Somewhat update..

I'm very behind, I haven't posted on here for a while, so there might be half a dozen posts today...maybe.

Well, the internet doesn't appear to be cooperating.  Some things to look forward to hopefully this weekend:

Legos:  The Graveyard Duel (4766)
            The Shrieking Shack (4756)

My teeny tiny Christmas tree.
My John Deere cookie mixes in a jar that I am giving out for Christmas.
And it seems like there should be something else, but I can't remember.
Oh well, talk to you later when the internet is working better! :)

400 views!

Yaaay!  We recently reached 400 views on this blog...I'm very excited!!!  Thank you A for helping me get to this point! :)  I'm also about 5 or 6 away from hitting 500 on the metal home decor blog, so this is pretty exciting! hehe...Its sad what I get excited about.  But, its awesome!

Diagon Alley!!!! (10217)

Long awaited...
(please disregard the background)

Borgin and Burkes:
(Built with this building is Fred and George Weezley, Grayback and Lucias Malfoy)...I LOVE Fred and George!

(notice the really cool skeleton in the window and...the other vanishing cabinet...which means now I have both!  Imagine the dorky possibilities!)

Olivander's:
(Built with this building was Ron Weezley, Olivander, and Hermione)

And...Gringott's Bank...
(which includes Hagrid, Harry and 2 goblins)

(I think the vault is neat but the one in the older set is much better, so when I have plenty of room in my house..someday...I'm going to combine them and make it more amazing!)

..Fred and George.. (the brown blob is a brown frog)

Olivander and the 2 goblins....aren't they cute!?

Grayback and the skeleton..and the other vanishing cabinet :)

Sets I still have to build...2 old Hogwarts Expresses, the Chamber of Secrets (which is really neat and has the basilisk in it..with glow in the dark knife teeth-awesome!), and first edition Hogwarts Castle (which includes a fat lady doorway that spins around...HEHEHE).

Recipe exchange...

FYI..I started another blog because I thought it would be fun to start a recipe exchange.
Check it out, and please contribute.  It's a work in progress, so bare with me.  :)
yourfavoriterecipeexchange.blogspot.com
:) Tell your friends and hopefully this will work out!

In honor of Halloween...

...and just in case you didn't think I was a dork already...

(If only I would have had Cornelius Fudge...and I love purple Dumbledore, 

I have him mostly in gray clothes!)

Notice: The three kids escaping out the back, Dumbledore and Hagrid in front faced the other way, Buckbeak and the pink umbrella in the pumpkin patch, and....Harry and Hermione also hiding behind one of the pumpkins behind buckbeak!!  Because, they go back in time...etc.  It was only fitting to do this now, as Hagrid grew really large pumpkins, and its pumpkin season.

Busy day..

Well, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen today.  But I think I made some pretty good things...except for the pot roast (which will not be making an appearance here).

First, I made something called "Sinful Cinnamon Bread" that I found in my "Go Dairy Free" ebook.  Its really good, I added a dash or two of nutmeg because I didn't think it would be very flavorful.  It was really dense and had sort of a cake like texture, but it was really good!  I think I got excited with the cinnamon sugar on the top, but the top was the best part.  I think if I make it again (p.s. I'm really excited to slice it up and toast it for breakfast) I'll make it like a cake, it might be better.
(sorry...my ipod doesn't take very good pictures and my camera was all the way in the other room...hehe)

Also, I've been looking at this other book recently, "Make the bread, buy the butter" (it might be the other way around).  In there, there is a recipe for bagels.  While making them I was very curious how they would turn out, it seemed so different.  But it was sooo good!  Hubby really enjoyed them, so I might be making them more often, which I'm not sure if it is good or bad.  I'm just so glad I have a bread maker (a stand mixer would also be good, but ..oh well).
If I were you, I'd be weirded out by the black stuff on the bottom right bagel.  The recipe calls to be boiled for a minute on each side in brown sugary water...which I thought was weird, but they turned out really good.  :)

P.S. "The Middle" tv show...hilarious!

Princess Elda #5

It turned out a bit longer than anticipated, but here you go.  (I really need ideas..the next chapter will be about Princess Susan in Hula Skirt Town...probably involving plaid grass skirts, a friend named Kermit de Kevin, and something about a sea chickens revenge but I don't have anything written yet just a list of ideas.)
Also..I'm making banana bread and it smells amazing! It might make an appearance later.

