Updated Baby Needs List

For everyone who has asked what Baby Golding Page already has, and what is still needed, here is the updated list.

If you have any particular questions, feel free to ask us directly. Thanks! :-)

Cinnabun Recipe

By popular demand, here is our favourite recipe for cinnamon buns. We especially like the no-butter, low-fat filling. 
For the rest of the step-by-step photos, go to our flickr photos. 

Dry Ingredients:

• 3 cups (750 ml) flour
• 3/4 cup (185 ml) granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp (15 ml) baking powder
• 1 tsp (5 ml) salt

Gryffin is our eager kitchen helper.

Wet Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (125 ml) shortening
• 1 cup (250 ml) milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla

Cinnamon Filling:

• 1/2 cup (125 ml) brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp (15 ml) ground cinnamon
• a little milk 

Icing (optional):

• any icing you like, any colour, homemade or store-bought

Instructions:

1. Mix dry ingredients with a whisk. 
2. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles small, pea-sized crumbs.
3. Add egg, milk and vanilla. Mix until well combined. 
4. When dough sticks together into a ball, roll with rolling pin on floured surface until in a rough oval or rectangle shape, 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) thick.
5. Combine cinnamon filling ingredients, adding milk 1 Tbsp (15 ml) at a time, just until it makes a paste. (You will probably only need the 1 spoonful of milk, so mix very well before deciding to add more.)
6. Pour cinnamon mixture over dough, then use a brush to spread it evenly.
7. Roll up the dough slowly, keeping the roll fairly tight. The direction you choose to roll will determine whether you make many, small cinnabuns or fewer, large cinnabuns.
8. With a sharp knife, cut the roll into a few large pieces. (We cut it into 4.) Then cut each large piece into the number of cinnabuns you want to make, in the size you like. (We ended up with 16.)
9. Place cinnabuns on baking sheet and shape into rounds, as necessary.
10. Bake at 375 F (190 C) for 10-15 minutes, checking after the first 10, until golden.
11. When buns have cooled slightly, frost with icing (we used store-bought) and allow to melt.

- Modified from "Nanny's Cinnamon Buns" in Kyla Pierik's Treasured Recipes from Home, 2006.

1st International Baby Gift!

Today, we received our first baby gift from our many friends overseas. And from an exotic location, too - Macau, a former Portuguese colony that is now part of China. Thanks, Audrey, for the great gift! :-)

Check out these cool socks she sent:

For anyone else planning to send Baby Golding Page a gift, please check back in the next few days...we are updating our lists of What We Have, and What We Need, this weekend. Au revoir et à bientôt!

What's in a Name?

We are approaching the 3rd trimester of Julie's pregnancy, so the portentous day is now approaching when we will need to provide a name for a newborn child.

This post is an invitation to offer suggestions. But there is a catch: you have to do more than just throw names at us. We would like your comments to be either:

1. serious suggestions of names you like, but you must also say why (e.g. Ebenezer - comes from a cool Bible story), or
2. funny / clever (e.g. 'Minnie Holmes' - a pun of mini-homes), or
3. about yourself, why you have the name you do (e.g. Julie's dad Gary, named after actor Gary Cooper), or
4. about your naming philosophy (e.g. do you choose names because of how they sound? ethnicity? popular? uncommon?connection to your family history?) or
5. what you would have been named had you been born the opposite gender

Will there be any Salome Esmereldas (a serious suggestion made about Julie to her mom)? Can you pun on Page or Golding or Steve or Julie? Dazzle us, O Masters of the Moniker!
-SP