Cupcakes with Chocolate Pudding Buttercream Frosting

I'm not one that normally cooks with pudding, jello or coolwhip (much to the chagrin of my husband who loves all three)...but yesterday while my husband was running errands I thought the kids and I could make a treat. At first I was thinking a cake, but I was lacking any ingredient that would make anything but a boring yellow cake.

(I didn't even have vanilla extract, lemon juice, or a single fruit or nut!)

((I think that means it's time to go shopping!))

Anyway...I realized I had pudding in the cabinet. Jon buys them on sale and we NEVER use them. So they sit and sit and sit. So...I decided to make a standard yellow cake, but then I dumped a box of powdered vanilla pudding mix in. (I had to thin out the batter a little with some more milk, and it was still a really thick batter)
Once the cupcakes were baked and cooled I decided to make buttercream icing with one of the chocolate pudding mixes. So my recipe called for 4 cups of powdered sugar to 1/2 cup butter...so I dumped in the pudding mix first and then measured up to 4 cups with the sugar. I started mixing, then set in to add the 1/4 cup of milk. Since I rarely measure, I just figured I'd pour until the consistency was right. This was fine until Luke wanted to help and dumped too much milk in. But as the mixer mixed...the pudding began to do it's pudding thing and thickened up the excess milk. (Of course!)
So here's the deal...these are totally awesome just as they are, and at room temperature taste like a pudding frosting. BUT...when you put them in the fridge and let them set up...different story altogether. The cake becomes almost custard like, and the frosting on top sets up like a smooth milk-chocolate fudge. A total keeper of a recipe. (ok so it's pushing it to call this a recipe...it's more like a vague idea of something tasty)
Hopefully I'll remember it for next time.


You know what...I kind of miss old fashioned cupcakes. Like the kind your grandmother would make...not these new fangled cupcakes that look good enough to be a wedding cake. (With so much icing on them you can't find the cake)

Pumpkin Carving Number 1

This is going to be a BUSY week of Halloween fun for us. We have two festivals, two parties and one trip to the pumpkin patch planned. We will be carving pumpkins three times...Sunday with Grandma's church party, Friday with Daddy since he won't be there the other days, and Saturday at Hallie and Abby's party.

This was round one...Kids 2, Pumpkins 0. (Suck on that pumpkins!)










(RELAX...it's a butter knife)

Overboard

No...not like Goldie Hawn. But I've gone a little nutso this past week making Halloween stuff. (A more prepared person might have started making this stuff weeks ago...oh well, I am what I am) So far this week; Laurel's PJs, Luke's PJs, Luke's pillow, Laurel's skirt and shirt, Luke's jeans and shirt.







The next (and last) Halloween project is a burlap Halloween banner. Sort of like this from bumbleshop on ETSY.

I've seen others I liked better, but they're all basically the same. I want one that says Halloween for outside, and another more generic one that says Fall or Harvest for the fireplace. I might do a Give Thanks one for Thanksgiving.
(Mostly it depends on how much burlap I have left over)

But I like these, they are simple and cute. And maybe after I finish the banners I can decide what I'm making for the ETSY shop and reopen. (or maybe I'll just start being nutso about Thanksgiving crafts...tempting...)

It says JOSH

So the votes are in, and apparently my use of alien parts to spell the name was too obscure for people to get unless they were told it spelled out a name. What a shame, I really put some thought into this one! It's still cute...but it stinks that you have to point out your cleverness...it sort of defeats the point of being clever.



In retrospect I shouldn't have mentioned that it said Josh...because when you know, it changes everything. Try to look at it with an unknowing eye...and you'll think "what a cute alien, I wonder why there is a sideways J there."

Can't Breath...literally

I just completed day 1 of week 1 of the couch-to-5k program. I've done this program 2-3 times now...but it seems I get to the end, run a 5k (REALLY slowly) and then taper off again. So here I am 2 years after my last "run" through the program, starting from square one. Again.
It was a perfect fall evening. I was alone with nothing to do (kids were with grandma and I didn't have enough time to go home to do anything) and at first I started to do NOTHING. Then suddenly, I decided I could do nothing or I could start something. So I got up, put on my running shoes and went to the closest park.
The weather was perfect, the leaves were stunning and I completed the first day without a problem. Though...there was a moment after the 5th run where the narrator of the podcast says "by now you should be feeling good; not tired or out of breath." Wait...what?!?! I'm NOT supposed to be tired or out of breath? What about dying and breathless, does that count? Seriously...WHAT?!?! Was there a pre-training program for the training program that I missed?
No matter, after some strange gestures and looks to myself I kept on trucking. I made it through the last 3 runs, even sprinting through the last 20 seconds of the last run. (But it took me the entire 5 minute cool down to cool down.)
My sister proposed that we run a half marathon together in one year, she's even picked it out. So with the completion of this run I'm like 1000th of the way there.

You gotta start somewhere.

Complete PJ Set

Here is the complete set...if you look not-so-hard you will see that the fabric is upside down (go me). This is part of why I don't use patterns (I did here) because I seem to go into robot mode and just follow the directions instead of using my brain. It's sad I know...but it wasn't worth scrapping the fabric and cutting again...I figured she'd never notice...so who cares?
In the end it's not my favorite pattern...but it was a 99 cent easy-sew Simplicity, so what did I expect? The neck lays a little funny and in the end I got lazy and I just sewed the elastic directly to the fabric. But I did make the pants and shirt big enough to fit for next year...so that's cool. Now I have to finish the Luker's pants.

And hey...if you accidentally cut a hole in your fabric...just patch it with a little love.
(why does this always seem to happen to me?)

Dreaming of the Simple Life

We met the trailer at the new house yesterday. It got there only moments after I did...which was unfortunate because I didn't have the key to get in the gate. (Jon had it) So I had to pop the kids over the fence, then climb the fence myself...run to the front door to get the spare out of the lockbox, then run back and unlock the gate...pull the car in and then act like I wasn't totally out of breath and looking like an idiot.


After it was dropped off and the dust settled, the kids started playing...as if this were somewhere we usually stopped and played. It felt great. The kids traced each other with chalk, and tried to climb the little unknown tree in the front yard. Laurel collected the fruit off of it so that we could try and figure out what it is. It's always good to have an already-established edible fruiting tree...not so good if it's poisonous. So come on tree people....can anyone identify? The closest I can get is a Lychee...but I'm wondering if we aren't too far north? And it's fruiting in October so it doesn't seem to match what I see online. Cutting it open you can see the three seeds and creamy peach/orange flesh. And I would say it smells like a cross between a pumpkin and a peach. (Or like a spicy peach) Anyone?!?!