My Ugly Strawberry Cupcakes

So I made these strawberry cupcakes, like I did a few weeks ago and they turned out BEAUTIFULLY.  This time, not so much.  I'm not sure what happened differently, but I hope it doesn't happen next time.  Here's the link to those cupcakes, HOWEVER, I did not use the icing recipe here.  I made up my own recipe instead.  I didn't want to spend the time doing the Swiss Meringue Icing for either time because I was running short both times I've made these.  OK, really, here's the link: Strawberry Cupcakes.  I made my regular buttercream icing recipe, except I substituted pureed strawberries for the water.  Here's my recipe:
Strawberry Icing
1 cup shortening
3 T strawberry puree
3/4 t vanilla
1/2 t butter flavor
sprinkle of salt
1 lb (about 4 cups) powdered sugar

Puree strawberries in food processor until they were liquid.  Mix shortening with puree, vanilla, butter flavor, and salt until well blended.  Start slowly, and turn up speed to medium for 2-3 minutes.  Mix in powdered sugar slowly, about a cup at a time until well blended with each cup. Mix on medium-high until nice and fluffy.  If it has stiff peaks and seems too spiky, you can add milk or water, by the teaspoon, and mix in between additions until completely incorporated and the texture is achieved.

I did a 1M swirl on the cupcakes, which takes a LOT of icing, so I made a double recipe.

I went to Hobby Lobby today.  Wilton stuff is 30% off this week, and I could DEFINITELY spend too much money there!  I need to check my supply and see what I need, and go back and get some stuff just so I can get it cheaper.  I need to get a few things just so I can have them if I need to make another cake...like I have to this week!!  I have a person who wants me to make a cake for them!  A two layer, white on one, chocolate on the other, cake, and I'm going to get paid for it!  WOOOO!!!!  Dusty's sister works with someone that needs one for Friday, and apparently I'm way cheaper than a bakery she talked to, so I got it!  WOOOOO!!!  I'll let you know how it goes.

Tune in tomorrow for a recipe link to my husband's favorite kind of cupcakes.

Browned Butter and Sea Salt Cookies

Yeah, remember how I was going to post about those cookies forever ago, well, I'm finally posting. :)  This weekend was pretty busy and hectic.  I have two other recipes I'll post soon for cupcakes I made this weekend.  I made two different kinds of cupcakes for a baby shower for a girl in our Sunday school class.  We made the SS hour a baby shower, so it was a nice change.  Plus, most of the people in our Sunday school class are fairly new, so we don't know them well.  It gave us all a great chance to fellowship and get to know each other better. I think we're going to try and do a fellowship time during a SS class more often.  I suggested we have one when there's a 5th Sunday in a month.  That way we won't have to schedule it for every however many weeks, or not remember if it was this week or next.  We can simply look at the calendar and know.  I think it'll be really good for our class members.

We had company come on Thursday, so I made some cookies that morning, so we'd have a special baked good that afternoon and evening.  Here's a link to the recipe for Brown Butter and Fleur de Sel Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Yes, they are that awesome.  I don't have fleur de sel, so I just used sea salt, like she suggests.  It was my first experience browning butter, and her pictures helped immensely, so I knew if I was doing it right.  My cookies fell super flat because my baking soda was dead.  I knew it was, but I had no choice.  It was either use the soda and know they would fall, or not make them.  I knew they'd taste good either way, so I made them. :) Taste trumps appearance, as a friend put on my facebook the other day.  I had Dusty take a few to work today, and his coworkers ate all he took, and they ate some cupcakes I sent, too.  I love making food for people. :)  I'll post the recipe links for the cupcakes later this week.

Tell me if you make anything that I post about.  Also, the people whose blogs I post from have GREAT recipes, so I suggest looking at more of their stuff than what I post.  Good stuff.

Braised Beef Ribs and Creamy Polenta

Have you ever made ribs?  Yeah?  So have I!!!  Well, as of last night, that is.  I guess it's kind of irresponsible to make something for the first time when you have guests, but fortunately, my guests are not picky eaters.  (My children, however, are.)  Here are the recipes two dishes from last night's supper.  I loved this!  I didn't love the fact that I had so much fat to cut off the meat though, but that wasn't the recipe's fault.  Again, I got this recipe for Braised Short Ribs from the Pioneer Woman's blog.

