Caramel Apple Muffins

Have you ever taken a bite of something and known that you seriously must have that particular thing again? Like within the next minute if humanly possible??

Well I had that occasion twice yesterday!!
One was a cupcake from a fancy bakery.
It was hands down the best red velvet cake I have ever had cross my lips!
The icing was a light cream cheese perfection, and the cupcake was moist and fluffy and amazing!
It was a delightful gift from a neighbor and probably cost her close to four bucks!!
Oh, I am loved!

The other was a simple homemade muffin!

Don't let that description fool you though. I mean, there was no custom labeled box or delicate hand wrapped paper, just a simple muffin in a ziploc bag! Again, delivered with love!

I knew that this was a recipe I would be having, and one I would be sharing with you as soon as possible so, without further ado...

...Caramel Apple Muffins.
Those colorful underlined letters up above mean you can go there for a printable!

I started this recipe by combining 2 eggs and 2 cups of cane sugar in my trusty Kitchen-aid mixer!
The recipe says to cream these two things, and I did alright!!
I forgot about them for a bit, which made the eggs quite fluffy...that was a good thing in my estimation.
I think it made the muffins fluffier, with a yummy crispy top in the end product!
Add to that a teaspoon of vanilla and head over to chop some apples.

My first apple I spent a respectable amount of time peeling, seeding and chopping into semi delicate pieces.

I knew the smaller I could get those guys, the more likely they would just hide, hide away within the batter of the muffin.

Then I remembered that I have a fancy apple, peeler, corer, slicer from my old Pampered Chef days and whipped that puppy out to make quick work of the second apple.

I mean, duh....if you have a fancy kitchen tool that saves time and energy then you should use it.
This second apple took me a third of the time to cut and the pieces ended up roughly the same size when I was done chopping!!

In a separate bowl I then sifted 1 1/2 cups white wheat flour and 1 1/2 cups cake flour.
See, I was thinking...the original recipe that I was working from was for a cake. Cake flour goes in cakes, so voila...in it went to my...uhhhh muffins? Hey it works for me.
I thought it would give a nice accompaniment to the white wheat flour as well, without weighing it down!

The wheat flour adds a depth of flavor that I have come to crave in my baked goods!!

Of course you could use plain old all purpose flour for this...but why would ya?
Well, I suppose if you didn't happen to have anything but that on hand...then that might be a good reasonable argument for that case.

Oh boy, there I go getting all flour crazy on you and forgot to tell you the other dry ingredients.
1 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. cinnamon.
I upped the salt to 2 tsp. since I use sea salt and I also added 1/2 tsp allspice...for kicks, I am not sure that it made that much of a difference, but I liked the taste just fine!

Meanwhile, over at the toaster oven...I spread about a cup of pecans on a pan and put them in to cook for approximately 10 minutes at 350. Just to get them a little toasty!
Why I didn't simply put them in the oven which needed to be heated anyway is beyond me.

All I can say is...I am still taking pain medication and was distracted by my company and the rain and my whining dog, and the color of the muffin papers.
Next I took a chance on an idea and pulsed the cooled pecans in my mini food processor, til they looked like this.

Big enough not to be confused as another flour, but small enough to hide from picky children who think they don't like nuts in stuff. I ended up really enjoying this choice in the muffins, you make your pecan pieces however big or small that you need to!

Okay?

Okay!

Alrighty now back to our mixing bowl.
We have beaten the eggs, sugar, and vanilla and now we are going to add in the sifted dry ingredients.
After all of the dry is gently incorporated into the wet, add 3/4 cup oil.

At this point in the process you are going to run about the kitchen in despair because you will have a bowl that looks like a crumbly mess instead of a batter. It will freak you out and you will run back to the recipe to be sure there wasn't some mysterious ingredient that you did not happen to see.

Talk about distressing!!!
Have no fear my friends it will all come together.

