Modified raspberry muffins... :)

So, I was given a pint of raspberries and went on a whim of muffin-making. Raspberry muffins are pretty, and especially delicious when the berries are in season. 

This is a slightly modified recipe I got from allrecipes.com - I like messing around with recipes. I was slightly conservative with my "messing", since this was my first time working with the recipe. Next time I'd try modifying the amount of sugar and mess around with some different types of flour... maybe a bit more cinnamon, too. 

This recipe makes about 36 muffins. 

1 cup butter

1 cup cane sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups King Arthur flour

1/2 cup ground flaxseed

1 tsp aluminum-free baking powder

1 tsp aluminum-free baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 cups fresh raspberries (straight from the bushes!) :)

Streusel:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup regular oatmeal

1/4 cup cane sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/3 cup butter

Cream butter and sugar; beat in eggs. In another bowl, mix sour cream, milk and vanilla. 

Combine dry ingredients; stir into creamed mixture alternately with sour cream mixture until just moistened (this was lots of fun).

Gently fold in raspberries.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.

Combine streusel ingredients until crumbly; sprinkle over muffins.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 18-22 minutes.

Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing.

Yum! 

By the way, Heidi (a blogger whose talents I hope to emulate someday!) at "Frantically Simple" just posted a recipe for homemade deoderant here. I'm going to make a 1/2 recipe - excited! :)

Cherries

Well, I'm in the middle of pitting (to freeze) about 40 pounds of cherries. 

Just thought I'd share. :) I probably won't eat cherries for awhile now. Haha... but they are yummy!

A bit of randomness

Sometimes you have days where you try to conquer too many things.

My brain is tired. I am grateful tomorrow will be a new day. So here I sit with a cup of (herbal) tea, trying to deflate.

My sister leaves for China in the morning, so I gave her a back massage to start her trip right. I probably need one, too. :-P

Thankfully we can still laugh - we laughed super-hard before she went to bed.

Some days you just have to laugh more.

I love my cousins. 

In other news, Homeschool Performing Arts officially announced their season. So now I can publicly declare I'm looking forward to assistant directing...

Watch out, world. The McDaniel sisters are BOTH involved this year. There's no telling what may happen. :)

Oh - I might pick and freeze blackberries in a couple days. Yum.

I think I'm ready to sleep now. Good night, world. :)

Homemade deoderant?

So, has anyone had any success with making homemade deoderant sans baking soda?

Aluminum is something I have tried to avoid putting in my body. Partly because once it gets in, it doesn't come out and partly because controversy exists about aluminum's link to Alzheimers, breast cancer and the list goes on. Besides aluminum, in almost all deoderants I've found triclosan, propylene glycol, parabens and other sketchy ingredients. Personallly, I don't want these concoctions of toxins daily slathered on one of the most sensitive areas of a person's body (and I just sounded like Dr. Seuss... brilliant...).

I did try making deoderant last winter - aluminum-free baking soda, coconut oil and a couple drops of lavender oil. It worked, but after a few days of application, the baking soda was irritating my skin - and honestly, who wants irritated skin there? Constant friction and my poor skin would be red and irritated for several days. I used it all, slowly. After trying to put up with the constant red, I tried putting it on every other day (using a commercial deoderant or a salt crystal on the opposite days). However, it still wasn't idea. So I've searched around internet world. Kitchen Stewardship blog has a great article here about homemade deoderant, but it seems very similar to my recipe. Perhaps I'll try less baking soda next time. 

Does anyone know of any recipes for homemade deoderant that do not include baking soda? 

4th of July

Happy 4th, everyone. Grilling out, fireworks, family time and relaxing in the sun is on the menu today (with Mom's famous cinnamon rolls and homemade buttercream frosting). However, we won't forget this celebration would not be possible without my ancestors, grandfathers, uncles, cousins and friends.

Although I am what I would consider a patriotic American, on this day I am always reminded of our spiritual freedom we have been given through Christ's life, death and resurrection as well. The LORD has truly been good to us and given us far more than we could ever imagine. Happy 4th of July, everyone, and I pray we may always remember that freedom is a most precious gift!

Hello, world.

I decided it's been way too long since I've blogged regularly. :) This is my humble attempt at re-starting at least somewhat regularlyposting. I think my blog is going to begin taking shape and focusing on home-building and Judeo-Christian holidays. Influences include my grandmother and mother, Karey Swan, Abby Warmington and Sally Clarkson.

I'm marrying a farmer in November! Wow. Life has certainly changed for me in the past 6 months. I got a text message from a friend this New Year's day that offered up a prayer for God to have "many great blessings up His sleeve" for me this year. If you could have told me that day that I would be engaged by June, I think I would have laughed... rather like Sarai. God's plans certainly aren't our own. While I was trying to cry/laugh/kill dreams/make new dreams about how I would live as a single person for the foreseeable future, He was smiling and preparing my heart for a much different path than I was beginning to envision.

My fiance is an incredible man of the Lord who loves and pursues me with his whole heart. He's goofy, passionate, raw, sensitive, honest, hard-working, patient and many other wonderful things. His downfall is chocolate and ice cream... I think we've gotten along rather well on those points, though. :) We have made our semi-long-distance relationship (50 miles) work, thanks to cell phones and vehicles. He calls me his treasure and we are growing in our love for the Lord and one another. I look forward to seeing how the Lord continues to grow us and lead in our journey of paths uniting. November 19th is coming soon!

One of our biggest physical hurdles right now is a dwelling place. We have looked at a few houses and discovered a LOT in a short amount of time. This week we're scheduling a showing at a house in Lake O which we're both kind of excited about. Some pros: it has an acre+ of land (bonfires and gardening opportunities!), a basement which they actually took pictures of for the website (big bonus, trust me), brand new copper plumbing and electrical wiring AND a one-year home warranty. Some cons: no trees in the yard, I don't like some of the paint/carpeting, and there's not a garage. These "cons" all seem pretty feasible to modify in time... unlike a basement that's crawling or permanently flooded... you get the idea.

One smaller hurdle we are currently crossing is purchasing a freezer to fill with produce for the winter! I think Tom is purchasing this one tomorrow, thanks for a 4th of July sale.

My first contribution: strawberry jam. I researched and found a pectin that needs WAY less sugar (Pomona's Universal Pectin) - for 6 quarts of freezer jam, I only used 3 cups of sugar. Hallelujah! The color is beautiful and Tom definitely approved on the initial taste-test. It's about $4.80 a box at Harvest Health. 1 box probably makes between 3-4 quarts of jam - using only 1-2 cups of sugar (my favorite Certo recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups of fruit and 4 1/2 cups of sugar - you do the math). You can also use honey as a sweetener - which I wasn't quite brave enough to do on my trial run, but I would probably try it now, at least with certain kinds of fruit (peaches?).

Needless to say, I will be patronizing Pomona's for quite some time (thank you, Harvest Health!). I am very excited to fill a freezer with jam and other good things for my home.

See you all again soon!