great morning.

Yesterday I was supposed to be studying for a world geography quiz but I got bored rather quickly and so I made banana nut bread. We have had two bananas sitting on top of our microwave browning. I kept thinking that I needed to make the bread but never found the time. Obviously, study time is the perfect time for baking. I suck at geography but I have perfected this banana nut bread. The trick, my sister Julia once told me, is to add cinnamon -- and lots of it. I only end up putting in about 1.5 teaspoons but it does the trick! So, this morning after my geography quiz (that I'm pretty sure I aced!) I am sitting down to a piping hot cup of Darjeeling tea and a slice of banana nut bread while I read a book on the Korean War -- which is surprisingly not as boring as it sounds, but I love history so I may be biased. Oh! Also, do you want to know how knowing lyrics to Beatles songs can help you study for a geography quiz? No, it's not Back in the U.S.S.R. It was The Ballad of John and Yoko! I had no clue where the Gibraltar Straight was so I looked it up and found out that Gibraltar is right below Spain, and we all know 

"'You can get married in Gibraltar near Spain.' Christ you know it ain't easy, you know how hard it can be. The way things are going, their gonna crucify me."

This is the only time in my life I have been happy about Yoko. And yes, I know I was born in 1988. 

Seriously, walnuts are my favorite part.

Perfection. Sigh. 

"To Die For Blueberry Muffins"

At least, that's what the title was on allrecipes.com and, I must admit, they are pretty tasty. I think it had something to do with the fresh blueberries in them -- I have only ever baked blueberry muffins out of the box and, don't get me wrong I like them, but I really enjoy baking from scratch. There is something so freeing about knowing you have all the ingredients you need to bake almost any bread/pastry/cake/cookie that you desire right in your cupboard at a moments notice. Now, I did have to walk to the store to purchase some blueberries because we don't normally have those on hand. But seriously, I really do love it. Plus, baked goods are just so scrumptious. I have been craving some blueberry muffins so I found a recipe that had high reviews online and went to work. They turned out perfect. I don't know if I've told you this before but, I love tea, and muffins and breads go wonderfully with tea. I love sitting down to read with a hot cup of tea and a baked-something-yummy -- it's very relaxing; I highly recommend it. (The crumb topping makes the muffin super sweet but it does add some nice flavors -- I'll probably try the recipe without the topping next time to see how that tastes.) Here's the recipe if you want to try:

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
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
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 inblueberries. Fill muffin cups right 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.

Thanksgiving Break

I love Thanksgiving. This is the first year ever that I will not be spending the holiday with my family, it's just too darn expensive to fly out twice in as many months. Thanksgiving is great for so many reasons: 
1. Turkey
2. Family
3. Leftover Turkey for sandwiches
4. Family Tradition: going to see a movie
5. Pie
This year Thanksgiving is great for a new reason: 
6. The military gave Dan a 6 day vacation!
He'll get bored by day 4 but I'm sure glad to have him around! Tomorrow we're going to spend thanksgiving with our new friends Pete and Lindsey + their cute little son, William. Remember that double chocolate strawberry goodness cake I made? I think I have that cake to thank for our invite to Thanksgiving dinner with their family ;) She's pretty much making all the big stuff but I wanted to help so I made cranberry sauce, apple pie and rolls:

I also am really excited for Christmas but we're not getting a tree for another week so instead I decided to make stockings. I found this super cute idea at MarthaStewart.com but my stupid hole punch wasn't working with me so instead they are just super plain, but they have bells! They're Christmas cheery, right?

On a side note, Dan played Scrabble with me today. This may seem like no big deal but Dan doesn't like playing Scrabble -- or maybe he just doesn't like playing Scrabble with me... Whatever, he won and I didn't even let him! He just won, all on his own. 

All in all, a very productive but very relaxing day. I can't wait for Turkey tomorrow. I may have even talked Dan into continuing the tradition of going to the movies tomorrow, we'll see. What are some of your Thanksgiving traditions?