News brief:

            "A Roy man was found dead lying among the smokey flames of the Central Branch library of the Davis County Library System this morning.  Located in the lowly town of Layton, Utah, it gave service to some thirty-seven thousand patrons, all of which will have to find another place to retrieve their books.  As the chief of police, Sean Talbot, stood searching the building for some sort of clue as to who would do such a thing as burn down a community library, I decided to go have a word with him.  As I neared him, he turned to talk to me and began the conversation with, "I've never seen such chaos at a library like this before!"  I silently agreed and nodded my head and scanned the room.  He wouldn't have heard me had I said anything anyway, what with all the screaming people running around grabbing all the non-smoking books that they could get their hands on.

            Among the screams of the patrons who were desperately trying to put the flames out themselves, we heard from inside the library a curiously frightening yelp indicating something was found.  "Why?!  Why?!  Why would someone do this?!"  Upon hearing the scream, this anxious reporter and the chief ran over towards where the scream came from there, we find Tess, the ever so trustful employee shelving in the cooking section.  As we approached, I noticed the books about baking cakes and cookies and all sorts of different meals were missing and were, instead, replaced by books about Chile and Austria.  Upon further inspection, I noticed that the spine labels had been changed as well!  What a horrid disaster has befallen the poor library!  Only someone who knew the library system very well could have done something so evil.  Only someone who knew how to change the labels and who knew the proper shelving technique could have done this.  Maybe it is those pesky volunteers that keep coming around, maybe they're really spies!  

I often wonder if most of the library workers have been driven insane by the multitudes of problems caused by inconsiderate patrons, because if you have so many people causing problems, you can only be calm for so long.  Another clue that made me think they had been driven insane was the fact that there were 5 or 6 of them sitting over in the romance section of the burning books roasting marshmallows and making s'mores!  You'd think they were happy parts of the library were burning and that they'd planned it and happy that they had all just lost their jobs.  Looking over, I had noticed a few of them, and remembered their names.  I went over to Liz, as she proceeded to put a marshmallow onto her stick ... I don't remember all she said, but I do remember one part where she said "That's because we needed to smoke out the crazy patrons!," I do believe, however, that it was a mix-up of the tongue, but still, very suspicious.  I then moved to the innocent looking Andrea, who was putting a piece of chocolate onto one of her graham cracker halves.  Her response sounded fairly honest, "The books went rampant!  I had to do something to stop them.  They were attacking patrons, we tried everything to stop them!  The only thing we hadn't tried yet was fire.  But we couldn't let them hurt people. We had to do something, it wasn't supposed to burn everything else, too.  Just the books attacking people!" 

            With all the chaos and questioning going on, no one knew what to do, until the door swung open with a lot of force, and Princess Elda came in.  With a wave of her magic wand, all of the books went back to where they were supposed to be, the spine labels were changed back, and all the books that were sitting as ashes were back to their normal state, moved to where they belonged.  Then everyone yelled "Hip, Hip, Hooray for Elda!"

            Then, it all came together, the culprit was Tami, queen of the rats!  She must have bitten one of the employees, made the person her servant and made them burn down the library!  That must have been it!  Tami must be stopped before she strikes again!!!"

Princess Elda #4

Still caught up in the fear of the situation, she stood still and couldn't move.  Suddenly, Handsome King Tim, the enchanter, swung in with his trusty sidekick, Elder Peterson.  Tim concentrated on Elda, and made sure she was okay, then she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and they swung out the window while the Elder took care of Tami.  He woke her up with that alcohol chemical that wakes people up when they've fainted, and when she was awake, he pulled out his handy pocket Bible, where he taught her 2 lessons.  Trying desperately to talk her out of going back to her old ways of killing people, and repent.  There was a large matchbox down the street that she could attend church at.  Tami, being a rat, had no idea what he was talking about, and couldn't understand anything he said, but she felt a warm, fuzzy feeling.  She didn't like it, so she bit his head off... and his right index finger. 

When Elda and Tim safely landed on the ground outside the tower, they were met by the ever-so-lovely and beautiful Princess Susan, who just happened to be Elda's sister.  She had just arrived home from a long vacation just in time to aid in the saving of her sister.  She brought with her three large white Siberian tigers, so that they wouldn't have to walk all the many miles to their destination.  Their destination was to Princess Susan's kingdom, the neighboring land of Hula Skirt Town. 

