Muffiiny Goodness

I have had a rough couple of days and have been trying to keep myself busy. I ran out of things to clean, so I decided to occupy myself with some baking. I have made this recipe for blueberry streusel muffins several times, and they always turn out delicious. Here is the batch I baked today(notice they are sitting on my new plates!):



Blueberry Streusel Muffins


1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups blueberries

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter, chilled

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
2.In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, stir together 2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt.
3.Stir the flour mixture into egg mixture alternately with milk. Fold in blueberries. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle topping over unbaked muffins.
4.Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Mail that smells good?

As I opened my P.O. Box today, I was pleasantly surprised with the aroma of vanilla. It threw me off at first, but then I remembered the vanilla beans I had ordered! I saw this blog post for homemade vanilla extract, and it inspired me to do a homemade goody basket for Christmas gifts this year.

I have never attempted to make homemade extract before, so I hope that I can turn this:



Into something delicious!

Puppy Birthday!

Our youngest dog, Moose, turns a year old this week! You wouldn't guess that he is a year old by his behavior, but he's gotten to be a very big boy. He weighs in at around 65 lbs now. I found an old party hat and tried to get him to pose for a picture...it didn't go as well as I would have liked!

New Dinnerware!

Kind of silly to get excited about, I suppose, but I just ordered new dinnerware. We have been using a mish mash of hand-me-down dishes since we started living together 2 1/2 years ago. I was looking for something simple, casual, and dishwasher/microwave safe. I also didn't want to spend a lot.

Here's what we got:


It looks like it will match the blue of our kitchen very well. Can't wait for it to arrive!

Girls Night

We started the party at my place with pizza, cake, and lots of alcohol. At about 10:30 PM we rounded up a DD and headed out to the bar, where we stayed until closing time! I had so much fun with our girls night that I forgot about my camera for most of it. Here are a few that I did remember to take. WARNING: Slight adult content below(not true nudity, don't worry)


Here is what was inside the goody bags. Everyone got a penis straw and whistle, mini massage oils and the awesome "pecker popper." These were a blast! You blow them up, squeeze the balls, and they shoot confetti and streamers everywhere.



Here are some shots of the cake. Someone dipped their finger in the frosting on the tip before I took the pictures :-(











We had to raise the pinata until party time because Pinky was way too interested in it. This is before we put the face on him.


With his face on



It was filled with blow pops, laffy taffy, jolly ranchers, air heads, and some candy called BJ Blast- which I think is just a pricey version of pop rocks. Here it is after we beat the living daylights out of it!