Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Yes, I am a crazy couponer

If you know me at all, you know that anytime I can get a good deal I am really excited. Well, this week has been full of excitement. After investing $4.50 in 3 copies of the local sunday newspaper, printing coupons off of the internet, using tons of the Albertson's double-coupon coupons (with multiple transactions), and with trips to Winco, Target, and Rite-aid here is all of my loot:
Total amount spent: $33.72
Total value of groceries: $224.83
Total saved: $191.11
(and about half of the amount I actually spent went towards 15 Healthy Choice entrees)
It's awesome to get free stuff!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Farmer's Market

This weekend we headed downtown to go to the farmer's market. It's a great market with lots of samples to try, arts and crafts to see, fresh baked bread, and produce to buy. Near the end there is a large fountain for kids to play in and there was a "high country band" playing some mountain-type music. It typically gets pretty crowded so we got there right when it opened. About halfway through we picked up some of these delicious doughnuts. They are so light and fluffy and have a yummy vanilla flavor. As you can see, Hannah likes them too!

Before doughnuts

After doughnuts

After enjoying the beautiful weather as we walked along the market, we headed over to the MK Nature Center where you can see lots of fish, birds, and plants. They have a little indoor museum where there are projects for kids to do and they can get up close with the animals:


Monday, May 11, 2009

Thanks Diego

For some reason, it always feels better to have multiple band-aids.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Hmmmm......

Hannah's latest "project"

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Lemon Brioche Rolls

I've seen these recipe a few times on the internet recently and decided to give it a try. I love brioche dough- which is basically a french bread with more eggs and butter in the dough and an egg wash brushed on before baking. I looked at a few different websites here and here to see how the recipe panned out and then baked them up. Here is the recipe, with a few added pointers of my own:



1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup sugar4 eggs (room temp)
3 1/2 - 3 3/4 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon instant yeast (I used Red Star Quick Rise Instant Yeast, 1 packet + a little more)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups soft butter (unsalted)
1 1/4 cup lemon curd (recipe below)
3 tablespoon powdered sugar
egg wash - 1 egg and 1 tablespoon water



-Pour milk into a saucepan and heat till lukewarm. (about 100 degrees)In a large bowl add sugar and warm milk. add 1 cup of flour, mix till smooth.
-add lightly beaten eggs and mix completely.
-add in instant yeast and another cup of flour. continue to mix.
-add in salt and a half a cup of flour. mix till the dough comes together.
-add a little flour on a flat surface and pour out the dough. (i just kept the dough in my kitchenaid and kneaded it that way for the next step rather than doing it by hand- use can also use a bosch)
-knead dough for 3 minutes adding just a little bit of flour at a time. you want the dough to be on the sticky side. the dough will stick to your hands a little. just add a little flour to your hands and continue to knead. the dough will become a little easier to handle as you knead.place dough back into bowl.
-add a 1/4 of the soft butter to the and mix together by hand (still using my kitchenaid).
-once the butter is completely incorporated add another 1/4 of butter, continue till all 1 1/2 c. of the butter is mixed in. (again, i just did this in my kitchenaid and it worked great.)
-cover bowl with plastic wrap and place into fridge for 4 hours or overnight.
-after resting time sprinkle a little flour on a flat surface and place dough on top. cut dough in half and set one piece aside.roll out dough into a 15 inch diameter circle. using a pizza cutter, cut dough into eight triangular pieces.
-add a heaping tablespoon of lemon curd to the base of the triangle. start from the base of the triangle roll each one up and curve into a crescent shape, pinch the ends closed. (when I had each triangle cut out, I made a 1/2" cut along the base before I put the curd on- similar to this picture but just a cut, not a notch.

-place onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Repeat with other half of dough. cover with plastic wrap for 45 minutes.

-brush with egg wash. bake in a preheated 350F oven for 15-17 minutes. allow to cool on a wire rack. then sift a little powdered sugar on top.

lemon curd

zest of 4 lemons

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 1/4 cups suga1

1 stick unsalted butter (room temp)

4 large eggs (room temp) -- a trick for this is if you have eggs right out of the fridge, put them in a bowl of warm water to bring them up to room temp.--

1/8 tsp salt

put the zest and sugar in food processor and pulse until combined and zest is broken down. put lemon sugar and butter into mixer and cream. add the eggs one at a time and mix until combined. add lemon juice and salt and mix a little while longer.pour into a sauce pan and heat on low until mixture reaches 175 degrees. (i just did it till it started bubbling and getting thick) cool curd to room temp before you add to the rolls.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Take me out to the ballgame....

The other night we all went to a baseball game at Coors Field. It was the Rockies vs. the Padres. Someone caught a homerun only a couple of rows in front of us! Hannah especially liked seeing the mascot, Dinger the Dinosaur. She also enjoyed dancing in the stands to all of the little jingles they played on the loudspeaker. I like this picture because I think she actually looks like me. For a long time she looked so much like Ryan.


What's a baseball game without treats?

Friday, May 1, 2009

to the dentist

Hannah went to the dentist for the first time this week. The morning started out all wrong when she refused to wear her jeans because "they make me look like a boy" and instead said "I want to wear stretch pants because they're for girls." I don't know where she got this. But she has probably inherited that from Ryan because he also hates to wear jeans. She threw several fits after breakfast, but when she got loaded up in the car everything was fine. We went to a pediatric office, so they were really geared to kids and Hannah had a great time picking a toothbrush, a flavor of polish (bubble-gum, yuck!), and she was so good to open her mouth. I was laughing so hard when they squirted the water into her mouth and did the suction. She really liked that part. Afterwards she got to pick a toy and some Dora trading cards. Pretty exciting. On the drive home she said to me "Mom, I want to be a dentist when I grow up."