Cranberry Muffins

A couple weeks ago, I was gifted a cook book of muffins from an extremely sweet friend (Hi, Erin! ^_^)! Haha, upon opening it, I was super excited, there were multiple ones I wanted to try out right then and there. I narrowed it down to one… went downstairs, determined I was going to make some muffins. And realized we didn’t have any flour at the time, haha.

Which is kind of imperative for muffins. And a lot of things, haha.

But, I eventually got flour, so the muffins could be made!

I chose the cranberry muffins… which the recipe had you sprinkle parmesan on top before sticking them in the oven, for a more savory muffin; but you could switch it would with sugar. So, I went with sugar (because we didn’t have any parmesan ;-P) and hooooly cow, they were so tasty!

I also threw in some nutmeg and cinnamon, and it gave it a really nice fall-ish flavor (because fall can be a flavor? haha!) Also, I didn’t have the kind of cranberries it called for, so I just used craisins ^_^

Super easy, super fast and super tasty! The book is called “Muffins: Tantalizing recipes for delicious muffins” from the Love Food series.

If you ever feel the need to just stop whatever you’re doing and make something (particularly muffins, cookies, or brownies) seize the moment! Stop, if you can, and just make something tasty. It makes things super happy ^_^

Baileys Salted Caramel Chocolate Pie (plus knitting)

I made a pie today ^_^

Its a Baileys Salted Caramel Chocolate Pie. And yes, it tastes just as amazing as it sounds. Not that I’d know or anything, I’d never taste the filling before running water in the bowl ~_^ (it was extremely tasty, heehee)

Super quick, super easy. I wasn’t quite sure how much 6oz. of chocolate chips were when measured by cups – I was getting several different answers online. I ended up putting in about a cup and a little bit. Melted the chips in the microwave – nothing special there.

Whipped together some sugar and heavy whipping cream, added the Baileys (which my dad picked up for me at a Spec’s), whipped it some more, then added the melted chocolate. Put it all in a pie crust my mom had gotten, sprinkled some salt on top, then stuck it all in the fridge! Where it is now sleeping, haha. It shall be eaten tomorrow… I can’t wait to try it ^_^

I’m so loving not having to go to school every day now ^_^ I have time to make pies and blog more and knit and sleep late and so many awesome things ^_^

In the knitting world, I cast on a sweater (because I could, haha) On… Monday, with some Brooklyn Tweed LOFT I had gotten in the Homemade Jam colorway (First maroon sweater, woot!) with the intention of making Reverb by Tanis Lavallee.

So I cast on, got my 2 and 3/4″ of the collar and was about to start the cabling. Then I realized… that Reverb is actually a worsted weight sweater. Why I had thought it was knit with LOFT, I have no clue, haha. It was definitely a laugh-at-myself-heartily-moment, haha. I’m so glad I caught that before I continued on though, this cable pattern is no joke.

It was frogged, and I cast on holding my LOFT double (thankfully with the 7 skeins I got and holding it double, I should end up with about 62.5 yards left over. We’ll see about that, haha) and I’ve made definite progress!

My main reason for casting this on was to do the Must Stash Podcast’s sweater KAL thats going on this month through the end of June, I think. Steph and Stacie are two of the sweetest people ever. Their podcast is definitely one of my favorites now. If you love knitting, laughs, and knitterly inspiration – this podcast is definitely for you. Ohhh yes, it is for you.

When Wool People 5 was released, Reverb was the one that stood out to me the most. I *had* to cast it on, haha.

I’m really excited about the yarn, despite the fact that I goofed and got LOFT instead :-P, the color is just so amazing. I like that its very true to its name – it’s got little flecks of darker purples and browns.. just like how homemade jam would. It would have little pieces of strawberries that were a bit darker than the jelly part. Brooklyn Tweed always has the best colors. So natural and rustic looking, ahhh.

Now I’m sitting at a coffee shop, enjoying the sounds and smells (coffee *and* rain. ^_^).. now its time to get a little knitting in ^_^

Oh man, do I love the summer.

Mocha Chocolate Scones

Yesterday, I had the urge to make scones. I don’t know why.. maybe I saw a picture of some that someone posted, or something. But I really really wanted to make scones. So, I decided that the next day (Today. Saturday. Woo, haha) to make some.

