Bubbe’s Little Helper

This morning was my big food shopping day for Thanksgiving. I picked-up the butterflied turkey and (hopefully) all the items needed to prepare the rest of our Thanksgiving feast.

Then I had a little serious cuddle time with Little Lucy. We were obviously discussing the serious matters of the day. At three months, Lucy is very happy and is always smiling and is very responsive to our smiles and songs and funny voices. Oh, goodness, we adults do make such fools of ourselves in front of babies.

But this afternoon, Lisa, Lenny and Lucy went out on errands, DT went out on errands and Leo and I were left to enjoy a quiet afternoon doing just what we pleased.

First we arranged a bunch of sticks, leaves, berries and flowers (that I brought home from New Seasons Market) into a rustic fall floral ensemble. We can also do weddings and bar mitzvah flower arrangements, if you would like to give us a call.

Next up - making Nutella rolls... like cinnamon rolls, except with Nutella filling and instead of bread dough, I used a sheet of puff pastry, available frozen from a local bakery. I was totally winging-it after seeing something like this once on the internet... but could not exactly recall the instructions. Whatever. It was Nutella and puff pastry - how bad could it be? Here are before and after photos of a very happy camper:

Just out of the oven

Yes, Leo wore his pj's all day.

I was pretty impressed with the cooking skills of a 3 year old toddler! Leo could spread a little flour on the cutting board and roll the dough out to a decent square-ish shape. I had to spread the Nutella filling, but Leo was able to roll the dough (jelly-roll style). I sliced the roll and Leo placed the circles into a pan that he had buttered himself! The hard part was waiting for the rolls to cool before he could dive-in. Goodness, he was so pleased with himself and he had every right - he did a great job!

Later we played dominos and built a barn out of Magna-Tiles. Doesn't every barn house three horses, a chipmunk, a mandrill family, a beagle and a kangaroo?

After all our work and play, it was time for clean up. Bubbe was tired, so Little Leo took over.

No kitchen duty for me tonight. Leo finally put on some pants, and the kids took us to dinner at Cornelius Pass Roadhouse. Known around these parts as CPR, this pub is one of the many properties operated by the McMenamin family. They brew their own beers, distill their own spirits and make a mean burger.

And super crispy fish & chips. Tots! Thanks, Lenny & Lisa.

Until my next update, I remain, your grandmotherly correspondent.