English Muffins Take 1

For a little bit of a change I decided to make English Muffins for this Muffin Monday. One of the girls loved them and the other thought they were just okay. I tried to use the Alton Brown/Food Network recipe but we did not have the powdered milk so I tried to use no extra liquid and milk instead. I'd like to try at least once more to see if I can do better but this is how I did it this time:

First, I added 1 1/2 cups of milk with 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of shortening, and 1 tablespoon of sugar in a saucepan until the sugar and salt were dissolved and let it cool down.

In a large bowl I added 1 envelope of dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons) and a pinch of sugar together, then added the milk mixture and lest it set until dissolved, about 5-10 minutes.

Next, sift 2 cups of all purpose flour, add to the liquid mixture, and stir with wooden spoon until mixed thoroughly:

Cover the mixture and let it set in a warm place for at least 30 minutes. I let mine set for closer to an hour so their would be as many nooks and crannies as possible (shown here by our lovely model, Audrey):

Next comes the fun part. Preheat a griddle to 300 degrees. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the risen mixture and beat thoroughly. You need to use something round and in a suggestion from another website I found that the canning rings are perfect. I took 1 ring, sprayed with veggie spray, and added to the griddle. Then, I spooned in the mixture until it was full and let it set for 1 minute. At that point the mixture is set just enough for you to remove the ring and add another muffin. By the time you have 5 down you are ready to flip the first one. They need to cook about 5 minutes per side:

I realized about halfway through my griddle was about 20 degrees lower than it was supposed to be. The second batch turned out a little better, cooking faster and having that outside ring you see on store-bought type muffins.So, just make sure you have yours at 300 and keep it consistent. The reason the English Muffin has a crisp outside and chewy inside is because of the time and temperature it is cooked. We were able to make about 12 muffins but next time I will follow the recipe exact and try again adding a little more batter to each ring also. This is the finished product:

Tasty, but slightly flatter than I would have liked. We will definitely try these again as Ella could not get enough. They weren't perfect though so I must try again....

Family Fun at The State Fair of Texas

Sorry about last week. In all honesty, it is hard for me to get things done here in blog world when the kids have a day off. Last Monday was Columbus Day and Fair Day. We actually went to the Fair the day before since Corey could not get Monday off of work. Since that took up my whole Sunday I'll skip the muffins for this week and show you how the fair went.

The fair I'm talking about would be THE fair around here, The State Fair of Texas, known for a wide array of fried foods and anything goes when it comes to fried. This year some new fried treats included fried bubblegum and buffalo chicken flapjacks. Before going, we found a list of the 25 Best Eats at the Texas State Fair and decided which ones we would like to try. It's nice to have a game plan because the fair can get quite expensive if you don't. There are many things to do besides ride the rides and play games. Last year we loved going to the Women's Museum and there are a list of several others that we still have to go to. There are many pavilions and a massive car show inside the Fair, all for free or cheap.

Before getting to the food we found the car show. The Jeep section had a cool climbing wall for kids for free:

And you can sit in all the newest cars. Audrey and Ella tested out the trunk space of the new Fiat, which BTW is super cute but still a little too small for our needs:

Ella was begging us for food after walking around the car show for a while so we set out on our food tastings.

First off, we found the kraut balls in the Hans Mueller Booth on the east side of the Cotton Bowl. Our family favorite of the day for sure. I wish we would have gone back for more.

If you don't try anything else new but this it will be worth it. The booth was located in front of the Cotton Bowl close to the entrance of the Midway:

Next up, we found our way to the Coca Cola Food Court:

There are many, many booths with all kinds of foods but we were on a mission. We found the Greek booth and asked for a giant dolma.

We tried and tried but Audrey would not touch it. The above shot was not posed. This was her natural reaction to having the plate set down in front of her. The rest of us, however, loved it. This was Ella's favorite of the day for sure. The look can be deceiving on this one. We got a lot of looks from passersby. In case you don't know, a dolma is a grape leaf stuffed with beef, lamb, and rice.

We walked out of the Coca Cola Food Court in search of what I was really excited about, tamale balls. After a bit of searching for the Exhibit Hall we found it. I'll have to say, I was a bit underwhelmed. They were just okay. Too spicy for the kids and a little dry in my opinion. Oh, well, the rest made up for them.

At this point in the day it started to rain. We had stopped at Tar-jay before coming to the fair and picked up some ponchos because the forecast showed a high chance of rain. I'm so glad we were prepared. We asked others how much they were charged at the fair for ponchos and we were told they paid $7 each!

