Yesterday was my boss’s birthday, and since I’m the resident baker around these parts, I volunteered to bring in a treat for everyone. I’ve already confessed my obsession with apples this week, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that I wanted to incorporate them somehow. I hadn’t visited Good Things Catered in a while, so I browsed around until I found these. Perfect!
These were a HUGE hit with all of my coworkers. As soon as I took the lid off of them, the room filled with the most wonderful apple and spice aroma. Smells just like fall! :)
(Source: Good Things Catered)
Ingredients:
1 c. plus 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 pinch salt
1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 Tbsp spiced rum
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c. apple, finely diced (about 1 large apple)
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 c. powdered sugar
(I tried to make this glaze recipe twice before realizing that there has to be a missing ingredient. I added about 1/4 cup of milk and whisked it all together, which gave it the consistency of an actual glaze. It worked out well and tasted amazing!)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin tin with cupcake liners.
2. In large bowl combine flour, brown sugar, soda, powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt.
3. Whisk to combine thoroughly and break up all pieces of the brown sugar.
4. Add milk, oil, rum, and vanilla and stir until just incorporated.
5. Fold in apple until just incorporated.
6. Spoon into fill cupcakes liners about 3/4 way full, dividing evenly among all liners.
7. Bake in oven until cooked through, about 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cupcakes comes out clean.
8. Meanwhile, make caramel glaze: In small saucepan combine brown sugar and butter over medium low heat.
9. Bring to a boil, remove from heat, stir in powdered sugar (and milk!) and glaze cupcakes before mixture cools.
Makes 12 (I only got 11. Definitely double the recipe if you need more than this!)
Pardon me while I dust off the corner of my blog labeled “politics.” Because wow… it sure has been a while, huh?
But it’s time.
I have been watching in shock… disgust… HORROR even…over the last several days, as the media and the citizens of this country talk about the speech that President Obama will deliver to school children today. I don’t even understand how it has escalated to this level.
Parents pulling their children out of school?
Schools refusing to air the speech because they don’t want to upset anybody?
Protesters outside of the high school from which Obama will deliver the speech?
SERIOUSLY, my fellow Americans? SERIOUSLY?!
The White House, in order to try to calm the hysteria over this, has released the full text of the President’s speech. And it, quite frankly, is wonderful. Beautiful. Inspiring. A message every child should hear.
Yet so many of them won’t.
For whatever reason, ever since Obama took office, Republicans have been totally on his ass. Not just in the traditional “the opposite party is in power and we have to knock them for it” sense, but in the “we need to DESTROY this man” sense. I don’t even know how the guy manages to breathe.
Some people who disagree with his policies are taking everything he does, everything he says, and blowing it completely out of proportion. They call him a racist. They call him a socialist, or even a communist. They call him a muslim (as if that’s supposed to be something negative). It’s sick. But then I remember… these are the same people who called liberals “unamerican” and “traitorous” when we had the audacity to voice disagreement with George Bush. In other words, they’re into exaggeration and namecalling.
And you know what? That’s fine. Every American has the right to disagree with his policies. That’s fine. It’s the way it should be. It’s America.
But in this case, they’ve (once again) politicized an issue that’s not even political. It’s not about politics. Read the speech. Tell me what parent would disagree with those messages. Who?
He is the President of the United States. Regardless of whether you agree with him, he has reached the highest-ranked position in this country. He is one of the most powerful people in the world. Should children not strive to be like him? Should he not serve as a role model?
The youth in this country need a fire to be lit under their asses. These are the children who will grow into the adults who will lead this country someday. This country. This totally fucked up country.
And the President of the United States wants to speak to them. So, my god! LET HIM.
I think the saddest part in all of this is that if it were announced that some celebrity–oh, I don’t know, let’s use Miley Cyrus for an example–wanted to deliver an inspiring message to America’s school children, people probably wouldn’t have batted an eye.
And she’s practically a stripper.
Yet people are up in arms about the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES talking to school children about never giving up on their dreams and striving for greatness. Oh, the horror.
