TWD-Kugelhopf--If You Can't Say It, Don't Eat It. Just Kidding!

This weeks Tuesday's With Dorie recipe was for a yeasty cakey/breadish type goodie called Kugelhopf.  Sorry to disappoint other fellow TWDers, but I did not make this recipe.  I just couldn't get to it.  I wanted to and actually got the book out several times, looked over the recipe, thought it would be a good challenge (as many are saying it was), but after having gone out of town late last week (Stay tuned for my trip report to NYC!), and after getting back and not feeling a breather moment, I just wasn't able to make the cake!   But please, check out the recipe, picked this week by Yolanda on her blog The All-Purpose Girl and I'm telling you, buy Dorie's book, Baking From My Home To Yours, it's a great price from Amazon!  Go to the Tuesday's With Dorie blog and check out all the other bloggers Kugelhopf this week.  See you next week!

But wait!  I have a cookie.  Before I went to NYC last week, I whipped up a batch of these guys to leave with the boys and our friends who SO kindly stayed with the boys while we were gone.  I have a lot of wheat in storage, and I have a wheat grinder, so I try to make things using whole wheat flour a lot and came across these delicious whole wheat chocolate chip cookies.  I know, can you believe it!?  They are/were really good.  I really like the bit of "nuttiness" from the whole wheat flour and the cookies weren't dry.  They were like the perfect chocolate chip cookie, but with the added nutrition from whole wheat flour.  Try them!

I got this recipe from a blog I have recently found and love by Crystal called Everyday Food Storage.  There are some great recipes and a ton of stuff to learn about food storage, which is something my church strongly encourages and something I'm working on.  We are asked to have a year's worth of food storage!  That's a lot, but I'm excited to keep building up having the things we need on hand and even more excited to check Crystal's blog often to see what she's got up her sleeve.  Now back to the cookies!  She had gotten this recipe and heard people raving about how these cookies were the best and I'm guessing they were made with all-purpose flour, but she decided to try it with whole wheat and like I said, the cookies are de-lish!

Best-Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies, adapted slightly

1/2 cup butter, softened

a tablespoon or so less than 1/2 cup granulated sugar (this really is how I measure things!  I do half a cup, then take a little out)

1/2 cup brown sugar (full packed 1/2 cup on this one!)

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1  1/2 cups whole wheat flour (could go a little less, I'm going to try 1  1/4 cup next time)

scant 1/2 teaspoon salt

scant 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

12 oz. chocolate chips (whichever kind you choose)  I actually boo-booed here.  I halved the original recipe, but forgot to halve the chocolate.  Oh, whoops!  The cookies were very good!  So you could just used 6 oz. chocolate chips (which is about 1 cup).  I used 1 cup milk chocolate and 1 cup semi-sweet chips.

I also added 1 T. water (that is how I decided the 1 1/2 cups flour was a little much, I thought the dough seemed a little dry)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Set aside.  Cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.  Combine flour, salt and saod, whisk together.  Add to creamed ingredients and mix just until combined.  Stir in chocolate chips by hand (nuts, too, if you want!)  Drop by tablespoonfuls on to baking sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes.  Cool a few minutes on baking sheets, then remove to wire racks to cool.  Or have a few warm.  They're good!

I'm going to make these again, trying them with a little less flour.  I'll bet they're still just as good, if not a little better!  You'll want this recipe, especially if you use or have a lot of whole wheat flour!  If you'd like the full recipe, go to Crystal's blog (linked above) and email her to let her know you missed the cookie extravaganza and she'll email you all the cookie recipes featured recently.  Can't wait to try more!

