DC Trip

Last weekend we went to DC to visit our friends Henry and Amber. We had a really great time hanging out and went to see some DC sites.

We went to the zoo.

Here is our attempt at a family photo, awkward or what? Haha I really need to work on getting a good family photo so I can replace our site logo with one that includes Ky too. But I guess quirky is just how we are.

At the primate exhibit we noticed they have a chimp named Kyle and after some consideration we realized that he and (my) Kyle looked a lot alike, right?

Kyle LOVED the lions, he could have watched them all day.
And I think we did watch them for about a half hour.
Unfortunately Kacen fell asleep before we even saw the cool animals.

There was one lion, two lioness and seven cubs

After the National Zoo we headed over to Georgetown Cupcake.
Some of you may know this show from DC Cupcakes on TLC.

Well we waited in this freaking long hour and half line in the freezing cold....

....to pay $16.50 for 6 mediocre cup cakes. Well here is the deal I think the cupcakes were good but the wait sort depleted their value. Had I only waited 10 minutes in nice weather I bet I would think their cupcakes were delicious. But it was a fun experience and the idea to actually wait in the line was mine so thanks guys for waiting with me. Also had I known exactly what cupcakes were the most amazing to me I would have been happier, for instance had I only bought key lime and coconut cupcakes that would have made me more satisfied. So if any of you have a chance to go try those, yumm.

Here are the flavors we tried.

photo from www.georgetowncupcake.com

I don't mean to bash the store, they were good cupcakes the wait was just a little ridiculous.

And PS for all my Rexburg homies, don't worry if you can't make it to DC any time soon, the Cocoa Bean is still WAY better.

I can't help myself

Dear Reader, please be patient, I don't often write in the dramatic tones of most food bloggers but after my recent experiences this week I thought, "you shouldn't knock it til you try it," so sorry if it is a little too dramatic for some of you. Enjoy!

I can't help myself, I am a food freak! Correction. Snob... or maybe Enthusiast...OK whatever you call me, I like food...real food...mostly healthy food...haha....Chinese take out, pizza, ice cream, mini marshmallows, Oreos and cinnamon rolls don't count right?

Sometimes...I like to experiment, insert maniacal laughing.

Tuesday for instance I made corn flake encrusted french toast. Bread dipped in egg, vanilla, milk, cinnamon and sugar, then coated in crushed corn flakes and grilled in a pool of butter. If I had homemade strawberry jam or syrup...yumm or IHOP's pecan syrup, it would have been better.

I really don't like french toast (except those deep fried french toast sticks they serve in cafeterias), it seems really soggy and nasty, but with the addition of a crispy corn flake crust I thought it was better, not amazing by any means but better. Ky was brave and tried it. You see he is a french toast purest and... he didn't like it very much. You can't win 'em all....which was demonstrated even more prominently by the next experiment....

This little beauty

Bacon Stuffed Cinnamon Rolls

dramatic pause, deep breath, cue drool

I was laying in bed Wednesday night and had a food epiphany, well I hope that is what it was and not just a flash back of something I have seen on TV, read on a blog, magazine or book recently. So if any of you have seen this recently let me know, I often don't realize when I am ripping off someone's story.

I have been fighting a cinnamon roll craving for weeks and Wednesday I finally hit a breaking point. So when I was lying in bed and mapping out what I would cook the next day, as I often do, I thought to make cinnamon rolls, and after a painfully long thought connection I got to.....turkey bacon crumbled up and put in a cinnamon roll.

Oooygooy cinnamon filling, crispy bacon, and calorie filled bread, yumm!

A caution to the wise: Be careful who you offer these to. I thought they were really good. Like really good, I almost ate two in two minutes. However, some members of my household met my idea with near tear provoking hostility. So be careful, if you have any cinnamon roll purists or bacon purists in your house or, if you are one yourself just stop reading and come visit in a couple days to read about normal unassuming cupcakes.

So the cinnamon rolls were really easy, just hop over to Our Best Bites and use their Everyday Cinnamon Roll recipe. After you make your dough fry up some turkey bacon and set it on some paper towels to drain and cool. Then roll out your dough, spread on the filling and sprinkle the bacon on top. I only put it on part of mine because I wasn't sure how the final product would turn out. Then just roll them up but then apart and push some bacon into the top before baking.

