One, two, three, four - let's have a thumb war!

Nowadays when the kids do after-dinner-art they seem to be incorporating books. The Baby is moving pretty fast with his reading. Even though he is only 6 he is currently reading at a third grade level - I think this is mostly because of the books that he's choosing. Right now his current obsession is the Stink by Megan McDonald - who is also the author of the popular Judy Moody books.

Stink is Judy Moody's younger brother and let me express that the selling point on these books was the fact that the kid's name is STINK, of course. How can a kid not want to pick that up?

The Baby just finished Stink: The Ultimate Thumb Wrestling Smackdown and you can guess what came next...my living room is now a Thumb Wrestling war zone.

As soon as that book was finished the kids started shredding paper to make custom thumb wrestlers - this was AFTER I explained that no, you can't use a sharpie to write on your thumb.

Like Beyblades, Pokemon or any custom fighting item the kids went full force in coming up with names, fighting tactics and abilities. They even made a custom thumb wrestler for *me* named...

...THE CUPCAKE! Do my boys know me or what.

So it was me vs. THE TORCH.

The Torch is a feisty little wrestler but in the end I stuck it out and won. Someone needs to make me a paper championship belt, just sayin'.

These are the keys you are looking for

My new house keys also start up the Death Star.

What's up Doc

Easter is not for another month but it can't get here fast enough. I love Easter, why I have no idea. It's not a particularly important day for our family - we aren't religious and the kids don't believe in the Easter bunny. In fact we no longer even have a yard so it's just me throwing a ton of eggs on a patch of grass. But I love all the cuteness and bunny-related things about Easter.

I saw these plastic treat bags at my local baking supply store and I had to have them.

I didn't want to fill them with orange candies and on the display they filled them with Chee-tos, I thought that was hilarious! Baked or regular, Chee-tos make a very nice orange alternative that is totally adorable. I'm going to bag up a bunch of these to eat with our Easter brunch!

Young Justice

Anything superhero related is a plus around here - but you can't pull anything over on the Baby, it has to be good.

One of our favorite shows to watch together is Young Justice, an animated series that focuses on DC Universe's young superheroes.

We enjoyed the series when it first aired on Cartoon Network and now the episodes are being released on dvd. All the episodes on this new release of Season 1, volume 3 just happened to be our favorite episodes!

One of my favorites is 'Terrors,' Superboy and Miss Martian acting as a sort of undercover crime fighting duo inside Belle Reve prison was fun to watch.

By far the Baby's favorite episode (even before we got the dvd) was 'Targets.' As you'll see in this clip, it's funny to see Superboy not quite...get...why everyone is wearing symbols on their chest. Hey, t-shirt cosplay is big here on earth, Superboy.



Also in this episode is one of the Baby's favorite moments, when Superboy assumes that his alias of 'Conner Kent' is an homage to Dr. Fate. You see, the Baby is a HUGE Dr. Fate fan.

And that's what brings this series full circle, it's a fun and renergized look at familiar characters in new and exciting situations. All the the hints at invested DC Universe characters, along with modern storylines make this series fun for comics fans of all ages!

Young Justice, Season 1 Volume 3

**full disclosure: Warner Brothers provided me with a copy of Young Justice: Season One V. 3 for review, all the opinions expressed are my own.

Pin the tail

My friend Nanette has loved Pinterest for a while now and I admit - it took me a while to get on the bandwagon. My main problem with it was that sure, people would pin things but they'd never follow through to the person's website to read the whole post or even attempt the project that they were pinning. As someone who gets pinned a lot for recipes, I found that annoying.

But I can see the fun in finding new things and wanting to do projects in the future. Well Nanette has a solution for that.
She decided to tackle a 'pin' a week and post the results each Monday calling the project: Pinteractive! She also extended the invitation for anyone who wants to participate, even offering up a badge for your blog. Great idea!

Go to Nanette's blog to read up on the project and get the free badge. Also check out the results of the first few weeks.

Feel free to follow me on Pinterest, be forewarned it's mostly Star Wars and pictures of ice cream parties. http://pinterest.com/justjennrecipes/

I'm all lost in the supermarket, I can no longer shop happily

Went to the market today. O.G. decided that checkout was the best time to scream that we probably had counterfeit money in our hands.

I think we're done shopping for the week.

I Like Big Bundts

The Busy Beaver Button Company is hosting their 1st Annual Golden Button award and they emailed me to say that my design was nominated for the People's Choice Award!


This button is near and dear to my baking heart because I made these for the Food Librarian's annual 30 bundt cakes in 30 days aka I Like Big Bundts! Whoever participated by making a bundt cake along with her on National Bundt Day was mailed this limited edition button. It was for bakers only...who like Big Bundts!!

It's awesome to be nominated and the button with the most votes wins! Please go here to vote for #7 "I Like Big Bundts" from now until Feb 23!

Milo & Olive

When baking bloggers go out to brunch, you can be sure the food is fabulous and the pastry case is stocked. And so it was when our Baking Posse went out to eat at Milo & Olive.

Milo & Olive is yet another amazing restaurant from the team from Rustic Canyon and Huckleberry. While they serve lunch and dinner - it was breakfast we were after.

