Gingerbread Waffles with Caramel Syrup

These are so fun and Christmasy not to mention YUMMY!!! I love finding recipes to liven things up here!

Gingerbread Waffles
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup molasses
6 TB melted butter
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda
2 tsp ginger
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Mix by hand brown sugar and egg yolks until well blended. Stir in buttermilk, molasses, and butter. In separate bowl combine all dry ingredients. Mix in with wet. Beat egg whites and fold into batter. Do no over mix!

Caramel Syrup
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 TB corn syrup
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla

In a large pot combine butter, buttermilk, syrup, sugar, and soda. Stir and bring to a boil. Boil for 7 minutes constantly. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Keep stirring until it turns into a dark Carmel colored syrup. **Note, Use a Large pot because the soda makes the syrup boil up high**

I whipped up some homemade whip cream with a hint of cinnamon in it...Really good. (made sure I ran today too)

Mint Brownie Recipe

Yummy Mint Brownies

For the Brownies:
1 cup melted butter ( i cut this down by a 1/4 cup)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 cups sugar ( i cut this down a little too)
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups flour

Whisk together melted butter and cocoa. Then add sugar, beaten eggs, vanilla, and salt. Mix Well. Then add sifted flour. Stir by hand and don't over mix.

Bake at 350 in a greased 9X13 for 25-28 minutes (mine always take closer to 28 minutes)

Cool completely (or stick in freezer for a little bit).

Frosting:
1/2 cups butter ( I only use a 1/4 cup)
2TB Milk
2 cups Powered sugar
1 tsp Peppermint Extract
green food coloring.
(This is just a basic butter cream frosting that all of you probably already make. I don't follow the recipe I wrote it down just in case. I like a little more than this recipe calls for so I use more milk and more P. sugar. This is the only minty part of the brownie so I use a good teaspoon plus a little extra. Don't use the mint or spearmint extract...they are nasty. Make sure is says Peppermint. Watkins is my fav!)

Ganache Topping:
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet ch.chip.
Melt it together and stir really good. Drizzle it all over the brownies and frosting.
I cut down the butter and add a little cream instead.

Don't say I didn't warn you!!! They are sooo addicting. Happy Christmas Cooking!

My 11 Year Old

Mallory's birthday was the day after we blessed little Hallie. My parents stuck around one more day to celebrate. We picked the girls up at lunch time, and went to a yummy sandwich place. Then Papa watched the rest of the kids while my mom and I took Mallory shopping. She got lots of real earrings, this scarf and hat too. She loves to be stylish! After we shopped we came back and had a little party at home. Was pretty low key, but that is all I could do after the crazy week that we had. Oh yes, she did get Wonderstruck so she was thrilled!!!

I made the sweetest looking cake ever (NOT...but she like it. It was actually yummy. It was white cake with homemade raspberry filling).

My mom made her this super cute owl blanket! She learned a new crochet edge.

Then there is LOGAN....he gets soo silly when anyone has a birthday. He always thinks it is for him!

This is his mean dragon face!

Cute Boy!

...and silly

Hallie's Blessing Day

We finally found a weekend that worked with most of our families to bless little Hallie. So, my parents, my sister's family, and Kyle came. And Michael's parents drove down for it too. They hadn't seen Hallie yet, so we were excited for them to come visit. We had a fun weekend with family and lots of activity...and crying from Hallie. She was in her super fussy mode. Michael gave her half a blessing because she decided she wanted to sing right into the microphone. She is SOOOO fussy!!!!!! (Have i mentioned that before, not sure???) But she looked adorable.

Amanda and I. I think Hallie looks like an old fashion doll baby here, with the bonnet and the serious face. She looks like some old pictures of babies in my family.

Michael's parents and us

We went to do a kissy picture, but I remembered I had lip gloss on and didn't want to get it all over her dress!

Our first family picture since we have been a family of 6! Logan hates pictures!

Me and all the kids and cousins! I love Logan's face...he's a TURKEY!!

The baby was so done with pictures!!

We had a such a fun week. In 1 week we had Halloween, Michael's birthday, family come for the Blessing, and then the next day was Mallory's Birthday! I think I slept about 8 hours total for the whole week. I was wasted by the end!