Divine Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Update—I’m making this for our Easter dessert this year, it’s just so good!  4-22-11  

I made this cake the other day for a friend's birthday that was on Halloween.  She and her husband came over Monday night.  Tes and I can just about say the two of us ate the whole cake--NOT all in the same sitting, but still.  Okay, it was only an 8 inch cake, but still.  Two of the boys had a piece, and although they were surprised it had carrots in it and they still liked it, they ate it.  Kevin avoided it, because he just doesn't like frosting.  I know, I know, what's up with that?!  And Tes' husband, Bob, well, he just won't eat anything that is or has any vegetables or fruit in it.  This guy considers Reese Cups (as he calls them) one of the five food groups.

So anyway, back to this yummy cake---Tes and I LOVED it.  I let Tes take home a lot of it--mostly to get it out of the house.  I also gave her a plate of the lemon bars and rugelach I'd made recently.  She was thrilled knowing Bob wouldn't be eating ANY of it.  Oh, I also gave her some tropical muffins I'd made to use up some bananas and the rest of the crushed pineapple that was in the carrot cake.  

Again, back to the cake!  I really am a chocolate girl, I swear, but THIS could be a favorite as far as cakes go.

Pictures?  Coming right up.  (But sorry, I really didn't take the best pictures of this moist, flavorful, delicious cake!)

Recipe.   Okay, okay.  Here you go!

Here's the recipe which I found on Food Network (Ellie Kreiger's???), which I have adapted.  The original recipe is for a 9x13 cake, but I halved it and made it in an 8x8 pan. 

Divine Carrot Cake

1/4 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped (and extra for the top of the cake--I like nuts!)

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 egg, plus 2 tablespoons (1/2 an egg), of course, I used Egg Beaters w/touch of yolk

3/4 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk (slightly less than)

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons pineapple juice, reserved from canned pineapple

8 oz. canned crushed pineapple, drained-juice reserved (I always only buy pineapple in 100% juice)

1 cup grated carrots

1/8 c. (2 tablespoons) unsweetened flaked coconut

Frosting:

I used some leftover cream cheese icing from the pumpkin cupcakes I made last week!

The recipe from Food Network is:

6 oz. reduced-fat cream cheese, softened (I always use the 1/3 less fat for all things cream cheese--can't tell a difference

1/4 cup powdered sugar (sometimes if I think the consistency is strange, I add a little more sugar til I like it---shhh)

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat an 8x8 pinch pan with cooking spray.  Set aside.

Toast walnuts on a small plate for 30 seconds.  Toss with fingers, toast again for 30 seconds.  Perfect.  Chop them on a cutting board.

Whisk flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium sized bowl.  In another bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and reserved pineapple juice until blended.  Stir in pineapple, carrots and coconut.  Add the dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula just until blended.  Stir in the nuts.  Scrape the batter into the pan and spread evenly.  Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let cool completely on wire rack.

For frosting.  Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla in an electric mixer until smooth and creamy.  Spread frosting over cooled cake.  Sprinkle with nuts. 

 

Divine, I'm telling you.  Moist, flavorful, crunchy, YUMMY, and so simple to make, really.  Go make some "healthy" carrot cake.

And why am I posting on my blog when I have SO much to be doing to get the house and boys and things ready for Kevin and I to head to New York City tomorrow.  Well, that's how much I wanted to share this cake with you.  Just sharin' the love.  Okay, busy, busy.  Will write more when we get back from our TRIP!

Tuesday's With Dorie-Rugelach!

This week's recipe was chosen by Piggy of Piggy's Cooking Journal and all I can say is, Thank you, Piggy!  I hadn't heard of this called rugelach, but have had something similar before and knew just by looking at the picture in Dorie's book, Baking From My Home To Yours, that I'd like these.  And darn it all, I DO LIKE THEM!  Got rid of most of these little flaky crescent fat-laden pieces of heaven as quickly as I could!  Please go to Piggy's link above and get this recipe.  It will be a great addition to your holiday baking.

