Things made more difficult by pregnancy

Sleeping
Rolling over
Sitting on the floor
Getting from a seated position on the floor
Getting up from any seated position
Shaving your legs
Getting out of the bath tub
Painting your toenails
Dressing a wiggly toddler
Parenting a wiggly toddler
Falling asleep
Staying awake
Blogging

The Story of Christ's Birth According to Sam

When the Bible mentions the three kings at the birth of Christ, I'm pretty sure it wasn't referring to the three kings of the Piston Cup.  Granted, I can see where Sam would be assume that they were talking about The King.  But Lightning McQueen and Chick Hicks? We may need to take his religious education a little bit more seriously.

Day ??? - Pumpkin Cake

The goal of the week is to get this runaway train of a 365 back on track.  To start it off, I would like to introduce you to my breakfast.



Pumpkin and I have an interesting relationship.  I love pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bread and pumpkin cake.  I don't love pumpkin shakes.  I despise pumpkin pie and gutting pumpkins.  Gross.

However, when I stumbled on this recipe, I knew I had to make it.  So do you.  Really. I'm encouraging the world to revolt against pumpkin pie.

Make the world a better place
Try instead to make a cake.
(That was really terrible.)

Found on Not So Humble Pie 

Spiced Pumpkin Cake

from Bake!: Essential Techniques for Perfect Baking

yields 2 8" or 9" cake rounds

3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

1 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt 

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons freshly ground nutmeg

1 cup golden brown sugar, firmly packed

2 cups canned pumpkin puree

5 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat your oven to 350°F and prepare two 8" or 9" round cake pans with a light coating of non-stick spray and then line the bottoms with parchment. 

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Once sifted, give it a good mixing with a whisk to ensure everything is evenly distributed and then set aside. 

In a second large bowl, add the brown sugar and a third of the pumpkin puree. Combine the two with a spatula, pressing firmly to ensure there are no rogue lumps of sugar.  Once lump free, add the remaining pumpkin and oil. Blend with a whisk and then add the eggs, one at a time, stirring with the whisk to incorporate after each addition. 

Add the dry ingredients a third at a time, blending after each addition. 

Divide the batter between your two pans and place into the oven on a lower-middle rack.  Bake for 40-45 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. 

Let the cakes stand in the pans on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Then unmold onto the racks and turn right-side up to cool completely. 

Once cool you can begin on my whipped cream cheese frosting. 

Ms. Humble's Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

Yields enough to frost a 8" or 9" double layer cake. 

1lb (16oz) full fat cream cheese, softened but still cool

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup cold heavy cream (use the ultra heavy 40%+ cream if you can find it)

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract

Sift the powdered sugar and add the cream cheese to the bowl of your mixer with the paddle attachment. Beat them thoroughly until fluffy and completely smooth/lump free. In a separate bowl, beat the heavy cream to nearly stiff peaks, then add the whipped cream into the cheese mixture, scrape down the sides of your bowl and quickly and briefly beat to combine. Do not over beat.

Day 252 - The Muffin

I realize that there are a couple of days missing but they are coming.  Soon.  For now, bear with while I talk about my favorite subject other than my boys.  Food.

So Sam (you didn't think I was actually NOT going to talk about him did you?) really loves the show 3rd and Bird on the Disney Channel.  This is funny because I am terrified of birds.  My friend Kara sent me this today and I think it properly illustrates my feelings.

Anyway, back to Sam and the birds.  There is a character on this show called Muffin that always refers to herself in third person.  Super annoying but whatever, Sam loves it. 

I think the show is backed by some muffin that is inserting subliminal messages into the program because I have been wanting to back muffins all week long. 

So today I made these lovelies.

They were good, but not quite sweet enough.

Then my brilliant husband suggested a white chocolate glaze. 

Which I made immediately after Sam went to bed.

Not the prettiest thing (or photo) but I'm sure I can perfect my technique because this sauce sealed the deal.  Muffin perfection.

Cause I love ya, here's the recipe.

White Chocolate Glazed Raspberry White Chocolate Muffins

Based on recipe found here.

• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking poweder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup raspberries.  Fresh or frozen (I used frozen)
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

White Chocolate Glaze

• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 white sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Grease 12 muffin tin cups.

2. Heat oven to 400°.

3. In a large bowl mix the milk, butter and egg.

4. Stir in all remaining muffin ingredients except raspberries & vanilla chips.

5. Stir only until flour is moistened,then gently stir in the berries & vanilla chips.

6. Spoon the batter into the greased muffin tins.

7. Bake for 24-28 minutes or until golden brown.

8. Let muffins cool a little, then remove from pan.

Glaze Directions:

1. Over medium heat, bring butter, milk and sugar to a boil.
2. Boil for 3-4 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and stir in white chocolate chips until completely melted.
4. Drizzle (or liberally pour) over muffins. 

Day 249 - Mexican Panaderia

Ok, so there is a lot of food talk on this blog recently.  It's the baby's fault.  I seriously have the appetite of a 13 year old boy right now.  

A couple of months ago, my friend Minda introduced me to a Mexican bakery here in Austin called Chuy's. (Not the Tex-Mex restaurant)  She took me to have tortas for lunch. This was good because she ordered in Spanish and I don't speak Spanish.  The tortas were divine.  THEN I discovered the bakery on the other side of the restaurant.  Oh. My. Heavens. Delightful.

Just this Saturday I took Ben there to buy bread bowls for the potato soup.  Once he laid eyes on the baked goods laid out before him, he had to give them a try.  We bought a churro, a sausage kolache, three bread bowls and a pound cake muffin thingey.
It cost us $4.50.
Angels sang.
I wept.
 No one needed to speak Spanish.
Baked goods are a universal language. 

So imagine my lack of surprise when this morning Ben asked me if I was going back to Chuy's today.  Needless to say we did.  We got a strawberry empanada (HEAVEN), yellow cake with coconut frosting, another churro and two more pound cake muffin thingeys. Ben didn't want to share the pound cake this time.  All of this for a measly $3.50.   

We did not eat it all.  In fact, we just ate the empanada and the cake.  I think Ben would have ate the muffin too. 

Anyway, here is their yelp page. 

Chuy's Bakery

 If you are ever in Austin to see us, remind me to take you there.