Horses

The Human Figure

Anatomy of the Human Body

Thoughts about the children in our community

So I've been working with Youth around Utah County for going on 3 years, and I've never really understood the impact one person can have on a child. And I've come to realize that Youth in our community, not to mention around the world, are being abused and neglected. And its horrifying to realize that kids that WE know are being abused. Just the other day I was at work reading the news and on the front page was a picture of one of the Dads whos child comes to where i work. He was put in Jail for beating his kids with a golf club so severly that the pain and actual purple and blue bruises were shown on there faces at school. The teachers notices something was wrong and called social services who looked into it and found what had happend.
Because of these and other incidents that i have read/seen/whitnessed has made me realize we need to be careful what we do and how we act. It also has influenced me to Volunteer with this group called "Be the voice of a child" its an oportunity to "Be a voice of abused and neglected children through Court Appointed Special Advocates. Represent them in court to help to secure their rights to a stable environment" I know its not much but its something small that I can do to help our community and the children in it.

Lemon Poppy Muffins

So this recipe came from one of the recipe books i posted on here called "Baking-From my home to yours" by Dorie Greenspan.

Quintessential Recipe Books

When I was about 16 years old my Dad got me this recipe book thats called "The Classic Cookbook" AKA "The Cook Books BIBLE" along with "The Dessert BIBLE". I really liked this recipe book because the author Christopher Kimball gave reasons why he liked the recipes, and the history behind them and what made them better than all the other recipes out there. I suggest everyone get it.
Also I just got a couple more recipe books in the mail from my dad (who's a chef) which i find to me staples to have in a cooks kitchen. One of them Being a french cook book called the "Silver spoon"



A Baking Book called "Baking from my home to yours" By Dorie Greenspan has fantastic recipes. And the last but not least "Starting with Ingredients" by Aliza Green is a beautiful recipe book.



And of course the simplest homiest to the point recipe book called "Better Home Cook Book"

Blueberry Muffins!

I really like this recipe. Not too sweet and packed full of blueberry's. Also I usually buy organic blueberry's because they seem more juicy, and when you bake then all the juices seem to come out and make them more delicious. (but that could be just me). Anyways, I usually subsitute white sugar for brown sugar in a lot of my baking recipes, brown sugar just seems richer. So here's the recipe! (I found it on All Recipes.com)
(O and it makes about 8-10 servings, depending on how full you fill the cups)

1 1/2 c Flour
3/4 White Sugar (I subsituted for Brown Sugar)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/3 c vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 c milk (I added about 1/4 c more to mine)
1 c fresh blueberrys
1/2 white sugar (or Brown sugar)
1/3 c flour
1/4 c butter
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon.

1) Oven 400, line muffin cups
2) Combine 1 1/2 c flour, 3/4 c sugar, salt and baking powder. Place veg. oil into a 1 c measuring cup. add the egg ad enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in Blueberry's. Fill muffin cups to the tip top, and springle with crumb topping.
3) Now for the crumb topping i did it a bit different, but i think its just person preference. I'll just give you what they did though...
Mix together 1/2 c sugar, 1/3 c flour, 1/4 c butter and 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Mix with fork and sprinkle on muffins before baking.
4) Bake 20-25 min or until done.

O the Joys of life

Isn't life just great! It's busy and its crazy and its stressful, but its beautiful and happy. Thats all i have to say. And these are some of the people that make it wonderful....

Ginger Cookies

Doesn't Ginger cookies just remind you of fall time?

Cooking Creations

Woo! I don't know how this thing works, BUT my plan is to create a cooking group with a couple of my friends and my dad who is a chef and update our blogs about our monthly cooking challenges and post pictures and comments on our food and what we changed and how it turned out.