DIY Toddler Tower

Baby D loves to bake with me---especially muffins, but really anything I mix together.  As soon as I ask, "Do you want to help Lovey cook?".   He rushes to pull the step stool out from beside the refrigerator.  When we made macaroons for the delivery nurses, he became very distressed that I needed to stand on "my 'tool" to reach the food coloring.

I like having him help and love it when Michael and Adellelyn have wanted to help me as well, but have felt very uneasy about him standing on the step-stool at times.  Because it is slanted, he can't get as close to the cabinet as needed and if he should lose his balance or step backwards, he would hit a very hard tile floor.

At one of the schools I worked with, they have Toddler Towers in their toddler classrooms so that the children can reach the cabinets in a safe way.  They are adjustable and awesome, but also big, bulky and expensive.  To the tune of $150-200 expensive.

Enter one of my grand ideas.  I found directions for a DIY Toddler Tower over on Ana White's website.  After showing it to Ron, we decided that we could build one ourselves and even make it so that it would fold up for storage.

I measured and Ron cut.

As I eluded on my Instagram photo of this step, building projects are sometimes a bit stressful for our relationship.  We have very different ways of approaching things like this and we both can become a bit "snippy" about it.  Such was the case this time, as well, but fortunately, those moments don't last long and we are soon working together again.

Then we assembled.
The directions were easy to follow, with the exception of the part about adding hinges.   The directions only said to purchase 8 sets of sturdy hinges, and we soon realized that half of the ones we bought were too large for the boards.  So, back to Lowe's I went to exchange the hinges.  The other part that was tricky was where to put the hinges.  The included drawing shows half of them on the inside and half of them on the outside.  We couldn't figure out any possible way for that to work, so we placed all of our hinges on the inside.

That meant that our front and back boards had to be placed on the outside of legs, which left a space between the front and the platform that I was worried about feet slipping into.

Adding a scrap of wood to both the front and back fixed that problem and the rest went together just fine.

I sanded and painted the tower and had the chance to try it out this afternoon.  (Please ignore the very messy counter top--it's real life).

It worked great!!

Baby D was a little bit hesitant to climb up the rungs by himself, but it is just as easy to lift him up onto the platform while he is this small.

The front fits flat against the cabinets and hits just below the counter top, which is perfect.

I like that it has the curved sides to hold onto--particularly when I need to step away to get an ingredient.

Of course, being at counter level means that he can reach my iPad and swipe away recipes.  And steal blueberries from the pie.  But, it also means we can cook together much more easily and safely.

The cost of all our supplies was about $35.00 (hinges were the most expensive part of the supplies).
Now, excuse me while I add a scoop of ice cream to our bowls of Berry Crisp. (For our very simple, yummy recipe, click here.)

Holiday Baking

Well, the time has come to 'fess up!   Callie and I together in the kitchen during the holidays?!??! Probably not a good idea!  By way of introduction, let me remind you of some of our previous experiences.  You may recall the the amazing . . .er . . .  interesting Resurrection Rolls that we created for our Sunday School classes.  I lost a cookie sheet during that experience and while the final batch tasted pretty good, they bore no resemblance at all to an empty tomb.
Or anything appetizing, for that matter.

I don't know why we thought those would be a success.  It was only a few months earlier that we had a major "praline mishap".  

And before that, there was the "Toffee Crack".  Yep, that recipe is one that everyone swears by--easy and delicious.  Unless of course, you have Callie and I making it.  That night, we also managed to burn a bowl of chocolate we were melting.

And, while the final product was ultimately a success, there is not denying that some of the "snowman marshmallows" we created a couple of years ago were a little bit scary to look at.

Well, 2014 was sure to be different!  Callie brought over a couple of recipes she'd chosen because they looked yummy and were supposed to be super easy.  So we gathered our supplies and set to work.

We decided that we should try the toffee first.   She had researched recipes and found the no-fail one.  How could we go wrong?  We roasted the sliced almonds according to the directions.

At this point, there should have been some alarms going off in our heads, but instead we considered it to be a minor bump in the road, scraped off the burned ones and continued on.  Luke helped as we stirred and heated and spread.

The first batch looked so perfect---creamy and smooth.   Except, what exactly is the "almond color" that the recipe called for?  Is that a dark almond?  A light almond?   Knowing that our previous experiences resulted in overcooked toffee, we opted for the light color.   And because it looked so good, we made the decision to go ahead and make 2 more batches, thus using all the cookie sheets that I own.

As we set those batches aside to harden, we began the Oreo Truffles.
Now these actually were very easy and tasted oh so good!