If you search “scones” on Pinterest (or “pancakes” for that matter), it will only instill in you an even greater urge to drop everything that needs to be done and make all the things.

Thankfully, I got all my Econ homework that’s due on Monday completely done, so I thought it’d be fun to treat myself and make some scones.

After scrolling through (and much repinning of future scone ideas, haha) I decided on one. Annnnd… it is quite an awesome recipe. They are Mocha Chocolate Scones.

It’s an extremely easy recipe. I had a blast making them.. and they are extremely tasty.

I’m so happy with how they turned out… the house smells like a mixture of a coffee shop and a chocolate chip cookie. It’s quite heavenly.

What was really handy was that I brewed the coffee that went into the scone batter and the glaze from our Keurig (I used Gloria Jean’s Buttered Toffee flavor, if anyone is interested). It was uber quick and made the whole process even faster.

The glaze portion ended up making way more than you need for however many scones. So I just put the extra in a container… and we’ll use it for an ice cream topping or something. Whatever we do with it, it’ll be amazingly tasty. Like… really really amazingly tasty.

If you are in the need of some scones (plus maybe a cup of tea, or coffee, or hot chocolate… whatever suits your fancy) and want to try something a little bit more fancy than your plain scone (though… all scones are awesome Love all the scones), I definitely recommend these. They are full of chocolate, but not enough to be overwhelmed (like that could ever happen, heh heh :-P) mixed with a hint of coffee. Definitely to die for.

Thanksgiving 2012

Happy Belated Thanksgiving, everyone ^_^

It was quite a happy year – family, friends, food. Alteration, even that. (not really.. but yeah ^_^)

My dad always takes care of the turkey, and he always does an amazing job. He’s pro.

So amazingly pro, that he plays the banjo, while the turkey gets fried. I love my dad, he’s so awesome.

Lots of knitting happened too, I started this scarf for my future brother-in-law, for Christmas. (I don’t think he reads my blog, so I think I’m safe :-P) As of now, I’m a lot further than I expected I’d be, quite exciting! The foot featured in this picture, is my sister’s. Yay for sister’s feet ^_^

It was such a wonderful Thanksgiving, I hope yours was just as awesome as mine was :-)

Mini Cinnamon Rolls

I had baking adventures today. They were quite epic.

I made mini cinnamon rolls.

It’s just crescent rolls, smushed together to make a big… square thing of dough.

Then you put cinnamon and brown sugar (and I added pumpkin spice. Surprise, right?) roll them up, cut them like you would a normal cinnamon roll..

put them into a greased mini cupcake tin thing.

Then ice them this amazing maple icing.

Then you eat them with a cup of tea and think that life is amazing ^_^

Cherry Almond Goodness

I did some baking today ^_^

My mom and I are both big fans of the Pioneer Woman (who lives like 15 minutes away from the town I grew up in, Ponca City. Oklahomans, woot woot!!), and we saw her Cherry Almond Crisp recipe… and of course… I had to try it :-P

It was uberly uberly easy, and I can’t wait to taste it. I love the mixture of cherry and almond. Mmmmmmm, so delicious

It’s baking right now, and the house is filled with that amazing cherry/almond/cinnamon/buttery smell… *drools*

Green Monster Smoothie!

Remember that Strawberry Lemonade Smoothie I tried a couple days ago, and it turned out amazing? And I also said that having smoothies for lunch (or any meal, haha) makes one feel extremely healthy and good about one’s self. Or maybe that’s just me.

But I got a wonderful comment from Syneva with a recipe for something called a Green Monster Smoothie. (which you can find the page she got it from, if you head over in this direction :-P

And it included spinach. Hence… the whole “Green” name, haha.

Which, in the past I’ve kind of been “ehhhhhh….O.o” about smoothies with spinach in them. But after this one… I definitely won’t be hesitant when a smoothie recipe calls for it.

So I made it for lunch a couple of days ago for my mom and I to split (like I said in the previous smoothie post, I cannot, for the life of me, finish a whole smoothie serving. It’s just not possible. Eh heh, haha :-P)

So yes, do not be thrown off by the color or the thought that those are, in fact, bits of spinach floating around in there… it is absolutely AMAZING.

