Macha (Green Tea) Blueberry Muffins

sorry, guys. i know i have been hardcore slacking lately. i mean, a little bit because of the nicer weather, but a little bit because of whatever else is going through my mind lately. i feel like i am hitting another low where i don't want to do anything about anything ever.

but, fear not! (i guess?) i do have some interesting treats for today, and probably more sometime soon. at least, that is the aim, anyway, like this week or some sort.

it's too bad it was a cloudy day when i took these pictures. they really did have a "green tea" color to them. (i did not use food coloring, btw.) i have been going through a phase of being obsessed with green tea lately, and for almost two months, i was looking up (on and off) places to buy matcha relatively inexpensive. of course, wegmans had some that was decently priced, and i figured it would be for experimental purposes only, so why not. (i am totally drinking jasmine pearl green tea as i am typing this. these lonely, sad, sunday mornings. sigh.)

anyway, i super loved these! ron wasn't a fan. i have to make them again, though, because i didn't feel like digging for regular salt, and in a stupid moment thought, "sea salt will work fine!" NOPE.

saltiness aside, i put some powdered sugar on top of them and it kind of made up for it. either way, they were super awesome! matcha does have a slightly different flavor than green tea itsself, i read that it is quite literally ground up leaves, so you can get ALL the antioxidants and benefits from the tea. fancy, right? *pinkies out*

i dunno. i found some other matcha recipes, like truffles, cookies and bread. i also have been looking at stuff with lavender. i know, all these weird ingredients, right? i am weird. i will admit to that. deal with it. but how many places around here would make stuff like this? you can't really walk into many bakeries and ask for green tea flavored things.

okay, now i'm just rambling. i forgot where i was going with that. that reminds me i have to look up some ingredients for some cupcakes for a wedding next year.....i have to get ready for work, too. i need a way to keep track of my thoughts.

i love blueberry muffins. i love green tea. these were a nice twist on both. i wonder if strawberries would be good in them as well? ☺

that is an experiment for another day, i guess. oh! random last thought here. with all the nice weather, i had to get my brakes done (finally) last week. my friend works right behind my work, and i didn't have a ride home. it is only 4 1/2 miles (exactly) from work to home, sooo i did another experiment and walked/ran home! i actually made it in 57 minutes! 25 of that was jogging. go me! was feeling somewhat accomplished. ☺

anyway, i will leave it at that for now. hoping to have something to come back with next week if i can force myself to get motivated. have a good week, all! thanks for reading! ♥

Cookies and Cupcakes Galore (and more!)

i know, i know, i lied about monday. i wasn't expecting to get sick, or to go on a cleaning spree (which didnt help much- dust is bad). but....today you get a picture show! wooo!!
as soon as they load to one drive, that is.  it has been a while since i've posted anything, huh? after the breakfast party, i had a nice 11 day stretch or work, including making a couple cakes, cupcakes and some cookies! it was a busy time! also, very tiring. i got it done, though! my reward? a four day weekend. kind of. i still worked friday (between the cakes, cookies, the restaurant, and picking up a replacement tire for ron because he got a flat), and had a four hour drive north on saturday, where i helped put together a little party and made tacos. sunday was more relaxed, we went out in the morning for a couple last minute things, and then watched a three year old beat a pinata with a bat. did i mention half of this was for heather? it was her birthday, and then her niece's birthday, hence the driving to almost canada. it was nice to be away for a bit, though.

okay! pictures seem to be loaded, so on to the pictures! yay!

first up: smash bros cookies! i made them for lanmob (a gaming place near rome) for a viewing party over the weekend! i did not get completed pictures of them all, (particularly disappointed in myself for that one since i liked the way luigi came out), but they were all piped buttercream on sugar cookies. we had pikachu, yoshi eggs, little mac's glove (from punch-out), luigi, and captain falcon. 

next, the purple galaxy cake! i of course, found it on pinterest, and instantly thought of my other significant other because purple, stars, glitter. it is a black velvet cake (red velvet cake, but using black in place of the red), with cream cheese frosting, and blackberries in the middle. you can't see them well, but they're in there. i always forget that i make a pretty awesome red velvet cake, and i really should make them more. (except that my home is full of crap already so i don't need to make cakes all the time.)

lastly, minnie mouse cupcakes! (and mini cake.) for heather's nieces birthday! i am not crazy for kids, but the faces she makes....ahh it was a good time. just chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, and a vanilla cake. they came out pretty cute though. 

the last couple of pics i will leave you with are just from going out and about. i mean, i was in the adirondacks, so there was nothing around. nothing but outdoors, anyway, which would have been nice if i wasn't freezing the whole time, but that was to be expected. im going to go warm up and get ready for the day, and hopefully not die at work. i feel gross and tired. lots of tea today for me! thanks for reading! ♥