Gather your wits about you and head back over to the bowl to fold in the apple chunks and pecans.
Don't you just enjoy my writing where I start off talking about me making the muffins, then switch to you doing it!!
I am no professional people, just here to pass on something new!

At some point in the stirring something magical happens and it becomes a thick chunky batter.
Scoop this delightful chunkiness into 20-24 lined muffin cups.

If you are tired and happen to have a brother in law about, then he will take to the job just fine!

We got 22 muffins from our efforts!

Place these in the center of your oven to bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.


As I waited for these to bake I was jotting down my recipe changes and texting with my friend who had emailed the recipe to me.

She had originally called me with the icing recipe, which I scribbled on the closest scrap of paper. The one with my watermark sketches!!
And that is my Ticonderoga pencil, a must!

Always do this scribbling of notes in the midst of preparing the recipe, and in pencil! That way you can remember and erase! Two signs of a good cook!

Alright, now on to that icing.
This is the part of the recipe that would have knocked my socks off had I been wearing any.
The original recipe calls for sugar, I used lite brown sugar, Rachel (aka the friend) had used dark brown in the sample she brought to me.
Trust me on this...use dark brown. The flavor is outta sight!!
But for our purposes today, my image shows 1 cup of lite brown sugar and 1 stick of butter.

I know light is spelled light, not lite...just so ya know.

Bring these two simple things together in a pan, add some heat and delicious things happen!
Bring it to a boil and let it bubble for around 2 minutes and don't for any reason try to take pictures on the manual setting of your camera while boiling and stirring hot caramel.
That would be quite a ludicrous thing to do.

Things get dropped and caramel gets splattered when that type of situation is set up.
So, just don't do it.
But do add 1/4 cup milk and bring the mixture back to a boil.
Remove it from the heat and let it cool a bit while you remove the muffins from the oven.

When things have cooled down a bit, add about 2 cups of powdered sugar to the warm caramel mixture. My mixer did the work for me here, and whipped that out in no time.
Try really hard at this point not to taste the icing.
Just don't do it.
If you do then you will be tempted to forget about those muffins and just eat this bowl of caramel joy.
Though I will say, the muffin is the perfect conduit for the icing.
This is an occasion when it is okay to put the warm icing on the slightly warm muffins.
Swirl it around on top, not getting too close to the edges cause it will do that melty drippy thing, which I am not opposed to, but it does make handing one to someone more difficult.
I pretty much just glopped the icing on these guys. It begins to harden fairly quickly, so don't get distracted!



I did make a pretty one just for you.

Scattering a pinch of those bitty pecans on top!

This has a chewy crunchy top, and a moist inside laden with apples that do in fact seem to melt into them.
Apparently not enough...my kids wondered what the "lumps" in there were.
These might be closer to big people treats than kiddie treats....which frankly just means more for me!!!
I promise not to go to the kitchen an only lick the icing off of the tops!
I hope you will give this homey recipe a try.
It is no bakery cupcake, but delightfully yummy it is!!!

See ya tomorrow.
Oh...btw, blogger was down for quite some time today which kept me from posting this when I wanted to.

And then it was wonky when it finally was up which allowed me to practically reload and rewrite most of the post despite my efforts not to.
If you have never used blogger then you will understand that as much as a non coffee drinker who is out of cream!

sunset

Hey,real quick before I jet off to the school for an activity for which I cannot recall the reason or occasion but know that my 4th grade child wants me to be there....
Here is a picture I took yesterday evening.

It was stunning, and truly did look just like this though the sky farther out and up was a lovely faded blue.

I will be back later today with my muffin post finally (which thanks to quick thinking is preserved on my computer, but not on blogger).

How it came to be.

I know there are some folks out there praying for me and I just want you to keep it up cause it is working!!!
I feel a definite improvement today!
I am not all the way to being back in the saddle, but think in another few days that may be the case.
Figuratively, of course!!!!!
That gives me a little boost.
It is not my nature to be down in the dumps, even a tiny bit, so I am glad to be on the upswing.

