Monthly Archives: July 2009

Strawberry Muffins with cinnamon sugar sprinkle

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Strawberries and muffins. Two of my favorite things. BUT strawberries in my muffins….that is a whole different story.
You see we had an over abundance of strawberries in our fridge. K love eating them but for some reason this week only ate a couple. Now I am not the type to throw out good food so I decided to make something with them. I wanted to do a tart, but alas didn’t have all the ingredients for it. I have already done a frozen yogurt so I didn’t want to go that route either. So I decided on the muffin. Easy, simple, and I have all the ingredients.
Now don’t get me wrong. The muffins came out great. BUT I didn’t like the taste of strawberries in my muffins. I actually ate around them. The muffin was very good. The strawberry in it…not so much. IF you like strawberries and muffins try out this recipe. Let me know what you think…

Strawberry Muffins with cinnamon sugar sprinkle
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2/3 cup sugar
zest of 1 lemon
2 eggs
1 cup milk (I used 2%)
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons butter (melted)
1 cup diced strawberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a muffin tin with silicone muffin cups (or paper ones if you have). In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. In a separate large bowl, toss together the lemon zest and sugar. Add the eggs, milk and vanilla. Whisk until blended. Add the melted butter and whisk until thoroughly combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold together with a rubber spatula. Add the diced strawberries and fold in.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and spring back.

* I sprinkled a bit cinnamon sugar on top of each muffin to give it an extra little something. You can omit this if you would like.

Strawberry Muffin!

Our apartment is our home.

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Yesterday K and I received our lease renewal. We had been talking about moving into a house for a while now. There was one that we were really interested in, but we found out yesterday of all days that someone else’s bid was just a bit higher then ours and that we lost it. When I asked K what he wanted to do, he suggest that we stay here at the apartment one more year. He said it was our home and that we could use this year to get married and save up a ton more for another house. After thinking about it for a while I believe that he is right. Sure I really had my heart set on the house, but there are other houses. Better houses. And I really do love this apartment. It is the perfect amount of space for us and our neighbors are super friendly. The maintenance is done by someone else. In a house it isn’t. The only thing that I think I would like to do now is paint a bit. Maybe add an accent wall. There is so much more potential for this apartment and I can’t wait to find it…


Apartment.

Don’t judge me monkey!

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I am so ashamed. I haven’t cooked dinner in nearly six days. It is not that I haven’t wanted to cook. I have actually been dying to get into the kitchen. Recipes are piling up in there begging to be made. It is just that each day K and I have had something that needed to be done, somewhere to go, having someone over for a bit or just trying to fight this cold we are sharing. Today I actually had some Cheetos for dinner. I know..shame shame on me. It is not for the lack of food in the refrigerator but the lack of motivation I have right now. I do have to tell you though those Cheetos were damn good!
I promise that once things settle down I will have some recipes to post, food every night being cooked and no excuses.

Picnic in the Park accessories!

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In Hoboken, NJ in the summer there are always movies in the park under the stars. I have yet to visit this year, but have gone many times in the past years. I love going with friends because we always pack a picnic dinner and have an amazing time. So while surfing through Etsy and other websites I found a couple of extra things that I would love to get for a picnic – I just wish I had the money to get them. Luckily I have the basket, utensils, and blanket for it!

{An eco friendly sandwich/snack bag from evelynfields}

Wine!

{From Picnic Fun}

{From Picnic Basket}

You scream. I scream. We all scream for ice cream!

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For last nights dinner I decided to make fun little ice cream sandwiches. I had picked up the ice cream sandwich molds from William Sonoma months ago and completely forgot about them. I layering mint chocolate chip ice-cream and brownies. The Cow, Star and Pig make for fun, playful treats. Eat them right away (which I did one) or store for another time. The molds make small sized treats that are just the right size for little desserts!

Ice Cream Sandwiches!

# 53. Ride on a motorcycle

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# 53. Ride on a motorcycle (from the Do before I die List)

Ekk I did it!
K has had a motorcycle for about two years now. He has asked me numerous times to hop on, but I just could never bring myself to do it. I have always been scared of them and heard so many bad stories. So when he decided that he was going to sell his cruiser and get a faster less cruiser like motorcycle I knew I had to ride. So on the “Do before I die list” it went and then I never really thought about again. Months go by and he finally gets a seller. Still I do not ride. This weekend he informs me that this Friday it is going to the new seller. So Wednesday night I hop on.
I was scared. Scared and shaking but knew that it was something I needed to experience. K and our friend D talked me through what I needed to do. Put the helmet on. Check. Teach me to hop on. Check. Hold on. Check. And we were off. We went around our apartment complex twice (completely not ready for the road and other cars! lol). I was nervous and shaking but at the same time I had a smile on my face. I was giggling. I think I like a bit. The only problem that I had was that I am a control freak so whenever K would go faster or turn I would squeeze him really hard.
I am so happy I decided to try it out. I liked the feeling of freedom and the wind against my skin. It is something I not sure I would do again (ok maybe I will), but I am happy that I am starting to push the boundaries that I have so that I can experience things that I have never experienced before.

# 44. Go to the theatre in NYC a 3 times this year (1/3) – Phantom of the Opera

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Ever have one of those days that everything is just perfect.  You get everywhere on time, no lines, no rain, perfect food and just an all around feeling of happiness.  Well I had one of those days Wednesday.
My friend L had come up from Virginia for a visit.   I hadn’t seen her in months and was ecstatic to be able to spend time with her.  We decided to go into the city to see if we could get cheap tickets to a Broadway show and have a bit of lunch. We bought our tickets at TKTS for 50 % off – since we heard so many good things about Phantom of the Opera we decided that it was the show we would watch. I am completely glad that we decided to go to see Phantom. The costumes were amazing. The singing was out of this world. Twice I was brought to tears by the story line.

{Phatom!}

When we were scheduling our time in the city, L and I were trying to figure out where we should dine for lunch. We had heard it was restaurant week in NYC and decided to go to one of the more expensive restaurants since we could go there, eat and save. We were able to get a reservation at Ruby Foo’s. Due to the our lunch for $25.00 each we decided to go nuts and a get bottle of amazing wine. I don’t remember the exact one we got, but I do have it written down somewhere. Neither of us had eaten breakfast that morning so the bottle was our little bit of breakfast.

{The interior of Ruby Foo’s}

The food at Ruby Foo’s was excellent. We both got appetizers, meals and desserts. Below are the pictures of the appetizers and desserts, but no meals. We both were a little silly on the wine and with all the conversation we were having we completely forgot to take pictures of them!  

{Apps and Desserts}

All and all Wednesday was an excellent day. I loving meeting up with friends and having a great time.

* Completed more 101′s! Slowly but surely getting there!
            # 44. Go to the theatre in NYC a 3 times this year (1/3)
            # 87. Have a “girls’ night/day/afternoon” 5 times (4/5)