Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Thievery

My niece and my sister from Texas spent a night with us last night and Brittany, being The Fun Cousin, brought an activity for the kids.

And since I'm the Queen of the Lazy Bloggers I'm so stealing this post from her about the evening.

(And the rest of her blog is pretty darn entertaining, too.)



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Thursday, December 16, 2010

Eggnog Cupcakes: the recipe

As promised, here's the recipe for Eggnog Cupcakes.  It came in the mail in a flyer for Braum's, a wonderful local-ish dairy store who needs a real graphic designer but puts out some to-die-for products and recipes.

CREAMY EGGNOG CUPCAKES

Cupcakes
1 (16 oz.) package pound cake mix
1 1/4 c. eggnog
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat all ingredients together at low speed until blended.  Increase speed to medium and beat two minutes more.  Place baking cups into muffin tin and spoon batter into cups.  Bake for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.  Transfer to wire rack; cool completely before frosting.

Frosting
1/2 c. butter, softened
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
16 oz. powdered sugar (would someone please tell me how many cups this is??)
1/4 c. eggnog
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Beat butter and cream cheese until creamy.  Gradually add powdered sugar alternating with eggnog, beginning and ending with sugar and beating at low speed.  Add nutmeg and vanilla extract and beat until smooth.  Spread over cupcakes.


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Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Little clouds of Christmas.

Eggnog Cupcakes.
Wouldn't these make cute Christmas tree ornaments?
But then I wouldn't get to taste one since they'd be all petrified or made of wood.  And there's two cups of 'nog in there that makes them taste like a little bit of heaven.
You want the recipe?  I suppose that would be the responsible blogger thing to do.  But I've never put myself in that category.  And the recipe is all the way in the, um, kitchen.  And I'm not getting up just yet.
Besides, if I'm going to start bloggin' again I have to streeetttch out my material.  The responsible bloggers, they give you complete and detailed posts, all at once.  With a lot of detailed photos detailing processes.  Details, details, details...
We flaky bloggers can't be bothered with details.  Or completeness.
Unless you count my little cupcake friends...they're pretty complete, I'd say.

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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

An exchange I won't hear but will happen. Guaranteed.

Mom #1:  Did you see Christine just now?

Mom #2:  Just said hi to her in the hallway.

Mom #1:  So you just saw the front of her, not the back?

Mom #2:  Yeah, why?

Mom #1:  Seriously?!  Well, someone must have finally broken the news to her about scrunchies.

Mom #2:  Nooooo!  Really?!!  Are you sure??

Mom #1:  If I'm lyin' I'm dyin'!  She's NOT wearing a scrunchie today.

Mom #2:  Wow, and she even knows how outdated they are because I think she's seen that Seinfeld episode about the girl with the velvet scrunchie...from like 1994 or so?

(laughter from both)

Mom #1:  I know, back when we were in junior high?!

(more laughter)

Mom #2:  I really thought I'd never see the day she didn't wear one.
Mom #1:  I know.

(pause)

Mom #2:  Think we should save her from those black jeans?


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Thursday, December 09, 2010

Hello, friend.

We moved into our current house in July.  Of 2009.  I sacrificed some kitchen space to get square footage in other parts of the house, and one of the casualties was my Kitchen Aid mixer.  It's my favorite possession, next to my wedding ring.  And my photos.  And my Burt's Bees lip balm.  I think there's a reason "possession" and "obsession" sound alike.
But when we moved and I started settling into the new kitchen, I didn't measure it but I'm sure my counter space was cut in half.  So I boxed up The Mixer and stored it in our (freaking small and dark) pantry where it's been ever since.  I've missed it, but I bought a Kitchen Aid hand-held mixer which helped me heal from the trauma.
Then last night at a church dinner, someone asked a group of us moms what we'd recommend for a Kitchen Aid model if we were going to buy one.  And the conversation ensued.  We all had our opinions about what she should get, but there was no doubt about it: those of us who are already KA mixer owners talked about ours like they were permanent family pets.
So today I began shoving and moving and crowding, and brought her out of hiding.  Now she's ruling my kitchen from the (only) corner of my countertop, right where she should be.  I'm thinking about finally installing under-cabinet lighting now.
Don't you think she deserves it?


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Tuesday, December 07, 2010

One year.

A year ago today I was driving down 51st St. here in Tulsa with Cooper in the back seat.  It was about 9:30 a.m.  My cell phone rang and I glanced down to see it was my sister Judy, who works full time and never has time to call me during the day even if she wanted to...you know, to share a recipe or something.  So I knew something was up and didn't hesitate a second before I picked it up.

"It's Mamma," she said. "It's a heart attack."  And she said it as gently as she could.  I don't know how exactly that is, but I think she knew I was driving and she didn't want me to run off the road and I could hear the calmness in her voice.

So immediately I started to frantically try to stay calm and scanned the curb for a cut where I could turn around to go...actually at the time I didn't know where I was going.  I just needed to turn around and stop doing what I was doing.  Stop going where I was going.  Get to somewhere where I could do something right then and there because driving down the road was out of the question.

But there really wasn't anything I could do.  I quickly hung up with Judy after I'd gotten the details about Mom's condition.  She was in the hospital in her town about an hour away and I should just wait for more info.

Retelling all the details from that day a year ago would simply take me too long.  Since our immediate family is so big, a lot of the time was spent on the phone relaying information as we got it.  We soon set up texting and call "trees," so no one person had to call ten people.  As we got the news of Mom being helicoptered to Tulsa, I called my friend Amy who omigosh came to my rescue taking care of Carson and Cooper since Dwayne was out of town that day.  As a family, we talked to so many doctors and other medical people and tried to figure out how and why it happened and what lies ahead for our mom since she's now become a member of the cardiac patient club.

Skip ahead.  One year and a lot of doctor's visits and tests and other complications later.

 

You could say she's recovering nicely.

It's been a long year for her, to be sure.  She's had to change a lot of things in her lifestyle and start putting herself first.  I imagine that's hard after a lifetime of taking care of so many people...family as well as friends.

But she's getting there.  And one year later she's trying to do too much for Christmas once again.  And she's not going to like reading that since that means her kids are going to start nagging her about taking it easy.

Ahhhh, all things back to normal...

 
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