Makin' Muffins

Boring Medical Update: I went to the ortho and the hip looks good. No need to see him again unless a problem should arise. He gave me a referral to a new "back guy" if I want to investigate the upper back pain. It's ranking a little low on my to do list just now, we'll see.

On a much more interesting note, Riley and I did some baking! It was cold and rainy today and I felt like baking. I also had a whole lot of fresh strawberries on hand (bogo sale). We started with a just-add-milk muffin mix for cranberry orange muffins. Then I added a whole bunch of fresh strawberries. I wish I'd gotta two packages of mix because they only make six muffins each package and we could have done with a dozen.

I've been a lot more prepared for baking projects lately, which is wonderful. Getting up on a cold rainy day and having everything you need is such a gift. My joints complain a little softer when there are goodies to eat and a nice warm kitchen. I feel resourceful for mixing in fresh fruit and having a few muffin mixes on hand. I think we'll have to make these again for sure.

I cut up the remaining strawberries for snacks. They won't last around here. I'm planning on making the kids some french toast this weekend I'll probably toss a few on top. They add a lot of color to things.

Baking Day!

I love to bake! It's just fun and the rewards are almost always worth the effort. This year I decided to make some chocolate covered pretzels for the neighbors. We also decided we had so much fun at our Rice Krispies treat Halloween party we'd make Santa some of those this year. I figured we could use some of the pretzels and make reindeer treats.

Why yes, that is a new apron. A little Christmas gift to myself from Flirty Aprons. Before we could begin Mike had to rig me up a double boiler. I'm told steaming the chocolate from underneath rather than heating it directly prevents burning. I can attest to improper chocolate heating being trouble. Once in college I burned a batch chocolate and partially melted the microwavable mug/bowl I was using. This is what he came up with:

Resourcefulness for the win, eh? The recipe, as you can imagine, is very simple. You need wax paper, shortening, chocolate chips and pretzels. Most of the effort involved is stirring the chocolate (and washing the pan later). We used wooden skewers to stir so we could toss them when we were done. This one was fun for the kids because I let them do most of the dipping. They may not all have turned out pretty but they were very tasty!

I was afraid they'd need to be refrigerated. I don't know about you, but I did not have two cookie sheets worth of space in the fridge. It turned out that 25min on the cool counter top was good enough. Phew! I wanted to pack them up in something the neighbors wouldn't feel obligated to return so I used Lllyods beef and Country Crock side dish counters. I know Martha Stewart would be horrified, but I gussied them up.

A little decorative ribbon, humorous Christmas card and cinnamon stick/vanilla bean go a long way towards prettiness. I think the neighbors were pleasantly surprised. Once those were delivered it was time to make Santa's treats. I used the original recipe.

I made the treats during nap time. It's as easy as it gets: melt butter, add and melt marshmallows, add cereal. The problem is that melted butter plus melted marshmallows equal hot lava that sticks to you. That's way I did that part alone. After it was mixed together I pressed into my fancy muffin tin.

Now I have learned through trial and error (mostly the latter) that kids eat more decoration than they apply to any baked good, ever. So, while decorating cookies after school sounds like an awesome plan, I assure you waiting until after dinner is better. When the kiddos were bathed and pajama-ed we set to work.

I was so proud I posted a picture to the Rice Krispies page on Facebook and they replied:

Kellogg's Rice Krispies: Those are simply adorable, Katie! We are sure they'll help Santa make it through his busy night

Go Team!

Isaac made elves and snowmen as well as reindeer. I find it's best to just let the kids go where their imaginations take them. Liberal use of candy corn in December, why not? A Christmas alien? By all means. Hoestly we're lucky not to have had 6 Christmas squid. I think the results speak for themselves. Everybody picked one to eat tonight, but we're saving the best two or three for Santa (of course).

Alternatives to Pain Meds

Bed rest with company.

AND

Fancy cupcakes with my best little helper.

They are Pillsbury Pink Lemonade cake mix with pink lemonade frosting. So summery. We even cut yellow gum drops into lemon wedges to finish each on off. Yay, I think Riley did Fancy Nancy proud.

Santa's Cookies

I have always baked cookies for the kid(s) to decorate. We always choose the best two or three to leave out for Santa. It's just a fun tradition. I had always done sugar cookies, but last year I wanted to make a gingerbread house. It was a complete failure. Very sad, but after three attempts we at least had some gingerbread men to decorate. Here's our cookie art from 2010:

This year I was bound and determined to make a simple batch of gingerbread. I botched it by accidentally following the cake rather than cookie directions. It was tough to take. I bought some blank gingerbread men at the store and invited the neighbor children to come decorate with us.

