Tag Archives: science

My Girly Moment

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I could never be accused of being a girly girl.  I am not a frilly, hearts and glitter kind of girl.  I hate shopping.  I don’t like pink, and I think unicorns are early genomic experiments (or creatures brought here by the aliens….)  But I digress…

I grew up with two little brothers, and I have two sons.  I have been surrounded by boys close to all of my life.  But saying all of that I do have moments of girly-ness…I love butterflies.  For one, they are pretty. 🙂 And secondly, from a scientific standpoint, metamorphosis is fascinating.  And from the life lessons file, how wonderful it is to know that even if you start out as a weird caterpillar, some day you can be a fantastically beautiful butterfly!

So of course, as I walked down the pasta aisle at the grocery store, my eyes were drawn to the farfalle pasta.  You know the ones…the bow-tie pasta…but then I saw the farfalline…baby butterflies!  (ok as I just pointed out “baby” butterflies are catapillers, which look more like ziti, but I don’t have to be that critical ALL the time!)

I grabbed the box of pasta excitedly.  The wheels in the creative side of my brain started turning!  I had to find the perfect way to use these tiny butterfly noodles!

The days are much shorter now.  Fall is definitely arriving.  The days are tending to be more gray and wet.  As much as I want to hold on to summer, I am looking forward to autumn.  BUT butterflies are a spring/summer kinda thing…some how I need to find a way to make an autumn-y dish more summer-y.

This is how I created Butterfly Garden Soup

Butterfly Garden Soup

No butterflies were harmed in the making of this soup!

This soup is far from complicated.  Some of the best meals are ones that are just thrown together.  I browned a pound of ground beef with a bit of Onion Onion and Garlic Garlic. While that was cooking away, I filled a pot with a bag of frozen vegetables.  My favorite would have to be vegetables for soup:  stewed tomatoes, corn, potatoes, green beans, onions, carrots, celery and okra. Cover the vegetables with water and put on medium heat.  I drained the grease from the ground beef, and slid it into the pot with the vegetables.  I used three beef bouillon cubes and two cans of condensed tomato soup.  Season with salt and pepper after the bouillon has dissolved.  If you season before, you could end up with too much salt.  Lastly I added two handfuls of little butterflies.  Honestly I did toss the butterflies in…so that they could fly into the soup…hey I never said I wasn’t easily amused!

Like most soups or stews, the next-day left-overs are much better than day of soups…not that I would know with this soup, I didn’t get any left-overs! 🙂

Experimenting with Breakfast

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My oldest son is not a breakfast person.  Don’t get me wrong he LOVES breakfast foods, just not in the morning.  He would rather sleep later into the day than get up early for breakfast.  Unless there is bacon involved…

One of his favorite breakfasts would have to be cinnamon rolls.  Usually I do the quick and easy thing and buy the refrigerated tube, pop it open and bake.  The other night I decided I wanted to make some kind of muffin with Tastefully Simple‘s Bountiful Beer Bread.  After a quick search, I decided to just “wing it” and try to create something cinnamon roll-ish.  Another appeal of the cinnamon roll would have to being able to say the word cinnamon, which happens to be a word that will almost instantly put a smile on my toddler’s face, and usually warrants a giggle also!  PLUS tigers hate cinnamon, so it will keep the tigers away.

One of the things I absolutely LOVE is the versatility of the Bountiful Beer Bread.  I have yet to actually prepare the bread according to the recipe on the box.

There is something that is fundamentally appealing to me about baking.  The science of the reactions needed to get the perfect rise.  The caramelization of the sugars to get that exceptional crunch.  I love the fact that I can add something fizzy to the mix and get the bread to rise.  I adore the fact that I can change up the fizzy ingredient, and get a fantastic new flavor!  The possibilities of this single product…virtually endless.  This is where experimentation in the kitchen fascinates me.  (AND this is where my family loves me to be… They will be my guinea pigs anytime I try a new recipe!)

Not a bad way to start the morning!

I decided to use cream soda as my fizzy ingredient for the cinnamon roll muffins.  Cream soda gives a sweet, but not overpowering, base for the bread.

I poured my Bountiful Beer Bread mix into a mixing bowl, then added a tablespoon of cinnamon and two tablespoons of firmly packed brown sugar.  I stirred those ingredients together while three tablespoons of butter melted in the microwave.

I added a cup and a half of cream soda to the dry ingredients, and mixed only enough to get the dry stuff wet.  Don’t over mix!

I then poured the batter into the wells of my greased muffin tin.  I poured the melted butter over the muffins, then sprinkled each with a bit of cinnamon/brown sugar mixture.  I baked them for about 15-20 minutes.

I used a suggestion I found online for the icing.  I melted a bit of vanilla frosting (from a can) and poured it over the warm muffins.

What I would do differently next time:

  • LOVED the brown sugar flavor, will add more sugar next time.
  • I didn’t like the melted vanilla frosting.  Next time, I will just use powdered sugar and milk.
  • I liked the muffin idea, BUT next time I want to make a loaf of cinnamon roll bread.  I will then slice the bread and drizzle with the icing.
  • One of the comments from the morning’s experiment was that the muffins weren’t fluffy.  That I didn’t have control over.  The Bountiful Beer Bread will make a more dense muffin, but I liked it!