Everything’s Just a Little Different

As you all know, we’ve recently moved from our home in Texas to live in England for a few years.  When Colin got the job offer and we were discussing whether to take it, our children, of course, played a huge role in the conversation.  How would it affect them?  Would they easily adapt to all of the changes?  Would they have a hard time with their new home? I have to tell you in all honesty, they are now helping me with the adjustment without even knowing what they’re doing.

My boys are only 1 and 3, so I can only speak to this young age group.  We haven’t had to deal with older children who are leaving lifelong friends or high school sweethearts behind and I imagine that could result in a totally different outcome.  I must say, though, that I am astounded by how well they’ve done.  Ian, the three year old, has had a lot of questions, and they began as soon as we got off the plane and into our taxi.  He noticed immediately that the driver was sitting on the “wrong” side of the car.  Then it was the double decker buses, the fact that we were living in an apartment, and why his favorite shows weren’t on TV.  The one year old has been absolutely enthralled with little things, like the switches on the electrical outlets and the fact that the washer is in the kitchen, right where he can reach it!  But you know what?  They’ve easily accepted all of the change.

I think it’s easy to forget how set we adults are in our own ways.  While I’m struggling with finding cheese and BBQ sauce that suit my taste buds, my boys are chowing down without question.  I’m still trying to get my normal bedtime lined back out and dealing with exhaustion throughout the day, and they adjusted after the first few days.  It is absolutely astounding how adaptable youngsters can be.  That first day, after noticing so many odd sights around him, Ian kept asking the age old question of “Why?”  I responded by explaining to him that we are on a fun, new adventure in a different country and that “Everything’s just a little different here.”  It has become our family motto and gets tossed about daily.  And lately, he has started noticing all of the similarities between our hold home and our new, like the fact that there are horses in England, just like we used to see in Texas.  🙂

We are a very routine oriented family.  Our schedules might be flexible, but our routines are typically not.  Lunchtime might get pushed to 1 instead of noon, but nap time must follow; that kind of thing.  They’ve held on tightly to their routines and treated everything as normally as possible.  In short, they’re doing great in their new home and are even appreciating the little things that make living here different, but wonderful.  They both get terribly excited when I get the stroller out in the middle of the day to walk to the grocery store and they love watching the magpies out our living room window.  It’s these little things that have helped to keep me grounded and remind me that there’s so much to see and do, and that while, “everything’s just a little different,” it’s also a fun world full of new and exciting details to take in.  It’s also a reminder that no matter how far from home we are, or how different things get, as long as we have each other everything is A-okay!

Friday Funnies

I’m about to be brutally honest. I have writers block and a lot of laundry calling my name. I’m in the beginning stages of preparing my home to be put on the market so I’m cleaning up and throwing things out. In all honesty, getting my house sale ready is consuming my thoughts.  As I’ve sat here in front of the computer thinking of something to share with you I keep coming up empty handed. So, I decided to provide you with a few laughs. Who couldn’t use that, right!?

And Now:

I hope you enjoyed! Have a great weekend!

Book Review for I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban

Google Books summary for I Am Malala:

“When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.

On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. 

Instead, Malala’s miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize.

I AM MALALA is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls’ education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.

I AM MALALA will make you believe in the power of one person’s voice to inspire change in the world.”

I recently read this book after seeing Malala Yousafzai on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Her story was so incredible just from the short interview on there that I knew I had to read the book. I was not disappointed.

I Am Malala starts out with the dramatic day that Malala was shot and the shooting itself. It then skips back in time and tells us the story of Malala’s family from before she was born. I found it all very fascinating, learning different things about her village in Pakistan and the struggles they’ve gone through. She dealt with things on a daily basis that I can’t even imagine. Osama Bin Laden even hid out in her tiny village at one point, although she never saw him with her own eyes.

I Am Malala is a real eye opener of all the things we take for granted. Where I come from and where I live now, women don’t have to cover their faces. They don’t have to have a man accompany them everywhere they go. They don’t have to guard what they say because there’s no such thing as freedom of speech for them. They don’t have to fight for the right to have an education just because they’re female.

