Tar and Feathers

Yes it has been a long time since I have posted anything at all. My apologies, you may all take me out back and tar and feather me if you like. :)

Not to much has happened in the last few months. We went trick-or-treating with our very dear friends and the boys got me . . er, I mean got themselves a bunch of candy.

Zackarie was a very scary skelleton warrior.

And Johnathan was a fierce looking ninja.

Our friends' daughter went as a beautiful but scary (of course) devil queen. Our men didn't dress up and neither did I, altho Chryssy had some cool bright blue contacts that I wore, while she went dressed in a full Winnie the Pooh costume. She looked fantastic and the other parents and kids out thought so too. She even gave out some hugs to the smaller kids. Total cuteness. I am so dressing up next year.

As for cooking, I really havn't made anything fun and exciting. Dinner is about it for us lately, and even at that, Greg has been making most of that. Hopefully all that will start changing.

We have a family night with our friends every Thursday. We go over have dinner, dessert, and watch Heros. So for this week I think I will make chocolate-carmel cupcakes. Not to sure how I will construct them yet, I have a few ideas. I will post pics when I am done.

Cinnamon Spice Cupcakes and The Best Burgers Ever

This past weekend I made Cinnamon Spice Cupcakes with Sweet Cream Cheese filling and Greg made Beef and Turkey Bacon Cheese Burgers. It was kinda a long weekend and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with school starting and stuff, so I didn't want to make something to terribly complicated but I still needed to make something good. I found a box of spice cake mix in the cupboard I bought a couple weeks ago and decided to do something with that. So it went something like this:

Cupcakes:

• 1 box Spice cake mix (made as directed)


• maybe a little less than 1 Tbl cinnamon (I love cinn. so you may want a bit less or even a bit more, the point was to make it just a bit over spiced so that the filling can play it down a bit)


• 1/4 or a bit less ground nutmeg

Prepare cake mix as directed and add the spices. Set off on the side until the filling is ready.

Filling

• I used a larger tub of plain cream cheese


• maybe about 1 cup of sugar

Mix it together, but you may need to taste a bit to make sure that there is enough sugar so it's sweet enough for you.

I filled each the pan a little less than normal than I would if I was making plain cupcakes and then put a small scoop (apx 1 Tbl) of the cream cheese filling then top off with a little more batter.

Bake as normal, let cool and ta-dah!

I used a mini bunt cupcake pan so mine came out extra big, I used the remaining batter in normal cupcake pans.

When I took them out they looked a little blank so I made a powdered sugar glaze and poured that over. It soaked in right away so you really couldn't tell and it really didn't do much. If you want a glaze I might recommend warming up some of the left over filling and pouring that over each cupcake since the filling tends to get absorbed a little.

They turned out so good, I really liked the spice of the cake with the sweetness of the filling. It really makes a wonderful treat to start the school year with. the boys really liked it, I told Zack it was kinda like Cinnamon toast. He said it was good and Johnathan gave me a thumbs up and said it was good also.

For dinner we wanted to grill, and Greg wanted hamburgers and since I don't eat a whole lot of red meat (it's not that I don't like it, cause I do love me a pink in the middle burger or steak, I just didn't want beef this night, plus turkey is a bit leaner) Greg got some bacon and cheese. I think he just used a bit of salt and pepper to season, grilled the bacon as well and slapped them on a wheat bun with a slice of cheese, and that's about it. There wasn't any special trick or ingredient, but damn those burgers were so good.

I would have to say that this meal was probably one of my favorites.

Did anyone else grill this weekend? What did you grill? Any special recipes or meals?

What a weekend!

Wow. This weekend went it all directions. We had some good times and there was some bad times, but it was the last weekend of the kids' summer so it's to be expected, right?

Friday I got the boys a bit early from there dad's house and we went and had lunch with Greg and then we went school clothes shopping. I was really glad that we got it all done in one trip, and didn't have to stretch it out over the weekend. They picked out some good things and were very please with their bounty. When Greg got off work we went to the mall and wandered around just in case there was something else that the boys needed. They didn't find anything they needed so we settled on a mall dinner and and some more wandering and then back home.

Saturday we went to the craft shop to get the foam core board and the other things needed for our craft project. This is where I got the inspiration. Then we took the boys out for a "I can't believe you and gonna be in 2nd and 4th grade already" lunch at Old Chicago. It's always nice when we take the boys out for a nice lunch.

I also decided to give World of Warcraft a shot this weekend and see what all the hype is about, and for you out there that like role playing games once in a while, this one is a well rounded game. I thought there was way more gore and whatnot but it's actually fairly decent. I was surprised that I like it as much as I do. The boys played outside with friends and me and Greg hung out in the house. We made out wall art projects and Zack had a melt down. Post is on it's way.

Sunday we didn't do much of anything. Went grocery shopping, did laundry, kids played, and we cleaned up a bit. I made my something delicious, but it wasn't chocolaty like I had planned on before. I ended up making cinnamon spice cupcakes with a sweet cream cheese filling. For dinner Greg made hamburgers out on the grill, I choose turkey for mine since it's slightly less on the fat scale, but the rest of them had beef. They turned out to be the best damn burgers that I have ever had. Yes we both took pics of our creations. Post on those is coming soon also.

