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i am grateful for a daughter who wakes me with kisses every morning, and brings me beautiful treasures (like this one!) every afternoon..she has taught me what it means to truly love someone, and my life will never be the same...
i am going to take a break from the internet for a while, so i wish you all a wonderful holiday and a rest-filled weekend!....i will be back on monday, and will post five days worth of photos then.
since i didn't have to be at work until 9am today (and zoe still gets up before dawn), i decided to make some pre-thanksgiving muffins for the folks at the office..yesterday, the wonderful heather smith jones posted this recipe on her blog, and it sounded almost -perfect-...i decided to substitute dried cranberries for the raisins and/or pecans, and to top them off with a sprinkle of almond brickle before baking.
so, here is the modified version of heather's wonderful recipe:
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 egg
- 1 cup canned pumpkin (you can be fancy and use whole pumpkin and a food processor..but it was 6am, and i don't do fancy at 6am.)
- 1 3/4 cup flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 3/4 cup dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup almond brickle
combine brown sugar, butter, and molasses; beat well. add egg & pumpkin, beating until smooth. stir together the dry ingredients and add to the pumpkin mixture. stir just until moistened. fill lightly greased muffin pans, a little over half-full. (this made exactly twenty-one muffins...if i had only filled the cups half-full, i could have probably made a full two dozen.) sprinkle almond brickle over the top of the batter before baking in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes (or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean). remove from oven, let cool for one minute before removing muffins from pan.
once i got to the office, i warmed them up in our little convection oven for about two minutes, with a spot of butter....sooooooo good.
(and, on a side note---next time i plan on taking a bunch of pictures of my hands, i will try to not have ugly chipped nail polish..heh.)
should i make this..or these..?
this month's featured blog in the land of etsy bloggers is storybeader. deb (the face behind the name), creates super-pretty treasures like this jade necklace:each piece is lovingly made, and comes with an original haiku!
take a second to see what else is in her wonderful shop, and check out the blog, too!
"dwell not upon thy weariness, thy strength shall be according to the measure of thy desire."
--arab proverb.
self portrait challenge."there are two kinds of light--the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures."
--james thurber.
s t i l l:body.
...not double bergamot, though...
s t i l l:body
"every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures."
--henry ward beecher.
happy birthday, mama ruth!
i am better
than this job.
shane would say that is an extreme understatement,
but i don't know if i would go that far.
still....
self portrait challenge.
"sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy."
--thich nhat hanh.
...thanks, paco.
to the countless men and women who have served and defended this country...
thank you.
i have this recurring nightmare
where i am fired from my job
and forced to return to the
mcdonald's
i worked at in high school..
i am
-that girl-.
"love is not blind- it sees more, not less. but because it sees more, it is willing to see less.."
--rabbi julius gordon.
happy guy fawkes night!
i did.
did -you-..??
if so, go celebrate with free coffee at starbucks and donuts at krispy kreme.
whatever.
today begins national novel writing month.
fifty-thousand-words seems like a -lot-.
my butterfly/ballerina/princess
loves me
enough
to bring me cotton candy
as big as her head.