Madeline Videos

Here are some recent Madeline videos. She is starting to talk more and more these days. She is starting to string words together. If you listen closely, you can hear some sentences here and there :) Mostly stuff like "I wanna watch Barney" and "more please, mommy!" 

Madeline absolutely loves bath time. When we say "Want to take a bath?" she runs to the stairs and starts climbing up them. She loves pouring herself tea :)

A few weeks ago I took Madeline to the mall with me to pick up Easter candies for our brunch. She spotted this little carousel so I put the $1 in and she took a ride. 

We love her!!!! 

Easter Recipes

Hi All! As promised, here are a couple of the recipes that I used for Easter Brunch.

Biscuits: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chef-johns-buttermilk-biscuits/detail.aspx

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled in freezer and cut into thin slices 3/4 cup cold buttermilk 2 tablespoons buttermilk for brushing

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2.	Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
3.	Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together in a large bowl.
4.	Cut butter into flour mixture with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, about 5 minutes.
5.	Make a well in the center of butter and flour mixture. Pour in 3/4 cup buttermilk; stir until just combined.
6.	Turn dough onto a floured work surface, pat together into a rectangle.
7.	Fold the rectangle in thirds. Turn dough a half turn, gather any crumbs, and flatten back into a rectangle. Repeat twice more, folding and pressing dough a total of three times.
8.	Roll dough on a floured surface to about 1/2 inch thick.
9.	Cut out 12 biscuits using a 2 1/2-inch round biscuit cutter.
10.	Transfer biscuits to the prepared baking sheet. Press an indent into the top of each biscuit with your thumb.
11.	Brush the tops of biscuits with 2 tablespoons buttermilk.
12.	Bake in the preheated oven until browned, about 15 minutes.

Sausage Gravy: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/bills-sausage-gravy/detail.aspx

INGREDIENTS:

1 (12 ounce) package maple flavored sausage 3 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour 3 cups whole milk salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1.

Place sausage in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown. Remove sausage with a slotted spoon, leaving the drippings in the pan. Stir in the butter until melted. Add flour, and stir until smooth. Reduce heat to medium, and cook until light brown. Gradually whisk in milk, and cook until thickened. Season with salt and pepper, and stir in cooked sausage. Reduce heat, and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes. If gravy becomes too thick, stir in a little more milk.

Easter Brunch

I have been wanting to share these pictures since Easter, but with a busy travel schedule for work I haven't had the chance. I have been wanting to host a holiday for my family and I decided that Easter would be a good one to start with. We hosted Christmas dinner for George's family this past year and I really enjoyed it. 

I decided that brunch would be fun to prepare since there's a ton of different options for food. I did a lot of Pinteresting for ideas. A lot of the fun for me is the prep work like decorations, menu, shopping, etc.  I really wanted to go all out :) I decided on the following menu: 

Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice 

Mimosas

Vanilla Nut Coffee (iced and hot)

Waffle Bar

Yogurt Bar with Granola and Berries

Caprese Quiche

Cinnamon Rolls

Southern Style Biscuits and Gravy

Breakfast Ring

Antipasto with Meats, Cheeses, Bread, Crackers, and Olives

Shrimp Cocktail

Sugar Cookies with M&Ms 

My mom, Terrisa, and Emily helped with the food items and I had the chance to try some new recipes. My parents, Grandma Clark, and I made a trip to the Pork Shop in Queen Creek where I picked the sausage for the gravy and the bacon for the breakfast ring. I even squeezed over 20lbs of oranges!! I will share the breakfast ring, the buttermilk biscuit, and the southern gravy recipes with you in a separate post. 

The drink area: 

The dessert table. If I haven't mentioned it before on this blog, my mom's cinnamon rolls are to die for!!! They are seriously the best cinnamons rolls I've ever had!

Here's the food spread!

Here's some pictures of Breakfast Ring. I found this idea on Pinterest and I thought that it was so clever. It's just Pillsbury crescent rolls stuffed with bacon (pre-cooked), scrambled eggs (pre-cooked), and cheese. It was so easy, but looked so fancy and tasted really good!  

After church and before everyone came over, we tried to take some Easter pictures of Madeline. My Grandma Clark got her an adorable little outfit and she looked so cute! The second pictures cracks me up!!! 

After brunch, the kids did an Easter egg hunt. The little girl next to Paisley is her bestie from church, Tatum. Tatum and her parents, Liz and Troy, joined us for brunch. They're awesome people. The little guy is Landon, Paisley and Parker's cousin on the Card side. He is such a cutie pie. Parker was a little under the weather so he was down for a nap. I think Paisley scooped up a few eggs for him though :) 

The brunch was a success! I'm already looking forward to hosting another holiday :)