Parent teacher conferences are always a treat. And I mean that in the most sarcastic way possible. It’s not that I don’t enjoy meeting the parents, I do, and it is quite the window into the student’s life. But, most of the parents who show up are the parent of your kids who are performing well and you really don’t need much to say to them other than I really like your kid, they are doing well. And every now and then if they are too quiet you say you wish they would participate more in class. But my favorite of all the parents who do show up are those of students who are smart enough, but are performing badly because they are going to become a professional athlete.

If you are a teacher of any grade above 5th grade you are probably smiling along with this. These are the parents that tell you that their kid couldn’t do the work (not because it was too hard) but because he had practice or was doing extra workouts so that he could become the next big thing in whatever sport. So they didn’t really care that Bobby or Billy or fill in the blanks was getting C’s or D’s as long as he wasn’t going to fail. Great.

Many of my students were on elite teams…today I think they call them select. Every time I turn around it gets called something new. But basically you shell out thousands of dollars, drag your kid (and pay for that too) to games all over the place to play teams and in tournaments in hopes that your kid can develop their skills against the better kids. They aren’t better players…they are players whos parent’s checks cleared. I can tell you that I saw many a kid on elite hockey that didn’t deserve to be there and plenty of house league hockey players who could out skate those elite players any day. It’s really about status for a lot of these parents. They want to say my kid plays elite hockey. Or baseball or tennis…etc. and wear the matching jackets, hats and fun stuff like that. I’m here to tell you that if your kid has genuine talent then they will get noticed wherever they play.

Yesterday I found out that one of my former students will be playing in the MLB for the Washington Nationals. I couldn’t be more proud and very happy for his wonderful family. For the record I am just as proud for my former student who always wanted to weld stuff (and did) and is now happy as a welder. Doing what you love and getting paid for that is amazing, whether you are an athlete or not. But what is special about this student is that he did well as an athlete and a student. He was disciplined in both academics and sports. And that I think is also a key. He played for his high school. He went to community college and finished out at a four year university. He was first discovered playing high school baseball. But he had talent and didn’t need to pay out thousands of dollars to get notice. He got noticed because he could play. And he always did his homework. Good luck to you B…I might actually start to watch baseball now.

If you kids are in any type of sport or activity, please make sure that their academics come first. If they homework starts to get too much, perhaps your child can’t balance both…and the sport or activity is what should take the back burner.

To encourage your kids to do their homework, why not a little afternoon snack. These cookies were inspired by a reader who interacts with me on my Facebook page and asked if I had done anything with the Hersey’s Cookies and Cream Drops. I told her that I used them in cookies but really, I think I just ate them plain. I decided to put them into cookies for real this time. These are basic cookies with crushed up Double Stuffed Oreo Cookies in them along with the Cookies and Cream Drops. If you are a cookies and cream fan you will enjoy them. I like the best warm, so heat them up for a couple seconds in your microwave before you serve just to get the drops a little melty. And kids…study!!!!

Cookies and Cream Cookies

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. Baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
10 Double Stuff Oreos
½ tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 package Hersey’s Cookie and Cream Drops

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Using a stand mixer, cream butter, sugar, and vanilla extract together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add the Oreo Cookies and mix until the cookies are just left in small pieces.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

With the mixer on low speed, add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix until fully incorporated.

Fold in the Cookies and Cream Drops and try to distribute them evenly (ha).

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

I’ll probably get my Marshmallow Peep Fan Club Membership revoked (yes, I really belong) for chopping up Peeps, but I wanted to see kind of an experiment of sorts.

There are three types of Peep eaters: Number one, the plain Peep eater who eats them fresh out of the container no problem. Number two is the Peep hater who claims some ridiculous thing about them being too sweet. And Number three, my category, those of us who love the stale Peep.

My poor mother each year would have to by my Peeps early and poke a hole in the side of the containers so that by the time Easter did come around they would be properly ready. And if they weren’t, I wasn’t eating them.

So I kind of wanted to put them in ice cream to see if freezing them would have the same effect of sorts as making them stale. Not entirely, though I can say I like frozen Peeps now over fresh ones still. So in a way my little experiment works.

My friend thought it was odd I was using chocolate milk instead of just milk. But I figured I was making chocolate ice cream so why not start with that. Mine came from a local dairy and is super thick. If you can’t get good chocolate milk, or one you really like, just use whole milk and add an extra tsp. of cocoa powder and an extra ¼ cup of sugar to the mix and you should be good to go.

This is a thick, creamy, rich, and yes, sweet ice cream. There are Peeps in there after all…and marshmallows melted into the ice cream custard itself.

So what Peep category do you fall into?

