What Happens when I read books about food....

I finished The Irresistible Blueberry Bakery and Cafe and this is what happened. 

Yummy Blueberry Muffins.

Seriously I spent the whole book just daydreaming about blueberry muffins. I had to make them. It was an intense need to finish the book and then make the marvelous muffins. Never mind what time it is...never mind if we have already eaten...I MUST MAKE THE MUFFINS.

This is not the first time this has happened to me. 

Every time I read cozy books that involve bakeries or food I am suddenly in my kitchen measuring out flour, butter, and sugar. I simply cannot help myself.

TV and movies do this too....for example I have been watching a lot of British TV lately and I now find myself craving high tea type moments. I want lovely cuppa with a biscuit.....What is that? I'm not British. However they make it sound so lovely I just want to join in...

It always happens. I am so susceptible to suggestion. Does anyone else suffer from this? 

In any case...Here's the muffin recipe I found via Little Sweet Baker. They taste lovely. 

Bakery Style Blueberry Streusel Muffins

• 2 & ½ cups (310g) all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp (13g) baking powder
• 1 tsp (5g) baking soda
• ½ tsp (2g) salt
• ½ cup (114g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup (200g) sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup (250ml) milk (any kind, whole or buttermilk is best)
• 1 tbsp (15ml) vanilla extract
• 1 & ½ cups (230g) blueberries
• For the streusel topping
• ¼ cup (50g) sugar
• 1 tbsp (8g) all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp (10ml) unsalted butter, melted
• ⅛ tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425F and spray or line a 12 cup muffin baking pan. Prepare the streusel topping by mixing all the ingredients together in a small bowl.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter with the sugar, add the eggs, mix, then add the milk and vanilla, mix again.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and gently combine using a rubber spatula until moistened. Fold in the blueberries until just incorporated.
5. Divide the batter into the 12 muffin cups, top with streusel and bake for 5 minutes at 425F, then keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the heat to 375F and bake for another 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

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Friday Favorites 9/2

Bringing back Friday Favorites this week because I've been on a Pinterest kick lately and just wanted to share with you some of my awesome finds! 


Beauty: 

I am in love with this look. I have to find that lavender color!

Actually rocked this one the other day. Love it.

Fashion: 

Just feels like fall and Halloween to me!

Nerdy Girl: 

I want to do this so badly to one of those cars!

I need these nail wraps. Like now.

Funnies: 

Food: 

Whatchamacallit is my FAVORITE candy bar. I must make these!

Song of the Week: I heard this one the radio the other day and remembered just how much I love this song. 

Happy Friday Everyone!

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Hawaii Care Package Haul

So the other day I was wandering around in my Mom's kitchen (because who doesn't check out their mom's kitchen when they visit?) and came across some interesting things. If you follow me on SnapChat or on Instagram then you might have had a sneak preview into some of the strangeness.

Turns out my Uncle in Hawaii sent my Mom a care package of some strange and interesting items that we just don't have around here! 

Lots of food Stuff! I have to say that I liked the regular cuttle fish better than the hot version. It wasn't so much hot as just a little bit of spice. The Marlin jerky was awesome. I think that the crack seeds are my favorite but I also really liked the Island Lava (brittle with lots of fruits in it) but it was super sweet. 

The Island Macs (Chocolate Macadamia Nuts) are of course awesome. 

The Mochi Crunch were pretty good. Mostly they just taste like crackers but they smell like soy sauce. 

The Ume Candy was pretty tasty in my opinion but my Dad wasn't a fan. 

I haven't tried the Chewy Peanut Cakes, the Iso Peanuts, or the Gummies and I probably will only try the Cakes since I'm not a huge fan of peanuts or gummies. 




Also he sent  some really pretty sarongs with beautiful print. I love the colors and flowers! 

It was a lot of fun to open the package and find all these cool items and then to try them all out! I love seeing local foods from places I've never been!

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Currently......February

Reading....Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman 

Watching....X Files I loved the show way back when and I love it now. Mulder and Scully are just awesome.

Wanting.....more brush pens. Seriously Bullet Journaling has just given me an excuse to indulge in all the office supply things that I love. That was always my favorite part of back to school. New supplies!

 

Loving.....London Fog. I found this recipe on Pinterest and the name was what caught my attention at first. I didn't realize they make something similar at Starbucks and I have never had their version but man I am in love with this drink. It's becoming an almost nightly ritual.

Writing....1000 words a day. Sure most of it is awful but I'm writing and every day it gets better and better.

Cooking....these awesome egg muffins by Steph! I tried these this week and now I will make them pretty much forever. So tasty and simple! 

Also cooking up some really tasty chicken mushroom broccoli....low carb and YUM!

So what's up with you Currently?

