I created these adorable little edible nests as favors for The Littlest Apple’s class Easter party.  I’ve seen several different recipes for these, some using shredded wheat, some using crispy chow mein noodles, some using oatmeal.  Ultimately, I picked this recipe since I had all of the ingredients on hand.  Normally when I make cutesy stuff like this, it is more about the appearance than the actual taste, but these actually taste REALLY good.  How could they NOT with all that sugar and butter?!  I was surprised by how easily these came together.  I have lofty aspirations for my Easter brunch menu, but if I’ve got the time, I’d like to make these again to use for the place settings and/or favors.

Un-baked Cookie Nests

from Kitchen Simplicity

Makes: 12 large

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3 cups rolled oats
• 4 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• pinch salt
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• mini chocolate eggs and coconut, for decorating.

Bring sugar,  milk and butter to a boil in a saucepan. Simmer 3 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients until well incorporated.  Spoon into lightly greased muffin cups (or use un-greased silicone muffin cups for easier removal). Using the back of a spoon press the mixture down in the middle and up along the sides, forming a nest. Allow to harden.  Using a knife, loosen the edges and gently pop out the nests.  Store covered at room temperature for up to two days. Freeze for longer storage.  To decorate: sprinkle with coconut and fill with mini eggs.

I wanted to make a healthy Easter snack similar to the Jack O Lantern Fruit Cups and the Turkey Fruit Snack from last fall, so I created this Bunny Fruit Snack.  I used mixed greens for the background, half of a pear for the body, and apple slices for the ears.  I attached the raisin eyes and nose and the marshmallow tail using cream cheese.  The Littlest Apple’s favorite part of his “healthy” bunny snack?  The marshmallow tail, of course.

For The Littlest Apple’s class Easter Party tomorrow, we’ll be making this simple Easter egg craft. I bought the foam eggs at Michael’s, but felt or cardstock would work well too. I was just feeling too lazy to cut out the egg shapes myself. I cut strips of different ribbons to make “stripes” for the eggs.  We also used pom poms and buttons.  I had planned on using fabric scraps as well, but I decided that the kids would have enough variety without it.

Even The Littlest Apple, who has trouble staying focused on crafts sometimes, enjoyed putting the glue on the egg and sticking some of the buttons on. I think this is a perfect Easter craft for the younger preschoolers! These turned out so cute, don’t you think? PS: I made the green one, in case you couldn’t tell.

This morning we took The Littlest Apple for his appointment with the new doctor, a pediatric gastric motility specialist.

The Littlest Apple hasn’t gained ANY weight since his January appointment (but he didn’t lose weight either, a small comfort).  He still weighs 21 pounds, but he is almost an inch taller now.  Neither of those things was a big surprise.  He didn’t seem heavier, but his pants have been getting a little shorter.

The new doctor, Dr. C, seems like he really knows his stuff.  There are a lot of unknowns and gray areas about gastroparesis, but Dr. C seems to be very familiar with all of the testing and treatment options.  At the same time, he’s more than willing to admit that he doesn’t have answers to some of our questions, like “is this something The Littlest Apple can outgrow?” and “what caused this?”.  And I like that he’s taking ACTION.

Overall, I’m happy with how the appointment went.  Things are HAPPENING now, and that seems so much better than just drifting from one appointment to the next, watching, waiting, and wondering.

Here’s what we’re doing for now:

NG TUBE:  Obviously this is a huge one.  We’ve been circling the drain of feeding tube options for over a year now.  The Littlest Apple is getting an NG tube in the next few days. As soon as the home health care people can get out here to give us our instructions.  He’ll be using the tube only at night, for 12 hours while he sleeps.  The drip at night is the equivalent of about an ounce an hour, or 12 ounces total.  Given that he drinks about 16 ounces of Boost during the day, 12 ounces is A LOT for him.  But broken down over 12 hours, it doesn’t sound like too much.  We’ll see how he handles this.

We have the option of keeping the tube in 24/7 or learning to put it in and pull it out ourselves each night.  Both of those options have their pros and cons.  Keeping it in during the day will mean that he’s walking around with tube taped to his face all day.  More opportunities for it to get pulled out.  And I think that would be a big issue with his Mother’s Day Out program. (The Littlest Apple had an NG tube when he was in the NICU for the first 10 days of his life….he managed to pull it out TWICE then.  I can only imagine how his 2.5 year old self will handle that.)

Only using the tube at night takes care of those issues, but then The Picky Apple and I are left to insert a tube up through The Littlest Apple’s nose and down through his esophagus every single night.  That’s a little terrifying to me.  It’s definitely going to take the two of us to hold him down to do that.  There are going to be some major tantrums, methinks.  Maybe even mine.  But I think this is the option we’re going with so that he has a little more freedom in the daytime.