Next time: a news brief regarding books attacking people at the library.  

Princess Elda #3

When we last left our fair Elda, she was being faced with the most terrible of fiends in the whole rat kingdom, Tami.  At that time, she had no idea what to do because Tami was crouched down, about 3 seconds from pouncing on her and she had to think fast.  Suddenly, Elda heard a very high-pitched squeak come out of Tami's mouth; thinking nothing of it, she continued to stand there fearing for her life.  At this time, she had no idea what in the world to do about the strange situations she had found herself in.  Then, she decided to pull out the "How to be a good Princess for Dummies" handbook.  She quickly flipped to the chapter titled "How to fend off Vicious beasts with long tails (which contain a deadly poison) that they could easily whip at you and put you to death immediately" which told her about how to beat off dragons, snakes, large rats with pink-tipped whiskers, and various other feared creatures that usually live in castles. 

Moments later the door was knocked down by some 40 or 50 blood-stained rat servants, to which Elda let out a gasp.  She quickly whipped around and looked out the window down at the ground and saw a pile of blood and bones, of which she assumed, were the remains of her note-sending love.  Since Elda is a princess like no other, she has magical powers, at this particular time it was most important to decide exactly which one she should use against Tami.  She went to her handy dandy potion cabinet and perused her options quickly; she picked up “Mr. Belvedere’s Burp at the Beast” soda pop with 35% less carbs than the original.  When she turned around, she found that Tami was within feet of her and closing in.  After taking 2 large gulps, she let out the loudest burp you've ever heard and immediately Tami stopped, and her crowd of servants stopped dead in their tracks.  Tami fainted and fell over dead (or was she?) and all the rats were so frightened that they ran away down the stairs and never came back.  After a quick recovery from the burp, Elda noticed that the room was completely empty, all but Tami lying on the floor.  

I promise

I missed last week's installment (#3) of Princess Elda, but I promise I'll do it tonight.  Perhaps even installment 4 too... But, I'm getting close to the end of what I've written already, so if anyone has any ideas.
And..I'm trying a recipe for Baked Oatmeal, it smelled really good last night, so I'm hoping for the best. :)

Favorite things...

Here is my favorite thing that I've made lately...(lately means they're still warm out of the oven) YUM!!!  Here's the link to....Easy Morning Glory Muffins!!!  I baked them for exactly 20 minutes, the toothpick was still relatively wet, so I let them "cool" in the muffin tin for 4 minutes then moved to a wire rack.  Mine made exactly 18.  Apparently they can be frozen too!  Which is awesome!  It has carrots, flaked coconut, apple, raisins...and deliciousness.  (She adapted it from an original recipe on Allrecipes.com, it said that they were 421 calories per muffin and 25.4 grams of fat, since my recipe made 18 instead of 12, that makes mine 281 calories and 17g fat, the recipe she adapted also had about 1/2 c less sugar and no walnuts so its a bit less because of that, but I'm not sure exact numbers).  SO GOOD.

Favorite things I've recently purchased:
Cooking spoons with faces on them.  Found them at Hy-Vee in Dubuque, Iowa, when visiting hubby (he's on his John Deere Internship for the summer out there).

Found this excellent train case at Sock Monkey 'n Around on 25th street in Ogden a few weeks ago when walking through the farmers market.  It even smells like old lady perfume, which at first charmed me, but I'm learning is not necessarily a good thing.  Its beautiful though, isn't it?

And...last but not least...a brass bull.  He looks kinda emaciated, but...hard to resist.  Especially how I want cows someday and already have a glass chicken.  (I think he had horns at one time, but they are missing)

I'll end this post on a gross note.  This is an example of one of my recent adventures the last 2 days without hubby around...

It was seriously ginormous!  Found this one on Sunday night. Sprayed the crap out of the trash can with raid and took the trash out.  I found another one this morning in my kitchen.  Sprayed the crap out of it with raid and put it under a jar, as I usually do with spiders and bugs.  (He's almost as big as the W in Walmart!!!!!) Gross...Unacceptable.

Princess Elda #2

Here is installment no. 2 of the Princess Elda story.  Its a little haphazard and jumps around a little, but hopefully you can follow it (its definitely not perfect). :) Enjoy!

