We Take Pictures.

Whatchagonna do?  It's our thing, Max and I.  Slowly getting Milo in on the fun... he will get there.  For now, here is some fun in a crib.

Beer Brats. {a recipe}

Football is kind of a big deal around this house.  And we have found one amazing recipe for the perfect football food.  BEER BRATS.  They cook all day, making your house smell all cozy and yummy and then you throw them on the grill in perfect grillin'/football partnership.

Honey Mustard Beer Brats

Ingredients

• 10 fresh bratwurst sausages
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced into long strips
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced into long strips
• 1 large sweet onion, sliced into rings and separated
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring
• 2 cups honey mustard barbecue sauce
• 5 (12 fluid ounce) can beer, or as needed
• 10 hoagie rolls, split lengthwise

Directions

Place half of the bratwurst in the bottom of a 5 quart slow cooker. Arrange half of the green pepper, 
red pepper, and onion over them. 

Layer the remaining bratwurst over the top, and top with the remaining red and green bell peppers and onion. Throw in the garlic and bay leaves. In a separate bowl, mix together HALF of the honey mustard sauce, liquid smoke and beer. Use a good strong beer like Guinness.  It gives good flavor, plus Guinness has that fun little ball in it you get to jingle around. 

 Pour into the slow cooker. Add more beer if necessary to cover everything in the pot. My pot held 5 beers. Try not to play the "one for you, one for me" game.  That would be a lot of beers. 

Cover, and go watch your teams play fall ball. Cook on Low for 4 to 5 hours.

Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil grate. Remove bratwurst from the slow cooker, but leave onions and peppers inside. Place bratwurst on the grill and baste with some of the remaining honey mustard sauce. Turn occasionally until slightly charred.

Place bratwurst on rolls, and use tongs to pull out a few of the onions and peppers from the slow cooker and drape them over the sausage. The onions and peppers are very tasty so don't forget this part!

Top it all off with mustard.  MMMMMM! So good.  

Have a good week!

ps. Sorry for all the meat pictures so early in the morning.  Myself, I could eat burgers for breakfast.  But I realize its not everyones thang.  Tootles.

Max Gets a Haircut.

It's been under debate for a while.  To cut or not to cut.  To cut means he will look like a little boy and lose some of his baby.  Not to cut means he will be borderline hillbilly.  

I finally decided to do it.  His bed head was becoming out of control. He was looking alot scruffy, a little redneck and at times was sporting a rattail/almost mullet.  It was time to cut.

And so we did.

All set on daddy's lap

 Not too sure about things.

Always keeping an eye on what was going on.

Sometimes not liking the hair in his face, but never cried.

Thought maybe we would taste the falling hair?

All handsome!!

And chicken McNuggets for his "attaboy!"

Milo.

The photography stars finally aligned and I was able to take Milo's announcement pictures.  The stars being, Max sitting still for five minutes and Milo letting me hang him from a scale.  Minor things.  HA!

Two Dogs Dining.

Yesterday was one of *those* days.  Overly tired, unmotivated and had a good old fashioned case of the blahs.  Then I found this video and just sat there and watched it.  And a smile grew over my face.  Then that smile turned into a giggle.  And then I was laughing (out loud).  

From many Facebook posts I know I was not the only one with the Monday Blues yesterday.  Here is to Tuesday, a fresh new day.  And to the clever people in this world, who make me smile and will never know it.

Enjoy!

ps. I LOVE the kitchen they are in.  

Max Is No Dummy.

The boys room has a front yard facing window.   In order to get both cribs in the room, Max's crib is partially up against this window.  Max is easily distracted by what goes on outside said window, making naps and bedtime tricky.  We thought we had it covered by just closing the blinds.   Max says nice try, parents.  Nice try.

We are going to ignore the fact that today I found him butt naked.

This kid cracks me up.  I can't even get mad that we now have to buy new blinds.  I mean seriously.  HE MADE A LITTLE WINDOW FOR HIMSELF!!  That is funny.

I hope everyone finds humor in their children and try not to take life so seriously.  They are a blessing and nothing short of amazing.  Enjoy every minute of them.

A Summer Send-Off.

I like summer, I really do.  The beach, the warm nights, cooking out.... then August comes with bugs and extreme heat and bugs and I am then over it.  So this week I say tootles to summer.  Bring on Fall!

S’mores Cake in a Jar

makes 4 16-ounce mason jar cakes

for crust:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/2 stick butter

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter and mix in graham crumbs and salt. Mix until moistened. Spray 4 mason jars with non-stick spray and press graham crust into jars. 

for cake: 

1 1/8 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup dark cocoa powder

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon heavy cream

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 tablespoons sour cream

for topping:

1 bag of large marshmallows

In a bowl, whisk egg and sugar until smooth and no lumps remain. Add milk, cream, butter and vanilla, and mix until combined. Stir in sour cream. Sift dry ingredients together and add to wet mixture. Mix until batter is smooth. Using a 1/4 cup measure, add batter to mason jars one scoop at a time. You only want to fill them up about half way.  Place mason jars in a baking dish and add about 1 1/2 cups of water to the bottom. Bake for 30 minutes, or until cake is set.

Remove cake from the oven and press large marshmallows down on top. There is no set number of marshmallows to use about 4-5 each. Heat the broiler on your oven and watching carefully, brown marshmallows for about 1-2 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve immediately.

some notes from my experience...

I used small jars and therefore baked the cake too long.  should have taken them out at about 20 min.  just watch and do the "clean knife test"

I also used boxed graham cracker crumbs and found them not to be very sweet.  if using boxed crumbs, I recommend adding some sugar to the crumbs.

This is VERY rich.  perfect for cuddling up and sharing.