I must admit that some were not as pretty as others, but, overall, this was definitely a success!,

After a couple of hours, we began to worry about our toffee.  It didn't seem to be hardening ---- at all.  It was still very pretty, but it required a spoon to eat at this point.  Even after putting it in the refrigerator for a while.  Not wanting to waste all the ingredients, we decided to try to make something from our mess.   I scraped one cookie sheet of "toffee" in a mixing bowl and added the ingredients that were missing from a cookie recipe (flour, brown sugar, backing soda, salt, vanilla, eggs).  

We rolled them into balls, and at the last minute, I suggested we coat them in powdered sugar.  I mean, what did we have to lose?!?!  We baked one dozen and then had Ron taste-test them.   The verdict???   They were good.  Like REALLY good!!!  They reminded me of the Chocolate Crinkle cookies my mother used to make.

We decided that they deserved a special name, so we dubbed them "Krisp Krinkles" and proceeded to bake as many as we could do that night before becoming completely exhausted. (remember that we had 3 full batches of "toffee" to convert).   Both of us took them to work the next day and they were a hit with everyone that tried them.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), it would be virtually impossible to duplicate them.

I suppose the recipe might look something like this:

When Tyler came into town, he helped us make more Oreo balls, gingerbread cookies and muffins (all of which were quite yummy).

And to think that we did all of that baking while keeping the kitchen clean and organized?!?!  NOT!

I think that 2015 is sure to be the "Year of the Perfect Toffee"!

Straight From The Oven

December Details 2014 - Day 16 - STRAIGHT FROM THE OVEN

I haven't done any holiday baking yet this year, although I hope to get a little bit done before the end of the week.  But, last year, Callie and I worked together to bake some goodies STRAIGHT FROM THE OVEN.  We've had a few cooking disasters over the years, but last year, we didn't get too fancy, and everything was a success.  These little Santa Hat brownie bites were cute and tasty!

Have you begun your holiday baking?  What is coming STRAIGHT FROM YOUR OVEN?

Scented

Fall FUN 2014 - Day 5 - SCENTED

What are your favorite smells?   I am not a huge choco-holic (except when it comes to white chocolate), but I have to admit that one of the best SCENTS in the world is that of chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven.  It kind of makes my mouth water just thinking about it!   

There are a whole host of scents associated with fall, too - from piles of leaves burning to pumpkin pie.   How can you picture SCENTED today?

What's For Dinner?

September SNAPS 2014 - Day 22 - WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

Some nights I cook dinner for the two of us, and other nights we opt to go out.  I imagine you do the same.   With our busy schedule and my picky palate, sometimes it's hard to come up with new ideas to cook.  A couple of years ago, I was inspired to try "crockpot freezer meals" that I'd seen on Pinterest. (you can see my post on it over here)  I bought all the supplies, then chopped and mixed everything and bagged it all up, leaving us with about 10 meals ready to cook over the next few months.  Some were better than others, but all of them were good and it was so nice to not have to worry about WHAT'S FOR DINNER on those nights.

I really need to do that again---the freezer is bare and my schedule is busy!  What's on the menu for you tonight?  

Berry Pickin' Time!

Friday morning, Callie and I joined Leah and Erma out at Hillcrest Blueberry Farm for a relaxing morning of picking.   Several years ago, Callie and I picked blueberries at another farm--Hillcrest is much bigger!

It has been rainy all week, so the grass was quite wet, but not muddy.  And it sprinkled on us as we picked blackberries, but it didn't last too long, or stop us.

I never even knew there were different varieties of blackberries (never thought about it, I guess), but there are.  I chose to pick on the "blue" rows, where the plants are thorn-less and the berries are the sweetest.

The bushes were loaded and the berries were so pretty!

It didn't take long to fill our buckets with blackberries.

I caught sight of a tiny bunny watching for his chance to sneak a bite.  He reminded me of the story of Peter Cottontail, but of course, no little blue jacket on this bunny.

After dropping off our blackberries, we got new buckets and headed out to the blueberry field. 

Callie thought that it was very convenient at this stage of her pregnancy that she could pick berries without even having to lean over!

Once our buckets were full, we paid for them and headed back home, dreaming of recipes we could use them in.

Back at my house, I discovered that the guys were hard at work installing my new sprinkler system in the backyard, so I made up a bag of berries for each of them.  Leah shared her recipe for blackberry cobbler, and Callie made it Friday night---she reported that Jordan decided that he DID indeed like cobbler after all.!

I made blueberry waffles Saturday morning that were quite yummy . . .

. . .. and blackberry crumble tonight (I didn't have any milk on hand to make the cobbler).

As evidenced by the empty bowl, it was a hit!

I think since it contained oats, it could be classified as breakfast.  What do you think?

Here is the cobbler recipe that Leah shared with us:

Fruit Cobbler

1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 c. milk
MIX ALL TOGETHER.

Melt 1/2 stick margarine (or butter) in bottom of a pan then add the other ingredients.
ADD 2 cups fruit to top.
SPRINKLE with sugar.
BAKE at 375 for 30 minutes.