While visiting my parents recently, I wanted to make a muffin for breakfast that wouldn’t require any “special” ingredients. I thought for a minute, then these beauties came to my mind…French Breakfast Puffs. They require the basics – flour, butter, eggs, milk and spices. The muffin is so fluffy and delicious and it is encased in a crunchy, buttery, cinnamon/sugar coating. These have been a favorite in our family for years! Here’s the simple recipe:
French Breakfast Puffs
1 1/2 C flour 3/4 C sugar 2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp nutmeg 1/2 C milk 1 egg, beaten 1/3 C butter, melted
Topping 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 C sugar 1/3 C butter, melted
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Add milk, beaten egg, and 1/3 cup melted butter. Mix well. Fill greased muffin tins 2/3 full and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. While the puffs are baking, mix the cinnamon, sugar in a shallow dish. Place the melted butter in another shallow dish. Remove the muffins from the pan while still hot; dip in melted butter, then mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Makes 1 dozen
These are heaven! What a delicious way to start the day!
Do you have a “go-to” muffin you make? If not, these are a great choice!
I love to pick up a book or magazine that has some really good helpful ideas in it that simplify my life. I thought I’d share some of my recent finds with you here. Feel free to share your good ideas; I’d love to hear your helpful hints!
Use an embroidery box or a tackle box for your small pieces of jewelry. If you don’t use it at home, this is a great way to pack jewelry for vacation!
Place all your shoes in clear shoe boxes rather than shoe racks. They’re shorter and trimmer than standard shoe boxes and stack nicely on the closet shelf. Because they’re in clear boxes they’re easy to find.
Put Clear plastic drawers in your closet to store socks and belts.
Use a magnetic clip to hold your recipe while you’re cooking. Stick the clip to the stove hood and you’ll be able to see the recipe easily.
Wrap a rubber band or two around the ends of a hanger to keep your camisoles and sleeveless tops from sliding off the hanger and into the floor.
Pop your medication into a contact case for a handy pill box. This tip is especially good for men who don’t want a “cute” little pill box! My husband keeps a contact case in his pants pocket with his Veritgo meds and a couple Advil.
When you get to the bottom of your favorite tube of lipstick, dig out the remains with a Popsicle stick and put it into a clean contact case. Presto! Lip gloss is now at your finger tips!
When you’re in the middle of a painting project and it’s time to quit, instead of washing all the paint off your brushes and rollers, simply wrap them in plastic wrap ’til you’re ready to paint later that day or even the next day. This way you’ll only have to clean up the messy brushes once!
Keep cilantro fresh by cutting off the bottom of the stems and placing the cilantro in a cup with enough water to cover the stems. Place the cup in the fridge. The cilantro will stay fresh for a couple of weeks.
Magic Erasers are great for more than just crayons on the wall! They clean the outside of appliances super well! That grimy covering that can make toasters or microwaves “sticky” is wiped away easily!
Lastly, this simple idea came to me recently when I was cooking hot dogs for lunch on the stove top. Spray the hot dog buns with cooking spray, then gently open them just enough to hang them on the sides of a rounded skillet. Brown on one side, then turn them and brown the other side while the hot dogs cook! Nice, crispy buns will be ready when your hot dog is!
Last week I mentioned our wonderful 40 anniversary celebration our daughters gave us. Our family celebrations usually always include some GREAT food. This party was no exception! After lunch we went to our daughter’s home for cake! This was a Strawberry Layer Cake from Taste of the South. I’m sharing the recipe with you today because it was fabulous, and because strawberry season is upon us! If you need a reason, this is the perfect one to buy strawberries!
Strawberry Layer Cake
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
4 cups sliced fresh strawberries, divided
½ cup strawberry preserves
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Strawberry Frosting (recipe follows)
4 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar, divided
Garnish: fresh strawberries
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°. Spray 2 (8-inch) round, tall-sided cake pans with baking spray with flour; line bottom of pans with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, beat butter and granulated sugar with a mixer at medium speed until fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, stopping to scrape sides of bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating just until combined after each addition. Beat in 2 cups strawberries, preserves, and vanilla. Divide batter between prepared pans.
Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and let cool completely on wire racks. Spread about 1½ cups Strawberry Frosting onto one cake layer. Place about 1 cup Strawberry Frosting in a piping bag, and cut tip to create a dime-size opening. Pipe a border around edge of cake layer. Sprinkle frosting with 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar. Layer remaining 2 cups strawberries slices in center of frosting; sprinkle again with remaining 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar. Top with second cake layer. Spread remaining Strawberry Frosting on top and sides of cake. Garnish with strawberries, if desired.