Malala is an incredibly courageous young woman and her story is one that needs to be heard. Run, don’t walk, to your local library  or book store and read this book.

My Goal for Me in 2014

I’m not one for New Year resolutions and frankly, life has been so busy lately that I really didn’t have time to put a lot of thought into one this year.  However, with a new year, there is always a desire in me to start something new; to really make some positive things happen in the upcoming year.  This year, like many, my goal for the year is to get healthier.  I don’t know if it has been the constant food binge of the holidays or all of the uncertainty and instability in my day-to-day life of late, but I definitely need to work on things.  So this year, my health is my goal.

I have struggled with my weight my entire life.  I don’t remember a time when it wasn’t an issue for me.  I’ve lost a little, gained, lost a little, and gained since I first became aware of my weight in the third grade.  I was able to keep it in check through most of high school, largely through starvation dieting.  Healthy, right?  Toward the end of college, I put on quite a bit and knew something had to be done.  So the spring after I graduated and before law school started in the fall, I joined Weight Watchers and lost 62 pounds.  It was a great experience for me.  My confidence was higher, I slept better, and I was happy.  I even met my goal weight and managed to keep it off through most of law school.  Since then, however, I have acquired a husband, two wonderful little boys, and a much, much busier lifestyle that does not necessarily cater to my own needs.  I have also gained all (and a little more) of the weight back.  So again, something must be done.

The primary objective this time is my health, rather than my looks.  I have a 3 year old and 1 year old and within the next few years, we would like to add number three to the mix.  It isn’t possible for me right now, though.  As most moms, I have very little time for myself.  If I get to read a book for 30 minutes before I crash at night, I feel as if I’ve done something.  I’m not complaining, as I feel very blessed to be able to stay home with my little ones, but I know I need to change this.  There is no way I can go into a third pregnancy with the weight still on.  It’s time for a lifestyle change.  And since we’re already making huge changes in the Wier household and because a new year means new goals, today is the day to start changing.  Once we move out of the apartment we are currently in and into a new home, I plan to join Weight Watchers again.  Increased exercise is also part of the plan.  Although I spend very little time sitting down these days, it isn’t the same as actually devoting time to working out.   Just as importantly, my goal is to set aside at least an hour a day for myself; just to recharge my own batteries.

I know New Year’s resolutions and goals aren’t for everyone, but if you are planning something similar for 2014, I would love to hear from you.  Maybe we can offer each other some support and encouragement along the way.  Even if losing weight isn’t your aim, please share.  Happy New Year everyone! (Hey, I’ve been busy over the last few weeks!)  Here’s to a healthier 2014!

Motherhood: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

I had a very rough mommy day yesterday. There’s no other way to say it. In fact the past few days have been a little rough in my home. My daughter is going through a phase (oh man, I REALLY hope it’s just a phase) of extreme whining. She’s trying her limits and really wants to be able to get the things she wants from whining. It starts as a low whine and then builds to a full on tantrum. I know all kids do this, she is not abnormal, but I am working diligently to teach her there are better ways to get what her heart desires. This is a struggle for me. My patience is wearing thin. I’ve wanted to snap. And you know what? That’s ok!

I recently received an unexpected Facebook message from a friend I’ve had since I was a teenager. In the message she thanked me for sharing both the good and the bad parts of my parenting journey on Facebook. She said that she is often bothered by how people only ever post about their good times, making it appear as though their lives are perfect. This message came as a result of a picture I posted of my 16 month old daughter with the ring to her toilet around her head. I was so touched by her thoughtfulness, but it also made me think; all too often we are afraid to say that we don’t have it all together. If we admit that our children are driving us crazy then we must not be thankful enough for them. Wrong! Our children drive us mad because we do care so much for them. We wouldn’t even be bothered by their antics if we didn’t love them so. Anyway, as a result of that message I’ve decided to share a short list of the things that aren’t perfect in my house and these are all just within the last week.

• One day I had to clean poop out of the floor…… twice! Yes we have two dogs, no they weren’t to blame.

•  I’ve cleaned up at least 10 puddles of pee in the past week. You’re judging me aren’t you? Ok stop! We’re working on learning to use the potty here!

