The Quilt Top is finished!!

I am so excited!  I finished sewing together the blocks for the clever girl's quilt top!  You may recall my posts about deciding to make a quilt and sewing the first block.  My goal was to finish sewing all of the blocks by the time my mom came to visit for Halloween, and I accomplished that goal!  Then I realized that if I plan to get this quilt done by Christmas, I really needed to bust a move, so I set to work getting the blocks sewn together.  I just finished this morning.  I was so excited I took a photo right away and sat down to put it on the blog!

My next step is the backing.  I have the fabric for that already so it shouldn't be so bad.  I also need to purchase fabric for the quilt binding.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

When it comes to parties at the clever girl's school, I generally try to sign up to bring the baked good.  It's just my style.  So I grabbed the chance to bake for the Halloween party last month.  (this is a late post, I agree!)  I imagined little kid-sized whoopie pies with pumpkin filling instead of the marshmallow filling they usually have.  Here is a huge disclaimer, however:  I have never actually eaten a whoopie pie before.  Tragic, I know.  So I am not sure really how they are supposed to taste, nor do I really know what texture they should be.  I'll do my best to describe what I came up with for my pumpkin whoopie pies, and hopefully do these delicious treats justice!

Pumpkin and Cream Cheese Muffins with Pecan Streusel

As you can see, I am still on my pumpkin kick!  I expect it to continue for a while, to be honest.  I just love pumpkin!  And these pumpkin and cream cheese muffins with pecan streusel were AMAZING!  Seriously!  I may have to make them again just to enjoy them some more.  I originally made them for church, so I only personally had one or two mini-muffins...  These are definitely worth the big sized muffin, and keeping for your own family!  Seriously, they are delicious.

A Long Term Baking Project

Well, readers, it is time to spill the beans.  I am working on a long term baking project.  No, cakes do not normally fall into a long-term baking category, but the cakes were made in celebration of my newest project.  This particular project takes about 40 weeks to create.... yes indeed, I am pregnant!  My body is busy creating a little baby boy, whom we are currently calling "button".  Hence, the decorations on the above cakes.  Buttons!  To celebrate our little button, I made Pumpkin Spice Cake with Maple-Cream Cheese Frosting. 

Our button will be joining our family sometime in mid-April, so I am nearly half-way there.  For a long time, this project made actual baking (or cooking for that matter) quite a challenge, as I was so exhausted all the time I just didn't have the energy to be in the kitchen.  At the same time, I had no motivation to bake for a while as well.  It was terrible!  Thankfully, both my energy and creativity are slowly returning!  Phew! 

On to the cake!

TWD: Baking with Julia - Buttermilk Crumb Muffins

This week's recipe for the Tuesday's with Dorie group is Buttermilk Crumb Muffins.  In making this muffin, I realized I have a muffin prejudice.  I like "muffin-top" muffins, the ones that have a nice puff up above the muffin wrapper.  Flat top muffins just don't do it for me.  I don't actually understand why we would even create a flat top muffin, and I wonder if there is something I could do to the recipe to make it have a muffin top.  Anyone know?  

So, besides learning that I have a muffin prejudice, these muffins were tasty and fast to make.  The ingredients are actually things I almost always have on hand, so if it weren't for the sad flat top, I would probably make these again and again.  But alas....

Halloween costumes through the years

I have made a Halloween costume for the clever girl every year except her very first.  As a kid, my mom (then my mom and I) made my costumes every year, so it just seemed natural that I would make costumes for the clever girl.  Here is what we have had:

This is the clever girl's first Halloween and I did not make this costume.  When I was pregnant with the clever girl, I called her "Pea", so when I saw this costume in a consignment shop, I grabbed it!  It was perfect!

 


In 2009, when the clever girl was 16 months, she was a ladybug.  I made her a tutu with strips of red and black tulle.  Her wings are red felt half-circles, stuffed, with black dots on the top.  Each wing had 2 elastic bands to go around her arms.

TWD: Baking with Julia - Irish Soda Bread

Since the month of October had 5 Tuesdays, the TWD powers-that-be decided that on the final Tuesday the bakers could catch up on a recipe they might have missed!  I thought this was wonderful, since I joined the TWD group a couple of months late and thus have several recipes to make to catch up!  For this month, I decided to "rewind" with Irish Soda Bread.

This recipe was originally made by the TWD bakers on March 20, 2012, and was hosted by Carla of Chocolate Moosey and Cathleen of My Culinary Mission.  You may find the recipe on these two blogs, or on page 214 of Baking with Julia.  And I highly recommend that you do go find that recipe.

This is an amazingly easy bread to make and it is totally adaptable to whatever flavors you might want to add.  The original recipe has only 4 ingredients:  flour, baking soda, salt and buttermilk.  I added a cup of raisins and several dashes of good cinnamon to my bread.  Essentially, you mix the ingredients together, knead it a bit, shape it into a loaf and bake it.  SIMPLE.  It comes out with a nice crust and a soft yet somewhat dense center.  The recipe claims that if you do not eat it the day it is made it might turn into a hard rock, but this was not the case for me.  I wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap, then sliced and served it the next day and it was as good as the day it was made!