Day 2: What are you afraid of?

Well that is harder to answer then I thought when I picked it. My first thought was spiders because they are terrifying nasty little creatures. I know they eat other bugs and they have a place in the food chain but that does not mean that they have to be my friends. After I thought a little more about what I would write about my eight legged little terrorizers I found that I kept coming back to the fact that nothing is scarier to me right now then, well, everything. My whole life got turned upside down 5 weeks ago by the most amazing little angels arrival into this world. The side effect being that now I am scared of everything and how it could effect my son Jameson. I don't yell because I am afraid to startle him. I have done hours of research on my deodorant to make sure it won't effect my breast milk. Having a newborn is the most amazing experience of my life time but it is also terrifying!

30 Day Blogging Challenge.

I wanted to do something to break my habit of not blogging for weeks at a time. So I searched for a 30 day blog challenge to build a habit of blogging daily. I was unsuccessful in finding a current challenge list but I found a couple of old ones so I am going to mix them together and see what we come up with.   So here goes day one.

DAY 1: Self portrait and 5 random facts about yourself.

#1 I have a huge Harry Potter obsession!

#2 I can change my oil and tires.

#3 My name is spelt with a K in place of a C. It is Jessika not Jessica.

#4 I can't keep left and right straight so don't ask me to navigate unless you are ready to make a few U-turns.

#5 I love two stepping! Aerials and everything!

My fall favorite!

Apple Tart

Crust

1 Cup+1 Tbsp ~ All-purpose flour
1/2 tps salt
1/3 Cup cold shortening
3-5 Tbsp ice cold water

Mix flour and salt in a Medium bowl, cut in shortening using a fork (or if you are high speed a pastry blender). This should look like small crumbs roughly pea sized. Add water one Tbsp at a time until all the flour is moist and pastry almost leaves the sides of the bowl. Gather into a flat round blob (kinda like a big hamburger patty) wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for 45 minutes. Use a floured rolling pin to roll your pie crust out. It should end up about a 1/4 of an inch thick or less.

Filling

2/3 Cup Brown sugar
1Tbsp cold butter
4 Cups sliced apples (about 4 medium apples)
1 Tbsp flour

Mix together sugar and flour, add the apple slices put in pastry crust, and crumble butter over the top of the apple mixture.  Fold edges of the pastry up over mixture.

Bake

Now I do not use a pie pan I use a pizza pan so that it bakes flat and the pastry is a little crisper.
425 degrees for 25 minutes.

When all else fails bake!

I love to cook. Baking is such a great stress reliever and I love ending up finding flour on the back of my calf and not being quite sure how I managed to get it there. I (almost) always bake from scratch. I have always told my mom that baking from a box is "faking baking". I love adding each ingredient and watching your product come to life.  So in the spirit of making the world a better place I have decided to share a new recipe with all of you every Tuesday! I am calling it Sweet Tooth Tuesdays! Below is the first recipe and it is one that breaks my "nothing from a package" rule.


I started making these a couple years ago as a quick simple thing to make for a work function and now I get instructed to bring dozens upon dozens of them. I don't remember where I got the recipe but here it is.

Temptations

What you need:

Store bought chocolate chip cookie dough (I have found the cheaper the better because they don't stick to the pan)
Reese's miniature cups
Miniature muffin pan


How you do it:

• Bake the pre-measured cookies in a miniature muffin pan, one cookie per muffin well, for 10 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and press one Reese's into the center of each one. Please unwrap them first. I have accidentally baked a wrapped one before.
• Return to the oven for 2 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and let completely cool before removing from the pan. Sometimes you may need to give them a little spin to loosen them up.

I am sorry I haven't made a batch to take pictures for this post. Since I am trying to work on my post baby body I shouldn't be alone with these cookies. If you do make them and you would like to share send me a picture and I will add them!

Booby problems.

Well now that all the grandparents have gone home after coming to meet Jameson I am so ready to settle into being a family of three! Though it will only be a few weeks before I am back at work and my boys are left to their own devices durning the day, so I am already pondering my breast milk supply. When my milk first came in I had WAY too much, I was pumping 12 ounces twice a day and still feeding just fine. However with all the running around and stressing I haven't been drinking as much water as I should and drinking too much caffeine so I have seen a huge decrease in production. So of course being a woman of our day and age I searched the internet for things that help and this is what I found.

Flax seed (High in Fiber)
Brewers Yeast (Made from ground hops. Bakers Yeast does not have the same effects)
Whole Wheat (again Fiber)
Teas made from a host of ingredients including

Fennel seeds Goat's rue Blessed thistleAlfalfa Anise seedsfenugreek seedsred raspberry leavesstinging nettle leavesmilk thistle seeds and a whole host of other things.

And last but certainly not least water.

The first two people suggest adding to oatmeal. I find that particular breakfast unappealing so I choose not to partake. However adding it to Oatmeal Cookies worked out beautifully. The actual increase in production hasn't been huge an ounce or two at most during a pumping session but every little bit ads to my store so I am tickled pink. The effects are only good for a little while though so my rule of thumb is two cookies and 16 ounces of water about 20 minutes before I go pump.

I have yet to try any of the teas so I cant really comment on the effectiveness. Water just makes a ton of sense, your body cant create
liquid if it doesn't have enough for itself and then some so bottoms up!

Is there anything else that helped you? Help all of us new moms by sharing your experiences.