Recipe of the Week #4

A Stay at Home Mom who Blogs must share recipes, yes? Who am I to buck the stereotype!?! Society dictates and I obey.

Cupcakes

Tiny cakes that make me feel dainty while still eating cake!? Frosting in every bite? Cupcakes have become my "go to" dessert for any celebration. For years I would attempt and either a) burn them b) destroy them in attempting to remove them from pan c) overfill them or most often d) all of the above.  I would swear them off. But they are just so. darn. cute. Like tiny kittens in cake form.  I would be lured back.  "Simplify! Simplify!" my theatre training told me. And so I did.

Secret Family Recipe for SPJ's Cupcakes:
makes 24 cupcakes
1 Box Duncan Hines Classic White Cake
3 Egg Whites
1/4 cup oil (I vote coconut, but vegetable oils works just fine too)
1 cup water
2 12 cupcake cupcake pans
cupcake liners
1 ice cream scoop
1 container of generic/cheap/store brand white frosting
fruit or sprinkles or little daisies or other cute, fun festive things for decoration


Follow instructions for Duncan Hines Classic White Cake
Line cupcake pans with cupcake liners. INVEST IN CUPCAKE LINERS. You will not save money by not purchasing them You will lose money because cupcakes will be destroyed without them and you will need to purchase more cupcake supplies.
Use ice cream scoop to fill cupcake tins. One scoop per cupcake
After baking according to Duncan Hines box instrcutions, let cool for 30 minutes before frosting. Box will tell you less time for cooling- LIES! ALL LIES!! Wait at least 30 minutes.
Frost cupcakes
Decorate with fruit or sprinkles or flowers other cute, fun, festive things.

Put on cute, fun, festive serving plate. Remove from tins before frosting and serving. Have you seen people try to remove frosted cupcakes from tins? Not cute. Not fun. Not festive.

Enjoy!

Fashion Tips from my Son- #1

Are you enjoying the delightful nip of Fall in the air, but also sad to say good-bye to the fun of the Summer sun?

Well, why not pair some winter PJ's with some sporty summer sandals? You get the cozy feeling of autumn AND the carefree, outdoorsy vibe of a perfect summer day.

August 28- Adventures in Gardening

 I GREW A SALAD!! YAY!!!!

New Obsession

Oh hello readers! (and I use the plural of reader loosely) I am sure you have been waiting with bated breath for a weekly post. Perhaps my recipe of the week or more Adventures in Gardening?
Unfortunately I have become OBSESSED (and all capitals are definitively necessary) with...

PBS's Colonial House

You guys it is reality television for nerds!!! History! Crafts! Gardening! Community Building! Parallels to and Conflicts with Contemporary Society's Moral Compass! All packaged in sparkly, sugary traditional reality television wrapper.

You are lucky I am using my precious free time to even update you this much. All free time will continue to be dedicated to Colonial House until I have finished it or I have to return it to the library. Oh, did I forget to mention this was on in 2004 and I am just watching the DVDs from the library. Look man, that's how I roll. Don't try to reign me in. I cannot be contained by 2012. I look to the past even when learning about the past.

First Day of School

Here is my obligatory picture of my kitchen table. Because stay at home moms seem to post pictures of their kitchen tables on their blogs every once and a while. At least according to the homemaking/simple living blogs I have been reading.







I post this because today I acknowledge that I am indeed a stay at home mom. It's the first day of school at the university I used to teach at and I'm not teaching there. I am not currently teaching anywhere. I am not traditionally employed. I am however taking care of our kid, our dogs and our house and that was stuff we used to pay people to help us with so that is currently my job. I am my own personal assistant. Or, in our society, a stay at home mom.

I moved to Suburbia without a plan. I have been bringing home a paycheck since I was 15. I have always had a plan. I learned in my twenties to keep that plan open and fluid, but still I had one, a path to follow and possibly diverge from. And when I diverged, it was a clear zig or zag. This is the scariest thing I have ever done.

I am putting my money where my mouth is- I talk about listening, about being open to what the universe brings you. And now I am doing it. Do I want to teach? Or act? Or direct? Or write? Or start coaching again? Or be a stay at home mom? Yes. Yes to all of it.

There is no plan for "all of the above". So I sit at the above kitchen table and listen. I will watch. I will read. I will learn about "all of the above". I will live each moment. I will see family and old friends. I will make a home. I will be proactive. I will be ready. I will sit at the front of this strange new class. And I will wait.

 

Recipe of the Week #3

A Stay at Home Mom who Blogs must share recipes, yes? Who am I to buck the stereotype!?! Society dictates and I obey.

Why yes, this IS a photo from an earlier post. Do not judge me.

Banana Bread for Dummies

Banana Bread- the ultimate comfort food. Dessert for breakfast. Add chocolate frosting and it becomes simply dessert. (Or maybe it is still breakfast? Such a rock star you are.) It's also deceptively easy to make. Bring some to friends and watch them oooh and aah over your baking prowess. I'll never tell that even a monkey could make this recipe.




Secret Family Recipe for SPJ's Banana Bread
1 Loaf Pan- I don't know how big. You know, just the normal size.
2-4 Bananas
1/3 cup of Butter (with a little extra butter to grease the pan)
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 cup Sugar
1 1/2 cups Flour

Go shopping and see bananas. Decide your family will now eat a banana for breakfast every day. They are full of potassium! They are so healthy! You need them! Yum. Bananas.
A week later notice that your family has not been eating Bananas for breakfast every day. They have been drinking coffee (adults) or eating cereal bars (child) like they always do. You now have browning, soft bananas.
Preheat oven to 350.
In a glass bowl melt 1/3 cup of Butter in microwave until melted
Add however many Bananas you have that are brown and soft- usually 2-4 (peel them first)
Mash melted Butter and Bananas.
Push mash to one side of bowl
On other side of bowl add Egg and scramble it
Stir Egg and Banana Butter mush together.
Add Sugar.
Add Baking Soda
Add Vanilla
Mash and mix until it looks good

Add Flour 1/2 cup at at time and stir in between.
Grease Pan with extra butter (or oil or cooking spray or whatever you use)
Add batter to Pan.
Bake for 50-60 minutes (stick a knife in at 50 minutes, if it doesn't come out clean, put back in for 5 minute intervals until knife comes out clean.)
Let cool for 30 minutes.
Try not to eat entire Banana Bread Loaf in one sitting.

Can substitute Pumpkin for Banana! Especially after carving pumpkins and you have all that pumpkin intestines left over so you freeze it because you just know you are going to make all kind of pumpkin goodies and then 1-2 weeks later realize you will never make pumpkin goodies.

Enjoy!

August 10- Adventures in Gardening

Radishes, Lettuce & Spinach  (theoretically)

Weeds: 1,  SPJ: 1
Truce. Attempting to live together in harmony.