Day 14 - Blueberry Lemon Muffins

They are just as delicious as they sound!!!

Ingredients:

2½ cups flour
¾ cup sugar, white or light brown, plus more for sprinkling on top of muffins
1 tbsp baking powder
⅛ teasp salt
fresh grated nutmeg
½ cup butter, 1 stick
1 cup milk
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tbsp lemon zest, finely grated
½ teasp vanilla
1½ cups fresh blueberries, rinsed & dried



Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners and set aside.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg together in a medium bowl; set aside.



put the butter in a microwave-safe dish. Microwave until melted, about 30 seconds. (Or you can melt it in a saucepan.) Whisk the milk, eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla with the butter.

Make a small well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into the well, then stir with a wooden spoon until the dry ingredients are moistened but still lumpy. Do not overmix the batter or your muffins will be dense. Gently stir in the blueberries.



Divide the batter evenly into the muffin tin and sprinkle the tops generously with sugar.

Put the muffins in the oven and immediately reduce oven temp to 375.




Bake until golden brown, about 25 min, rotating the pan halfway through the cooking. Cool muffins in the pan on a rack for a couple minutes. Turn the muffins out of the pan and cool on the rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Day 13 - Enough is Enough

OK, I am truly sorry for my break. I had a chocolate party a week ago, then had family visit & then went to visit family. VERY BUSY week!!! So now I am back at my computer with a couple of FABULOUS recipes for you!! But first, on a more personal note, I have decided that I am going to do some radical & different recipes. I need to be very creative in what I do with food now. Some of you may know that my husband lost his job last year, but now he has a new job (which we are SO thankful for), but it pays less, so I need to figure out how to stay on a strict budget & to make YUMMY and healthy food for my family during this time. So enough of that!! On with the food!!

This first one is PERFECT for any get together/potluck etc!!

Fruit Salad in a Watermelon Basket

So, first I took a whole watermelon, laid it how it wants to lay & cut about 1 1/2 inch on each side of the midline to make the handle. Then I cut from the stem lengthwise to meet the first cut, then the other side. So you are left with half a watermelon on the bottom & a little 3 inch piece on the top.




Then I took my knife & cut the flesh off the top part. You can then scoop out the bottom or try to cut it out, your choice. I scooped it.








I cut up some of the watermelon & put it in another bowl to make my salad. I cut up a pineapple, some strawberries, blueberries, grapes & kiwi. I would rinse the basket & pat dry. If you're not going to use it right away, I would refrigerate it & the salad too.



Next is the most awesome treat ever!!!

Profiterole Puffs - in layman's terms CREAM PUFFS!!!! Unfortunately they are SO easy to make it is unbelievable!!!! :-)
From the Pampered Chef
For the puffs you will need:
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup flour
3 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat your oven to 375. Combine the water butter & salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the flour all at once. Using a spatula, stir vigorously for about 1 minute until the mixture leaves the sides and forms a ball. Remove it from the heat; place dough into a bowl, preferably glass, but metal is fine too. Add eggs and whisk until smooth and very thick using a whisk.

Lightly spray a mini muffin pan with oil. Using a slightly mounded teaspoon scoop batter into cups. Bake 22-25 min or until a deep golden brown. Remove them from the oven and make a small cut into the side of each puff to release excess steam. Remove puffs from pan and cool completely.






For the filling:
1 containter (8 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup prepared chocolate frosting, melted
2 tbsp chopped pistachios or almonds

Combine whipped topping, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Mix gently until well blended using a spatula. If you have a pastry bag fill it with filling & pipe into puffs. If you don't have a pastry bag, you can use a large zip-top bag, and put the filling into the bag & then cut off a small corner & pit it into the hole you made in the puffs & pipe it in. You should feel the dough tighten around the cream. For the topping, place frosting in a microwave safe bowl, cook on high for 5-10 seconds or until melted. Drizzle frosting over puffs and sprinkle with chopped nuts. Serve immediately. Makes 24 puffs.





I do the filling just a little differently. I use a cup of whipping cream & use my whisk attachment on my Kitchen Aid & make whipped cream then I add the vanilla & powdered sugar & stir it in gently. I also don't use frosting, I use some of my Dove chocolate & melt it. It doesn't drizzle as well, but it does harden.

There ya go!! Two great dishes that are perfect for get togethers!!

Day 12 - Back to Business

Sorry it took a couple days to get back to this. Our 4th was an awesome day!! I hope yours was too!! On Monday I did some sewing projects that were piling up on me. I didn't think to take pictures while I was doing it, so I didn't blog about it. I did rebuild a hem on my husbands shorts, which was something that I had never done before. I did pretty well. But, on to today's yummy-ness :-)

Strawberry Popcicles

2 cups strawberries (topped)
1 cup milk
sugar to taste

Wash & top strawberries, put them & the milk in a blender. Blend until smooth. Taste it, if it isn't sweet add some sugar. Blend & taste. Repeat as necessary. Pour into popcicle molds. Freeze 6-8 hours or until competely frozen

Day 11 - Blankets

I decided early in the year that I was going to make blankets for everyone for Christmas. Today I finished 2. They are very simple little blankets.

