Fast & French

Have you been cooking more during the quarantine?

Have no fear. The boy is always very supervised.

I often find myself gravitating to recipes that Theo can help with. He loves to help in the kitchen and gets so excited when the opportunity presents itself. A lot of the time he’ll even drag his “cooking stool” over when he sees me making dinner because he wants to help. I always oblige. Especially when he goes and finds his cooking apron and hat and hands them to me. He’s ready. I like to have some easy recipes up my sleeve so that I’m ready too.

I love so many things French and cooking is no exception. In fact, I have a french cookbook that just came in and I’m so excited to dig into it. Anyway, The French get a bad rap for a couple things. Like being mean and I can assure you they are a lovely gracious people. Another one is that French cooking is hard and it can be, but not always.

Today, Theo and I are making what The French would call “Gougeres” but simply put they are light and airy french cheese puffs! I love to learn new things and one thing I took away from this recipe was that it starts with a Pate a Choux.

Pâte à Choux

(sounds like “pat a shoe”)

Simply put is a paste made of flour, water, butter, and eggs. It’s thicker than a batter but it’s not as thick as dough.

what you need:

what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 425, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a sauce pan bring the water, butter, and salt to a boil. Then add in flour and stir until a dough forms. Cook a couple of minutes to dry out the dough.

3. Put this in a bowl and let it cool a little bit. Add in the eggs one at a time until well combined.

4. Add cheese and parsley and mix really well. Use two tablespoons and drop on to your prepared baking sheet. Set them two inches apart. Then, sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top.

5. Bake for 10 minutes at 425 and another 20-25 minutes at 380 or until golden brown.

   Best served warm.

   If there is one thing that you take away from this QUARANTINE, I hope you find yourself in the kitchen more...and love it.

   Thanks for stopping by today!

“Cooking is one of the great gifts you can give to those you love.”

— Ina Garten

Theo The Dragon

Happy Halloween! 

Okay, if I’m Being totally honest October completely kicked my ass. Like in a major way. We completed our seventh room renovation, Theo is very close to walking so that means I can’t walk away from him for even a second. After hours and hours of that I’m beyond exhausted. He’s also teething so that doesn’t help. I had the worst cold ever and Contemporary Photography has been completely swamped to boot (last wedding this weekend). So all of that has me just so tired. 

I started this as an Instagram post but it got a little long so I made it into a blog post instead. My little Theo Shane is a dragon this Halloween! I wanted to tell my story behind this: 

My love for dragons dates far further back than Game of Thrones (even though I love GOT... probably because of the dragons?). Not only is my Chinese Zodiac a dragon but bonus the Kilgore Family Crest is also a dragon, and when I was little I was the owner and founder of “The Reptile Club”. Me and my friends would go down to a little pond by my house (Terabithia) and catch tadpoles and other activities of that nature. I loved my scaley friends, I even had a pet snake (Mr. Scaley) that my Mom and I caught.

Dragons had always been a fascination for me. I loved reading about them and seeing shows with them in it. When I was pregnant with Theo my best friend Crystal and I always called Theo a dragon long before we knew the gender. Mostly because of what I wanted to eat or how I was feeling we always said “ that little dragon...”. Needless to say there was no question as to what he would be for his first Halloween. I mean I was only a few weeks pregnant picturing my little baby dressed as a dragon. Of course we had to bring the now traumatized dogs into it to make three dragons and here I am in my very rightful place as The Mother of Dragons.   

Perla Blue was 100% humiliated. Donatella is very much used to this behavior from her parents.

I hope everyone has a great (and safe) Halloween! 

Theo Goes

Happy Friday Everyone! We made it!

You probably know by now from pervious posts and my social media that we recently took a trip with six month old Theo Shane. Travel is very important to MK and I so we want to instill that in Theo and start him out early. Having said that, I had no idea what to expect so I thought I would share a couple things we learned along our little journey with our little one. But first, I feel it's important to say that this is just what worked for us in our situation and I can only hope that it could help if you find yourself in the same position. 

Our Baby Travel Tips:

1. Go into it with an open mind, relaxed attitude and try not to stress.

2. Have a plan for everything! A blowout, a meltdown, hunger, boredom. Anything. Think about any scenario that could happen. Was that Theo's original cute Adidas tracksuit that I had planned for him to be in? Nope.

3. If you're flying have baby suck on a bottle going up and down. It will help their ears.

4. Don't panic. If baby starts crying just roll with it. Yes it's stressful and airplane seats are small but odds are it won't last. 

5. Things I always had on me at all moments: Clorox wipes, Tide pen, and Honest Company hand sanataizer spray. These are all just great to always have in the diaper bag too.

All in all Theo did really well on the plane and throughout our whole trip. Now the trick is getting him back on his normal schedule. Send help. 

After all the travel you need a drink! Since we were in The Keys I though it was only appropriate to make a Sea Blue & Boozy. It's the most perfect summer drink!

Fill your glass 3/4 with Prosecco, add in Triple Sec and Vodka, then add a splash of Blue Curacao. Garnish with orange. Enjoy!