• Yesterday baby refused to nap. After two failed napping attempts she fell asleep in my arms. While I should have stared at her cherubic little face and breathed in her smell, I sat and cried because holding her through her nap meant I’d missed my only opportunity for a shower until her Daddy came home.

• Since my patience is wearing thin, I’ve had to stop myself from shouting at baby more than once this week.

•  Yesterday I strapped baby in her car seat and went for a drive. I needed out of the house as the walls were closing in. I ended up at McDonald’s and ate my emotions instead of dealing with them.

• There’s barely a spare inch of carpet visible in our play room right now. It’s a wreck. And cleaning it up feels pointless because for every one thing I pick up, another gets pulled out.

Do these things make me a bad mom? I really sincerely hope not. Instead I think these things make me real. My life is not even close to perfect. Parenting is hard work! It’s a learning process. It’s ok to have bad days, it’s ok to go for a drive and eat garbage every now again. Why is it ok? Because we are real people with real limits. Becoming frustrated with our children doesn’t lessen our love for them. Becoming annoyed with our children doesn’t make us less thankful for them. We live in a world with high expectations. I think people need to hear that we are all struggling. We all have “cleaning poop off the floor for the second time” days. In my opinion, I think that’s why God made kids so darn cute. Their sweet little cheeks and giggly sounds soften us even on the hardest of days. So don’t be so hard on yourself. If you love your kids and they know it, then you’re doing a good job already! And lastly, when you catch yourself crying because all you want to do is take a shower, remember you are one of a billion smelly mamas before you who have shed tears over the very same thing.

Wier Family Update: We Made It!

Hi everybody!  We three ladies have been gone for a while with Christmas, New Years, and all the travelling we’ve done.  I hope you had the merriest and happiest of holiday seasons!  Here in the Wier family, we are definitely ringing in our new year with a bang.   We have made our move to England and are currently all set up in our furnished apartment in Oxford.  A lot of people have been asking how things are going for us, so today’s post is just an update on everything in our family.

Where to begin?  It’s been a crazy few weeks.  We moved out of our house in Texas in the middle of December and it was much more bittersweet than I had expected.  We had wonderful neighbors (seriously…the kind you get once in a lifetime) and after 2 ½ years, we had started to become part of the community.  After the movers came and took all of our things away, we loaded up like the Beverly Hillbillies and headed to my Mom and Dad’s in Kentucky for a couple of weeks to celebrate Christmas and New Years.  It was the perfect stopping point.  We were able to spend time with our friends and family and it was incredibly relaxing after the weeks and weeks of move prep we had been doing.

January 1^st was move day.  Declan woke us up at 5:30 that morning and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise since that’s when we got the notification that our first flight from Lexington to Chicago had been cancelled.  Colin quickly got on the phone and we were able to rebook flights from Charleston, WV to Washington DC to Heathrow.  It was a very long travel day, but I have to say that the boys both did great, considering how exhausted we all were.  Colin and I didn’t get much sleep on the flight over, but the boys slept the whole way.

We were picked up by a driver and arrived at our apartment in Oxford around 1:00 PM on the 2^nd and spent the evening unpacking our eight suitcases and four carry-on bags.  We got more than a few odd stares in the airport, but were able to bring all of the boys’ Christmas gifts with us so that they would have plenty of toys to play with until all of our other things arrive at the end of January.

All of our luggage. 🙂

Colin squeezed in with all of the luggage on the way to our apartment.

After we all slept between 12-14 hours Thursday night, we woke up on Friday and the real fun started!  Colin picked up the rental car and successfully drove back to the apartment on the “wrong” side to pick us up.  Then it was off to the grocery store.  That was quite the experience.  Did you know that the shopping carts go sideways here?  In the US when you’re pushing your cart it goes forward and backward.  Here, the wheels pivot and you can push it sideways, even spinning it in circles if you’d like.  This is incredibly convenient, but it also means that it can get a little out of control if you aren’t careful.  I almost lost the cart twice on our first trip out.  It was difficult to find anything in the store as I’m not used to where things would be found on the shelves.  The eggs, for example, were not refrigerated.  This threw me, as I was looking for them in the refrigerated section.  When you’re checking out here, there is a cashier sitting behind the register.  She scans the food, but then you have to bag it yourself.  I had been warned of this in advance, but I wasn’t prepared to find only three bags on the counter.  I had $300 worth of groceries and three bags!  I had to act like the American that I am and ask the cashier what to do about the bags.  It turns out that as you use the bags on the counter, she reaches underneath and pulls out a few more for you.  Good to know!