I used bacon because that's what I had, and it's cheaper than pancetta.  I didn't use wine because I didn't have any, and our guests would prefer we use something other than alcohol, even if the alcohol is removed through cooking.  I used 1T of white wine vinegar in a 2 cup measuring cup, and poured in grape juice up to two cups.

After the 2-1/2 hours, the ribs I made were not falling off the bone, but the bone was extremely easy to remove, it just couldn't fall because of all the FAT STUCK TO THE MEAT!!  Have I mentioned that yet?  However, the ribs were free.  I will no longer complain.  


Now, go look at the Creamy Goat Cheese Polenta recipe, which I also made for the first time last night.  I did not, however, use goat cheese.  I substituted 4 oz of cream cheese instead.  I'm sure it wasn't as tangy, but...well, that's ok with me.

I put a pile of polenta on the plate (whoa, what alliteration), and put the ribs on top of them.  I also made mashed potatoes, so I did a little half and half thing.  Half of the pile was polenta and have was mashed potatoes.  It was good, but would have been better had there been less...oh wait, that's right they were free.  No complaining.  

It seems Seth is finally getting better.  He hasn't even complained of his stomach hurting today.  I hope it actually is over this, AND that no one else gets it.  :-/  It hasn't seemed to be a very fun sickness.  Poor boy.

Tomorrow, I'm going to post the link for the cookies I made yesterday.  This may be a semi-food blog, yet. :)

Penne by Jennie

I've done a lot of cooking the past couple of days.  First off, let me say, I love Pioneer Woman.  I have made so much of her stuff.  Last night I made Penne by Betsy, except I made a meat change.  I used 1 can of cooked chicken instead of shrimp.  Dusty does not care for anything of the sea, so we go with chicken here. :)

I didn't add the pasta, I just added some noodles to our individual bowls, and put the sauce on top and mixed it in the bowl.  It only took about 25-30 minutes, so it was a great meal for a busy day.

 Dusty loves it.  LOVES.  I'll post in the near future what I made tonight.  You can see it on my fb status though.  I made some adaptations on that one, too.  I always do.  Dusty calls it Jennifieing...I spelled it.  I couldn't have a y in the word with my name, so I put the ie, naturally. :)

Tonight I made something else for supper that's from her website.  This morning I made cookies from another blog.  I love cooking.  It wears me out, but I love it.

Still have a sick little boy.  Not NEARLY as bad, but his stomach still hurt a little today, and thinks weren't working quite like they should.  Good day though.  Really good day.  Tomorrow promises to be just as great. :)  Blessed beyond measure.

Fun times

So about five minutes after I posted yesterday, Seth called for me and was semi-crying, but really sounded a little distressed.  I figured he was needing to use the bathroom, so I got him and took him....  This is one of those times when I really wish we hadn't potty trained him yet.  Yeah.  I was that bad.  It took me over 30 minutes to clean his pajamas.  Poor boy.  He thought he would get in trouble, naturally, because he is told frequently NOT to get his clothes messy.  There are just times when things happen.  Anyway, he's still sick.  Even today.  Yesterday I gave both of the kids some tea and Hannah grabbed Seth's instead of her own, how I'm not sure because she's usually DILIGENT abut checking that kind of stuff, but she did.  I told her that she may have just given herself Seth's stomach bug.  I may as well have told her that she's never going to be able to have ice cream again.  She was STUNNED.  She just froze and held her tea midway to her mouth with her mouth held open staring at me.  She was not terribly happy that she just gave herself a virus.  I told her that if she gets it, then I'll take care of her, too.  She was actually concerned about that.  I told her that she had probably already caught the virus before she drank after him though.  Then she drank her tea and went on. :)

There will be no Bible study tonight, since we may be contagious.  It's a relief because we don't have to worry about people being here and making sure everything is pristine and germ free before they get here.  But I really was looking forward to seeing another adult other than my husband.  Hopefully we'll be able to have it next week.

