Dana Burland

Here to repot back on a theory proved successful on Christmas morning: bows on gifts. This was the first year I wrapped presents, then tied stain bows around them. Man, they looked SO beautiful! This wasn't for looks though, it was for science. I was testing a hypothesis: might $4 spent on ribbon extend the present opening frenzy of two fast and furious kids by a few minutes? Yes, yes it did. Now... I had to double knot the bows to keep them securely on the boxes, which put a needs-adult-help hurdle in the boys' unboxing. Not awful, and they weren't too bothered by it.  I also wrapped some gifts in nice thick wrapping paper, which I found took more effort and time to unwrap vs the almost tissue paper wrapping paper which already shreds itself while I was wrapping with it. Then there was the BIG gamble: a Russian nesting doll-esque wrapped box in a wrapped box in a wrapped box. A big, 2ft square box ultimately leading to a deck of personalized cards.  With an 8 and 6 year ol...

Ok, I have to tell you about the checkerboard cookie fiasco. I referenced it briefly here , but checkerboard cookies were on our list of Christmas cookies to bake for the assorted treat plates my mom, brother and I gift neighbors and friends. I've made these before. They're exactly what they sound like: sugar cookie dough and chocolate cookie dough, checker boarded into one cookie. They should look like this:  Of course, I was rushing, when it came time to prep for the cookie baking party. I couldn't find the exact recipe I had made before, so I Googled for a new one and went with that. Wrong choice. Very bad choice.  The dough was so sticky. So hard to work with. It was really frustrating. The cookies SHOULD be at least 3x3 like the photo above. I could only manage 2x2 as I was assembling the dough. They were SO wonky. Then they went in the oven... and expanded beyond belief turning from 12 cookies on a sheet pan to one mega cookie. There is no photo evidence of this horri...

Year 2  of our family holiday cookie baking bonanza is in the books. And wow, if I thought we went through a lot of butter last year... This year's shopping totals: 17 sticks of butter 6.5 cups of sugar 19 cups of flour 8 eggs 4.5 cups powdered sugar ...and less insane quantities of many other ingredients. We baked 6, instead of last year's 7, items this go round: Linzer cookies made 'em a little smaller this year, in the shapes of stars. :) Millionaire's Shortbread Bars  but good lord, why is the caramel layer SO challenging??!! Snowballs  a nostalgic classic my family just can't not have Orange Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies these are something special Soft Gingerbread Cookies with Maple Glaze   wowwww you should have seen what a disaster I was trying to sub out the maple glaze for a white chocolate ganache. I mean, the maple glaze from the recipe is good--it just doesn't set very well. I shouldn't have tried to stray, I ended up back at the origin...

My kids stopped eating my go-to oat waffles. No reason why, but one day they were in, the next day they were very mas o menos or 6-7 about them (reader translation: more or less, uncertain), and the day after that a solid nope... where they have remained. Then I broke the waffle iron.  Cool! Never one to quickly learn from the most obvious mistakes, I Amazon'd a new waffle iron over and sought to find a new recipe.  I'm really not interested in crap waffles. If it's a white flour/quarter cup of sugar waffle recipe, I might as well buy Eggos, buckle my seatbelt for a hunger induced fit (from the boys OR myself) 30 min after breakfast and call it a day. But, my last recipe (which was good! Here if you want it!) got rejected. I wasn't easily finding something that still had protein and felt good, so I turned my effort to ChatGPT. Give me a kid-friendly, oat-flour, waffle recipe And oat-flour and kid-friendly... ish it is. I now have one kid (actually my more challenging ...

This is a perfect Thursday dinner. An in office work day, immediately home and back on the go for kid's piano and drum lessons. When everyone reconvenes at home they're hungry--RIGHT THEN.  Look, there are so many crockpot meals out there. A lot are just solidly fine, few are truly good, and if they're truly good they have 47 ingredients and wow, when some call for cooking ahead of items going in the pot... that's just so ugh.  I'm not going to tell you this is the best recipe in the world, but I am going to tell you it's tasty, stupidly easy, probably could be made from items in your kitchen right now, and it's filling too. I'm making this one again and again. Crockpot Chicken Pasta Sauce Ingredients 2-3 chicken breasts onion powder, garlic powder, Italian seasonings, salt & pepper 24-28oz jar of marinara sauce about 3/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes (optional) Optional stir-ins: 3/4 cup cottage cheese, chopped spinach, a glug of half and half or h...

...and what a year it was. Both boys were ninjas. C and his friend Theo SPRINTED through the entire neighborhood, ping ponging across the street while the Dads strolled down the middle. Their night wrapped up after two solid hours, a full pillow case of candy, and a sweaty ninja costume. They hit the entire neighborhood, a new PR, and as C proudly displayed on his watch--17K steps. Whoa.  Meanwhile the Moms took A and friend Benny out together. What started as a sprint quickly turned into a walk/run combo. The boys also PR'd, down our long street, around the full corner and cul-de-sac, and back home again. A real highlight was trick-or-treating at our own house, where Uncle E was on duty handing out candy... Trick or treat at your own house?! HILARIOUS! They loved racing to the door to help in handing out candy, too. While the boys' stamina is always new and improved year over year, so many traditions stay the same: Our family friends, former neighbors, with boys similar ages, ...

Omg, my kids ate these! These chicken "kebabs", lightly seasoned with Mediterranean spices, with specks of fresh parsley visible. I will make these again, because they ate them. And they will not eat them that next time, but I will.  Sheet Pan Chicken Kebabs Ingredients 1 lb ground chicken  1/2 cup yellow onion 1/4 cup fresh parsley 3 cloves garlic 1 egg 1 T coriander 1 1/2 t cumin 1 t cinnamon 1 t salt 1 pinch cloves 1/4 t black pepper About 1.5 T olive oil Directions 1. Preheat oven to 425 2. In a small food processor grind the onion, parsley and garlic 3. In a medium bowl, combine ground chicken, onion/parsley/garlic mix, all spices and egg. Mix until combined 4. Add a glug of olive oil to a quarter baking sheet, then spread the chicken mixture into a full rectangle covering the full baking sheet, about 1/2 inch thick, flatten evenly 5. Use a knife or bench scraper, separate in lines about 1.5 inches thick. Drizzle remaining olive oil evenly on top to coat chicken complet...