Sophia's Bakery

Sophia 1 Day Old

  I have one daughter.  5 children and only one beautiful little girl that is not so little any more.  I don't know if it is a blessing or a curse to her that she is the eldest, but I think it is just perfect!! Bright, innovative, smart, funny and driven my daughter is the sort that dreams are made of.  I know, I know, I should knock on wood and hope everything doesn't spiral out of control because I am praising her, but honestly I couldn't be more proud of her.  She is 15 and she has a dream to be a Baker.  Which warms my heart and excites me because I love food so much!!!

2 Months Old

   Sophia has always been full of fire and adventure.  When she was little, even now, she was always curious about food and willing to eat anything we put on her plate.  On one occasion she got a little feisty about not getting enough "bites" from her father's plate, took it upon herself to grab some and stuff it in her mouth before we could warn her that she was currently ingesting a roasted chili pepper!! Well as luck would have it, she chewed it up, had a little beaded sweat on her brow, and said yum!! I knew then that the food world would be good to her.  To this day she loves spicy food and doesn't shy away even when it seems a bit to much for others.
   Throughout her life I have attempted to bake and cook with my daughter (all of my kids really).  In some way I hope to instill the love of food that my mother set deep into my soul.  There is just something heartwarming and beautiful about creating something with your hands and your heart to share with other people.  Food always seems to be a winner.  Even though the actual edible treat doesn't last forever, the loving memory of it will always stick with you.  And when you only make certain things, like delicious Grandma's Snickerdoodles, at Christmas time, it makes the season seem that much more exciting knowing they are on their way.

2 Years Old

4 Years Old

  I guess a little something has stuck with Sophia.  Even if she doesn't think it comes from me, I like to think there's a little bit more of me inside of her than her scary identical looks.  At the beginning of High School, just 3 short years ago, she headed in full force with the intention of becoming an engineer like her father.  A profitable and noble job as any I suppose but in my opinion seems boring as hell!! Someone has to do it though.  Sophia has the brains and the sense to do such a job.  All Honors classes, all good grades, quickly on her way to a stellar graduation. And then she started baking.  I suppose it was helping her step mom keep up with dinners, or maybe just creating little snacks here and there for herself, but I like to think in a small way it was her inner desire to create something amazing that came from me.  But she has since changed her outlook on her future and decided that she would like to bake!!
I am crazy excited for this!! She has stepped forward in a direction I think that most kids her age are afraid to go.  She has created a Tumblr account, a Facebook account and a new Blog all to promote herself and her baking.  She self promotes through all of these venues and word seems to be spreading fast.  This last year in school she was creating tasty little treats for her schoolmates and selling them at reasonable prices, always selling out quickly!!! I think this really helped spurr her desire to do it on a larger scale.  This summer she even made a bunch of treats for a friends Bat mitzvah, employed by the mother, and she was a total hit!  I believe this really was a great boost to her confidence that she can in fact do anything she sets her mind to.

Letting her brothers help her Christmas 2012

  Like so many of us who love to bake, Sophia finds a lot of inspiration from Pinterest and she always executes and shows her treats off in a gorgeous manner.  At only 15, with fire and determination in her beautiful heart I truly believe that my little girl is growing up fast and headed forward in a direction that is only going to bring her joy in her life to come.  This really is a moment I can say the sky is not the limit, because I think she is well on her way past there already!!! Please check her out, support her efforts and watch this awesome girl make something amazing of her life.  Maybe one day you'll be eating in her bakery and remembering the 1st time you saw her embarrassing pictures all over a blog and smile to yourself.

Baked with Love

Fresh Fruit Crumble

In a recent attempt to make my family healthier, I have been purchasing more fresh fruit and trying inventive ways to get it into their bodies.  Apples and cuties are a staple in our diets, but I have been attempting to branch out.  A while back I purchased a large container of Blueberries from Raleys on a special $5 Monday deal.  My kids were NOT excited to eat those fresh blueberries as a tasty little snack as I had hoped.  One twin even commented that they were a "weird little fruit" and so I stuffed them into the freezer before they went bad and decided I would eventually find a use for them.
Like an internet supermom I searched the web over for various uses.  I am sure there are plenty of moms out there with the same problem.  Wanting our families to be healthy but happy at the same time can sometimes be a challenge in this fast food world.  Last time I checked Chicken Nuggets from the Golden arches didn't exactly rank up there in the health department as much as they're a kid friendly favorite.
Often times, when I am scouring the internet, I am kicked back to the wonderful site AllRecipes. I think a lot of people find little gems here, but I really hit the jackpot when looking for blueberry goodies.  Who doesn't LOVE the idea of anything that begins with the word Overnight???

  I am not really a breakfast eater (I know it is "the most important meal of the day"). I do not care for eggs, I don't eat syrup really, and I just find cooking in the morning to be an overwhelming task when I have so many other things to do in the day.  But when I found this recipe, Overnight Blueberry French Toast, my family did not let up until I agreed to make it.  It was an appealing idea to me because of the "overnight" but little did I know, it was more work than I thought.
I must admit that this recipe wasn't diffucult, as much as time consuming.  I read all of the reviews on the bottom, I suggest you do as well there's some great tips, and I surged forth in creating this meal.  Now as I stated before, this meal was an Overnight journey, meaning all the preparation is done the night before you are actually going to eat it (I find these kinds of recipes are best for Christmas when you have less time the day of) and the cooking is left up to your oven in the morning while you relax enjoying your Starbucks.

I simply cream cheesed my french bread, tossed in those fresh blueberries (even though they were still frozen), mixed up the eggs, got it all situated into a baking dish and threw it in the fridge.  When morning came, I popped that bad boy in the fridge, made the suggested fresh blueberry syrup while it baked and listened to my family buzz about the glorious smells that were coming from the kitchen.  Those "weird little fruits" weren't so strange anymore!!!
The finished product, well lets just say it turned out better than I could have ever imagined and I actually ate breakfast, and enjoyed it, eggs and all.