I Want Candy

     I'm a slacker when it comes to blogging lately, but in my defense, I'm working on a 4.0!  I'm nearly there too, and I'm hoping that allying myself with the teacher's favorite in Anatomy will give me the edge I need to put me over the top in that class.  We shall see.  In the meantime the extra studying hasn't left much time for my usual candid updates, but I have a minute so I wanted to share a bit of my night with y'all.

     I recently taught Monkey how to play Go-Fish.  It's a good way for her to review her numbers, and this evening I was struck by another opportunity to incorporate some higher thinking into our game. We had just finished, and we were counting our pairs to see who won.

Me:  Monkey, Mommy has 11 pairs; how many do you have?

Monkey: 7!

Me:  The winner is the person who has more pairs.  Who has more, me or you?

Monkey: Me!

Me:  Is 7 more than 11?

Monkey: Yup!

Me:  Hmm...you sure?

Monkey: Yes ma'am.

Me (being struck by a brilliant thought): Monkey, would you rather have 7 pieces of candy or 11?

Monkey:  Candy!?  I want candy!

Me (backtracking really quickly):  No! No; forget that example.  No one's getting candy.  Would you rather watch 7 movies or 11?

Monkey: I want to watch Little Foot.

Me:  *smack my forehead*  No; we're not watching a movie!  I just mean....ugh.  If I have 11 pairs and you have 7 pairs who won Go-Fish?

Monkey:  I don't want to play Go-Fish;  I want to watch a movie.

*sigh*

     At least she didn't remember the part about 11 pieces of candy.

(I don't have a good segway tonight, sorry.)

     I do have something yummy worth sharing though, and it's the perfect time of year for this particular recipe.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
(from The Girl Who Ate Everything)

Ingredients:
For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar

For the muffins:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1¼ cups vegetable oil

For the topping:
½ cup sugar
5 tablespoons flour
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Note: A standard sized can of pumpkin is 15 ounces, just shy of 2 cups (16 ounces). You could open another can if you want and freeze the extra or just use one can which is what I did. The amount is so little I don't think it makes a difference in the final product.

Instructions:
To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar in a medium bowl and mix well until blended and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a log about 1½-inches in diameter. Smooth the plastic wrap tightly around the log, and reinforce with a piece of foil. Transfer to the freezer and chill until at least slightly firm, at least 2 hours. The mixture will still be somewhat soft but firmer.

To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.

To make the topping, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl; whisk to blend. Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two forks until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. I always get inpatient here and mix it together with my hands so that it looks like the texture of wet sand. I know you aren't supposed to do it this way but I'm impatient. Transfer to the refrigerator to chill until ready to use.

To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom of the liner (1-2 tablespoons). Slice the log of cream cheese filling into 24 equal pieces. Place a slice of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin well. You want to put the cream cheese lower than you think because it will rise a lot during the baking process. Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups, placing on top of the cream cheese to cover completely. Sprinkle a small amount of the topping mixture over each of the muffin wells.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool before serving. 


     These were super yummy, and they're the perfect breakfast/brunch food this time of year.  Enjoy!

What Ha' Happen Was...

     You know, I just want to set the record straight.  When I said the other night that Dachshunds were little shits, I didn't mean it.  What I meant to say was that Dachshunds are little shit-stirrers.  Yeah, they get the drama started, and then sit back looking all cute and innocent while someone else takes the heat for it.  As most of you know through Facebook, my "good dog", Roux dug out of the backyard the other day and was picked up by on-base police.  What y'all don't know is exactly what ha' happened.  To be fair to my little instigator, this is all speculation.  I was not home, but I've seen him do this before so I'm going out on a limb here and assuming this is how things went down.

     Roux, as I said is my good dog.  She is very well-trained.  She comes when you call her; she's well-mannered, and she can even be trusted to stay near your side when she's off her leash.  Aside from the usual puppy antics, we've only ever had one problem with her, and that was digging.  After her first few digging escapes, I began kenneling her throughout the day.  After a while I gave her another shot, and she left her digging behind.  Then we adopted Andouille.  He, being the instigator,  will dig a little, enough to get Roux's attention, and then walk away once Roux takes over and transforms his tiny hole into a crater.  The best part is that Andouille will walk to the door, and begin barking to come inside so that I come to the door just in time to fuss a Roux before she gets out of the yard.  The plan backfired on him the other day because I was in school, so he couldn't tattle-tell, and he's too big to fit through Roux's holes.  Therefore Roux got a few hours of freedom and joyriding with the base police, and Andouille got time-out in his kennel.

     Sadly, when getting Roux in trouble stopped being fun, he moved onto a new set of shenanigans.  Monkey is allowed to have her toys out, but before bed she has to bring them back to her room.  Lately, I've been finding her toys strewn along the stairs.  My first thought was that she was simply dropping them on the way to her room.  Then I began watching her go up the stairs with her toys, and discovered that she was able to make it up to her room without dropping a single thing.  So next I thought she was being rebellious and throwing her toys down the stairs.  After all, she went through that stage just a few months ago.  I started fussing at her to pick up her toys.  Come to find out, Andouille was going to Monkey's room, gently carrying toys to the stairs, and placing them there before disappearing to watch Monkey get in trouble.  At this rate I would trade my mother's "gremlins" for my vindictive diva-dog.

     I promise this is the last post about him, though.  Mainly because I'm afraid for my safety.  Who knows if he's logging into my computer at night a reading these, and I'll soon be paying the price for calling him a diva on the internet.  Or maybe he'll be seeking vengeance because I refused to share these with him.

Hmm....muffins

Mmmmhhmmmm....Nutella

Nutella-Stuffed Cinnamon Sugar Muffins
1/3 cup (5 TBS) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
8 tsp Nutella

Cinnamon-Sugar Topping:
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
3 TBS butter

Preheat oven to 425F.  Spray muffin pan with cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl of an electric or stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together on medium speed.  Mix in the egg, vanilla extract, and milk. Gently stir in flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.  DO NOT overmix – stir until *just* combined.

Spoon 1 heaping Tablespoon of batter into muffin cavity.  Layer with 1 tsp Nutella in the center and spoon another heaping Tablespoon of batter on top.  If the muffin tins are completely full, that is ok.  They will not overflow.  Repeat layering batter + Nutella into each muffin tin.  I got exactly 8 muffins.

Bake at 425F for 5 minutes.  Reduce oven to 350F and bake for an additional 13-17 minutes until batter is set. Allow muffins to cool for about 5 minutes.

While the muffins are cooling, make the cinnamon-sugar topping.  Melt the butter for about 30 seconds in the microwave.  Stir and stick back in microwave if not fully melted.  In a separate small bowl, stir together the sugar and cinnamon.  Dip the top of each muffin into the melted butter and dip into the cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Swirl them around in the cinnamon-sugar a bit to make sure you get a thick coating. Set upright on cooling rack.  

Enjoy!