The space is intimate but inviting. Read: it's small, yo. Be prepared to wait for a seat and if you don't like strangers - get used to it. All the seating is at rustic communal tables but you get a front row seat to the chefs bustling in the kitchen. As you sit and enjoy your meal you can watch new items come out of the kitchen and into the bakery case. It's mouthwatering.

Intended to just be a bakery, they opened up the place to seats and thank goodness - the food is fantastic. Seeing as how we are baking bloggers we HAD to try a few things from the pastry case...

Yes, this is how I order. If I'm ordering several items from a bakery case (which...I'm doing way too often) I always use my phone to 'write' things down, it makes it easier on the cashier/waiter. Then I just hand them my phone...
...that's the waiter looking at the order on my phone. This meal just got so meta.

We ordered a Sweet Cream Brioche, Apple Strudel, a Lemon Pound Cake (this was the favorite of our group) and of course I can't go anywhere without trying a donut and the Spicy Cake Donut was in fact quite cakey and covered with delicious cinnamon and sugar.

On top of all of this we left with a loaf of cheese bread, chocolate croissants and I grabbed a slice of freshly baked Lemon Meringue Pie. Do we like baked goods? Yeah, you could say that.

And that was just the pastries.

We also ordered Baked Farm Eggs which were tomato-y and good enough...had we only ordered that. But no. We ordered the Cheesy Eggs on Super Cheesy Toast.

These eggs, these eggs were life changing. Perfectly cooked soft scrambled eggs on the most amazing toast EVER- bread made in house of course - topped with a healthy serving of Parmigiano Reggiano. To die for. I'd go back for these again and again.

The food was fantastic and the company was even better. Pleasing food bloggers isn't easy but we all agreed that Milo & Olive is one of our new favorite places. I will definitely be back because the dinner menu sounds amazing.

Milo & Olive
2723 Wilshire Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90403

Oh little girl, there are times when I feel, I'd rather not be, the one behind the wheel

When I was a kid I had images of a dsytopian future - not of being repressed but the landscape of it all. Movies like Bladerunner and The Fifth Element made me dream of soaring towers and flying freeways. I'm sure those images are what made me decide to go to architecture school.

That dream almost came true with the construction of the 105 freeway, with it's 110 interchange soaring 130 feet above the ground. But that was it. After the completion of the freeway there were no more tall buildings, no more soaring interchanges. Where's my jetpack that I was promised??

So when the Metropolis II exhibit opened at LACMA it took me back to my childhood. A chaotic world all in toy form with soaring towers and crowded interchanges.

If you have kids that love cars and trains and all moving vehicles - this is the exhibit for you. And even if you don't have kids, as an adult you will be astounded by the detail and intricacy that went into this exhibit.

You can view the exhibit from two tiers - ground level puts you in the middle of it all but viewed from the top you can really see how elaborate and extremely functional it becomes.

1200 custom designed cars were made to circulate through the tiny city.

One worker stands in the middle to flip the switch on the hour to start the exhibit. Without fail the crowd oohs and aahs when the cars start their descent into the fake city.

Not that anyone loves traffic - but this is surely what my car looks like parked on the 405.

The place was packed with both kids and adults, marveling at the beauty of chaos.

The best thing about LACMA is their commitment to kids. In schools the arts are getting cut left and right, so on the weekends I try to make it a priority to incorporate some sort of artistic/design/cultural activity.

NextGen at LACMA is the nation's only free youth membership program. And when the kids sign up they get a free adult ticket to the museum for the day!

Not only do you get to see the permanent collection but special exhibits as well! NextGen is a fantastic way to get kids interested in the arts and promote the amazing collections in LACMA. With a price like free you can't go wrong.

**Keep in mind Metropolis II at LACMA only runs at certain times:
Fridays: 12:30–1:30 pm; 2:30–3:30 pm; 4:30–5:30 pm; 6:30–7:30 pm
Weekends: 11:30 am–12:30 pm; 1:30–2:30 pm; 3:30–4:30 pm; 5:30–6:30 pm

I ain't got nothing but love babe, eight days a week

People often ask how I meal plan. I usually start by 'shopping' in my own pantry and seeing what ingredients I have or need to use up. Then I coupon like crazy and go to the market(s) in order to try to stock up for two weeks worth of meals. In between I might buy something I forgot or go to the farmer's market.

I plan by the week. Usually three meals that I'm going to make for sure, leaving the rest of the days open to leftovers or possibly going out. There are always at least two or three vegetarian meals. They are more cost effective, healthier and usually my kids don't notice or mind.

A major help is writing things down. Did you know Martha Stewart has a line of home office products at Staples? Man, is it dangerous. Planning things out is so much nicer when things are pretty.

I saw that she had a removable weekly planner - not only can you dry erase on it but it won't gum up whatever surface you stick it to. Perfect! I'm sure it's supposed to be used for life planning but I immediately thought it'd be great to keep track of my weekly cooking.

I also bought some small velcro fasteners and a dry erase pen. The pen is retractable so there's no losing/looking/fooling with pen caps, you know what I'm sayin'? We're busy people, we don't have time for pen caps!!

Then stuck one side to the pen and the other to the fridge.

That way I'm never rummaging through drawers looking for it. (My pet peeve.)

This whole set up makes weekly meal planning easy, inspiring and changeable. Off to start on dinner...