Awesome Babysitter +Baking Yummy Brownies =Fun Night

  ♥On Saturday the 7th my babysitter came over.  Her name is Sybelle.  When she comes over we always bake delicious sweets. Yesterday we baked double chocolate chip brownies.  We got the recipe from the Nestle website.♥

RECIPE: 

2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) Toll House  Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels, divided
 
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, cut into pieces
 
3 large eggs
 
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
 
1 cup granulated sugar
 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
 
1/2 cup chopped nuts

DIRECTIONS

  ➽Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease 13 x 9-inch baking pan.➽

  ✔Melt 1 cup morsels and butter in large, heavy-duty saucepan over low heat; stir until smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in eggs. Stir in flour, sugar, vanilla extract and baking soda. Stir in remaining morsels and nuts. Spread into prepared baking pan.✔

  ❀Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out slightly sticky.  Cool completely in pan on wire rack.  Cut into bars.❀

ENJOY!

   ❉We didn't put nuts in ours, but you can if you want.  They were warm, gooey, and chocolatey.  They were SOOOO GOOD!❉

Tea Time & sweets !!!!!!!!!!!!

  On New Year's Day, Mommy and I had some friends over for tea and sweets.   I had the idea because I got four cookbooks for Christmas.  I invited Gillian & Ellen because they both like tea.

'Green Apple' Cupcakes =D

     Mommy and I made cupcakes, scones, whoopie pies and macarons.  The cupcakes looked like green apples.  We used candy as the stems and leaves. We used two cupcakes for each 'green apple',  the bottom was a big cupcake and the top was a mini cupcake.  

✔Orange-Chocolate Chip Scone

    The scones were orange-chocolate chip. I used real orange zest and that made the whole difference.  You could really taste the orange. 

     The whoopie pies were red velvet with vanilla frosting.  These were the only things not made from scratch.  They were still good, even though we forgot to add the water.  

Macaron shells to be continued...❤

Pumpkin cinnamon filling

Finished (penguin time)✰

     Last, but not least, were the macarons.  They were French meringue shells with pumpkin cinnamon filling.  Mommy said we got the perfect meringue.  It all was fantastic.  

Table set for tea.❀

Well fed ☝

     For tea we had English Breakfast tea. We got to use Nana's fancy china.  When Gillian & Ellen came we all told funny stories and jokes.  Flopster came to pay a visit.  I had a fun time.  I will definitely do this again.
JOKE:Why did the rabbit cross the street? To go to the hopping center!

Olivia

 ♫On Monday Mommy, Daddy, Aidan, Aprelle, Rick, Sydney, and I went in  to Oslo for the day. We went to the harbor. We found a playground and played for a couple minutes. Then we walked a little more. Then we went to Olivia. Sydney and I played, Aidan relaxing and the grown ups talked. Mommy, Daddy, Aprelle, Rick, and Aidan had pizza and I had pasta. Sydney had some of everyone's dinner. The pasta was reallllly gooood! The sauce was really good because there were chunks of ham. After dinner Sydney and I played under the table. I had a lots and lots of fun!♫

Yummy Smoothies!

  ♞I've been thinking about smoothies lately, so I've (with mommy's help) made some smoothies.  The first was a blueberry and strawberry smoothie. We put in blueberries, strawberries, blueberry yogurt, honey, flax seed, ( flax seed was mommy's idea) and orange juice.  It was realllllllly good.   I put strawberries on the side of the glass as a garnish. It was filling for me.  Next, Mommy and I made a mixed berry smoothie.  We put in frozen berries, milk, vanilla yogurt, flax seed, honey, and ... cantaloupe.  It was reallllly good.  The smoothie shot up at mommy when we were making it.  It was really funny and it made a mess.  I put basil on the top as a garnish.♞

♬Blueberry  and Strawberry smoothie♬

♪Mixed Berry smoothie♪

5 days in PARIS!

Mommy and me at Disney Paris.

☆ During the first weekend in April,  Mommy and I went to... PARIS! We ate A LOT of good food.  We met up with Aprelle, Rick, and Sydney on Thursday.   On Friday, we met up with Jill and Adam.  On Saturday, our friends Meg and Yash met us too.☆

A mini reunion in Paris.

♧  Here are three of the best breakfasts I had.  On Friday, Mommy,  Aprelle,  Rick,  Sydney, and I went to Cafe Lateral for breakfast.  I had the Petit Dèjeuner Hollandais.  It's eggs with cheese.  Mommy had the Petit Dèjeuner Lateral.  It is scrambled eggs.  Aprelle had the Petit Dèjeuner Anglais.  That is sunny side up eggs with bacon.   Rick had the same thing.  Sydney ate whatever looked good.  All the breakfasts had a croissant and french bread with butter and jam and fresh squeezed orange juice.  My breakfast was really good. Saturday before the Louvre,  Mommy and I had breakfast at Le Grand Corona.  I had a waffle and tea.  My waffle also came with a carmelized pear.  It was gggggoooooodddddd!!!!!  Mommy had a croissant and fresh orange juice.  Sunday was the Paris Marathon. Mommy, Rick, Sydney, and I went to a restaurant on the Champs-Èlysèes.  We all had croissants.   I had warm milk with honey.   It all was really good.♧

Mommy's Salad - Yum-O!

My chicken Cesear Salad from LeBourbon Brasserie

♨ We ate lunch every day, but there were only two really good ones.  On Sunday, Mommy and I went to Le Bourbon Brasserie.  I had a chicken cesear salad.  There were HUGE slabs of chicken on my salad.  And HUGE slices of parmesan cheese.  Mommy had a salad too.  Her salad was with ham, goat cheese and a poached egg.  The salads were so filling, we had no room for dessert. ♨

Mommy and Me at the Jules Verne.

Alien plate.

Do I eat with these? 

The fancy butter with the logo.

Marshmallow clouds!

 ☺ On Monday,  Mommy and I went to Jules Verne.  It is on the second level of the... EIFFEL TOWER! I had poached quail eggs for an appetizer,  duckling with turnip and plums for my main course, and chocolate/passion fruit crunchy for dessert.  The waiters made a mistake and gave me another appetizer before my quail eggs.  My surprise (and free) appetizer was more duck!  Mommy had duck foie gras for an appetizer, stuffed and roasted chicken for a main course, and sponge cake with armanac for dessert.  In addition to our desserts, they gave us chocolate truffles and handmade grapefruit marshmallows.  The marshmallows were AWESOME!  Mommy thought they were like eating clouds!  It was quiet until more people came.  I could see the elevator gear moving and we got to take a private elevator to the restaurant.  You could see the Lourve from our seats.  And a LOT more of Paris. ☺

The Eiffel Tower makes me feel like an ant.

Pork!!!!

Mousse + Mickey straw + toddler =↑

♢  We had five really good dinners on our vacation.  On Thursday, Mommy, Aprelle, Rick, Sydney, and I went to L'Atome.   We started with the pork plate, the cheese plate, and some escargot.  For the main course, I had onion soup and Crème Brûlée.  Rick had the same things as me. Sydney ate what ever looked good.  Aprelle had salmon on bread. I forget what Mommy had. My dinner was really good.  On Friday,  Aprelle, Rick, Sydney,  Mommy, Jill,  Adam, and I went to Le Terrasse Des Ternes.  Mommy and I had duck for dinner and Crème Brûlée for dessert.  Sydney ate what ever looked good, but she really thought the chocolate mousse was good.  I forget what everybody else got.  The food was good.  On Saturday everybody went to Le Vin Coeur for dinner.  I had a burger.  Sydney ate what ever looked good.  Mommy got pasta with salmon.  Our friend Meg got Lentil soup.  I forget what everybody else got.  We started dinner with escargot.  It was the first time that Jill and Adam had escargot.  I think Jill will have them again.  I don't think Adam

Jill after her first escargot!☺

will.  The food was really good and the service was too.  On Sunday night, Mommy and I went to Brasserie Flo. I had steak and a Mi Cuit Guanaja for dessert. Mi Cuit Guanaja is a round, warm, soft, chocolate cake.  Mommy had steak too. She shared the dessert with me.  It was really good.  On Monday, Aprelle, Rick, Sydney, Mommy, and I went to Chez Plumeau at Montmartre.  We started out with the cheese plate and also more escargot.  Then I had steak for my main course and ice cream for dessert.  Sydney had some french fries

Our last meal in Paris.☹

and some food from her mom and dad.   Mommy and Aprelle had lamb shank. Rick had shrimp with duck.  It was really good.  Mommy thought this was the best meal of the entire trip.♢




❤ Daddy has a joke - "Why do the French eat only one egg at breakfast?  Because one egg is an ouef."  He makes himself laugh when he tells this joke.❤

Who?

Venus de Milo!♡

Mona Lisa!☆

Boom!  Boom! Fire Power!⚡

Movie night!

  Sunday we had movie night.  It is a night when someone picks dinner, dessert, and a movie.  It was my night.  I made burritos, green tea ice cream, and picked  Austin Powers (the first movie). I think it is SUPER funny.  I never pick the same meal.

Here is the burrito recipe (I found it on the Internet):

• 1 pound lean beef
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried leaf oregano crumbled
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 ground pepper
• 1can(16 oz) refried beans
• 1 can(10 oz) enchilada sauce divided
• 6 (8-in) flour tortilla
• shredded lettuce

☺ In a large skillet over medium,cook beef, onion,and garlic until meat is browned, stirring often to break up beef.  Drain well. Add chili powder, oregano, cumin, salt, and pepper simmer for 10 mins.  Add refried beans and 1/2 cup enchilada sauce.  Heat thoroughly.

Wrap tortillas in foil and place in 350℉ oven and heat for 10 mins.  Spoon about 1/2 cup of beef mixture in each tortilla; roll tightly and place seam-side down on a platter lined with lettuce.  Spoon remaining enchilada sauce over tortilla.☺

 I had nachos as a side dish, but you can use what ever you like.  It all was really good.

Cookie,Cookie!

     Yesterday Daddy and I made chocolate chip cookies.  I really like cookies and restaurant cookies are really good,  but homemade are the best.  Daddy didn't want to make boxed sugar cookies so we made homemade cookies. We used cookie cutters on three cookies.  We used two different sized heart-shaped cookie cutters and one star-shaped cookie cutter.  We made a lot of cookies.  When they were done Aidan and I had some and Daddy had a bite. They were warm, gooey, buttery, chocolaty bites of love!  That is the special ingredient that Daddy puts in all his cooking - buckets of love!

Daddy getting them ready to go into the oven

Pre-baking

Yum!!!!