I just made these today with a friend, and they were surprisingly easy! And DELISH!

Cream Puffs

Recipe courtesy Gale Gand

Prep Time:

20 min

Inactive Prep Time:

--

Cook Time:

45 min

Level:

Intermediate

Serves:

30 servings

Ingredients

For the pate a choux pastry:

• 1 cup water
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 to 4 eggs, plus 1 egg for egg wash

For the filling:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

To make the cream puffs: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. In a large saucepan, bring the water, butter, salt, and granulated sugar to a rolling boil over medium-high heat. When it boils, immediately take the pan off the heat. Stirring with a wooden spoon, add all the flour at once and stir hard until all the flour is incorporated, 30 to 60 seconds. Return the pan to the heat and cook, stirring, 30 seconds to evaporate some of the moisture.

Scrape the mixture into a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix at medium speed. With the mixer running, and working 1 egg at a time, add 3 of the eggs, stopping after each addition to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix until the dough is smooth and glossy and the eggs are completely incorporated. The dough should be thick, but should fall slowly and steadily from the beaters when you lift them out of the bowl. If the dough is still clinging to the beaters, add the remaining egg and mix until incorporated.

Using a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip, pipe the dough onto the baking sheet, in 2-inch diameter rounds or balls. Whisk the remaining egg with 1 1/2 teaspoons water. Brush the surface of the rounds with the egg wash to knock down the points (you may not use all the egg wash). Bake 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 degrees F and bake until puffed up, and light golden brown, about 20 minutes more. Try not to open the oven door too often during the baking. Let cool on the baking sheet.

To fill the cream puffs, place a pastry tip on your finger and poke a whole in the bottom of each puff. Whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla until stiff. Pipe whipped cream into each cream puff and chill until ready to serve, no more than 4 hours.

Notes about the recipe: The moisture in the eggs turns to steam and puffs the batter to try to release itself. You can fill them with anything.

Great Quote

We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day.

--Elder Richard G. Scott

Complaints

knowing that this is now a private blog gives me a great sense of freedom. for instance, i can now freely admit that i have been crampy and bloated all day. i am awaiting my period and wish it would come now.

i got called to work in the nursery in church. again. this is my fourth time in four years. i sobbed in the car all the way home. this is partly because i am almost on my period. i freely admit this. but it is also because church was a thing that my husband and i could go to for a few hours and BOTH take care of Syd. we spent time together, sat by each other, and helped each other out. it sort of felt like a break. i got to hang with adults too, which was nice.

i accepted the calling, because it is ingrained in me that you should not say no to a calling. i am happy to serve. it will also be great for Syd because she will get to see older kids in action. because she has no siblings, i do feel she is a tad isolated. perhaps this calling is for her?

anyway, i can either talk to the bishopric and say "hey, i'm not sure if i want to do this..." which would involve awkward conversation. or i could just grin and bear it. it'll probably be the latter.

7. 5 months

i did start a journal for sydney, but since i am on the computer far more than on her journal, here are some stats of our syd the kid:

-she started sitting up pretty well at 7 months

-she started rolling around more at 7 months--now she is much more controlled with it, trying to get from point A to point B

-she has been sleeping through the night for several months now

-this girl loves sleep. if i put her back down after feeding her at seven (which i rarely do), she'll sleep for a few more hours

-ever since we started going to the gym daycare, she takes three hour naps afterwards

-she initially didn't like bananas. now she's cool with them

-spinach constipates her

-she is starting to show a preference for mom. she'll often reach for me when kirk is holding her, or cry when i leave. sometimes this is just because she's hungry, but sometimes she just wants me. :) i try hard not to like this, because i want her to be attached to kirk too, but she's not super cuddly so i take what i can get!

-she wears size 3 diapers. she started to around sixish months

-she continues to be indifferent about baths. she doesn't hate them or love them.

-she gives you a big grin when you come get her from her crib. love that gummy grin!

-no teeth yet (i'm ok with that. she bites hard enough without them)

-she is super social still. she likes toys, but she'd much prefer to watch people or talk to them.

