Lemon Blueberry Muffins Courtesy of Becky Homecki and The Little Chefs

I promise, they washed their hands. And they only licked the spoons AFTER I put the goods in the oven.

My mom makes these...I just tried to find a recipe that sounded good and had all the ingredients I already had on hand. And voila.....

Lemon Blueberry Muffins (courtesy of For The Love of Cooking Blog) :
· 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
· 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
· 2 teaspoons baking powder
· 3/4 teaspoon salt
· 1 cup of frozen blueberries, plus a few extra for the top of each muffin ( I used fresh ones)
· 2 large eggs
· 1/2 cup milk
· 1/4 cup vegetable oil
· Finely grated zest of 2 small lemons
· 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
· 2 packets of raw cane sugar, for the top of each muffin
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat a muffin tray with baking spray then set aside. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in the blueberries. In another bowl, whisk the eggs with the milk, oil, lemon zest and the lemon juice. Using a rubber spatula, fold the egg mixture into the flour mixture until blended; do not over mix. Spoon the batter into the muffin tray then top with additional blueberries and sprinkle raw sugar on each muffin.

Coworker factor.....all gone and I earned the nickname--Becky Homecki...with even any prompting.

Bad person

I will be honest with you.....for a few years I had this negative/wierd view of scrapbooking. It all stems from two things.

1) from an interview that Josh and I heard on NPR of this mom that was completely obsessed with scrapbooking. She would purposely get her child involved in all these wierd events and put her in all these expensive outfits so that she would have something to scrapbook about. Then to top it off she was spending like thousands a month on scrapbooking supplies and her marriage was falling apart.

2) I had this old coworker years and years ago that was a part of this new scrapbooking wave. She was actually hosting scrapbooking parties when it first started (she is probably a millionaire now). Anyways, she was also so crazy and obsessive about it but in her personal life she was a mean angry person and so I had a hard time understanding why she would want to be so fake to make all her scrapbooks seem as those she had this perfect happy life. When in reality, she was very miserable.

Which brings me to current day where I admit...I don't know how to scrapbook and am kind of interested in doing it on a small scale. A few weeks ago we went to this graduation party for a babysitter we use and her grandma made her the most amazing scrapbook. She went from pictures of her mom pregnant to current day and then included a family tree so that she cold always carry it wherever she went. I like that and it was beautiful and not so overdone.

I have TONS of pictures and I guess I could put them just in albums, but I think it might be fun to try and doll them up all AMY TANGERINE style.

How do I get started? Did you take a class? I have some stamps and markers and paper here from my attempt to make cards.

In dedication to my mom..baking/sewing extordinaire

Hi, so I started the Faux Martha blog so I could talk about the random goings-on of non-practical things like bargain shopping, politics, parenting and more....and sadly, I just have not been able to give it the attention it deserves. Faux Martha will rise from the ashes some day, but in the meantime, I am going to statisfy my over-complusive personality and start a new blog about home economics. Economics sort of freaks me out so I am just going to call it Home-Ec.

Here is what Wiki says: Home Economics is the profession and field of study that deals with the economics and management of the home and community.[1] Home economics is a field of formal study including such topics as consumer education, institutional management, interior design, home furnishing, cleaning, handicrafts, sewing, clothing and textiles, cooking, nutrition, food preservation, hygiene, child development, and family relationships. It prepares students for homemaking or professional careers

The blog may be a little light on hygiene or institutional management (is that referring to institutions--like psych ward institutions? odd)---but we will definitely have crafts and cooking and child development and family relationships (cleaning, what is cleaning?)

I am starting this blog because I like to bake and I aspire to be crafty....let's just say I have tons of ideas, actually seeing them to fruition has been my problem. I am also hoping my mom can contribute some ideas (hint hint MOM!) or for that matter....if anyone wants to contribute anything of "home-ec" slant...by all means..sock it to me.

And as I final note, I have figured out a ratings system for whether something was a tasty treat or not.

It will be referred to as the COWORKER FACTOR. I will make treat A and feed it to coworkers B so that Chef C doesn't get too fat and if the plate is empty by 2:00 (A+B+C)....that equates to good recipe.

FYI...and if a recipe asks for butter or margarine...yer getting BUTTER....hello....butter = cows, margarine = oil refinery (or at least in my head that is what I picture).

Recipe #1--RHUBARB BARS (rhubarb courtesy of Rose Hill).....

RECIPE:
Rhubarb Bars
Ingredients:
1 cup all-pupose flour
1/3 cup slfted powdered sugar (or confectioners sugar)
1/3 cup butter or margarine

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 slightly beaten eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups finely chopped fresh or frozen rhubarb

Procedure:
In a mixing bowl, combine the 1 cup flour and the powdered sugar. Cut in butter or margarine till mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Pat the crumb mixture into the bottom of an llx7x1 1/2-inch or 9x9x2-inch baking pan. Bake in a 350 BA oven for 12 minutes. In the mixing bowl, beat together sugar, 1/4 cup flour, eggs and vanilla. Stir in rhubarb. Pour over warm crust in baking pan. Return to oven and bake for 35 minutes more or till done. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack. Serve warm or cool. Store in the refrigerator. Makes 16 servings.

The end result:

Coworker Factor: All gone=good recipe.

And now for some crafts. Let me talk to you about Emily Falconbridge, the dreadheaded goddess of crafts. I have been admiring her from afar (aka, I read her blog) and she is just so dang hip. Well, today she wrote this great article on how to resurrect your kids clothes....check it out.

A little dirty secret--I am a total and utter bargain shopping addict. That is different then a shopping addict. I like to get a good deal on the cool things I buy. So there is a place I go that we jokingly call Ghetto 70. It is a clearance liquidation discount maven's DREAM come true. I was there recently and found the dress (see below)...the straps had been ripped off/came unsewn from the dress and it was a tad too big. But guess what, it was only $3.00. So I took that badass dress home and I pulled out Rex(sewing machine) and made those repairs and now Rex and I are friends again.

Granted it is sort of Mary-Ann--ish....I still dig it.