 

These were actually quite easy to make, especially with only four simple ingredients in the dough; flour, butter, cream cheese (I used the less fat one) and salt.  Pulse those together in a food processor until it is crumbly and about the size of pebbles.  Don't pulse it too much.  I dumped this from the bowl to the counter and it came right together with my hands so easily.    Refrigerate the dough for a few hours, roll out, add the fillings, slice with a pizza cutter.  After rolling each one up, starting with the wide end, bake them, then wait ever so patiently for them to cool.  Then you have perfectly crispy, flaky, just sweet enough little bites of yum!  I sprinkled the tops with some turbinado sugar, which gave them a nice little crunch.

 

Now for the fillings.  I used apricot jam on one half and raspberry preserves for the other.  Both were sprinkled with a little cinnamon and sugar after brushing on the jam with a pastry brush.  Then some toasted chopped pecans were sprinkled on.  Since Dorie's recipe also has some chocolate, I also added about one tablespoon to half of each flavored dough.  If you ask me, simplicity is best here.  My favorite were the apricot jam ones with just the cinnamon/sugar and pecans--no need for the chocolate.  I didn't think it was there enough to taste and if you put too much on, they would be too hard to roll up.  All kinds were still really good though.  The danger here is the delightful pastry crust, it almost doesn't matter what you do to it, it would still be good.  I heard Nutella spread on it is good, sprinkled with some chopped hazelnuts.  Yep, that sounds good!  These would be great to serve at a baby or bridal shower or really any shindig.  Okay, I'm going to stop talking about them now!  Now for some photo interlude-----

Full plateful.   Whoops, one fell off.   (The apricot jam filled section.)

Yummy, tasty little morsel.

ummm, crunch, yum.   Hmmm, where did they all go?

Gasp!  I didn't, I couldn't--please tell me I didn't eat them all!

Three Cheers for Rugelach!

(The raspberry preserves section.  Sorry, I must have forgotten the flash on these guys or something.)

Tasty!

Somebody stop me!

I wish somebody would have stopped me!

I wish there were still some more rugelach!

I wish my tummy didn't hurt so bad!

Now really, do you honestly think I could/would eat a whole stick of butter, 4 oz. of cream cheese, and all the other stuff in these!  Okay, I probably could have--but I really just tasted one of each!  And I loved them!  I'm just saying, go to Piggy's blog and get this recipe--but wait, I say that every week--so do yourself a better favor and go buy Dorie's book!

Honey Lemon Squares

Lemon isn't really my favorite flavor.  It's okay, but I'm a chocolate girl through and through.  So why did I make a lemon treat today?  I guess because we're in chocolate overload here, swimming in Halloween candy and I also had two lemons to use up.  I was interested in this recipe from Recipe4Living because it had honey.  I actually don't even know if lemon bars usually have honey, or if this is what made this recipe different.  But I will say that these are good and taste just like any lemon bar I've had.  I was thinking, "cool, honey is a more natural sugar so that would be great if they taste great and these are pretty low fat", but don't be fooled.  They really aren't.  I made some changes to the recipe you can get here.

  

Honey Lemon Squares

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 cup + 1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour, divided

3/4 cup honey

juice of 2 lemons (about 1/4 cup)    (This is what I had.)

1/4 cup lemon juice concentrate

3/4 cup Egg Beaters with touch of yolk

zest of one lemon

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.    Line a 9x9 pan with tin foil, set aside. 

In bowl of mixer, cream the butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy.  Add 1 cup of flour and mix until combined.  Press the butter evenly into the pan.  Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.  Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, honey, lemon juice, zest, 1 tablespoon of flour and baking powder.  Pour over the baked crust and bake for 15 minutes or until topping is set.  Cool in the pan set on a wire rack.  Cut into squares.

 

All candy aside, pucker those lips and make ya some of these!

AND, head back over to Tanya's blog at Sunday Baker and leave her a comment telling her something unexpected that happened this year that you're thankful for and she'll enter you in yet another prize giveaway.  Isn't this fun?!!  Look at her cute Halloween candy Thanksgiving turkey, too.

Goodbye October, Hello November!

