Fancy food...

One last time with the Closing announcement...

2007-08-27T22:08:58Z

Over the month of September I will be relocating.

I've decided to end a_muffin_story for good. Don't worry, I wont delete this account since there are some food blogs linked to this journal, and I don't want to mess up their link lists, however- if you're one of these blogs, please update your links to reflect the change over to Never Bashful with Butter.

For those of you who still want to check out the action Via your Livejournal friendslist, be sure to add the Never Bashful site feed to your friends!

Sorry for any inconvenience this causes. I've just decided to move on and start over. Two food blogs are just too much for me, and condensing them into one blog just makes sense right now. Think of it as a sort of "Captain Planet" of food blogs. (...with our powers combined... get it?)

In the future, I'll be continuing my food blogging over at Never Bashful with Butter. Until this point, it has been mostly only for recipes and a few of the photos I've taken here, but after our relocation process ends in the beginning of October, I'll be back to posting all the photos and stories and recipes over there on that blog.

Also, Rodney and the Robots will not disappear, they're coming to blogspot with me, as I've got a special project planned for them as soon as I finish moving.

I really loved running a_muffin_story , and its sort of sad to let it go, but honestly, I think I can make Never Bashful even better by focusing on only one food blog (and still making occasional updates to Peabody's Breakfast Blogger, as well)

If at any point you'd like to contact me here is my info-

Oohyoutastylittlethings@gmail.com
Never Bashful with Butter
a_rockett

Thank you so much for your continued support and interest in all things delicious!

-A.

P.S. You may notice that comments are disabled on all previous entries, this is so I don't have to worry about constantly checking this account for spam or rude comments or anything like that. If you need to comment on something, contact me through the above listed options.

Orn desh, dee born desh, de umn børk! børk! børk!!!

2007-08-21T21:39:18Z

Ok, you know I had to do it.

Its just not possible to make anything Swedish in my house without indulging in a fair amount of Swedish Chef-speak, and trust me.. There were plenty of "bork bork bork's" uttered this morning in my house.

I know these little cupcakes just look like regular old cupcakes, but they have a story.

They're modeled off of Swedish Princess Cakes. The marzipan coated, whipped cream iced, raspberry jam and custard filled sponge cake domes that really aren't very common anywhere near where I currently live.

Sure, I've seen them on the internet, and thats exactly where I got the idea to make these cute little cupcakes. They're just like regular princess cakes, only they're bite sized, and filled, instead of layered.

The thing about these cupcakes, is that they're really labour intensive.

Not only do you have to make the sponge cake, but you've got to "soak" it in a sort of sugar syrup. Then fill it with raspberry jam and vanilla custard. Then add a giant mound of sweetened whipped cream, and cover the whole thing in a thin layer of green marzipan. The pink rose is the traditional decoration, and I figured since I put so much work into these little buggers, I might as well keep it simple with the decoration.

But why would I spend my entire morning making a dozen cupcakes, when I could have spent about 10 minutes making a dozen similar ones?

Herein lies a little bit of a story.

You see, my husband currently works for a company which is ran by Swedish people.
Well, I guess that story is a lot shorter than I thought it would be.

Anyways, My husband is quitting his job, and although there have been a few issues with his co-workers, but not anyone that he works with directly, He really likes the people he works with. When he first got the job, the owner of the company, whose name I don't know but I probably couldn't spell anyways, took my husband out to dinner, and told him how great of an employee he is, and how happy he was that they hired him.

Since then, he's called my husband probably once a month just to make sure everything is alright with him. From what I've gathered, this guy is pretty cool.

So, since my husband has been bringing in my cupcakes to work for his co-workers ever since I started this blog, I figure I'd send along a special batch, as Swedish as the boss, for Aaron's resignation day.

I mean, I thought about other Swedish things, but sending packages of Swedish fish to work with him just didn't have the same sentimentality behind it.

This special one is for the boss-

Pretty pretty princess cakes!

The one in front is my favourite...

-A.

Food in the movies...

2007-08-19T00:50:37Z

Hey ya'll..

I've got a good question for all of you checking out your friendslist on a Saturday evening-

What is your favourite Food Movie?

Not necessarily a movie with food in the title (although that's alright, too)
But a movie that food is a really big part of the actual movie itself.

I'm trying to gather options for an upcoming themed blog. I've decided to enter in a few of the "is my blog burning" blog contest things, just to spice stuff up.

Lemme know if you think of anything!
-A.

My family might have a slight addiction to breakfast cereal.

2007-08-17T03:00:46Z

No really. I think its quite possible.

I mean, most of my childhood breakfasts were made up of some sort of premade boxed breakfast cereals...

Well, except for the special occasion breakfasts like birthdays and holidays.. and for a while we didn't have the money to buy breakfast cereal, but we raised chickens, so we ate a lot of french toast and scrambled eggs.

And sure, my fondest childhood breakfast stories do NOT center around the almighty box of cereal. Most of those breakfasts center around stories that are just too good not to tell. Stories that really have a message, Stories that I feel compelled to write down so that someday, when I can't remember for myself, I can look back at what I wrote down in my younger days, and smile.

The Breakfast cereal stories aren't so special. They typically begin with me, as a really young kid, drowning a bowl full of otherwise healthy corn, oat, wheat or other grain based cereal in a heaping mound of granulated sugar, and quickly pouring a healthy dose of milk on top before my mom or dad could tell the difference between my cereal and theirs.

I'll admit it. I loved sugar on my cereal. I wish I could say I was exaggerating, but I really did pour a ton of sugar on top of my cereal. Probably a half as much as the amount of actual cereal in the bowl, was sugar.

I found ways around it, when times got tough and my parents started noticing that the sugar supply was dwindling. I'd use my dad's coffee creamer, half and half, even whole milk, if I could convince my mom to buy that instead of the regular skim that she bought. Anything to add a little bit of sweetness to my cereal, and I was happy.

I was raised on unsweetened cereal.

I was eating grape nuts and corn flakes when my friends were eating sugar smacks and going coo-coo for cocoa puffs.

After begging and pleading with my mom to buy the "kids" cereals, I finally took matters into my own hands, and applied my own sugar. If you've ever eaten grape nuts cereal with skim milk, I'm sure you understand.

Cereal, still, was a mainstay in my childhood home. It was there, on top of the refrigerator for many late night cereal fueled scary movie watching slumber parties, It was there, in the cabinet next to the stove, when my mom didn't feel like making dinner, or it was just too hot to cook.

Finally, when my little sisters were born, and my parents were too preoccupied worrying about the twins than worrying about my older sister and me eating florescent coloured cereal rolled in 7 different types of sugar, we were finally allowed to get the good stuff.

Frosted mini wheats.

I know.. I know, frosted mini-wheats sounds downright healthy compared to fruit loops, sugar smacks, cocoa pebbles, capt'n crunch and his crunch berries, and a whole barrel of other sugar drenched cereals, aimed and marketed directly at children. But to us, they were amazing.

You see, we were familiar with a cereal that my mom called "Bales of hay". Better known as Shredded wheat.

It came in a regular cereal box, and there were four paper tubes inside, each with two "bales". These bales were huge, healthy, and not all that flavourful. My mom knew just how un-tasty they were, so she would allow us 1 teaspoon of sugar per bale that we ate. This was actually how I learned that you can put sugar on cereal, and what began the downward spiral towards total sugar annihilation with the grape nuts.

My sister and I found that the best way to apply the sugar was after the bales had been rolled in a half filled bowl of milk, spooned directly onto the top of the bale, and once the milk had started to absorb into the sugar, spread the sugar/milk paste on the bales, then quickly eat them before the sugar dispersed throughout the milk. We were both big on drinking the milk after eating our cereal, and overly sweetened milk just did not work well for cleansing the palate.

Anyways, so when we found out that there was a smaller version of our bales of hay, only they came pre-sugared, and you could ACTUALLY SEE THE SUGAR ON TOP, which was a sure sign of a delicious cereal in our minds, we begged our mom to buy them for us. She agreed, probably not even paying attention to the box, she'd just had twins for goodness sakes.

We quickly got bored with regular frosted mini-wheats. Sure, they sounded good in theory, but the sugar on top melted into the milk too quickly, and the wheat part got soggier a lot faster than the larger size shredded wheat. Plus, back then it was a lot more expensive, so we settled on getting mom to buy florescent cereals like froot loops, and the various other movie/cartoon/television themed cereals that came out in the early 90's.