We stepped out into the rain and walked around for a bit and found the Museum of Nature and Science. What a great way to spend an hour while waiting for the rain to stop. Admission was only $1.50 and the kids loved it. Bob the Builder was even walking around that day. Now, my kids are a little old for it but all the little ones seemed to love him.

The rain subsided and we found the next item on our list, salsa balls:

These were good too. Audrey liked them the most. It tasted liked nacho cheese mixed with salsa with an outside layer of crunched up nacho cheese Doritos. Not bad. These were found in the Magnolia Beer Garden.

We let the kids ride a few rides at the Midway but several were shut down due to the rain. The most famous of all the rides, of course, is the Texas Star.

The last food we tried for the day, our dessert, was a Fried Latte. In reality, the ice cream is not fried, but it was so tasty it did not matter:

Cappuccino ice cream, drizzled with maple syrup and sprinkled with coffee flakes, atop a sopapilla. Great dessert to end our day of food samplings! And, I have no idea what THAT face was about. She was just being silly for the camera.

Our last stop for the day was a must. Have I mentioned that Audrey is OBSESSED with pigs. She would give anything to have one but our little suburban home just won't accommodate a pig, much to her dismay. So, we have to settle for occasional petting zoo piggies:

And Ella was happy feeding a baby goat, or kid, of course.

The petting zoo is also free with a small fee for the food.

We left having had a great, relatively inexpensive, day. I actually liked going during a rainy day. I think many people did not come because of it so the parking was good and the lines weren't bad. This is our 2nd time in 2 years to go as a family and I think we will just have to add this to our rotation of things to do every year now that we figured out how to do the fair.

That Ship is Bananas

Good afternoon my lovelies. I have been saving this recipe for a while. I don't know why. Maybe just wanted to get those bananas at the perfect ripeness to make them. On a side note does anyone else sing that Gwen Stefani song when they spell bananas, as in that sh-t is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s. When Ella was little she loved that song so we told her they were singing that Ship is Bananas so that is exactly what she sang. Wish we could get away with that now. Whatever works, right?

Anyway, if you guessed banana nut muffins for today's treat you are correct, sir. Or madam. Whatever the case may be. So, I had so much going on this weekend I needed to go to my 'go-to muffin recipe'. This is actually a recipe for my banana bread in muffin form. I don't use wheat flour a lot in my baking but the texture of the bananas and cinnamon blends so well with the wheat flour that these muffins really benefit from the use of it.

Banana Nut Muffins

• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup wheat flour (or you could use 1 1/2 cups white-wheat flour instead of the 2 separate flours)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 egg whites, slgihtly beaten
• 1 cup mashed banana
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup cooking oil
• 1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Mix eggs, banana, sugar, and oil in a large bowl.
4. Stir flour slowly into banana mixture just until moistened.
5. Stir in nuts.
6. Spoon equal amounts of batter into 12 muffin tins. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

My Fall Color Palette

My Fall Color Palette by pamela-s1 featuring a coral dress

Lela Rose tulle dress
$2,495 - net-a-porter.com

Lela Rose bow dress
$1,295 - farfetch.com

Oasis coral dress
$75 - oasis-stores.com

Ready For Fall

I have been looking at so many great outfits lately I just had to make a set of my own. Here in Texas it has been in the nineties all week but we are FINALLY getting a cold front and I can actually start changing into Fall mode. Yay! Now, if I could only procure the money to afford all of these great looks. In real life (you know, outside the wonderful dreamy blog-life) I am super picky when it comes to buying outfits. If only it could be as easy as going online and putting things together like this:

That pop of red-coral is MY pick for color of the fall. It's so pretty! I picked up a steal on a mini-trench last Spring for Audrey at the end of the season that she is now wearing in this color, and it is an instant mood-lifter. Love it!

Happy Fall shopping everyone!

It's a Doughnut. It's a Muffin. It's Both!

Oh Monday, my old friend. I have a genuine love and hate relationship with you. I love starting everything new each week with your presence but at the same time I can see the long list of things that have to be accomplished before you come back round again. 

One thing I do not mind doing, however, is Muffin Monday. This week, I happened upon a good-looking muffin recipe while searching through Pinterest. You can see my own Pinterest page here. Anyway, it's a Doughnut Muffin. The recipe came from Once Upon a Chef & I just could not resist making them. What could be better, right. I know! We've got another winning recipe here. Everyone loved them. Corey did think they tasted a little 'off' at first but he snatched one right after I pulled them out of the oven and before the topping was put on. He said once the topping was on it straightened the taste up and was very good. I wouldn't know what they tasted like straight out of the oven because I have, ahem, self control. What? I do. Ok, sometimes I do. Here is picture of this double-duty muffin:

And don't skip that topping. It really does make it taste like a cinnamon sugar cake doughnut!

