Today was the first of three Easter egg hunts that Frugal Boy can participate in.
I have vivid memories of going to the local Easter egg hunt when I was a kid. My dad would have my siblings and I practice in the side yard beforehand. We would go over drills of scooping up eggs without stopping and he would give us strategies to go where the other kids weren’t. Then after the big event where my brothers and I would pick our noses and pick up a paltry amount of eggs he would throw his hands up in the air and tell us how lousy we were at picking up eggs with good candy inside.
Naturally, I would be a better father to Frugal Boy. So training started yesterday.
The town’s egg hunt was divided into age groups. Frugal Boy was in the 2 and under (and aggressive parents) category. We saw some friends there as well.
It was difficult to contain his excitement while we waited for the start. There may have been a small tantrum thrown because we kept telling him he had to wait. But finally, the countdown was initiated and he ran, er moseyed, onto the field.
This kid was faster on the draw. It also helped that he was able to distract Frugal Boy with his fancy police car basket.
All in all, he did pretty well. He ended up with 9 eggs after he gave one to his one year old daycare pal.
We asked him if he had fun and he gave a very enthusiastic “YESS”. Next year we’ll have to step up the training. I mean C’mon kid, stickers and gummies is the best you can come home with?
The extent of my baking knowledge up until now has been to follow the instructions on the back of the ready mix boxes. Come along with Shae and myself as we embark on a six week baking challenge where we push our comfort zones and try baking recipes we have never done before!
Week 4 – Apple Turnovers
We chose apple turnovers because we wanted to make a puff pastry. In particular, we wanted to make a full puff pastry. Normally, a turnover recipe has you use pre-prepared pastry rolls from the store, and while that greatly cuts down the work and time required, it doesn’t teach us anything about the process!
So how does one make a flaky, crisp pastry dough? Easy! All you need is flour, water, salt, and a metric ton of butter.
We all put our aprons on, Frugal Boy too after much convincing, and got out the stand mixer to combine 5 cups of flour with a teaspoon of salt and 2 cups of water. You’ll want to add the water in slowly otherwise the dough gets very hard and tough to roll out.
While you are doing that, you’ll want to get out a block o butter. This recipe called for 2 cups worth. Sandwich it with plastic wrap and get out something heavy, like a rolling pin.
Then pound the butter flat and stick it in the fridge to chill.
After the dough has rested, and the butter has chilled, you can roll out the dough.
And yes, that is the manliest apron we have.
Once the dough is rolled out, place the butter on top. We are going to start laminating the dough and butter.
Here begins the lengthy part. In order to laminate the butter and dough together, you will repeat folding the dough and butter into thirds, rolling it out flat again and sticking it back in the refrigerator to chill. You don’t want the butter to melt into the dough. After about six times of doing this, you will end up with a nicely layered dough/butter creation.
The whole point of layering butter in the dough is to have it expand (some might even say puff) when baking. The butter steams up and gives a wonderful flakiness to the finished pastry.
Now that you have your finished pastry dough, you can roll it out to a 1/4 inch thickness or thinner and shape as desired. Traditional apple turnover recipes call for cutting out squares from the rolled dough, placing the apple filling into the square, and folding the dough over before baking. We opted to make cups instead.
Look at those beautiful layers!
We finished off the apple cups by adding a sugar glaze.
They are best eaten fresh from the oven. Over time they will get soggy and lose their crispiness. If you buy the pastry dough pre-made the recipe only takes about 60 minutes to make. If you make the dough from scratch, it will take several hours.
We have two weeks left on this 6 week challenge. Leave a comment on what we should try baking next!
We have been doing a slow burn birthday celebration for Frugal Boy for the past week that culminated with a trip to his grandparents house.
On Friday night we made sugar cutouts.
Then on Monday he got a cupcake.
That night he also got to open a few of his cards.
Then we built a snowman. His name might have been Olaf.
Olaf is about the size of a snowball now thanks to the warm weather we have had over the last couple of days.
Then the real fun began when we went up to Grandma and Grandpa’s house this weekend. His Aunts helped make a four layered cake.
It was a pretty awesome cake.
It even came with a side of ice cream. How *cool* is that?!
Frugal Boy had fun experiences, such as the train show we went to on Saturday. His striped bib overalls fit in perfectly.
There were three gymnasiums and a cafeteria all filled with train setups and trains for sale. Many of the displays were interactive and included buttons that kids and adults could press to activate different models and gadgets.
Other highlights included playing with the dog, going for tractor rides, and playing by Grandma’s rules (which are far more lenient than Mom and Dad’s) 😉
Here he is with Grandpa. He was really upset that he didn’t get to say bye to the tractor, and Grandpa was nice enough to take him down to the shed so he could.
Shae and I did the boring birthday things, a basket of fruit and a 529 contribution. Thank you to everyone that helped make his week a little more jovial.
Frugal Boy just had his two year wellness checkup. He weighed in at 31.8 pounds (93%) and measured a lofty 35.5 inches tall (79%). He has grown quite a bit from his one year birthday.
Instead of sending cake or candy to the babysitters for his birthday, Shae put together a fruit tub instead.
$10 of fruit goes a long way!
All in all, he is developing just like a kid should.