NEW MEDICINE: The Littlest Apple is going to start taking domperidone along with his erythromycin.  Domperidone is not FDA approved.  Similar to the dreaded Reglan, but with less side effects, and it doesn’t cross the blood-brain barrier.  It’s been used successfully for a long time in many other countries, and is used sparingly in the US.  I need to do a little more research on this before I go get our prescription, but I think I’m ok with this one.  It also requires a trip to the compounding pharmacy, which isn’t exactly convenient.

LABWORK: The doctor ordered labwork to test The Littlest Apple’s thyroid, electrolyte balances, pancreas, allergies, a general nutritional assessment, and another celiac test.  I’m very interested to hear the results from this blood work.  We’ve done some of these tests before, but not all of them, I don’t think.  The Littlest Apple did SO good at the lab today…he didn’t cry or scream at all.

ANOTHER GASTRIC EMPTYING STUDY: This is the same as the test The Littlest Apple had in January.  Dr. C wants to do another one after The Littlest Apple has been on the new meds for a few weeks to see if they are really making any impact.

So, that’s the plan for now.  Some big changes.  Some hard changes.  Some expensive changes (we’ve already almost met our rather large deductible for the year!)  But hopefully we’ll see some results!

image from Martha Stewart

This Sunday I’ll be hosting the Second Annual Family Easter Brunch, and I’m really looking forward to it.  I’m hoping to finalize the menu today or tomorrow.  (I’ve asked everyone to bring something and to let me know by today what they’re bringing so I can fill in the gaps).

Last year was my first time hosting Easter Brunch.  We invited my family AND The Picky Apple’s family (12 adults and 3 kids, total).  Our families get along well, and that’s fantastic for us.  Since everyone brought a dish, and The Picky Apple and I made lots of stuff too, we had tons of food.  It was a great day!  We had a mini egg hunt for The Littlest Apple and his younger twin cousins.  (I think the egg hunt will be much more fun this year now that all 3 of the kids are walking!!)

I wanted to share our menu from last year (including dishes brought by family members), in case anyone is needing some ideas for what to serve.

Easter Brunch 2009 Menu

Honey Baked Ham

French Toast Casserole

Asparagus Frittata

Bacon

Sausage

Fruit Salad

Potato Hash

Biscuits

Brie en Croute

Croissants

Migas

Blueberry Crumb Cake

Mimosas

The Littlest Apple is 31 months old.

Here are some of the fun activities we’ve been doing the last few weeks.  The Littlest Apple has been very busy playing with his cars and trucks, but I did managed to get him involved in a few other activities.

We colored in a giant Tonka trucks coloring book I found at Hobby Lobby.  He loves to look at all the pictures, and likes for me to color them.  He’s not big on coloring, but I got him to follow directions by saying “Can you color the tires?”  (Obviously the dump truck was all me!)

I gave The Littlest Apple a bucket full of soapy water, some dishes, a sponge, and a towel, and let him go to town washing dishes.  I put towels on the floor to catch the water spills (and there were many!).  He LOVED this!  While he scrubbed the dishes, he sang “Keep it tidy, tidy, tidy.  Keep it clean, clean clean.”  This isn’t the best photo, but I liked it because you can tell he’s singing!

The Littlest Apple mixed white and red paint, then used a qtip to make a spring tree.  (idea adapted from No Time For Flashcards)

The Littlest Apple and I went to the Livestock Show and Rodeo!  It’s the first time we’ve been to the kid’s section.  There was lots of walking, but we had a good time.  I’ll try not to go during Spring Break next year.  I didn’t get many pictures since I was chasing after The Littlest Apple for the most part.  The Littlest Apple’s favorite parts were the petting zoo, some big tractors to sit on, and seeing the baby chicks hatching out of eggs.

In this one, he’s saying “Hi goat!  I’m Finley!”

This was the SMALLER tractor.  The other one was really huge.  It’s too bad there were so many people waiting to sit on them.  The Littlest Apple did NOT want to get down.  I had to drag him away kicking and screaming.

We created some Salad Spinner Art.  My intention was to make them in to flowers, but The Littlest Apple had no desire to paint the popsicle sticks needed for stems, so we just left them as-is.

While shopping at Michael’s, we came across various bags of rocks, meant to be fillers for vases.  The Littlest Apple wanted to play with them, so I bought a couple of bags of large, small, and rainbow colored rocks to create a new sensory tub.  This is a current favorite!  We sort by size, shape, and color.  He also loves to fill up his various trucks with all of the rocks.

I try to bake something at least once a week with The Littlest Apple.  This week we made Ginger Pecan Granola (recipe coming soon!).

I also picked up this cute little bird house in the dollar bin at Michael’s to paint.  Even though he didn’t completely cover it in paint, he was really proud of it, and can’t wait to hang it up in a tree in our backyard.