With Elda located on one side of the room and the thick, wooden door on the other side, she began to fear for her life.  As she heard Tami’s (the Queen of the Rats) loud footsteps nearing her, she began to tremble.  When Tami entered through the door she slammed it behind her and latches it so that Elda has no place to go except through the door, where she will have to fight Tami, or through the window where she would fall into the crowd of rats who will surely nibble her to death.  Well, I can either dodge her tail whip and beat her off with a roundhouse kick to the head, or jump out of the window and roll over on the ground and die, she thought. 

Tami is hardly your regular rat queen, she was 3 times older and 3 times larger than the average of her one hundred subjects and she had complete control over them.  She was about 7 feet tall when standing completely straight up.  She had really dark gray/brown fur with 4 black stripes going up and down her back.  She had thick, black whiskers with several inches of white and hot pink tips on a few of them, and very dark brown, evil eyes.  The first raid that she led them on when she first became queen was the invasion of a camping party.  There were about 20 of them sitting around various fires, singing songs, telling ghost stories and just enjoying each other’s company.  Tami noticed that some of them were desperate for food and were roasting rat and gopher like creatures on sticks over the fire and she really didn’t like that.  In another fire, she noticed people making s’mores and thought that she would show them who was who, she would make them into s’mores.  The experience of this first raid had a huge impact on the rat mob, and they decided to make this a tradition. 

As Elda peered into the eyes of the foe that stood before her, she noticed that Tami was assuming an attack position.  Tami had fought many princes and princesses in this castle and they all went the same way.  She assumed it would be the same way with Princess Elda, but she was not your average princess.  Crouching on her hind legs in the attack position, she felt a sharp pain in her right hind leg and realized that she had forgotten to eat the cheese that had been specially made for her arthritis problem.  In the same moment, she remembered she needed to go to the cottage next door and get some more of the cheese, for she was to meet with Weird Wizard William tomorrow.  She was getting older and she even noticed that some of her fur and whiskers were turning a little bit grayer than they used to be.  She always was an odd rat, she moved from castle to castle, marsh to marsh, frequently playing in Creepy Patrick’s Paints every week.  During this time, Tami maintained her evil stare at Elda and had reached the fully crouched position with her whiskers in full formation, sticking straight out from the follicle, ready to pounce on Elda any second.  

Princess Elda

Well, because I'm bored, avoiding homework and was thinking about playing with this story again after 9 years, I would like to introduce Princess Elda.  Elda is one of my friends' sisters names and most of the characters are named after people that I kind of know, or used to know, or have heard of.  It started as a campfire story, so its a little bit crazy, but kinda fun too.  I hope you like it.  Also, the story is very open ended, so please let me know if you have suggestions of how the story can go, comment and let me know.  We'll treat it as sort of a "make your own adventure" thing and I'll try to fit in suggestions where I can (if anyone actually reads this and finds it interesting).  Here is installment #1 of Princess Elda, ENJOY! :)

Princess Elda lived in the tallest tower of the Tallest Castle of Mallow in the deepest Marsh of the Land of Plywood.  She patiently sat and wondered where the handsome prince is that will rescue her from the clutches of the Evil Doctor Beardsley.  As she sat longingly gazing out the window, a long dart with a note attached flew in.  The note read about a prince longing to see her beautiful face looking down out of the window at him.  As she marveled at the oddity of the note, she also wondered if he was outside the window now or if the dart had been misfired and had gone off track of its goal.  As she neared the window curiously a sudden worry came over her that surprised her.  At the edge of the sill, she looked down toward the ground and saw…a huge crowd of very large, fat, ugly, brown and gray rats holding mini-pitchforks attacking a man. 

Having known that the rats around the Castle Mallow think that everything can be roasted over a fire and put between two crusty brown graham crackers, she fears for the life of her new found love.  She screamed loudly in the hopes that it might stop the rats from harming him, but all it really did was make the Evil Rat Queen so angry that she began to make her way up the tower to Elda’s door.  

Dumbledore's Office (4729)

I found a set that is Dumbledore's Office, it is so big and really neat!!!

The little scorpion in the middle of the wings below is a sort of key, you have to pull it out in order to open his office.

I'm 99% sure that the purple spinny thing up top is the Penseive (hope I spelled that right), which is awesome, and it does spin.

