3 posts tagged “birthday”

So today is Dear Husband's birthday, and when I asked him what he'd like for his cake, he asked for blueberry muffins.  So, blueberry muffins it is. :)

Here's a fabulous recipe for them, should you want to join us in a global celebration of Man. :)

INGREDIENTS

    * 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
    * 3/4 cup white sugar
    * 1/2 teaspoon salt
    * 2 teaspoons baking powder
    * 1/3 cup vegetable oil
    * 1 egg
    * 1/3 cup milk
    * 1 cup fresh blueberries

Topping:
    * 1/2 cup brown sugar
    * 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
    * 1/4 cup butter, cubed (cold butter works best for me, but I use a pastry cutter for blending.)
    * 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

   1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
   2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

   3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

   4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Note: If using buttermilk instead of white milk, also add 1 tbsp vanilla.

I'm just slammed! 

The shopping season hit with a vengeance, I'm a little worried about running out of stuff.  My parents are in town.  Man's parents are in town.  Boy's  birthday is today and I'm elbows deep in trying to bake and decorate a Bugaboo cake.  (Bugaboo is a creature from Jill Thompson's Scary Godmother universe.) 

<img src="http://www.jillthompsonart.com/images/cast_bugaboo.jpg">

And of course, I'm missing ingredients, so need to go to the store.  And I need to ship orders, deposit checks, find my coffee, retain my sanity, wrap giant presents, and prep the house for a horde of 5 year olds. (Gods help me.)

Hope all is well in y'all's world! 

Oh...and how freaking annoying is it that Vox can't translate basic 1995 html.  I mean, what the hell, people?

Today is Boy's 4th birthday.  We've been making Mommy's Lebanese Ghiradelli cookies for his school (possibly the best cookies of all time), and I'm baking him a strawberry cake with fudge icing, a loaf of Hawaiian bread, and prepping for Swedish meatballs tonight.  We let him open a present before Man went to work, and he picked the EZBake oven, so of course, we had to make an ezbake cake this morning before anything else could be made.  Hee.  He loves to cook, and had been asking for an EZB since he saw a commercial for one.  Yes, I know they're designed for older kids, but I figure since he's going to be doing it only if I'm standing right there, it should be fine.  I wish they came in another color than pink though.  Not because I'm weird about giving Boy pink stuff...but because I despise the color pink. ;)  Today he's decided that on his birthday, he doesn't have to wear clothes except for his Buzz Lightyear suit, and thus is now a "Chef in Spaaaaaaace", which made me fall over from laughter.  

Somehow I have to fit in time to make a bunch of custom glycerin soaps and spritzers.  I was hoping to do it at naptime...but methinks that eating small frosted cake for a morning snack may preclude an afternoon snooze.  Speaking of naps, a question for the parents out there;  At what age did you stop trying to make them take a nap?  Boy doesn't really nap anymore.  He'll go have "quiet time" for an hour, but he almost never actually sleeps.  I'm guessing that perhaps he's just outgrown naptime.  This would make me a sad panda...as I get much done during naptime. :)

So, back to party prep, soap making, and putting presents on progressively higher shelves as Boy has figured out stepladders. ;)