Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins

It is once again time for the Crazy Cooking Challenge at Moms Crazy Cooking.  This months challenge is Blueberry Muffins.  Muffins are something I bake atleast once a week.  My family loves trying all kinds of muffins, especially blueberry.  When I found the recipe for these Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins at Joy the Baker I knew they would be a perfect fit for my family.  They were so good we were even fighting over the crumbs.  Definitely a recipe we will be having again real soon.

 Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

7 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup whole milk

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh blueberries

For the Topping

3 Tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Put a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line muffin pan with paper or foil liners.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Keep an eye on the butter. Melt and cook down the butter until little brown bits appear in the pan. The crackling will subside and butter will begin to brown fairly quickly after that. Keep a close eye. Remove from heat.

Whisk milk, egg, yolk and vanilla until combined. Add the brown butter and stir to combine.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl Add milk and butter mixture all at one and stir gently to combine. Gently but thoroughly fold in the blueberries.

Divide the batter among muffin cups and spread evenly.

To make the topping combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over the batter in the cups.

Bake until golden and crisp and a wooden pick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack for 15 minutes then remove from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Magic Beans

I gave my boys each 5 "magic beans" to plant in the yard.  We dug a small hole and put them in and patted the dirt down.  The sprinklers watered the beans while we were asleep and the next morning....

 a lollipop had grown.

My boys were so excited.  I think my 6 year old is starting to get to smart for my sneaky games.  He asked how the beans had grown a wrapper on the sucker.  Luckily my quick response of "It is like an orange grows a peel that we don't eat." satisfied his curiosity.

Easter Egg Lunch

My boys and I were at an event today and wouldn't be home until after lunch.  I didn't want to spend money to eat out so I packed them a lunch to eat in the car.  I had heard about the idea of putting snacks in Easter eggs so decided to give it a shot with their lunch.  When I handed the egg cartons to my boys they got super excited.  They loved opening the eggs to find out what each held.  They gobbled everything up and asked me to make their lunch like that again tomorrow.

Easter Egg Popsicles

I saw this idea on Pinterest and knew my boys would love it.  It combines two things they love, Easter eggs and popsicles.  What could be better then that.

I started by taking two plastic Easter eggs.  I drilled three holes in the bottom.  A bigger one in the center the size of a sucker stick and two smaller ones on the sides to let air out.

 Put the two pieces of the egg together and make sure they are snapped together tightly.  I used a medicine syringe to squirt cranberry juice inside.  You can use any juice you want.  Koolaid would even work well.  Don't fill it completely, you want room for it to expand when you freeze it.

 Insert the sucker sticks into the center hole.  I used a piece of egg carton to stand them up.  Put in the freezer until frozen.

 When you are ready to eat them just warm up the top lid in your hand or under warm water so it slides off easily.  When you have eaten down to the bottom section of egg you can just slide it off to get to the rest.

Enjoy!

Linked up to Not Just a Housewife and A Diamond in the Stuff!

April Fools Day

Both of my boys are really into holidays so I couldn't pass up the chance to celebrate April Fools Day.  They are both pretty young so I chose a couple of things geared towards their age.  While they were playing yesterday I took and hid a bunch of their stuffed animals.  After they went to bed I put a big one sitting on the potty and lined the rest outside of the door like they were waiting for their turn.  My 6 year old said he waited in line for a bit but he had to go bad so he moved the big bear off the toilet, but he put it back when he was done.

 I also set up a guy sitting at the table reading the newspaper.  Both boys were a little nervous about this.  They came into my room to inform me that some strange person was at our table reading the paper.  After a bit of persuasion they went to check the strange man out.

 This is what they found.

Did you do any April Fools pranks?

Happy April Fools Day!

Yo Gabba Gabba Birthday Party

We recently had my sons 3rd birthday party.  He chose a Yo Gabba Gabba theme.  It was a fun and colorful party.  Not much is available for this theme so I made most of it myself.

 There were four tables set up that represented some of the characters.  There was Toodee, Foofa, Muno and DJ Lance.  There was a small table with a yellow table cloth that represented Plex that we used for presents and the dessert buffet was Brobee.

 DJ Lance table

 Toodee centerpiece

 Foofa Centerpiece

 Muno centerpiece

 DJ Lance centerpiece

 Banner of each character.

 On the mantel I put a picture of each land with the character in front of it.  I also put the Plex and Brobee centerpieces on each side.

 Pin the Eye on Muno game.  My 6 year old put the eyes in a rainbow.

 There's a party in my tummy game.

 The beanbag food to toss into Brobees tummy.

 The beverage center had water, Capri-suns and OJ with Sprite.

 Fruit Platter

 My attempt at a Brobee veggie platter.

 We also had an assortment of muffins, sausage balls and a breakfast casserole.

 The dessert table

 Plex Oreo Pops

 Foofa rice krispie treats

 Brobee cupcakes

 Toodee marshmallow pops

 Muno pretzels

 Happy Birthday big boy!

Hanging Mirrors

Several years ago my husband and I lived in San Antonio for a short period of time.  While living there, one of our favorite things to do was go to the River Walk.  We spent hours walking through the shops and eating outside along the river.  During one of these outings we saw a store window with a bunch of small mirrors.  We loved the mirrors and went straight home to start making a smaller version for our house.  The one in the store was made with small frames.  Those were far to expensive for our small budget so we made our version with wood plaques found at a craft store.

 We got 20 wood plaques and stained them.  Once they were dry we laid them out the way we wanted them on the wall.  We numbered the back 1 - 20 so it would be easy to hang up.  We drilled small holes and screwed in eye hooks.  This is easiest done when laid out so you know where to drill.  The middle ones all need two eye hooks per side.  The outside mirrors will only need eye hooks in either 2 or 3 sides.  The top row of 4 will only need one hole drilled for a bigger eye hook which will be used for hanging the mirrors.

 When you have the pieces drilled and the eye hooks installed then you can glue on the small mirrors.  If I remember right we used wood glue, but I could be mistaken.

 We used a metal rod to hang the mirrors.  We use two big eye hooks drilled into studs.  Then the rod goes through the big eye hooks and the hooks installed in the top 4 mirrors.  From there you just work you way down and hang the mirrors from each other using S hooks.

This has been a great piece in our house and always gets lots of compliments.  I love having pieces around that we love and have made ourselves. 

linked up to Not Just a Housewife and A Diamond in the Stuff!