Milk Chocolate Marshmallow Peep Ice Cream

8 ounces milk chocolate chips
1 cup chocolate milk (try and find the good stuff, not like Quick)
2 cups heavy whipping cream (I use a kind that is 40%)
¼ cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
1 ½ tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup mini marshmallows
2 egg yolks
6 Peeps Candy, chopped into piece
2 Chocolate Covered Peeps Candy, chopped into pieces

In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, warm the milk, sugar, marshmallow and salt together. When the marshmallows have almost melted, continue to the next step.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks.

Temper the egg yolks by slowly pouring the milk mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula, this will take about 3-4 minutes.

Place chocolate chips into a large bowl. Pour the custard through the strainer over the milk chocolate, and then stir until the chocolate is melted. Add the cocoa powder and vanilla extract and still until completely incorporated and smooth.

Pour custard through a strainer one last time into an air tight container. Let chill in fridge for at least 10 hours, if not overnight. The mixture will be very thick, I had to scoop mine out…it didn’t pour into the machine.

Then follow your ice cream machine manufactures instructions for churning ice cream in your machine. After the ice cream has churned, fold in the Peep pieces. Place into an air tight freezer safe container and let it freeze at least another 4 hours.

A friend sent me a blog link back in September 2010 and told me to take a look that she was disheartened. It was a then 17 year old girl desperately trying to get thin. Now I don’t mean she is obese or overweight to begin with and wanting to lose weight, I mean she wanted to get thin, thin. She was hoping for at least a size 1 if not smaller. Her blog was plastered with what she called motivational pictures of girls with their bones sticking through their bodies. She wrote hate posts to herself almost daily for eating. She would go days with just drinking black coffee and a few bites of Life cereal. She constantly wrote how much better life would be if she could just be her version of thin. She truly and honestly believed that her life would be better.

In January she met her goal, I’m pretty sure her body is the size of my leg…in fact, my leg might be bigger. Was she happy? No, in fact she is severely depressed. Because low and behold her life is not any better than it was when she weighed 7 pounds more. If you don’t like who you are at a size 20, or a 12. You are most likely not going to like yourself at a size 2 (or 1 in this case). Self-worth is not a number. It’s understanding that you have something to offer the world. We all do.

Now I won’t lie, I would certainly like to drop a few, getting divorced and then going back on large amounts of Prednisone have not been awesome in the weight department. But having more padding doesn’t make me a different person than who I was. It means my jeans are too darn tight. I have just as much to offer at my current size than my former size. And when I am off my meds, I will get back to that size again. No rush, because again, I know my world isn’t suddenly more awesome because of it. Though I do skate faster with less weight…that’s just common sense. And I am certainly not saying don’t lose weight if that is what you want. What I am saying, is that if you don’t love yourself regardless of what size or what job or whatever you are in your life…the number on the scale isn’t going change that. Start liking yourself people!

Let’s take Kirstie Alley for example; she started Dancing with the Stars this week (hangs head in shame…yes I watch that show). First off, I had no idea she was 60 years old, which I think she looks fantastic for being that age. And second, as we all know thanks to the media’s constant reports of what they guess is her current weight, that she is a thick woman. And that thick 60 year old woman went out and that dance floor and was pretty darn good. I was very impressed. Not that she could dance at that size or that age…mostly just because she was good at it. I have learned from far too many Zumba classes that I have the grace of Bambi on ice. I thought the Karate Kid was good too…except his hair looks off to me; does it look off to you? My point being (not the karate kid part) is that she is moving her body and you can tell she is really feeling good about herself, and making her more attractive.

When I was a Weight Watcher receptionist and leader and people would tell me that they didn’t want to buy nicer clothing until they got to goal weight I would advise them against that. I would tell them that if they dressed sloppy along their journey then they would not feel good about themselves and then in return that would reflect in their weight loss. Plus I always found that the minute I bought the expensive jeans my body somehow knew this and would drop a whole size just to spite me. The most stunning woman I know is not what I think most people would think of traditional beauty. I met her first at book club. She is very tall, and we will just say not waif-like. But she dresses immaculate and always very put together and gives off an air of confidence. And as we have discussed on here before, confidence goes a lot further than calling yourself fat and throwing up what you eat or not eating at all.

I’m sure that poor girl who runs that blog would never dream of touching my cookie bars, which is very sad because they went over really well. Really well. I tried them on out both the bff and some referees. In fact, it was the refs who named the bar…well they said Peabody Mud Bars…I added the double layer part just so you would know it’s a two parter. The first layer is a chocolate cookie with malted milk (use Ovaltine if you can’t find regular malted milk) with milk chocolate chips. The top layer is a mocha layer with toffee pieces and more milk chocolate chips. Like I said, these went over very well. Yes, they take a little time, but the more than happy expressions on the refs faces are worth the effort. Remember, baked goods say love.