We had a great day yesterday.  The kids will be the first to say it, they are happily slumbering with full, maybe even aching tummies and little sugar gremlins invading their teeth (yes, they brushed, but still it's a lot of candy). Oh, happy they are!--the boys and the gremlins.

Taylor's preschool had a costume parade.

Then they all gathered and sang some cute Halloween songs.

Look out for that Pteradactyl, Taylor, he's going to eat you!  No, wait......

Ewwwww, he's licking you! 

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Then there was getting ready for Trick-or-Treating later in the day.  Someone wasn't very happy about being a skeleton!

I mean really not happy!  He was pulling on the costume and about to lay on the floor screaming, but somehow we diverted his attention and he got more used to it.  I love his cute little bare feet sticking out of the bones.

Parker had gone to a party with some friends right after school, so this is the only picture we got with the four boys.  Sam was SCARED to death of the boy's masks.  His and Taylor's costumes came with two cute smiley face masks that they didn't want to wear.  But yes, Scott and Parker's masks were pretty nasty looking, especially in the dark! (And yes, I'm hiding behind Sam to keep him in the picture.)

And Kevin is SO excited for me to post this picture of him.  Really, he thinks I only post funny, goofy pictures of him.  Well, if you saw what I have to work with......jk, Honey!

I just think he should brush a little more up front! ;)

Kevin, I don't just post goofy pictures, remember this one I posted back in June?   :)  You, Mr. GQ, You!

 

Nasty Pirate, give me back my little skeleton!  (This was a last minute throw-together idea that Kevin came up with when he was trying to think of a way to use the eye patch some friends gave him for his birthday.)

And now, THE LOOT!  Pirates Booty, they call it!

Sam can't understand why we don't just let him carry his pumpkin full of goodies around all day like we do with the boys.  Poor Beebee!  Maybe it's because he really can't eat like 90% of the things he got, but he seemed to enjoy getting it.  He was in awe of how the whole thing works.  Just look cute and people give you candy.   Hmmm!  (Looks like he's got some chocolate on his teeth!)  Those eyes melt me!

Happy November!  I've always liked November.  Oh yeah, probably because my birthday is in 14 days!  And to top that off, Kevin and I will be going to NYC in four days!   Wooohooo!  And of course, I like November because of Thanksgiving.  I'm thankful for Thanksgiving.   Guess I need to start baking for that soon!  ;)

BOO! Happy Halloween!

In the spirit of the holiday, I wanted to share a YUMMY recipe with you.  I know there are many version of this cookie out there, but this is the one my mom has used for years and sells great big cookies at the farmer's market using this recipe.

Don't be frightened---It's MONSTER COOKIES!  While they don't look Halloween-ish, it is scary how much goes in to these cookies.  Yes, you can--and probably should scale it down.  But, silly me, I only halved it.  Be aware, the recipe halved still makes dozens and dozens of cookies.  Well, you'll see when I post the recipe.  But let me just show you the bowl of cookie dough--this is my biggest bowl.  I mixed the dough in the Kitchen Aid mixer, but before I could finish putting in the oats and mix-ins, I had to transfer it to this bowl.  The cookie is so full of good stuff that it doesn't even need flour to hold it together.  I actually made the dough about a month ago when I really needed to clean out my baking cupboard.  I had too many open bags of chips and candies.  So I dumped them all in with these cookies and they turned out great.  After baking 2-3-4 dozen, I made the rest into cookie dough balls and laid them out on a baking sheet, in layers, with each layer covered by wax paper, and I froze them.  I believe I froze another 5 dozen or so.  Huge, I'm tell you!  Monstrous!  But SO good!  I pulled a few dozen out of the freezer and baked some more off a few days ago in honor of this blessed day.  (When freezing dough balls, these cookies need to be flatten slightly before freezing.  They also need to thaw slightly before the layers with wax paper will come apart from each other, or freeze before layering.)