-does the funny asthma breathing (she doesn't have asthma...she just likes the noise when she breathes funny)

-says "ba ba ba." still trying to get her to say "ma ma"!

i can't describe how much love i feel towards this little girl. she's my buddy that i get to hang out with every day. :)

I am obsessed with this video right now.

Barcelona Pics

Casa Mila {designed by Gaudi}

Cool house designed by Gaudi in Guell Park. {Basically our whole trip was focused on Gaudi}

Rooftop of the Battlo House. This house was also designed by Gaudi, and you'll notice it kind of looks like a dragon's back. This was intended!

Also in the Battlo House. This is the stairwell that reaches all the way up to the sky light! Gaudi designed the tiles to go darker to lighter as they went up. It looked so cool because the house was several stories high.

Me and Lis!

Battlo House fireplace. You can't really tell but there are two seats facing each other underneath the archway, on opposite sides of the furnace. I would love to sit and read a book here.

Nativity Facade of the Sagrada Familia, this supremely amazing cathedral. Also designed by Gaudi.

Sagrada Familia. :)

Kirky and I at Las Ramblas.

Sara, Dad and Joe at Las Ramblas. Candid photo, naturally.

Las Ramblas.

Tapas Restaurant. {Tapas are little snacks. They have them all over Barcelona}.This was the 4th picture I had Joe take of us, so Kirk's smile might be a bit forced. :p

Me pretending to be candid, eating tapas.

Churros! Best with yummy hot chocolate.

Our tapas. DELICIOUS.

The boys in the family!

Sara and I with Dad.

Front of the Sagrada Familia. It's still under construction.

Casa Mila again

Cool random bank I liked the look of...

Kirky and me in Barcelona!

My sistah and me

The men.

My gorgeous sister. Love this pic of her. :)

BARCELONA!

p.s. mom was sick during this trip, so she did go out, but i didn't have my camera out as much during that. also, where is the lovely sydney? well, grandad had her on lock down. seriously, he did not want her out of the house like at all. too much...noise? people? germs? who knows.

i would have taken her out and about, but there was always a family member available to watch her. so it was nice for kirk and i to travel around baby free for a bit. this is something we usually can't do without getting a sitter.

Making this Blog Private!

If you would like an invite, just let me know what your email is and I'll send you an invite. I've just been thinking that I need to be more secure on the internet with this new kiddo in our lives. :)

My New Year's Resolution

usually i make a long list of resolutions. i even have specific categories to place said resolutions. 99% of the time i lose the sheet of paper that i put the resolutions on and i completely forget about them.

this year, i'm keeping it simple:

i'm going to embrace and fully invest myself in being a kick a** wife and mom.

see i've been trying to think about what i should do with my life. i have seriously been contemplating going back to law school and putting syd in day care because they have a great facility at the school i was thinking of. then i thought....what about cooking school? masters degree? etc. etc.

i was talking to my mom about this whole conundrum, and she noticed (after asking me further questions) that i kept talking about the school. i didn't necessarily want to be a chef or a lawyer or whatever. i wanted to go back to school. but i was putting myself in a box.

i still can go to classes and continue learning as much as i want to without pursuing a graduate degree full time and putting syd into daycare (which, i might add, i just felt sick inside about doing. i wanted to be with my baby AND be a full time student. maybe while she was sleeping?).

anyway, eventually i will definitely get a graduate degree in something. possibly when my kids are doing school, but definitely at a time that i feel good about. i think i have been hesitant to embrace this new part of my life. the adult part. the part where i might be done with being a full-time student for a while, and where i have to be a full-time teacher for my kids.

also, i really want to work on my writing and possibly do some freelance editing. this is something that i love doing, and i can pursue without putting my kid into full-time daycare.

on a side note, i do NOT look down on moms who put their kids in day care. that is their decision and every family is completely different. i am so glad women have the option to do whatever they want now. i <3 women's rights. i just feel like for now, what our family needs is someone at home full time. because kirk is med school and has a crazy schedule, someone needs to see syd more than an hour a day. :p

happy new year everyone!