Time for another Recipe, A Healthy One!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

INGREDIENTS

Filling

• 1 (4 ounce) package cream cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar

Topping

• 4 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  (I use organic wheat pastry flour)
  
• 5 tablespoons white sugar
  (I use half splenda and half organic cane sugar)
  
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons butter (I use unsweetened applesauce)
  
• 3 tbls chopped pecans ( or 1/2 cup oats)
  

Muffin Mix

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white sugar (half splenda/ half cane sugar)
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/3 cups canned pumpkin (just use the whole can, single or double batch)
  
• 1/3 cup olive oil (or applesauce)
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (use the good stuff)
  

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour 18 muffin cups, or use paper liners.
• To make the filling: In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until soft. Add egg, vanilla and brown sugar. Beat until smooth, then set aside.
• For the streusel topping: In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, cinnamon and pecans. Add butter and cut it in with a fork until crumbly. Set aside.
• For the muffin batter: In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the center of flour mixture and add eggs, pumpkin, olive oil and vanilla. Beat together until smooth.
• Place pumpkin mixture in muffin cups about 1/2 full. Then add one tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture right in the middle of the batter. Try to keep cream cheese from touching the paper cup. Sprinkle on the streusel topping.
• Bake at 375 degrees F (195 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

These are so addicting and worth making. I used jumbo tins last time and for the record they are better regular sized.

Enjoy!

Look Cool and Keep Your Noggin Warm!

So Here's my Shameless plug for a product that I really love

because it happens to be
MADE
by someone I Love, too.
My lovable, hunk of a nephew

BROCK BUTLER!

Such a cutie and he makes Beanies, too.
If you want one just leave me a comment and I'll hook you up.

He also has a facebook group

"Beanies By Brock".

They're custom made in all different shapes, styles, and colors.

Order one before he's too booked!

Brock with his mom, Wendy (Andy's sister),
and G-ma and G-pa Moss (Andy's Parents)

New Year's Eve, At least the munchkins had fun!

So we all went to the Robert Moss house for a "New Years Eve Party". The food was good, and so was the company, but boy did we lack entertainment. So I was a little hard up for some and ended up styling the hair of all these American Girl Dolls without anyone even asking me to. Weird, I know, but dolls are just one of those things I've never grown out of, Lucky for me I have 3 daughters and plenty of nieces that make for plenty of dolls around to dress and play hair salon with. Sariah, our resident photographer, was sure to get pics so I thought I'd better blog about it so our "Awesome" start to 2009 would be documented. No lie...this was it.

That's how I play a day away in the merry old land of Moss!

So let me start this by saying THANKS HONEY, for putting up with all the mess and chaos that ensue when your wife decides she going to make A CAKE. I know you didn't really mean it when you said that this is the last cake I can ever make. Thanks for letting me play!

Well, necessary brown nosing aside...

I did it! Ellie's princess cake is now a memory, documented only by my crappy camera and probably my hips (when I make a cake the only thing I get around to eating is cake, rice krispie treats, and to a lesser degree frosting). I decorated this cake in record time and it didn't turn out half bad. The base fondant turned out horribly, so don't look too close at the pics. Ellie was such a good helper and covered the first layer with fingernail marks and fingerprints. And for some reason, maybe the sun???, the under layer that was originally light pink turned white everywhere that it wasn't covered. The only real problem I had was deciding if I would follow the picture of the princess cake I was using for inspiration or follow my own ideas. In the end I only used the concept from the contest cake, it just wasn't "Disney" enough for me. So this is what I came up with...




It was definitely Princess approved!

FONDANT (As per request)

So I've had a couple of requests for my fondant recipe and because I'm really not the type to keep a secret I've decided to post it here on my blog. It's such an easy recipe that even if you don't make cake, you could make up a batch for a fun edible playdough. I'm taking some to my NEW primary class tomorrow so they can sculpt the plan of Salvation (Sounds like something off of Seriously So blessed, I know but I've been promoted to 10 year olds, yay!) It really does taste just like marshmallow~not one of my fav flavors so I usually add almond extract to it. Instead of writing out the whole process I'm just going to give you a link. It's got step by step with pics and is the best recipe I've found. It could be a tad stiffer but I use it because of it's simplicity. So many fondant recipes have 10+ ingredients and call for things like glycerin??? Where do you get that? So with out further ado...
http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm
Happy Sculpting!

Back Tracking Needed (Get ready for a long one!)

So I'm finally feeling like I have a minute to post some pics from the holidays. No big deal! Just get them on here for journaling purposes and the grandparents. I didn't get as much accomplished this Holiday season as I wanted to, it just seemed so short didn't it?, but I did scratch Gingerbread houses off the list. I would really like to make them from scratch with melted candy stained glass windows and all but... We settled for kits from the store. Heidie and Madison, my two nieces joined us. What sticky/messy fun!

Sariah was able to bring her Cello home for the holidays to practice. Although if I recall this was the only time she has taken it out all Christmas break. I know, what a good mom I am. Anyways, the poor thing has to sit in the rocking chair 8 inches from the entertainment center so she can read her music. She's really in need of a music stand. I am so happy she is playing Cello. It is very low pitch which means it doesn't grate on my nerves when she practices the same thing over and over and occasionally plays the wrong note. It sounds quite beautiful actually. She doesn't bring it home that often because it's so big and they don't allow it on the bus so I figured I'd snap a pic. I think her concert is in a couple weeks so I probably should have been on her to practice more.

Isaac FINALLY got the slinky dog he's been asking for for Christmas the last three years. I could never see the point and quite frankly I still don't. Obviously whatever it is about this toy that's lost on me isn't lost on him~ He loves the thing. Go figure.

One of my fav moments
of Ellie. She got her coat and shoes on by herself, although she did insist I button it up. Then she
just lounged around on the floor watching a Barbie movie. I forget
which one. She watches about 2/day. I know, my parenting skills... Anyways, don't you just love it? It reminds me of pictures my parents have of me coloring on the kitchen floor, just a candid moment of a kid being a kid. (Scary! Look at the Halloween AND Christmas decor in the background. It took me FOREVER to take down and put away Halloween. It'd probably still be there if it wasn't for Christmas crowding it out. And yes, she's laying on the vacuum cord~something else that rarely gets put away.)

So my girls got a three story barbie house for Christmas, which I really need to post a picture of since I keep talking about it so much, and about 10 Barbies between them. So what did they play with the most on Christmas day? This Fish Game I got at Target for $4. Go figure again! They say it reminds them of Grandmas, sorta sweet I guess.

Well, I've got a ton more I would love to post but in order to not bore you all to death, I'll save some for later.
Till Then!

The Winner is...

So the polls says there are 13 hours left to vote but lets face it with 13 votes total I think it's safe to call it. Ellie will be happy since this is the one she voted for. Good thing for me. I probably would have made it no matter what because of that but it was fun to see what other people thought. And I'm definitely going to be making cake #2 someday soon. It looks so yummy filled with pastry cream which if you've never had, I'm sorry. It is the best! Way better than whipped, bavarian, mousse, clotted- or any of those other creams. So stay tuned for the finished result. I'm beginning the process tomorrow but the party is on Monday. That should give me plenty of time. It's gonna be fun!