Soft Rock

One of our friends (Thanks Zarina!) recently gave Freida an itty-bitty guitar, and while she's now just old enough to appreciate the string variety, I would love to have happened upon this stuffed pillow version when she was just learning to stand and obsessed with the real guitars in the house. For now she's been having a blast practicing strumming and plucking at the acrylic 4 string guitar, but I'm secretly planning an intervention - I'd love to order some wooden Ukuleles for all of us to learn together this summer...

But back to the super-rad find - electric guitar pillows! How seriously rock 'n roll these would be strewn across the bed or couch in a boy's room, or residing lonely on a nursery rocking chair, or even claiming some space on the family room sofa! Soft and colorful, these stuffed guitar pillows are screaming for some soft-rock love songs...

Guitar Pillow, by Gabriela Pardo $55

(Those of you reading from Israel can find this and other designs by Gabriela Pardo and other posh and modern baby gear at a new Tel-Aviv shoppe called Peanuts.)

Guest Post: Pleasant Cakes

A friend of mine has a cake decorating company I've been meaning to blog about for some time now. When I caught glimpse of her super-adorable Shalach Manos photos via Facebook, I knew this was the right venue to debut her services to the Freidafroo masses! Chani Levine started a Kosher cake decorating business a few years ago, and her incredibly adorable cake designs totally caught my eye! You gotta head over to the Pleasant Cakes Facebook Page to check out the rest of her awesome designs (especially the Patron Cake, Boy's 1st Birthday Cake, Fancy Orchid Cake, Jersey Cake, and Cupcake Bouquet)!

Pleasant Cakes services the greater Los Angeles area, so if you are here in California and looking to up the fun-factor at your party, add a super-special element to any get-together, or simply spruce up special occasion, contact Chani: PleasantCakes@gmail.com/ 310.254.8992

Luckily for us, she graciously agreed to share some of her creativity today with all of us in a fun and easy Sushi Cupcakes DIY Tutorial! Thanks Chani!!

One of the best parts on Purim is coming up with fun ideas for Shalach Manos. This year I decided to put my love for cake decorating and make mini cupcakes that look like rolls of sushi.

What amazes me the most is how easily you can take something as simple as a cupcake and transform it into something completely different with just a few ingredients.  120 mini cupcakes, 1 pound of butter cream icing, 3 containers of white sprinkles, 3 bags of gummy fish, and 15 sushi containers later and I was on my way. It took me a while to make, but it was lots of fun and pretty impossible to mess up which for me is the best part being a perfectionist and all. I must confess though that I did spend an a little more time then needed making sure every sprinkle was placed perfectly on the cupcake. Even those with little or no decorating experience can master these. It does not require any special decorating tool or technique to make them. You can make the mini cupcakes any flavor you would like. I made them yellow cake because I did not want the dark cupcake peaking through the icing. I used white mini cupcake holders, but dark green ones will work just as well as the seaweed but might be harder to find. Put a thin layer of butter cream icing to cover the top of the cupcakes. Dip or sprinkle cupcakes with white sprinkles for the sushi "rice". You can get kosher white sprinkles at most of your cake decorating supply stores such as Michaels or Joannes.  For those that like the taste of coconut, you can also use shredded coconut in place of the white sprinkles for a cheaper option. Cut up gummy fish into tiny pieces and use the icing to "glue" the pieces onto the top of the cupcakes. I also put some whole gummy fish on the tops as well for a little extra pop. I bought 15 sushi containers from a sushi restaurant for 25 cents each, but you can also buy them in bulk at Sams club. I finished it off with a pair of chopsticks taped to the top of the container and it was done.

Its great for parties, gifts, or to make as a fun food craft with children.

Pops for Purim

While I wanted to teach Freida the concept of Shalach Manos, I also felt it was a bit extraneous for a 2 year old to be giving out a basket of food to her teeny-tiny friends. I decided to go with giving over the general idea of distributing treats to your friends; simply the concept of "giving". I can imagine it would be a bit stressful if Freida were to receive heaps of sweets on Purim day, so I went with something that at least I'd be okay getting for my little bug: one little lollipop.

