Day One of BLOGMAS- Where Have I been? Spilling the tea..

HIIIII Everyone. I am back.

I just finished my MASTERS program, while working full-time with four children one being only 2 years old. It was a challenge, but now I have more free time. I've been doing yoga and meditation to rid myself of all the extra stress and negativity.

If you don't know, I now live in the United States and I am no longer married. This is a whole new world I've been adjusting to for the last three years. You'd think I'd have it down by now, but I still learn everything the hard way. I believe I learn things the hard way in order to help others in a  empathatic, non-judgemntal, caring way. I find myself to be very wise although I also feel very naive. Oh well.

I've tried several times to create a new blog, but I just couldn't. I wanted to leave the past in the past, but the past is what has made me the woman I am today. The woman I was then is much different than the woman I am now.

I am still totally a foodie, a beauty junkie, traveler, and lover of photography. It's all about finding time and saving enough money. All these things I will continue to share along with my family and other aspects of being a working mom doing the damn thing. There are many things that makes my situation quite unique that I will not elaborate on right now. However, when I hear or read about women in a similar situation as mine, I get so giddy- haha. But we are so damn busy to even spark up a proper greeting or at least I am. I am too busy for anything especially with older kids getting into everything outside the home and a baby who gets into everything inside the home.

So why did I decide to do BLOGMAS? Well, I am kind of a youtube junkie and I love when my favorite vloggers do vlogmas. It's where they vlog everyday. I know some people find it trivial to follow "regular" people, however, I love it because I am nosy and look for inspiration everywhere haha. I feel like blogmas is a way to get back to blogging, but also hopefully inspire that mom who doesn't think she is doing enough- which is me almost 100% of the time 65% of the time hehe.


Day 1 was a day at home. I work all week so I enjoy my rest. My son had a soccer day that my boyfriend who is also his coach took him to. I stayed home and did my yoga as well as meditated, played with the babies.

 I also decided to dust some old cookbooks off to use. My kids ask me why I don't use them anymore. Well it’s sad, but I thought I didn’t  need them and the internet is so much easier when I need to tweak a recipe or find one quickly. After going through them I didn’t realize how much I missed them! So this week, I am cooking straight from the books.  I did my meal plan and as I work 40 hours plus over time- which is an additional 10-20 hours a week- so the more simple the better.

This is the very first cookbook I bought over a decade ago. I look at it now and when they say basic it's truly basic haha. But the recipes are easily tweakable and we all enjoyed it then, so why be boujee about it now haha.


Also we haven't done any decorating for Christmas yet, but Elf Skywalker has decided to pay a visit today.

The kids were cautiously excited. The baby just wants the candy haha.

I also to bring some christmas cheer in this home, I decided to bake cookies every weekend and everyday during the 12 days of Christmas. So that may mean making some dough in advance haha.

I made Ina Garten's Pecan Sandies. I also added Hershey kisses to some because.....why not?

The kids and the elf enjoyed them.

Thank you for reading and see you all here tomorrow <3 p="">

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!

Oatmeal Scotchies: Baking After Dark- Captured!

Last night I tried out a new cookie recipe called Oatmeal Scotchies. My husband bought some butterscotch chips at the commissary, and I did not know what to do with them. Of course cookies, frosting, brownies, cheesecake and cake popped in my head- haha! So with half the bag, I tried cookies, an easy fix. Recipe is from Nestle Tollhouse Cookies Recipes.

Baking at night and during the nap time is the best time for a mother of 3 children under 4 to do.....anything and this recipe is relatively easy. The recipe needs some tweaking, but the family approves! Here's the recipe as is, though I halved it as no family needs 48 cookies in their home! Following are some photos from a bored mommy baker/wannabe photographer: 

Oatmeal Scotchies

Ingredients

·         1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

·         1 teaspoon baking soda

·         1/2 teaspoon salt

·         1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·         1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened

·         3/4 cup granulated sugar

·         3/4 cup packed brown sugar

·         2 large eggs

·         1 teaspoon vanilla extract or grated peel of 1 orange

·         3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats

·         1 2/3 cups  Butterscotch Flavored Morsels

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 375° F. 

COMBINE flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats and morsels. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
BAKE for 7 to 8 minutes for chewy cookies or 9 to 10 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. 

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