Frabjous

Saw Alice in Wonderland last night, and it was very enjoyable.  I loved the little throwbacks to the animated classic, and thought the new visuals were just stunning.  And Christopher Lee as the Jabberwock??  Ohhhhhyeah.   All of the voices were perfect for the characters... Stephen Fry = best Cheshire Cat ever.  And Johnny Depp made a fantastic Hatter; he seems to switch into different people throughout the movie, which goes so well with the character.  They didn't touch on the mercury poisoning, which is the reason the Hatter is mad, but I have a feeling there was much that was cut between pre-production and now.  The actress who played Alice was good, just the right mix of uncertain, innocent, and "much" (you'll get that reference when you see the movie).  So go and see it.  The funniest part is that the movie is listed as PG because of a smoking catepillar (among a few other reasons).  A smoking catepillar.  Right.  Because that is somehow worse than the 5 or so shots of someone getting stabbed in the eye by a dormouse.  Honestly.

It's a glorious morning here, and now it's time to gear up for some awesome praise and worship at church.  So I leave you with this:

Spring has sprung!

And it's lovely :)  I know, it's like 15 -20 degrees above normal, but I don't care.  I love Spring.  I love the flowers pushing out of the dirt, the gauzy green color that is draped over all of the trees and shrubs, the smell of growing things... ahhhhhhh :)

Hope you all get to tiptoe through the tulips today!

Butternut squash muffins...the recipe!

From Inside the lens

Butternut Squash muffins
Ingredients
14oz butternut squash, skin on, deseeded, roughly chopped
2 1/4C light brown sugar
4 large eggs
pinch of sea (or other coarse) salt
2 1/2 all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
handful of walnuts, chopped (optional)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 C extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper cups.
Whiz the squash in a food processor until very finely chopped; transfer to mixing bowl. Add sugar and crack in the eggs; beat slightly. Add remaining ingredients and beat until well mixed, scraping down the sides of the bowl when necessary. Everything should be just combined, so don't overmix.
Fill the muffin cups with batter (about 2/3 full. I used a small scoop). Bake 20-25 minutes. Test with a toothpick; if it comes out clean, they're done! If the toothpick is sticky, bake a few minutes longer. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Frosty Topping
Ingredients
1 clementine (or orange), zested
1 lemon, zested
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 C sour cream
2 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out (or use 1tsp vanilla extract)

Place most of the clementine zest, all of the lemon zest, and the lemon juice in a small bowl. Add the sour cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla; mix well. Taste and adjust as you like. Store in fridge until muffins have cooled. Spoon onto muffins, or dip cooled muffins into the topping.

Enjoy!! Oh, and you remember how I said that the dipping part was the second best thing about these muffins? Eating them is the best thing about these muffins!  And I want you all to know that "whiz" is apparently an official culinary term.  I took the class at a culinary school and the recipe was printed on official culinary school paper, ergo it is a culinary term.  :) 

Butternut squash muffins

From Inside the lens

Six and a half dozen mini-muffins, and two loaves of bread later, I give you these scrumptious little bites of squashy-citrusy goodness.  This was my first time actually using a vanilla bean, and I gotta say, they're messy little buggars and I'm not sure they're worth the cost. LOL  Maybe they are, I don't know. 

From Inside the lens

See?  Aren't they adorable?  So light and moist.  Mmmmmmm.  Must resist the urge to go break into the container I am sharing with the coworkers tomorrow.

This here is the best part (ok, second best):

From Inside the lens

From Inside the lens

Dipping the muffins in the frosty topping.  There were a few times that the topping didn't really want to give the muffin back to me, and only once did I actually drop a muffin into the bowl (Daddy helped me out by eating that one, since the paper was just slopped with topping.  What a guy!).

From Inside the lens

Ta-Da!

Recipe to follow tomorrow.  I figured this post was long enough (and I hope to entice you to come back!)

no picture, but...

had to announce that I saw 5 robins hopping around the grass in MD today!!!!!  AND AND AND I have green things pushing their way up from the dirt around my house.

Spring is coming, it is, it is!

So, this past Saturday I attending a cooking class at a local culinary school.  The subject:  CUPCAKES!  And Muffins, actually, even though they're two different things.  The group I was in made lemon meringue cupcakes and these awesome butternut squash muffins with this citrus topping.  I am going to make them this weekend and take them to work, just so I can eat more LOL  Will post pics and the recipe at a later date.

oh heck, here's a pic from last year to celebrate my robin sighting:

Cat, I'm a kitty cat!

But he doesn't dance.  Just playing around with the camera today and annoying my cat by constantly pointing the camera at him :)