Baby Wearing

This is my hubby and my son, wearing a mama made (not by me) ring sling.

I love love love baby wearing. Even though my little guy is getting bigger, it is still so nice to be able to strap him on and be able to just go, hands free and cozy close. We are just starting to get into woven wraps and they can be a bit more complicated, and a little pricey they are so worth it. We took our son to the zoo, and we were able to unwrap him and use the wrap as a picnic blanket, then after we were done eating it also worked as a changing table. I love how versatile they are! I have two now! Anyway, we wrapped with a moby when my little guy was smaller, and it was so nice to have him close all the time, with the ability to do skin to skin after he came home. Now we have the linens and can wrap again! We also have some SSC’s (Soft Structured Carriers)We have a Pognae and a Boba. We love them both as well, they are a bit easier to use and have buckles, very daddy friendly since he doesn’t care much for wrapping. Then there is our ring sling, which is also very nice and convenient. Easy to just pop him in and out but it’s only one shoulder and better for quick trips into  the store. Over the next couple of weeks I am going to go into baby wearing a bit more and hopefully help some mamas find something that might be good for them, and help them know what isn’t so great to use, and why! Please know that I am not a certified baby wearing instructor, however I have done a ton of research and I want to help other mamas have this amazing closeness with their babies!

 

Cheese Danish Recipe- Yum!

So I have been craving cheese danish, however I haven't really been able to find any that are hitting the spot. There are some downfalls to living in a small town. So I set out to find a recipe that I could live with. I found some amazing looking recipes for danish that made the dough from scratch, and I might try them sometime, but I wanted something quick and easy to make and I found it. This is my lightly edited version of a recipe by Ina Mae

Ingredients

• 8 ounces Neufchâtel cheese, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup Sugar
• 2 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons no fat ricotta cheese
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 tablespoon grated lemon zest
• 2 sheets (1 box) frozen puff pastry, defrosted
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, (this is the egg wash, I just used the leftover whites)
• Nutmeg (optional)

Line a baking sheet pan with parchment paper.

Place the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a mixer and gently cream them together until smooth. Add the egg yolks, ricotta, vanilla, salt, and lemon zest and mix until just combined. (You can use a mixer set on low, I did it by hand.)

Unfold 1 sheet of puff pastry onto a lightly floured board and roll it slightly with a floured rolling pin until it's a 10 by 10-inch square. Cut the sheet into quarters with a sharp knife.
Place a heaping tablespoon of cheese filling into the middle of each of the 4 squares.
Brush the border of each pastry with egg wash and fold 2 opposite corners to the center, brushing and overlapping the corners of each pastry so they firmly stick together, then do the other two corners. Brush the top of the pastries with egg wash.
 Sprinkle tops with nutmeg.
Place the pastries on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry and refrigerate the filled Danish for 15 minutes.
Preheat over to 400

Bake the pastries for about 20 minutes, rotating the pan once during baking, until puffed and brown. Serve warm.

These turned out really well. I enjoyed them a lot, I think with a little practice they may be a little prettier. Luckily looks do not affect the taste. :) If you wanted to you could add a little less cheese and top with your favorite jam or jelly to get different flavors such as strawberry or blackberry. Yum!

I'm a huge dork!

So I set up a months worth of posts to auto post. Notice how I haven't had any posts in the last month? I came to check on it today, and none of them had come up. I am a huge dork, I somehow managed to change the year on them to next year instead of this year. Well this will tech me not to check in on my blog more often...