I have really wanted to feel half way decent when writing out my watermark story.
Mainly because I had another person make a huge investment in that project and wanted to give her appropriate props!!!

So here we go! I hope this isn't dreadfully boring to you, it is fun for me!

About two months ago my friend Rachel (You know the one I am talking about right; I have mentioned her several times) and I were working on a project together.
Okay truthfully, she was doing the work and I was just bossing her.
Don't be hating me! She has a computer program and the skills to run it, and I was the artistic adviser! It was my "job" to be bossy.
Let's face it, she is a left brainer and I am a right brainer.
Together we can do much!!

I mentioned to her that I had a concept idea for my watermark.
I felt confident that I could draw it out, but knew that I would need some help converting it to a digital image.
And please...I don't even begin to know how to make it see through!!!
I imagined a waterwheel, wood siding and the word waterhouse, and told her thus.
At least I think I did, it was a long time ago.
She assured me that all of those things were items she could convert to digital, and I filed that info away for later use.
I had no doubt that Rachel was the right person to work on this with...I have seen some of her other work and have always been impressed.

We are both busy moms with lots of other irons in the fire, so it was awhile before we got back together on this concept.
I finally sat down one Saturday and physically drew out what I had imagined in my mind, now minus the wheel, cause I just couldn't get it to work out right...mentally.

Please hold all comments, you jokers!!!

I took a photograph of said sketch and sent it along to Rachel.
She created a digital image from my sketch and sent it back to me.
Don't hate me Rachel, I am gonna put that image here.
It is not pretty folks, but shows how far the design progressed.


I do believe Rachel is the most patient person on the whole entire planet as she adjusted things to my liking.

That line is too square.
Those lines are too close.
I want cursive, but not fancy cursive.
The h is too tall, can you make it shorter?
The line just below the base is too thick, can you make it thinner?
The slant on the roof is too slanted, can you bring it down until it is just right?
Do the planks of the house look like prison bars, should they be thinner or rounded looking?
And on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on.
Every time I asked, she delivered!!!

I also want to point out that Rachel is kind of a froo-froo person.
She has a simple, classy elegant style that translates to so much of what she does.
A girly-girl who wears pearls really well.
I am not!
I am more of the understated down to earth type.
We vary greatly style wise, but this NEVER got in the way of our cooperative efforts.
She did not try to change the direction of what I wanted ever, only sought to make it more refined and as put together as possible.
I am so, so thankful for that!
What a really special quality she has there!

So, this is what we ended up with next.

I told her that it was very important to me to work in that little bit of a J curve at the far left edge of the house.
You know J for Jennifer!

Then Rachel went all crazy on me and added a waterwheel and water.
Truthfully, I hated it at first.
Yes, I know I said I wanted a waterwheel at first, but I had moved on from that.

It seemed awkward to the eye after looking at this planks and words design for so long.
But, I let it ruminate and began doing some sketching from her new concept and sent her another email photograph.

At this point I got the itch!
That little feeling of glee that let's you know you are on to something great!
Bits of endorphins start cursing through your body while all the pieces seem to start to come together.
Does this only happen during the artistic process or do other groups of people also feel this sensation?
Someone please back me up, I am not crazy here!!

The next thing that happened was that Rachel went to a Jimmy Buffet concert.
No really, this seemed to be the pivotal point in the process...well maybe that and the 500 emails from me saying I really really needed it!
I mean I did, but not enough for her to work on it after a concert late at night...when she is usually sleeping and has 2 children that depend on her in the mornings. I also found out later that she was out of coffee creamer that next morning, so this did turn out to be a major sacrifice on her part!!!
Out of coffee creamer people! That is serious stuff.
If you don't know what I am talking about then....
then...
then...
...well ya just don't.
When she got home, I assume she was too hyped up to sleep and put some time in on tweaking our latest round of adjustments.
This arrived to my inbox sometime after midnight.