The recipe can be found at Once Upon a Chef. Check it out.

Feeling Crafty

This is the best time of day for me, just after the kids are off to school and the chaos dies down a bit. The morning sun is casting the perfect light for beautiful pictures, like this:

I have a gazillion pictures of the sky, most in the morning, but not exclusively. Does anyone else take this many pictures of the sky? I just love natural beauty, hence why I have so many of the sky, of flowers, & of my girlies.

Here's a few more, just cuz I want to share the stormy sky and because we are finally getting some much needed rain here in Texas and the sky has been void of any clouds all summer that it just makes these that much more gorgeous.

So, anyway, I'm sitting here, wishing I could work on my goods for my Etsy store but need to start my regular work instead. So I put it off anyway and I go to order supplies and lo and behold everyone(!) is out of the tiles that I JUST discovered that are perfect for necklaces that I plan to sell in my shop: Pixie Feet Photography. I originally bought 4 squares and 8 circles to see how those would work. Turns out the squares are perfect but now they are nowhere to be found. Every resource I had found them on a few weeks back is out of stock for some reason and I cannot find them in any of the local big box craft stores. Poor me. I went ahead and ordered the smallest squares to see what I could do with them because I needed to get glaze anyway so I might as well get everything at once. So, crossing my fingers I can do something with those. Also, ordered another batch of photos I am excited to get. I wonder if someone else had the same idea I did and ordered those tiles all for themselves? Boohoo. Guess I'll start on the headbands, which is my 2nd idea. Here is a sample of what I'll be doing:

I have a huge collection of buttons that my grandmother collected over the years and am going to be adding them to the headbands. I believe they would count as vintage. She passed away in the late nineties and many of her buttons were still on the original strip, with copyright dates in the sixties. In this shot you can kind of see one of them. I am glad to use them for something pretty and useful and hopefully others will like them too.

So, on to boring work (bleh) and then hopefully I can squeeze in a little time to create!

Pear & Walnut Muffins...Hooray

Whoa, so I almost missed Muffin Monday but alas I am here, just after 8 p.m. with no less than 1 million things going on at once. Maybe that is a slight exaggeration, but not by much.

After one crazy fun but busy weekend, the girls both started the many clubs this week that their awesome elementary school has, including jump-roping, running, dancing, and choir. I volunteered to help out with 3 of them so between an hour and a half today at their jump roping club and another hour and a half at Zumba (1 hour class & driving there and back) I had a big portion of my day taken away. Add working for 4 hours, getting the grocery list ready, dinner, and soccer practice and I'm one tired mommy.

But I did it! I got my muffins a-made! And, they turned out great. Corey said he liked them even better than muffins with apples which is a huge deal since he thinks apple pie is the greatest dessert ever invented and loves everything apple, except maybe I-tunes. But that is a whole 'nother story.  Anyway, are the muffins:

And here is the recipe:

Pear & Walnut Muffins

Topping:

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces

Batter:

• 2 cups flour  2 pears, cubed
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 pears, cubed
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

PROCEDURE:

1. Stir brown sugar & flour together. Add 2  tablespoons cold butter and, with hands, mix together until butter starts to break down into mixture. Put mixture in fridge until you are finished mixing muffin batter.
2. Preheat oven to 350°.
3. Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and nutmeg in a large bowl.
4. In a smaller bowl mix eggs and milk.
5. Add pears and walnuts to the flour mixture, stirring with hands.
6. Add egg and milk mixture and melted butter to flour mixture.
7. Stir with wooden spoon or spatula until flour is mixed in thoroughly.
8. Fill muffin cups evenly that have been either sprayed or cupcake liners added to.
9. Sprinkle evenly with topping mixture.
10. Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy tomorrow's breakfast! 

First Rejection

Wow, yesterday was a tough day. Rewind to the 2nd week of school when my oldest was told of an opportunity for a district wide Honors choir tryout coming up in a few weeks. Only five from each elementary were allowed to try out. She was chosen as one of the five out of twelve from her school and we were very proud.

Two weeks and a lot of hard work and last Saturday the audition came and went by quickly. Two minutes and one song later she came out smiling. She is a confident child. Sometimes, too confident for her own good because she just assumes she has everything in the bag. She told me on the way home that she missed her queue but caught up quickly. First red flag. I tried not to think about it but it bothered me. Especially when I knew that there were 300 kids going up for around 100 spots.

not MY daughter

As you can expect from the first few hints, she got the letter yesterday that she did not make it and was devastated. This is the first tryout she has ever had and it ended in rejection and oh my, it hit us hard.