Monday was spent getting ready, doing more laundry, relaxing a bit, and yes of course playing some World of Warcraft.

Today was the first day of school and we all walked to school and go them in there classes and said our bye's and have a great first day.

Over all it was a good weekend, altho I could have did without the meltdown from Zack but what can I expect, he is almost 8 and wanted pizza. Oh well.

I plan on having the cupcake/burger post tomorrow and our wall art post on Wednesday.

I would love to know how your labor day weekend was spent. Don't be shy, come drop me a line or two.

Spanish Orange Syrup Cupcakes

After a long (but good) weekend and a sick day at work I finally made the cupcakes. It went well and they seemed pretty easy to make even though there was a few more steps to these than normal cupcakes. Here is the recipe:

for the cupcakes:
2 medium, seedless sweet oranges peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 cup sweet butter (I used regular sweet cream butter)
1 cup superfine sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup semolina
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 cup self rising flour

for the syrup:
1 peeled orange rind, from cupcake recipe (do this first before cutting the orange up, it saves so much time, believe me, I know)
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1 cup water

heat oven to 325. Place 12 paper cups in a muffin pan. In a saucepan, cover the oranges with water. Simmer until tender, about 15 min. Cool. Drain the oranges and puree in a food processor. In a bowl, beat the butter sugar with an electric mixer until light. Slowly beat in the eggs. Stir in the rest of the ingredients, along with orange puree, until well combined. Spoon the mixture into the cups. Bake for 35 min. Remove pan from the oven and cool.
To make the syrup, thinly slice the orange rind, removing the pith. Cut the orange rind into thin strips (I used a potato peeler, it worked great). In a pan, bring the sugar and water to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the orange strips and boil uncovered for 5 min, or until tender. Spoon the syrup onto each cupcake.


More pictures hopefully to follow.

The cupcakes didn't rise much, and the texture was more like a corn muffin. I was surprised by the texture. They were dense and moist.
Overall they turned out great. They make a wonderful breakfast muffin/cupcake. I think that next time I make these I may try ham and cheese.

If you try other variations let me know how they turned out.

What do oranges, hiking, and amusement park rides have in common?

They all were part of my weekend. On Friday we just kinda hung out a bit let the boys play outside and paid bills. Normal stuff really. On Saturday it was pretty nice out and I wanted to get out of the house, so I made some PB & J and a few cheese sandwiches and we swung by the store grabbed some drinks and we headed off to the Mt. Talbert hiking trails, there is a trailhead about 1-2 miles away from our house. It was really nice, the weather was perfect and it was quiet. Me and Greg were really excited to finally get out of the house and go visit nature a bit. The boys for the most part were OK, Zack didn't really want to go, he would have much rather sat at home and watched cartoons or rode his bike outside, so most of the way he wouldn't really walk with us, instead he chose to walk up ahead. He saw a branch hanging down in the middle of the trail and figured it would be a good idea to give it a little shake and a brief hang on it, when he let go he whacked him right in the middle of the forehead and gave him a small quarter-size bump. For some reason that and the fact that he did manage to find a big slug that he poked for a bit, seemed to make the hike a bit better. I will never understand kids. Johnathan just went along and didn't complain about anything because he was too busy trying to be trail master. It seems that last year his class took a small hiking trip and went to the same place, so while we took a much longer route he was still convinced that he knew every turn, rock, leaf, and tree. All the while telling us "see I told you there was a turn here" "I have been here before, see" Ah, gotta love a kid who thinks he is right all of the time, no matter what.

After the hike and lunch we went to get a few groceries and then BBQ'd some steaks at home. It was a pretty decent day, good weather and even better company.

Sunday my mom called and wanted to know if we wanted to go do anything, I told her that I was sickish not really feeling up to it, but it was nice out and school is gonna start very soon. So I asked her if she wanted to go to Oaks Park. The weather was really nice and the boys are always super excited to go, so off we went. Greg and Zack were the brave ones, me and Johnathan went on the slower rides, my stomach couldn't have handled much more. Just when it was getting time for us to start wrapping up our visit, it started to sprinkle and rain a bit. Which I think was a blessing, cause not only did the rain feel really nice but no one had to be the bad guys and tell the boys we have to go home since it was raining they were closing most of the rides. That made a nice ending to our day, no grumpy boys.

I was still feeling pretty sick and seemed to be feeling worse, so we didn't do much that night. I couldn't even bring myself to get up and my the cupcakes that I not only promised to my co-workers but that I was supposed to take pics of and blog about.

Sunday night dragged on and I decided that I would be better off staying at home Monday. fast forward through a whole lot of doing nothing and then I finally made the Spanish Orange Syrup Cupcakes Monday night.

I need a week-long nap.

Sticky Orange or Chai?? Hmmmm . . .

