Babies, Bread & Beautiful Bloggers. . .

Babies:
My *little* sister just had her 3rd baby last month.  Her 3rd boy.  A beautiful, healthy, chunky little boy named Leo. ♥

{So, she now has a 4 year-old, a one-year-old, a newborn and a good case of sleep-deprivation. ;)}

Bread:
It's always been my philosophy that new mothers need a little sugar high to make it through the day.....or at least until naptime. 

Enter Poppy Seed Bread that makes TWO loaves and is perfect to freeze and drop off to a new mommy.

The bread is oh-so-moist....I'm no expert, but it might have something to do with the 1+ cups of oil in the recipe.
 
It is SO good just sliced and served plain for breakfast, or a snack, or for dessert.  It's a multi-tasker.

Beautiful Bloggers:
You may know that we lost my mom to cancer over 10 years ago.  Kiddo was 1 and I feel so lucky that he had her in his life, even if it was only for a year.

Mom made the quilt for kiddo's bed....and she started a small quilt for him to have to carry around.  But she got too sick to finish it.

I'm not good with a needle and thread.  So, this little quilt was in a bag that I've carried from house to house to house.  And a couple months before baby Leo was born, I found it!

Here's what it looked like (the top was put together, batting and back attached with pins and bits of thread.):

On a whim, I tweeted something like, "Anyone interested in finishing a baby quilt in exchange for cookies.....or cash?"  

I'm not kidding, 5 seconds later, sweet Robyn from Earthbound Chronicles offered to finish it.....FOR THE COOKIES!!!  I think I offered her a few chances to back out....or to take the cash instead.  She wouldn't even let me pay her for shipping.

Here's how the quilt looks now:
 
Absolutely gorgeous!!!  And take a gander at this adorable, darling, perfect trim that Robyn added...

 

{Oh, I love it!}

So, now baby Leo has a little piece of something his Gigi made.....with a BIG dash of love from a sweet blogger we've never even met.

{Y'all....I never expected blogging to bring me to tears, but it does. What I love the most about blogging & tweeting is what I never expected.....meeting the most amazing, creative, generous souls on earth.}

Thank you SO MUCH, Robyn.  {I still think you should have taken the cash.} ;)

Poppy Seed Bread
{adapted from Mary Engelbreit's Fan Fare}

1 & 1/2 cups milk
3 eggs
1 & 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 & 1/2 tsp. pure almond extract
1 cup + 2 TBSP vegetable oil
2 & 1/2 cup sugar
3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 & 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 & 1/2 tsp. coarse salt
1 & 1/2 TBSP poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease sides and bottoms of two 9x5" loaf pans.

In a large bowl on low speed, beat together the milk, eggs, vanilla, extracts and oil.

Add in the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt.  Beat for 2 minutes.  Stir in the poppy seeds.

Divide the batter between the two loaf pans and bake 50-60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in wire racks in the pans 10 minutes, then remove from pans and let cool completely.

To freeze, wrap cooled loaf in heavy-duty foil.  Thaw at room temperature several hours or overnight.