"North Carolina" Strawberry Muffins

for anyone who went on vacation with us in the past, you know what i'm talking about.

the recipe is really called florida strawberry muffins, but ever since i made them on vacation a few summers ago, the lot of us just call them the north carolina muffins. there is no other reason behind it, other than i made them one morning with some local strawberries, we sat out on our deck while listening to the ocean, and ate them.

the ones from vacation, though, were the jumbo muffins, like, they were as big as your fist. slather them up with some butter, warm from the oven.....yeah buddy. of course, i got some fancy picnic liners today and wanted to use them immediately. i feel like i've been obsessing over picnics and stuff lately. i don't know why.

anyway, i did link the recipe above, but allrecipes was giving me some trouble with their site loading, so i will post it here today for you to make these at home! you won't be sorry. go pick some strawberries, and then make an army of muffins to freeze and devour for the next six months.

florida strawberry muffins

1 1/2 c chopped fresh strawberries
3/4 c sugar, divided
1/4 c butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 c flour (i used half white, half whole wheat)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg

set your oven to 425 F. grease or line a muffin tin with paper liners.

start off by measuring out your strawberries into a bowl. chop them as big or as fine as you want. measure out 1/2 c sugar, and dump it into them, shake them around a little, and set aside for an hour or so. this draws the juice from the berries, and is where you get your liquid for this recipe.

cream together your butter and the remaining 1/4 c sugar. add in your eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla. in another small bowl, whisk together your flour, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. strain the juice from the berries into a cup or small bowl. grab a spatula and alternate adding your flour and juice to the egg mixture (ie: flour, juice, flour, juice, flour- stirring between each addition), until just combined, careful not to over mix (if there are a couple lumps, thats okay!). lastly, fold in  your strawberries carefully.

bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden and a toothpick comes out clean. i think my oven is broken, since lately things have been cooking quicker, like these only took about 15 minutes today, so just keep an eye on them!

ta daa! take a picture and enjoy some super awesome strawberry muffins, whether they're from florida, north carolina, or wherever. they are totally going to be my breakfast tomorrow. and the next day. probably the day after that, too.

ron is slightly impaired so maybe i will freeze a couple for him for later, he had a tooth pulled earlier this week so he's been living off of mashed potatoes, pudding, and jello the last couple days. i feel bad because all of his birthday food is just hanging out, and i can't eat it fast enough by myself. i never made the hush puppies the other day, but i will soon. i bought the stuff, so i kind of have to. i made him some pulled chicken, corn bread, pasta salad and salt potatoes. sadly, only my mom and his dad came out on his actual birthday, but meh. i guess it was a holiday. idk though. i asked like a month in advance, but usually anytime i plan something it never goes the way i think it will.

anyway, i have to work now. enjoy the muffins! have a good weekend! thanks for reading! ☺

The Cake is a Lie....Glow Birthday

i still need to go strawberry picking. just saying. it's fun, you can get them really cheap, but then i end up with 10 pounds of them because i don't stop, and have to figure out what to do with them before they go bad. i picked these up from tops, they were from a local place anyway (picked in baldwinsville), so that was cool.

anyway. i had a birthday request from heather for her niece. she had decided a few months ago that she wanted to do a math themed birthday party.

my response? pi. simple as that. cake is pie. because pie, your argument is invalid.

for me, it was just a perfect excuse to mess with everyone, and make some silly puns. pi-r-squared. cake-r-round. the cake is a LIE.

okay, so that last one is from portal, but who cares. cake puns. or would it be the pie is a lie, this time, considering the pie is actually a cake? think about that one for a little bit.

i even baked the "pie" in a pie tin, and placed it on a "table" with a picnic tablecloth.

true story, bro. one big, delicious, strawberry filled lie. i was told it went over pretty well with everyone. i haven't been on facebook to see if any pictures were posted yet though. i liked the way it came out. something simple and fun. it always makes me happy when things turn out how i pictured them.

and now, on the other hand, we get to ron's birthday. i had actually planned about a month ago to ask people to come out, just for the purpose of making sure people would ask for the day off or that they had the day available and stuff. naturally, anytime i make plans, everyone backs out at the last minute. a few friends did show up though, so it worked out and he was surprised anyway. he just really wanted to go bowling.

 

i was able to hide cupcakes and glow sticks, and even brought some balloons out earlier in the day to have them there waiting when we got there. it mostly worked, he had fun i think.


the best part though? even after i thought i had failed at being a wife? cupcakes.

now, these may look like normal cupcakes, with red and black stripes, but when exposed to a black light at cosmic bowling.....