Supplies!Those markers are food coloring markers. We discovered them at the craft store one Easter, love those.

Riley's sprinkle laden ginger girl

Isaac's marshmallow heavy creation.

The finished products.

Two things are evident: First, we're going back to sugar cookies next year and second Isaac is growing out of these kinds of activities. I'm ill equipped for him to be so Grinch-y at 9yrs old. Even with his friend decorating along side him and all that candy at his disposal his patience for cookie decorating was worn thin after 2 or 3 min. I hope this is just a boy thing and not the end of the Christmas magic...

Cookie Party Prep

I made Oatmeal Jam-ups from my 365 Cookie Recipes book.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Crisco Butter Shortening
• 1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons almond extract
• 2 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 1/2 cups quick rolled oats
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 (12 oz.) jar Smucker's Seedless Jelly

I couldn't get finely chopped pecans so I spend the morning chopping. I was instructed to make a "rocking horse motion" to chop more effieciently.

COMBINE shortening and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat at medium speed until well blended. Beat in eggs and almond extract. The Crisco butter flavor shortening come in these little plastic tubs. One stick per tub. I made this recipe twice to get four dozen cookies for the party so I saved the plastic tubs for crafting. Also, God Bless Mike's dad for upgrading his standing electric mixer and passing his old one one. Standing mixers are amazing. It was my first time using it since we got it (Mike uses it all the time).

COMBINE flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Gradually add to creamed mixture at low speed just until blended. Just a note here, I do not recommend doubling your recipe. I made two separate batches of dough to get my 4 dozen cookies. There's a alot of dividing and rolling out dough later. Yay, mixer (it bears repeating)!

STIR in oats and chopped nuts. Divide dough in half. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate 1 hour.This where your toned upper from weeks of physical therapy and walker use comes in handy. I refrigerated overnight while I waited for Mike to do some dishes. Cookies were a good motivator my kitchen was spotless in the morning (for a few hours).

HEAT oven to 350ºF. Grease baking sheet. I just used a non stick baking sheet. They're pretty hardy cookies. More like tiny pies than cookies. We didn't have any issues popping them off.

ROLL one half of dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. A WELL FLOURED surface. Do not mess around, flour the heck out of your counter and rolling pin. This dough is stick-yyyyyy!

Cut out with 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter.I used a cup to cut circles. We got 12-14 each half of dough.

Place 1 teaspoonful of jelly in the center of half the rounds. Top with remaining rounds. Press edges to seal. Prick center. Place 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining half of dough. We used Strawberry for half and blackberry for half.

BAKE 12 to 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Remove to cooling rack to cool completely They were to heavy and copious for my meager cooling racks so we put them on foil on the cool counter.

Once they cooled it was time to package them up. I used regular ziploc bags. I punches two hole above the zipper with my crop-a-dile. Then I threaded curling ribbon through. I used glittered red and green star buttons I had left over from Riley's Halloween Rainbow Brtie hair bow. I used a large embroidery needle to thread the curling ribbon through the button holes. Then I added a small tag: Love, Katie Oatmeal Jam-ups. I tied a bow and curled the ends. I glued the small buttons to tags when I ran out of large ones. Alternating green ribbon with red button and the reverse.

Cookies all packed up and ready to go.

All done baking. Riley took this one. Don't worry I shook the flour off my pants before I left.

Why You Wish You Lived Next Door

This week I finished the invitations to our housewarming, Ta-da!

As you can see I made Martha Stewart proud with my Smurf themed paintshop invite. My printer had an issue which caused my Smurf to come out pink. He looked sick, but when Mike fixed the issue and he came out blue he looked very healthy. Smurfs are the reverse of humans in that way.

I'd been meaning to make the neighbors cookies since we moved in. I decided it was time to make the cookies so I could hand deliver the invites with them. As always my trusty helper was by my side as I prepared some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Yeah, they're from mix. Sue me.

Mix, mix

More mixing. Oatmeal cookies have stiff dough.

Giving it a taste.

Ready for baking.

Riley's first "licking the spoon" experience.

Once the cookies were baked it was all about presentation.

My artsy shot of the materials.

The front of the invitation.

The finished product.

I delivered them while they were still warm.