Carrot Cake Bars and Blueberry Skillet Pancakes

that's kind of a mouthful. a mouthful of noms.*ba dum tssss*

ohh man. i need to get back on something. some kind of schedule. i don't know. i guess i've been feeling a little blah lately, not to mention i have a freezer full of girl scout cookies that make me feel like i shouldn't be making anything. i am not even kidding on the freezer full part. i do want to make things with them, though. i have been on a kick to make something chocolate and mint, lately.

did i do that today though? NOPE. i might call it the exact opposite- warm, spicy, cinnamony, with carrots?

oh, comes complete with a cream cheese icing. i had a couple extra carrots from when i made cheddar broccoli soup, so these seemed like a good idea for a quick snack of the sorts.

i got these from averie cooks. it is a pretty easy recipe, no mixer required! i added an extra egg to make them a little more cakey. they came out pretty tasty though! check it out! they are pretty spicy, with the addition of cloves, allspice, nutmeg and ginger on top of the cinnamon. the cream cheese drizzle makes them, though!

i  love the way cinnamon smells when it's baking, too. everything smells awesome.

sigh. the countdown continues, in the mean time, to north carolina. 116 days left. the weather is on the fence of being nice or inclement. i've been able to go out running twice in the last week. i will complete my 5k soon....before the winter i made it to week 7 of 8, running about 25 minutes. i will run on the beach this summer. but it can't get here soon enough!!

i've just been working, other than that. i get a day off, and i just want to sit around. or run, like today, but it's supposed to get cold next week. speaking of next week, though, this sunday is my breakfast party! i love breakfast. this is exciting for me. you can eat it any time of the day, it can be sweet or savory, hot or cold....and pancakes and waffles are pretty much the best things ever.

and then there are things like this. i made this a few mornings ago, because i was in the mood for pancakes and blueberries. what a better combination? also, an excuse to use one of my skillets.

ron argued with me that "blueberry cake is not the same as pancakes," but i beg to differ. this is just a deep dish pancake! not sweet at all, like regular cakes, full of blueberries, and delicious covered in syrup! cut into eight slices, it was breakfast for several days! at least for me, anyway. i still have a couple of pieces left. (recipe here- also from averie cooks!)

imma make this on the beach, too. hurry up, july!!

thanks for reading!

Peanut Butter Cupcakes for Peanut Butter Lovers Day

because if you don't like peanut butter, then go home and come back another day. i mean, i guess i didn't go completely overboard, but i got some peanut butter cupcakes to share today!

is there a better way to eat peanut butter (other than with a spoon straight out of the jar)? actually, pretty much any way is awesome. sandwiches, pancakes, toast, granola bars, apples.....shut up. but for seriously though.

we just filled our freezer with girl scout cookies so it seemed fitting to put a do-si-do on top of them. tagalongs are great, don't get me wrong, so is chocolate on chocolate, but i wanted the contrast, so these worked out great!

i got this recipe from sally's baking addiction. i seriously love the recipes here. opposite of my usual chocolate peanut butter cupcakes (ie: chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting), this dark chocolate frosting though. seriously for the win. a nice glass of milk is required for this, too. (i totally won't lie, i ate the last tablespoon or so of frosting straight from the piping bag. that doesn't happen often for me- because how much of this do i really eat?) it is what magic is made of, and i am pretty sure my new favorite chocolate frosting. i have been searching for some time for something super rich like that thick, fudgy frosting you find on the brownies at the grocery stores. this is close. i also love dark chocolate so double win (although i think the fudgy kind is more of a ganache, but i have more to experiment with later).

i may have overmixed my batter a little, as they were not quite fluffy, but they were still pretty peanut buttery! i also used a little coconut oil which was partially melted. i will have to try these again sometime! they are totally worth it, though. i think just a regular cake would be good, too!

i need more days off. i am sick of working.

see what i mean? they're really squishy, but not underdone. pure satisfaction for all of your chocolate peanut butter needs. happy peanut butter lovers day!

i also made cheddar broccoli soup today!

it's like opposites.....sugary sweets, and veggies and cheese. er, something like that. vegetables are healthy, sugar is, well, delicious in things, but probably not the best for you all the time or in large quantities. you know what i mean. this is also my favorite recipe for cheddar broccoli soup from peas and crayons. i have made it several times now (i posted it a while ago with a picture of nubs in front of all my ingredients, and threatened to put him in my soup), and it is always delicious.  it's an easy recipe, too! give it a shot, and we can all have "panera" cheddar broccoli soup together!

for now, i will leave you with the other assholes, since i have to work some more. all i do is work, even on my days off, i can't escape. looking forward to trying to make some more treats in the coming weeks! thanks for reading!

they are both laying on this stuffed snail. they're dumb.