After finishing up at the grocery store, we drove out to meet our estate agent (realtor) and view a house.  We were so pleasantly surprised.  The house was amazing. It was very large, with plenty of space and exactly what we needed.   However, it was 23 miles away from Colin’s work.  With gas prices being so expensive here ($9.58 per gallon as of this morning), that’s a long haul for Colin to drive everyday.  It is also a good possibility that there will be more houses built just behind the house while we’re living there, meaning lots of noise to contend with during construction.

Following that, we drove back to Headington, the part of Oxford where our apartment is located, and were able to set up our bank accounts.  I’ve heard over and over that this would be difficult since we don’t yet have a permanent address, but thankfully, it was not.  Within an hour, we were all set up and the boys had charmed all the ladies at the bank.

Saturday morning, Ashley came over with her family and we finally got to meet Chris!  That was really nice as we’ve felt like we’ve known him forever already.  They watched the boys for us while we went with the estate agent and viewed six more houses.  We found our number one pick and immediately put an offer on it.  It’s less than two miles from Colin’s work , a mile and a half from any shopping we could want, and two miles from what will hopefully be Ian’s school.  We are hoping to know something definite by this evening.  When we came home, the kids were all happily playing and Chris and Ashley didn’t seem to be pulling their hair out, so we all ordered pizza and hung out for a few hours.  It is so wonderful to have family nearby and was like bringing a piece of home to us.

Me and Ashley on Saturday.

On Sunday we drove into Oxford.  It is a beautiful, old city that dates back to 900 AD and is home to the world-renowned Oxford University.  We walked around the city for a bit and took some pictures and then headed back to the car to head off for a few more grocery items.  When we got home, we had a much needed lazy afternoon and I cooked a real supper for the first time in what seems like ages.

One of the many beautiful buildings in Oxford.

And another. Forgive the poor quality. A photographer I am not. 🙂

So here we are.  We’re all settled in and starting our new life in the UK.  Colin is back at work this morning and me and the boys are settled back into our daily routine.  It has been an exhausting month, really, and the relative normalcy is actually very welcome.  It will get crazy again when all of our belongings arrive and we move into a house, but for now, we are enjoying learning our way around and just being together.

Below are a few fun items I’ll throw at you from the perspective of a brand new expat.  🙂

Things I Have Found Funny/Didn’t Expect.

The thermostats in our apartment are found in every room.  Each room has a door, including the kitchen, living room, bedrooms, etc. so that you can set the heat for the rooms that you are using and you don’t have to worry as much about the other rooms.  The oddest thing, though, is that our thermostats range from 1 to 10.  We still aren’t sure what our “number” is.  I thought these numbers might be the temperature in Celsius, but that’s not it because the range would only be from about 34 to 50 degrees.  We’ve ended up turning them on about 2 in the main rooms and then sometimes opening a window to let more cool air in.  It’s so hard to get the temperature right!

Weird thermostat.

Outlets

The boys are completely enthralled with the outlets here.  Not only do they look different than what they’re used to, but they also have on/off switches on them.  Once you plug something in, you have to turn the outlet on.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve caught Declan playing with these switches.  I’m not sure if they are like that everywhere, or just in our apartment, but it’s a bit maddening!

The outlets.

Bathrooms

A few notes on the bathrooms as we’ve been house hunting.  The master bathrooms are usually not very big and they have no storage in them.  I’m talking not even a medicine cabinet.  And a double vanity, which is standard in most new houses in my area of the US, is extremely rare.  The light switches to all of the bathrooms are outside the room and there are no electrical outlets in there either.  All of our toiletries and hair products are currently parked in a set of plastic drawers right outside the bathroom.  This is fine, but was definitely a bit of a shock when we got here!

