Hunting with a 5 year old boy...

My kids have piano lessons every other Monday.

A friend my husband plays music with lives about 10 doors down from their piano teacher.

We occasionally take walks while waiting for my son or daughter to finish their lesson. Today was a walk day.

First I walked around the block with my 9 year old daughter while carrying my 9 1/2 month old niece (who was adorable! kicking and laughing the whole time!) We walked around the block in 15 minutes then sat outside doing things to make the baby laugh until it was time to trade kids.

Then it was the boy's turn.

"I gotta find Brendan. I know he lives this way. I'm gonna find his house."

"Oh yeah? Do you know which house is his?"

"No."

"How are you going to know which one is his?"

"..."

"Maybe you could look for his car."

"Oh! Yes! Oh! Wait! I see it! There's his car! That has to be his house. Wow. They have nice trees."

We then walk up to this house with nice trees and my son rings the doorbell. As he's waiting for someone to answer the door, he writes the house number down in his handy dandy notebook with his handy dandy pencil. Well, Brendan didn't answer the door. His dad did. This caused some confusion for the boy.

"Tell him who you're here to see. " I said.

"I'm lookin' for Brendan."

Brendan's dad - awesome guy! - shows Zao inside and points him to Brendan. The conversation between Zao and Brendan went a little bit like this.

"Hi."

"Hey Zao. Whatcha doing?

"Just came to find you and say hi. Bye."

Zao then turned around and walked out of their house!!!

Oh, man! This kid is FUNNY!!! Before we continued our walk, though... he wrote down Brendan's license plate number in his handy dandy notebook with his handy dandy pencil... just to make sure he can find him again!!

So today, I went on a Brendan hunt and was thoroughly entertained by my 5 1/2 year old son!

~Alicia

TIS THE SEASON TO BE THANKFUL

 As we're moving into the Thanksgiving season it's great to really take a moment, or many moments, to sit back and reflect on all that you truly have to be thankful for! If you are a fellow facebooker you might have noticed the latest status craze that is going around! There are a couple different versions, 25 days of Thanksgiving, or 30 days of Thankfulness, all of which users post daily one thing on their status that they are thankful for. I absolutely love this! It is so refreshing to log in to facebook and read the wave of thankfulness! It is so much more encouraging to read about how happy you are that you have a job, than to read about how unhappy you are with your boss/coworkers! We truly are blessed in so many ways, and it's great that people are taking time to realize it!:)

  Raspberry Cordial would love to hear what you are thankful for!?!?! Please feel free to share with us, we're all kindred spirits here! :)

Check out our facebook page to see what we're thankful for each day! http://www.facebook.com/raspberrycordialmusings

Laura Ingall's Who?!?

 Greetings Raspberry Cordial buddies! Did everyone have a great Halloween? I know we sure did! We went to the Halloween party at my daughter's Tae Kwon Do school (we go every year) and it was a blast! One of the things they do at this party every year is dance! They do the Macarena and (my daughter's favorite) The Cha Cha slide! It's so cute to see all the kids hop three times, especially when they're all in costume! Another highlight of the annual Tae Kwon Do Halloween party is to see what costume Layla's coach, Erjan, is going to be wearing! He is a total crack up and is in character all night for whatever costume he is wearing! In the past he has been Avatar (the person one, not the scary looking blue things! ha ha!), a caveman, and a cheerleader. This year he was one of those street performers you see in Vegas or at Venus Beach! The kids loved it!

  This year Layla dressed up as Laura Ingalls Wilder (Last year for school we did the Prairie Primer which focuses on the Little House on the Prairie series! Our love for the Little House books has only been made stronger after last year's experience on the prairie! I highly recommend this curriculum to anyone!) Before the party all of her friends kept asking who she was going to dress up as, she would tell them, and they would just look at her with an unknowing blank stare, ha ha! When they saw her actual costume though, they finally understood!
 We also participated in the event that was put on at our church! They put on a show for the kids called "A Diary of a Shrimpy Kid", and there was also other activities. There was one of those gigantic blow up slides, and my daughter, nieces and nephew were so excited to go on it! No shoes allowed on it though, and my nieces and nephew were all up and on it before Layla could even get her "Little House boots" off her feet! She stated that next year she does not care what she dresses up as, she is going to wear flip flops!

Halloween is now over and it's time to start brainstorming next year's costume... and time to figure out how to get rid of the rest of this year's candy!?!!

Make it Monday!

This past Friday, I taught our girls (and a friend) how to make tortillas! We're using the Portraits of American Girlhood curriculum for our 4th grade school year and it is SO much fun! Currently we're studying Josefina who lived in New Mexico before it was a part of the US in 1824. Since I have Mexican and Spanish blood in me, all the cooking and food lessons got to be my job for this one! It's exciting!!!

Here's Layla (Sonya's Girly), Zoe (My Girly) and their friend with their first home made tortillas!!!

My little Miss-Moody-Moody-Attitudey looks SO happy, doesn't she?!?!

We started by mixing together about 6 cups of flour (unbleached all purpose), 1/2 cup vegetable shortening, almost 1/4 cup of baking powder, some salt and warm water added one tablespoon at a time.

Don't even bother with a spoon... just get in their with your hands. It's really important that you add the WARM water only one tablespoon at a time. If you add too much, you end up with yuck. If you add too little, you can always add more!! You basically want it to be like slightly dried out play dough. Soft and pliable, but not overly sticky.


The munchkins can't efficiently mix it all the way, so I had to get in there and help. I'd advise you to keep one hand clean and firmly holding the bowl at all times!! 

Now here's where I don't have a lot of pictures... my hands were covered in tortilla dough!

At this point, you want to roll your dough into 1-2 inch balls and set aside. I usually stack them in another bowl. If they sit too long and dry out, add a splash of water and knead it in your hands for a minute.

Next you'll roll out your balls on a lightly floured surface one at a time. I use a piece of heavy duty pipe (some sort of metal) which is also what my mom, grandma and great grandma used. They're never perfectly round because well... I'm not a machine! I'm an imperfect human being! Even my little guy got in on the tortilla rolling action. He made a happy tortilla :)

Once they are rolled out, you will cook them. I cook mine on a cast iron tortilla grille. Using a clean kitchen towel, press and turn until slightly browned. Pull it to the edge with the towel and flip so you can cook the other side. Here is Grammy Sandee-Mom (as my kids call her or Grammy to Layla) demonstrating!!

ENJOY!!!!

Another option is to make Sopapillas!! Once you've rolled your torts, cut them into quarters and fry in hot oil. Flip part way through, drain on paper towels or in a paper grocery bag, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon! We enjoyed ours with Abuelita Chocolate Syrup and Honey!!! Here are our girlies enjoying their sopapillas! We hope you enjoy yours!!

~Alicia

Salted Caramel Mocha Cupcakes!!!!

In our last post I told you a little bit about a recipe for Salted Caramel Mocha Cupcakes that I had found which inspired me to alter some recipes I have and make my own cupcakes from scratch instead of an altered boxed mix!!

Here's what I started with!!

Salt, cocoa powder, caramels and coffee!!! I don't drink instant coffee... I just use it for my chocolate cake recipe, so I just get the cheap stuff. Works the same!


Here we go! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line a muffin tin (or in my case, my muffin stone) with paper bake cups.

I know my stone is ugly... but ugly stoneware is loved and well used stoneware!!!

Next in a large bowl, combine:


3 cups all-purpose flour (I used unbleached)
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. table salt (I used iodized sea salt)

Mix with a wire whisk.

In a large measuring cup (I use a 4 cup glass measuring cup) combine the following:

2 cups of HOT water
3/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
4 Tbsp. instant coffee granules (5 or 6 will give you a stronger coffee flavor)
2 Tbsp. distilled white vinegar (YES vinegar!!!)
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract (YES a WHOLE tablespoon!!!)

No need to stir this, just put it all in the measuring cup. I forgot to take a picture of this step! Please, forgive me!!

Next, pour the ingredients from the measuring cup into the dry ingredients and combine with the whisk. Trust me - the whisk is enough, no need for a spoon.

Fill your cupcake liners about 3/4 full with this yummy nummy batter (which is OK to snack on! No eggs = no salmonella!!)!

Bake for 20-25 minutes! Make sure to bungee shut the oven! Oh wait... that's just at my house! See!!

Long story short... my oven is old and has a broken spring! If I don't bungee it, the kitchen gets HOT and the gas runs NON stop!!

While you are waiting for the cupcakes to bake, unwrap your caramels and place them in a bowl until needed. Also pour a couple teaspoons of coarse Kosher salt into a small bowl.

Now it's time for frosting!! This is an altered butter cream recipe. It is good!!! I fire up the Kitchenaid for this one!!

In a mixer (or large bowl and use a hand mixer) combine:

1 cup vegetable shortening
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 pound powdered sugar
1 T. Meringue powder (found at Joann and Michaels with the cake stuff)
10 tsp water added one at a time

This is pretty simple, put everything but the water in the mixer (or bowl), turn it on. I use the "2" setting on my mixer. You want it high enough to mix it, but not so high that it throws the powdered sugar out. Add the water one teaspoon at a time. I used 10 tsp, use more or less depending on the humidity. You want it slightly firm and you'll see why later!!

Cupcakes are done! Pull them out of the oven. Let them cool in the pan for 5ish minutes.

Aren't they beautiful?!?!

Now move them to a cooling rack to cool for another 10-15 minutes. At this point you can put your next batch in the oven!

Next you're going to scoop out a small amount from the top of the cupcake, put in a caramel, sprinkle with some of the coarse kosher salt then replace the top pressing down. It won't be completely flat.

I did this while they were still slightly warm which made the caramels melt a little bit!! YUM!

Now it's time for the frosting!! You can just spread it on. I used my fun gun thingey!! It's kinda like a pastry bag, but without the bag.

If you do it this way, make sure you swirl from the outside in!!

Next you add a drizzle of caramel sauce (I just used an ice cream topping that was in my fridge!), a sprinkle of salt and I topped mine off with a few chocolate covered coffee beans!!!

DE-LISH!!!  I really liked the mild coffee flavor of the cake!! Using a caramel candy instead of caramel topping made this easier to eat... I didn't have caramel oozing all over my hands. It was still messy, but not as bad as it could have been! I did the vanilla frosting since it reminded me of the whipped cream that Starbucks puts on their Salted Caramel Mocha Frap! To make the coffee beans, I just melted down a few milk chocolate candy melts (Wilton makes them, I got them in a bulk bin from a local grocery store), threw in some of my own Dunkin Doughnuts coffee beans and put them in clumps of 3 on wax paper to dry. Good stuff!!!

If you try this, please share with us what you thought!! I've only made them this one time but I am SO excited about them and could not wait to share!! And please - share our blog with your friends!!!

Have a great rest of your weekend!!!

~Alicia

Coming soon...

Hi Friends!
  With getting into the swing of the new school year we've neglected you!! Sorry about that!

We do have a couple of FUN things coming up to tell you about!! Today we made some Tortillas and Sopapillas from scratch! Pictures and such will be up soon!!

The thing I'm most excited about... Salted Caramel Mocha Cupcakes!!! I saw a recipe on Pinterest, but it was basically brownie mix with some instant coffee and a caramel hershey kiss shoved inside once it was done cooking. I'm all about doing things from scratch and I've got an amazing idea! Once I have it perfected, I'll post step by step photos with a full recipe and instructions!!!

I LOVE experimenting with baking, though I usually get my inspiration from others! Is there something weird you'd like to see me try and make?! Let me know! I have a husband and 2 kids who LOVE to taste test as much as I love to bake!!

~Alicia

"Just Tivo It!"

This weekend while spending some time a friend I was talking to her about how we watch the few TV shows we like to watch - we hook one of the laptops up to the TV with cables of some sort or another. Her 10 year old daughter was right there as we were talking and asked why I couldn't just watch it while it's on.

"We don't have cable TV, and our antenna doesn't work."

"So can't you just Tivo it?!"

"No, we don't have a Tivo because usually a DVR requires a cable TV subscription."

"You don't have TV?!"

This young girl (whom I adore, by the way) was floored that we don't have cable TV! My kids are no longer phased by it. We've been without it for over a year and a half now. We have Netflix so they can still watch some of the stuff they like and we rent movies (for free!! hehe!!) at the Blockbuster Express boxes (Blue Box!) every once in a while.

It really got me thinking... this generation, these kids that we are raising are SO used to instant gratification. We have cell phones that do things that I never imagined as a kid! I'm not that old, but I am in my early 30's and if I'm perfectly honest with you, I will tell you that I was SO embarrassed to have my first cell phone. I passed my drivers test and less than a week later, my dad brought home a phone... OH-MY-GOSH... what was he gonna make me do?!?! Take that brick with me everywhere?! Well he did, and it came in handy. I sure as heck couldn't call daddy from my pager when my beat up 1976 Mercedes Benz (my first car, by the way) refused to start in the mall parking lot while it was pouring rain outside. The cell phone helped. Back then, did I think that something smaller than that brick would be able to check my email, order pizza or give me directions to those Supertones and Five Iron Frenzy concerts I was always driving to?! Heck no!

My children will never know a world without GPS, mobile email, iPhones, iPads (both of which my kids can work better than I can - they are only 5 and 8!) or TV's without remote controls! I want to give them whatever purity I can - plain simple things. All these things are good and do have a place, but we can honestly live without them.

We don't need to go to the grocery store to buy cookie dough to make cookies... let's make the dough to make the cookies!!

We don't need to run out to buy a loaf of bread... let's make some!

We don't need to keep up with the Jones'... let's be happy with what we have and not depend so much on material things. There is so much more to life than all these electronic gadgets and do-dads, so much more than all this "stuff" that society makes us believe we need. I have decided to try and teach my children the difference between a "want" and a "need". It's something we've been working on. Something we need to do better with. Something that I hope they will understand as adults.