My mom added a little bit of protein powder to hers, and I added a little bit of honey to mine for a little sweet (I couldn’t help myself ^_^) and it’s SO DELICIOUS.

Definitely going to be making this one again. And like the webpage says, it’s got tons of healthy things packed in there. Like…Vitamins A, C, K, iron, fiber, folate, lutein, magnesium, potassium, protein and calcium (taken from the webpage)

It’s yum yum yum, nom nom nom, bork bork bork! *Swedish Chef voice*. So thank you, Syneva for sharing this! Definitely a new favorite :-P

Cheesecake Cookies. Yep, you heard me right.

I went on another baking adventure again the other day. Annnnd it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. Thanks to the wonders of Pinterest, haha, I found something amazing.

I made Cheesecake Cookies. Yeah, sounds epic, right?

You basically just make cheesecake “dough”, let it sit in the refrigerator for awhile, then you roll the dough into balls, roll those balls into mashed up graham crackers, put them on a cookie sheet, make a little nest for the little spoonful of pie filling that you’ll put on before you stick it in the oven for 14 minutes.

I used cherry pie filling, but any pie filling would be amazing. I want to try peach next, I think that’d be really really good… or strawberry… Oooo… *drools*

They are quite amazing. And they are going quickly at my house, there aren’t many left, haha. But that’s totally okay, because… it’s always good to have a reason to make more cookies. Cheesecake cookies, at that, haha.

Strawberry Lemonade Smoothie, please ^_^

It’s the summer. It’s kinda really awesome.

When I think of summer, among many many cool things, I think of smoothies. And how I always feel really good about myself if I have one for a meal. So healthyyyy, woot woot!

Well, I did that ^_^

I went a-searching on Pinterest, searched for strawberry smoothies (cause strawberries were what we had the most of. Totally cool, strawberries are ammmmazing ^_^)

and I found… the Strawberry Lemonade Smoothie

So delicious, oh my goodness. I didn’t completely follow the recipe, haha. I didn’t include the cashews, all the strawberries I used were not frozen, so I upped the amount of ice I included. And I just kind of eyeballed how much lemonade I put in.. Thankfully we had some from.. whenever we made it last, haha. It’s not like regular lemonade, it’s Lavender Basil lemonade.

I couldn’t really tell a whole lot of difference by using the non-normal lemonade, I think it’s amazing both ways.

Plus, it’s got lots of good nutritional things in there.. like vitamin C, fiber, potassium, a little bit of protein (depending if you use the nuts..)

But I had a huge cup, almost finished it (I tried! I seriously tried, haha!) and had an awesome amount of energy so I then worked out for an hour. And wasn’t too tired when I got done.

So yes. Strawberry Lemonade Smoothie? Ohhhh yeah.

Salted Chocolate Chunk Blondies.. and the Swedish Chef

First full day back home, and I had a sudden urge, mid unpacking, to make something that was sweet and salty. And just yum yum yum, nom nom nom, *Swedish Chef voice* bork bork bork!

I remembered I had pinned something before we left that definitely fit what I was looking for. And so… I left the packing and went to go make Salted Chocolate Chunk Blondies

Uber uber uber easy, took me about 15 minutes to throw everything together, then it takes 25 minutes to bake. Then you just let them sit and cool off completely, then cut them into little squares.

And for those of you who can never remember the whole stick-of-butter-measurements (which is probably just me. I can never remember that. As silly as it sounds, haha) I found this really cool butter converter thing… I definitely recommend it, it makes figuring out measurements really easy.

So, I made them, had to get ready for ballet, and headed to my last class (major sad :-( but I’ll be back! Yessss) let them cool while I was gone. Came back, cut them, we had dinner, a couple blondies were had, it was yum yum yum, nom nom nom, bork bork bork (which the whole “bork bork bork” thing is an inside joke, to clear up any confusion, heehee ^_^) then we continued on with life. and we got to lunch today, and here’s the current status of the pan of blondies..

They’ve kind of all magically disappeared, haha. This is a sign, that these are in fact, amazingly AMAZING. You sprinkle salt on top of the batter before you stick it in the oven. So, it’s got a really nice salty taste.

Need something sweet *and* salty? Make these little babies. You won’t be sorry :-P