Inspiration

Yesterday was a good day. I was able to take a food styling workshop and I totally jumped out of my comfort zone. I also met some new friends. It was one of those days that you will smile about after weeks or years go by. Inspiration to get back into doing something for me and just embracing the fun, sun and smiles of life. Thank you Joy and Tracy!

       Setting up a shot of Tracy's Raw cashew maple oat bars.

Waiting outside prior to the class. Totally nervous. I am surprised I still have nails.

Working on my food styling. Such fun.

 Joy, making some amazing Toasted Marshmallow Milkshakes. Thank you Matt for literally pushing me through the door. It was so much fun and I love you for helping me take on the challenge.

Birds and Spiders

Sometimes life is just a busy mess of routines. Brush teeth, drive to work, care for others, eat and sleep. You often forget about taking time to look around and appreciate it all. Before you know it your baby is drawing and your little baby is feeding herself bananas.

I recently got a written report from my son, Calvin's, day care about his day. It reminded me to remember the simple pleasures of life:

"Calvin had a good morning and played with his friends in the sandbox. He went potty twice. He was very interested in the new kid that visited and was very gentle with him. Calvin enjoyed playing on the boat and the climbing structure. He also enjoyed drawing with the green marker. He went in the nap room with his caregivers and they helped him to sleep. He slept for 2 hours and then had snack. He then had fun with the dance party!"

Oh to be a kid, draw pictures of birds and spiders and DANCE!

Love!

Blackberry Lemon Goat Cheese Puffs

 Someday I will make my own soap...today is not that day. I will organize the junk drawer and dream about jellybeans...but today is not that day. Someday, I will add more pictures to my kids baby books and make sure that my toddler flosses his teeth...today is not that day. Someday, I will make my own puff pastry...until then I will use frozen. And these are so easy and crowd pleasing, I may just put my energy into something else. You must make these....someday.

I cut my pastry into triangles as I only had one frozen sheet of pastry and wanted to make a lot for a weekend BBQ crowd.

Don't worry if the blackberry falls off during the baking process. You will have to lift it up to put on the arugula.

Simple and easy and a melt in your mouth butter of goodness!

Blackberry Lemon Goat Cheese Puffs

Adapted from Sutterbean

Makes a whole bunch!
6-8oz of goat cheese room temperature
1 and 1/2 tablespoons lemon zest
2 large tablespoons of honey
1 tablespoon of milk
1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed
1 pint blackberries
3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
Arugula

Preheat the oven to 400F. Line your baking sheets with parchment.

In a bowl, mix the room temperature goat cheese, lemon zest and honey together. In another bowl mix the blackberries and vinegar and let them sit for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Cut the puff pastry into squares or triangles. ( You could even do circles with a cookie cutter)  Place them on the lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart and score a triangle into the pastry making sure not to cut all the way to the bottom. (If you are making squares, score a square, circle score a circle) You get my drift. Using a pastry brush lightly brush the pastry with milk.

Place a dollop of the lemon goat cheese on top of each pastry and top with a blackberry.
Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes until golden. Let them cool and then place a leaf of arugula under each blackberry. Can be served warm or at room temperature.
Enjoy!

Caramel Corn Crazy

Call me crazy, but this just had to be made. Lets just say popcorn had a date with some seasame sticks. Then a peanut butter sandwich cracker shook hands with some almonds. They all danced around some caramel and this happened. Yup, it really did!  

I totally encourage you to go crazy as well! 

Everything Caramel Corn

From Joy The Baker

I did not really measure anything out and used seasame sticks instead of pretzel sticks...go figure.

Makes a lot of popcorn 

Ingredients

About  6 - 7 cups popcorn

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup or so of dry roasted almonds 

Some handfuls of seasame sticks 

Some more handfuls of peanut butter sandwich crackers

Carmel Sauce

2 sticks of butter

2 cups of brown sugar

3/4 cup of light corn syrup

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pop about 1/4 cup of popcorn and then place in a bowl to cool and sprinkle with the salt. 

In a baking pan, measure out about 7 cups of the popcorn and add the almonds, sticks and crackers. 

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F. 

To make the caramel sauce add the butter, sugar and corn syrup to a sacue pan on medium heat. Wisk until the butter and sugar are melted. Boil the sugar mixture for about 5 minutes. Removed it from the heat and add the baking soda. Continue to wisk. Pour the sugar mixture over the popcorn mixture and coat it all well. 

