Cupcake Making Dancing Music

Friday was my daughter's 11th birthday. She is now 11 and going into the 6th grade.

I'm a bit scared.

But... On Saturday we hosted her birthday party. What she wanted to do more than anything was to have everyone decorate their OWN cupcakes. Which meant that my Saturday morning was spent baking.

To set the mood of fun, I popped the new Mat Kearney CD I received from One2One Network into the disc changer and turned up the volume.

 

The Young Love album is upbeat and fun. It is completely family friendly, and I had no concerns about blaring it as my daughter, her best friend, and I starting whipping up cupcakes like no one's business...

The girls danced around the kitchen to the catchy lead off single, "Hey Mama". Although not all as fast paced, the rest of the album proved to be full of the catchy and rhythmic tunes Mat Kearney is known for!

My favorite song on the album was "Learning to Love Again". My daughter loved the beat and lyrics to "She Got the Honey" and danced around to it long after the cupcakes were baked!

The cupcakes turned out famously, and the girls were riding high on an icing induced sugar high for much of the night. I survived my youngest turning 11 and officially entering the middle school years...

Now to prep myself for 14 and high school... Maybe Mat will have an album to help me cope.

I received the Mat Kearney Young Love album at no charge from One2One Network in exchange for my honest opinion.

Kitchen Confusion

I’ve been totally consumed lately with transforming my kitchen into a warm, healthful place for me and my children.  Everywhere I turn, I read about good grains and bad grains, gluten and gluten-free, eliminating food coloring, getting rid of nitrates, reduced fat vs. fat free, why sugar is bad for you, why Splenda is good, why Splenda is bad, and which oils to use.  It’s really a lot to take in.  Depending on which propaganda you chose to believe, everything is safe and healthy for you AND it will all kill you.  It is difficult to wrap your head around.

For me, it is best to just know the facts.  Today, I found myself trying to decide if I need canola oil in my kitchen.  Why?  Because I got a new cookbook (that I’m super excited to tell you about) that has many recipes calling for canola oil.

I have never purchased canola oil and honestly, I had no idea what exactly a canola was.  So I went and visited my trusty friend Google for some answers.  Here is what I learned:

• Canola oil is a product of a hybrid rapeseed plant that was created by scientists in Canada- hence it’s name.  Canola stands for Canadian oil, low acid; source Wikipedia
• Canola oil is low in saturated fat, a source of Omega-6, high in Omega-3, high in monounsaturated fat, and cholesterol and trans fat free; source canolainfo.org
• There are critics who say that canola oil may be hazardous to your health because it is derived from the rapeseed plant.  Rapeseed is high in an toxin called erucic acid and detractors believe that it is still present in canola oil.  The FDA has deemed canola oil safe and it is generally recognized as safe around the world.; source truthorfiction.com

The bottom line is, for every report that says something is good for you, there is another saying it isn’t.  The best thing you can do as a consumer is to read up and make the choice that is best for you.  So back to my original question, do I need canola oil in my kitchen?  I decided no.  I currently use olive oil.  Olive oil is also a source of Omega-3 and 6, is also high in monounsaturated fat, and studies show it can lower your bad cholesterol.  In my humble opinion, it seems “more natural” than an oil from a scientifically created plant and I just learned that it can be used interchangeably with canola oil in my baking.  So why buy yet another thing to fill my cupboards?

image courtesy of Google Images

Damn Surprise Visits

So, my parents are coming this weekend.  (In case you didn't get the memo.)  While I am very excited to see them, I'm kinda panicking.  Why?  It's been since March since I've seen them.  Usually, I go to them, in Chicago.  If I were to venture a guess, I'd say it's been 2 - 3 years since they've been to Minnesota.  And truthfully, it's probably been about 4 - 5 years since they've come to my house.

So why am I panicking, you ask?  Well, let's just say that my home is definitely "lived in".  With 3 cats, 2 kids (with broken arms the inability to pick up after themselves), and a revolving door to all of the neighborhood children (and more than that), my house often looks as though a bomb went off.  Don't get me wrong, we don't live in filth and squalor, we just don't exactly apply the "a place for everything and everything in it's place" philosophy here.  (Much to my dismay.)

My dad and step-mom?  Neat freaks.  Their home?  Museumesque. 

Now, generally speaking, I can find PLENTY to do with my folks that keep them the hell out of my house, but since I was laid off in April of 2008, I have done A LOT of redecorating in my house.  For some reason, my step-mom (who I think is incredible and has spotty memory due to a brain anuerysm 6 years ago) has remembered that she hasn't seen my home in YEARS and would really love to do an early Christmas at my house.  Had they given me a few weeks notice, I could probably have hit up the Flylady and applied some of her super intense "get your shit ready for the holidays" tips, but they didn't.  They told me on Tuesday.  Yep, 2 DAYS AGO!

Guess what!?!?  I don't have my Christmas tree up.  I don't have any Christmas baking done (my dad is a super cookie monster).  I don't have any gifts wrapped.  I don't have any Christmas decorations up.  All in all, I'm really not ready for this.

So?  My plan?  I'm sooo gonna see if they want to meet me at the Science Museum.  If I can occupy them there and wear them out, I can probably wear them out enough to have them suggest dinner out and NEVER make it as far as the suburb where I live!!! (YES!!!)  It's sketchy, but it might work!  And yes, I have a back-up plan...  They aren't planning on seeing us until Sunday.  So everyone is grounded until the house is clean(er) and The Man has been recruited to carrying the Christmas tree in tonight (SURPRISE, babe!). 

Wish me luck!

I'm a Closet Domestic Goddess

Shhh!  Don't tell.  I love to bake.  It is my sanity keeper.  Unfortunately, I haven't been doing much baking lately.  But tomorrow is the 50th birthday of a regular customer at the bar and some of the patrons are putting on a surprise birthday party for him.  I've known the guy for at least 10 years, so I volunteered to make a cake!

Things have been so chaotic around here, lately.  I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to chill the f out.  So...  Here it is!

Chocolate Kahlua Cake

1 box (18.25 oz) dark chocolate cake mix

1 box (3.9 oz) instant chocolate pudding

1 container (16 oz) sour cream

3 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup Kahlua

1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and coat 10 cup bundt pan with cocoa.

Mix all ingredients well.  The batter will be REALLY thick.
Spoon batter into bundt pan.

Bake for an hour.

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then move to cooling rack and let cool throughly. 

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve!

The bummer of the matter is, I won't be sprinkling it with powdered sugar or serving it until tomorrow, so these are all of the pictures I have...

It looks yummy and the kids are going bonkers because they don't get any.  Hahaha!!  I think that's probably the best part!

I'll let you know on Saturday how delish it was!

Bananas Are Bad For the Waistline... And the Thighs

We love bananas.  Every week, at the grocery store, we buy bananas.  We eat them on cereal, we mix them in yogurt, we have banana pancakes (with visions of Jack Johnson running through mom's head), we eat them plain.

Why, then, does it seem they are always going bad?  Every week, I find myself with bananas turning brown!  It doesn't matter how many or how few I buy, there are ALWAYS browning bananas.  So you know what I do?  The same thing any self-respecting mama worth her Kitchen-Aid mixer would do....  I BAKE!!

Banana bread, banana cake, banana cream pie, banana bars with peanut butter frosting!!!  AHHHH!!!  Stop the insanity!!!

You'd think I'd be sick of it by now, all the banana yummies.  But I can't stop eating them.  They're soooo  yummy.  I think it's time BFF plans an intervention...