Lessons in Baking: Two More Rounds of Danishes

If I haven't said it before, Summer is an absolute dream baby, and now that I'm feeling much more myself, I've been trying to be a bit more productive during this maternity leave, so last week I decided I wanted to try making danishes again. I really wanted to get better at shaping them and also, the dough was kinda weird.

Well I tried again, also a raspberry cream cheese filling, but the dough turned out the same as last time - thick and almost impossible to shape. I had the exact same experience this time around as well (at least I'm consistent).

I ended up having a lot of the cream cheese filling left over, and it seemed a shame to just throw it away - and it had raw egg in it so it was going to need to be baked in some capacity. So the next day, I decided to try again.

This time, I decided to ditch the generic "sweet dough" I used before, and really looked up how to make danish-specific dough.

This made all the difference. It was still a little difficult to shape and work with, but I also was doing this inbetween cooking a homemade lentil soup and it had been a long day and I was exhausted. They turned out... interesting:

Pre-oven

Post-oven

...but really, I actually was quite happy with them because for one, I could see that if I rolled the dough out thinner, it would be a lot better, and also, the dough was a great success for a first try. It was light and flakey and I felt like it was great progress and I'm looking forward to perfecting it further.

Thanksgiving 2023

Well, family get togethers sure have taken a turn since Sophie and Enzo got to the age of playing together rather than side by side. It used to be poor Luca being bored by himself while moms managed the little toddlers, but now it's just full on chaos since they can all communicate and play together - and Summer isn't even a part of that mix yet!

We drove out to my mom's on Thanksgiving, and Sophie predictably fell asleep on the drive. She woke up just as we were turning into the neighborhood and wasn't even conscious as she sleepily said "I can't wait to see my cousins..."

We had delicious Thanksgiving fare, watched football, played Cock and Bull and tried to maintain our sanity between the circus that the kids became - our 4 plus 2 from Jim's side. At one point they were playing Candy Land and it was so cute watching Luca explain it to Sophie and watch Sophie try to understand. It was her turn for a card and she drew a double yellow (which as we know, a double anything is one of the best cards you could draw) but Sophie just said "Aww I wanted purple!" and believe me there was no strategy in that disappointment.

It was very hard to get Sophie to leave since Luca and Enzo were staying the night there and she just saw us as taking her away from them, but she fell asleep easily in the car and we had a long drive ahead of us.

The next day was our designated Christmas decorating day because I am a purist and there is NO CHRISTMAS UNTIL AFTER THANKSGIVING!! It is such a different experience now that Sophie gets it. She talks about Santa in the North Pole and what she wants him to bring her and it's just so, so exciting now (not that I didn't love Christmas enough already).

It's officially the season of the best holiday!

Happy Birthday Sophie

Our first born is now 3 years old!

A midweek birthday in November isn't easy to pull off, but I think even if she weren't so young and just doing whatever we told her that she would still have thought it was a great birthday.

It started with the Sunday before when we went to our usual marionette theater in Los Angeles with family to celebrate, this time with the added fun of having a birthday shoutout arranged for Sophie... and she hated it. Every time I've gone there's always been a few kids with the shoutout and of course this time Sophie was the only one, which wasn't great for her as a very introverted kid who takes awhile to warm up. She clung to me throughout the happy birthday song, wouldn't wear her golden crown, and I had to accept her gift from the marionette puppy on her behalf. Oh well!

She got so many great gifts from Auntie Sasha, Auntie KitKat and Gangy that day - Gabby's Dollhouse galore! I'm partly to blame, I love Gabby's Dollhouse so I'm happy to have those toys around and encouraged it.

Can you tell it was an ode to
Young Frankenstein?

MerCat!

Her gift from the marionette theater

Sophie went crazy with the googly eyes

And a bathtime MerCat!

Tuesday was Grandma Debbie's birthday, and Wednesday was Sophie's real birthday! I stayed up late decorating the house, changing out our letterboard and tabletop paper, etc etc. The night before, AJ had taken Sophie to the store to buy something for grandma Debbie's birthday gift, and apparently found a DJ Catnip that she loved (see: Gabby's Dollhouse) and AJ bought it for her but told her that she couldn't have it until her birthday. So we were woken up on Wednesday by Sophie running into our room saying "Daddy it's my birthday! I can have DJ Catnip now!" and that's how the day started.

We did her yearly photo with her llama, and it was the last milestone card of the set that Kayla sent me from the UK, and I'm never sure if these ones are meant for Sophie or for me...

Me on my 3rd birthday for comparison

She was in a great mood and I did drop off, which I don't normally do since I have Summer duty, but needed the big car to transport everything to daycare for her birthday party there that day - gift bags, cake and the balloons. She had such a great day at daycare - both reported by them and seen from the photos she sent me. 

They started outside but it was a pretty windy day
so they ended up moving it all inside

The struggle is real

Originally we weren't really planning to do anything in the evening other than have cake at home and open presents, but in the end my sisters and nephews ended up coming over, we ordered pizza and it was such a great time! I'm really glad we did it because Sophie had a blast running around with them and playing and to this day still says "I miss my cousins" from all the fun they had that night.

This girl also CLEANED UP. Heather brought a gift since they weren't there on Sunday (more Gabby's Dollhouse! I love it!) Auntie Ana had left a gift from the last time she was here, Auntie Iris dropped by a gift, Ms Ellie sent home a gift, grandma Debbie had gifts - Gabby's Dollhouse and playdough sets and a Minnie phone and a ukelele! Mama and dada had one (that I completely forgot about until AJ reminded me LOL) - Sophie's first bike! (Assuming balance bikes don't count, which I'm unsure of).

It was such a great birthday in the end, especially for one that happened on a Wednesday, and Sophie is still loving all her new gifts. Can't believe Christmas is just around the corner now - oof.