Crochet Fun

It's winter here...at least some of the time.  My Oldest decided that she wanted to buy some beautiful yarn with the money she got from the Tooth Fairy so that I could make her a scarf.  See, Mama has some scarfs and she wants one as well! 

The question is...do I let her choose her yarn all by herself?  Without any input from me? 

Naaaah.  Of course not.  But, I did try to only provide minimal input.  For example, have you seen the Eyelash yarn...that's immediately what she was drawn to.  Mama pointed out ever so gently that it wouldn't make the best scarf.  It would get up her nose and tickler her neck and not be terribly warm.  She looked at a couple more and found some she liked when...

The heavens opened, light shown forth in a heavenly display of loveliness and this yarn made it's presence known...

It is called Party Yarn and boy is it a party.  Look closely and you will see glimmery silver streaks in the yarn.  Oh yes!  It is beautiful!  Of course My Youngest took one look at the sparkly goodness that had descended from heaven and knew she needed a beautiful scarf too.  Pink.  Of course.  It's always and only Pink.  So today I get to make them scarfs using this...not particularly soft yarn.  Would I have chosen it?  Noooooo.  But, I'm not a 6 year old and 3 year old girl.  And this yarn is EXACTLY what girls of those ages would want.

Speaking of crochet...I have been in the process (also known as stalling and procrastinating as much as possible) in making My Beloved Sister an amigurumi doll for her Sister in Law...well....it's getting there..

This little Ami makes me particularly happy.  It's because I made her real hair!!  It was quite difficult and I didn't do the best job ever, considering I've never done it before, but it was fun!  And I can't wait to make hair on another ami soon.  I also like that she's kind of evil looking.  She has these cruel eyes...I didn't intend on her looking cruel, but now that she does, I think she's kind of kick ass.  So, I will endeavor to make her look less evil and more loving so that she doesn't give her intended nightmares.  I mean, her intended is after all a 6 monthish old baby.  That would be bad.

I am quite close to having her done.  I've just got to finish the left leg, give her the rest of her face and soles to her shoes.  Yay for evil dollies!

Do you see this?  This is only a third of the buns I have from a shindig this weekend.  What in the world am I to do with so many buns?  I cannot eat hamburgers and hotdogs every day.  Blah!

So I made these for my girls for lunch.  Thanks to my Sister who found this on Pinterest.  Ahem.  They weren't most delicious.  Every time I make something different now My Oldest asks me accusingly, did you get this out of your cookbook?  No.  You have your Auntie to thank for this one.

In case you're wondering why my Young are wearing swimsuits in winter...they were just delivered and they had to try them on!  Both were skeptical of their lunch at first.  My Youngest liked it quite well...but only enough to eat one half of the bun with the peanut butter on it and not the "hotdog".  My Oldest declared it disgusting and requested something less weird.

This bun delight they have The Pioneer Woman to thank for.  She had a stratta on her website, I had an ungodly amount of buns...Voila!  Breakfast for dinner.

Mr. Because I Can loved it!  I made it using ingredients I had on hand.  So instead of sausage I used Canadian bacon and I didn't have kale, but I didn't have mustard greens.  I thought it was yummy too!  The girls...well I mostly had to bribe them to eat it with these...

Homemade blueberry muffins.  But not just ANY blueberry muffins.  They are Ina's Blueberry Muffins!  Which means awesome.  But not only that, do you want to know what they taste like?

Oh yes, they taste like the blueberry muffins I remember as a kid.  The Betty Crocker ones that have the little tin of blueberries that you have to rinse off before using!  Like, exactly.  So, this means they are quite sweet.  But oh so tasty!

Here's the recipe...slightly adapted by me as I didn't have sour cream on hand so I used Fage 2% Plain Yogurt

Ina's Coffee Cake Blueberry Muffins
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature (I had to microwave my butter for 15 seconds and used salted)
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature (my eggs were not at room temp)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
8 ounces (about 1 cup) sour cream (I used yogurt)
1/4 cup milk
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoons salt
2 half-pints fresh blueberries (I just guessed as I had a Costco tub of blueberries.)

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Prepare muffin tins with paper liners.  Cream the butter and sugar in mixer with paddle attachment on medium until fluffy.  Approximately 5 minutes.   Reduce speed to low.   Add the eggs in one at a time until they are incorporated.  Add the vanilla, sour cream (or yogurt) and milk.  Mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and mix.  Then add slowly to the creamed mixture and mix until just combined.

Fold in the blueberries.  Spoon into muffin tins.  Now, per Ina's instructions, she recommends filling the batter all the way to the top.  I do not recommend this as my muffins spilleth over in a most insightly way.  Still tasty, but not beautiful.  So I would say fill them 3/4 full.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until lightly brown and toothpick comes out clean.

Yum!

As always, thanks for reading everybody!

Heather