This one is for my nephew





THis one is for Saya, but it is for her new friend Pandy, her new Build-A-Bear friend.




The blankets aren't the no-sew ones. They are knotted at the top & bottom, but have a small hem on the sides. Saya has one that is similar to the one I made for Pandy, & I have more fabric to make one for her.

I have used about 2 yards for the large blankets. It might be a bit big to begin with but as the kids grow it will be perfect to just curl up with.

That's it!! I hope you enjoy this project. I just wanted to inform you that I am taking the day off tomorrow to have fun & visit with family & friends. Have a HAPPY & SAFE 4th!!!!

Day 10 - Fun with Food Coloring

I had a lot of fun today!! It was a lot of work but it was well worth it!!!

I made Star Wars sugar cookies with cookie cutters from William Sonoma. They are SO cool!!! I made some a week or so ago. I liked them, but couldn't figure out how to frost them. They have the cutter, but then there is a stamp that stamps the face on it. If you frost the cookie you will cover up the stamp, unless you are professional & use tiny brushes & are extremely patient & don't have a 2 year old running around ;-)

So I decided to dye the dough & them frost the hightlights. It worked out very well. Also, there is a reason why I did this. My husband & I watch a podcast called The Totally Rad Show. I was out of town when my hubby watched the episode that featured the hosts making these cookies & it was a frosting fail because of the same issues I had originally. So, my plan is to send pictures in to the podcast & maybe they will show my picture on their show :-) We'll see.

I know that most people won't have the cookie cutters, but I thought that I would share William Sonoma's sugar cookie recipe. You can use it with any cookie cutters you wish.

Sugar Cookies from William Sonoma

1 cup sugar
12 tbsp (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 egg, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Method:

Sift together flour & salt. Set aside.
In another bowl mix together, butter, sugar, egg and vanilla.
Add flour mixture in 2 parts.
When the dough comes together, form it into a ball. Split that ball into 2. Form the balls into discs & wrap them in plastic wrap. Put them in the refrigerator for 2 hours up to 2 weeks.






When you're ready to make cookies, bring the disks out of the refrigerator & allow to rest for 5 min. Roll the dough out to 1/4" thick. Preheat oven to 350 & bake for 10 - 15 min.


Before putting the dough in the refrigerator was when I added the food coloring to make my desired colors.








So, while they were baking I made the icing:

3 egg whites, at room temperature
4 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
a pinch of salt
a few drops vanilla or lemon juice
food coloring, if desired

IN the bowl of an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites, confectioners' sugar, cream of tartar & salt on medium-low speed. Add the vanilla or lemon juice and turn up the speed to medium-high for 7-8 minutes until stiff peaks form & it triples in volume.








Next, I decided to make a No-Cook PlayDough for my daughter. I thought it would be a nice thing for her to play with from time to time.

No-Cook Playdough from Cooks.com

3 cups flour
1 1/2 CUPS salt
1/4 cup oil
1 cup water
food coloring



Blend until it forms a dough ball. You can use a stand mixer or a food processor with a dough blade.
This was the point that I broke the dough into balls & dyed each one a different color.

Day 9 - Meatball Subs with Homemade Hoagie Rolls

I absolutely love this meal. It is a bit lengthy, but it is well worth it!!!!

First start with the hoagies:

Ingredients:

1 cup water
2 teasp sugar
4 teasp vegetable oil
1 teasp salt
2¾ cups bread flour
2¼ teasp yeast

Method:

Place ingredients into bread machine.
Use dough cycle
Remove dough to a lightly floured surface & dust the top with flour.
Cut the dough into 6 equal pieces
Place dough pieces evenly spaced apart on a cookie sheet sprayed with Pam.
Shape dough into an oval shape.
Cut a "snip" in the center of each roll, about 1-2 inches long & 1/4 inch deep




Cover & let rise for 20 minutes.






Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.











After the hoagies, make the meatballs. I just used pre- prepared meatballs. I had some from Costco that I used, so heat them according to the directions on the package.












While the meatballs are in the oven, warm up some spaghetti sauce.











After the meatballs are done, I cut the hoagies in half, but left part of the crust attached. I split the meatballs in half & placed them on the hoagie, then took some provolone cheese on top & put the whole thing on a baking sheet & broiled it until the cheese was melted & browning. (In the picture, the lasagna dish was my daughter's, I didn't want to broil her bread.)








Pull it out of the oven after 4-5 min & top with spaghetti sauce, green peppers and black olives, if you wish.






SO DELICIOUS!!!