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Confessions: What I did while my husband was in Vegas

1. Made a super epic hot cocoa of goodness. I had had this pinned for a long time and as you can tell by the title of the blog I am a lover of all things cocoa so I just had to give this one a go! It was as delicious as it looks. 

2. Awesome face masks that make you look like a serial killer. I am in love with these Tony Moly masks. They carry them at Ulta for like $6 bucks but I bought a pack of 11 for $9 on Amazon. They look creepy but seriously they feel amazing! 

3. Binge watch all the girly shows and movies that he isn't into. It was so nice to just watch what I wanted after the kiddo was down for the night and just enjoy it. 

4. Blast my favorite cheesy pop/80s/random music and have crazy dance parties with Kyra right in the middle of the living room. Sometimes you just need to dance it out! 

So there's the confessions for the week! What would you all do? 
 

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Weekend Recap: The One with the Martian

Friday: There were brownies. Also Dinosaurs.

Saturday: My brother's birthday! We went out as a family and had dinner. I have no pictures of this because we were too busy having fun. Sometimes you just have to be in the moment and not behind your phone! We had an awesome dinner at The Smokehouse and embarrassed him by singing Happy Birthday. 

The birthday boy and his boy Archer.

Sunday: My parents offered to watch Kyra so that I could finally go see The Martian! 

I really enjoyed it but there were some parts that irked me. Hollywood did it's little number on it and I felt like some important parts were left out and some parts were made up. I won't spoil it for anyone but it wasn't as good as the book IMO. 


After the movie we were walking to go and get some food and we stopped so I could take a picture of this awesome sculpture/statue. 

Then we went and got some food and I was very amused to see they offered a doggie menu. We obviously didn't have any of our fur kids with us so we didn't get to see any of them but I still snapped a shot of the menu! Also my own awesome lunch, The Freebird Chicken Sandwich!

During lunch I started getting a headache and it was time to go and pick Kyra up from my parents but as we headed back to the car I stopped to take a picture of these creepy pumpkin people/things. 

The headache I got during lunch turned into a full blown migraine by the time we got to my parents' house. Nausea, light sensitivity, the whole nine yards. So my mom offered to keep Kyra a little longer so that I could go home and rest. My husband took off to go see his mom and I immediately got in pajamas and passed out. After a two hour nap the migraine was finally gone and my parents brought Kyra home. She and I then spent the evening cuddled up together watching Hotel Transylvania and reading her new current favorite book: Green Eggs and Ham! 

So that was our weekend! Hope you had a good one! Happy Monday.

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Weekending 6/15

Good Morning Everyone, 

This morning is starting slow due to being up WAY too late and not having any coffee in the house. Still I thought I would get up the weekend recap since I failed to do it last week! 

Friday: 
I decided to make doughnuts. I've never made them before and they turned out pretty awesome if I say so myself! Everyone seemed to enjoy them! 

After my culinary triumph I headed to the library. I had a stack of holds come in and I was so excited to pick them up and start reading! 

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing with Kyra and watching a whole lot of YouTube videos on Nerdy Nummies. I had no idea this was a thing and now I'm hooked. 

Saturday: 
My parents offered to watch Kyra so that Bobby and I could go see Jurassic World. We dropped her off at about 9am so that we could make the early 10:30 showing. Less crowds and it means that it only cost us ten bucks total to see it! SCORE. 

The car always has the best lighting for selfies. I was actually taking this to check my lipstick.

The movie was amazing and I thought they did a really good job with the story line. Also Chris Pratt is tasty delicious. Hilarious, Adorable, and HOT. He did a great job as the Raptor Wrangler. If you get a chance GO SEE IT. 

After the movie we did a little browsing at T.J. Maxx. I took silly photographic evidence for the blog...people were staring and looking at me like a crazy person. Eh Whatever. Still fun. 

This little guy is REALLY happy to be a Popsicle.

Then we decided to go out and get lunch. We went to Q39, apparently it is now THE place for barbeque in the city. Now I don't eat enough barbeque to be the judge of that but I will say that the food was DELICIOUS. 

This was mine. Q-burger. Brisket burger with onion straws. YUM.

Bobby's. Judge's Sampler. Pork, chicken, brisket. Again. YUM.

After lunch it was time to go and get Kyra. She was missing Mama! 


Sunday:
 We spent most of the day bathing the dogs and doing their summer flea/tick treatments. That took a lot of work and was stressful as all get out...but it's done.  

After that the rest of the day was spent attempting to relax, watching Orange is the New Black Season 3 and finally watching the season finale of Game of Thrones, which was brutal. I won't give any spoilers but it was really heart wrenching to watch. 

So there you have it. Our weekend. How was your weekend? Did you see Jurassic World? Planning on seeing it?

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