Hagrid's Hut (4707)

This is a really really old version of Hagrid's Hut, the roof is not made of blocks, it is kind of a papery fabric thing, also you have to tie it together at the top with a rubber band type thing.  I would have taken a picture of the inside before I closed it if I would have known ahead of time how hard it would be to close up...So I took a picture of what the inside looks like in the book.

Hehe..Purple Dumbledore and a rat trap (on the left).  Norbert is hidden in the closet (the yellow part on the picture, and it turns around and everything, its pretty cool).

Knockturn Alley (4720)

Sirius Black's Escape (4753)

Buckbeak is super awesome!!!

Quality Quiddich Supplies (4719)

Escape from Privet Drive (4728)

THIS CAR IS MY FAVORITE PART...

and...because I'm a dork...the car is pulling the window out of the side of the house..

Secretly, there is a small compartment under the stairs that has a cloak and a wand hidden in it.

HP Legos: Round 3

I have quite a few sets to show you, all of which I am super thrilled to show off.  I've found, and its unfortunate, that I am running out of new sets to get.  So that means that we need to move on to the older sets and also get really creative with everything.  The intention at some point is to mix all of these sets together (kind of) and make one big thing.  Kind of like this web site that I found Extra Large Hogwarts, its incredible, and I am hoping to have something like it eventually.  Also, something else that I found that has made hubby and I very happy to have found is this site!!!! This is ToysPeriod.com, I have it sending you to the Harry Potter sets page, but what you can do is click on any of the sets you are interested in and it will give you a piece list to build the set, and the instructions are downloadable, either from the web site or from the Lego instructions web site.  I think this is extremely useful (at least for me), especially where some of the sets that I am planning on getting at some point are $200 to $400, which seems really crazy to spend, so I have yet to see if it is cheaper to buy it by the piece, but I really bet it is worth it.  I plan on using the Toysperiod web site in conjunction with Bricklink.  I'm pretty excited, oh yeah! On that web site as well is a bzillion other sets that you can look through, hubby found a whole lot of Technic plans on there too, ones that have been discontinued and can't be shipped to the United States.

HPBP

I recently changed decades (aka, recently turned 30).  As you may know, I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Harry Potter Diagon Alley Lego set (10217), but it has been discontinued (I think) with Lego.  I cancelled my order with them and found one at a comparable price with Bricklink.com and picked it up on Tuesday...needless to say, the rest of the day it was quite difficult to concentrate at work.  It has been difficult to concentrate on homework and (sort of..) more important things, but tomorrow will be the day when it gets put together!!!  Tomorrow night a couple of friends and I are having a HPBP..Harry Potter Birthday Party!  At which, legos will be played with and Harry Potter things will be built.  As well as movies watched, possible wands made, butterbeer may be present, and many scenes may be acted out.  (In case you didn't need more proof that I am a super duper dork).  I am sooooo excited! Prepare for pictures.

Lupin's Classroom (4752)

This set was really easy to put together, and really creative too.  Some things I really enjoy include: the huge spider web with the orange spider by the staircase; boggart Snape-because he's wearing a frilly shirt and he's glow in the dark; the skull under the yellow globe thing; and the fact that the designers of Lupin's face put intentional scratches on his face.  This set is pretty cool!!  

Also, the alternate building instructions in the back seem fantastic!  So I'm looking forward to trying to build it that way.  Here's a shout out for help: I'm looking for alternate building instructions for Hagrid's Hut and both Hogwarts sets.  I've found one for the burrow that comes out to being Shell Cottage, but I haven't built that one yet.  Please let me know where I can find any of these if you know.
Thanks all! :)

Gringott's Bank (4714)

And, as a bonus, you get a wonderful view of my pink comfy chair!
I enjoyed that there were secret little compartments everywhere that you put coins in, sliding the cart down the little track was really fun, I didn't try it on a counter or anything, but it was still awesome!  The goblins are really cute, which is why I am including a picture of them.  You can't tell, but the large white plate on the top says GRINGOTTS.  Some things that I found really interesting in addition to this is that the set is so old that Harry and Hagrid's skin is yellow, not skin colored like it is nowadays.  It made me feel like it was kinda vintage/antique, it came out in 2002, so I'm really excited that I found one for so cheap.  It was used, but it had all the pieces so it did not disappoint.  Also, in the back of the instruction booklet, it shows variations of different ways you can build it with the pieces you have.  Which I haven't seen so far in the sets that I've got, so that made me really really happy.  Plus, I can rebuild this set a different way and add it to the Gringotts that I'm getting with Diagon Alley to make it extra exciting and interesting!