BEHOLD.

glow cupcakes. there is no filter applied to this. the frosting is black light reactive. the secret? tonic water.

how cool is that? i mean, my silicone liners that he bought me for christmas being black light reactive as well, the frosting glowed. i am awesome. so is my husband, so he got awesome cupcakes. hope you had a good birthday weekend! xoxo

today, sunday, is his actual birthday. we stayed home, was hoping to go to green lakes for a picnic or some such, but it stormed, so we couldn't really go outside. i invited people over to have food, i made some pulled chicken, salt potatoes, corn bread and pasta salad. his dad and my mom came out for a bit, and now we are just watching movies. jurassic park, to be specific. i have not seen the second or third, and we are going for the fourth one tomorrow, so why not. they totally just used the title of the movie as a line right in the beginning of the second one.

 

mom was talking to nubs, and the other birds, but nubs never talks to anyone unless he's under his blanket. he came out and was singing, kissing, being a little poop, because that's what he does. it was amusing though. now he is nestled safely back in his hoop while we are here watching the movie. maybe he just likes the attention. anyway, i am going to quit here for now. i will get some recipes for you, hopefully on wednesday. i want to make hush puppies, i found a recipe and bought the ingredients for them. they are big in the south, and when we go to the outer banks, the last few times we have made it a point to get them because they are awesome. it's almost like deep fried corn bread. how can you say no to deep fried? you don't. the end.

it will be awesome with the chicken. yep yep. so, enjoy the glow cupcakes, and imagine having a slice of epic pie, which would really be cake. have a good week, all!

happy birthday again, love! ☺♥

Earl Grey Macarons and Things

so i think by now we all know how obsessed i am with tea. it is my go to for happy, mellow, calm, pretty much anything whether it is the middle of summer to the dead of winter. i have an entire cabinet dedicated to tea. seriously. a trip to carousel/destiny mall is not complete without a stop at teavanna.

tea, of course, brings me on to this week's treat. i found an article on buzzfeed that included thirty something recipes involving tea flavored treats. there are lots of things  need to make on there, but i started with these macarons because, well, they sounded delicious. i had also been planning on making macarons at some point anyway, so win win.

unfortunately, it took me a couple days to complete them. the usual, of course, work and whatnot. they came out pretty awesome, though.

here is the recipe link. there are actual tea leaves in the macaron shells themselves, and the white chocolate ganache is infused with more earl grey, and some orange zest.

i love making these. theyre so cute and fun. despite what people think, they are not difficult to make. it's all about whipping the egg whites, and using a light hand to fold in your dry ingredients.i am hoping to make some more soon. i am thinking lemon is next. i also found these lemon crumb bars that need egg yolks, so what better way to use egg whites than with more macarons? yep. can't think of anything better than that. maybe some lemon filling. yesss. lemons are summer. summer is in a week.

summer is also berry season. i cannot wait to go strawberry picking. pinterest is full of strawberry and blueberry pins, all sorts of good things. i still have raspberries and blackberries from last summer that i froze. maybe some muffins or jam are in order. or both. jam to put on the muffins. i just like food.

not to jump around some more, but in between making the macarons, trying to clean up from the garage sale, and work, i did a little cooking and made some potato salad (get the recipe here) for ron's lunches. it is way too full of mayo (or in this case, mircacle whip) for me, but he seems to like it, so i think i did a good job. i even had him take a fancy glam shot for me.

now we just need a picnic basket and a nice day, and maybe a turkey sandwich for me.

we got the basket. seriously. we were on our way home from something a few nights ago and totally found one that someone was getting rid of in like new condition. yep. we seem to acquire lots of things by finding things people are getting rid of. it's something about living in a nice area, where people don't care about how much money they spend and just throw things away. we got some nice luggage and various shelves over time. 

anyway. work has been....meh. i hired two people because everyone is leaving. my two people that actually do work. i will then be stuck with my boss, and new people who will hopefully turn into some good workers, since i can rely on everyone but the person i am supposed to rely on. the whole place is shady and stupid, and people only care about themselves, and it makes me glad to know that ive given up eight years to this place to get nothing. *note the sarcasm there

let's talk about punk ass, here, for a minute though.

look at his crusty face. not really so crusty, but he had an egg beard a couple nights ago. apparently he decided to eat everything all at once and came up with this, and i thought it was hilarious.

i don't understand why he just accumulates food on the sides of his face. he's the only bird i've ever had where this has happened. my silly punk ass kairi. he's happy, so i guess that is all that matters. he just turned 10 years old, i think in may, and sora will be 10 as well, shortly. that itsself is pretty crazy to think about. i was in my second year of college when i got them, both a couple months apart. i hand fed them for a little while. kairi wanted to eat by himself mostly, he did not like being fed. sora, on the other hand, loved the baby food. i still call her fatty sometimes, but she's my pretty girl lately. i love my kids.

