Hugs & Shrugs - Adele and Pumpkin Coffee

HUGS:

1) Adele. I purchased 21 approximately 2.5 weeks ago and am pretty sure I have listened to it 2,578,661 times, LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT! If you don't have it go to iTunes right now and download it, if you are not happy with it, well then we can't be friends anymore -haha! 2) My physical therapy girl; I say girl because I am sure she is at least a half decade younger than I am and now that I am 30, pretty much every female 0-29 is now a girl to me, anywho she is super nice, smart, and is helping me get this leg back into shape, 3) The flat frying pan my Mom gave me for my birthday. For years I have been grilling up two toasted cheeses at a time (you may call them 'grilled' cheese, but in this house that cheese melted between two buttery pieces of bread is TOASTED), that was until now! The other day I was able to toast up four, yes four sandwiches enough for the hubs, the babes, myself and one to spare.

SHRUGS:
1) D&D has never, ever, ever once made an appearance in this category, oh wait there was that one time about that really slow one, but never has a product made it on here until today. The new pumpkin iced coffee. I ordered one yesterday took one slug off the straw and wanted to spit it out all over my steering wheel. Some of you wait all year for this coffee... you must drink it hot because iced it tastes like *&%! 2) The return of weather that requires the one item of clothing I loathe... SOCKS! Anyone with a two year old and a husband can understand this one with no further explanation. 3) Not being able to drive the Jeep because it is a standard and I only have 32 degrees of bendage (yes that is a word) with my clutch leg. Say.no.more.

Happy Wednesday!

Strawberry Coffee Cake

There is something in the fall air that makes me want to bake. And eat. The two definitely go hand in hand September-November.

Well this morning I was feeling like something different, something with no chocolate (WHAT?! I know...) something sort of light, and sort of out of my comfort zone. So I picked up an old cook book and found a recipe for Raspberry Coffee Cake, I looked through the ingredients, yep I have that, yes that too, I will have to look for that one... YES I have it. Luckily for me, I had everything but the Raspberries. So what was a girl to do? Improvise!

I am not a huge fan of Raspberries so the Strawberries were a welcomed substitution. I start assembling the ingredients on the counter and then I hear "Mommy, what ah you doin?" and entered my little 'helper'. Lately she is my little shadow, 'helping' me with everything I do from cooking, brushing my teeth, to cleaning and do my hair and make up, I always have a little 'helper' around where ever and for what ever I am dong and this morning was no exception.

We get all the ingredients for the coffee cake measured and poured and we all step back and let the mixer do it's thang.

Once everything is moistened, the recipe called for me to stop, so that is what I did. The dough looked like this.



I am not used to making much homemade, let alone cake, so I was a little skeptical on the consistency of this dough. But this was me stepping out of my comfort zone so I just folded in the berries and spread it in the pan like I was told.

I popped that baby in the oven for 25-30 minutes and then had to clean up after my little 'helper'.

After 30 minutes (I put timer for 25 minutes, but the cake was not set in the middle, so I popped it back in for another 5 minutes and that seemed to do the trick), I pulled the cake out of the oven and could not have been more happy at what I saw.

What could possibly make this look better?

GLAZE!

Oh yeah, there is GLAZE!!

Now you are talkin'. Look at this mater piece. Not only is it pleasing on the eyes, but it also does wonders for your taste buds. Look at that big pile of berries. Now you see them...

Now you don't!!





And for any of you out there who would like to step out of your baking comfort zone, here is the recipe for this fabulous (HOMEMADE) Strawberry Coffee Cake!



The Advantage

Have you ever been taken advantage of? I am sure in one way or another we all have. It doesn't feel good when it happens; especially when it is being done by those you love the most. In the last couple of weeks, I have been taken advantage of by more than my fair share by one person in particular and one other living being of the canine type. A.K.A. These two!

In this picture they look seemingly innocent, but what you don't know... is the story.