Speed limits

Colin has been doing a great job with the driving.  He’s even gotten really good at the notorious round-abouts that are so difficult to figure out.  As we were driving home from viewing the house on Friday, however, we realized that we had a problem.  We had no clue what the speed limit was!  In the US, if you’re not sure, you can typically just keep driving and soon you’ll find a sign.  Not here!  We drove for miles and miles on what  we would consider a highway and never saw the speed limit!  We’ve since had Chris explain to us how it works.  Apparently, there are “national speed limits” on certain types of roads and if nothing is posted, that’s what you follow.  Good to know!

Most Annoying Thing

Laundry.  Hands down.  We have a very small washer/dryer in the kitchen.  I expected this and immediately started washing when we got here.  The dryer is kind of a joke and we have resorted to air drying everything.  It’s working, but it means that I am going to be ironing Colin’s clothes every day until we move into a new house and can figure out a different solution.  This is annoying, but I really expected it, and we’re living with it; just a minor inconvenience.  🙂

Best Thing So Far

The food!  I’m not talking about restaurant food.  Aside from ordering pizza (which was delicious), we haven’t eaten out yet.  I’m just talking about the groceries.  Plain old sandwich bread is SO much better here.  It tastes like someone baked a loaf of bread, sliced it, and just put it in a bag.  I love it to the point that I’m going to have to watch my intake.  The meats and cheeses are just as good.  It has all just been regular grocery store items that I would buy every week, but it tastes so fresh!

Okay.  That’s a very long post.  If you’ve stayed with me, I’m glad!  Next week’s post will be less rambling and a more fun topic, I’m sure.  I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Happy Holidays From Three Ladies and Their Babies

Hello, readers. It’s been a pretty great year for us Three Ladies. It’s had its ups and downs like most years do, but overall we’re all extremely blessed and thankful to live the lives we do. In celebration of that, we’ve decided to take a little time for ourselves and our families around the holidays. You won’t be seeing us here until after the New Year, but we plan to come back bigger and better than ever and we hope you’ll join us.

We’ll all be celebrating Christmas in our own special way this year. Stephany and Lisa will be together at their parents’ house with Stephany leaving for her new home in England soon after. Ashley will be celebrating with her family in England. So for now we want to say whoever you are, whatever you celebrate this time of year, and wherever you’ll be, we truly wish you the happiest of holidays and a wonderful new year.

Here are a couple of fun Christmas links for you to enjoy in our absence. See you in 2014!

22 Crock Pot Christmas Recipes
(click the image to view)

38 Clever Last-Minute Christmas Hacks to Make Your Life Easier
(click the image to view)

 

Smoky Mountain Opry Christmas Show

This past weekend my husband and I had a little getaway. We left our daughter in the care of her grandparents and spent Saturday and Sunday in Pigeon Forge, TN. We’ve both been there numerous times in our lives and as such we usually end up feeling like we’ve already done it all and seen it all. So as we were wracking our brains for something Christmas themed to do, we passed a billboard advertising the Smoky Mountain Opry Christmas show. We felt pretty confident that the show would already be sold out, but just to be certain I called the ticket office and to our surprise they had two seats available for us.  So we purchased them on a hope and a prayer that it would actually be entertaining and worth the money.

It was! I absolutely recommend that anyone in the Smoky Mountain area visit this theater during the holiday season. From the second you drive up to the building you are greeted with the Christmas spirit all around. The grounds are decorated beautifully! There are giant evergreens covered in beautiful lights and a nativity scene set up in front of the entrance. Upon entering the building you are warmly greeted and they put extra effort into keeping the crowd occupied while waiting to enter the auditorium. The walls of the common area are lined with displays of country music memorabilia. Also, the particular night we were there they were showing off one of the big cats used in their regular shows. People could pet the cat and have a photo taken with it as a souvenir. In this same area is the concession bar where you can purchase various candies, popcorn, nachos, drinks and more. The concession items are rather pricey, but that just goes along with the territory of a show of this nature.