Local Flavor

The weekend we blessed our little Hallie, we went to explore what our town has to offer....pretty much the London Bridge and the Lake! So that is where we took our families.

The Bridge is the actual London Bridge. If you google it, you can read all about it.

My parents

I guess it's a bit prettier than Yuma!

I think it is totally random that the McCulloch dude paid millions to bring this bridge over here!!!

My sisters kids and Mallory and Jillian. I was at the care with 2 very fussy babies.

The little teenie boppers!

Michael's parents came too!

So this is where it happened!!! While everyone was standing here looking at the peaceful lake, a party boat came under the bridge sharing the local flavor with everyone!!! I have warned people about the lake...we can't really go back. So, on this party boat were 3 or 4 topless girls with a lot of silicone bouncing all over the place. They were wearing pasties, which I am not proud that I even know what they are. I wouldn't google them either!! However, we still had a fun day and gave everyone great memories!

How Old Are We???

Michael's birthday is the day after Halloween. The only worse day would be the day after Christmas! It's always "all I can do" to get through the Halloween week, only to have another party the next day. I'm usually up for parties, but so not this year. Unfortunately, Michael had to go to the State office for business (3 hours away), so we had a late party. He never got his sushi lunch that I promised him...so sad! Mallory and I tried to recreate the best chocolate cake on earth, found at Nothing Bundt Cake...and we came close. Michael loved it. All of the sudden this day is a blurr to me. I think we grilled steak and vegetables and had a yummy dinner.

I think Hallie liked the fire...I should light one more often. Anything to keep her happy.

She was happy to see here Daddy. She likes Michael way more than me!

This was Michael's big present from all of us. Logan and I shopped all day for it.

Logan thinks that anytime there is a party it is Logan's party...he says " it's Gogan's burday."

Oh Jillian...you always make me laugh, that is when you are not making me cry!

We gave him a big fire pit! We have needed one for so long.

Of course, the box is the best part. Actually, I think we should set up our big moving boxes for Christmas. May be the best gift ever.

Halloween

I can't believe that Halloween has already come and gone! Where did that time go?? I kinda didn't plan for my kids costumes this year as usual. This baby takes away all my thinking and wanting to do anything! Originally the kids all wanted to be Star Wars characters, but that didn't happen. So, the old standby cheerleading uniform made it out of hiding after almost 15 years! I talked Jillian into wearing her Rapunzel dress if I bought the wig. She was so happy to have the wig.

We should have had these curly hair pieces back in the day. I slept with sponge curlers so many nights!

She looks so funny with the wig on. I know why the movie is called Tangled! That is exactly what the wig did!

My Little Dragon! So cute! This is the ONLY part of Halloween that I like. I love seeing little kids dressed up in cute costumes. I hate all the ugliness of Halloween. I ordered his dragon costume off of ebay. So I wasn't sure about it. It turned out so cute and worth every penny! He loves playing in it. It was filled hours of fun...not to mention really loud roaring, trying to scare his sisters. People from the city were taking his picture all night when we went to the party on main street.

The actual day of Halloween always turns into complete craziness...and it did! It seemed like we had so much going on that day, trying to make it fun for the kids! 20 minutes before we left to go downtown to the trick-or-treating party a 2 liter bottle of Root Beer exploded somehow. The entire bottle went all over my kitchen floor and splattered on EVERYTHING!! It was a nightmare, but my house did smell good! I was loving my steam mop all night.

Since we had trunk or treating a few nights before Halloween, the Rapunzel wig did not make it. We had to braid it all back. But it looked cute still.

We got yummy cotton candy downtown...the best part if the night. We wont be going back here next year. I wish someone would have told me its not appropriate for kids...we saw a lot of BOOTIE, not to mention other things. Gotta love it here!

Logan LOVED trick-or-treating, but would not let go of my hand. He got freaked out by all the scary masks.

I always make my kids trick-or-treat at my door for a special treat!

Logan was so tired and just wanted to play in his car at this point.

After all the fun, we came back and had pizza and witches brew, with more Root Beer!

I didn't get a picture of little Hallie in her cute Halloween outfit. She was busy spitting up and crying...imagine that!