Coming Up: Making your own flowers for any occasion on the cheap!

April Showers Bring: Muffins, Baking, Brunch, Tulips and Family

Well, I moved to a new apartment -- it is so much bigger and for the first time we can accommodate a number of people at our house. We also have a patio, for the first time in years, and are really excited to finally give our large patio table a nice place to live. We have had dinner on the patio every day that it has been warm enough, and boy has it been great. Until you are couped up in a 500 square foot apartment with no outdoor space for a few years, you might not realize how great it is to be able to eat outside on a patio at your own house. Oh, how I will never take the outdoors for granted again!

This Easter, we are hosting our first holiday! We aren't religious, so Easter is more of a time to get friends and family together and be grateful for the time you have together. It is also an excuse to bake! My mom, our long-time family friend, Phil, and Brian and I will be indulging in a delicious brunch!

I am in charge of the sweet dishes, and Brian is in charge of the savory. So our menu will consist of the following:
- Made to order omelets or egg scrambles with choice of veggies, cheeses, and meats. (I think I will go for a spinach, tomato, goat cheese, and avocado omelet!)
- Bacon and sausage
- Homemade zucchini bread
- Homemade raspberry, blueberry, orange muffins. (Maybe served warm with lemon curd?)
- Healthy, homemade raspberry cream cheese french toast
- Bagels with lox and cream cheese, lemon and capers
- Bloody Mary's
- Mimosas
- Lemon bars
- Homemade low-carb key lime cheesecake (my mom is on Atkins at the moment, though she is a skinny little mini already)

Sounds like a great meal!

I haven't taken pictures of all my homemade goodies, but here is the recipe for the muffins to get you started.

Mmmm. Can't wait to eat all my sweets! Did I mention my mom is on Atkins, or yeah and BF doesn't like "sweets for breakfast"? Soooo, I guess more for me!

Raspberry/Blueberry/Orange Muffins



Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup melter butter
1 large egg
3/4 cup frozen raspberries (do not thaw)
3/4 cup frozen blueberries (do not thaw)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with paper baking cups.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and orange peel. Mix well.
3. In another bowl, combine OJ and eggs. Add melted butter by tempering egg mix. If you temper correctly, you don't have to worry about scrambling BUT the butter, OJ, egg mixture does look a bit chunky. Not to worry, this is the butter trying to re-form. Blend well.
4. Add flour mixture until just combined. (Batter will be very thick!)
5. Gently stir in berries.
6. Divide thick batter into 12 muffin cups. Don't worry if you fill them all the way to the top on these guys. I did and they worked out fine.
7. Bake at 400 for 18-25 minutes (mine went for 23 minutes) or until baking pin thingy comes out clean. Cool in tins for 1 minute. Remove from pan, serve warm.



* These are a bit sour, so I might suggest serving with whipped honey butter or lemon curd. You can buy lemon curd at Trader Joe's if you don't feel like making your own.

Another great thing about spring time at Trader Joe's: You can buy a little posy of cut tulips. They come all closed up, and in different colors. You just snip the bottoms, place them in water and they beautify any room or Easter table!



More recipes to come! Happy Easter!

Moving - Phone Update #3

I am currently in the process of moving from one apartment to another. This means I no longer have access to internet on bf's computer (my computer needs a new motherboard apparently). Therefore, you get another iPhone blog!

What do you do if you are moving residences and you receive a census form at both addresses? Further, it asks you who lives at the residence as of April 1, 2010 and since we are still technically living at our old apartment AND our new apartment until April 18, 2010, how should we answer that question without duplicating ourselves?

Other thoughts on the census: this is the first time in history that married gay couples can be counted as a such! Progress comes in baby steps, I guess.

How about you? Have you filled out your census information yet, or are you waiting until after April 1 to send it in?

FYI - blogging from a phone is very time consuming! I am off to get cable/internet installed and my computer fixed.

To Tweet or not to Tweet?

Being without a computer for the last few weeks has been a major change in my routine. My usual habit of catching up with my social networking sites and blogs after dinner has been confined to the tiny screen of my iPhone. It also made me realize just how connected I am to both friends and strangers via social networking.

I was talking to my friend about this and she asked me if I had a Twitter account. I didn't (until this morning) have a Twitter account. I explained to her that I really don't feel the need to update the Twitterverse on what I am doing, what I am eating, and what I am thinking every few hours (or minutes!) I also informed her I have enough going on in my own life, I don't need to hear about everyone else's.

Her: "But isn't that exactly what you are doing on your blog, and on Facebook, and when you read and comment on other blogs?"

Me: (In a defensive tone) "Uh, noooo. That is way different!"

Her: "How?"

Me: "Because blogs are an expression of ideas in a robust way. They are not 140 character sentences about what a person is eating! Also, blogging is a community."

Her: "Sometimes blogs are about what a person is eating (Your baking posts, for example, Mara). And Tweeting is really just another way to communicate ideas -- just with more brevity. Twitter is a community too, you know. You need to be able to evolve with social networking, because it is always changing and growing."

Me: "But what kind of meaningful discourse can come out of 140 characters?"

Her: (smiling, she knew she had me) "You'll never know until you try..."

So, this week I am going to experiment with Twitter. If anything, maybe it will be another way I can connect with my blog readers and possibly interest some new readers. Also, my friend informs me that you can get news Tweets, and museum Tweets, and theater Tweets, and band Tweets! That would be pretty neat.

If you have any words of Twitter-wisdom, or any thoughts on Twitter, please leave them in the comments. Or, you can always shoot me a Tweet at @AdulthoodMara!

(picture via ZoomInfoBlogger)

One Bowl Mini Cherry Cheesecakes

This weekend I baked Mini Cherry Cheesecakes for a dinner party with friends. Not only were they delicious, but they were also perhaps the easiest baked goods I have ever made to date. I used Paula Deen's recipe, and while I haven't had success with many Food Network recipes, this one is definitely one for the recipe box. The best news is that you only need one bowl!

Bake this recipe immediately! Your friends and family will think you slaved over the oven for hours, but little will they know that it only took you 8 minutes.

Ingredients
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
12 vanilla wafers
1 (21-ounce) can cherry pie filling or other pie filling
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Place a paper cupcake liner in each cup of muffin pan. Beat cream cheese with a handheld electric mixer until fluffy. Add sugar and vanilla, beating well. Add eggs, 1at a time, beating well after each addition. Lay a vanilla wafer, flat side down, in each muffin cup. (Don't worry if the cookie is smaller than the muffin cup, it will spread during baking.) Spoon cream cheese mixture over wafers. Bake for 20 minutes. Allow tarts to cool completely. Serve with cherry filling on top, or pie filling of your choice.


(photo via PreparedPantry. My camera broke, but mine looked just as delicious.)

Geek Squad - Phone Update #2

You never fully realize how reliant on technology you are until you have to go without it.

My computer (as well as BF's computer, cooincidentally)is still broken but I promise to update soon! Help Geek Squad!

Broken Computer

Well, folks, my computer is broken. It is a pretty new computer, so I am confident that if I take it in to be repaired it can be fixed, but until then I am blogging from my iPhone.

But, I had to announce some very exciting news. Nicole and I are attending Bloggy Bootcamp! We will be attending the Phoenix conference, and I can't tell you how excited I am about it. I will learn all sorts of great things to help me improve my blog, including SEO (an acronym I have seen many times but have never understood what it is).

We are also planning on making it a girls' weekend, and hopefully will stay at the resort where the seminar is just so we can mingle with people, lay by the pool, and have a mini-vacation.

Are you a girl blogger? If so, I highly recommend checking out one of these event locations. Or, better yet, join us in Phoenix!