Since then, I've pretty much stuck with the healthier types of cereal out there. Sure, I partake in the occasional box of krusty-O's, and every now and then my husband picks up a bag of the generic version of Lucky Charms. I'm not gonna argue with him. hehe..

I've even been known to eat grape nuts, only without the added sugar. I guess I grew out of that habit. Thank goodness.

So just the other day, I went to my moms house, and what do I see, but my little sister sitting on the front porch with her hand in a box of strawberry flavoured frosted mini wheats.

Entering the house, I tell my mom how funny I think it is that they've gone and made a new variety of frosted mini wheats.. and she proceeds to pull four more DIFFERENT boxes of frosted mini wheats from the cabinet by the stove.

Apparently Kelloggs has been busy making a few different varieties of frosted mini wheats. And I couldn't help but photograph them all.

Five different varieties-

And apparently, the strawberry and vanilla cream flavoured versions have "Crunchlets" listed as an ingredient.

These ones have an amazing smell to them. I really liked these ones, I felt like I was smelling a vanilla bean.

These were a little heavy on the cinnamon for me. A little spicy, but I guess some people Like that. My mom thought they tasted like cinnamon rolls.

I love these.
They're pink, they don't taste like fake strawberry, and they made the milk pink, but not overly sweet.

Definately the most boring new flavour. Similar to pancakes with syrup. They were good, but the maple was much stronger than the brown sugar, and I had hoped it was the other way around.

The original.
Ok, so its the bigger size. Halfway between a full sized piece of shredded wheat and one of the bite sized mini wheats, Who doesn't love the original?

after much deliberation, and many bowls of cereal and milk, I had to make a decision as to which was my favourite...

Vanilla Creme- for the win!

It was just simple enough to make a good breakfast, and not fake tasting at all. One might actually think its healthy for you... until you inquire about the crunchlets.

-A.

Tarts: a lesson in leftovering.

2007-08-13T23:28:17Z

We've all been there.. Its been entirely too long since you've gone to the grocery store, and you feel like there is no food left in the house, but you've got plenty of "stuff" hanging out in your cupboards and fridge.

Yeah, that was me this morning.

I wanted to make something for the blog, but I didn't feel like walking to the store just to buy stuff when I've got plenty of random "stuff" all over my kitchen, I just have to get creative and put it all together.

Starting out with pantry goods, I gathered the makings of a standard pie crust- Sugar, Flour, Shortening.

Should I make a chocolate filling? I grabbed the chocolate chips.

Onto the fridge, Scrapping the shortening, I grab a stick of butter. A brick of cream cheese, milk, Those pecans I've been snacking on for the past month, and a jar of caramel sauce I made the week before last for the ice cream I made but was unable to post about due to its mysterious disappearance when my husband came home early from work. *raises eyebrow* yeah, I think we all know what happened there.

Anyways, I gathered all these components, plus a lemon, and a visit to the spice rack added cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

I had originally set out to make one tart, but whats the point in making one tart shell? Then I decided it would be fun to see if I could make a few different tarts all with the same ingredients.

And this is how I ended up with today's entry-

First, I made enough dough for three tart shells, and baked them. Then I separated the main ingredients into three parts-

One tart, three ways- all leftovers.

I started off easy, mixing a portion of the cream cheese with cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar to make a sort of cheesecake cream, topping that off with caramel and chocolate dipped raw pecans-

Then I mixed some of the caramel in with some of the leftover cream cheese, added a little ginger and sugar, topped it off with crumbled oven toasted pecans and drizzled it with caramel and chocolate-

The third tart looks the best to me...
After pouring about a tablespoon of caramel into the bottom of the remaining tart shell, I mixed some of the chocolate in with the remaining cream cheese and a pinch of cinnamon, spooned it on top of the caramel and topped it off with the remaining melted chocolate and a raw pecan.

While I definitely don't have the stomach to eat all three of these tarts, I did taste the first one, and boy was it good!

So today I do believe I had myself a pretty good kitchen adventure. Only now, I really do have to get to the store if I'm to have any future kitchen adventures, as I do believe I've used up all of my "stuff" other than sugar and flour, which I seem to have pounds and pounds of.

As for other things, I do believe I'll be making the most of this beautiful summer afternoon we're having here in the Northwest, I'm gonna grab my husband right after work and head to a park to make grass angels!

Hope you're all having a splendid Monday!

-A.

Take me up in your hot air balloon, and feed me cotton candy... And a Robot.

2007-08-11T01:02:18Z

Not much for recipes today, I was much too busy with random family things to do much in the way of baking or cooking.

I've been trying really hard not to have any extra candy or goodies in the house, mostly sending the stuff I make for this blog away, and not really buying much in the way of candy or anything else. Sure, sometimes my sweet tooth gets the better of me, and days like today, I give it a little treat, just to keep it from really making its presence known when more overly sugary and sweet treats are within reach.

So while I was cleaning my kitchen, going through my gadgets and appliances, picking out what I want to keep, which I want to store, and which I want to get rid of, I realized I had this big old cotton candy machine just hanging out on top of the fridge. Part of me wanted to just put it in the get rid of box, but another part of me said I should keep it, because you never know when you'll want a cotton candy machine handy.

Then my sweet tooth chimed in, and I ended up making a batch of cotton candy. Luckily, as the robot in the photos is attempting to explain, it only took one tablespoon of sugar to make the two giant handfuls of cotton candy pictured. One tablespoon of sugar = 45 calories. Not bad when you think that two Hershey's kisses are 50 calories.

Anyways, I happily snacked on my cotton candy while taking a break from household stuff... but I waited until after I had a little photo shoot with the green robot here... Hey, I'll take any excuse to post robot photos!

What's that off in the distance?

AAAaaacK! ITS COTTON CANDY!

well, its fluffy....

And.. It is soft...

And you made all that cotton candy with only this much sugar???

See ya later sugar, I've got a date with a big fluffy ball of cotton candy...

I only wish I could store this stuff without it crystallizing. It would make tea parties so much more fun.
"One puff or two?"
-A.

P.S. This robot needs a name.

I tried to make a poll, but it isn't working for anyone, so.. Just leave your name suggestions as a comment if you'd like to chime in! *smile*

I smell summer in the air. Days of pricked fingers and berry stained skin. It was totally worth it.

2007-08-08T20:03:54Z

Living in the country, its definitely not a rarity to claim to have a berry bush of some sort in my childhood front yard. Especially not living in the Northwest.

Back when I was a kid, it seemed like everyone wanted theirs gone. All of our neighbours were often seen in the yard, donning their full on yard armor- Carhartts, Flannel, leather gloves, long boots.. The real serious ones even wearing some sort of crazy headgear consisting of a fine mesh screen being held at a distance from the face, suspended by some sort of wirework. Always with clippers, pruning shears, scissors, shovels, rakes, post hole diggers. Some sort of weaponry against the berry bushes.

I think for a while my parents were even included in this group. Always attempting to remove the berry bush on the side of the house. Claiming it was a danger, it was attracting bees, it was an eye sore. The only problem with being against the berry bushes, is that you have to commit to your cause, and my parents weren't so good with that.

None the less, we ended up with a pretty large sized blackberry bush attached to the side of our toolshed. It started out fairly small and manageable, but quickly over a particularly damp summers, it grew well beyond the size of the toolshed, at which point my parents managed to whack it down to about half its size, and for the remainder of its life, it stayed fairly small.

Our black berry bush was nothing compared the the giant monstrosity being grown by our next door neighbours. I guess the fact that the original owner of the house grew quite old and passed away, leaving the house to her disabled son, then the house sat without an tenant for quite sometime before being occupied by a family with two kids and entirely too many vehicles in various states of repair. No one had the time or ability to deal with it and It really never was very well tended to, so it grew to an enormous size before too long.

I loved this berry bush. It was a mixture of black berry bushes, raspberry bushes and a small amount of marionberry bushes. There was another unidentifiable berry growing in there, but we never picked it for fear of it being poisonous, and seeing as how we had so many other berries to pick, it wasn't that big of a deal, even though looking back I think it was a low lying bush berry like a huckleberry.

Anyways, this bush, being of such size that when it was later removed, it was found to have over 10 vehicles within its masses, was so full of berries that the people that owned the house didn't mind me and a few friends going and picking a few buckets full of berries every once in a while. I think they figured I was 15 and bored, and picking berries was much better than doing something much more destructive.

So one particular day I enlisted the help of two of my best friends, and we decided we would tackle the bush.

