OOPS! Revised: Pineapple-Mandarin Orange Muffin Recipe

I realized I had some errors in my recipe as I was thinking about them this morning, so I needed to fix the quantity of the juice (b/c I'd forgotten that I had indeed measured it) and forgot to make an edit from the original recipe about the butter in the topping.  Sorry!

C has been asking me all week for muffins, so tonight I aquiesced.  I didn't have any fruit suitable for muffins really--except bananas, and we had just had banana bread, so I was looking for something different.  I had a can of pineapple and a can of mandarin oranges, so I thought I would experiment.  I found a recipe for pineapple muffins, so I adapted it to suit my wishes.  They turned out yummy and moist.  They would have been very easy if I'd had crushed pineapple, but since I didn't, I had to process half of the fruit so there wouldn't be huge chunks in the batter.

2 cups all-purpose flour


1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 t nutmeg
1 (20 oz ounce) can pineapple (in own juices)- half of it and 1/4 cup of the juices processed w/oranges
1 can of mandarin oranges (in light syrup) half of it and 1/4 c of the juices processed w/pineapple
1 egg, beaten

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup butter, melted


Topping:
1/4 cup butter

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Directions

1.Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour muffin pans, or line with paper liners.

2.In a large bowl, stir together 2 cups flour, white sugar, baking powder and salt. Separate and process fruit as necessary. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour in the crushed fruit and juice combo, egg, milk, and 1/4 cup melted butter. Mix just until blended.

3.In a separate bowl, stir together the cinnamon, brown sugar, 1/2 cup flour, and 1/4 cup butter to make the topping.

4.Spoon batter into muffin cups, then spoon pineapple and oranges over the batter and sprinkle with the cinnamon topping.

5.Bake for about 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the crown of the muffin comes out clean. Cool in pans and then remove.  Store in airtight container. 

We loved these.  I took all the extra fruit I had leftover (b/c I had the large cans) and all the extra cinnamon topping and put the topping first in the bottom of mini pans and then sprinkled with fruit. These were like mini strusels--they were good, too.  I  cooked them about 20 minutes along with the full size muffins.

Playing with hearts

So if you were a reader last year, you might remember the hearts I made for Vday.  Well, I don't have a dining room that's great for display in this house as it's tucked away instead of in the entryway.  So I left the runner on the dining room table, but decided to put the hearts in a glass bowl on the coffee table where we could enjoy a little Valentine decor.  C finally discovered them last night (after about 3 or 4 days), and decided they make great toys. 

He especially loves to throw them, and since they're soft--no biggie really. I just told him if he throws them,he has to pick them back up. 

the perfect fit for his front loader 

Admiring his "work"

Putting them away, one at a time

FFWD a few

Almost finished!

If you know C, you know this is a major accomplishment to pick up anything at home without drama--as you can see by the toys strewn about everywhere.  He actually did this cleanup willingly.

Preschool dilemma...still

So, after visiting 3 preschools I'm no closer to making a decision.  I like different things about each one.  Why is this so hard!  I think one is out of the question b/c of the hours, and I really don't want to send him 3 days a week or for the afternoons.  Not ready to part with him for 3 mornings a week yet.

Dumpling photos of me and my grandma

I'm finally getting around to these.  Slacker, I know.

Here I am watching grandma do her stuff

 My turn to work in the flour to the dough

So I made this black and white b/c Giada has a pic like this on her first cookbook and it kind of made me giggle.  Her apron was a bit more stylish than mine, but this kept me cleaner than a waist apron would.

Putting the chicken into the dumplings.

My grandparents, Troy and Hazel.  Aren't they cute holding hands? 

Potty Training Set Backs

Week 1: seemed to go incredibly well

Week 2: started out well, but now we are in a crazy downward spiral.  He's refusing to go most of the time and purposely going in his pull-up.  Evidently last night he made himself go while Scott was trying to get him into the bathroom to go.  He even peed out of the pull up (which I hadn't happen before in the previous 10 days) which is why I came home from the gym to this site.

Fully dressed w/o his pants.  I started cracking up and ran for my camera

Those baby legs aren't going to last much longer.