I created a “Sink or Float?” activity using plastic eggs and some random little things.  (idea from No Time for Flashcards).  Most of our eggs floated, but The Littlest Apple enjoyed playing with the eggs and the water, and opening the eggs to see what was inside.  (And I should have put towels down, as I did for the dish-washing activity, because we got water everywhere!)

Since the weather has been nicer lately, we’ve spent lots of playing outside in the sandbox.

I attempted this little Bunny Tails craft, but The Littlest Apple wasn’t very interested.  The idea was to use a clothespin to hold a pom pom, then dip the pom pom in paint to create a tail and other spots for the bunny on the picture.  The Littlest Apple did a few dots and I did the rest!

Last week I wanted to bake cookies, but I was completely out of butter.  That certainly limited my options a bit.  But then I ran across this recipe in Everyday Food.  No butter required, and it seemed so simple.  Only 6 ingredients!  This is definitely a great recipe to make with kids.

Emeril’s Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Cookies

from Everyday Food, March 2010

Ingredients:

• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, with racks in upper and lower thirds.  In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth.  Divide dough into 24 portions, about 1 heaping tablespoon each.  Roll each piece between your hands to form a smooth ball.  Place dough balls, 1 inch apart, on two ungreased baking sheets.  Using a fork, press on dough in two directions to form a crosshatch pattern.

Bake cookies until puffed and lightly golden, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through.  Let cookies cool on sheets.  (To store, keep cookies in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 3 days.)

I sprinkled mine with coarse sugar sprinkles.

Harry the Dirty Dog, by Gene Zion: We just got this one on Thursday (thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!) and we’ve already read it about 6 times.  This story was originally published in the 1950s, and I remember reading it as a child.  It’s the story of Harry, a white dog with black spots who hates to take baths and turns in to a black dog with white spots.

Yes, by Jez Alborough: Another great story with Bobo the monkey.  This story deals with Bobo’s bathtime and bedtime, and only contains the words “Yes” and “No”.  Once again, I’m amazed by how much emotion is conveyed through the illustrations and those two simple words.

A Treasury of Curious George, by H.A. Rey: A recent publication, this collection contains eight stories written in the style of H.A. Rey.  The Littlest Apple definitely has his favorites, including Curious George and the Dump Truck (no surprise there, right?) and Curious George and the Birthday Surprise.  I thought the text would be too lengthy for my squirmy 2 year old, but I think all of the illustrations help keep him interested.

Richard Scarry’s Best Storybook Ever:  I borrowed this one from my parents’ house.  It was mine when I was little.  I know that because I very carefully wrote my name in the front cover when I was about 5.  This book has SO much to offer, with 82 stories and The Littlest Apple loves it.  Right now he’s hooked on one story in particular: “Goodnight Little Bear,” by Patricia Scarry.  In that story, a little bear is carried to bed on his father’s shoulders, and then Father Bear pretends to not be able to find Little Bear and searches for him all over the house.

This recipe comes straight from the winners of the Firehouse Grill-Off at the recent Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.  The World Championship Bar-B-Que Contest (aka “The Cookofff”….I don’t know anyone who calls it the “Bar-B-Que Contest”) is always a big event, and apparently the firefighters of Houston get in on the action, too with their own cook-off.  The Firehouse Grill-Off was sponsored by the Texas Beef Council, so obviously this rub was originally intended for steak.  I used it on pork chops, but I think it would also be fantastic on pork tenderloin, chicken, and definitely steaks.  This recipe makes a LOT of rub, enough rub to coat 10 strip steaks.  I quartered the recipe and still had more than enough for my 4 thin bone-in pork chops.

Houston Fire Station #17 Rub

from The Houston Chronicle, Flavor Section, March 17, 2010

Ingredients:

• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup raw sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons dried minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons dried onion
• 3 tablespoons paprika
• 1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons coarse black pepper (I might use less next time)
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (I might use less next time)
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
• 1/2 tablespoon cumin

Combine all ingredients.  Store rub in a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid.

Mongolian Beef is one of my favorite things to order at P.F. Chang’s, but I still haven’t quite mastered making it at home.  I always seem to have trouble cooking with flank steak.  However, I have come up with a great way to serve green beans, using a Mongolian-esque sauce.  These are delicious, and I’m sure you could throw some chicken or shrimp in the sauce too.  I served these with Sticky Chicken and basmati rice.  Yes, it was a saucy meal, but I couldn’t make up my mind about which sauce was better.  They’re both delicious!

Ingredients:

• 1/3 C soy sauce
• 1/3 C brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger or minced ginger
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
• fresh green beans

Combine all ingredients but green beans in a small bowl using a whisk.  Add to green beans in a large skillet and cook on medium heat until beans are done.