last night we went out for dinner and bowling with a few of ron's co workers. it was interesting, but they seemed nice. i don't really know them well, and since i am obviously the only one who doesn't work where he works, i didn't really know what to say about anything, so i kind of listened. we went to cheesecake factory, which i am not complaining about. there is nothing wrong with that. we hit up the bowling alley upstairs afterward and played for an hour. i am still exhausted. we didn't even stay out late, we left around midnight, but he had to work at 5:30 in the morning because his shipment got in super early, which usually doesn't happen, so we both had a long day. today was pretty long, too. it was not the busiest day, but because i was so tired, it seemed like work dragged on forever.

lol. yay. it was kind of fun. we don't really get out much, so it was nice to not be at work or cleaning. i just wish i wasn't so poor. we have been going out quite a bit lately, which is making it a little hard, but we'll figure things out. anyway, that is all for now. i will see what i can do for wednesday, as long as i don't miss it this week. thanks for reading!

Long Week- Pallet Shelves, Etc

you guys should be used to this by now, me missing like every other wednesday and all. but what can i do. i try, and things happen.

so it was definitely a long week, leading up to our garage sale weekend. unfortunately we didn't sell too much, but we made enough money to go out for food tonight. kind of. like, a crap ton of food. have you ever been to texas roadhouse? i haven't, until tonight. holy balls. i think i just did grocery shopping for the week with one meal. at the very least, it will last me a couple of lunches, so that's cool, i guess. it was pretty good, but my favorite barbecue is always going to be any north carolina style bbq. we always make it a point to get some while we visit the outer banks, because it's just awesome.

anyway....

see all that fancy wood burning up there? that was my arts and crafts for the weekend. aside from making some hair bows (and i even sold a few!), i used these special wood burning tips i got to make some neat patterns in a couple wine racks/shelves/planters/etc that ron put together. also, i listed out that long name because everyone who looked at them seemed to be offended by the fact that they were specifically "wine racks." it seems kind of funny considering the fact that i believe our town is a community of closet drunks, or kids stealing those tiny bottles of vodka from the liquor stores. you know how many bottles and cans i find when we go for walks around the town? it's stupid. seriously.

how fun is that? we (well, mostly ron) put a lot of effort into these and people said they "looked nice" and were "pretty," but that was about all we got. we ended up only asking for $25 for the big ones, and $10 for the smaller ones (which my mom bought all four of the smaller ones). people sell things like this without the wood burning for like $60. i can understand the people who don't have space, but good luck finding something like this cheap. on the bright side, he also got commissioned for a tv stand for our neighbor, and my mom wanted another night stand. meh. i suppose i will post these on facebook on my page to see if anyone is interested. if you are reading this and like either of the larger two, or have a request, feel free to email me, leesh.r42@gmail.com. i think i have a link to my email somewhere on my page. i can't remember.

there are a few close ups of each. the first one with the top border is stained "ipswich pine," and the second one is stained "cherry," and each are coated with a clear polyurethane to protect it. i mean, they do fit a few standard sized wine bottles (they are not extremely wide), but you can use them to hold books, as a planter for plants to hang over the edges, utensils....the possibilities are endless, really. the smaller ones (in the next few pictures) did not fit a wine bottle, but we could adjust so they do, or can be used for other small shelves, etc.

these were approximately 30"x18", although i did not measure them. the larger ones are about 36"x24" or so....i should get the exact measurements. anyway, these smaller ones were also burnt with a torch and then stained in various colors and clear coated. we put a bit of effort into these, and i think they came out pretty cool!

ta daaa. here was our little table. there really weren't too many people taking part in the sale, maybe only about 6 or 7 total, which is nothing out of our large complex. oh well, though. i suppose not everyone is into this kind of stuff. people usually just throw things away because it's easier. that's also how we end up with free stuff like chairs, folding tv dinner stands, luggage....#trashpickinggoods

 one of our patrons actually suggested i talk to our local video game shop in town to partner and sell my hair bows through him. it is actually a cool idea, so i might try that this week. i sold three of them over the weekend, but it would be cool to sell some more. they're unique, i make them out of lanyards i get from work. i was asking $4 for each, believe it or not, they do take some time to assemble. i spend probably about 30-45 minutes per each bow, start to finish. i would like to take better pictures, and i also have more lanyards that i have not made into bows yet, so i have a good variety. these are available as well, feel free to contact me!

 this guy was kind of a combined effort with our across the way garage neighbor who had a headband with a feather and a missing...something. so he came over and asked me to "work my magic" and collaborate to see if we could sell it. i finally used my little bird charm and made a tiny black bow to attach to it. they liked it, even though it didn't sell in the end. they ended up giving it to me to keep, so i'll probably wear it to work now and again. i have a whole string of these birds i want to attach to various things. they're adorable.

we got a couple lamps, and i also found these miniature wine glasses. i can't resist anything mini. it's like this terrible weakness that i cannot overcome.