It's easy to say from an outside view that it will be okay and she will learn from it, no doubt she will. But, she is also a child that feels everything and it was just a very hard day. Hard for her and maybe even harder for me. Children have a way of brushing off and getting going pretty quickly. Adults know that certain events could be pivotal and remember what they went through as children. With that in mind, hopefully Corey and I reacted in a way that would teach her to let this be a lesson instead of it being something that knocked her down. It's a little better today but it still stings.

I wasn't prepared for the magnitude that comes with your child being rejected for something but I'll just have to learn to toughen up for her sake. Our advice was this: It's over, it's the past already, there is nothing we can do to change it. You can be sad today but everyone that has ever earned something important has gone through some type of rejection. Next time you want something really bad think about how bad it felt to not get what you wanted and use that to push you even more. Wish your friends well that did make it and move on to the next thing.

I think she'll be okay. Me, on the other hand.....well, I'm still working on it.

Dear Ella, you'll get'em next time!

Cinnamon & Chocolate Chip Yumminess

Good morning and welcome to Muffin Monday #2. I skipped last Monday because it was Labor Day and also the day after someone's birthday celebration and well, let's just say I, um, I mean that someone wasn't up to feeling like muffins that morning, or afternoon, or even that evening. Yikes! That was a rough morning if I'm being honest. Really felt all of those 30-somethin years.

Anyhoo, daughter #1, big E, Ella Bean as I call her, requested something with chocolate chips for this week's recipe. I only had about half a bag of mini chocolate chips available because we had gone to a pot luck and I made The Pioneer Woman's Cleta Bailey's Toffee Squares with the other half. Let me just say I have not tried a Pioneer Woman recipe that wasn't sensational. She is an inspiration!

So, I was looking for a recipe that didn't just have chocolate chips as a main ingredient. I decided to just mix it up a bit and came up with this Cinnamon & Chocolate Chip Muffins recipe:

Cinnamon & Chocolate Chip Muffins


Dry:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 packed brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips (we used the mini kind)

Wet:
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 400°. 
2. In a large bowl, sift all dry ingredients together. 
3. In a medium bowl, combine wet ingredients. 
4. Add wet ingredients into dry and stir just until moistened. 
5. Mix in chocolate chips.
6. Fill greased muffin tins or cupcake liners 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden.

Then, try not to stuff your face because these are scrumptious! Enjoy!

Blueberry Muffins and Refreshing Rain for Muffin Monday

Today we are starting 'Muffin Monday'. It's been too hot to bake lately but school just started last week so I decided since there are a million and one ways to make a muffin and we could start trying some out and have an extra easy breakfast idea for the weekdays. What comes to mind when you think of muffins? Blueberry of course. I searched through Foodgawker I found this one over at Cookin' For My Captain that looked like a good first choice to start with. Here's how they turned out:

Super easy to make.

Blueberry Muffins:

2 cups of flour

1 tblsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

2 large eggs

1 cup milk

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

• Preheat oven to 400 °
• Whisk flour, baking powder, & nutmeg together in a bowl.
• In separate bowl, whisk eggs, milk, sugar, butter, & vanilla.
• Add flour mixture just until mixed together.
• Fold in blueberries.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Yields 1 dozen.

Hubby called me from work about an hour after he left for work this morning. He started out with "I do NOT like blueberries." but before I could tell him I knew that he probably wouldn't like these muffins he followed it with "but I LOVE these muffins!". I think they were a winner! Ella really enjoyed them too. Audrey still is not a big fan of blueberries but she is not the biggest eater so I don't gauge a food's success on her take at this point in her life yet.

And, OMG we had the coolest day of the summer today. At least this morning. My 5th grader, Ella is in safety patrol and just as soon as she was about to take off early to school to start her 'shift' it started raining! I was so happy to drive her with the windows down. Not just a few drops, actual RAIN. It didn't last long but after this summer's drought it was the greatest thing ever. I just stood with the door open when I got back home, while talking to Corey about the muffins, and inhaled that smell. I adore that smell. I wish I could bottle up that smell and light a candle that smells like fresh rain whenever I was feeling down. That has to be on my list of top 3 smells ever. Also, just-out-of-the tub babies and fresh baked bread! But these freshly baked blueberry muffins aren't far behind.

It Never Fails....

I'm coming to the realization that I am my own worst enemy. Lately, many of my thoughts have revolved around what direction I want to be headed in. Not just career, but life's purpose. What will make me happy. I have figured out I have to have a creative outlet. Photography has been filing that void lately. I hadn't thought about why or where, but I am just doing and enjoying.

