Thursday, May 15, 2008

Nightmares and Successes

The baked macaroni and cheese from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook turned out very well. We all loved it. Athena ate 3 bowls of it, I think I did too. It is pretty quick to prepare and my trick was to blend the onions in with the sauce because Athena HATES onions. Onion flavor seems to be O.K. though. Yay.
Nightmare! These were supposed to be the Mucho Margarita Cupcakes from VCTOTW. Where did I go wrong? I could tell the batter was a bit runny and then halfway through the baking I realized I forgot the salt, but I don't think that could have been the only problem with them. Maybe though? These were supposed to be for my Dad's birthday since he loves tequila. I even went to the store to buy tequila and I haven't bought hard liquor in about 10 years. Oh well, I gave the rest of the bottle fo tequila to my Dad for later use, and at least the next batch of cupcakes turned out...
These were the Cookies N' Creme cupcakes BUT I used the basic vanilla cupcake recipe with the added cookies in the batter instead of the chocolate ones just to stir things up. These turned out great, even my family members who don't like vegan cupcakes much raved about them. The frosting wasn't just right, but with the cookies mixed in it tasted fine. Oh, and all my cupcake recipes are soy free because my nephew and SIL are soy free. I usually use almond milk and/or rice milk as substitutes and they both work great!
And finally, pink cupcakes for my almost 4 year old! We are having a playgroup party for her and her cousin tomorrow at the park. I made 2 dozen of these puppies to share, minus 2 that I turned into blueberry muffins for her school today. She had a "Mom's morning" and my first muffin attempt failed (why such bad luck in the baking department this week?), so I threw some blueberries in a couple of these cupcakes and of course she loved that. At her school, we did a craft project where Athena decorated a frame with flowers and they took a picture of us together to put in the frame. Then we got to play in the classroom in Athena's favorite areas. Her favorite things are putting on the "high shoes", playing in the loft, and drawing at the writing table. Then we ate our special snack, and had "meeting time" where they do a song (Hokey Pokey) and read a book (The Mommy Book). It was nice to have that special time with her and I know she loved it. Rowan did well with my friend, I think that was his first babysitter if you'd call her that. He has only been with family the other times I've left. Tomorrow kicks off another busy weekend with birthday parties, book clubs, circus performances (the people kind), etc. I'm looking forward to it but at the same time I was so burnt out today. My kids apparently were too as they both fell asleep at 6:45 on our drive home from dinner at the Che. Rowan is getting 3 teeth and has been biting like crazy! He said cookie for the first time yesterday. It was more like "keykeykey" but he was picking up a tupperware full of cookies that my friend had made. He also started signing banana which cracks me up every time. He talks and signs more every day. I really need to make a list of it. Some of my other favorites are elephant and fish for signs, and how he says "Hi" all the time. He is so sociable and friendly. He smiles at almost everyone. Even men, who don't usually stop to say hello to babies will stop and say hi to him. In a coffee shop today, ok it was starbucks, 2 guys were giving him high fives in the stroller. It was pretty cute. Wow, I can really ramble.

3 comments:

DJ said...

Your cupcakes are so sweet, even the sinkers! - but it's so disheartening when you follow a recipe and they don't turn out!
That baked macaroni cheese looks absolutely delicious, and I know what you mean about chatty boy babies - Rory is exactly the same at the mo' - something to say to everyone!

thedalyn said...

I'll be honest: every cupcake I've ever made from VCCTOTW have ended up looking like your sinkers. So far, I've had no luck.

Anonymous said...

I had sinkers this weeks I know how you feel. But they are still good!