I think I finally pinned down a project for this weekend. I looked through my cupcake recipes and it looks like it all comes down to two different choices. I have a Spanish sticky orange cupcake or a chai cupcake. Both look really good. So far I have a few votes for the orange, so that just may be the direction I head in. Altho I do love chai. I guess if it comes down to it, I may make both.

The orange one has a glaze, but the chai one doesn't have a glaze or a frosting just yet. What do you typically like with your chai? Honey? Vanilla? Plain? Maybe vanilla as a filling and no frosting/glaze?


Choices, choices, choices.


The boys came back from camping at the beach with my mom, sister, and Gramma. The boys said they had a good time, but my mom said it was horrible. It rained so hard the whole time that the camp site got a bit flooded, and the wind was whipping the tents around and all their clothes, pillows, and blankets got all wet. It got so bad that they came home a day early. It's a bummer it was so wet, but on the bright side my boys had a great time. That makes me so happy cause I don't think we will be able to squeeze anything in before they start school (Sept 2nd) Hopefully next year we won't pick the only 4 days in August that rain.

But that is Oregon. If I could spend my time between Oregon and Oklahoma/Texas I would be a very happy camper. I guess that's where my lottery winnings come in handy. (sigh)


Hope everyone has a good weekend, and I will post cuppy cake pics as soon as I get some!!

Adventure with cupcake pops

On Saturday our laptop finally went all the way down the crapper and we went out and got ourselves a new fancy desktop. Not to shabby, more than I wanted to pay but beggars can't be choosers, right? The boys and Greg are happy with it, so by extension I am too.

I also made my little cupcake pops that I saw on HowAboutOrange. It went well, altho I didn't realize how long the process actually takes, so I didn't make a whole bunch, but I did freeze the rest of my cake mixture (I have had good results with freezing batter before). Here is the first pic of the mixture and the few balls I rolled, I also out some in a shallow dish so I could use some cookie cutters.

After they sat in the freezer for a bit I used a small candy mold that is shaped for peanut butter cups and filled about half way with melted chocolate and put a small cake ball in the middle, I also cut some flowers and leaves out of the shallow dish. I put sticks in the flowers and put them back in the freezer (it was really hot this week and everything was melting just being on the counter, so most of the stuff sat in the freezer when it wasn't being used right away) after the mold had it's chocolate and smalls cake balls :) in it I put it back in the freezer. I heated up some diff colors of candy melts and go my sprinkles out.

I dipped the flowers in either pink or purple candy and the leaves in green. They needed to be held up in the fridge so they can harden again but since I forgot to get some Styrofoam at the craft store and it was way to hot to keep leaving I came up with a brilliant idea!!

I used a strainer to stick the sticks in. I worked really great! for the cake balls in the molds, I took them out and stuck a stick in them and dipped the tops in white candy melts then added sprinkles or whatever. I was rather happy with the way they came out. I was gonna do a bunch more but everything was melting so quick from the heat I was covered in cake and melted chocolate just from the ones I did. But all in all it turned out great, and I am totally gonna do the rest of them. Here is the finished result with little bags and a ribbon.

And yes they are being help captive in my freezer until they meet their demise on Monday when I take them to work.

Well I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!!

Finally the weekend is here!

I am so glad it's finally Friday! I get to pick up the boys from their dad's house tonight (he is baby-sitting them for me while they are out of school) and hang out with them before they leave with my mom on Sunday to go for a week camping trip down at the beach. We don't have any major plans for the weekend, just cleaning up a bit, doing laundry, packing the boys' stuff, and I think I am gonna try this cute little cupcake pop recipe I found from HowAboutOrange's blog from Bakerella. Looks fun and the boys will like to help coat them in the candy melts. I will try and post pics if I get it done right.
I can't believe that school is just around the corner. This summer went by so fast, way to fast in my opion. Altho I will be glad for slightly cooler weather.
Anywho, have a great weekend!!

What is a "Koekje Mom"? Well . . .

Hey!! it looks like you (my delightful readers) have landed in quite a nice little spot (my blog). Let me start first by saying welcome and I hope you enjoy!!
A little about me: I am a mother of 2 very strong minded/willed/smelling boys, ages almost 8 (Zack) and 9 1/2 (Johnathan), and I am a girlfriend to my very wonderful better half (Greg).
What is “Koekje” you ask? Very good question. It is the Dutch word for ‘cookie’, or ‘little cake’ it’s pretty much the closest thing to ‘cupcake’ that I could find. I wanted something unique and since I an 90% Dutch with a sprinkle of Scottish I figured it would be a great way to be slightly in touch with my roots not to mention I think it just looks pretty cool. It is pronounced cook-yay, but there could be better way to explain how it sounds and I am all ears if someone has a suggestion.
I decided it was time to start writing about some of the things that I have created, would like to create, things that helped sort out my busy life, family stories, and who knows what else. Since I am trying to start a small cupcake/other random baked things shop I might as well start here and share stuff along the way. So here I am.
I hope to write tomorrow about what foodie thing I may attempt and hopefully post some pics of the outcome.

Thank you all for stopping by and have a wonderful day.