Fun Beauty Tag!

Today I am just going to do a fun Beauty tag that I found via Google. I am a beauty junkie so this should be fun. I tag anyone who reads! If you do it, please let me know in the comments so I can read and comment on your answers!




1. EEK! You’ve got five minutes to do your makeup for a date. What’s your minimum?
Fill in my eyebrows. Even my skin tone with a bit of concealer and set with powder, wear a pop of color on my lips and go super neutral with the eyes with brown shadows and a cat eye with some kick ass mascara.

2. Pick a trend—crazy cat eyeliner, super hot pink blush, or feathered false lashes?
Feathered eyelashes because they're so fun!
3. If you had to either give up all makeup for two months or give up your skincare for a week, which would you pick?
Probably make-up for two months. That would be a long long week without washing/moisturizing. 

4. What beauty products are always in your purse?
Lipstick/gloss.
5. Are there any beauty products that you keep coming back to throughout the years?
I go back and forth with Shea Moisture Products. I prefer their body line to their hair line. 

6. Smokey eyes or red lips?
Red Lips! A gorgeous matte lip and even skin tone.

7. Lipstick or lip gloss?
Matte lip stick.

8. Are there any products that you never expected to like but ended up loving?
Bronzer. I thought you wouldn't be able to see it on my skin tone, however it's quite incredible and gives me a great glow. Though I live on a tropical island, it get chilly here and I've become quite pale this winter. So the bronzer has brought some life to my face. I use Physician's Formula Dark. However in the summer, it's pretty useless lol.

How to Make English Muffins

Egg McMuffin. Pizza McMuffin. Eggs Benedict…McMuffin…?



I love English Muffins, though I prefer English Muffins slightly toasted, with bacon or sausage with good ol' American cheese and a little grape jelly. Mmm Mmm.  How do you like your English Muffins?



Once you make homemade, you'll never buy store bought again. I had every ingredient on hand, which was good as I decided to make this pretty last minute. I wanted to keep my promise that I will share a recipe post once a week.



Even though I have loads of homework to do. That's OK though! I love you guys. You guys have stuck by me for 4 YEARS. Well a lot of you have. That's crazy. So let's celebrate with MUFFINS!

Please check out the tips at the end of the recipe instructions!

This recipe is from the lovely Laura Vitale of www.laurainthekitchen.com. She has a video and instructions on her website if you love videos!

Laura Vitale's recipe for English Muffins

Makes 18 muffins
Ingredients:
2 cups of Whole Milk, scalded (i used 2% as it was all I had)

5 cups of Bread Flour
1 Egg
2 Tbsp of Unsalted Butter, melted
2 Tbsp of Vegetable Shortening, melted
2 ½ Tbsp of sugar
1 ½ tsp of Salt
1 tsp of Baking Soda
1 Envelope of Active Dry Yeast, (2 ¼ tsp) plus 1 tsp of sugar
Cornmeal

1) In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, sprinkle the yeast and 1 tsp of sugar over the milk and allow it to sit and foam for a few minutes. Add the shortening, butter and egg to the yeast mixture and whisk together to combine. I used 4 tablespoons of butter. However you don't need to use butter or shortening, I forgot both the first time I made this and they turned out very well and less fat!

2) In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook, add the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and milk mixture. If you do not own a stand mixer just add the flour mixture to the milk mixture.

3) Mix the dough on low until the flour is incorporated, turn the speed up to medium and knead for 3 to 4 minutes or until the dough is smooth but still sticky.

4) Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, place it in a warm place and allow it to rise for about 2 hours.

5) Dump the dough on a floured surface, knead it together and cut it into 18 equal pieces (if you like smaller English muffins, cut them into 22 equal pieces). Roll each piece into a ball, press them down with your hand to form a patty and place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet that has been sprinkled with cornmeal. Sprinkle the top of your patties with a little more cornmeal, cover them with a kitchen towel or  spray the boules with cooking spray (to prevent sticking) and put plastic wrap over boules, and let them rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

6) Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

7) Preheat a griddle pan or a skillet to medium heat, gently lift each round with a spatula, place it on the hot griddle and let them cook for about 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown on both sides (do them in batches). Place them back on the baking sheet, then place them in the oven for 10 minutes.

Allow them to cool a bit before serving. Then using a fork, Laura suggests to prick muffins opened with a fork to get extra nook and crannies. 

Some tips!
In my opinion, the key to a kick ass muffin is the size (besides taste of course). If you have a kitchen scale, make sure each boule (ball) of dough is about 2.5-3.0 ounces. If you do not own a kitchen scale, please make sure the ball fits in the palm of your hand at least. If this helps I made 18. So make 18 equal boules. Also, I was hoping this would be vegan for my non meat-dairy friends, but freaking forgot this recipe calls for milk. I think this recipe will work if you substitute a cup of warm water and a cup of soy milk a room temperature for milk. And the first time I made this recipe I used neither butter or vegetable shortening (rarely have that on hand anyway) and it still worked! And lastly these muffins keeps well in the freezer!!!! So the night before just thaw as many as you want to use for the next day and you have muffins for your family. I like to cook a lot of sausage patties to make it a bit more rounded.

ENJOY!

#ThrowbackThursday! Children Grow Up So FAST!

Hi Everyone it's Thursday here so here are some pictures of my little ones when they were really little. I hold on to them so much I don't want to think of the day when they won't need me as much. Them showing independence is great and shows they're developing well, however it still makes me a little sad. My three promises that they will never leave the nest. I think my husband and I will be like the Cosbys where they want their  grown kids out, but they always welcomed them back if they needed somewhere to live for a week or year…but I think I will secretly happy about it :-) 

Question: How do you cherish every moment? I try to do little fun stuff with them. Do things as a family A LOT so they know the importance of family. Sometimes I take some time alone and think about what I love about them all and individually. They really made my life so much better!

My daughter as a newborn

My oldest as a newborn

My daughter is a day old

My youngest as a newborn

As you can tell I couldn't choose just one!!!!! 

My Blog!

I can not count the number of times I've made a post like this. But here we go!

I think I've explained before that the direction I'd like to take with this blog is to turn it into an everything blog as it was before. So I'm back at it. I have so many ideas running through my mind.

I also would love to blog because, I need to work on my writing. I haven't taken a writing class since I was in college a decade ago! YES! A DECADE ago! I can say that!

A lot of you follow me on instagram and I sometimes share on my Facebook page. I just hate to bother you all with my randomness, but you guys wouldn't follow me if you didn't like me. If any of you have a page or blog you'd like me to follow, PLEASE let me know. I would love to follow like, love whatever endeavors you're looking to get out there!

I get surprised when I read my blog statistics. The things people are interested in is so fascinating and I am very happy they found my blog! I need to update more often so they will stay around!

Well, for the rest of month from now on, I'd like to try a different daily theme.

Starting tomorrow I will do:
 #throwbackthursdays: pictures from the past

 #foodiefridays: where I will write recipes or write a dish I really can not get enough of

#sillysaturdays: In my household there is always something going on! Or blog tags!

#productjunkiesundays: where I share my favorite hair products

#makeupmondays: where I share my favorite makeup of the previous week

#talkingtuesdays: gratitude and attitude

#wordlesswednesdays: Just pictures of the day or from the week

And of course if (it will be difficult) travel I will share pictures and/or vlogs!


Thank you all for sticking around so long!  See you all tomorrow!!!