Strawberry Frosting Makes about 4 cups Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 pounds confectioners’ sugar
5 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
½ cup strawberry preserves or jam
Instructions
In a large bowl, beat butter with a mixer at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add confectioners’ sugar alternately with cream, beating until combined. Increase mixer speed to high. Add preserves, and beat for 1 minute.
This made a wonderful celebration cake, but you don’t need to wait for a special occasion to make it – especially if you love strawberries!
Last weekend our sweet daughters planned the most lovely early 40th anniversary celebration for my husband and me! Their gift to us was a family photo session with some great photographers from our area.
Plan A was to go to a park in our area, but the day turned out very wet. Enter Plan B! We used our newly decorated family room’s lovely blue wall as our backdrop! It ended up being really great (God’s interruptions always are!). I’ll share just a few of my favorite photos from the day.
Our twin grandsons were so cooperative and full of smiles!
I couldn’t ask for sweeter daughters. They are so dear to me.
This next photo is from our wedding day, June 20, 1981!
Forty years ago! And now…
Current!
Lots of things have changed, but Dale’s fun-loving spirit is not one of them!
After the family poses were all taken, the photographers invited each couple to come outside and stand in the rain under their giant umbrella for some really great rainy day shots! I love this one of Paul and Whitney!
And Alli and Andrew…
Look at the rain droplets!
Here are the “Oldie-weds!”
After a delicious lunch at Carrabba’s, we went to Alli and Andrew’s for dessert, consisting of a scrumptious Strawberry Cake. Whitney decorated for the party in her typical flare. It was so much fun and so pretty!
We can hardly believe we are staring 40 years in the face, but we are so thankful. God has been faithful, spite our old sin natures and imperfect love, He has guided us, provided for us and grown us. We pray that the years we have remaining will find us pointing others to the glorious Gospel where Jesus demonstrated the perfect sacrificial love, forgiveness, mercy, kindness, grace, and submission.
My pantry is an essential part of my kitchen. Kind of like my own little “store,” it’s where all of the staples are safely tucked away. I’m in that closet space many times every single day!
We’ve lived in our current home for 7.5 years and this is my first time to have a decent size pantry. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to maintain it and keep it in order, so in an effort to organize it, I got baskets, bins and jars and got things in shape four years ago. I thought I’d do a little check-in today to give you a report on how it’s going.
First off, I still LOVE my chalkboard vinyl that I got at Hobby Lobby. It allows my kitchen reflect the season. I did the spring pick-up truck last week when I added the spring vignettes to my downstairs. If you have a white closet pantry door, you should try adding this vinyl chalkboard. You could use it for an ongoing menu board, shopping list or for drawing or writing things like Bible verses, sayings or quotes!
This side of my pantry gets used a lot! From the Olive oil, cooking spray, and canned goods, it holds the things I use the most. I love that my oils and vanilla are in baskets that slide out. It makes it super easy to pull it out and grab what I need. I have a couple of my favorite cookbooks behind the brown sugar cannister on the left side and my aprons are on hooks to the far left. That works great!
The lazy Susans are perfect for my canned goods. It’s easy to turn and see what’s available. On the top shelf are the pots and pans I don’t use that often, as well as some of my home canned fruits and vegetables. I have some of those things “hidden” by the framed recipe for bread, written in the handwriting of my dear friend, Hope, who is now in heaven. It’s a sweet reminder of her giving heart.
I don’t love the way these shelves look, but boxes of crackers, pastas and jars of condiments are all a little taller than my containers. These came from the Dollar Tree and have been okay, but I think I’ll be looking for deeper baskets in the near future.
Above that shelf are two baskets with “extras.” They contain tea for sweet tea, Chex mix, crackers, Syran wrap and the like. I think this is the kind of material I’ll get for to replace the white Dollar Tree containers.
I LOVE keeping my pantry stocked so it’s easy to pull a meal together. I try to use what I have on hand, then restock as I empty my shelves. Canned tomatoes, pasta sauce, pastas, dry beans, and baking ingredients like chocolate chips, sugars, coconut and nuts are all sitting and waiting to be stirred into my favorite recipes. My girls tease me and say if there’s ever a food shortage, they’re coming to my house! Live and learn, right?
After my little survey, I’m going to be looking for new baskets, but other than that, my system is working well. I say that because as Whitney, one of the most organized people I know, says that if your organization makes it difficult to use your things, then it’s not well organized!
How about you? Do you need to take inventory of your pantry space? Do you need bins, jars or baskets to keep like things together? Is your space working well and making it easy to work in the kitchen? Even if your pantry is a cupboard or one shelf in a closet, it’s important to keep it organized so you know what you have, you don’t over-purchase and you’re more effective because of your organization. Also, it will make you smile every time you open it up! Well, maybe you’ll be smiling at the chocolate chips you see, but you will be smiling!
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