Unfortunately, here comes the logical side of my brain mixed with the seed of doubt that is trying to ruin the fun. It really never fails and I know I must have had some voice, in the form of a parent or a teacher, at some point in my life telling me why I can't and shouldn't. And, I'm finally realizing this is not my voice and I can tell it to shut up! I have been doing a lot of reading on the subject and of people that are successful at being creative. I just need to keep pushing on and shutting down that voice that asks why I would even try and that there are a million other people out there that are better than me. But really, who cares if there are. That means I have a million people to learn from.

And since pictures are where it's at here are a few of the latest from this morning. The first could be titled "What happens when you leave your camera in the hands of your 7-year-old". I was talking with a friend and had taken a few pictures of the girls so I checked the camera when I got home and found this first one. Love it!

This is one I took while waiting for my friend to arrive:

And one more I took after I told the girls they look so pretty even when they aren't smiling and they decided to make serious faces the rest of the morning:

As they say: Just keep swimming.....

New camera?

Well, so I won't be using the camera much longer and now I have a choice of just not taking pictures or buying a good DSLR of my own. And, we will be going on vacation in a little over 2 weeks so do I go ahead and buy the new camera now? I think I've figured out which one I want, the Canon Digital Rebel XT. It has great reviews and I can pick one up under $500 all day long. So, do I want to shell out the money and have the camera for the cruise is the question? I need to make a decision and will be pondering that over the next week since I need to order one very soon if I decide to buy used or online.

Until then, here are some new photos. The first was taken in the school's garden. Again, since we have had 100+ temperatures nearly every day over the past month or so many of the flowers have died off but this is a pretty little yellow one with beautiful coloring:

One of the few here that still looks good. Most are on the way out:

A pretty cone flower that was in my garden but has since kicked the bucket:

I had to do a little editing on these. This is my BIL, Marcus and this whole scene just screams vintage look so vintage editing it is:

and one more shot with the vintage type screen edited in Picnik:

This shot was actually taken by our cheap point and shoot Sony digital but it was such a cool shot I had to edit it and include it. We found this bike sitting outside of a little strip of shops close to downtown Dallas:

This is the runner up on a shot I did for the MCP project 52 with the theme: Sweet Relief. The other shot that I chose to submit can be seen here. I didn't get chosen still as one of the top 10 but I did get some encouraging comments. That makes me feel like I at least am learning each week.

I may be getting my hands on Photoshop for free so that is really exciting. It makes the thought of shelling out the money for a nicer camera that much easier but still, I'm pretty frugal so I need to be sure this is something I will be getting my money's worth with so I am still a bit hesitant. I know this would be easy for most people but I just can't go out and spend money without thinking about it. I have to be absolutely certain that I will not have buyer's remorse. Right now, I'm about 70% on the side of buying one but will be adding a new post here when I make my final decision.

Lake, Storms, & a Drop-In Visitor

I feel like this past week was kind of a bust as far as photography. I had a great idea to go to the lake, which is a few miles down the road and has a great trail around it. Problem was, by the time we got there the storms were bearing down on us somewhat and we only had about an hour.

I got a few good shots & experimented more with photo editing. I'm just using Picasa now but if I'm still interested 6 months down the road I'll probably invest in Photoshop.

This shot is one of the few flowers blooming down by the lake. Here in Texas it's been over 100 more days than normal so most of the prettier flowers have died as far as I could tell:

This is one of the shots where I tried to get that vintage-y look to it. It was pretty plain before but I think it looks neat now:

A palm tree base that someone apparently took down. You don't see a lot of these trees around here. I'm guessing it gets too cold in the winter for them:

In this one Audrey was trying to show me the tiny flowers that she picked and when I took a shot, Ella walked over in the shot. So, it looks like one of those shots where she's the same size as the flower. Or, I'm squishing your head:

The "I'm 10 and contemplating the universe" shot, aka the Mom thought it was cool for me to stand looking in the distance with the storm clouds rolling in:

Of course when we drove back home the sun was starting to set and this is the best shot I could get with the clouds & the rain in the distance:

A night shot & some fooling around in Picasa:

The day after the storms I was working at my desk and heard birds going crazy. My desk backs up to the back of the house where we have lots of windows facing the backyard. There were 2 birds chirping and flying back and forth between the house & our tree (the one in the picture above), and swooping down towards the dog, Ace. Here is the little guy on the roof:

And his friend in the tree:

When we ventured out after the ruckus we found a nest that had been knocked down and a dead little baby bird (awww) on the ground which I'm guessing came down in the very high winds we had the night before. The birds had flown away to make a new nest somewhere:

Good luck little birdies.