even though we didn't make much money, it was still pretty fun, and was nice to get out for a bit. it was also kind of cool to talk to people about our stuff we were making, and even more cool that we gained a project and stuff like that. and also, not working all the time is way better than working all the time. i feel like i can't tolerate it anymore, so it is good for me to be out for a couple days here and there.

finally, to unwind from the week and after picking up the garage sale, we went out to green lakes and went out on a boat for a couple hours. it was nice to get away from people, the beach was pretty crowded when we got there. i have determined, and displayed, that i can't row a boat to save my life. in my defense, it was pretty windy, so i probably could have moved the boat instead of spinning in circles, but yeah. that's why ron was in charge of rowing us about the lake. i always like to say how i pretend i am awesome and can do anything, but there are a few things i can't do. rowing a boat is one of them. driving a tank in grand theft auto is another. if you could see a video of them side by side, you would get the same effect of moving slightly, while spinning in circles. like, imagine being on a tilt-a-whirl or one of the tea cup rides where you can spin in circles, but instead of following the pattern of the ride, you are going in a straight line, while spinning in the cup. yep. unpossible.

and then there's these assholes. we got home and pinned them down to torture them for a few minutes. it's all love torture. they like it. too much, sometimes.

so i am going to leave you with that for now. with any luck i will have something for wednesday, but i have to walk off my weight in food before i make anything else. have a good week! thanks for reading! ☺

More Pallets and a Quick Update

Happy june, all!

Can you believe the year is about half over already?!? Where the hell did it go? Seriously, im glad its not snowing anymore and all, but it feels like it just quit yesterday or something. 

Had a couple days off for the weekend, a friend of mine had invited me to her bachelorette slumber party, where we pretty much ate lasagna, chips, and brownies, and drank a rainbow of juice mixers. Like, they bought those naked juices (but a different brand), added ice and rum, and it was pretty great. Then, most of them did makeup and nails, and we played cards against humanity. It was my first time ever playing, and let me tell you, i will probably go to hell for laughing at some of the outcomes. We got up and had bagels in the morning, and we were off.

Before all that though, ron had saturday off too, so we went to the bank and got breakfast at a place in cazenovia, and even hit up a little farmers market. I got some raw honey, which i cant wait to make tea with, and some brownies that we were gonna have with dinner, but we forgot about them. Kind of. 

After we got back, i only had a little time before i had to make my 2 hour drive to maria's, so we worked on some pallet wine racks for this weekend coming up. I used the sander. My hand went numb. But its okay. They got done quick, and we are hoping to do a couple more by the weekend. I might burn something into them, too, before we stain them. Yay things!

After the weekend events, i came home to take care of things like laundry, vacuuming and the birds. We made sliders and watched scream 3 and joe dirt to wind down the end of the night. And now im back to work. What fun is that? At least things were done so i didnt have to slap anyone or threaten to walk out. I cant wait to get home though, cuz i didnt sleep much, got a little scared at one point over some things, and have been non stop, so im still pretty tired. It happens every time i take a day or two off. I have too much to do so i dont sleep or something.

this weekend is our garage sale, so i wont be working mostly. it is also oz fest in chittenango, so i am just working the restaurant. i know that will be busy, with all the oz-holes in town, and it seems the casino is up and open already. it looks like a golden pizza hut. thats all we really needed in town. *sigh* i dont know.

so here i am. hoping to get some stuff done between today and wednesday, and probably friday morning. all day i have not been motivated to do anything. i managed to get some stuff done at work though, i interviewed someone! everyone is leaving and noone wants to do anything, so i called a few people, and one came in within 20 minutes. i have another one tomorrow. it was kind of exciting. i hope we can work on something, though. it is frustrating that any suggestion i make pretty much gets shot down. last i checked, i thought i was supposed to "assist." it's part of my title, after all.

 

so this is one of the rounds we had from cards against humanity. just wanted to share that with you. another one included "what should the new happy meal toy be?" in which two of the cards were genital piercings and "bees?" which was pretty much the best answer ever. i was in tears imagining a swarm of bees attacking a child. maria and i agreed they should be the invader zim bees, with the big derpy eyes. best. day. ever.

on a totally random note, i may make macarons this week, too. i found a recipe for earl grey macarons with white chocolate orange ganache filling. holy balls, i stopped dead on the page to eyeball them up and down, and to go find the recipe. they are pretty easy, so i am excited. i bought a bag of almond meal specifically to make them from time to time. i will aim for wednesday. in the mean time, i am going to be lazy for the rest of the night, eat pizza, maybe drop off my rent, and maybe read or watch netflix or something. someday i will get back on track with sunday/wednesday. who knows. oh, check out my inner female that escaped at the party, too. mostly cuz i like purple.

happy week, all! thanks for reading!