Like Father, Like Son

My son under the fine tutelage of his father.

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Bucket O’ Dragons

Let's Play Dragons!

My boys love figures.  Figures of any kind…….super heroes, star wars, playmobil.  They play with them, carry them everywhere and even sleep with them (so much for all of those stuffed animals in their room).  The latest “IT” toy in our house is a bucket of How to Train Your Dragon dragons.  I found this at Walmart and it became an instant hit.  All I hear from The Destroyer now is “Mama - let’s play dragons in the kitchen”.  For an adult, at first glance, there isn’t anything all that special about these dragon/viking figures.  It’s a bucket of figures - monkeys, dragons.  You know.  But when you take them out you will see that these are no dollar store army men type figures.  1) They actually stand up.  All of them.  2) They are impeccably detailed.  Hiccup looks exactly like he did in the movie - as do all of the other figures.  3) They are color coordinated.  Let’s face it folks - there are a couple of dragons, a couple of vikings and they all have weird names.  Now I’m supposed to remember which dragon goes with which viking?  Problem solved!!!

Not only do we set these up and knock them down over and over, they would make great party favors or even cupcake toppers!  And with the movie release date almost upon us - this would make a cute little surprise gift! Don’t ya think???

You can find these at your local Walmart or here in our Shop!

HAVE FUN!

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Making Spaetzle (Homemade German Noodles)

This weekend I made egg whites for breakfast.  And where there are leftover egg yolks, there are Spaetzle (Homemade German Noodles) to be made!  Spaetzle are very simple to make, but definitely require some muscle, as the dough gets very thick.  In the grand scheme of when my parents make spaetzle, this is a small batch recipe.  This fed our family of 4 for 2 dinners.  Spaetzle heat up very well for a second time in boiling water.
 
SPAETZLE - HOMEMADE GERMAN NOODLES
 
Ingredients
3 cups flour
3 egg yolks
2 eggs
water
1 tsp. salt
Directions
Put a pot on the stove and get your water boiling.  Salt the water.  Put flour and salt in a bowl and make a well in the center.  Add the egg yolks and egg whites. Begin stirring flour into eggs a little at a time.  As soon as the dough gets thick and unmanageable, add some water.  This is where it gets tricky because I can’t tell you exactly how much water to add.  You just need to eyeball it.  You don’t want the dough to be thin.  You want it to be thick, like wall paper paste.  The dough will be sticky.  I added water 3 times to this batch - adding maybe 3-4 tablespoons at a time.  Once the dough is ready, place it in the spaetzle (noodle) machine and push!  Boil the noodles.  You want them to float on the top of the water and then you still want them to cook another 2-3 minutes.  Remove with slotted spoon and drain.  Enjoy!

Stirring the Spaetzle Dough

 The Destroyer loves anything messy and sticky spaetzle dough is no exception!  Though since the dough is so thick and unmanageable for a 2 year old, he came and went rather quickly.

Spaetzle Dough - Sticky & Thick

 The dough will be thick and sticky.  If you think it looks like wallpaper paste - you’re all set!

Spaetzle Machine

 This is a spaetzle machine I bought in Germany.  Mine has slit and comma holes on the bottom and therefore, my noodles tend to look more like fettucine/regular noodles.  My parents’ machine has holes and their spaetzle look much more homemade and authentic.  You can purchase a spaetzle machine here.  Amazon also has these other spaetzle maker impostors.  They look like graters with a contraption on the top.  While I have never used one of those, they just look way too complicated and messy. Run.  Get the push machine.  If you don’t want to splurge on the real German spaetzle machine, you can use a potato ricer like this one. (Sidenote: My aunt in Germany laughs at these machines.  She makes spaetzle by hand which basically entails slapping the dough on a wooden board that is slanted on the end and using this plastic tool that looks like a squeegee to scrape the spaetzle into the boiling water.  She is hardcore!)

Spaetzle Cooking

Here are my spaetzle cooking.  I haven’t made them in a while and I was a little nervous.  My dad even called me while I was making them to “make sure I was doing ok”.  WTF?  It is water, flour and eggs.  How much could go wrong? Oh….Um…yeah.  I forgot.  We are talking about me.  Anyway - CheezWaster christened them as tasting just like Opa’s.  A sure sign that I did good!  And my dad even ate them the next day saying they were good (but that they needed more salt - in my opinion, they didn’t, but he is the pro).

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I’ve Created Train Monsters!

My kids just <3 LOVE <3 this song - Hey Soul Sister by Train. We were fortunate to see them for FREE last weekend at a local music fest! The kids were ECSTATIC….seriously!

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Non-WW Weigh-In #3

PASS!!!

The diet Gods have been good to me this week.  Not only have I been extra careful in watching what I eat, I have found a new opportunity to get some more exercise into my routine.  I’m home 2 days a week when CheezWaster goes to pre-K.  It isn’t that far of a walk from our house.  So, weather permitting, the Destroyer and I will be walking CheezWaster to and from school on those days.  I even got in some extra walking this week by parking farther away from the park (not by choice, but by necessity).  Every little bit helps, as evidenced by the disappearance of Evil Pound #1 and Evil Pound #2 from my scale this week.  Let’s just hope I can keep them away!  They have been the bain of my diet existence for far too many months now!

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