Putting Myself in a Berry Good Mood!

    After my last class of the week, I rewarded myself by baking some delicious strawberry cupcakes for my co-workers!

Pink food is just fun.

Strawberry Cupcakes

Ingredients:
2 c. sugar
2-3oz. packages strawberry gelatin
1 c. margarine (melted)
4 eggs
2 3/4 c. sifted flour
3 t. baking powder
1 c. milk
1 T. vanilla
2 c. frozen strawberries, ground in food processor or finely diced (stirred with some sugar)

     In a large mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar, and gelatin (just the powder) until the mixture is fluffy.  Add the eggs and vanilla and continue mixing.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.  Alternate adding the flour mixture and milk to the batter.  Finally, mix the strawberries in.  Either bake as a cake in a 9x13 or this will also fill two 12" cake pans.  I made about 40 cupcakes (spray the baking cups with non-stick spray).  Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes (done when the toothpick comes out clean).  I put a very light frosting on top of mine (using butter, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla).  These are moist, full of flavor, and a very sweet treat!!!



Delicious!



Arts & Crafts



Coffee Filter Wreath



     I have a serious Pinterest addiction.  It's amazing how creative people can be, and while I've never been overly creative, I've always wanted to be, and now Pinterest has given me the opportunity to copy other people's creativity and pass it off as my own!  My husband and I have not been married very long, but I have been trying to make our little home feel "homey."  As a student, I do not have the budget to go out and buy new furniture or fancy art for our walls, but I am fortunate enough to be married to a carpenter--a very talented carpenter.  We love doing projects, and our latest passion has been finding old furniture at garage sales, thrift stores, etc. for him to work his magic on!  He has the ability to take any old piece of wood and transform it into a beautiful, very expensive-looking piece!  As I tend to make a mess of everything (as in there is more stain or paint on me than on the the project), I mostly "ooooohhhh" and "ahhhhhhh" over his projects while I stick to the ones involving rubber cement and hot glue.  I was pretty proud of how my first "Pinterest project" came out.  I saw somebody had made a wreath out of coffee filters.  At first it did sound slightly tacky, but it looks beautiful!  I got several packs of coffee filters, a bare bones wreath, tea bags, and coffee all at the Dollar Tree (seriously--this was a $4 project!).  I then dyed half my filters in tea and half in coffee and let them dry all on top of each other.  Then one by one, I scrunched up my filters and hot glued them onto the wreath.  I even did one for my mom after I finished mine--and with hers, I dyed several filters pink (using red food coloring) and let them dry on top of the wet tea/coffee stained ones.  It worked better than I'd hoped giving the pink a very antiqued look.  Several blisters later, I had a new wreath for my door and one in the mail on its way to my mom's door!  Even my husband was impressed with how it looked (although he is probably not the most objective judge).

When I Grow Up, I Want to be a Baker...

     As a second year law student, or as my husband likes to say, an "eighteenth grader," I somehow find myself doing the most absurd things to procrastinate.  One moment I am working on a paper, and the next thing I know, I have spent four hours re-organizing my kitchen cabinets or scrubbing my floors.  Without question, the most therapeutic activity--other than pedicures and white sandy beaches--is baking.  Most of our grocery budget goes to flour, sugar, and vanilla--I could bake every day, all day.  Although my goods are rarely stunning when it comes to the decorating aspect, their taste far makes up for it.  Recently I made some modifications to a muffin recipe and was amazed with the results. 

Orange-Pineapple Muffins

ORANGE-PINEAPPLE MUFFINS

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1/4 t. salt

1 t. baking soda

1 t. baking powder

1 stick margarine (melted)

3/4 c. sugar

2 eggs

3/4 c. sour cream

1 1/2 c. chopped/drained pineapple

1 orange (I used tangelos)

Glaze:

3/4 c. sugar

1 orange

     In a mixing bowl, combine 2 c. flour, 1/4 t. salt, 1 t. baking soda, and 1 t. baking powder. In a separate bowl, beat 1 stick (melted) margarine with 3/4 c. sugar until fluffy. Add two eggs and continue to beat.  Beat in 3/4 c. sour cream, and all the juice you can squeeze out of one orange and all the zest you can scrape off the orange.  Finally, add 1 to 1 1/2 cups of chopped and drained pineapple.  Add the flour mixture and stir until mixed together.  Pour into greased muffin cups and bake at 375 until inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Mix 3/4 c. sugar with all the juice you can squeeze out of another orange, stir together and heat on stovetop to make a glaze.  Brush over muffins when they come out of oven.  Makes 24 regular-sized muffins.