Muffins, Muffins, Muffins

The title "Muffins, Muffins, Muffins" reminds me of the episode from the "Brady Bunch" where Jan says "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia".

Anyway, I made a trio of muffins the other day and took them to work. (The people at my work will eat anything:) The first muffin I made was the same one that I made for my breakfast party , raspberry and dark chocolate. They are so delicious that I had to make them again for a different audience. (These muffins are in the first picture in the collage).

The second muffin I made was a blueberry cinnamon muffin. OHHH what a wonderful muffin, moist and full of blueberries and the topping was wonderful. I'm thinking of trying different fruits inside next time. Thanks evilshenanigans for the recipe. I got rave reviews at work and at home for this one.

The last one was an oatmeal apple muffin. It was moist and tasty. Well, no one at home liked them and there were some left in the container at work so I guess not popular there either. I can't remember where I got the recipe from. But here is a picture of the muffin.


~Michelle

Breakfast with Friends

One of my very best best friends is in town visiting for the summer from Las Vegas and when we get together visit and eat. The first gathering was at her sister's house and we had a breakfast visit. That is where this picture is from.

I didn't take any pictures of the food that morning but we had some great stuff. Wendy (far right), brought bagels, butter and orange juice, everything that the kids would like. I made a coffee cake, I didn't think that it turned out that great. Jill, the Vegas girl, (next to Wendy) made a delicious biscotti. Amy, the hostess and sister of Vegas girl, (next to Jill) made some wonderful fruit salsa served with pita chips and some cinnamon rolls.
We ate that morning and had a great visit together talking about being Mommy's and about old times, we are High School chums.

We decided to have another visit this time with out Wendy, she had to work. We, of course, met for breakfast this time at my house. I made some dark chocolate and raspberry muffins. They turned out awesome. Great flavor and the dark chocolate/raspberry combo can never fail. We all enjoyed them. I got the idea from Chocolate Chipped blog. Then I clicked to get the recipe from Fresh from the Oven blog.

I also made Sugar donut muffins from Baking Bites blog. They were good not as well received. I think that once they cooled down, I made them that morning, they weren't as tasty. I also did not dip the whole muffin in the sugar because they were kind of falling apart. So, I just dusted the tops. Worked just as well.

Jill and her kids are headed back to Vegas today. I will see her in September when she comes to town to see Amy and Amy's new little bundle of joy. Getting together with the girlfriends, what a great day. It doesn't happen enough.

~Michelle

Wedding Jewelry ~ follow-up

The wedding is over. All the planning, the stress and even the honeymoon are all behind now. I am still very grateful for the opportunity to make the bridesmaids jewelry. I saw some pictures from the wedding, the weather was perfect and everyone looked just beautiful, especially the bride.

Here are a couple of photographs of the bridesmaids and the jewelry that I made for them. I really think it matches the dresses nicely.

I saw a picture of the flower girl and she is just adorable. Her jewelry is a little bit different. Her necklace has a smaller dangle and the earrings were just coin pearls on small sterling silver studs. Just perfect for her.






Thanks to the bride for including MyMichelle Jewelry on her special day.

xo


Wishing the newly married couple many, many years of wedded bliss.


~Michelle

Strawberry Pizza

Pin It

I have held on to the piece of paper that has this recipe on it since 1992/93. I was an intern at the television station where I currently work. I worked on the show called AM Buffalo and they would book people to do cooking demonstrations. As an intern I had all of the glamorous jobs. I had to type the recipe on the computer and print it out so people could send in a SASE to receive the recipe then I would stuff the envelopes and send them to the viewers.

A lady came on one day from Becker Farms and she made this Strawberry Pizza recipe. It sounded great so I kept a copy and make it every so often. My husband loves it very much.

I use strawberries from the store because last year we went and picked strawberries (at Becker Farm) and I am not a fan. I prefer to pick cherries.

I made this on the 4Th of July for the family and now my brother and his girlfriend are now fans of this dessert too.

