Galley Kitchen Creations: Snow Suits and Bathing Suits

Another busy week in the world of babies and baking has come and gone and it was a nice break to have some down time in between cake orders. We started the week in snowsuits and ended it in bathing suits. (OK a little exaggerated with the bathing suits but I did end up sporting flip flops and short sleeves for two days so that's close enough.) Monday brought the first snow of the year and I have never seen a 2 year old so pumped about SNOW!!! This was her first REAL snow that she was able to actually play in and I think I may have been more excited then her. I have to say that this was one of the highlights of my week. At first glance she seemed to be a little put off by the the cold white stuff, but that lasted only a second and before long both she and I were covered in it! The snow was perfect too. Perfect for building snowmen, playing in, sledding in and gone by the afternoon. PERFECT!

What's a snow day without homemade hot chocolate?!? Of course I did not have condensed milk on hand and I don't usually keep it in stock so I came up with my own quick version of this old fashioned favorite and it was really, really good!!

Here is my quickie recipe:

1/3 cup of cocoa

1/2 cup of sugar

1/3 cup water

*Whisk together on medium/high heat until almost at a boil then add 3 cups of milk and 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract. Heat to desired temperature and top with marshmallows!

YUMMY!!

Towards the end of the week the weather God's smiled down and we ended up having temperatures topping 80 degrees, CRAZY for February! So I decided that since the weather was AMAZING this would be a perfect opportunity to visit our local zoo. I recently made a baby shower safari cake and since then my daughter has been OBSESSED with zebra's, giraffe's and all things zoo related.

This was our second visit to this zoo and I had much higher hopes this time around. The first time we went I was unimpressed to put it mild. There had to be 10 different schools on field trips that day and it was insanely crowded. It was 120 degrees (or at least felt like it), the cages were gross and well it smelled like a zoo. Everyone I told my horrible zoo experience to assured me that I needed to go back and that it must have been an "off" day so I gave it another chance and I am so glad I did.

This time around there were NO field trips because it was winter time!! (HA!) The only people there were other mommies and their children. The cages were clean and the weather was great. It still smelled like a zoo but I guess that's not going to change. :)