We suited up, thick rubber kitchen gloves for all three of us, provided by my mom who was so afraid we'd prick our fingers and catch some sort of berry bourne disease, that she insisted we remove the gloves every 15 minutes and check our fingers for cuts before resuming our berry picking. Also, we went wearing the most reasonable of outfits, shorts, tanktops and flip flops. Taking a moment to check ourselves out in the mirror, we remarked about how stylish we looked, and how it made much more sense to have our arms bare, so as not to catch any loose material in the thorns, than to worry about cutting our arms on the bushes. We weren't worried about our legs, because we didn't plan on stepping into the bushes, just picking from the outside. Also, being a farm girl, wearing flip flops was a bit of a stretch, as most times I would never wear shoes at all, prefering the feel of the grass and dirt on my feet and between my toes.

Grabbing a five gallon bucket each and a smaller bucket, a large bowl and a plastic garbage sack for each of our remaining hands to hold, we set off to the giant berry bush hoping to find it full of fruit and ready for picking.

It was quite a sight, the three of us dressed in summer outfits contrasted by the giant plastic kitchen gloves. Picking berries proved nearly impossible with those darned things on, they were quickly removed and placed in the garbage sack.

We spent nearly the whole evening out there, picking berries, laughing, telling jokes, singing songs (I have no idea why, but my friends and I couldn't go anywhere without singing) and just enjoying each other's company, gently plucking the soft fruits from the vine, inspecting them and letting them fall into the bucket below.

I don't know which one of us said it first, but as our buckets each reached about half full, someone mentioned that it might not be a good idea to fill the buckets all the way, as the weight of the berries on top would smash the berries on the bottom. We agreed we would fill the bowl and the smaller bucket and then return home, and if we still felt up to it and there was enough light left, we would come back and pick more berries.

Soon after that, we finished filling the bowl, and we decided to head back home. It was only about a 5 minute walk through the field, the only thing slowing us down was the fear that we might step into a hole, or a spider might jump up out of the hay below. We crossed from the field into my parents back yard and we had to stop because one of my friends had a rock stuck under their foot in their flip flop. My parents had a little park bench and some big rocks in their yard, so we all sat down, and as my other friend and I waited for our remaining friend to remove the rock, we started eating some of the berries.

Really, we couldn't be blamed for what happened next. It was human nature... at least, 15 year old girl human nature. All it took was one berry flying in the air to land on someone's shirt to spark an all out berry assault that would leave us red, sticky and stained, but still very tasty.

Needless to say, it only took about 20 minutes for the three of us to go from three half filled 5 gallon buckets of berries, one small bucket and a very large bowl full of berries, to no berries and three very sticky teenagers. We didn't even get in the house before my mom found out, I think she heard our laughing and screaming from the kitchen, and when we turned towards the house she was standing on the porch holding some old dish rags and pointing the the garden hose. She didn't look angry, but you could see the questioning look on her face.

Why would we spend such an incredibly long time picking berries just to waste them all in a bright red food fight?

As we cleaned up in the freezing cold water straight from our ground well, we didn't really talk much. I think we all were kind of wondering what we just did, and why. After we cleaned the majority of the sticky mess off our ourselves we took turns getting approved for entrance into the house, then sprinting to the bathroom and showering off before coming back outside and sitting on the grass, enjoying the crisp, cool and windy summer evening in my parents yard while sizing up our scrapes, pricked fingers and otherwise injured selves.

We ended the evening roasting marshmallows in the burn pit and then camping out in a small pup tent that we were barely strong enough to get the stakes into the ground to secure it with. Ghost stories and large quantities of sugary snacks kept us from sleeping and ultimately led to us abandoning our outdoor post and retreating to the comfort of my parents living room.

In the morning we woke up to the sound of my mom chasing my little sisters around the house, and my dad making a giant waffle breakfast, just like he did every time I had friends over. We waited until my parents ate before finishing off every prepared breakfast food in the kitchen, and my dad laughed as he said "I dunno.. My breakfast might have been a little better with some fresh raspberries." and winked. It seemed like for a moment my family was one of those television families, My dad the wise one who always made a wry joke of my bumbling mistakes, my mom at her wits end with my little sisters as the cuteness factor. My older sister making a cameo appearance from time to time because she's so busy with her friends and being old enough to drive, and my friends were always around, making me appear much more cool than I am, but really, they were just there for the food (which is SO true, by the way). It all made sense.

I remember that summer day as one of my best teenage memories. I don't think I really truly knew what I had back then, and I never really thought that I'd look back on my childhood and wish that I hadn't wasted so much of it being worried about so much. We were free that day. Free of responsiblity, worry. We didn't think "Oh no, what if someone sees me looking like this." or "ew gross, berries and bugs!" We just enjoyed ourselves living in the moment, as teenagers.

I wish I had spent more summer days that way. There were so many more berries to pick, enough for a whole summer full of berry fights.

I've yet to go berry picking this summer, and I know the window for berry season is drawing to a close, but my mom was able to take my sisters berry picking this weekend, and they brought me a few containers of fresh raspberries to eat and bake with.

Berries don't seem to last very long in my house, so I froze one of the containers of berries before it had a chance to over ripen or mold. The second container I reserved for baking... but really, only about half of them made their way into this recipe, the rest...

Well.. lets just say they were very tasty.

Today I made chocolate raspberry cupcakes with raspberry cream cheese filling, chocolate icing and a little raspberry cream cheese on top.

...Uh oh.. the robots found them...

I think adding the raspberry puree really made these cakes super soft. They had such a delicate texture, and they were so moist.

Messiest bite ever.

So enjoy your summer. Enjoy the simplicity that is this change in weather, which is only temporary. Enjoy your youth if you have it, and the life you've lived, if you don't.

And for goodness sakes, eat some cupcakes.

-A.

I tried to commit suicide by sticking my head in the oven, but there was a cake in it.

2007-08-04T09:43:00Z

-Lesley Boone

Sometimes all it takes is a little cupcake to cheer a person up.

Today I needed a little cheering, so I made some cupcakes.

Despite their different colours, they're all the same flavour. Butter cake with Almond/Orange icing.

I realized today that our local county fair started today. The Clark County fair, where I got my start in baking.

You see, back when I was an itty bitty little girl, my mom, my sister and I used to spend weeks and weeks in the kitchen during the month of July, In preparation of the baking booth at the Clark County fair. We'd all enter at least 5 entries each year, mostly just to see what ribbons we could win, but it was also pretty cool when we ranked high enough to get a little money for our hard work.

I remember entering all sorts of goodies. Zucchini bread, spice cake, coconut macaroons, buttercreams, pound cake, cheesecake, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies... My mom always entered the specialized contests, like the decorated dummy cakes and the bread contests. My sister was in 4-H, so she had her own contests amongst the other 4-H'ers.

We're going to try to go to the fair this coming week, so I might have photos from that if we end up going. In addition to that, I'm going to try and re-create some of those recipes that I made way back when. We'll see. I've got a few of the actual original recipes on hand, and a few other ones that I've tweaked over the years.

And I still have that huge 5 gallon drum (with about 4 gallons still in it) of dessicated coconut, so.. coconut macaroons might just be something I have to make next week!

Also, I'd like to apologize for the lack of photos this week. We had a little family crisis (still in the midst of it, actually) so all extra activities were sort of shut down over the end of the week. I'm still dedicated to posting as often as I can, but things might be slow for the next week or so. Please bear with me.

Also, My husband managed to eat my tarts and my ice cream BEFORE I could take photos of it. I'm thinking I need to get some post it notes and stick them to everything I make with a little note saying "Haven't photographed yet" so it doesn't happen again. Like I said though, we had a bit of an issue this week, so I didn't mind so much, I've been sort of bogged down with other things.

Please keep The Muffin household in your pleasant thoughts and good graces over the next days and into the coming weeks. I'd really appreciate it.

Until then, I've got some cupcakes to give to my upstairs neighbours.
-A.

Everything I needed to know about life, I learned from making doughnuts...

2007-07-29T16:16:55Z

(or- "back in the saddle again")

Doughnut, Donut, its all the same. A piece of fried dough, risen, fresh, cake or old fashioned, it doesn't matter. Rolled in sugar, cinnamon, powder, soaked in glaze, dipped in frosting. Its all the same.

Or is it?

It seems the cartoon ideal for what a donut should look like, is circular, with a hole cut in the middle, fried golden and schmeered with a good helping of pink icing, and sprinkled with rainbow non-pareils.

Not being one to rock the boat, I've adhered to this standard since childhood.

Way back in the day, before my mom ever let me hover over a pot of hot oil to make my donuts, I was content to make them in other ways..

Playdoh, for one. I was a big fan of the clay donut. Ask my older sister, and she'll even tell you- I used to try and eat them, along with my mom's lipstick, chapstick, crayons and hand soap. I guess as soon as I learned to walk, I also started eating everything I put in my mouth, and as most people know... Kids put everything in their mouths.

Later in life, I learned what was proper to eat and what was not, and I honed my donut making skills through arts and crafts.

My very first papier mache project was a giant Garfield-esque donut, complete with pink plaster icing, and real candy sprinkles. I also learned fairly quickly that when you start making giant food products in middle school art class, kids are gonna start making fun of any sort of weight problem you might have, and I became "fatty Mc-donut girl" to all the bullies at View Ridge Middle School.

I took solace in knowing my true motivation behind making my herculean ode to the almighty pink frosted donut- I had a bit of an obsession with Garfield the cat, and it just seemed like something everyone needed to have. I needed a big papier mache pink frosted donut, so I made one. its not like anyone else made anything useful, I think 5 of the 6 boys in the class made papier mache weapons, all of which ended up looking like giant penises. I was a quiet girl, so I never said anything... but I thought it.

The older I got, the more and more my obsession with the donut grew.

In highschool, I made a donut wand. It was a big clay donut atop a length of dowel. As tassles, I Made miniature donut "beads" and miniature Coffee mug "beads" which I hung from lengths of ribbon. All painted, it was truely a sight to behold. I gave it to my best friend at the time, though looking back, I always wished I had kept it for myself.

Later, in art class, I created abstract and realistic paintings and drawings of the pink frosted donut. I started drawing cartoons, a style in which I still draw.

(One of the few donut drawings I have from way back in the MSpaint days)

As time went on, I knew what had to be done. I was getting older, so it seems the best job for me to apply for would be one doing what else, but...

Making donuts.

I applied for and took a position as your friendly neighbourhood donut girl at a local Winchell's donuts.

This job didn't last long, only about two months, as the shop was closing. I guess donuts weren't so popular anymore, The Atkins diet rolled through town, leaving "Low carb" superstores and Vitamin supplement depots in its wake.

I didn't lose faith. I knew that someday.. me and my donut would be together again.

A few years later, I had taken a job at a grocery store bakery. I really didn't start out with a very important "bakery" job. I was the person that cleaned up after all the bakers, did a little baking during the day, and then made everything spotless for the people that worked the morning shift, doing all the cool stuff. As time progressed, I worked my way up (at least when it came to shift start time) and I was asked if I wanted to take the lead donut baker position.

I even made a livejournal Icon displaying my title-

(yep, I've been on LJ forever.)

I was probably more excited about that then any normal person would have been. I had possibly the worst schedule ever, working 1am until 10am, it was a thankless, sweaty, and very very isolated job. I had my donut machine over in the very far far corner of the bakery. The only time I ever saw anyone, was when the people who unloaded the trucks came through to deliver our freight. I started to go a little batty, singing to myself, talking to myself..

I loved my job though. Once I got used to it, I asked my boss if I could wear a headphone, so I could listen to music, and she said that would be fine. I had full creative freedom. I was free to decorate the donuts how I pleased, so long as they looked appetizing.

I went crazy. There were pink frosted donuts, chocolate donuts with teal coloured zig zags, daisies on maple bars, flowers on the lemon filled bismarks. Smiley faces on the bavarians. Sprinkles on everything. My boss was so happy, because donut sales were going through the roof. The first thing people saw when they walked in the door and turned towards the bakery, was this brightly coloured barrage of sweetness. We actually had to hire a second person so we could keep up with demand.

Every day, my co-workers throughout the store would call me the donut lady. I'd walk in and my boss would say "time to make the donuts" like in the dunkin donuts commercial. I worked hard, I smiled through the day.. I was happy.

But happiness is often short lived, especially when it comes to big corporations. One day, doing what I do best, "the big guy" head of the bakery department for the entire company, came through our department. Where he had been prepared to thank us for our hard work, and give us a pat on the back for the increase in sales, as soon as he saw the donut case, he turned, told me to take all of the donuts out of the case, and to make new ones that "Didn't look so stupid".

Everyone was shocked. I actually started crying. This was where things went sour for me, in both my professional and personal life. Within a week, I had suffered a total nervous breakdown, lost my boyfriend, been kicked out of my living situation, quit my job and moved in with my parents. I spent about three days, fully awake, unable to stop crying. Once the tears dried up, I was still crying, only I'd run dry. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. I watched every movie my parents owned, and seemed to spend all my free time at the doctors office, where they prescribed me every drug imaginable for both my insomnia and depression.

... no, I don't blame it on the donuts. I'm drawing a parallel.

It just seemed odd how it all ran together like that. It was the week after Thanksgiving, and I felt like everything I had been thankful for was ripped away, and I had to start over.

But life is funny like that. Donuts, are funny like that. I mean, what exactly IS a donut, anyways, but a bit of fried dough with a hole in it. A missing piece. The only thing that really makes it appealing is the sweet sugary coating we put on it.
The pink frosting. The sprinkles.

Without that, its just a boring bit of dough.. With a hole in it.

Life is kinda boring, without all that fun stuff. The 'perfect' job. Creative freedom, the boyfriend, the happy home. I'd stopped admiring the donut for its beauty, taken a bite and found myself lost in the hole, where the sweet stuff drips off and onto the plate below.

Luckily, it didn't take me too long to get back up onto the donut again. A dear friend stepped in and offered me a place to live, I was able to use my "mental situation" as a bargaining tool to get a better position in the bakery, where I ended up working my way up to lead cake decorator, and after a little while, I started dating again. And yeah, that was sort of hit and miss at first, but after a while, I met my husband..

Before I left that company, I always thought it was funny, how sales fell abruptly after I stopped making the donuts. After a while, they restored the donut maker's creative freedom, but it never was the same. I filled in a few times for the new donut maker, but I wasn't ever able to get back into it the way I was before.

I'd moved on.

Sure, sometimes life gets to where I feel like someone's taken a big bite of my donut again, and I've fallen into a hole.. But I just have to keep trying to get back to the sweet stuff on the other side.

I think more people should take donut photos like this-

Such is life, and donuts.

-A.

(P.S. That last photo is me watching Naked Chef through the donut hole. Mmm.. loves me some Jamie Oliver..)
(P.S.S. Yes, we have two TV's in our living room. One is strictly for playing video games, though. We're big nerds.)

I know, I know.. Long time- no post.

2007-07-27T06:46:11Z

What can I say, Summer is a busy time around here at the Muffin Household. House projects, Work projects, Injuries and all around general Lameness has kept me from posting much as of late. Don't worry, thats going to change soon, and we'll be back up to the (at least) 3 posts a week that you're used to.

However, in the meantime, I've been contemplating a few projects, and I'd like to get your opinions.

Now, these are just ideas, but, would anyone be interested in a Rodney Robot/ Random ninja/ random kitchen character- photo based adventure 'zine? I'm thinking a full colour 10 page or so mini-zine, Mostly photos, with a different story or adventure every edition. It would follow a general "character + food + recipe" format, with one recipe being included in each zine.

Also, it would have to come at a price, and I have no idea what that price would be. Anyone out there have any comparison ideas?

This is just something I've been thinking about lately. I've been struggling with my lack of creativity, and realizing its because I feel a bit stifled. ugh. This happens once every few months, I get burnt out and when I come back things are even better than before. So please bear with me.

-A.

Any opinions or ideas are greatly appreciated! (P.S. Rodney is starting his own official blog on blogspot called "Robots and Cupcakes" beginning August 1st! Keep your eyes peeled for the unveiling!)

This just needs to be shared. Baking bread... SFW unless your boss has something against The 80's.

2007-07-24T01:15:29Z

I had a party on Saturday, and one of my guests brought me a beautiful loaf of bread as a gift. I have to admit, I thought of you,

swingangel , and your loaf of bread when I saw this.
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Anyways... I thought all the other foodies and kitchen enthusiasts who read this would enjoy this video equally.

-A.

P.S. I'm looking for a great bread recipe, Anyone have a perfect one to share? leave it in the comments!

Busy busy bumble bees...

2007-07-22T23:48:24Z

Hey everyone.. I know I've been absent from posting over the last week, but don't worry. I'm not gone. I just spent the whole last week prepping for and having a big party.

I'd do a big ol post about party food today, but it'll have to wait for tomorrow. I'm gonna take a nice cold bath and relax today, but like I said, tomorrow I'll post all sorts of recipes for delicious party food and appetizers.

After that, we'll get back to the regular two or three posts a week until Summer ends and the weather cools enough for me to do more baking.

But until then, food network watchers- don't forget, tonight we find out who wins the next food network star! And in other Food network news, while I'm not her biggest fan...

Giada? (click on the photo for more Giada- and her giant head- in Esquire magazine.)

For everyone else just looking for a delicious food photo fix, be sure to check out Tastespotting, which is where I found the link to the above photo, but where you can also find tons of drool worth food photos.

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

-A.

The Waffler- Pt. 2.

2007-07-17T21:49:29Z

Although the it seems that we're taking a bit of a break from the scorching temperatures of last week, here in the Northwest, Its still warm, and I still don't feel like heating up my house.

So I return to the waffle iron in search of another perfect breakfast.

At first glance, these waffles might look a little plain, but let me assure you, they're not.

They're chock full of pecans, cinnamon and caramel!

They're even drenched in a maple pecan caramel glaze.

I don't really have much of a story to go along with these, other than to tell you, they're completely delicious, a bit addictive, and perfect for the breakfast lover with a sweet tooth ( though they're just sweet enough, and definately not nearly as sweet as a dessert waffle.) Amazingly enough, they're light and fluffy, and perfect for a summertime breakfast.

Recipe coming soon at Never Bashful with Butter!

-A.

Looking to make breakfast without heating up the entire house? (Portland, I'm looking at you)

2007-07-15T02:24:51Z

And, its totally delicious.

Check out the post I just made to The Breakfast Blogger about my waffle iron only breakfast sandwich.

Cheddar waffles, bacon and eggs, all in one waffle iron. I like to call it "The MacGyver".

Quick, simple, easy and best of all- I DIDN'T CHANGE THE TEMPERATURE IN THE KITCHEN AT ALL!
Go now- Check it out. TONS more photos there, as well as many other breakfast -centric photos from the lovely team of breakfast lovers over at The Breakfast Blogger.

-A.

Frosty treats, Hot days, Desperate measures. Even Ice melts, so.. what would the Astronauts do?

2007-07-13T04:01:16Z

In the same vein as Tang and various other astronaut safe foods, today I bring you the wonder that is freeze dried Ice cream.

Freeze dried ice cream, more commonly known by its "street" name of Astronaut ice cream, can be purchased in many places. My first introduction to it was, of course, at OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. I was still nearly a baby, and I was fixated on becoming an astronaut. Astronaut Ice cream just seemed fitting as my favourite snack at the time.

I can't tell you when from memory, but from the beginning of time for me, I wanted to be an astronaut. Knowing what I do know now, I can tell you that this dream of space exploration began in 1985, when I was four years old.

You see... Barbie was my best friend at a very young age. She was much more popular then than she is currently, and I think at least 4 of ever 5 of my friends owned at least a handful of barbies, if not more, even at four years old.

Sure, most of mine were hand me downs. My sister is three years older than me, so when she got "too old" for barbies, it was like I hit paydirt, and suddenly I was raking in the motherload, or rather, The Barbieload. I was bathing in miniature plastic people. Heck, I even had the Barbie bus. You know, the cool one that was big enough for a 25 pound two year old baby to fall asleep inside of it.. Yep. That'd be me. I loved that bus, and my mom even has photographic evidence of me safely slumbering inside its rigid plastic interior (I also liked sleeping in closets, so. yeah, I was a weird kid even early on.)

1985 was a good year for Barbie. That year, among other outfits and careers she took on, she was an elementary school teacher, a business executive, and Andy Warhol painted her portrait that year.

Also, after a twenty year hiatus, she took up her old career as an astronaut.

Click here to see the youtube video of the 1985 Astronaut Barbie that encouraged my interest in space, and shoulder pads.

Anyways, so I was hooked. Shortly thereafter, my other heros, the carebears, released a book featuring tenderheart dressed as an astronaut, and it was all over. I was going to be an astronaut.. I even went so far as to tell my grandma that I was either going to be an Astronaut or an artist when I grew up. She told me "don't be silly, girls can't be astronauts, and you'll never make any money as an artist" I hated that she thought that way, and I was going to prove her wrong.

OF course... it was not meant to be. At least not the astronaut part. My dream ended on Tuesday, January 28th, 1986, in my elementary school auditorium.

I went to a tiny elementary school. There were probably only about 200 kids from Kindergarten up to 6th grade, and everyone knew everyone else. Such is life in a small town. Just about everyone's parents went to school with each other, too. I was 5 years old, and I was in Kindergarten. It was assembly day, when everyone would gather in the auditorium for whatever various reasons that the teachers could come up with every week, and we LOVED it. I mean, really. It was an excuse to get out of regular class and sit with your friends. We barely paid attention regularly, but this assembly seemed special. It was in the morning.

They lined us up, kindergarteners sitting on the ground infront of the televison, first and second graders behind us. third- sixth grade got to sit in chairs, and they were behind all of us, lined up, waiting for whatever they were going to show us on TV.

I can't tell you what happened that day, I blocked it out. I only know that that was the day that the space shuttle Challenger exploded, killing everyone on board, because my mom came to pick me up from school, because I wouldn't stop crying.

For years later, I kept my dreams and aspirations on the ground. Barbie doll, carebears or not, I wasn't about to go explode-y on national television. My dreams were up in smoke.

Luckily, I was young and impressionable. I kept up with my dreams of being an artist, proving to my grandma that you can make money as an artist, and developing another dream of mine.. To become a baker.

So thank Barbie, every time you come here and see a delicious looking cupcake, muffin, breakfast treat or baked good. Thank Barbie for it all.

-A.

So yesterday, I sold my car...

2007-07-10T01:00:27Z

As an incentive, I offered to bake a batch of vegan cupcakes for the lucky purchaser.

It just so happened that the person who responded to the post I made about it on damnportlanders is the wife of one of my husbands co-workers. They ended up buying the car, and last night I made a batch of vegan cupcakes for my husband to bring to work with him, to give to his co-worker to bring home.

This one.. well..

It "didn't fit" in the container, so.. I had to keep it. What can I say?

Its Cherry almond flavoured. I loves it. Last night after I made the icing, Aaron licked the beaters because he liked the flavour so much. Best thing, its completely vegan, and oh so tasty.

Today is another super hot day here in the Northwest, and tomorrow is looking like it will be even hotter. For the next week or so, I'll probably post mostly no-bake or low-bake goodies and foods, simply because turning on the oven is nearly painful with all the heat in the house.

Hope everyone is having a happy Monday!

-A.

I'll admit it. Sometimes I go to KFC just for the biscuits...

2007-07-08T21:32:12Z

The other night, my husband and I did just that. They must have been out of boxes, so they gave the biscuits to us in a bucket.

I couldn't pass up a little LOL Hamster photo shoot, starring my hamster, Dave.

Its true. Dave has a bucket.

No comment from our other hamster, Marcus, who didn't seem anywhere near as interested in the bucket as Dave did.

-A.

Lime Jello Sherbet- The impatient cook's best bet for a tasty treat.

2007-07-07T04:22:59Z

So last night, I couldn't sleep. I thought of maybe making cupcakes or bread, or something that required the use of the oven, because really, it cools off quite a bit at night, and the heat would have just blended in with the daytime temperature.

I sat down by my cookbook shelf, and looked through all my neglected cookbooks. So many neglected cookbooks. I'll fully admit, I'm a compulsive cookbook purchaser. I'm mostly attracted to niche cookbooks- cookbooks that have some sort of hook, or theme- Something different than the typical betty crocker bible. Also, I LOVE the kind that have a photo for every recipe. Then there are the kind that I rarely open, but have plenty of. Brand cookbooks. I don't usually buy them, but my mom does. Then she passes them on to me, and being the kind of girl who can't let a cookbook go without a home, I take them in and let them live amongst the rest of my cookbooks.

Some of them are so simple, they're not even recipes. Putting coolwhip and chocolate pudding together in a pre-made graham cracker crust (thank you- keebler) isn't a recipe. Its assembly.

But some of them are pretty darn cool. Like this Jello recipe book that I've been harboring for the past few years.

Its as old as I am, having been printed in 1981, so I feel a sort of kinship with it.

also, I happen to think the price tag on the front is HILARious..

You know, because.. well, we all know what gelatin is made of, right?

Anyways, so this book has some pretty nifty recipes in it. Sure, It was made in the 80's, so as expected, there are more Jello salad recipes than you could expect to see at a church potluck in Utah, but still, if you think of it as more of an idea book, its very helpful. I mean, everything you could ever hope to learn about jello, can be found within its pages. I never thought about making Jello marshamallows, but really, marshamallows are made with gelatin, so it makes sense! It tells about making moist cakes with it, how to add fruit to it, how to make different textures (whipped, flaked, cubed, cutout, tilted, layered) and a lot more.

My favourite thing about it, is that while most of the "recipes" are more like the assembly directions you'd find in most brand cookbooks, These are way more creative.

Like the "recipe" I used to make Lime Jello Sherbet-

A few ingredients that most people have around their house, no fancy equipment, and best of all, It only takes a few hours to make it, and then overnight in the fridge for it to be finished! I should know, I made mine between Midnight and 4:30AM this morning.

Needless to say, I'm pretty impressed with this simple recipe. I'm pretty impressed with my Jello cookbooks too. I've got two different ones, "The joys of Jello", and "Easy homemade desserts with Jello pudding", Which, obviously, focuses on Jello pudding, rather than Jello Gelatin. (It also is three years older, and has more real recipes, AND it holds the coveted Jello Pudding pop recipe from my childhood)

I'm thinking I'll be doing more Jello recipes this summer. There is very little heat involved with most of them, and the bright colours really make it feel like summer.

-A.

Well paint me yellow and call me a Simpson!

2007-07-07T00:20:30Z

When I heard that twelve 7-11's across the United States were turning into KWIK-E-MART's as a promotional deal for the upcoming simpsons movie, I searched through the internets to see where these kwik-e-mart's were.

Unfortunately, none of them are near me. The closest one is in Seattle, and although in my past I may have driven in all matter of random directions for random things (Silverdale for a toaster, Coos Bay for cheesecake, central oregon for Afri-kola, you get the drift) I just didn't feel like driving to seattle to take photos of a kwik-e-mart was at the top of the list.

Anyways, I found out that most of the regular 7-11's are carrying the Simpsons merchandise, so.. off to 7-11 I went.

Apparently there is quite the demand for most of the products, so they were out of most of the merch, but I did manage to snag a box of Krusty-o's.

If you've watched more than a single episode of the simpsons, chances are, you know what Krusty-o's are. Here is what I bought-

Part of a balanced simpsons breakfast (no, I didn't accompany my bowl of krusty-o's with a stick of butter wrapped in a waffle, wrapped in bacon, ala Homer)

Yep, they're basically just fruit loops. Nothing special.

Box front-

I guess I should have known better-

Movie poster, as seen on the side of the 7-11.

I guess I kind of thought they would make the krusty o's special, or something. Maybe include a toy or something. But no, I paid 4$US for a box of slightly stale fruit loops.

But hey, It was the experience I was paying for, right?

We're keeping an eye out for when the rest of the simpsons food merchandise gets to us, but in the mean time, if you're interested, check out this blog FULL of photos from someone who visited one of the 7-11's that turned into a Kwik-E-Mart.

-A.

Hot summer sun, cold summer salad.

2007-07-06T00:57:04Z

One thing I've never gotten used to, living in the Pacific Northwest.. For every 10 months or so of rain, sleet, freezing rain, cloudy days, and lack of heat, we have just about 2 months of sweaty, sticky, hot hot hot, weather.

I don't know what the deal is, but I just can't seem to function on these days. Never have. During my childhood I was thankful that it was hot during the summer when school was out, because I knew I'd be miserable in our school building, which lacked air conditioning, fans, or any other sort of cool down devices. We had these little half windows that on the hotter days that actually happened during the school year, they'd prop open with a stack of books, and students would be so distracted creating paper fans and being hot, that it was nearly impossible to focus on whatever our teacher was trying to tell us.

During recess, most students would go run outside, try to burn off their fidgets, or cool themselves under the shade of the overhang in the back of the school yard. Not me though. I went to the library.

Sure, I loved books. I loved school in general. I was a teachers aide, an office aide, I gave up my lunch hour recess to file papers and answer phones in the principals office. But my reason for visiting the library wasn't exactly in the search for higher learning.

They kept all the fans in the library.

Me, and a handful of other kids who'd learned this secret, would gather around one of the short tables, and the librarian, who apparently felt sorry for us, would set one of the fans next to our table, so it would blow the already cool air of the windowless library on us.

We had a pretty cool librarian, she told us we could eat our lunches in the library, so long as there were no books on our table, and anything we drank had to have a resealable opening.

My mom would make my lunch every day. We didn't have a lot of money, so I basically had the same thing for lunch every day. I didn't mind, it was full of my favourite stuff-

Capri sun, peanutbutter sandwich (or fluffernutter, or peanutbutter rollups. Some variation of peanutbutter and bread) 1 or 2 boiled eggs, carrot slices and a little tupperware container with ranch dressing, and a fruit cup.

You know the kind, Del Monte brand fruit cups, in the metal containers with the lid that made the "PhhhloaOCk" sound when you popped it open?

They were cheap, I remember my mom buying them 5 for a dollar. Normally they weren't so cheap, but she bought them from the canned food warehouse, which is a place that sells stuff for less because its been mislabeled, or something else. Its where all the halloween themed cereal goes AFTER halloween.

So, I had one in my lunch every day. I remember my favourite part of the fruit cup was the cherry slice, even though sometimes, it didn't have one. Otherwise it was made up of peaches, melon, pineapple, orange bits, pear and whatever else, I loved this bright ending to my lunch.

So here is my version of the fruit cup. More cherries, melon, some peach slices, lychee, and a little agave nectar.

Anyways, so the librarian wouldn't let me drink my capri sun in the library, but she made an exception for my fruit cup. I think maybe after a few lunches she realized that my family didn't have the money to put everything in resealable containers, or something. I dunno.

Either way, I've always been fond of fruit salads during the summer, when the only way to escape the heat is by sitting infront of a fan, sipping on a cold beverage... and enjoying a bowl full of cool juicy fruit.

Pretty tasty for a hot summer day like today, when its impossible to cook inside your house. I think we'll be barbecuing for the next feel weeks, if this keeps up.

Hope everyone else is doing well, and enjoying their summer!

-A.

Lychee and coconut Vegan cupcakes with raspberry filling and lychee apple icing..

2007-07-02T23:35:30Z

So, on friday, I posted the Lychee experiment. This weekend I started actually experimenting with lychee recipes.

Saturday early morning, I started work on these cupcakes.

The cupcakes themselves are made with a combination of coconut milk, coconut oil and lychee puree/juice in lieu of the dairy products in the recipe, so I figured I'd just make it all vegan and I used a commercial egg replacer.

I decided to continue the trend, and make the icing with earth balance margarine, apple sauce, lychee puree and powdered sugar. Again, vegan.

Just under the icing is a thin layer of smushed raspberries.

Topped it off with a thin slice of apple and some sugar sprinkles...

And I ended up with the most moist, tender and delicious cupcake I've ever made.

The only thing I would change, is maybe applying the icing as a glaze, as opposed to a glob. You can tell that the apple sauce and the margarine really didn't bind together too well, and it looks lumpy. It doesnt FEEL lumpy though, and the texture is smooth and silky. It was just a bit too much for the delicate cake underneath.

I was amazed at how well this experiment came out. I was expecting something weird, but really, the lychee flavour is light, and not overpowering, neither is the coconut.

The icing, you can really taste the lychee, but then again, its not overpowering, its just more noticeable than it is in the actual cake.

All in all, its a pretty good cupcake. I liked it, and so did my new neighbours, who I shared them with yesterday.

-A.

P.S. Yes, I'll be posting the recipe to the other blog, probably late tonight or early tomorrow.

On the hunt: Finding the perfect popsicle Pt. 2- Comparing "pouch-sicles"

2007-07-01T06:01:34Z

Pt.1- Melona.

Otter Pops-

I've made it my mission to try and find the perfect popsicle this summer, and in order to do that, I had to go back and relive some old favourites.

Originally, this post was going to be solely about the Otter Pop. My love for the Otter Pop transcends all time and space, and really, a summer without an Otter Pop just isn't a summer at all, as far as I'm concerned.

It would seem as though most people feel this way, at least in the United States.

Otter Pops have been around forever almost. Though I don't know exactly when Otter Pops first came out, I do know they were around at least as far back as the 1960s, created as a competing product to Flavor-Ice, which is almost the exact same thing as an otter pop, only available in different flavours.

The Original Otter Pop flavour lineup was as follows-

Sir Isaac Lime
Little Orphan Orange
Strawberry Short Kook

Louie-Bloo Raspberry
Rip Van Lemon
Alexander The Grape

In the mid 70's, Poncho Punch replaced Rip Van Lemon, but otherwise, the flavours and characters have remained the same.

When I was a kid, I lived off these things. Popsicles were like, my life support during the summer. Even more so were they important before we moved to a house with a swimming pool. Summer time there was an otter pop, a kiddie pool, and a garden hose. No such thing as central air back then. I don't even think most buildings in the area were air conditioned at that point, let alone houses. We didn't have a lot of money anyways, so it was the farthest thing from a necessity in our house. Besides, we were kids, and kids are very inventive when it comes to ways to keep cool.

I remember Digging holes. A lot. I know not many kids were allowed to dig holes in their yard, let alone wield a big sharp shovel, to do so. Things were different for us, I think. We grew up digging holes and trenches for plants, so we knew our way around the shed, and the tools inside it. I think originally, my mom didn't believe me when I said I wanted to dig a hole for swimming in. What harm could come of me digging a few inches, giving up and then doing something else?

I came up with the idea of digging holes for swimming after I learned that I could empty the big plastic oversized pig shaped toy box with water, and soak in that. Digging a hole just made it more interactive, messy, and fun.

Digging swimming holes became a yearly occurance, up until we got a swimming pool. I would dig a few holes if I needed to. Both roughly the size of two people, about 3 or 4 feet deep. I'd take sheets of black plastic or a blue woven tarp, and stick it inside of the hole, using the hose to fill it up, and for a few brief moments, I would remain in clear water. If I had a friend with me, it was even shorter, as sooner than later, one of us would turn to mud flinging as an attempt to satiate our extremely short attention spans.

When I wasn't digging holes, I was running through the garden over the sprinkler. My mom hated this. I as always messing up her perfect little rows. Finally she bought a second sprinkler, and my sister and I planted it firmly in the center of the yard, and took turns jumping over it.

But most often, it was my sister and I, running around the yard in our underwear, chasing each other with the hose, the chilly water nipping at my heels, whether I was chasing her or not. The object was to hold the water spray so it hit both of you, because the whole purpose was to keep cool. The only down side, we got more bee stings this way than any other.

Of course, growing up with parents who raised bees, the stings were unavoidable. Poor Honey bees don't know what hits 'em. All of a sudden there's this thud and a small child has stepped on you while you're calmly and coolly collecting your pollen off the dense pockets of honey suckle, neatly tucked amongst various patches of crab grass and other motley greens.

Holding onto any sweet treat made you more of a bee target. The only problem with that, is the bees you most often were stung by, weren't honey bees. They were Yellow Jackets. Evil little creatures, unlike honey bees who only sting when threatened, because they die after they sting, Yellow Jackets can sting multiple times, AND they can bite. And they're just mean looking.

I've suffered many a yellow jacket sting at the Otter Pop's behest. Lesson learned, its best to eat the otter pops WHILE being sprayed by the garden hose, and not afterwards. Running around with melted sugar mixture on your body is like waiving a giant target in front of the bees.

The only problem with Otter Pops is that I'm finding I only really enjoy them so long as I'm using them as a nostalgic product. I Love them, don't get me wrong, its just.. My tastes have matured a bit, and to be completely honest, If I'd never had them as a kid, I'd probably never buy them as a grownup. Also, the older I get, the less I enjoy the flavour. They seem so much more watered down this year than they did last year.

So, to see if it was just me, or maybe a pouch-sicle thing, with the watered down flavour, I found a few other pouch-sicle brands to compare against.

Kool Aid Kool Pops.

Everyone LOVES Koolaid, right?

koolaid was my drink of choice as a kid. Always red. Always fruit punch flavoured.

My sister and I had the great misfortune of contracting chicken pox one summer. My parents had an old school remedy for this.

They locked us into the family car, a big shiny Reliant K- car, in flannel pajamas, with cloth oven mitts duct taped over our hands. I know this sounds inhumane. It probably is. I can't be too upset about it though, because it worked. Four hours in the big stuffy car on a hot day, our dad felt bad and came to our rescue about two hours into it with home made koolaid slushies in quart size mason jars. NOTHING felt better than ice cold Koolaid at that point. Nothing.

These are basically just that. Koolaid in a tube, frozen. Infact, they're actually better if you smush them up a bit before you eat them.

Anyways, so Otter Pops have 6 flavours, and Kool Aid Kool Pops have 4. Thats ok, because they're all artificially flavoured, so they all taste pretty much the same anyways.

The one thing I like about these pops is that they're bigger, and they taste more like koolaid when you "accidentally" put too much sugar in them, and not enough water. They're very sweet, and very flavourful.

I actually enjoyed them much more than the otterpops, and I was totally able to overlook that they claim the blue one was "tropical punch" and that the red one was "blastin berry cherry" because I seriously thought that the blue one was blue raspberry, and the red one was fruit punch. I even had my husband taste them and tell me what flavours he thought they were, and he said the same thing, and he'd never even seen the packaging.

They were really good though, and it was a total bonus that I was able to find them for $1.00 USD for a pack of 24, at Albertsons Grocery. Considering I'd just paid $5.00 USD for the box of 100 OtterPops, which were a little over half the size of the Kool Pops, That was quite a bargain.

Koolaid Kool-Pops-

My favourite is grape, of course.

This next review is probably a regional variety. I don't know though, because its such a generic name and brand, they could be really popular somewhere else, and I wouldn't even know it.

Fun Pops.

My first introduction to these was at my mom's house. My dad was eating one, and my husband remarked on the size of his "Otter Pop". My dad said it wasn't an Otter Pop, and my husband mumbled something about them looking like Otter Pops on crack. My dad offered one to my husband and I, and of course, we obliged.

We fell instantly in love with them. In the realm of the Pouch-Sicle, they're definately the king of all the ones I've tried past and present.

They're about three times the size of an Otter Pop, and they come in more flavours-

Piña colada, blue raspberry, banana, peach, cherry, grape, lemon-lime and orange, to be exact.

My mom bought them at Wal-mart, so they may be widely available. If you're looking for a cheap, tasty otter pop-esque treat, these are definately the way to go.

Infact, these ones are in liquid form, because we ate all of the ones we had frozen before I could take photos!

So all in all, of these pouch-sicle varieties, I'd choose the latter. Still, I don't feel I've found "the best" popsicle, because really, I'm looking for something a little less high fructose corn syrupy, and a little less artificial flavoury.

More to come, soon. Summer is upon us here in The Pacific Northwest, and there are many popsicles left to be devoured.

-A.

The Lychee Experiment.

2007-06-30T02:36:24Z

*For those of you that read my previous post, Problem solved.*

Alright.. This post is dedicated to one of my favourite fruits, the lychee.
In the spirit of The Greater Pacific Northwest Durian Challenge.

My first introduction to the lychee flavour was just a few years back, on a day trip to Seattle with my sister. We were there for the Chinese New Year Celebration, and while we were there, we stopped at the Giant Uwajimaya supermarket.

Giant in comparison to the Uwajimaya closest to where I live now, which is still huge in comparison to most grocery stores.

Anyways, so we went there, and me, not being familiar with much in the way of Asian foods, drinks, produce or.. well, anything, I went straight for the beverage section. I'm addicted to beverages, what can I say? Whenever I'm in a different city, I stop at a grocery store and a convenience store, and check to see if there are any beverages that I haven't tried before. I've even driven half a state away, just to buy an Afri-cola, and a Nesbitt's Orange soda.

So I'm looking through this refrigerator case full of stuff I've never had before. So, of course I get two of everything that looks drinkable. I stay away from anything that looks milk based, since we had a long drive home still. I end up with a ton of Ramune soda, one flavour in particular. The Lychee flavour.

Of course I didn't know it was lychee flavour at first, I had to do some investigating.

See, I don't pretend to know much about anything Asian. I grew up in a rural farming community. Major exports from our town- milk, and chicken manure. As a kid, the closest thing I experienced that was even close to "culture shock" was eating at the mongolian grill booth at the county fair.

I've never much been into anime, just because I don't have a long enough attention span to really watch them. Same goes for most movies and TV shows though. Nothing against Anime in particular.

So all I really had to go on for what flavour this soda was, was the cute little drawing of the fruit on the side of the bottle. A cute little bumpy acorn shaped fruit, with a smiley face, of course.

In fact, my quest for flavour discovery actually lead me to my first introduction to the durian flavour.

It was a package of flavoured marshmallows. There was a cartoon drawing of a cute little bumpy acorn shaped fruit on the package of marshmallows, too. I bought them. of course, upon further investigation- (i.e. placing them in my mouth and chewing) I discovered that the flavour was something all together different. There was no way they could be the same, and infact, they were quite different. (though a cartoon durian is very similar to a cartoon lychee, in my opinion)

Anyways, I finally figured it out after investigating ramune soda available flavours, and narrowing it down through google image search for label photos. (Its actually pretty funny, because there are some labels that clearly say LYCHEE in english on the side, but apparently I didn't buy those bottles)

It would be a quite a while before I encountered an actual lychee fruit, however-

I've had lychee fruit a few times now, since that first encounter. Unfortunately, because lychee fruit aren't native to where I live, they're all imported, and the quality varies, as does the import season.

The fruit posted here is not quite fully ripened. Its the best I can find though, as I'd rather have less ripe than overripe. It tastes fairly close to fully ripened lychee, but only a little less soft.

The shell of the fruit is kind of leathery, and you've got to cut through it with a sharp knife. It helps to cut the top off and then peel off the shell, but for photographic purposes, I chose to do it differently. also, you can pluck the seed out this way, and its a lot less messy.

The actual flesh of the lychee ranges from white to a soft pink, depending on what variety of lychee you're eating. This one is more white than pink, and the dark spots you're seeing are part of the inner lining surrounding the seed. I don't know if you're supposed to remove that lining before eating the fruit, but I always do, because its hard and not very fun to chew.

As you can see, the rest of the fruit is soft and juicy.

Its hard to describe the actual flavour of a lychee. Its just GOOD. Slightly citrusy, with a bit of grape and rose thrown in there. Its sweet, not sugary. Its not tart at all, nor is it sour.

The texture is pretty close to that of a grape, a bit of a thin skin on the outside holding tightly to all the juicy goodness on the inside. Biting into it there is a slight crunch, followed by a lot of juice pouring out of the flesh.

Because Lychee fruit are not common around here at all, its not very cost effictive to buy them fresh and expect to be able to make much with them. The fruit themselves are about the same size as a small apricot, if not a bit smaller at times. As you see in the photo above, the center of the fruit is a large seed, which is poisonous (don't eat it) so really, there is very little fruit on the whole thing.

So when I set out to try my lychee experiments, in addition to the actual fruits, I bought lychee juice to suppliment.

So for the first experiment, I made lychee juice and puree popsicles.

They're small, the size of a shot glass, but really tasty.

I also made a lychee and lime martini. VERY good.

Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to post photos of more lychee experiments.

Amongst other things, three desserts are planned. Cupcakes, Jello, and a tart. Other fruits in the mix- Strawberry, Cherry and Tuscan Melon.

Keep an eye out!

-A.

P.S. if you've got anything to add about lychee fruit, and your experiences with it- Tell me about it in the comments!

A Belated Main Course Monday- My first MRE experience. How good is food from a pouch?

2007-06-27T03:50:17Z

Since today felt like the sun had landed in my back yard and shone solely for the sake of my sweat glands, I didn't feel much like making dinner this evening. My husband, being the utilitarian type, announced he planned on living off popsicles anyways, so my food preparation boycott didn't bother him in the least.

"You know, now you see why I buy those frozen burritos for myself when I'm at the grocery store." he says.

It's true. I do see why. I just happen to hate them, myself. I figured if worse came to worse, I'd eat some cold cereal, or maybe just drink a lot of water until the heat started to fade, and make myself something to eat later.

Realizing it had been a few days since I cleared out the mailbox, I decided to throw on some flip flops and brave the sun drenched afternoon to fetch the mail. Its not really that long of a walk, but I catch a freckle after being in the shade on a sunny day in about five minutes. Walking to the mail box I usually throw on a long sleeve shirt and just deal with the heat, because I seriously could get sun burnt in a tank top.

But I digress.

The mailbox was jam packed with goodies. My threadless tee from the 12 club came, there was a mish mosh of bills, ad flyers, coupons and a tiny little cardboard box. My Soyjoy snack bars FINALLY came in the mail. I ordered them like.. oh.. 3 months ago?

Into the house I went. I opened the box and dove into the bars. Apple, raisin almond and coconut mango. I chose apple.

I ripped open the package and was caught a little off guard by the sight of it. It was a little square bar of... baked good. The smell was delicious, so I took a bite.

I don't think I'd choose to call it a baked good. Maybe a baked Bad. I gave it to my husband. He immediately says.. "you know what this reminds me of?"

I stare blankly.

"MRE's"

And at that moment I knew what had to be done. This post is not about soyjoy snack bars. Its a post about my first MRE.

Aaron's brother is a reservist, and I think last year for Christmas, he had all the males in the family stick their hands into a giant box and pick out a "present"

Of course, they ended up with MRE's. It was kinda funny, because they were all SO happy. It was like they had been given the best present ever, which is neat, because from that point on, I knew I could give everyone food for presents, and they'd be happy little campers about it.

I think originally Aaron ended up with another one, but he quickly swapped for this one, because he thought there might be a chance that in the future, I might want to try it. I guess he was right.

I took the MRE down from its hiding spot, above the medicine cabinet, inside the fondue pot. I figured in case of a zombie apocalypse, I should keep it near the bandaids.. You know, because you can never plan too well for those things.

I opened the pouch. (for future reference, do not attempt to open pouch with your teeth.)
With a knife.

I was greeted by a wide selection of brown tubes, pouches, boxes and packets.

A rundown of what you see here-

Cheese tortellini in tomato sauce, spoon, Spiced pound cake, Iodized salt and salt free seasoning packet. Charms candy, clorets mint chewing gum. Iced tea with lemon drink powder, Spiced cider, spiced apples, Peanut butter, crackers, Moist towelette, toilet paper, matches. There was also a heating pouch, but Aaron was busy getting it ready when I took this photo.

The Nutritional information on these puppies was amazing-

Not too bad, you know.. except for the SODIUM CONTENT. Holy crap.

So,I uess the way it works, is you put the heating packet in water, and then put the heating packet and the food packet into the big heavy duty pouch that the whole mess came in. When Aaron did this, we both were surprised with how hot that little thing got. Seriously? I tried to get a photo of the steam, but my camera didn't wanna play. it was amazing though. Our pasta was hot in a matter of minutes. We also warmed up the spiced apples, and then warmed up water for our apple cider.

While Aaron was preparing all this, I got down to business with the Peanut butter and the crackers-

If you haven't had MRE crackers before, just imagine like.. three slices of white bread, smashed and dried. That's what one of these crackers is like. They're really good, but they suck all the moisture out of your body. The peanut butter is really good too, but... well, you'll be licking the roof of your mouth for a good half an hour after eating it.

The heating phase of dinner was complete, and.. well..

Pouch time.

We figured we'd go authentic, and only use the tools that came with the meal to present the meal. Considering the only tool that came along with the mess was a spoon.. well, this is what you get-

Cheese tortellini with tomato sauce-

Spiced apples over spiced pound cake-

The entire meal, plus the lemon flavoured iced tea beverage that I prepared. Aaron made and then quickly consumed the spiced cider pouch after he had a bout with the peanut butter crackers. hehe..

Overall, I was pretty impressed. If it wasn't for the sodium content, I might be persuaded to eat this same thing again. The pasta was fairly fresh tasting, and not overly.. well it tasted good, and not really like canned pasta sauce, which is weird. The tortellini could have been improved upon, but I mean.. It came from a pouch, what should I expect?

The Spiced apples had some crunch on them, and didn't feel weird or have a funky aftertaste to them. The spiced pound cake was really good, if only a little dry. But then again.. It came in a pouch.

So, I guess my MRE experience wasn't too bad. If I was stuck in the desert, or in a forest, or somewhere where regular food wasn't available, I'd definately enjoy this. I didn't eat more than about a third of the whole thing, and I'm STUFFED. Sure, after I was done, I drank about a gallon of water, but that's what canteens are for, right?

I'm thinking I'll have to find a way to get my brother in law to donate more to us.. you know.. since I've depleted my emergency rations for the zombie apocalypse and all.

OH yeah, and I gotta say, great thinking, including a wad of toilet paper with the meal. Definately thinking ahead, the MRE packagers are. Definately on top of things.

Also, I'd just like to note, Its been about an hour since we ate this, and I don't even have heart burn. heh. simply amazing.

-A.