P.S.  I found this set as well as a lot of others (including the next 2 I'll be posting about) on Bricklink.  Hubby and I have had pretty good success with this web site so far, most of the purchases require Paypal, and you can check out reviews of the "stores" that are on there.

The Knight Bus (4866)

Some things I particularly enjoy about this one, they made it so the bed on the bottom "floor" slides around (also note that Harry is lying on the bed! :)  The hair that is used for Ernie's is the same that is used for Madam Hooch...Awesome!  Harry's trunk is placed on the left side of the middle "floor" and does not sit properly and rattles around, which is really creative!  The white blurr on the right side is Hedwig.  And there is nothing of interest on the top "floor" except for that the chandelier swings around, which, again, is extremely creative! :)

Overall, these recent sets are pretty lame, but I'm to the point where I'm running out of things to get and need to get the whole set.  But, on the other hand, I really enjoy them and they make me giggle!!!  Pieces to look forward to in the very near future include: Diagon Alley (which I am thrilled about and hopefully it comes soon!!!), Gringott's bank, Escape from Privet Drive, and Lupin's classroom.

I think I have a problem...(getting too many legos).  My wish list for the next go around is pending, including but not limited to the large hogwarts express (not the motorized one), chamber of secrets and the shrieking shack which has a wolf head that you can put on lupin!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mini Hogwarts Express

He he!!  Its so cute!

Harry Potter Legos round 2: Quidditch Match (4737)

Some features I enjoy:
Many sets come with a few extra pieces, this one I got a free broomstick!  Which is more significant than small buttons and pins and stuff like that. Also, there are catapults that you make that you can use to fling balls through the hoops.  (I still haven't been able to make one through a hoop.  I would not be a good Quidditch player!  Also, for some reason, spell check is saying Quidditch is spelled wrong..weird! :)  It comes with 2 helmets, which is exciting.  Also, as you can see, Harry did get the snitch, it is in his hand. I was kind of disappointed that it was a button piece, but it still makes me giggle.  And finally, the stand for the Quidditch cup is really cool!  And I was thinking, when I mix all the sets to play with them, I could put the Quidditch cup in Professor McGonagall's office!  Hehe!

Oh my gosh!  I just realized where the other broom goes, I retract what I just said!  It's Madam Hooch's and it goes on the side of the stand!  Silly me...
Also, following is a pretty blurry picture of Madam Hooch.  Her hair is awesome!

Muffin #2: Banana Crumb Muffin

I made these muffins 2 Sundays ago and am just now getting to posting it.  Don't worry, I haven't made muffin #3 yet. I probably should.  I've been thinking about making a posting schedule this summer and hopefully sticking to it.  But we'll see how things go.  (I'm going to school full time this summer while hubby is out in Iowa at his internship for John Deere, at the end of the summer I should have my Associate's degree, assuming everything goes smoothly).  Also, as part of the schedule I'm planning, there will be weekly snippets of a little campfire story that I wrote, its a little crazy, but I find it really fun.  Also with the story, suggestions for further adventures to be had will be welcome.  As the story continues you will see that it is open to (almost) anything.  I like this story because I feel its one of the few ways that I can let my imagination just go crazy.  And since only a couple of people read this anyway, I might as well have more fun with it.

Muffin #2: Banana Crumb Muffins from Allrecipes.com

(based on the picture, they look kinda gross, huh? haha..)

Following the same format as muffin #1: First, I'll talk about my general feelings about the recipe, then how I felt about how it tasted and then I'll post the recipe (in this case, a link to it).  

1) The recipe was really easy to make, came together rather quickly and was from many ingredients that I always have on hand.  I made regular sized muffins, the recipe made 12 pretty easily even though it says 10.  I used muffin papers instead of my silicone baking cups because they are kinda stupid to clean.  I moved the baking rack to the almost top position so that the bottoms wouldn't get burnt and I baked them for 17 minutes.  

2) They tasted pretty good, they all got eaten, which is a big step up from last time.  They weren't awesome, but still good.  It was pretty much banana bread, but in muffin form and with bits of cinnamon sugar stuff on top.  

And Finally, 3) Here is a link to the recipe: Banana Crumb Muffins

Thank you, and good night.  