~Michelle

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

CRUST:

• 1-1/2 Cups Flour
• 1 Cup Butter
• 1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Chopped Pecans or Almonds

FILLING:

• 1 pkg. (8oz) cream cheese
• 3/4 Cup powdered sugar
• 1 container (8oz) whipped topping

TOPPING:

• 1 Pkg. (3oz) Strawberry Jello
• 1/2 Cup sugar
• Dash salt
• 1 Cup of water of strawberry juice divided
• 4 TBSP cornstarch
• 4 Cups sliced strawberries

To make crust: Mix all ingredients to form dough and spread in pizza pan.
Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.
To make filling: Mix cream cheese and icing sugar; fold in whipped topping.
Spread over cooled crust.

To Make topping: Combine jello, sugar, salt and 1/2 cup of water or strawberry juice. Dissolve cornstarch in remaining 1/2 cup of liquid and stir into gelatin mixture. Cook over medium heat until thickened. Stir in strawberries to coat all slices.

Cool slightly and spread on top of filling. Chill and cut into wedges to serve.

~Enjoy

The String Collection

I created a little something that I call the "String Collection". Here is a photo collage to show the design. I first made 10 of these necklaces and took them to a jewelry party a friend hosted to feature My Michelle Jewelry. The party turned out to be a success and I also think that the string necklaces turned out great and seemed to be very popular. I sold 6 of the 10 that I took to the party.



Yeah!!! I was very proud and excited to show the jewelry off. Check out these necklaces and more at MyMichelleJewelry.etsy.com. These are one-of-a-kind necklaces because I can't always find the same beads and string and I hope to have them all in the shop soon.

~Michelle

The Communion Cookie and Crazy Story

I decided to bake cross cut out cookies for my son's first holy communion and not the rice krispie treats I wrote about earlier. I was a bit under the weather right before the communion so I wasn't going to bake the cookies, after all we were going to have cake, but the cookies were for the guests to take home. I gave it some thought and baked the cross cut out cookies and then stayed up late frosting and bagging the cookies. They looked so nice. Some were frosted all blue and some, at my son's request, were just outlined in blue and I added white for design.

I put the finished bagged cross cookies in a basket and the morning of the communion my husband took the cookies and cake and everything for the party over to the hall that we had booked. A man was there washing the floors so my hubby just left the stuff there along with a couple of fruit platters that I was up late putting together and plates and decorations and utensils and, well you get the idea.

We came back later to find the place locked and no one ever showed up to let us inside. So there we are everyone in the parking lot waiting for some one that never showed up. We called the food people and had them send the food over to my house stopped and bought some pop and dessert and headed home. My family and friends made it a great day. They helped pick up the house a little and bring over chairs and helped set out plates and cups and everything. What could you do?

The matter has since been resolved and everything turned out to be just wonderful.

We are very proud of our boy. They grow up so very fast.

~Michelle

Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was in the mood to bake today after visiting my son's new school. Why did that put me in the mood, who knows. (I have been searching the web for recipes and that probably was the reason I wanted to bake.) He is going into the 4th grade in September and will change schools. I remember when I was sending him off to Kindergarten and when the bus came he seemed so sad, so scared. He just looked at me with these big puppy dog brown eyes. Those eyes were saying, "What are you doing to me?". I have to get on this bus with a bunch of kids that I don't even know?

Well, he loves school and the new building is really amazing. It's a 4-5-6 building with 2 gyms, a pool and music lessons. It has just under 1500 kids spread over the 3 grades and is a very big school. The greatest thing is that it is still an elementary school and it definitely feels like a great transition place for middle school. We had a great tour today with the principal and look forward to taking my son there next week to check it out.

OK, back to the baking. I baked Cream Cheese-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies. I used the recipe from BakingBites. She is right they make very large cookies. They baked up to be around 4" wide. As I have said before, not exactly good for the Weight Watchers diet.

The cookies were easy to mix up but not so easy to fill. The dough was hard to wrap around the cream cheese and white chocolate filling. When they baked up the filling thankfully stayed inside the cookie, so that was good. The cookies are soft in the middle and crisp on the edges. The filling really does give it that little something extra.

I brought some in for a few co-workers; I found that the cookies do not travel as well as smaller cookies. I think that the filling makes it a little too soft to hold up in baggies. My work friends just LOVED the cookies... "tastes like Christmas then chocolate and then yummmm cheesecake"... and the cookies also received to thumbs up from someone else.

I love to bring baked goods into work for everyone to enjoy:)

Give these cookies a try you will not be sorry they are delicious.

~Michelle