When the gates are open to enter the auditorium, each party is stopped to pose for a picture with either Santa Claus or Raggedy Ann and Andy. These pictures are brought out later in the show for purchase if you wish. Then you are ushered in to your seat. My only complaint of the entire show is that the seats are really small. You will be rubbing arms with the person next to you. In fact, my husband sat with his arm around me throughout the entire production in an effort not to be touching the person next to him. We are pretty average sized people, so this should not have been an issue.

Once the show starts it is fun from the very beginning. It begins with a laser light show and includes a juggling act, figure skating, tons of singing, dancing, comedy skits, and more. There is something for everyone in the show! The songs range from more classical Christmas carols to the fun and modern ones we hear more often now. There are constant costume and set changes. It would be impossible to get bored. I really appreciate that the producers of this show put such an effort into making the show a mix of Santa Claus and Jesus’ birth. There is a fun scene with Santa and his workshop that will bring out the child in any adult. Then, there is also a tear jerking scene of the Christmas story of Jesus’ birth that includes cast members flying out through the audience. It is beautiful!

I absolutely recommend that anyone see this show. It is well worth its price and is good clean fun for the whole family. I will certainly be seeing it again sometime. In fact, the Christmas show is such a treat, I’d like to see the regular show as well. If you’re thinking of seeing it, you can find a link to their site below.  If you’re looking for something fun to do, then check it out for sure. It would be virtually impossible to leave the show without feeling in the Christmas Spirit.

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Kitchen Tips and Tricks for the Holiday Season

I love being in the kitchen and baking.  I don’t always have a lot of time to do it or a lot of people to feed, but it’s one of my favorite stress relievers.  With the holiday baking season in full force and a lot of parties to host and attend, it seems like a good time to talk about a few kitchen tips and tricks.  I am absolutely not an expert in the kitchen, but I spent some time over the weekend thinking about some things that I’ve learned (often after many flops and failures) that I could pass along.  Hope something in this list helps.  🙂

1.  When it’s time to make those cute cut-out sugar cookies, a rolling pin really makes life easier.  You just roll out your dough, cut out your shapes and you’re ready to bake those cookies, right?  Yeah.  Right.  Have you ever tried to use a rolling pin?  Let me tell you, I’ve made more than a few messes where I’ve ended up with perfectly good cookie dough stuck to the rolling pin and the counter.  I’ve also added so much flour to the cookies to keep them from sticking that they were inedible.  The solution?  Saran wrap or wax paper.  All you have to do is lay down a layer, put your lump of cookie dough in the center, put another layer over that and then use your rolling pin as it was intended.  All you have to do when it’s flat is peel the saran wrap or paper away.  Voila!  Nothing sticks!

2.  To make your cookies last longer, throw a piece of bread into an airtight container with the cookies.  I grew up watching my mom do this and had no clue why until I was grown.  Well, guess what?  It really does work and extends the life of your cookies by days by keeping them soft and moist.  The cookies will absorb the moisture from the bread and stay soft.  Just change the bread every couple of days as it starts to get hard.

3.  Make sure the butter is the right temperature.  Ever notice how cookies often call for butter at room temperature and pies call for cold butter?  It turns out, it really does make a difference.  If your butter is too warm, it can cause your cookies to “spread” on the pan instead of fluffing up nicely.  If it’s not cold enough for your pastries, it can also cause them to be greasy and not flaky enough.

4.  For the longest time, when I made pies, I couldn’t get the crust to come out evenly.  The center of the pie would be a beautiful, buttery brown, but the edges would be dark and crunchy.  I tried covering the pie with foil until the last few minutes and then uncovering, but it never worked quite right.  Eventually, it occurred to me that I was being stupid.  If the center of the crust was coming out great, there was no need to cover it.  Placing aluminum foil around ONLY the edges was the solution.  Letting the pie bake with the foil around the edges until the last five minutes and then removing the foil was the perfect solution.  Now, I have one of these handy, dandy tools (thanks to the hubby, who is always picking up fun kitchen gadgets for me), but it really isn’t necessary.