Yesterday we were playing dueling cameras.  He likes to use his camera while I use mine--which makes snapping a good shot difficult.

So where do we go from here?  Well we were planning to go as planned until he had diarrhea today.  This seems the wrong time to be using loose legged pull ups.  So we're going to take a break the rest of the weekend.  Then next week we're going for real underwear to see if this makes a difference.  I will probably be a terror next week from constant laundry.  We will give it a week or two to see if progress is made. If not, it's going on hold until March.  I officially HATE potty training, as I knew I would.

A little update of good and bad

Sorry for the drought of posts.  I've not felt very inspired lately.  In a bit of the duldrums b/w potty training (not going so well), crappy weather, sick and/or recuperating boys, etc.

We have experienced some recent good news and very recent bad news.

The good first b/c it's really good.

Scott won a couple of trips for us to enjoy this winter and spring.  We get to return to Mexico with his work buds for a couples only relaxing weekend while Nana and Papa get to spend some quality time with C.  SCORE!  I seriously need the sunshine and relaxation.  This winter is dragging on.  I need the sun and warmth...seriously dragging here. I can't wait for next month to get here so we can "get this party started right.  So we can get this party started quickly...play that beat, play that beat..." Ran out of lyrics I can remember. 

Second piece of AMAZING news.  Scott won a second HUGE trip (only something like 40 of these trips are given out across the entire country by Gallo).  We are headed to Argentina in April. Yes, I said Argentina.  We would never have considered traveling there on our own, but seriously not going to turn it down. We will spend part of the time in Buenos Aires and part of the time Mendoza (the primary wine growing region).  We are pumped since we just found out yesterday.


Now for the bad news...and it's BAD of course.  Our renter is not going to buy our house.  I'm feeling less emotional about it than I was this morning when we found out, but I do feel physically ill.  I had my good cry over it, but now we need a solution. 

Options:

• to find another renter at a price that comes closer to covering our mortgage and suck it up for a year, hoping that the market will be better next year (so losing the income of the house if there is any lag time between renters).
• ask our renter if she wants to go month to month until we sell our house (continuing with a slight loss--but w/o any gaps--assuming she wants to do this) with the understanding we will be showing it the rest of the time she lives there 
• exclusively put it for sale and bleed out quickly.  

None of these options seem very appealing to us. We had really thought it was likely she would buy the house, so we are pretty down.  I'm soooo sick of this house.  We listed this parasite of a house 16 months ago.  I seriously had no inkling when Scott accepted the job here, that we would still own our house in MO. 

Total d-r-a-g.

Menu planning and a recipe

I haven't done this in a while as we've been in a bit of a rut it seems.

Here's what's on the dock and what we've already had since it is Wednesday.  I shop for 2 weeks out--so it's for the next 2 weeks almost. When I do my fill in shop next week I will decide on the weekends meals for that week.

Sun: got in late so we picked up a $5 pizza from Little Caesar's

Mon: leftover chili from our freezer

Tues: tomato soup and sandwiches (grilled cheese for C and grilled roast beef w/horesradish coleslaw for me and Scott)

Wed: chicken with polenta (excited to try this recipe tonight)

Thurs: leftovers (we are seriously buckling down on this)

Fri: Pasta Carbonara

Sat: Pork Nachos (from leftover pork bbq in our freezer)

Sun: leftovers of the pasta

Mon: baked chicken thighs, broccoli crunch, and sweet potatoes

Tues: Pork tacos (still using up the bbq in all of the containers--I made a whole pork loin when I made it originally)

Wed: surprise (I always seem to plan for too many, so I'm including a wild card spot for extra leftover clean up)

Thurs: Ground turkey rigatoni with salad

Fri: Chicken Noodle soup (leftover from our freezer--can you see a theme?)

Remember that tomato soup on my menu for last night?  I made semi-homemade cream of tomato soup and it was delicioso.  Even C thought so. Here's what I did.  Sorry I don't have specific liquid or spice measurements--just go with your tastes.  Don't make it taste too much like chili or marinara sauce!

1-2 T olive oil
1 carrot, finely diced
1 celery, finely diced
1/2 onion, finely diced
2 large cans fire roasted tomatoes (you could buy diced tomatoes and roast yourself w/olive oil in the broiler though)
1 bay leaf
1 t italian seasoning--more if necessary
1 T hot sauce--more if necessary
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 t chipotle pepper (ground)
1/ 2 t chili powder
1 t garlic powder
1 t thyme
1/2 t crushed red pepper
salt and pepper
chicken broth (I would guess about 8-12 oz total
fat free half and half (I would guess 1/2-1 c) (use whatever milk or cream you like though)

Heat olive oil in a large dutch oven or soup pot.  Saute the carrot, celery, and onions with some salt and pepper in the oil until soft.  Add the tomatoes.  Let it come to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes--stirring frequently to keep from sticking to the bottom.  Add your bay leaf and some salt and pepper.  Add chicken broth as it thickens until you get a soupier texture--but not too much liquid.  Add all seasonings. Keep simmering as long as you like, but at least 20 minutes or so.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool for about 15 minutes or so. Here I used an immersion blender to puree my ingredients--you need to let it cool a bit though--I live on the wild side and only let it cool 5 minutes--I burned myself of course.  You can do all of this ahead if you need to and refrigerate at this point or keep going to get ready to serve.

Bring soup back to heat, add more the cream and more chicken broth is necessary and adjust your seasonings to taste.


I served with roast beef and havarti on Hawaiian sandwich rolls.  I heated the insides of the bread in my electric skillet w/ a little light butter.  Then I put the roast beef, havarti, and spicy mustard on.  I closed it all up and browned the outsides.  As soon as I pulled them off the heat I added the spicy horseradish coleslaw. 

For the coleslaw I just used horseradish, mayonaiise, spicy mustard, lemon juice, salt, and pepper to get a taste I liked. 

A Family Tradition

We finally celebrated our last Christmas get together last weekend.  It was a quick visit, but very special.  C got to see his cousins for a second time in 4 months (pretty much unheard of).  He got to see his great grandparents, too.  He already figured out how wonderful his great grandma Hazel is.  He just loved her.  He wanted to know where she was all the time--even though he didn't really talk to her.  Every once in a while he would walk up to her and hug her knees.  So sweet.  I absolutely adore my grandma and think she's an amazing person. 
She's over 80 years old and still orchestrates 3 meals a day for herself and my grandpa.  When family comes she just prepares more.  She cooked a big breakfast for 11 people Sat. morning.  She cooked chicken and dumplings for 19 people Saturday night.  My grandma is an expert dumpling maker.  I know there's a lot of variation in taste as far as dumplings go, but I'm of course partial to my grandma's.  Dumplings are the ultimate comfort food.  I can't remember a time as a child going to grandma's house when she didn't make dumplings while we were there.  This time I made it a point to see how she makes them.  I actually got to help roll them out and put them in the broth.  I won't share her trade secrets b/c it's just too special--besides I couldn't.  She doesn't measure anything--it's all by feel.  But she makes the most tender, thin dumplings you could imagine in a sinfully thick broth.  Not figure friendly, but so yummy!  I tried to document the process so I could remember how to emulate, but honestly it will be hard for anyone to copy.

The dough (forgot to take a pic prior to adding the flour to the egg/broth combo)

the oh so rich broth



the glob of sticky dough that will be worked into magic dumplings

working in a lot of flour

rolling them out--this is the hard part--it took me three times to get it where she didn't have to fix it.

her super thin dumplings

cutting the strips

pinching in pieces and putting them in the broth

the dumplings boiling away in their bath

My dad got some funny photos of me making trying to roll out the dumplings.  I'll have to get them from him.  I was exhausted after rolling out the 3 I did--grandma did 3 or 4 before that. 

In case you're wondering--the chicken is added back in at the end.  Nothing fancy like vegetables or boiled eggs in this version. 

1000th apron

So, that might be a SLIGHT exaggeration, but I've made a lot of aprons in the last 14 months.  In fact, I've made 11.  I can't believe it's been that many.  I have to admit--I'm burned out on them.  I want to make myself a holiday one, but I'll wait until a really hot summer day to do it.  I also want to make a new advent calendar, but those are the extent of my sewing projects on the horizon for 2011.  I'm sure I'll make other stuff, but that's all I'm thinking right now--except maybe felt play food. 