Quick Cake Pictures- Not Much This Week

man, you would think after two years of doing this i might have some kind of schedule or something. i mean, i guess i did for a little while, but meh. things happen, i guess.

136 days. it can't go by fast enough. by then, i will be getting ready to leave, go for a 12 hour drive, and end up on the sunny shores of the outer banks. that is much nicer to think about than the dismal grey skies we have here, currently: 36 degrees and rainy. i would even take the current thunderstorms in kitty hawk, considering it's 64 there. that's like a 30 degree difference, people. less layers. more happy. someday i will get out of here and live far away from here.

of course, maybe it's just because i've been at work too much. these weeks where i can't escape even for 24 hours are making me unbelievably irritable. i don't want anything to do with anything. ever.

so here is the cake i made for a second birthday over the weekend. nothing super fancy, but hopefully something to make a kid who likes tractors happy! it is just a basic vanilla cake, with vanilla colored frosting.

i piped some little dots and a (very uneven) yellow stripe along the sides to offset the green. i think it came out pretty good.

about the only other new thing going on aside from being at work all the time, we got satch a new cage with the tax money we got back. my poor boy got dumped on the ground twice in a month by these asshole cats, so he now has a fortress that (with any luck) will not tip over. ron was home both times, and the second time, kairi and nubs went with him. they are all doing okay though. satch is pretty confused with his new house though, i mean, he basically had a stroke in 2006, and his cage has been unchanged for 10 years. i hope he will be okay with it soon though. in the mean time, he gets whatever he wants. (not that it's much different than usual ☺)

oh! sometime around (before? after? i don't remember) the cake, i made this little batch of cinnamon rolls for breakfast! i found this on pinterest from dessert for two (small batch cinnamon rolls for two) a while ago. they actially don't require any yeast which is nice, and means you don't have to wait.

they had almost a biscuit like texture to them. it was different than normal cinnamon rolls, but they were pretty tasty. the cream cheese frosting is a must though! i am a firm believer of that for any type of cinnamon roll. maple icing is a close second. one of these mornings, though, i will have to make a batch of real ones. or maybe those red velvet nutella rolls.....damn. i am such a fat kid about food.

anyway. i leave you with these pictures for now. here is satch's new fortress, accompanied by crazy bird lady and cosmo, and below is assface lounging around in the window yesterday when it was sunny for like 10 minutes.

have a good week/weekend! thanks for reading! ♥

it's not easy being a dick.

Busy Month

honestly, i can't even remember what treats i have to post. i will as i upload the pictures in a minute. and now, i don't even get the day off today. cooool.

okay, let's see what i got.

oh yeah. so i made chicken soup earlier this month (god, it sounds like it was forever ago, its only the 16th). like, from scratch soup, boiled a chicken, the veggies, etc, and it took like 6 hours. it was pretty easy considering there isn't much to do other than wait, here is the recipe for those who want to try it out.

you can only eat homemade chicken noodle soup with egg noodles, otherwise i call blasphemy. i didn't make the egg noodles, that would have been waaaaayyy too much effort. i also made more roasted veggie burritoes that day.

today is just going to be a picture show day, since i don't really have too much, and haven't had a ton of time on my hands. all this last minute stuff, you know?

ron and i had to have our valentines day on the thursday before, since his boss is a terrible human being, dead set on having a whole weekend off (not that she works any other time of the week at all). but in the end, he was able to get a half day on sunday at least.

i made him some chocolate covered strawberries and oranges, and some chocolate covered potato chips. that lack of time thing (and money) kind of prevented anything else, but he liked them at least. (i am seriously going to take off the whole next month that is available to take off.)

we had a good day thursday though. we had a bunch of gift cards to get food, and we were going to go to each place, but even after walking around for 3 hours at the auto expo, we couldn't eat anymore food. we got lunch at the coppertop in cicero, went to the auto expo, then got dessert at cheesecake factory (and mac n cheese balls, because you have to.) we still have a gift certificate to melting pot, but i guess that will be another day, once we get caught up on things.

he got me a dragonfly bracelet from the mall, and we also went bowling. saturday we both worked. i had to work a double, but because the weather was bad i got sent home early. sunday we had a my work movie night, and went to see deadpool.

it was pretty awesome, minus the headache i got. excuse to see it again! i cleaned and stuff during the day, and made dinner/lunch for us before we went out to meet everyone. including these little lava cakes....

hooray chocolate!

(whipped the heavy cream by hand too. take that.)

well now. i have to go to work in oswego. it is going to be a long day, but at least i get tomorrow off. i think. i totally want to sit at home and have another s'mores dip movie day.

have a good week! ☺