Bake yourself a treat. You deserve it. You are a great person just as you are.

Peabody’s Double Layer Mud Bars

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Malt Layer:

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup brown sugar, loosely packed
¼ cup malted milk powder
2 TBSP chocolate syrup (or like hot fudge)
1 egg yolk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp. Baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Grease and flour a 9-x-13-inch pan, or use baking spray.

Using a stand mixer, cream butter, malted milk, chocolate syrup, vanilla, and sugar together.

Beat in egg yolk and mix until fully combined.

Add the flour, baking soda, and salt with the mixer on low speed. Mix until fully combined.

Fold in chocolate chips.

Spread this layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. You may need to wet your hands a little to prevent the dough to stick to your hands. In this case, your hands work way better than a spatula. The dough will be thin because another layer is going on top.

Mocha-Toffee Layer:

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup brown sugar, loosely packed
1 egg
1 tsp. instant coffee (I used Via)
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder
½ tsp. baking soda
Pinch of salt
¾ cup toffee pieces
½ cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375F.

Grease and flour a 9-x-13-inch pan, or use baking spray.

Using a stand mixer, cream butter and sugars together.

Beat in egg, coffee, vanilla, and cocoa powder until fully combined.

Add the flour, baking soda, and salt with the mixer on low speed. Mix until fully combined.

Fold in chocolate chips and toffee pieces.

Spread this layer over the top of the Malted Chocolate Layer. You may need to wet your hands a little to prevent the dough to stick to your hands. In this case, your hands work way better than a spatula.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. You want them to be a little gooey but not too wet, a knife should come out clean.

Lately there has been much talk about how the cupcake is passé. That they are on their way out and pie will be in. Personally, cake beats pie in my book any day. Do I think they are on their way out? Well, maybe the $4 ones from cutesy boutique cupcake shops yes, but not from your own home. Does anything say love more than a homemade baked good? And a portable one at that?

Think back to your childhood memories, many of mine are tied to delicious meals my mother made and more importantly her baked goods. Nothing was more exciting to me than the first day of snow for each winter. My mother had a tradition where she would bake all day. I knew I would be getting off the school bus, running through the snow and bursting into a house filled with smells of freshly baked goods. A house filled with smells of love. My favorite were the orange rolls, as she only made them twice a year: the first snow and Christmas. Anyone can buy you something, but baking something for someone or getting something baked for you really shows love. It shows you took the time to think about what to make them. The time to make them. And of course, hopefully the time to share that baked good with them. And of course have them properly thank you in return.

When my blog crush posted a couple days ago One Bowl Vanilla Cupcakes for Two, I thought what a great idea! Number one portion control, which this gal needs after those fritters. And number two, what fun would it be to make a quick two cupcakes to share with your loved one…even if you are just having a grilled cheese that night for dinner; a cupcake at the end of the meal makes it better. Makes you feel more loved.

I of course could not make the exact kind of cupcake that How Sweet It Is did but loved me the concept so I altered the recipe a little, using self-rising flour as well as adding some orange and less vanilla and using buttermilk instead. These are especially great for the fact that you don’t have to use a mixer…though if you want to make frosting (which of course I did) you do have to turn on the mixer. This recipe makes exactly two cupcakes. Two is definitely portion control, especially when you share the other one. So no need to waste hours at the gym working it off. Now if you tend to have more than one person you want to share your cupcakes with, my guess is that these make about six minis.

So I ladies and gentleman I say that the cupcake is more than here to stay and will be around for a long, long time. And a homemade cupcake is even better. The next time you got to buy something for someone, stop yourself and make something for them instead (it says so much more). Unless you really do suck at it. Like I personally would so not knit anyone a sweater…that would just be mean, and ugly, and misshapen, and….you get the point.

So what say you blog readers…is the cupcake on its way out?

Orange Cupcakes for Two

1 egg white
3 TBSP granulated sugar
2 TBSP unsalted butter, melted
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup self- rising flour
1/2 TBSP buttermilk
1 TBSP orange juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with 2 liners.

In a bowl, add egg white and sugar and whisk until combined.

Add in vanilla and melted butter and stir until mixed.

Add flour and stir until smooth.

Stir in buttermilk and orange juice and mix until smooth.

Divide batter equally between the 2 cupcake liners.

Bake at 350 for 13-16 minutes, or until cake is set. Let cool completely, then frost as desired (who doesn’t desire this?) *The original recipe said 10-12 minutes but mine were nowhere near close to done, so just watch them.

Cupcakes inspired by How Sweet It Is

Orange Buttercream
4 TBSP unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
3 TBSP orange juice (you might need more to thin)
On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat ingredients until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency.