December 8-15

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I remember having little cupcake crayons when we were kids.  Mom would take all the broken pieces, toss them in a muffin tin, and melt them down into new crayons for us to use.  Olivia has a lot of broken crayons, so I decided to do this.  I wasn't able to mix the colors with the same reckless abandon that my mother did, but I did pair a couple up to fill the tins a bit more.  This ended up being a good thing, because I didn't know how long (or how hot) to bake the crayons, and managed to melt them down until the colors were completely mixed.  So instead of the swirly colored crayons we had, Olivia ended up with some new solid colors.  At least I was cautious, so she didn't end up with six shades of brown.  She was intrigued by them and seems to like using them better than her regular crayons.

Gretchen has been practicing her consonants.  She's especially good at mamamamama.  Her other favorite right now is ba (usually just one at a time).  She held up a ball the other day and said, "ba," sounding especially smart.  We'll just ignore all the other things she labels as "ba."  :)

A follow-up appointment for a second flu shot and a check on her ear infection gave us the opportunity to weigh Gretchen again.  At 7 months, she was 16 lbs, 10 oz, which is still over a pound lighter than Olivia was at six months.  This surprised Bryan, because Gretchen eats meals like she might never get fed again.  She puts away more food at one meal than Olivia does in a week.  Apparently she also burns it off faster.

Olivia sounds more like a big person every day.  I'll call her from the other room, and she'll answer with, "yes, mommy?"  She also says, "bless you, baby Gretchen" when Gretchen sneezes, says thank you without being prompted (not all the time, but sometimes), and asks Bryan to "brush the girl's hair" when he puts her to bed.

It's cookie walk time again, so I have more Spritz notes:
-I use medium eggs and the chocolate recipe calls for 2 large eggs.  This year my batter seemed especially dry, so I put in an extra medium egg.  This was a good decision.
-Soften the butter in the microwave before adding the sugar.
-Roll the dough into a log.  It's not that hard, and the time saved is tremendous.
-The chocolate batter is easier to work with if it is slightly chilled.  Do not chill the vanilla batter.  The recipe didn't lie to you.  (Side note: If you're one of those people who buys the Pillsbury cookie dough just to eat the dough with no intention of every baking it into cookies (that's everybody), you should make vanilla spritz and put the dough in the fridge.  I tasted mine, and I'm pretty sure that's how Pillsbury makes their cookies.)
-Don't be afraid to use more than one click per cookie.  One and a half is often the magic number.

Also some notes about Austrian chocolate balls:
-Double batches are very workable.  Larger than that would be unwieldy.
-The recipe says to dip each ball in the frosting, but I get impatient and stir them all into the frosting instead.  (Bonus to this method: the whole cookie gets a chocolate coating, instead of just the top.)  Six batches at a time is a bit much for this technique, though.  Actually, how does using some sort of frosting tip sound?  That might be easiest.
-Large eggs make the batter a little too moist and the cookies flatten in the oven.  Add a little extra flour and you're good to go.

Pictures and Video:

Video (password BarhorstBrewed):
Gretchen Loves Fabric

Gretchen's fabric:

Olivia and her crayons:

Olivia, ready to go out in the snow.  She could barely walk: