Red velvet cake pops!

My first attempt at making cake pops, yumm! They're pretty simple and pretty yummy. I've been eyeing them on Bakerella's website for months. You can find the instructions at www.bakerella.com along with lots of other recipes and ideas.

I decided to wash my hands and dig in.



That was a little messy. Next time I'll consider using the back side of a spoon. But then I won't have the fun of licking off my fingers.



Aren't they cute?



I can't wait to get her new Cake Pops book!!

Proofreader needed

Poor spelling is one of my biggest pet peeves. I will use a completely different word if I'm not perfectly sure how the one I'm thinking of is spelled. I point out typos in newspapers. I use a red pen and correct typos found in books. (My own copies, not the library's or my brother's, of course. That would just be wrong.)

In case you didn't know, the word "looser" refers to something that is not taut or tight, not fastened, ie. more loose. It is NOT the same, nor is it interchangeable with the word "loser" which is, in fact, a term for a person, team or nation who is defeated or slang for a misfit. After the tenth time (I doubt it even takes 10) of reading the word "looser" when "loser" is intended, I basically want to tear my hair out and scream at the author. At the very least I want to offer my editing services pro bono.

Being the spelling Nazi that I am, here are a couple of shirts I found highly entertaining. You can find these shirts and more by clicking here.

This one is spelled wrong intentionally, and so it's funny.

This one, is not. There are two reasons I can never wear this T-shirt.
First of all, I am rude. Secondly, your insignificant... what? Seriously, what?
Some of you may not even know there's a problem with the following t-shirt. But it's there. And it makes me crazy!
Do you know what else probably annoys his wife? The fact that he doesn't know the difference between THEN and THAN!

No misspellings, I just really like this one.

Houston, we have a problem!

Okay, so we don't have a problem, but we'd certainly appreciate your help. We entered our cute little guy into a beautiful baby contest. You can go here to cast your vote; one vote per email address per 24 hour period. You can find him by typing "Houston" in the search box.

We think he's pretty cute, we hope you do too.

Live the dream!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My house... My touch

I realized that I've never posted pictures of the inside of my house. As it is, the pictures I'm posting are only a small sampling of the rooms in my house. Just the rooms I've had painted and decorated so far. The only room that's been painted you won't see here is our bedroom, #1 it currently looks more like a storage room since we've temporarily moved the bed downstairs, and #2 I just couldn't take a picture to do it justice.

I am lucky to have a daddy who used to paint professionally, a brother whose ex-wife made him paint and re-paint according to her current mood, a mom who sold Home Interior for years and still loves to decorate, and a husband who spoils me rotten because I get to make all decorating decisions. Really they all spoil me rotten.

(the front room before-ish...notice what used to be the strange red square?)





Front-room after





Front room close-up





Front room close-up






Monkey nursery











"Watermelon" bathroom





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cream Cheese Cravings!

Last week I dreamed of giant, crumbly cream cheese muffins. I've never had them baked from scratch, just the pre-packaged variety from the local gas station. I grabbed one from the 7-11 baked goods case and it was closer, but just not the stuff dreams are made of. Here's the recipe I found online, I'll be using the vanilla flavoring and omitting the optional lemon.


Cream Cheese Muffins - makes 12 regular muffins (I'll most likely convert this to 6 jumbo muffins)

8 oz. Philly cream cheese - softened
1/4 cup soft butter
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. vanilla - opt.
1/4 tsp. lemon flavor - opt.

Beat cream cheese and butter together; add egg and milk and mix well. Mixture does not have to be smooth.
If you want the flavorings, add them with the milk and egg.
Combine the dry ingredients and fold in just until moistened.
Batter will be stiff.
Fill greased or lined muffin tins about 3/4 full.
Bake at 400*F about 20-25 minutes or until golden on top.


While looking for said conversion from regular to jumbo muffins, I ran across this delicious recipe. I think I'll try this before I do the plain cream cheese muffins. Perhaps it's because my dad made carrot cake for his birthday last week and I didn't have any because he puts crushed pineapple in his. Yuck! (My mom usually spoils me and does 2 cakes, one with and one (the right way) without pineapple.)

Carrot & Cream Cheese Muffins

Carrot Muffins:
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cup shredded carrots (about 8oz of baby carrots)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Cream Cheese Filling:
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare your muffin tins by greasing with cooking spray or using paper liners.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar; set aside.

In separate bowl, beat the eggs and oil together until lightened. Stir in the carrots, walnuts.

In another bowl, cream together the cream cheese filling ingredients; set aside.

Fold the dry muffin ingredients into the wet egg/oil mixture and stir until just combined.

Fill each muffin cup about ¾ full. Top each filled muffin cup with a generous teaspoon of the cream cheese filling.

Bake about 20-25 minutes*, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake part comes out clean.

*If making standard sized muffins, bake for 17-20 minutes.
*If making jumbo sized muffins, bake for 23-25 minutes.

Have you read a good book today?

(Is anyone else singing or humming the Reading Rainbow theme song? He he he)

I just finished reading the very thought provoking "The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth" by Henci Goer. I have a stack of books I should read, I even have another stack of books I've been wanting to read, but none I'm actually motivated to read.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Anything at all. (Except my husband who is not allowed to suggest anything Star Wars)