Just think in a couple of weeks you might get to hear about the final muffin, Blueberry Streusel!  Ooooo!!! :)

Muffin #1: Coffee Cake Muffin

As you can probably tell, I am not very good at this make-things-when-you-say-you-will thing. 

However, this last Tuesday I made the first muffin in a series of muffin tests.  

#1:  Coffee Cake Muffin from America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book.  

First, I'll talk about my general feelings about the recipe, then how I felt about how it tasted and then I'll post the recipe.
1)  a) The recipe was set up for someone who had a food processor, (i.e. pulse the butter into the flour/sugar mixture until you get small pieces, about 8 pulses), which made me dream of days when I will have a food processor.  Not having one made integrating the butter into the mixture a little bit harder and I didn't end up with small pieces by any means, but I did the best that I could.  b)  It called for a LOT of butter, a stick and a half.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore butter, but that seems to be a little excessive.  But I think that is why they were as moist as they were.  (and probably reeeally fattening too, but we're not thinking about that part).  c) For the streusel topping, it said to put a little bit of the batter, about a tablespoon, in the bottom of the muffin cup, then put in some of the streusel then top with the rest of the batter, that's it.  I really enjoy a crusty sugary muffin top, so I put more of it on top as well.  d) Now I think of it, maybe I didn't bake them long enough, perhaps they were still doughey.  and e) I don't think there is an e.

2) I liked that it was moist and tasted fair enough.  I think that it was a little too dense and it didn't pouf up like I thought it would, which was disappointing.  I don't think I'll make them again, in fact I couldn't get through eating my first one, there were a few bites left before I threw it away.  I imagine there is a list of things I didn't do right and that are wrong with my taste buds, but there it is (sorry ATK.  I still love you anyway!).

3) The recipe:
Coffee Cake Muffins
(makes 12, or 6 jumbo in my case)
Note that the processed sugar mixture in step 1 is divided to become the base for both the streusel topping and the cake batter.  
1 cup granulated sugar)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces and chilled
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
confectioner's sugar, for dusting


1) Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 12-cup muffin tin. 
2) Pulse the granulated sugar, 1/2 cup of the flour, and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar together in a food processor to combine, about 5 pulses. Transfer 3/4 cup of the processed sugar mixture to a medium bowl (leaving the rest in the processor), and whisk in the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar and the cinnamon to make the streusel topping; set aside.
3) Add the remaining 1 cup flour, the baking powder, salt, and baking soda to the sugar mixture left in the food processor and pulse to combine, about 5 pulses. Scatter the butter evenly over the top, and pulse until the mixture breaks down into small pebbly pieces, about 10 pulses. Add the eggs and sour cream and pulse until the batter is well combined and thick, about 8 pulses.
4) Portion a generous tablespoon of the batter into each muffin cup, then sprinkle each with 1 1/2 tbsp of the streusel mixture. Spoon the remaining batter over the streusel. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out with just a few crumbs attached, 20 to 24 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.
5) Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Dust lightly with confectioner's sugar before serving.  


(for my jumbo muffins, I baked for about 25 minutes)
Thank you, and good night.

Muffin search

I am in search of finding the right muffin.  Hubby and I often take trips to the local grocery store to get treats, including muffins.  They make the BEST jumbo muffins in their bakery!  They are moist, delicious as I'll get out, and often I just want to eat the whole package of 4 in one sitting.  Just being completely honest here, naturally, I haven't...yet.  However, I'm having a hard time shelling out $5 for 4 muffins that go really really quickly.  Plus, it means a trip to the store, and its kind of out of my way of my regular shopping trip.

This week I am going to try 4 different recipes for muffins.  I just tried some Cinnamon Sugar Muffins. The recipe follows:

Cinnamon Sugar Muffins
Cook time: 20 mins Prep time: 5 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 12

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup low-fat milk
• 1/2 cup melted butter (applesauce or oil works too)
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar with 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 400ºF. Put cups in 12-muffin cup pan.
2. Beat milk, butter and egg in a medium bowl.
3. Add in flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt all at once and stir just until flour is moistened. (Batter will be lumpy; do not over stir.)
4. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake until golden brown (16 to 20 minutes).
5. Immediately remove from pan and carefully roll hot muffin tops in melted butter, then in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Serve warm!

