Cheesy Bread stick

 

Ingredients:
1 cup warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
3 cups bread flour

Directions:
In small bowl add water and yeast (and a pinch of sugar to activate) yeast- let set for 5 minutes. In mixer, combine flour and everything else. Once your yeast and water has foamed add it to the four and knead until you can form a ball. Let it set in a warm area until doubled in size (about an hour)

On a floured surface, roll out dough onto upside down parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Add butter and garlic (optional) Sprinkle top with cheese (mozzarella and Parmesan)-- for a dessert, why not sprinkle one with cinnamon and sugar?

 Preheat oven to 500 degrees and bake for 10 minutes or until bubbly

Verdict: Delicious

Teacher Appreciation Week

One of my jobs as room parent, is to take care of teacher appreciation week. This year (2012) that's May 7th- 11th.


Monday: When the children line up for class, quickly hand each one of them a flower, or have them bring a flower from home. Be sure to have extras on hand in case someone forgets. When the teacher comes to collect the children, hand her a vase so that the children can drop the flower in as they go. You can also just buy a potted flower- they last longer anyway.

Tuesday: Decorate their door. This is fun because so far in the last two years I've been able to rhyme their last name with something. Our first year we decorated the door with paper coffee beans  and cups. On it it read, "A latte thanks to Ms. U we want to espresso our gratitude for all you do" and this year we have a bunch of flowers and a butterfly and the saying, " A 'bunch' of thanks to Mrs.__oy. Who fills our days with learning, fun and joy"

Wednesday: The staff lunch. Where we are told by grade level what to make and bring in. We're bringing in a side dish of pasta salad. (cook pasta, add Italian dressing and veggies, served cold)

Thursday: Gift basket. One inexpensive thing I've done is make a book of memories. Last year we bought the book. This year we collected construction paper from the office and made the book in there, saving us money from the class donations to use toward her big end of the year gift.
I made this little coffee cozy, instructions on my other blog, here.

Friday: I'm having a parent bring her breakfast and a cup of coffee.

Easy Peasy Crepes

A looong time ago  either before I was born or when I was really little, my oldest sister came home from a friends house and showed my mom how to make crepes. I've altered the cooking method because I've never been good at cooking them in a frying pan with the melted butter. My way works just as well and they taste great. Mind you these are probably more of a dessert crepe than anything, but for special occasions I like to make them for breakfast (oh who am I kidding- they are always made for breakfast!)

1 cup Milk
1 cup flour
2 egg
1/2 tsp of vanilla (optional)

Fillings:
Butter and powder sugar
whip cream and strawberries
yogurt and berries

You will probably have to add more milk to make it a very runny consistency (this way they are thin). With the skillet on and ready, add a little bit of butter.

pour batter onto the hot skillet

cook both sides

Once they are done, I take them off the skillet and immediately add butter and powdered sugar

 or berries

and roll them up like a jelly roll. Sprinkle a little powder sugar and maybe add a strawberry or two and you're good to go. Is it unhealthy? Yeah, probably... but it tastes really good and I know it's okay to indulge once in a blue moon.

Hey, if you found this useful or delicious feel free to share me on facebook and follow me! I could use some extra friends ;)

DIY Icee

It's getting hot here in California! it's been 80+ this whole week already. That means drinking lots and lots of water. Hailey hates water (go figure). While shopping at Wal*Mart we saw those Mio water enhancements on the drink isle. They are a little steep ($3.25 for the little generic baby thing!) But you're supposed to be able to add as much or as little as you want. They are also sugar free- which is a plus to me.

We took all 12 ice cubes into my smoothie maker and a little bit of plain water. We blended them until they were crushed enough to the girls liking (they like a little bit of chunky ice pieces). I poured them into two different cups and THEN added the flavors. Because of course they can't like the same flavors! ;)

PVC sprinkler

It was one hot weekend here in California. What better way to beat the heat than to cool off in the sprinklers? My sister just had her baby, so while we were visiting her my husband went out and bought:

 3 PVC pipes,
3 stoppers,
2 elbow pieces,
 2 of those pieces that have 3 holes
1 that has a hole connecter 
$11.95

What we already had:
a drill with a bit
PVC cement
PVC primer

 Directions:

I recommend starting with an idea of what you want to do. PVC is fairly inexpensive, and easy to work with. You'll want to make sure you have everything ready. First cut PVC pip to ideal size (my husband did this while i was getting the girls ready). Next drill holes into the top PVC piece. Don't add too many or the water pressure may not make it shoot out.

Add the PVC primer and cement, push into the right connecting pieces. These are my side pieces

Add remaining pieces and let set for at least 5 minutes before trying it with water. You can add more holes when you're ready. We added two to each side (at different heights) and two on each bottom side (total of four) at an angle.

I was super impressed with how it came out. It is a lot of fun for the kids (at I admit, grown ups ;)

Pintrest Challenge update

So I'm at pin 87, I thought that I would like to do something special for pins 90-100. I would love some ideas. Leave me a comment with the pin link and I'll check them out!

Here's the catch:
You have to be following me on my blog http://pintrestchallenge.blogspot.com/
It has to be a legitimate pin (with an original source)
It can not be illegal, discriminating, etc...
Tell me WHY I should make it.
I chose whether or not I do it (most of the time this will be based on products I have on hand, I cannot and might not go out and buy a bunch of stuff to make them) 

I would LOVE if it was something I've already pinned

http://pinterest.com/mcasillas86/

Mothers Day/ Fathers Day/Grandparents Day

This was made for me by my daughter at pre-school. It's really cute and I love it. It makes a great Mothers Day gift, Fathers Day gift, or even Grandparents Day gift.

You'll need:

Large clothes pin (found at the craft store)
Picture of your child
Paint in what ever color you choose
paint brush
foam letters (optional- also found at the craft stores)

Simply paint the clothes pin and let it dry. Add stickers for decoration. Place the photo in and you're done :)

Do it yourself picture magnets

You'll need:
pictures
Spaghettic sauce lids
puzzle glue

We kept a bunch of old spaghetti lids (I like Classico) then traced the lid around the photo and cut out the selected photos. Then I had to trim them because they were still a little too big. I put a little glue on them to keep them down and poured just a little bit of puzzel glue on them. Now I kept hearing rave things about Mod Podge, and I've tried it several times and this is all the ever happens with it (even gloss!)

Need a card? try this one: my pintrest challenge