cranberry-lemon muffins

wow i've been a really prompt blogger lately! 

partly because brady and i have opposite schedules. like last night i shutterflied our yearly book until 4 am. oops. time just flies once you get started! 

and blogging? its pretty fun i decided! i don't know why we didn't think of it earlier! by blogging, our families can see us all year around in their respective states! (this way they have no choice but to see us at the beach in feb, at the store in march, at the beach in may, at the beach in august, in our costumes in oct, on our vacations...etc.)  ha ha well sorry fans, this post is sammi/brady free.

this is a recipe post.

i like myself a good kitchen, a good set of pans (thanks brade), good music, and a good mom and sisters. 

i have all of the above minus 2. 

minus the good sisters and talented mom. 

there is no better place to be on sunday afternoon (or all day) than cooking with your 2 greatest friends.

so...my new undertaking is to teach my sweet mother how to upload recipes and pictures so that by blogger.com we can still cook together! 

(i'm thinking that maybe if i start by posting recipes, i can bribe her into posting her recipes for me!)

that way i can fool those in california i am a good cook. no one will know that my mother taught me all i know! ...and continues to teach me. 

she is so sweet to answer my calls. i have a real short term memory so some times it is three calls just to re-tell me what degree the oven should be on. ha ha 

one of the reasons it is so fun to cook with my sis and mom because we like to experiment to make unhealthy desserts, healthy. we love our desserts. LOVE.

and we go to extremes to make every dessert we like--just a little bit healthier. so we can justify eating 4 instead of 1!

the PICKUP kitchen motto: 

"just add egg whites to make it healthy...and maybe a little extra sugar. sugar makes everything taste better"

CRANBERRY LEMON MUFFINS with LEMON GLAZE    

        

         2 cups all-purpose flour ** (mix. of flours to equal 1 c + 1/2 c whole wheat flour + 1/2 c     white flour)

         1 cup sugar (1/2 c white sugar + 1/4 c brown sugar + 1/4 cup honey)

         3 teaspoons baking powder

         1/2 teaspoon salt

         2 eggs (i used 4 egg whites)

         1 cup milk (1 cup buttermilk…milk + 1 tbl lemon juice)

         1/2 cup vegetable oil (1/4 cup applesauce + less than ¼ cup veg oil)

         1 ½ Tbl lemon zest + fresh squeezed lemons

         1 cup fresh cranberries (or dry)

         ½ tsp vanilla

        

                   1. mix sugars + veg oil/applesauce + buttermilk

                   2. add egg whites + lemon + vanilla + honey

                   3. stir dry ingredients, then add to wet ingredients 

                   4. fold in cranberries

                   BAKE @ 400 for 13-18 min. 

         LEMON GLAZE

         1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice + scoopful of zest

         1/4 cup powdered sugar 

                 1. mix together, heat if necessary to dissolve. drizzle over muffins. yum.

**i have this slight obsession with different kinds of flour. you see we, living on orange street, we have this great little farmers market store called Hnery's (sprouts) about 2 min away. it is so so so fun to go there! its like an activity. when people ask what i do on my days off, i tell them: i go to henry's and watch grey's anatomy while doing a pointless craft. ha ha real productive i know. 

          

          anyway, one of my fav things about henry's is the many different types of flour they have! i once toyed with the idea of going 'gluten free'. that was short lived however, it opened my large stomach to more bready things i can cook, without them having all of the carbs and simple sugars that white flour has! 

          

         with that being said, i have a new stock of flours. they include: 

(if your a geek like me, these are good sites that tell you more about each and different recipes...)

                     1. bran flour

                     2. wheat germ

                     3. cracked wheat

                     4. rye flour

                     5. soy flour

                     6. almond flour

                     7. flaxseed meal 

                     8. corn flour

                     9. whole wheat flour

                    10.  oat flour

      

      of course, you can definitely use regular white flour or wheat flour if you like. (I love to experiment and  with new 'healthy' ingredients. sometimes they turn out like cardboard, but at least you know they taste good! brady always says, "well at least they are healthy, its a bonus if they taste good". ha ha but these ones taste SOSOSOSOSO good AND they are healthy!! enjoy!!

PS. MOM, hint: i would love some delicious recipes you and becca have whipped up! And to anyone else! i love healthy recipes to try!!!

october 23, 2011...one year older....25 already. man i'm now in the 25 and older group. no longer in the 19-24 group. 

like i stated in my earlier post, my family was here and it was so great, SO great! 

we started off my 25 year of living by celebrating with a bonzai bowl!! if you were to ask me what a perfect birthday would be i would say: 

* bonsai bowl

* my besty

* frozen banana(s), 

* my family 

* pretty beach (no particular order of course).

this birthday i had them all. what a lucky girl!!

even a teal box.

(maybe they call it robin's egg blue?)

anyway it was a super pretty necklace

...and a set of GOLD PANS!!!
(that's the present a wife of a cookware specialist gets. and she couldn't be happier!!! this present really shows his love for me. calphalon is bradshaws arch enemy....and he got them anyway. yay!!! i love to cook!
these will look great hanging. the last touch to my finished kitchen---with a big house and lots of kids of course.
i'll just hang it in my kitchen. yep looks perfect.

ah....ecstatic. 

oh and the gift-giver. 