Once upon a time, there was a Mom, a Mom who had a really, really, really bad month which landed her with a bum leg and two super clunky, annoying, and loud crutches. This Mom also lives in a house full of stairs and let's just say that going up and down these stairs is a huge pain in the knee cap. Did I also mention that it is the beginning of hunting season so on any random Monday-Saturday night, Mom is left in a house full of stairs, a two year old and a yellow lab. One night the yellow lab was looking at the Mom with large brown eyes while circling the kitchen like an eagle circles dead fish on the ice. This is Dog for "lady, let me out I gotta pee". So Mom gathers her crutches and begins the 16 stair decent to the ground level. Dog pushes past Mom almost knocking her over. Mom tells the two year old to "wait there I will be right back" which prompts a "NOOOOOOOOO, NOOOOO, NOO" response from the two year old. So knowing she is already defeated, Mom sighs, tells baby to be careful and finally makes it to the ground floor. She opens the door to let the dog out and is surprised when the two year old pushes her out of the way and is now outside with said Dog.

Okay, okay, so what's the big deal? So the dog has to pee and your kid follwed him out. Okay, I see your uneducated point of view. Did I also mention that it is the beginning of October, it's cold outside, dog is peeing on the grass, which baby is running through with no shoes on.

After about eight minutes of watching them outside I do the whole "okay, come inside", but these two know that 1) I don't have any shoes on, 2) I have crutches,and 3) there is no way in in h-e-double hockey sitcks I can run and/or ever catch them if I decided to try it... so what do they do... they take advantage of me and my situation and refuse to come inside.

That's until I pull out the ole "want a snack" trick! Unfortunelty that only works on one of the culprits.

Orrrr did it....

Yep... it did...

So then I get all 'Mom' and yell her name and throw her the middle name, because we all know when that happens MOM MEANS BUSINESS!! Yeah... we can all see how affective that trick is on a two year old!

So I stand to the side to make her think I have left. To my surpirse that worked like a charm!!

At this point, now she realizes it's cold outside and that there is a snack involved.

 So she gets all cute on me.

I kid you not, this went on for almost 20 minutes. Phew! I know what they were doing, taking advantage of Mom! I could be mad, frustrated, or upset, but with a face like this how can I be anything but entertained!

Happy Wednesday

Stupid Phone

Smart phone, iphones, that phone, your phone, everywhere you looks its phone phones. Not real phones of course, I am typing about cell phones. There are certain things I refuse to buy generic or cheap; coffee, mac and cheese, soda, and camera accessories to name a few, but cell phones… I could care less.

I was in town a while ago and the ladies in front of me were each talking up their phones, I have no idea what kind of phones they were but this one had this and that one did that, it was like a sit down peeing contest, only we were all standing in line.

I have a cell phone, have had one for a number of years, however I have never had the latest and greatest cell phone. Today I make my outgoing calls on a Razr phone, remember how cool those were five years ago? Don’t lie, you had one and I bet it was red. My phone rings when someone wants to get a hold of me, charges in a jiffy, and it receives text messages… wait I have to rant about text messages for a second.

Call me prehistoric, but I do not have a calling plan that includes texting. Why? Because I hate to text! Probably because I don’t have a keyboard on my phone and it takes me over 35 button pushes to text “what’s going on”. But unfortunately for me, my thumbs, and my calling plan, everyone and their sister’s cousin’s co-worker texts. It costs me $.25 each time I send out a text, when in reality my carrier should PAY ME $.25 a text because it is that labor intensive. And why does everyone feel the need to text anyway? If you want to know what we are up to tonight or you want my recipe for chocolate chip cookies, CALL ME! I am not going to put that in a text!! Oh and what is up with you people who send you a text but then don’t answer your phone? Really, what happened in those 13 seconds it took for you to hit send and me for me to press call? Sigh…

I realize that my phone (and calling plan) is ancient, or as I like to call it Vintage, I know that 90% of the kids at my daughter’s daycare have cooler phones than me, I see you pointing and laughing at my phone and me while I try to text and I am cool with all that. In comparison to your Smart phone, mine is dumb, but it serves its purpose and I use all that money I save from my monthly calling plan and my initial super duper better than your phone purchase to buy all that name brand coffee, mac and cheese, soda, and camera accessories!

Happy Weekend.