Paczki with the King

It is a big day around here today.  Like Christmas Eve big.  Huge anticipation big!  It's Paczki Eve!!!  (Or Fat Tuesday Eve, whatever)  My crew waits MONTHS for tomorrow to come around.   Their Polish blood is all revved up and ready to go!  So this morning we set out to go and track down our paczki!

 

You can't see it, but she has her Little Mermaid shirt on underneath.  And she begged me to wear mine.  And when she noticed I was wearing a bandana today she of course needed one then, too.  I adore her

Getting ready to head out - everyone say Paczki!

We arrived at GM Paris Bakery, Inc. (For those of you that have asked, other than going to Hammtramck, which I don't feel lis a good idea with just me and the kiddos, this bakery is the most authentic I've found in the area when it comes to paczki)

The smell!!!

They made it home!  Now we wait....

In the meantime, Nita apparently didn't want my two idle kiddos to get into too much trouble today so she left us quite the clue...

My favorite fumbling Detectives,

So you traced me to New Hampshire – big deal!  I’m on to bigger and better things this week!  That’s right – bigger and better.  Like hanging out in the state that is birthplace to a King.  And not just any King – The King.  The King of Rock and Roll.  It’s got me “All Shook Up!”

While you might remember that The King (his name is Elvis in case you forgot.  I don’t know HOW you could, though.  He’s a hunka hunka burnin’ love!) made his home eventually in Graceland (that’s in Tennessee, remember?) he was actually born in the state where I am right now in the town called Tupelo.  Elvis lived in this state until he was 13 and you could say that it had a strong influence on his future music career.  You see, this state is also known as the birthplace of the Blues, more specifically the Delta Blues.  Another native son, of my hideout who happens to be a King!  (I fit right in with all this royalty) B.B. King is said to be the father of the Blues.  I’m having quite the time enjoying music from both Mr. King and The King while I stay safely tucked away on the Delta.  It’s not like you’re going to catch me or anything!

And since I hear that you’re home from school today I thought I’d send you something that The King would love to fill your time.  It’s been a while since you’ve gotten to play in the kitchen all together.  Elvis Presley was known for his love of peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwiches so I came across this bread recipe that gives you the best of all of those.  Make it, munch on it, and think of my always being one step ahead of you!  HA HA HA HA HA

Nita

PS – You may ask the chief to pull up some songs by Elvis Presley and B.B. King while you’re baking.  Maybe it’ll trigger a memory of my state.  Nah!  Ha!

She sent us a recipe to make Elvis Banana Bread

So we got out our ingredients and got down to it

Um, she could so be me in this picture it's scary

Mashing the bananas

And stirring them in

Then the chocolate chips

They had quite the time doing the bacon.  I demonstrated the first and they did the rest

Lunch break!  On our way back from the bakery we made a quick grocery stop and then I let Noah cash in one of his pizza coupons to Pizza Hut since he told me "Mom, I'm not going to eat the whole pizza and I'll give half to Mikayla if we can go get it today."  OK, way out of my way driving, but super sweet big brother points earned that one

While Kayla finished up lunch Noah requested we make more monster tongues (see yesterday's post) in a blue variety...  I told him sure, he could do them all on his own :)

We decided four pieces of bacon may be a little too much for the bread so Noah took the extra off my hands.  I'm sure it was such a sacrifice on his part.  The boy has Kosakowski blood, he could eat nothing but bacon.

The rest was for the bread, though

The King would be proud!

And so were these two

We finished it up just in time to pull the monster tongues out of the fridge

Which they of course also had to taste test.  They may explode after all they've eaten today...

The kids were involved in a pretty epic game of "Flood" this afternoon (sometimes it's better if I just don't ask,...)  I used the time to catch up on a few loads of laundry, restock my supply of Sprinkle Waffles sticks (the kids LOVE these for breakfast and NJ in his lunch.  Had to get rid of that one over ripe banana somehow!) and tried this recipe for Crazy Dough.  I have to make pizza dough later in the week and have been wanting to try this, so we'll see.  

A dinner where I got to use my new crock pot!  (Mikayla has been more excited than I have about this)  I made Creamy Italian Crock Pot Chicken.  It got a "we'd eat this again" rating, but no overwhelming "woo hoo".  We did of course after dinner taste test our banana bread.  And while everyone liked it, I don't think I'd make it again.  (Gee thanks, Nita)  Grant said the banana and chocolate flavor totally overwhelmed the peanut butter and I baked it WAY longer than the recipe said - ours was still liquid in the middle after 45 minutes. Ah well, maybe The King would've enjoyed it more than we did.

Waffle sticks - yum

We have friends coming over in the morning for a paczki eating party and playtime :)  And I've got a Mardi Gras recipe on tap as well.  And it might be time to play the music, light the lights and get things started around here with Nita.  (5 bonus points for the first person who can figure that one out!)  So until then...