Place the pan in the oven and bake for 45 minutes, making sure to toss every 15 minutes. Once it is all done, remove from the pan and let it dry on a parchement lined sheetpan. 

Try not to eat it all at once.

Dairy Free Vegan Good Morning Muffins

Do you believe in magic muffins... I do! A couple of weeks ago we had good friends for a long weekend full of food and fun. We had an early morning Saturday brunch, ripe with Mimosas, a frittata and muffins. As you can see I did not take many pictures.  I did manage to take one picture of these dairy-free, vegan muffins. You see they balanced out the champagne, brown butter blue berry muffins and PANCAKES!!!

Add some balance to your morning magic.

And maybe put on a snappy hat!

Dairy-Free Vegan Magic Muffins

If you want to add more fiber to the muffins you could use a mixture of whole wheat flour and all purpose flour. You could also add flax seed meal or whole flax seeds create an alternative texture. Really anything you want to add would be a just lovely.  You just may have to adjust the wet ingredients. 

Prep time about 10 min

Cook Time about 20 min until golden brown

Makes about 18 muffins. 

Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar 

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup applesauce

1 and 1/3 cup dairy free milk ( I used almond, but you could use soy, or rice)

About 1 and 1/4 cup shredded carrots ( I just used what I had in the fridge)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 to 3/4 cups chopped nuts (optional) I used chopped roasted pecans

Other alternatives: cranberries, crystallized ginger, shredded coconut. You could also play around with using sour cream or buttermilk instead of the dairy free milk. Really the ideas are endless.

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375 F Line muffin tins with paper liners. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, oats, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon and salt. Mix well. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the applesauce, dairy free milk, vanilla and carrots. Mix well. Fold in the chopped nuts until they are evenly distributed throughout the batter. 

Portion the batter into the prepared muffin tins, about 3/4 of the way full. Bake for about 18-23 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Cool on a wire rack and allow the muffins to sit in the pan for about 15 min before dislodging. Serve the muffins warm or a room temperature. They will last well covered in an airtight container for about 2-3 days, but are best the day they are made. 

Enjoy!

Homework

Yes!! I am finally back it. Well, kinda. I am trying my best to bake and blog, but really all I want to do is eat popcorn, take photos, and listen to the Joy The Baker Podcast.   Joy and Tracy are to blazer wearing ladies that make me smile. Their podcast gets me through my commute and I actually find myself telling my husband all about them ALL the time. Real life talk!! During their last podcast they asked listeners to do a "homework" assignment. Simply said, take pictures of things you like and post them. I thought this was the perfect time to attempt to do something for myself that I enjoy. Plus, I get to share with you the things in life that make me happy. 

 #1 Mixed prints and bright colors. All the rage this spring. Oh and big blue eyes and smiles.

 #2 Hearing the waves and seeing the sun shine through our window on a lazy afternoon. Oh and my Uggs....yes, yes...Santa Cruz.

 #3 My husband and my boy. Two dudes on bikes....lots and lots of bikes.

 #4 Watching smoke come out of my toddlers ears as we made cupcakes together from our last gift delivery from ENJOY. First ever baking project together and he was so excited....as was I.

#5 Chocolate sprinkles....need I say more.

 #6 Birthday gifts that mean so much, and a lovely family who thinks of me. Oh, and this awesome ring I got off of etsy.

#7 Tapatio and eggs...this girl loves breakfast.

Thank you Joy and Tracy for giving me inspiration to get back into some sort of hobby again. I am hopeful to start baking and blogging again.
Boom Boom Pow! or is it Cow?

Mini Banana Muffins

Anything mini is on my mind right now. Mini fingers and toes and tiny little eye lashes and a nose. So it is fitting that making mini muffins was right up my alley. 

My sister and brother in law recently visited from Seattle. We had a lovely brunch with my parents and all got to marvel at how small we start when we come into this world. 

We also got to eat, laugh, hug and we had muffins. 

What to do with left over bananas.... muffins of course. I added browned butter and made a crumb topping to add to the fun. 

Super easy and quick to make while the "mini" was sleeping. 

The crumb topping added a nice texture on top. You could also add walnuts or pecans. You could even go wild with blueberries or chocolate. Banana muffins are a blank slate for creativity and these are so easy to make you could whip them up for a post Thanksgiving brunch or over a long lazy weekend. So get going!