Blueberry Muffins

Blueberries, which we don’t eat very often, were on sale, so I bought some to vary our nutrient intake. I got enough to have some fresh—yum—and to use some to make blueberry muffins--yum yum! I had never made muffins with real blueberries before (the box mixes are all I had done), so I got a recipe from a fellow butter-lover, Paula Deen:

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, melted

1 egg, slightly beaten

3/4 cup whole milk

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup granulated brown sugar or white sugar

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin.
2. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and sugar. In another bowl, combine butter, egg, and milk and mix well. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and with a spatula, stir until just combined. Do not beat or over mix; it's okay if there are lumps in the batter.
3. Gently fold the blueberries into the batter.
4. Spoon the batter into the muffin tray, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake for 10 minutes and remove from the oven.
5. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the granulated brown or white sugar and return the muffins to the oven to bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
6. Cool for about 10 minutes in the pan before turning the muffins out.

The only thing I did differently was use a 6-cup jumbo muffin tin (because I had it and who doesn’t love jumbo muffins), and as a result, I had to bake my muffins a bit longer. I measured my ingredients carefully and instead of producing a “batter,” I ended up with more of a cookie dough consistency. It still worked out, and my muffins tasted pretty good.

Yeah, just pretty good. Not amazing. Sorry Paula. The muffins just weren’t as sweet as I would have liked. So if anyone has a better recipe, please send it my way.

All in all, however, I consider my first batch of homemade blueberry muffins a success. Hurray me!

The Hunger Games

I had heard from a lot of people that The Hunger Games trilogy was a good read, so I finally got around to reading the first book. I started reading Friday night. I was done, in tears, Sunday night.

To say The Hunger Games was good would be absolutely true, yet slightly misleading. I found it horrifying and was slightly traumatized by the end. But I LOVED the book.

Here is one brief synopsis from the official website: Set in a dark vision of the near future, a terrifying reality TV show is taking place. Twelve boys and twelve girls are forced to appear in a live event called The Hunger Games. There is only one rule: kill or be killed. When sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen steps forward to take her younger sister's place in the games, she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature.

The book takes a dramatic look at the effects of violence on adolescents, and while it is in the extreme (I had to keep reminding myself throughout the book that the society I was reading about was not my society), it raises some interesting questions. The book also begins an examination of politics (again not our politics, but the principles there are true). While the book looks at some pretty serious issues, it is not didactic. The author, Suzanne Collins, perfectly blends an intense narrative with these serious issues.

And while I say I found The Hunger Games horrifying, amid the horror is a delightful mix of humor and wit that balances out the tragedy. All-in-all I’d say this book is practically perfect in every way. If you can only read one book this year, read The Hunger Games.

Charlie's First Birthday

So, I’m a couple weeks behind on posting this, but it’s only ‘cause we didn’t have the internet at our new house until yesterday. (Yes, we bought a home! I’ll blog about that later.)

I had been looking forward to Charlie’s birthday for MONTHS! I was so excited, and the experience lived up to all my expectations. We kept things pretty simple and just had family and friends over for some cake and ice cream. I am actually really proud of the cake I made. It’s a banana cake with chocolate frosting. I chose to do it as a monkey because Charlie’s been our little monkey from the beginning. When he was just a month or so old, if his blanket got pushed down, he would grab it with his toes, pull it up to his hands, and cover himself. It was cute. So a monkey cake for our little monkey.

Charlie got lots of excellent toys and books. And he did a good job opening his presents without eating too much paper. I’m also proud of the fact that Charlie blew out his candle by himself even though I can’t take the credit—my mom coached him on that one.

Now for an overview of Charlie. As is pretty typical of one-year-olds, Charlie is interested in EVERYTHING. Every day is an exploration which unfortunately tends to turn into a lot of no’s. Often when we tell Charlie no, he’ll turn around, shake his finger, and say, “no” as if to instruct some unseen entity. If his uncle Shawn is around, he’s the one that gets instructed. Charlie also has a pretty good vocabulary—there are a lot of words he can say. Whether or not he will is the issue. More and more I see a strong personality trait manifesting itself in Charlie: if he doesn’t want to do something, he will not do it. No amount of coaxing or bribing works. (He’s so much like his father.) The words he says most often are no, oh no, shoes, book, juice, mom, dad, and Shawn. The animal sounds he makes most often are woof and roar. What I think is especially cute about his roar is that it’s quiet—not a lion making his presence known, a lion chuckling mischievously to himself in the tall grass before he attacks. Charlie loves to eat, and he’ll eat just about everything, which explains why he’s over 25 pounds. It was funny to watch him eat his birthday cake, because he wasn’t playing in it and occasionally eating or just mashing it against his face. He strategically maneuvered large pieces of cake into his mouth maximizing the cake devoured; he actually left very little mess.