I've been cleaning for the company that is coming this weekend.  My kids have, consequently, watched more TV in the last three days than they did all last week combined.  We haven't been anywhere though, so they need that break, and I definitely do.  I have been in our house since I got home from my meeting at church on Sunday evening.  Usually we would have been out Monday and today.  It's not that bad though, especially since I've been getting that break because of TV. :)

Tommy commented that I should have a middle shelf of things that don't really have a solution or that don't have to be done RIGHT NOW.  I think I'm going to mentally compartmentalize my to do list.  I think I need a middle shelf!  I also need a Kit Kat.  So that is all.

Sick Boy

So on Sunday Seth gagged at breakfast, but that's not unusual when he has a drainage.  He had said his stomach was hurting off and on for two days before then, but he didn't have any other symptoms.  Hannah said on Sunday morning that her stomach hurt too, but again, no other symptoms.  We decided to go to church because they weren't really acting sick.  Then at lunch Seth threw up.  It was Dusty tightening his bib around his neck and shirt, which made it press on his throat, and the drainage, I think.  He was fine for the rest of the day, with only a couple of complaints that his stomach hurt.  (Hannah's too.)  Then Sunday night/Monday morning he woke up ALL NIGHT, and we wound up with only about 4 broken hours of sleep.  He never threw up again, but he was sick all day yesterday.  (The timing of all of this made me so disappointed because yesterday was the next to last MOPS at our church, and I love that one day a month.)  He never really did develop a fever.  If it was anything, it was 99 or under.  He was cranky and not feeling well all day, so he didn't want to leave my lap, and we had some intense morning storms with thunder, so Hannah was never more than 3 inches away from me.  It made for a very interesting morning.  Fortunately, the storms were over in time for the kids to go take naps, and they took VERY long naps.  I was glad because I needed that time alone.  Today, Seth is doing much better, although his appetite isn't really back yet.

I had a meeting with my VBS team on Sunday evening and realized just how unorganized I am with all of it.  I have no idea what I'm doing.  One of the teachers, my friend, has listed out basically a lesson plan for the week (can you tell what her occupation was?), so that helps, but I have to finish the supply list before Sunday and turn that in to the director.  I have to make cupcakes for a baby shower on Sunday, and we're having company starting on Thursday.  I think the company will make the cupcake making infinitely easier, but I just struggle with dealing with stress.

We're supposed to have our next Bible study tomorrow, but nothing has been said about it, and we weren't in Sunday school on Sunday to discuss it because we had the nursery.  I'm guessing we'll just have it here again because no one has really volunteered directly for this week.  We had an indirect invitation, but those people haven't really committed to having it at their house, and I'm not going to presume that they'll have it.  Much easier just to have it here and know that detail is covered.  I'm realizing more and more about myself.  I like to have things organized, but I'm unable to really get motivated to organize because I just don't know how to sort out all those details.  This is something I NEED to learn, so I can pass it on to Hannah because I feel she's going to be the same way.  For now I need to be praying for wisdom because I think that's the only way I'm going to learn how to be the way I desire to be.

For now, I'll go sort out VBS stuff.  Maybe I'll feel more organized when I have everything laid out in front of me. :)

Daily Stuff

This week has just been about doing everything we normally do.  Not really intentionally, but I think I really just wanted to get things back to normal.  Normal bedtimes and naps, normal eating patterns and food, normal activities.  It has been nice.  The kids seem to be doing well.  Hannah had one night terror this week, and Seth has been dry at night for over a week.  Good times.  :)

I made banana pudding for the first time for our first meeting of our Bible study Wednesday.  Turned out only one other person came.  It was good because it was a good friend, but it was kind of disappointing because I wish more people would have shown up, at least for Dusty's sake.  He wasn't really disappointed though.  He knows more people will come eventually.

There are so many things going on for kids right now, which is great, but busy.  We may go to a park around here tomorrow because they're having a fun day in the park with face painting and balloons and food.  It would be fun for the kids.  All the Easter activities coming up will be fun for them too.

Nothing much has been going on, so I haven't had much to say.  I'm overly tired and quite engrossed in my own thoughts recently, so there's not much outwardly to say.  Just a quiet time on here for me.