 

best birthday so far...it'll be hard to top.
the only downer of the day was the emergency room at hoag hospital. my birthday lasted especially long. i usually take a nap (or sleep the whole day) but since it was my birthday, i couldn't sleep! so i calculated i was up for 25 full hours. a nice fit being 25.
i did have a nice surprise at work. since i just moved to the night crew, i don't know anyone good enough to tell them it was my birthday. so i didn't.
good ol' Facebook did though! some nice nurse named olivia bought me a cake with my name on it! how nice!! really it was so nice.

unfortunately, none of my patients noticed it was my special day. not even the 'transient' of the night who told me i was the worst (beep beep) nurse ever. he took a good couple of swings at my 25 year old face. good thing my 25 year old muscles are well toned:) ha ha ok j/k. there was a police officer there in a blink of an eye. maybe next year my kick boxing will pay off.

that didnt damper my day though...after a good cry i remembered my copper pans were at home waiting. and my nice bed. and the sun was shining.

PS. i have a great red set of aeternum pans that will need a new home...

animals...

happy late halloween! 

love: the puppy and her treats.

(the puppy is a fail safe costume. especially when you move to a new state:)

 "come here little puppy...come get your treat"

 "there you are..."

man, you'd think he had been the one doing tricks...

my family came to visit as a last min trip before elder spencer left on his mission.

it was so so so fun...and lucky me, it happened to be on my birthday! yay!
since i was the moment capturer-here you are fam!!

you can't come to newport without treating yourself to dad's famous bananas.

 and vicki will be there to serve you.

and because it is brady and my favorite treat/eating place we treat ourselves to a frozen one quite frequently--vicki, the cute little vietnamese lady in the blue, always remembers our name AND our friends! each time we come she lists all of our friends we have brought and asks where they are. 

SAMMI and BRADY's #11 time to see vicki:

(brady handed vicki his credit card to pay)

VICKI: "how come you didn't tell me (a thick vietnamese accent), your name is Brendan?? (close second to braden) I have been calling you brady when your name is Brendy!! ha ha.... bye brendy!!"

ha ha cute vicki. brendy it is.

they are famous for their frozen bananas and hippo cookies. 

each time we go, as a good customer bonus, vicki usually throws in a hippo cookie for free. 

this is sea world. a great great place if you haven't been for a while.

notice clear in the back the trainers-all have buns and none get in with the shamu's anymore! sad!

GIANNA:

 "ah...not a care in the world. i'm just relaxin', kickin back watching my movie that grandma better keep holding"

 "feed me mom, and grandma, keep the phone still so I can watch my movie."

ha ha so cute! well this is a long post and being that it is 3:36 in the am i might call it quits. i feel as if it is easy to stay up blogging---i feel like i'm not really wasting time because its in the middle of the night.

so what i maybe just spent 3 hours blogging/shutterflying.

OH YES...and something productive...finished an application for restoration hardware. part-time income. a little outlet from the emergency room:) nani would be so proud!

the best 2 years...

a wonderful 2 years.

this is a little bit late--- but as a license plate once has said, "always late but worth the wait". 

for our 2nd anniversary brady and i went to seattle! brady had to go for work and so we made it a date weekend/ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION!!

**ADDED BONUS: home to Seattle Grace Hospital on grey's anatomy! yahoo! if only i needed to go to the hospital. i didn't.

have you ever wondered what it would look like walking up a steep sidewalk without the pull of gravity?

this is what it wold look like. at first a head tilt back, and then straight as a board. 

finished with a pose.

the highlight of our vacations---delish meals. And this was one of the best! 

if you didn't know, one of washington's greatest assests happens to be Mt Rainer! great! 

since it was only a 2 hour drive, we decided to take it!. after a 2 hour car ride, it turned out a little different than we had imagined.

just like at most famous places, one has to pay to go up. when it was our turn at the ticket window, the lady must have seen our shocked look concerning the ticket prices and she quickly said, "you can walk up for free if you would like. its 3 miles, or you can always walk down" i thought to myself, "wow, we could walk up mt rainer!" i nudged brady who said to me, "yeah, l say lets walk down."
... so we bought the 20 dollar gondola ticket. (pretty good for mt rainer if you ask me!)

on our way up the gondola...
brady, "oh its so green!" (super excited voice)
sammi, "i thought mt rainer was snowy...wow its different that what i imagined. I can't believe we're here!!! i'm very excited."
nice ladies sitting across from us, "oh you can see mt rainer at the top if you look to the right. its a great view."
sammi and brady, "wait....are you telling us this is not mt rainer?? We are taking the gondola up the side of mt rainer-right?"
nice ladies sitting across from us, "giggle giggle, laugh laugh, mt rainer is about 1 hour drive from here. this is crystal mountain."
sammi and brady, "oh"

there it is...clear over there...in the distance.

our hiking boots. yes the sperry's.

the Summit House Restaurant 

maybe the best food of the trip.

this is the quote of the trip found on the back of the menu for The Summit Grill:

"The Mountains will always be there, the trick s to make sure you are too." 

...ha ha

PIKE PLACE

 Happy Anniversary.