My blog, may it rest in peace.

As you may have noticed, I have had considerable trouble keeping up my blog for, oh, about the past 14 months (coincidence?). So, I've made the difficult decision to consolidate all my online social networking to Facebook. It's much easier and quicker to upload pictures and I think I can do just about everything on there that I can on this blog.

I know a few people who read my blog aren't on Facebook yet, but perhaps this will be incentive (ahem, Ashley!). I'll keep my blog here in case I'm inspired to come back to it, but I'm pledging to be much better about posting updates and pictures on Facebook.

Love!
Nicole

Healthy(er) Cake Recipes

When I was planning Brett's birthday cake, I wanted to do something a bit healthier than a normal cake, just since he hadn't really had tons of sugar and such so far. So my mom lent me her food allergy cookbooks she had gotten when my sister, who has severe food allergies was younger.

These are recipes from two that we sampled that were delicious and have no eggs, less sugar, etc. The apple cake is terrific and ended up being Brett's cake (frosted with Cool Whip). I listed the original "food allergy" ingredients, but if you don't have allergies, you can just substitute normal flour, etc.

I also have them as Word docs, email me if you'd rather have those.

Eggless Chocolate CakeFrom All About Food Allergy by Faye M. Dong

1 ½ cups pure all-purpose white wheat flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp corn-free baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup cold water
¼ cup + 1 Tbs vegetable oil (not olive oil)
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, soda and salt. Make a well in the center. Pour water, oil, lemon juice and vanilla into well; beat until smooth (batter will be thin). Pour into greased and floured 8” square pan. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Invert cake onto wire rack to cool.
Serves 8.

Apple Pudding Cake
From Baking For People With Food Allergies from the US Dept. of Agriculture

¼ cup milk-free margarine
½ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup rice flour
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ cup water
3 cups apples, peeled and chopped
¼ cups nuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8x8x2 baking pan.

Mix margarine, sugar and vanilla until creamy. Mix flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and baking soda. Add flour mixture alternately with water to creamy mixture. Stir in apples and nuts, if using. Pour into pan. Bake 40-45 minutes and serve warm.

Brett's first birthday

Today is Brett's birthday! How lucky we are to have had this sweet boy for a whole year! We got him a wagon for his birthday and he enjoyed his first ride up to Ginger Sue's on the square for pancakes this morning!

Brett and Grandpa's piano and lights extravaganza

Brett LOVES to turn lights off and on. It's his favorite. Now he has set it to music as shown in this video!




Brett and Grandpa's Piano and Lights Extravaganza from Nicole on Vimeo.

Barry Gibb Talk Show

I was looking at videos from Saturday night Live on NBC.com and ran across one of my favorites...

...and now back to posting about Brett

After a one-post break, I'm sure you are ready for more pictures of Brett. :)


Here is when he got a can of Diet Coke out of the recycling bag:

Fun time-wasting link

Wow, a post that doesn't involve pictures of Brett! I have some new ones to post, but I"ll put them in a separate post just so I can say I posted about something else for once.

I ran across this link on YouTube and it has lots of cool time-lapse videos of this guy doing various art things...painting the Mona Lisa with Microsoft Paint, sketching presidential candidates on money, painting using french fries as a brush and ketchup as paint...he's really good.

http://youtube.com/eclecticasylumart

Oh no! Where's Brett?

I think we lost him in our brown duvet cover!

Brett's sign language

Brett's favorite "sign language" is to wave both his hands...it means hurry up and feed me, I'm excited, I'm mad, I want up, and many more. I was excited to get this picture where his hands are actually in motion.

Tim and Ashley, this one's especially for you...

Easter and thereabouts

So it's been a while! Brett's almost 10 months old and is crawling and pulling up like a maniac! Here are some recent pics...



Here's his Easter outfit...












Here's what happens when Brett kisses the baby reflected in the front door...

Caught in a tight spot

When you can only crawl backwards, sometimes you end up places like this! I could see he was headed for under the bed, and like a good mom, I didn't help him, I ran for the camera.