Here's the 11th apron--made for my SIL Traci.  She picked out the fabric combo from my stash.  I like the combo. 

I kind of wish I'd made the bottom ruffle shorter and fuller, but at least she's tall. 

I tried a new style of pocket.  It's really two pockets from one trapezoid shape. 

AHHH

It's 9 am and I already hate potty training.  I think it's getting the best of me.  As soon as I suggested potty this morning C freaked out (never had that happen before).  He cried about the pull-ups, too.  This is going to be BAD.

Dinner time Grace

We asked C to say grace at dinner tonight.  Usually his standard prayer is, "Dear Lord, Thank you for our food, Amen."  Pretty normal stuff.  Tonight he shocked us with, "Dear Lord, thank you for our good, sweet Colin boy...that's all."  That is what he said, word for word.  It was all we could do to keep from laughing.  Instead we added thankfulness for our food. 

Hmmm...I'm not sure where he got the modeling for this prayer.  Wait, I'm pretty sure it's something similar to what I prayed for him last night--which is just me praying in front of him at bedtime--trying to show him how to pray.  I'm pretty sure I said thank you for our good sweet Colin or something to that effect, but didn't say...that's all. 

Once again--self confidence for C is not a problem.  Humility might be a bit harder.  At least he gets it honest from his daddy.  Scott wouldn't be near as good at his job if he didn't think he was the best. 

A birthday party for Simon

Today had the makings of a very boring day.  Driveway shoveled by 8 am and more snow coming.  Scott was snoozing his day away on the couch in drugland.  C told me this morning that he turned 3 today.  He asked me what I got him--no lie.  Then on F/B I read that a friend's daughter was giving her old doll a b-day party.  I asked C if he would like to give one of his animals a party.  Simon was selected as the bday boy and preparations began.  I began by preparing a cake--C was very excited.  His way of helping was by gathering Simon and a few of Simon's friends. He brought them to the kitchen table.  Every minute he kept saying, "The cake is ready. The cake is ready."  I quieted him with goldfish and the sad truth that the cake was not ready.  This carried on most of the time I was making the filling and the cake.  I made a banana cake with banana cream filling.  I iced it with my easy, quick chocolate frosting.  Scott woke up around the time the cake began baking.  He wanted to know what smelled so good.  Next we decorated.  I pulled out all the party stuff from C's first bday.  C and Daddy grew more excited.  We changed out of our pjs and dressed up a bit.  I made us lunch and tea.  I wrapped a gift for Simon (okay for Colin, but it was for Simon, too).  The time came to throw Simon his party.  We ate lunch, sang Happy B-day, helped Simon blow out his candle and open his gift.  Of course we ate cake and drank tea.  We all had fun together. 

banner--odd location chosen by C.  It kept getting stuck when I opened the cabinets.

Yummm. cake.

Daddy the zebra

 showing C how to hold his pinkies our while drinking his tea.  Sort of pointless when you have no handle. 

 The little man came dressed as SuperWhy.  He took his mask off to eat though.

Eating a giant bite of cake.

opening Simon's gift (a monster truck from my winter boredom stash)

the birthday horse. 



The patient and his boy having a "feast"

Colin still wants to play with his daddy, so while Scott rests, sometimes he convinces C to climb up and play--as long as he's gentle and stays off the bad knee.  C calls the other knee his "nice" knee.

Promise it's the last one!

I redid the tags on the snowmen--liking them much better.   They each have a name on the backside as well.

Finished!

the pattern pic

Chidren's Discovery Museum

Last Monday we took C to the local Children's museum.  He had a great time.  They redid the third floor in the last 4 months, and we hadn't been there since.  It's all about music and arts exploration now.  They have a puppet theatre, a huge stage with costumes, curtain, and lighting.  They have more music things (like the walking piano), and they still have the painting center (a favorite of C's). 

Enjoying the water works

 Cleaning his mastepiece with daddy

Clowning around in the costumes. 

And this is one serious kid watching previews at the movie theater.  He wouldn't let us take his coat off at first.  It was so cute.  