I wish I could say that I'm a creative genius - fact is though, I'm not that awesome. Found these online last year around Valentines day over at DesignMom who found this incredibly hot idea on a blog called 24-7-365. So cheers to those super-moms who made my little girl's first Purim favors this adorable! Naturally, I wanted to go with a Yummy Earth Organic sucker, or at least the Trade Joe's variety, but the wrapper was too big and blocked her face so I had to resort to the sugar-laden, dye-induced Dumdum...(I guess not everything can work out perfect).

The project cost about $4 (for 20) at a photo printing machine in a local pharmacy + $2 for the pops. Bingo! The best part is the fact that I printed plenty of extras so she has something to give to anyone and everyone all Purim long (though initially I just made them for her to give out to her school friends at Esther's Gan). The whole think took about 20 minutes. I took a picture of Freida with her arm outstretched in a fist, printed it with some text, used an exacto knife to cut a slit at the top of the fist and at the bottom, and slid the lolly through. Plus, the shock factor when kids look at the thing is the most fun part. :)

Wishing you all a Purim brimming with joy and heaps of genuine fun! Have a super-awesome Purim weekend!

P.S. You can easily turn this whole concept into a "real" Shalach Manos by just glueing the photo to a juice box, or a bag of chips/popcorn etc.

Hamantaschen: Reinvented

I have to admit it, I was always quite the Hamantaschen-hater. Never really had digs for this triangular Purim cookie - they always seemed a little stale, or loaded with preservatives to keep them soft... The filling never did it for me either; prune, poppy - and I'm out. This year I decided to get my holiday baking on with Freida, and for educational purposes there would be no skipping the  buttery dough. I searched around a bit for a recipe that appealed to me, but in the end I mixed bits and pieces from a few different places and wound up with a rather bright and fresh tasting dough! I also decided to improve from the inside out, and went with some filling I love - strawberry-rhubarb. Let me tell you, these little cookies came out perfectly buttery, flaky, sweet, and fresh!! Thought I'd share the recipe...

Hamantaschen:

- 1 1/2 sticks butter/margarine, softened

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 1 egg

- 1 teaspoon (or more) lemon zest

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

- 3 cups all purpose flour

I used a mixer to cream the butter with the sugar, added the egg etc. It looks really crumbly at first, so put the mixer on high and let it pund out some good-looking dough. Form the dough into a large disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour. Flour a surface, roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thick, and cut out circles (you can use the lip of a glass) to lay on cookie sheet. Drop a teaspoon of filling in middle of each circle, and pinch 3 corners into a triangle (if it doesn't want to stick - use some water). Bake for 17 minutes on °375. Let cool (lest your scorch your palette with searing jam!).

P.S. I'm currently obsessed with ikat print! I was overjoyed to find these beauties at Marshalls, but can find ikat napkins like that one here.

Purim Shpiel

With Purim around the bend, I thought I'd get Freida familiar with characters from the Magillah and peak her interest with the gist of the story. One morning this week we whipped out some card-stock, markers, and old discarded toilet paper rolls (which made these guys super easy for her little hands to grasp), and got on the Purim-puppets bandwagon (yes, I know Queen Esther looks like a transvestite - it was 7am!!).

She knew a bit about Purim from some songs (and by "a bit" I mean she knew Vashti had pimples and we yell at Haman), so I thought I'd clear a few things up with here. Boy, was I ever in for a surprise... She was so disturbed from the tiniest little hint of hatred in the story. She couldn't handle the fact that we don't like Haman, and she really didn't want to contend with discarding Vashti just because she wasn't all that pretty. She kept going in to grab Haman and give him a big hug! I was so shocked!! Here I thought I was being a good mom and teaching my little love about the Persian miracle, only to wind up feeling like I left her in the wake of utter disturbance...! And believe me, I didn't teach her anything meagerly grave - in our version, Haman was sentenced to a time-out.

After I finished up that awkward little class, she wanted to Skype my mom and do her own puppet show for her. In the middle she started giving Haman and Vashti hugs, so my mom gave the explanation a shot. It came out like this, "Haman was mean to us, that's why we don't like him anymore." Really? Is that what I'm teaching her? I mean I know that concept is important, but should I really be teaching her that at 2 years old? Anyways, the fact that it didn't go down so well taught me a good lesson in parenting... But at least she had fun with these little guys!

For now we'll just have puppet free-play, sing happy songs, and try again next year. :)