So, the dough went from this---to these:

I made some big ones (center), but then made most of them smaller.  What?  Are you seeing Oreo cookies in there?  Yes, just another thing I needed to "clean out" of the cupboard.

Okay, I'll stop teasing you with pictures and give you the recipe.  But be warned--it's huge!  Feel free to cut it down, way down.  But if you need a huge amount of delicious bake sale cookies or for whatever, these are great!

MONSTER COOKIES--the recipe comes from a friend of my mom's, Laurie Nelson, that was put in an old church cookbook.  (This is only HALF the recipe!)

6 large eggs

4 cups brown sugar

2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons corn syrup

4 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup butter, softened (not margarine)

1 1/2 lbs. peanut butter 

9 cups old fashioned oats

Here's where you get to have fun:  Add whatever chips, etc. you want.  I added to this batch:

3 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

2 cups M&M's

1 cup peanut M&M's

6 Oreo cookies, broken up

a handful of Reese's peanut butter Whoppers

a handful of Reese's pieces candies

a handful of Reese's peanut butter chips

In a big, giant bowl, mix ingredients together in order given.  I like using the mixer until it gets to be too much.  If you 1/4 the recipe, it will all work nicely in the mixer.  Use a cookie scoop to make dough balls and flatten slightly before baking on parchment paper lined baking sheets.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.  Cool on pan for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool. 

These cookies are so simple and tasty--hello, we're talking about peanut butter and chocolate and candy here, people!  You cannot go wrong with these Monsters!   Now go--go Trick-or-Treating with the kiddies and then raid their candy and make these cookies! ;)

Pumpkin Chip Cupcakes--SO Good!

I signed up to bring a "treat" for Scottie's Halloween party at school on Friday, but the school wants the treat to be a healthy type snack (which I think is a bit silly since it's a holiday!), but whatever, I went in search of some kind of muffin/cupcake that was a bit more healthy than traditional ones.  I also wanted something that would be fun to decorate.  I started thinking pumpkin--helps that I have a big open can of it in the fridge.  So the first thing I decided to do was go to the trusty old Allrecipes website and search for pumpkin cupcakes.  The very first one I looked at seemed like a winner, it has no refined sugar (honey instead) and was fairly low fat, not to mention uses some whole wheat flour.  Ding, ding, ding!  I didn't want to make the whole recipe if it didn't turn out nice and moist and flavorful and worthy of being a kid's fun treat, so I scaled down the recipe (love that about Allrecipes, with the touch of a button you can scale up or down a recipe to fit your needs!) and made four cupcakes. 

These are the perfect pumpkin cupcake!  I like that they weren't so sweet, you can actually taste the pumpkin more without all the sugar, but they get plenty of sweetness from the honey and of course, the icing on the top.  I'm calling it good and making 30 of these tomorrow!  And just how cool are the eyeball chocolates I found at Cost Plus World Market the other day.  Just what I was looking for!

Here's the delicious recipe adapted slightly:

Pumpkin Chip Cupcakes

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I used a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten (I used Egg Beaters with a touch of yolk) 
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (omitted)
• miniature chocolate chips
• FROSTING:
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar  (I'm going to add more powdered sugar, this was a bit too much cream cheese per sugar ratio and it was a strange consistency, but when I added more sugar, it was GREAT!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line muffin pan with 15 cupcake liners (If not using liners, coat pan with cooking spray).  Set aside.

In a large bowl (no need for a mixer), combine the first seven ingredients.  Whisk together.  In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, pumpkin, oil, honey and water; mix well.  Fold the wet ingredients into the dry and stir just until combined.  Fold in chocolate chips and nuts.  The recipe says bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Mine were perfect at 16 1/2 minutes.  (Do not overbake!)  Cool 5-10 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.

For frosting, in a small mixing bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter.  Add vanilla, mix well.  Stir in powdered sugar until smooth.  (I did this all by hand with a spatula, it will work fine if the cream cheese and butter are softened.)  Frost cooled cupcakes.   "Here's lookin' at you, Kid!"  And just how cute and perfect are these plates!

