Kayla's 10th Birthday! :)

Kayla celebrated her 10th birthday January 17! She got some cool stuff and had a really fun day!

Her cute little puppy she can use with her "American Doll" look alike". :)
She picked Mrs. Krause's Chocolate Truffle Cake for her dessert... Oh my. It's the BEST homemade chocolate cake you will EVER have. Really.


Happy Birthday Kayla! :)

Hot Cross Buns

We've heard the song many, many, many times on Kelly's nursery rhyme CD's and so I finally decided that we needed to actually find out what a "Hot Cross Bun" was... and I am sure glad I did! Yummy!
Here's the recipe:

HOT CROSS BUNS

Yield: 2 dozen buns
Baking Temp: 350*
Baking Time: 25min

Dough:
2 (or more) cups raisins moistened in 2TBL (or more if you do more raisens) or water, rum, or we used peach schnapps we had sitting around).
2/3 cup lukewarm water
1/3 cup orange juice
2 lg eggs
1 stick unsalted butter cut into 12 pieces
2 1/4 cup traditional whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup nonfat powered milk
1 1/2 tsp salt
At least 1TBL vanilla -- or more!
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1tsp or slightly more cinnamon
1/8 - 1/4tsp ground cloves
2tsp baking powder
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast

ICING:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1tsp clear vanilla
Pinch of salt
4-5TBL milk or cream

DIRECTIONS:
Set aside raisins whetted with the peach schnapps (or rum 0r water...) in a non-reactive bowl.

Mix all dough ingredients besides the raisins together and knead by hand, bread machine or mixer until you have a medium-soft dough. Let rise until puffy though not quite doubled.

Lightly grease two 9 x 2-inch cake pans. Deflate the dough gently and knead in raisins. Divide into 24 pieces make bun shape by stuffing the piece of dough through an "O" shaped by your pointer and thumb -- place 3/4" apart in prepared cake pans.
Let rise until just touching -- preheating your oven to 350* near end of rise.
Bake for 25min until lightly browned. Let sit 15min before applying icing.

While buns are cooling, put all icing ingredients into a quart size ziplock bag. Knead bag until combined. After buns have cooled* for 15min snip corner off of the bag and make the traditional X shape on each bun. Serve warm. (8 sec in the microwave does wonders for leftovers!)

*If buns are too hot, the icing will melt off... if buns are cooled, the icing will not adhere properly.

Finally! Snow in January!

♥Allie and Tiptoes « Best Friends♥

Miss Libby

Brady the Russian

Kayla sweeping her "house" (bare area) on the pond ice!

The kids have been waiting for snow all winter and now finally they got some during this cold snap and every minute has been spent outside!

Arby's Racquetball Tournament

Congratulations to Derek Jon for taking the consolation round of the BB* division in the local racquetball tournament sponsored by Arby's on New Years Day!

(Racquetball goes from the "D" level (rookie) to the DD, DDD, C, CC, etc. all the way through the "A" levels and then the Pro levels (the best!).