In general Charlie is a very happy kid. He loves to be around and play with other kids but will also play by himself happily for 30-45 minutes at a time. He’s a mover and doesn’t stay in one spot long. He only cuddles when he is very tired or very sad.

Charlie is a huge blessing in our lives, and I am excited to see what his next year brings!

Pink Sheep Cake

We celebrated the October birthdays on my side of the family, and I designed this beautiful pink sheep cake. “Why a pink sheep cake?” you ask. Well, I will tell you.

We celebrated two birthdays: my cousin’s and my brother-in-laws. My cousin’s favorite color is pink, and my brother-in-law’s family has a sheep ranch. Viola. Pink sheep cake. I’m a genius.

My mom actually made the cake and frosting, but I put it all together. The brown frosting for the sheep’s face and ears is not the typical chocolate frosting we usually make; we used Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Cocoa. This was my first experience with it, and I thought it was delicious! Personally, I love the wiggly eyes. They may be my favorite part of the cake, and I will be using them again in the future. And I used a peanut M&M for the nose.

It may not look exactly like a sheep, but I think it’s pretty close, and it was a lot of fun to make.

Honey Lime Chicken

chicken
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons honey
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
4 tablespoons chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

1. Place chicken in crock pot. 2. Melt butter in a small saucepan, and add lime, honey, and garlic powder until warm. Add chicken broth, salt and pepper. 3. Pour lime mixture over chicken. Cover and cook on low 8 to 10 hours.

I had my first experience with honey lime chicken just after Charlie was born when my sister-in-law brought us dinner: honey lime chicken enchiladas. They were awesome! The leftovers were even awesome! Mmmm. Unfortunately, I never got the recipe from her, but I found this recipe online and think it would make excellent enchiladas.

I have used this recipe, and it is good. My side of the family got together for dinner and did our own version of Cafe Rio (for those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a Mexican restaurant in which you go through a cafeteria-like line and they build your burrito/salad/nachos to your specifications—fresh and delicious). The honey lime chicken was a huge success, and I definitely recommend it. Enjoy!

Housing Madness

In May we started house hunting. It’s a buyer’s market, and we decided that instead of spending our money on rent, we wanted to invest it. So the house hunt began, and it was exciting! We saw lots of great places (and some crappy places) that were more than reasonably priced.

We put in our first offer! It didn’t work out. We put in our second offer, but had to wait and wait and wait and . . . wait and wait some more, because it was a short sale. In the meantime, we put in our third offer on another short sale and thought we’d have to wait, but—whammy—two weeks later our offer is accepted! Hooray! Rejoicing! We start telling people that we’re going to be homeowners. I start looking at appliances. I start looking at wood flooring. I make decisions about paint (without purchasing). We schedule our inspection. We meet our loan officer and get the ball rolling. Whammy. The property doesn’t actually qualify for the conditions of our loan, which is the opposite of what the original listing stated. Whammy. We’re back at square one.

I cry.

I dry my tears and put on a brave face.

I cry some more.

Damn you, brave face!

I cry again.

Our realtor, in her infinite wisdom, doesn’t waste any time and just a few hours after the incredibly depressing news has a new long list of properties for us to check out. We decide not to wallow but to jump back into the hunt with both feet. (I wallow a little.) We see some crappy places. (I wallow a little more.) Then we see some really great places. (I wallow a little less.) Then more crap. (Wallow.) But we decide to put in our fourth offer (on one of the great places). Yikes. Anxiety. It is NOT a short sale; short sales are of the devil. Hooray? They counteroffer. Yikes. Anxiety. We counteroffer. They accept. Anxiety. Hooray! Anxiety. Hooray!

ARGH! I’m going crazy!

We’ve scheduled to meet with our loan officer to get the ball rolling—again. Hooray! Anxiety. We’ve scheduled our inspection. Hooray! Anxiety.

This is the current state of my life.

If all goes well, at the end of November we will own a beautiful, spacious townhome.

If I’m lucky at all, at the end of November I will still be sane.

(Was I ever sane?)