 

Happy Halloween Party-ing!

Tuesday's With Dorie--Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes (and a great blogger giveaway!)

This week's recipe was for Dorie's Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes, from Baking From My Home to Yours, pages 215-217.  This recipe was chosen by Clara from I (Heart) Food 4 Thought.  She has a great blog and I love her fun writing about her adventures in the kitchen.  Great pick with chocolate cupcakes.  I actually made them a few weeks ago for Taylor's birthday.  They are nice looking cupcakes with an adult-ish bittersweet ganache-like topping.  I worried about that as I was making them for kids, but did make six cupcakes exactly as the recipe suggests.  Besides the fact that the cupcakes really weren't chocolatey enough and a bit dry (but not BAD!), they were still good and turned out cute and fun.  The kids gobbled up their six as well as some friends of mine enjoying the less sweet ganache ones. 

 

The biggest rave about the cupcakes was in fact the ganache.  It was not too sweet, but chocolatey finger-lickin' good.  I liked that it was a bit runny, so the cupcakes could be dipped into the ganache icing.  After doing this with six cupcakes, I just felt like the kids wouldn't like them not being very sweet, so I added some powdered sugar to the glaze and a tablespoon or so of soft butter and whipped it until it was fluffy and creamy.  I liked this better myself and I knew the kids would, too!  You can see the difference in the pictures.  Both halves were sprinkled with colorful birthday candies.

I mean, really, you can't go wrong with a cupcake!  Thank you for the fun, timely pick for this week's recipe, Clara.  Check out all the other baker's blogs here at Tuesday's With Dorie for their versions of these cupcakes and get the recipe for them on Clara's blog at the top of this post.

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And another thing I wanted to let you all know about was a great, fun giveaway from an amazing blogger whose blog inspires me and just makes me happy every time I visit it (daily!).  Tayna from SUNDAY BAKER is celebrating her one year blogaversary this week with all kinds of fun things, including some giveaways, fun discussions, lots of recipes and more.  Please check out her blog and if you want to be entered in her drawing, just leave her a comment.  It's that simple.  Be sure to mention me in the comment so I can get an extra entry in the drawing! ;)  (You never know, if I win the cookbook (Taste of Home's Best Loved Cookies and Bars), you just might get a little something from me in return!)  Check out this blog, you won't be sorry!

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One more thing, Parker lost his second tooth today at school.  He's pretty thrilled about it.  After school, he wanted an apple for a snack, but made me cut it in to little chunks because he can't bite down on an apple anymore and then he wanted me to take his picture with the tooth.  He's funny.

Parker would probably tell me not to put this picture on here if he realized his "Dora the Explorer" band-aid was showing.  He is SO over her, but it's the only band-aid we have right now.  What?  In a house with all boys--they have each liked her for a while whether they admit it or not!  (Parker even wanted and had a Dora cake for his birthday when he turned three--he's seven now.  His favorite color was pink then, too.  Daddy is happy he got over that long ago)  Sweet Tooth Fairy Dreams, Parker! ;)

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Darn, if we were only better at grabbing the video camera, tonight would have been some great footage of Sam.  I put some onesie jammies with the footies in them on him (it's getting a lot colder at night!) and he did NOT like them.  He was pulling at the feet and rolling on the floor in disgust.  It was TOO funny.  For a few minutes, he'd forgotten about them and was okay--with bottle in hand, so we did snap a few pictures, but the way he was acting if we'd have gotten it on film, he could have won America's Funniest Home Videos!  It didn't take him long to realize he was still in the "weird" jammies (none of the boys have ever liked this kind), and he started throwing a fit about it again.  We changed him so he'd be able to sleep.  I unzipped the front and let me try to take them off himself.  That was a sight to see, too!  We parents have a right to "torture" our kids now and then!  ;)

Love the crossed legs!