Baking with Erin and Rory

Corn Dog Muffins

I made these yesterday, from a recipe I found on AllRecipes. I increased the cheese and made them as mini muffins by slicing the Tofu Pups into chunky disks. I also used a whole grain cornbread mix from Arrowhead Mills. They were okay; I imagine they would have been tastier if I had gone the less healthy route and used something along the lines of a more commercial, mainstream cornbread mix. I was just hoping that Erin would love them, of course. She also thought they were okay but really just wanted to crack them open and eat the Tofu pup piece on the inside. Seemed a bit of a waste of an otherwise decent corn muffin. Still, I like the idea. I'm on the lookout for a good corn muffin for her lunches. I'd prefer it to be vegan. I tried this route first to see if perhaps I had stumbled on a winning combination.

Rory loved the muffin part, btw.

In other news, Erin did try a piece of Tangerine Tofu last night and declared it "good"! She also grabbed a few handfuls of quinoa salad when I set it on the table. Then it was back to digging out hot dog pieces from the muffins and demanding a bite of dinner coop's "ice cream" - frozen fruit and soy yogurt.

Corn Dog Muffins

Note: based on the comments on this recipe, you may omit the sugar if the mix you purchase already contains sweetener. Mine did not but I used cane sugar and just under 2 T. Mine were not very sweet at all and probably could have stood a full 2 T of brown sugar.

Ingredients

* 2 (8.5 ounce) packages cornbread mix
* 2 tablespoons brown sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 1/2 cups milk
* 1 cup grated Cheddar cheese
* 9 hot dogs, cut in half (I used Tofu Pups)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease muffin tins.

2. Stir together the cornbread mix and the brown sugar in a large bowl. Whisk the eggs and milk in a small bowl until smooth. Fold the eggs and cheese into the dry mixture until moistened. Spoon mixture into muffin tins until 2/3 full. Add 1 hot dog half to each muffin.

3. Bake in a preheated oven 14 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown.

Spring Break! (Plus Cupcake #4!)

What a whirlwind week we had! Suffice it to say, I was more exhausted at the end of each day than I have been in a long, long time. But I think the girls had fun and mostly, the weather was beautiful. We had one rainy day during the week and then it turned cold Saturday but every other day was beautiful and we spent a lot of time in the yard.

We got sand for the sand table. Here, Rory checks it out.

Her walking skills took a giant leap forward during the week, she now walks the length of the living room and the hall and has begun to maneuver around furniture and other obstacles. She has also taken to climbing on top of things and standing up. Quite scary!

Erin and I did find time to bake cupcakes one day. We made the Simple Vanilla and Agave Nectar Cupcakes from VCTOTW. (Cupcake #4 from the book for us)

Here Erin has inserted the liners:

And here she is checking on them in the oven:

They came out beautiful, light and golden brown!

I really liked the flavor of these. I used almond milk instead of soy b/c it's all I had on hand and it worked really well in this simple recipe.

Though we were a day late, we frosted them green for Saint Paddy's day, using a simple tinted confectioner's sugar icing.

Erin frosted her own.

We took these on a playdate and also shared them with visiting friends during the weekend. Yum!

Erin and I also took a mommy/daughter morning to go hiking at Mayfield Park. Here she checks out the peacocks at the main house.

After, we had lunch at Hula Hut.

Later, we hooked back up with baby sister who was pleased to see us and have snack. Check out the hair that Erin styled with hand sanitizer and dog water. Too cool for words.

On Saturday, my BFF Christiana came to visit and we made her a special cake, which looked a lot prettier than it tasted actually b/c I think we left it in the oven too long. I followed the instructions but it came out a little too dry; I will try the recipe again in the future b/c it had good flavor and will see if I can get it to come out more moist. We iced it with a yummy fudge frosting.

It's a wee bit lopsided but it was my first attempt at a layer cake. I'll get better.

We also gardened and played and took wagon rides and danced and went out to eat and dug in the dirt a lot. And, we ate lots of yummy vegan Irish food from our dinner co-op. We also had our first salad from the garden, which is looking beautimous. Though, Erin's "salad" was mostly ranch dressing.

Hope everyone had a great week and and a great first day of spring! Hooray! So glad the warm weather is finally here.

update on garden

The garden is going strong, though we lost one lettuce (boo) and our cilantro looks less than lively. I may have to get a few replacement plants this weekend.

As you can see, I clearly suck at taking pics for the site (hopefully I'll get better). I also am not very good at mowing. hee.

We started stringing some lights in the backyard on Wednesday and David and I have been enjoying relaxing on the patio after the kids go to bed. We plan to finish the light stringing this weekend. I am also hoping to mow. Little by little, we'll get the backyard we wanted. I envision a table and chairs for outdoor dining by the summer (when we can enjoy the bounty of our little garden).

In baking news, I got very excited last night while perusing the Babycakes cookbook for a gluten-free recipe rec for a friend. Some of these recipes really look divine. We'll continue plowing through Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, but man, Babycakes is a serious temptress to that project.

I also want to make these, especially b/c they are a little healthier than cupcakes.

I don't know if we'll get either cupcakes or pretzels baked this weekend due to a birthday party, a book fair and an embroidery class for me, but we'll get to them as soon as we can!