To take it one step further… I happen to believe that even if President Obama’s message to the children was political, the children should still watch it. What is the harm in presenting both sides of an issue to children? Should we really be sheltering them from messages just because we don’t agree with them? I sure as hell don’t think so. I actually think it would foster educational and thought-provoking conversations between children and their parents. But you see, parents are lazy. God forbid they actually have to TALK to their children about important issues. God forbid should you have to turn your TV off and have an actual conversation at the dinner table.
“No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in… So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?“ (excerpts from Obama’s speech)
I believe this is a good message for kids. Sure, they should hear things like this primarily from their parents, their teachers, and their peers. But maybe they don’t really hear it. Or maybe they don’t have people around them to inspire them in this way. Maybe 10, 20, 30 years from now, there will be just one child who remembers the day back in 2009 when he or she sat in school and listened to President Obama, and it changed his or her life. Is that not worth it?
We should do everything we can to help encourage and promote the opportunities that lay before these children. They have the potential to grow up and change the world.
I think we need that.
Warning: This is just the first in a series of apple recipes I’ll be sharing with you this week. If you don’t like apples, well… we can’t be friends you’re not going to like my blog this week.
After picking up our first 30 lbs. of apples earlier this weekend, I’m a bit apple obsessed. This morning, when we were trying to figure out what to eat for dinner tonight, I knew that I wanted to incorporate apples. After a little Googling, I found something that sounded perfect: chicken and apple couscous.
Chicken & Apple Couscous
(Source: All About Apples)
Ingredients:
– 2 cups coarsely chopped cooked chicken (we used approximately 1 lb.)
– 2 cups dry couscous
– 2 1/2 cups boiling chicken stock
– 1/2 cup golden raisins (we omitted)
– 1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds
– 2 apples, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
– 1/4 cup butter cut in small pieces
– 1/2 tsp. ground coriander seeds
– 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
– 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a 9 x 13 x 2 inch glass baking dish. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes.
Today we traveled to Lewiston, N.Y. (right on the Canadian border) to ride the Whirlpool Jet. This is something we’ve been wanting to do for a couple of years now, but have never gotten around to it. A few weeks ago, for my birthday, Michael surprised me with tickets as one of my gifts.
We got to Lewiston around noon to check in for our 1:00 p.m. ride. Once we were through registration and had our wrist bands, we went back out to the car to eat some lunch.
Soon, we went in to meet up with our group for a short introduction/safety explanation, and then boarding.
Before boarding, they gave us life jackets, as well as aqua shoes. Since we have our cool waterproof camera case, we were able to keep our camera on us, but most people had to leave everything in their cars or the cubbies provided. You see… it’s a rough ride. And um, you get ABSOLUTELY SOAKED.
The ride starts off pretty mildly. Slowly at first, and then, once out of the wake zone, they open up the engines and hit full speed (50 mph). They “warmed” us up with a 360 degree spin in the boat, which was enough to get us a little bit wet. But nothing like what we were soon to experience.
Here’s a video of us going through a little “practice” rapid:
After that, we rode further down the Niagara River to some more serious looking rapids.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t get photos or video of us tackling the Class 5 rapids because, as it turns out, when these monster waves hit you in the face, they do it with a bit of force. The guides were pretty strict about us keeping both hands holding onto the safety bars at all times. It didn’t take us long to figure out why.
We did 5-6 rounds of “Let’s see if we can drown all of the people in the first 5 rows of the boat” before our 45 minute ride was up and we had to head back.
If you read my blog at all last fall, it should come as no surprise to you that we went to the apple farm today.
We looooove to go out and pick our own apples. 1) It’s just fun, and is a perfect, stereotypically “fall” activity; 2) We get to pick each of our apples individually–no bumps or bruises!; 3) They’re cheaper per pound than getting them in the grocery store; 4) We can pick a wide variety of apples throughout the season–and we love them all. Plus, we get to ride a wagon out into the orchard. HELLO, that’s reason enough right there. ;)
Just a few photos from our extremely neglected point-and-shoot camera:
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