Since I was not all that impressed with the recipe I decided not to link it here. Ultimately, I am looking for a jumbo muffin, so I made 6 in a jumbo muffin tin and they baked for about 18 minutes and seemed to be done. (Except hubby's, the handful of peanut butter chips he put in made things a little difficult, so his weren't cooked all the way).  I tasted the batter and didn't taste much so I added about 4 Tablespoons of brown sugar and 2 Tablespoons of cinnamon-sugar.  Even after that I didn't think they had much flavor and were pretty disappointing really.  

Next, I think I will try some Blueberry Streusel Muffins (from joyofbaking.com), Coffee cake muffins (from America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book), and Banana Crumb Muffins (from allrecipes.com).  

Wish me luck.  

Best lasagna ever!

I was going to take a picture of it but I didn't get a chance to.  The beauty was destroyed once we dug into it.  I made this lasagna on Monday evening.  (It's spring break for hubby this week, so I took the first 3 days of this week off work, so I had plenty of time, it took a while to make, probably 2 hours) But I made it according to the recipe.  OMG!  It is so good, probably the best lasagna I've ever made in my life.  Which really isn't saying much, because I've only made enough to count on one hand, but still.  Hubby even said that it didn't have the usual icky taste that lasagna usually has...which means a lot, where he doesn't like lasagna in the first place.  Also, I brought some for work today, and all the delicious mozzarella melted all over and it had a beautiful melty yummy "crust" to it...

So, you are probably wondering where this alleged recipe is....well...here's the link to it.  Best Lasagna Ever! You can see why it intrigued me, based solely on the name.. Also, I feel a certain connection to her (the Pioneer Woman), where she enjoys living on a farm and has all sorts of aminals (yes, I meant to spell it that way).  However, I forgot to put the parmesan cheese next to the top of the lasagna, but by the time I remembered it was too late.  Also I thought it was weird to add eggs to the cottage cheese goo, but I did anyway and don't regret it.  Also, I tried to drain as much fat as I could from the meat, but our meat was pretty lean so there wasn't much.  Yum Yum Yum.  Highly suggested!

Plus, as opposed to my previous meatloaf recipe, this one is very accurate, like with actual measurements!!  I tried the meatloaf again as I laid out the recipe and it didn't turn out very good.  However, last week I tried to make meatloaf men (which didn't turn out to be men, but simple meatloaf rounds.  I didn't want the arms and head to cook faster and end up being gross.  So if anyone knows how to do that and not end up that way, let me know :)).  In that recipe, I added half of a tube of reduced fat original sausage and it added lots of delicious flavor, and used just plain Italian bread crumbs, no onions at all and it ended up to be very good!

Also, in my last round of cookbook purchases, I got the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook.  I was thinking it might be fun to make some things from that and post them here.

Everyday Treasures

So, I was really bored today and decided to go to this discount antique store down the street, and that wasn't quite what I expected, but it was okay. 

In my quest for something to do (besides go to work, clean the apt, and be bored at home), I decided to go and check out these consignment stores out in Roy that I had been meaning to check out for quite some time.  The first place I went was Everyday Treasures, which I was pretty impressed by.  I purchased a couple of things which I am extremely excited for.  (see below)

I am seriously in love with this stuff...hubby actually likes it too! :)  I like on the chicken tin that the chicks look relatively close to real chicks, and they even have little feathers coming in, so whoever painted/made this...kudos!  (I really miss my babies...) And if anyone knows where I can find more tins like this that have chickens on them, let me know!  (p.s. it doesn't have to be a tin either, it could be a pic too)  Also, the moose hook is very very neat!!!  Its super heavy, but I'm looking forward to hanging it up and figuring something neat to hang from it.  It also has some super cool details on it..I'm waaay excited about my purchases, and they weren't very much money either!  I'll have to go back there when I have some more money, and probably more space.  :)  I went to the other consignment store right next door, they had a lot of really neat furniture that I would consider buying if I had space...I also sent them an email to see if they would be interested in selling some of our metal home decor, as well as several other places, so we'll see what happens.  (plus, they had lots of space on their walls, so...maybe!!)

Mmm...Breakfast!

Our new favorite thing for breakfast!

Mmmm....it has slices of ham or turkey, sausage, cheese, eggs, salsa, and salt and pepper (and maybe other seasonings).  ITS SOOO GOOD!!!! 

And, this is my latest most favorite purchase from the DI...$3.00 baby!! 

Thank you.