Blueberry Muffins with Streusel Topping

Oh my...these were DELICIOUS! I got the recipe from foodnetwork.com and it's an Emeril Lagasse recipe. They were probably the best blueberry muffins I've ever made. Frank agrees with me on this one too. So here's the recipe:

Topping:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tbsp butter softened

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp finely chopped walnuts

1 tsp finely grated lemon peel

Muffins:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 large eggs

1 stick of butter, melted

1 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk add 1 tbsp distilled white vinegar to 1 cup of regular milk and mix...I did this today)

1 tbsp grated lemon zest

1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Either line or spray 12 muffin tins.

To make the topping, in a medium bowl, mix together the topping ingredients until crumbly. Set aside. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the melted butter. Add the buttermilk and lemon zest and whisk to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir just to combine. Gently fold in the blueberries and try not to break them open and pour into the muffin tins. Crumble the streusel topping over the muffins and bake until golden brown....about 20 minutes.

Let cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then remove and cool on wire racks.

ENJOY!!!

Back to the Blog

I know it's been awhile since my last post....almost a month now. Shame on me! In my defense, I was in Tennessee for ten days. AND, when I got back I got a stupid pregnancy rash that has made me not want to do anything. Boo. The funny thing about my pregnancy is that I had very few pregnancy symptoms at the beginning. I did occasionally get a sick to my stomach feeling when I was hungry the first few weeks. But, other than that, I've been really lucky so far. That didn't last long and the past two months or so I've felt great. However, I'm having all of these weird pregnancy symptoms like bleeding gums, rashes, and pains in my butt...literally. I guess no one has a "normal" pregnancy. According to all the books I've been reading all of my complaints are normal, but leave it to me to get all the weird side effects of pregnancy. Oh well. The baby seems to be doing great, and that's all that really matters. I'll take an annoying rash any day as long as the baby is okay. We go on July 6th to get our second ultrasound and find out the sex!! I cannot wait. According to a highly scientific poll among friends and family it seems that most think it's a girl. We shall see! I just hope everything is normal and okay. I wish we could have ultrasounds at every appointment just to make sure everything is fine. My doctor said that for normal, healthy pregnancies, just the two ultrasounds at 8 weeks and 20 weeks is all that you need. I guess I should trust her, she is a doctor after all.

So, I'm back to my blog...I promise. In fact, I have a batch of homemade blueberry muffins in the oven as we speak. Depending on the outcome, I'll post the recipe shortly!

Homemade Wedding Centerpieces! That's all you gotta do?

Jesseca's wedding colors were black, white, and yellow. All of her centerpieces and favors were homemade and they didn't look like it at all! I'm convinced that you can have a beautiful wedding on a budget by making a lot of your own stuff. It's really not that hard to do, and I'm not just saying that! Both Jesseca's and my total flower cost for our weddings were under $1000. To those of you not planning a wedding, that probably sounds like a lot of money. But those of you that are or have planned a wedding recently, you know how expensive flowers can be. Jesseca had two different centerpieces....a taller option and a shorter option. For the taller option she used tall glass square vases and filled them with full lemons, branches, flowers and topped it off with a bow. For her shorter option she used mason jars filled with cut lemons and fresh flowers and also topped them with a bow. They were really beautiful and all made by Jesseca and her bridesmaids before the wedding in just a couple of hours. Her favors were smaller mason jars filled with Lemonheads and a bow. She also had custom made stickers to put on the tops of the lids. Etsy.com is every bride's favorite website! That's where she got her stickers (and where I got mine also, but it's not about me right now!) ha ha! Enjoy the photos!

Congratulations Jesseca & Matt!

Is it possible to not drink and still have a hangover?

So...Jesseca and Matt got married last night!!! It was just beautiful. I will upload some photos soon. Unfortunately, I'm laying on the couch and am too lazy to go grab my camera. How is it that I feel like I have a hangover and I drank water (in a wine glass, mind you) all night long? I've never been a big drinker, but everyone that knows me well knows that I love weddings and I love drinking wine at weddings. This was my first wedding minus the red wine. Although, I think my friends might have made up for the difference. Being just a little bit pregnant is an interesting place to be. I'm starting to show just a tiny bit, but mostly I just look fat. I felt like a sausage as I squeezed into my size 8 J.Crew dress that I bought before I was pregnant. I'm going to pack that cute dress away and hopefully I can wear it next summer. Everyone swears I didn't look like a sausage, but that didn't change how I felt. I'll post a picture and you can be the judge. I'm actually looking forward to the days when someone who doesn't know me can look at me and tell that I'm pregnant and not just chubby. I know, I know....when I'm really big and round in November I'll probably look back at Jesseca's wedding pictures and long for the days when I didn't look pregnant.

So Frank is still sleeping soundly in his bed and will probably be there for the next few hours. Maybe I'll work up the energy to upload my pictures. Or maybe I'll just lay here.

Yes Sir, That's My Baby....

There he/she is! The little peanut is 8 weeks in this picture, so four weeks later he/she is actually the size of a lime, but weighs about 2 ounces. The website www.babycenter.com is pretty cool. We get weekly emails comparing our baby to a fruit or vegetable to put it all in perspective. The first thing Frank said when he saw these pictures was, "Well, we always knew it would have a big forehead." Pretty much. I've always gotten made fun of for my large forehead, or six head as my brother calls it. But let me just say, one random night when Frank was making fun of my forehead, I got out the ruler.....AND his is bigger than mine! So I win. So there. However, our baby is doomed.

Introducing.....

...our baby fig! Yes, we are expecting a real baby, not a fig. However, the baby is now the size of a fig. It all started as a sesame seed then went to a lentil, blueberry, kidney bean, grape, kumquat, and now a fig! Sounds delicious, huh? I will be 12 weeks pregnant next Wednesday, but I just couldn't keep this fig of mine a secret any longer. At some point this fig will turn into a turkey because our due date is Thanksgiving day! Now if only I can get Frank to help me scan a picture of the ultra sound, then I'll post a picture of the real baby, which ironically looks like a peanut. Hmmm...all this talk about food is making me hungry.