Baking and Sewing

The next project in my sewing class was round bunting, essentially a fabric banner. I'm not really a fan of knick-knack type things. I decided a couple years ago that if I ever became a mom I would not be the mom who keeps every drawing, every craft, every school project that her child makes, it just seems like clutter. I'm not saying I'll throw everything away, but a couple drawings for a memory/scrapbook is sufficient. Likewise, I probably won't keep every little craft I make throughout this sewing process, but I'm learning different techniques with each project so do them I will. This project took me 4 hours, luckily there was a House marathon on USA last week so at least I was entertained, plus I have a thing for Gregory House. I was really focused when I sewed the letters on so those look decent, but once it came to attaching the front circle to the back circle I just wanted to finish so it looks pretty sloppy. Also, I wasn't supposed to use felt fabric for both sides, only on the back -- which I realized too late, so it was pretty hard to keep it all aligned. But hey, New Years Decorations? I think, yes. 

As for baking, Dan really likes peanut butter so when I found a chocolate peanut butter cookie recipe I was really excited to make it. I'm usually not a fan of peanut butter flavored things but these taste pretty good. I got the recipe from cooking light magazine. 

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup canola oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large egg whites

1 large egg

2 2/3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 semisweet chocolate minichips 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Combine first 8 ingredients in a large bowl; mix until smooth

3. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture, stir until combined. Stir in miniships (I just used one cup regular semisweet chocolate chips). Drop tablespoonfuls on baking sheets and bake for 12 minutes. Cool on wire rack. 

domesticity at it's finest

 I've been on this baking spree. I love to bake, but since baked goods tend to have a bajillion calories and there are only two of us to eat them I always give some away. Since I don't really have any friends yet I send half of whatever I bake into Dan's office with him. I've made chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and banana nut bread (I found this awesome moist banana nut bread recipe that does not require butter and tastes amazing) but I've been wanting to try a cake. I am a master at opening a box, mixing three ingredients, pouring it into a pan, and letting it bake for 25-28 minutes. And there is nothing wrong with that, it's quick, easy, and it tastes good, but I want to have a cake recipe from scratch. For one thing, it's cheaper (I'm sure not by much, but still!), and for another thing it just sounds cooler. So I was looking on the web for yellow cake recipes -- yellow cake is the best -- and I found one that was entitled: Basic Yellow Cake Recipe. I like basic things so I thought I would try it. So I gathered up all my ingredients. I don't know if the south just doesn't believe in certain things or if I am just not looking hard enough, but I couldn't find "cake flour" so I just used all-purpose flour, which apparently you can do if you remove 2 tablespoons from every cup used. Anyway, I mixed everything up, baked it, waited until it cooled completely and then frosted it. It looked good, and then I tasted it. It wasn't bad per se, it just tasted egg-y. So, when Dan came home I told him to try it before he took it into work -- I had a growing reputation and feared this would ruin it. He took it with him this morning so I guess it couldn't be too bad, but I'll be looking elsewhere for a yellow cake recipe. 
Have any recipes for me?

It looks alright, right?

Also, I am in LOVE with sewing. I love making things with my own hands. Here is my latest sewing product: a bag! The lesson calls it "a reusable grocery bag" but I'm pretty sure you could use it for anything you wanted. I am on a sewing rampage!

Fun colors, eh?

I sewed an X! 


In other news, the sister blog is posting our first pictures tomorrow, come check it out!
 

Baking - Round One

 Tonight we are having dinner with another Marine couple at their house. He works with Dan in the Law office and they invited us over. I met them at a gathering back in July and they seem like nice people, plus we won't be loners anymore. Anyway, I said I would bring dessert (because that is what married people do, they offer to bring food). I like to bake but baking to me is brownie/cake mix and the secret recipe that is, Nestle Toll House (read with Phoebe's French accent).  So, after some research on the world wide web I found a couple recipes that seemed doable and yummy and I chose Raspberry-Glazed Double Chocolate Cake. Only, the recipe calls for frozen raspberries in syrup but both stores I went to only had strawberries in syrup, so I substituted, it is now Strawberry-Glazed Double Chocolate Cake. I haven't tried it yet, I assume when you bring something to share it probably shouldn't look like left-overs, but it looks pretty and it smells so good! If it tastes good, I'll post the recipe :)

Excuse the glasses underneath, I don't have a cake stand yet.