Olde Sugarwinters

My mom got the pattern for a primitive snowman She wanted me to make two for her front doors. I think they turned out really cute. I might make one for myself eventually. I followed the pattern pretty much exactly w/a few minor changes (all in styling choices). It was my first time making anything like this. It was a lot of work. The sewing was the easy part. You coffee stained the stuffed snowmen (prior to painting and decorative sewing). Then you baked them in a 200 degree oven. Doing this makes them hard/stiff like--totally changes the feel of the fabric.  Then you painted the whole thing w/watered down acrylic paint. Then you sanded and painted the nose. Lastly was attaching the hat, bells, buttons, and hand stitching details. I still want to add some X stitches around the pockets, but otherwise they're finished. I filled the pockets with what I could find, but you could do anything. I couldn't think of anything very creative to write on the tags I stained. You were supposed to write Old Sugarwinters, but that seemed weird to me since there are two displayed together.

Waiting for surgery

Sitting here in the outpatient center waiting to be called back to be with Scott. I think it's weird they took him back w.o. me.
What is up with that? Hoping it all goes well. Will update later. If I knew how to upload a pic from my phone, I would.

Who's the Boss?

Yesterday at church C's Sunday School class studied about Jesus being the boss of our lives.  We always know what their lesson is b/c it says so in the bulletin.  When we went to pick him up after church the guy who was in his class today (it changes weekly) said how smart C was.  Uh-oh...where is this going I thought.  Then the guy followed up he's so smart by saying C was cracking him up.  Double uh-oh.  What has my smart, funny little boy been saying at church.  Remember the title of the lesson?  It relates.  As soon as the guy started the story of lesson time I knew where it was going.  The leader asked the students who is the boss.  C got a happy look on his face and piped up first--"I'm the boss!"  The leader said it took some talking, but they finally convinced him that mom and dad are his boss and that Jesus is our boss.  Thankfully he evidently didn't argue too much. I've never been able to convince C he isn't the boss no matter what I say.  Let's just say it was mildly embarrassing.  We are clearly teaching our child that he is in charge.  Preschool can't come fast enough. 

This smart little boy is currently reading The Little Engine that could with and to daddy.  So sweet.  Oddly they've named the trains Melissa, Felix, Sam, Bob, and Kiki in order of appearance.  Where do they come up with this stuff? How undignified a name could they give the little blue engine--Kiki?

First trip to the movie theater

Big milestone achieved tonight: we took C to the movie theater to see Tangled.  The movie was really cute, but almost overshadowed by the trailer for Cars 2.  The first 20 minutes of the movie C kept asking to watch Cars and saying, "I not like this movie." Then he became a believer once it got more action filled.  He ended up the night saying, "I love this show."  He mostly stayed in his seat or on one of our laps.  A couple of times he stood in front of his seat, but was pretty still.  His biggest problem was keeping his mouth shut.  We have a talker.  A couple of things he said had me laughing.  I was trying to smother my laughing while trying to shush him about his "strong hair" and need for a haircut.  So funny.  Love this kid.

Some Christmas Photos

Enjoying his new kitchen from Uncle Mitch and Aunt Sarah--given to him Xmas Eve--which was such a good idea, so he could enjoy his toys individually and not be quite so overwhelmed.  I need to get on making him some felt food now.  He loves making eggs since gma has fake eggs.  This seriously took 4.5 people 1 hour to put together.  Every piece had to be broken out of the molded plastic.  Insane packaging idea, but worth the result.  Now we just have to figure out how to get it in our car and home still--even though it's small scale for play kitchens thankfully.

The MASSIVE pile of presents at the Dankel family Xmas

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care--don't you love their amazing fireplace.  It's like an old-fashioned Xmas.

Uncle Dave helped C make a present fort.  Some cute pictures were created.  He loved it in there.  It was hard not to keep him from opening everyone's gifts. He did a good job helping pass out all the presents.

Aunt Sarah sacked out on the couch--do you see the little fireman in her hand?  C put it there after she fell asleep.  I thought it had to be documented.

And now Mitch passed out on the floor by the firehouse.  He has a fireman on his bunk sleeping on his chest.  Love it!