Crumb-coated Muffins

(Pardon the dark picture)

These are really really delicious!

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour

1/2 cup of sugar

1 tablespoon of baking powder

Pinch of salt

3/4 cup of milk

1/3 cup of oil

1 egg

Heat the oven to 400* F. Prepare the muffin pan with spray or liners. Combine all the the ingredients, dry then wet. Mix thoroughly and pour into the pan.

Topping:

1/4 cup of brown sugar

1/4 cup of white sugar

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

Mix the topping together into a small bowl and sprinkle over the uncooked muffins.

Bake for 20 minutes and enjoy! Makes 1 dozen.

Pavlova!

We've been talking about Australia in T-Tot's school work, so we decided to try making one of the famous Australian deserts.

Pavlova is named after Anna Pavlova, a famous ballerina from the turn of the century. This desert is believed to be named after her while she toured in Australia and New Zealand in the 20's.

 Ingredients:

3 egg whites
1 pinch of salt
1 cup of white sugar
1 tablespoon of cornstarch
1 teaspoon of lemon juice or lemon flavoring
1 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup of confectioner's sugar

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Draw a 9 inch circle on the parchment. An easy way to do this is to draw around the outside of a 9 inch pan with a pencil.
2. In a large bowl, beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. Add 3/4 cup of the sugar gradually, while continuing to whip. Make sure sugar is completely dissolved. Mix together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar with the cornstarch; lightly fold into meringue with lemon juice.
3. Spread a layer of meringue to fit circle on parchment, approximately 1/4 inch thick. With remainder of mixture, pipe or spoon swirls around the edges to form a shallow bowl shape.
4. Bake at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 1 hour. Turn off oven, but leave meringue in oven for an additional 30 minutes. When cool, the meringue should be hard on the outside, and slightly moist on the inside.
5. In a large bowl, combine the cream and half a cup of confectioners sugar, and whip until thickened. Decorate with fruit of your choice; strawberries are excellent.

We used dried pineapple, kiwi and strawberries on ours. :~)

A Journey of Becoming a Young Woman of Faith - #2 Daughter of the King

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:13-16

Remember the song we used to sing when we were little? This Little Light of Mine? In the song talks about how we need to shine the light of God. Thats what the Bible tells us! Paraphrasing the verses it says to us young ladies: We are the light of the world/the school/the home. A young woman can not be in hiding when she is shining God's light." You can't hide! Our culture is focused on all the wrong things...we need to break that chain, focus on God, and by doing so shine God's love. If we focus on the negative we can't see the positive. There is over 7 billion people in this world, only 30% are Christians. And some of them may just be by name only. There is still over 70% of the world that doesn't know about God and his everlasting love. And a good number of these people are right outside your door! Now the verse also talks about salt. Our Pastor talked about this recently and it makes sense. Salt in this area was nearly worthless due to impurities. The salt would loose its saltiness due to exposure from the sun. This basically gave it one good use: road "gravel". Jesus is saying if we don't make others "thirsty" for God's love then we are just going to be trampled by the world and its distractions. Think of this person: Noah was salt & light. He was trusting in God, doing what God wanted him to do, & by doing this he was showing God's love. The people were so full of sin that they didn't pay attention. Noah still did what God wanted him to do & was blessed. Where does God want you to be salt and light in your life? For me I dance at nursing homes to cheer people up. When I use my talents to shine God's love & cheer up others, I feel blessed. 

I want to challenge you today to be salt & light. Whether it is singing praises or hymns, or just showing a quiet act of mercy with joy, be salt & light. To be salt, or to be light: that is the challenge. 

Breakfast Cookies!

My Mom LOVED the Quaker Oats Breakfast Cookies. And then they disappeared. And then they were changed. So I love trying new breakfast cookie recipes. :)

Today I tried this simple recipe and they are good!

2 1/4 cups of instant oats or ground whole oats
2 mashed or chopped bananas
1 cup of peanut butter
1/4 cup of honey
1 tsp of cinnamon
pinch of salt

And chocolate chips, shredded coconuts, nuts, dried fruit, anything that would be yummy! :) We added chocolate chips! :)

Bake at 325 *F for 15 minutes. :) Makes about 9-18 depending on the size you want :)

 Let them cool and enjoy!!!!!!!

A wee bit of baking!

Remember that AWESOME new stove we got? 

Well we did some baking with it yesterday! Boy the house smells GREAT! 

We had 2 and 1/2 cups of black raspberries from our berry patch and we made muffins!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Too yummy, we only have 6 left as I speak. ;)

We used The Pillsbury Cookbook for our recipe. 

(For 2 dozen muffins or 4 dozen mini muffins {We had 1 dozen reg. and 2 dozen mini} :)

4 cups of flour

1 cup of sugar

2 tablespoons of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

3/4 cup of milk

2/3 cup of oil

2 eggs

Dash of cinnamon and sugar

Mix the dry ingredients, add the wet and mix it all up! Pour into greased muffin pans and bake at 400* for 18-22 minutes. We added blackberries. :) 

We also made banana bread!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

We used the Fanny Farmer's recipe.

3 ripe bananas well mashed

2 eggs well beaten

2 cups of flour

3/4 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of baking powder

Mix the ingredients, pour into 1 greased pan and bake for an hour at 350. Makes 1 loaf. 

Breakfast was delicious!