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.