I printed it out, and held it in my hand skipping about the house with it as my children looked at me like I had lost it...again!!!
I will say though that after shaking off the morning fuzz, my daughter took a look at it and immediately "got" what I was hoping for.
While Waterhouse is not my last name, it is derived from that word.
She remarked..."Oh I get it, that is like our name but longer!!"

Then she got that little grin on her face that I love so much and said, "Hey, wait a minute this has your letters too!"
YES!!!!
It worked!!!
You see, my initials are JDW!

Go ahead, scroll back up and check it out, you will see it too!
Pretty cool huh?
All a part of design and conquer!!!

Rachel also made a white version, a black and white version, and an all brown version!
Something to suit any type of picture I take!

Whoa, I feel so official!
Well, a watermark does not a photographer make...or so they say.
I don't know who says that but it is true.
I guess I said it huh? Ha ha!
What I mean is, I am gonna keep on working my skills and grow right into this watermark!!!

Learning

Boy, I hate to admit it, but I am still in recovery from my flying off the horse fiasco!
I really thought it would be something I would bounce back from quickly.

I still can't sit upright properly, which makes being at the computer (or driving) particularly troublesome.

I sit down to write and immediately get uncomfortable which makes me lose all desire for writing anything worthwhile.
I just want you to know that... mainly because my posts have been so short and lacking here lately.
It is my excuse!!
Hang in with me while I work through this, okay???

I can tell ya, Shelby is none to happy about missing out on her exercise.
And ya know what?
I think I am actually missing it too!

Well, seeing as how I spent quite a bit of yesterday feeling sorry for myself...while a bit deserved, a little too much of the day was used on that, today I decided to get out into the backyard for some therapy!!

I have been doing some reading in my down time and wanted to play with shutter speed and metering on my camera.

See, when you want to take a picture there is a little meter inside that tells you when the light is at a median level for that particular shot.
Sometimes you don't want to trust the metering for what you are shooting.
Sometimes in order to get the effect you want, you just have to tell the camera, "You are not the boss of me!"
Sometimes you may just take a bunch of pictures and fail, but that is okay because the journey is part of the process.


Luckily, I have a program which helps to work out some of the mistakes!

Same picture as above...with some digital help!


Bad!

Part of the problem with shooting into the sun is that it kinda blinds you and you can't really see if the camera is focused on what you want it to be focused on!!
Ha hah ahahahhahhhahhhaaaha!

Decent.

I "metered" off of the tree branch to get the measurement right, then moved over to take this shot!
It was good learning time.
Then I had to get up off of the ground.
Uggghhhh!

My other tinkering today had to do with ISO and shutter speed.
I wanted to take 2 types of pictures of my waterfall.
One with the water moving, one with it captured as a still.

Bam!!!! Camera adjusted and mission accomplished.




I am not saying these shots are perfect or medal worthy, just that I did what I set out to do!
Learning and growing, that is me!
I will now go downstairs and lay down awhile, this has worn me out!

Just a little drama there for you, I am actually gonna go make some lunch and relax while watching a movie.
See ya tomorrow.

More Rocks!

All I got for Mother's Day from my oldest child was a couple of rocks!!!




See the large red one and the very pocked green one?
Yeah, those are my two new ones.
Specially chosen just for me and carried all the way back from Arkansas.

"Mom, I brought you some rocks" he called happily as he ran down the stairs carrying the treasures in his hands.
He dashed into my room in blur of arms and legs, just like when he was five.

"Just look at this one, it is green!"
He knows this is my favorite color so he spoke the word with emphasis and wonder!
"And check this one out. One side is mostly brown, but the other side is this great red color."

I took them into my hands... as I have so many others and gave them the full attention they deserved, noticing every single detail about them...as he was hoping I would.

Sigh...


...I am loved!

It is Mother's Day, so I am taking the day off!!!

Happy Mother's Day to you!

See ya, tomorrow!