Hedgehog Rolls

Blogger was down for 3 days, and in the process lost my Hedgehog Rolls post. This is a duplicate.

This was the only one that turned out NOT looking like it had been run over by a car, or as my daughter just said, "demented".

March of the demented hedgehogs!

Three of my children came down with a gastroenteritis bug this past Sunday night/Monday morning, two having to be taken to the Emergency room for some medication to combat dehydration. My fourth kid, my "eldest by two minutes" daughter, started being ill last night.

My other daughter was hit really hard by this bug, after two days she's still not quite healthy. So I thought I would make some rolls to cheer them up, but in the shape of hedgehogs.

How My Son Thinks I Make Pasta

My youngest son brought home a Mother's Day gift from Kindergarten, a strawberry plant and a book of recipes.

The recipes consist of each child explaining how their mom cooks their favourite meal, absolutely priceless!

My son's contribution was how he thinks I make pasta:
"The water gets very hot and then my mom gets it off.
She puts the pasta into a can of water. You can use a fork to eat it.
Then you can put cheese on it and my brother doesn't eat it."

I wonder how he thinks I make chicken...

Happy early Mother's Day!!

Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies with Chocolate Ganache

I took this outside in bright sunlight, I didn't think it would be this bright!

If you have never been to Sweet Pea's Kitchen blog, you're missing out and I urge you to go. GO NOW!, but come back.

She has the most amazing baked goods I have ever seen, I swear she is Martha Stewart in disguise.

This is just one of the recent things featured on her site.

Ginger White Bread

There is so much stuff on every surface these days that I had to use the office desk to photograph the bread, but you don't need to see all the cables and pens and that kind of thing.

I spent yesterday morning helping a good friend bake her first loaf of bread, Tassajara Basic Bread. It came out beautifully, and we had a great time together. This morning, the son of another good friend asked me what bread it was as he enjoyed it on an after school hangout at the first friend's house.

"Dad, you got to make a loaf!"

Can there be any better feeling to know that your helping a kid nag his parent into doing something for them?

Challah I

Today's sandwich loaf.

Homemade Lasagna

It's a little hard to see the layers, but they're there.

I am not Italian, but I cook a lot of Italian food.

I grew up on Long Island, where we had a very large Italian community. We also had a large Jewish community which also influenced my taste in foods, and growing up in a German household we had plenty of German foods.

But I have to say my favourite of all three is Italian.