A few lists and some muffins...

I had a revelation this morning, as I was telling someone I had just met about my blog. I'm sure you've all realized that I write the way that I talk.  Whatever pops into my head, gets typed into the post. When I imagine people reading my blog, I have an image in my head of an eager group of close friends who eagerly read every word. But in reality, I probably don't know most of you! Now, generally speaking- it's all cool. But, the problem arises when I start to moan and groan about whatever happens to be going on in my life right then. And whatever poor soul happens across CantStopBakingdom thinks that I have created a blog solely for the purpose of airing my grievances. Which is really very sad if you stop to think about it. Because you all know (and again, I'm speaking to that imaginary group of people...) how I generally like to find the humor in life and milk it for all it's worth. So on that somber note, I'd like to say Hi, everyone. It's me, CantStopBaking. I like to laugh and bake and complain. Not necessarily in that order. But it's a fact of life. And I approve this message.

And now on to the order of the day....

1) It's not Monday. Yes, I know this. Just saying.

2) Yes, I know Purim is, um, like NOW.

3) Yes, I am aware that I have not posted a single bingle thing for Purim.

4)I can continue this list all day if I really think about it.

Ok, so I mentioned that Purim is just about here. And I mentioned that I haven't posted anything Purimish per se. Soooo, in order to keep my loyal and true followers, I'll have to fix that, won't I?

First of all, there is no way in the world I can top last year's post. I love the humor in it,and I am ever so proud of the recipe. So first and foremost,

 here is a link to last year's awesomeness.

Now, for this year: I don't have anything earth shattering to share with you, but I do have a muffin recipe. Which in all fairness, you can use for Purim. How, you ask? I shall tell you:

1) You can make these today and freeze them for Purim morning breakfast. I think that delivering mishloach manos on an empty stomach is just one notch less dangerous than playing with a lighter next to a pool of gasoline. Um yeah, so don't ever do that. The gasoline thing or the mishloach manos thing. But really, don't ever do the gasoline thing.

2) You can make a really yummy mishloach manos with muffins and orange juice. Been there, done that.

3) You can just make them today and eat them, because they are really good, and you are feeling very overwhelmed, so the best thing to do when you are overwhelmed is to make muffins and then eat all of them.

What? Who, me? I never said anything about being overwhelmed.

My, my, feeling very listy today. I better just give you the recipe before I go and make another list.

Strawberry Crumb Muffins

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 3/4 cup flour

1 cup chopped strawberries (can use frozen,unsweetened)

Crumb

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 375°. Line 12 muffin tins with liners. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, milk and egg. In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, sugars and cinnamon. Toss in strawberries and stir to coat with flour. Pour in milk mixture, and stir just until combined. Divide batter evenly between muffin cups. 

In a small bowl, mix sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter of margarine until mixture is like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over tops of mixture in muffin pan.

Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to sit 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan. Cool on a wire rack.

Hope everyone has a happy, happy week!

Little Dictators and Cinnamon Bun Cookies

I have come to accept the fact that the concept of  "time" does not exist for me anymore. No need for a watch or clock in my house, folks. You see, it really doesn't matter what the actual hour is. Nope, once I had kids, the concept of time disintegrated, along with my ........brain's ability to coherently finish a sentence. Oh, don't get me wrong. Time still exists- just not in the form of numbers on a clock. You see, there are these miniature humans, and they are like little dictators. Dictators of Time. No mercy, no compassion, no excuses. Little monkey is hungry? Time To Eat. Oh, you're in the middle of doing laundry. TOO BAD. Little monkey is crying. Time to Stop Cooking Dinner. Little monkey fell asleep....aaaaand go, go go go cook dinner!! While this paragraph  may sound rather choppy to you- can you imagine what it feels like to start, stop, start, stop while dancing to the tune of my Little Monkeys whims. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you can. So thats how life goes nowadays. Oh, the joys of Monkeyhood. So, this recipe is actually what inspired today's rambling. Its kind of a stop and go recipe, which coincidentally is perfect when you have a little monkey in the house: A recipe that is broken up into numerous 5 minute steps. So here we go:

Cinnamon Bun Cookies                                                                     found on CraftBakeSewCreate

Cookie:

1 cup butter or margarine

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla 

4 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

Filling: 

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Glaze:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3-4 tablespoons milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs and milk and vanilla. Mix in the flour and baking powder. Refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours. Meanwhile, mix together the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon.  Remove dough from fridge. Divide in half. On a large piece of parchment paper or wax paper, roll the dough out into a 8.5''x15'' rectangle.  Sprinkle with half of the cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll the dough up on the long side. Roll it up using the wax paper, pushing it over with the was paper as you roll. The tighter the dough is rolled up the better. Repeat with the remaining dough. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 350º. Remove the dough from the fridge. Cut into 1/2 inch pieces with a very sharp knife. (I actually used a tape measure to mark 1/2 inch increments. You'd be surprised how thin a 1/2 inch is. Its really worth it, because if the cookies are too thick, they don't bake as well.) Place at least 2 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 9-10 minutes. Let cool for 2 minutes on the pan before transferring to cool completely. 

Mix the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla together until it reaches a pouring consistency. Drizzle over the cookies.

Have a great week!

An "E-Book" and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here we are, smack in the middle of mid-winter vacation and I'm happy to report that we have all our wits about us, and are still relatively sane. So, I figure it's been a while since I've done a book review around here, and going to the library is my basic outing for the kids' off days, so here is a book I want to share with you guys:

When I go to the library, I basically pull books off the shelves, scan for offensive material, and if it passes the test- add it to the stack. I'm kinda too busy making sure three little monkeys are not setting the library on fire, while rocking a fourth little monkey, to read every book word for word. Well, this book happened to be the first book I pulled out of our stack, when S-Monkey and I sat down to read later that night And oh. my. gosh. I totally fell in love. This book is chock full of hysterical jokes-some of which took me a minute to get, and adorable illustrations. And get this- the illustrator is in high school. Aim for the stars my friends... 

Anyways, here are some of my favorites:

Get it? J-walking!!! Took me a few...

Love it!!!

Awwww....

While I was looking for images to add to the post, I came across the video that apparently inspired the book:

I have a few more books I want to share with you guys, but I'll save them for a different day. In the meantime here is a perfect recipe for when the kids are home from school. Takes really quick to throw together, and it has peanut butter; a huge no-no in our Peanut Free School. (I am not going to go all ga ga on you over the peanut butter and chocolate combo. I think we covered that song and dance already here.) These are not your basic peanut butter cookies. Actually those criss cross peanut butter cookies are one of the very few baked goods that I do not like. These are more like chocolate chip cookies, with a chewy peanut butter kick:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies                               adapted from TheIdeaRoom.net

1/2 cup margarine OR butter, softened

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup flour

1-2 tablespoons milk (any non-dairy substitute works fine)

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°. In a large mixing bowl beat butter and peanut butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and baking powder. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined. Reduce mixer speed to low, and stir in the flour. Add in milk until combined- for puffier, thicker cookies, use 1 tablespoon milk. For thinner, chewier cookies, use 2 tablespoons. Add chocolate chips and mix till just incorporated. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Drop dough by teaspoonful. Bake 10-11 minutes, until center of cookies are set. Makes 36 cookies.

Have a great week!