Bake as directed. Pull them out and let them cool for a couple of minutes

Then frost. I recommend cream cheese frosting always for cinnamon rolls. I didn't have cream cheese though and only made a glaze and it was fine but cream cheese is always better. And I am sure you could use regular bacon but I think the turkey bacon is great because it doesn't have such a strong flavor and it has less grease.

So I hope you all enjoy Bacon Stuffed Cinnamon Rolls.

If you are not bored of reading yet, here is the really long thought line that got me to put bacon in a cinnamon roll:

A party serving breakfast food...pancakes, crepes, waffles, french toast, cinnamon rolls (notice a theme? Breakfast carbs yumm!)....humm would I invite?..... If I invited Panda would she let her kids eat my food.....it seems like her kids eat a lot of healthy food....how could I make carbs healthier?... Kacen's doctor said he needs more veggies and meat..... carrot cake pancakes, still unhealthy but maybe yumm...... but the meat.... humm.... there is potential there.....oh.....oh......yeah..... bacon in the cinnamon rolls.... sweet!

I think that was it.....yep that was it.

Twiners

Recently I was looking for some high school pictures of Ky and I, and nooo those will not be posted, yikes embarrassing! Let's just say, hunch back, glasses with a glare and straight, stringy, greasy hair, and that's just mine, Ky's is really interesting too. High School was not my highlight of life. Anyway in my quest for high school pictures I found this cute one of Ky and got to thinking about how similar Ky and Kacen look, right? Is it just me that sees this?
And Ky is training Kacen young to be just like him too. But I don't think he will need much help I am pretty sure our kid came out programed to snowboard, ski, skate board and play soccer. And if he doesn't want to... well, sigh, it's okay i guess, we'll still love him.




Also my kid has man feet. These things are big, serious boats. Sometimes I worry that he will wake up with hair on his toes, ahhh. But he is still sooo cute and at least the big shoes made it possible to use these cute skates and buy these cute shoes that actually stay on for the most part.

Saint Patrick's Day

Just a couple of quick pictures about our Saint Patrick's Day.
These few pictures are sort of a big deal for us because I am notorious for not celebrating holidays, I am so boring it is pathetic. But I decided now that I have a kiddo I need to change so.....
Kacen woke up and put on his Happy St. Patrick's Day shirt ($1.00 at BabiesRUs)
Stuffed our mouths with shamrock pancakes, what can I say I have skill?
Then practiced walking in new shoes, whoot whoot (more on the shoes in a couple of days but they were a great deal $4 at PayLess)When Ky got home from work we went to the park because it was the first warm and somewhat dry day so far, well since Kace has learned to walk better. He was a little overwhelmed at the park but I think he still had fun. Hope all of you had a great green day too!

He Walked!!! Part 2

I have told you all that Kacen walked and finally this morning
I got the oh so blurry pictures to prove it.

(Man, if any of you readers out there want to take me under your wing
and show me how to take decent photos, that would be much appreciated.)

He can almost run and was trying to run and grab the camera right then.
And Ky claims that the other day he stood up all by him self, meaning
he didn't have to crawl over to something to pull him self up before walking

Shocker!

So I have been in a blog funk, I have had plenty of fun things to blog about but I don't ever feel like it is a valid post without some pictures, and I have been really bad about taking pictures lately. So what could bring me out this funk?

The Bachelor!

To finish up the season my sister-in-law Jess and I went to a fun party hosted by our friends Christie and Emilie (who hosts a cute blog check it out here).

Did the rest of you think he was going to pick Chantal?Call me naive but, I did. That was until about half way through last night's episode. When Brad and Emily had their awkward fight when she treated him like he was five, I knew that the huge surprise twist was going to be he picks Emily.

We wore badges to support our team, I chose "Team Chantal" not because I exactly like her more but I thought that Brad and Emily had a dry relationship and truly thought he was going to pick Chantal. And we played a really fun bingo game with things on it like, "Brad stares at the ring box," "bikini clad woman," "I never thought it was possible to feel this way about two women." It was really fun. Well now we can all get excited for Ashley H's season. And I can face another internal battle of weighing weather or not I am actually going to watch The Bachelor and then feel totally defeated when I give in and have to catch up on hulu because I was able to hold off for three weeks, ahh The Bachelor, why do you do this to me?

Hopefully I can get another post up here soon and not make you all wait in anticipation to know what is going on in my exciting life.