The handy dandy pie crust shield. 🙂

5.  Read the recipe in its entirety before beginning.  I can’t tell you how many times I have glanced at the ingredients list and thought, “Okay.  I have everything and I’m ready to go,” only to get halfway through the recipe and realize that instead of splitting the milk between two different steps, I already used it all or some such mistake.  It’s important to just read the whole thing through once to make sure you’re not going to screw anything up.  It sounds like common sense, but sometimes, it’s easy to get in a hurry.

6.  When it comes to baking, always mix the dry ingredients together and the wet ingredients together and THEN combine them.  I’ve seen some people say it’s best to add wet to dry and others say its best to add dry to wet.  I’m not sure, but I do know that it really is best to mix the wet and dry separately first.  The reason for this is all about texture, especially when flour is involved.  Once you add flour to the mixture, if you overmix the batter, it will often come out too tough and rubbery.  By mixing separately and then combining, you can ensure that all of the ingredients are well incorporated, but not too overworked.

7.  There is a difference between liquid food coloring and gel food coloring.  Most of us are familiar with liquid food coloring and it is often used in icings and frostings.  It is easy to find in the grocery store and it does the trick.  Gels are a little more difficult to find (although becoming more common; I found some at WalMart), but usually produce more vivid colors, meaning you have to use much less.  And for me, the biggest difference is again, all about texture.  The liquid food coloring is made of, well, liquid.  By the time you add enough to get the vibrant color you want, often your icing has become too thin.  With the gels, you can add very little and do not have to change the consistency of your icing.  This is also pretty important if you are actually dying the baked product, itself, such as the cake in Red Velvet Cake.  If you use too much of the liquid food coloring, you will have to adjust your temperature and bake time accordingly.

Liquid Food Color

Gel Food Color

8.  If the berries or chocolate chips in your cakes and muffins sink to the bottom, the problem is that said berry or morsel is denser than your batter and therefore sinks.  To fix this, simply toss them in flour and add them to the batter at the very end, just before you put it all in the oven.  I have no idea why this works, but it really does.  I had a lot of gooey-on-the-bottom confections before I started doing this.  Now, only a few will sink.  🙂

I hope you have all found something here to help you in the kitchen this holiday season and beyond.  Happy Holidays, everyone!

Cherry Fluff Dessert

My husband has a skill for springing surprises on me. He’s most notorious for the, “We have to bring a dish.” surprise. It’s not the kind of surprise I enjoy. It is, however, the kind of surprise that leaves me wracking my brain, emptying my pantry, perusing Pinterest, and calling all my go to bakers for advice.  This happened just yesterday when Brian informed me we needed to bring a dessert to the Christmas party we were attending last night. I went into full panic mode. I didn’t have a lot of time. I needed something quick, cheap, easy and I really preferred something that looked festive. I searched Pinterest for an hour or so, but everything I found seemed much too daunting or just wasn’t Christmasy enough.  After searching to no avail, I asked my Mother-in-Law for suggestions and she reminded me of her Cherry Fluff she makes each year for Christmas dinner.  A light bulb went off and I went to the grocery store in search of ingredients. Cherry Fluff was the perfect idea. So, I thought I’d share this recipe with you. It really is by far the easiest dessert I’ve ever made, but what it lacks in time consumption, it more that makes up for in taste. The following is the recipe for Cherry Fluff Dessert. You ready? Don’t blink.

Ingredients:

• 21 ounces cherry pie filling
• 8 ounces of Cool Whip
• 8 ounces of crushed pineapple
• 14 ounces of sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup of chopped pecans
• a few maraschino cherries for decoration

All of the necessary ingredients for Cherry Fluff Dessert.

Directions:

1. Mix all of the listed ingredients together in a bowl. The ingredients can be mixed in the bowl you wish to serve it out of, but for purposes of keeping the sides of the bowl neat and clean, I like to mix them in a mixing bowl and then pour it into the serving bowl and flatten out the surface to create a beautiful dish.

2. Garnish the fluff with maraschino cherries for decoration and then allow to chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours before serving.

See. I told you not to blink. As you can see, there really is nothing to this recipe. It simply requires opening a few cans and mixing, but the end result is a light and smooth holiday treat. Throw in a 98 cent green bowl from WalMart and you’ve got a yummy, easy, and very Christmas appropriate dessert. Enjoy!