Life is good

Hi there!

I just wanted to share a few ideas I found on blogs that we have enjoyed this week.

The first one is Halloween Man--

I found him at http://www.treyandlucy.blogspot.com/. You can go there for instructions, but basically you just hot glue him together. I got my candy at Target, but they didn't have the Palmer's head candies there. I found those at our grocery store. We made them for Family Night, then made an extra one and took him with a bag of the candies to some friends so their family could make some too. We hung ours up on our kitchen cupboard knobs. It was fun and easy, and the kids loved it.

The second idea is Cinnamon Roll Pancakes--

This idea comes from The Idea Room (http://www.theidearoom.net/).

We had them for breakfast this morning, and they're yummy!

Here's the recipe...

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (I used bleached, it was fine)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (I was out of buttermilk, so I substituted with regular milk and white vinegar--1 Tbsp. vinegar per 1 cup of milk, mix and let it sit 5 minutes)
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon honey

Cinnamon swirl:
2 tablespoons melted butter (Instead of butter we used a little milk to thin it out)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon flour

1. Mix all the ingredients together to make the pancakes and set aside. Preheat your pan or skillet and lightly grease it.

2. Make the Cinnamon Swirl mixture and place it into a a small bottle with a squirt nozzle (the name is escaping me...I used one)or a small baggie with a snip in the corner.

3. Spread your batter into small pancakes on the griddle. Immediately add the cinnamon swirls.

4. Cook the pancakes until small bubbles form on the topside of the pancake and do not fill back in with batter.

5. Flip over the pancakes with a turner and cook for another 30 seconds to a minute.

Because of time this morning, we just used regular syrup, but here's her recipe...

Buttermilk Syrup:
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

In a medium sauce pan, combine butter, sugar, and buttermilk. Set over medium heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occassionally. Take off heat and stir in vanilla and baking soda. Stir, and the mixture will become thick and bubbly.

Enjoy!