Giddy for my griddle

I'm sure this is going to sound silly to most of you reading this post but I have loved every minute of  it.  "It" is the griddle I purchased last week.  A long, long time ago my mom wanted to get us a griddle for christmas.  She was getting one for everyone else and I politely declined.  It must have been before I had children or Eric was too young for pancakes.   For whatever reason I didn't think I would use it.  Now eight years later I'm wondering why on earth I didn't get one sooner.  In the past I made pancakes in a skillet which could only cook one or two at a time and ended up taking forever.  The kids would call dibs on the pancake as I was pooring in the batter so they wouldn't have to wait so long.  Well I found one for half price at King Soopers of all places.  It took me about ten or fifteen minutes to make a mountain of pancakes.  Then I used it to make quesadillas for the kids and I made all three at the same time.  Awesome!! I warmed tortillas for breakfast burritos and cooked the bacon too. I felt so productive. I can't wait to make grilled cheese sandwhiches, all  five at the same time and I can't forget french toast either.  The one downfall is I have no cabinet space to store it.  I guess it can hang out with the bread maching and the food processor in the storage room in the basement.  I'm sure all of you moms out there own a griddle but if you don't you had better go get one soon.

August 19

I had an ultrasound today!  I wasn't positive of the information necessary to calculate my due date so we had been guesstimating when baby #4 would be here.  The good news is that he or she should arrive on August 19!  I was a few weeks off.  When I did the math it was the very end of August.  Dean and I wanted to find out the gender of our other kids but decided that since we have clothes for both boys and girls it would be fun to keep this one a surprise.  The doctor said everything looked good so far.  I just hope and pray it stays that way. 

Chicken Toes???

I love the funny things that come out of kids mouths.  This morning I was loading the dishwasher while some blueberry muffins baked.  Katie came in and crawled up on the stove to watch.  I thought she was trying to turn the knobs so I told her that her buns would get burned if she touched them.  Her response to me was "I don't want to touch those (the knobs) because my little toes will turn to chicken". 

Monkey Toes

The recipe I have calls them Monkey Toes, they're also known as monkey bread or pull apart bread or bubble bread, but my family and I prefer monkey toes.  This recipe is super yummy and easy.  I put the boys to work Sunday night making them.  While Eric cut up one can of biscuits Charles dunked them in cinnamon and sugar and then they traded jobs on the other can.  Here's the recipe:

Monkey Toes

2 cans refrigerated bisbuit dough (7.5 oz)

1/2 c. sugar

1tsp. cinnamon

1/2 stick butter

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 Tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cut each biscuit into 4 pieces (a pizza cutter works great for this).  Combine the sugar and cinnamon mixture in a plastic zippered bag.  Shake the biscuit pieces, a few at a time, in the cinnamon mixture.  Place pieces in a well greased bundt pan.  Melt the butter and brown sugar in a saucepan or in the microwave then add vanilla.  Stir; spoon mixture over biscuits.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until puffed and golden.  Turn out shortly after removing from the oven or the gooey butter and suger mixture will stick to the pan.