and pasta sauces and use tomato puree. Though we had a wonderful garden of tomatoes, I neglected to freeze any because we ate them all! My local grocer was able to order some jarred, organic, strained tomatoes and though they are expensive, they work perfect!

One of the things I was surprised at finding partially hydrogenated oils in was graham crackers. Yes, I can buy the mealy Bunny Grahams but Aidan doesn't really eat them. So I turned to AllRecipes for a recipe. I found a nice one that is the perfect consistency and rolls out nicely. However, the taste - just ok. We found that letting them sit for a day improved the flavor but there is that overall wheat/dirt aftertaste. We found that they were a bit addicting, though. I think if I can boost the flavor, we'll have a real hit.

My plan is to make these again and either use less wheat flour or a white wheat flour to see if that improves the flavor. I may add a bit of cinnamon to the dough, too. Sprinkling the tops with cinnamon/sugar before baking is a must.

Aren't the shapes cute? They are from Williams Sonoma. I think they are just called Circus Animals. I don't believe they are carried by Williams Sonoma anymore.

Changes that I made to the recipe include substituting butter for the margarine and sprinkling the tops with cinnamon and sugar. I rolled the dough to about 1/4" and used LOTS of flour when rolling and cutting the cookies out. Future changes I'm mulling are using 2 cups white flour with 1 cup whole wheat our trying a white wheat flour. I may add cinnamon to the dough or a little more vanilla and honey.

I Heart Coffee Cake : Quick Cinnamon Coffee Cake Recipe

I am always on the search for a new coffee cake recipe as Jeff and Aidan love coffee cake. But I always return to this same, easy, delicious recipe. Jeff is pretty picky about what he wants in certain foods and basically, coffee cake must just be a mass of cinnamon. This has a basic light, fluffy cake with a mass of cinnamon streusel on top.

As usual, I turned to my favorite food recipe supplier - Southern Living. This one was from their December 2008 issue. I've tweaked it just a tiny bit. I doubled the streusel topping and added a tablespoon extra butter (Sassypriscilla, why can't you lose weight?) and eliminated the vanilla glaze. You can view the original recipe here. My recipe is below.

Here's a baking tip. Are you in a hurry to bake and have forgotten to take your butter out to get to room temperature? I do this all the time. Not a problem. No, no, no - stay away from the microwave. Just put your rock hard butter into your mixer and beat the heck out of it for a couple minutes. Now, without further ado (after the jump).

Bruce Springsteen Saturday Night Hot Shot (regrets to Daniel Craig)

With a lack of good hot shots from Daniel Craig, I bring to you The Boss. Not bad for 60, hey? 

We were lucky enough to see Bruce with the E Street B and and meet up with my friend, Scott, last November for my 6th time, I think.

 

The Gratefuls

I have a case of the gratefuls. So the last few weeks have been a little rough. Something to do with a fender bender, failed refinance attempt, lack of money, a split lip on Aidan, and most important - a pretty sick cat. Then I see images of Haiti every day and I feel like a schmuck. I could have seen images of Haiti before the earthquake and felt like a schmuck.

I have so much to be grateful for while sitting in my strong, sweet brick home. I get to spend the day sewing gifts for a new nephew waiting to be born in April. His mothers (my sister and sister-in-law) are having a baby shower tomorrow. Of course, I am all about the last-minute but I am geared up while my healthy little boy is at school. I am lucky to have a job at home that allows me this time and can pay for my supplies.

Toulouse, the aforementioned sick cat, is getting better and I couldn't be happier. Some day when I figure out how to post video, I will include one of Toulouse clearing the fogged up window on our front door for better view. 

I'll make a nice dinner to have waiting for my healthy husband who will be teaching 7 classes this semester! I could make a huge list of the gratefuls but you get the idea.

So my question is - what do you do in a crisis like this? We are always short on money but I use some of my business money to sponsor business loans using Kiva. We always try to give to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. For disaster relief, I like the Red Cross and Doctors without Borders. What are your favorite organizations and why?