Blueberry Muffins - Bursting with Blueberries

I love making homemade muffins! And blueberries were on sale this week 99 cents for a container. I bought quite a few containers!

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup sour cream

1 large egg

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

4 tablespoons turbinado sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line a muffin pan with 12 paper liners.

Add melted butter to a large mixing bowl. Whisk in sugar, sour cream and egg until the mixture is smooth and combined.

Stir in baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Gently fold in flour and blueberries.

The batter will be thick. Divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups and sprinkle with the tops of the muffins with the turbinado sugar.

Bake for 22 -25 minutes. Test the muffins with a toothpick and make sure that the toothpick comes out clean.

Let the muffins cool for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Then you can enjoy them while warm!

I might have to buy more blueberries this week and make some more muffins to enjoy over Labor day weekend.

Pencil Cookies - A Back-to-School Treat

These cookies were so easy to make! Probably because you start with a store bought wafer cookie.

I bought my wafer cookies at Target. But I know they also carry them at grocery stores. Be sure to buy the vanilla flavor for this project,

Ingredients:

Vanilla wafer cookies

Pink chocolate disks

White chocolate disks

Mini chocolate chips

Directions:

Cut one side of the cookie into a point with a sharp knife.

Lay the pointy side of the cookie facing down on a large piece of foil or wax paper.

Melt some pink chcocolate disks. Put the melted chocolate into a zipper top bag and snip off a tiny corner and pipe the erasers.

Then melt some white chocolate and put it in a zipper bag and snip a corner. Pipe the white point and while the chocolate is till warm add the mini chocolate chip. 

Let the cookies dry and then they can be stacked into a box.

These were so simple to make! And while I was making them I thought they would be cute made into candles to celebrate the Feast Day of Saint Blaise. They would also be cute made into ties for Father's day. 

Wishing everyone a wonderful school year!

Strawberry Tart

This is one of the easiest tarts that I make and it always turns out perfect. You literally can't mess up this simple tart.

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 1/2 cups of flour

3/4 cup powdered sugar

3/4 cup butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

Topping:

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 large containers of fresh strawberries, thinly sliced

1/4 cup shelled pistachios

whipped cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine the crust ingredients in a medium sized bowl until a dough ball  forms. Press the dough into a 12-inch tart pan. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.

Let the crust cool completely. Meanwhile mix the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until they are completely combined and spread the mixture over the cooled crust.

Wash and hull the strawberries. Start thinly slicing the strawberries.

Starting from the outside start layering the strawberries.

Keep layering the strawberries until the tart is complete. Add a few small whole strawberries into the tart

Berfore serving sprinkle with the shelled pistachios. Add a small dollop of whipped cream next to the tart slice. I have used homemade whipped cream and whipped cream from a can. It just depends!

This is such an easy tart to make and fresh strawberries always scream summer!

Peachy Appetizer

I love peaches! I love the smell of fresh peaches. So since I have so many peaches I decided to make a simple Peachy Appetizer.


Ingredients:

Baguette slices

Olive oil

Goat cheese crumbles

Fresh basil

Fresh peaches

Directions:

Brush the baguette slices with olive oil and bake them at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes.

Once the baguette slices come out of the oven put a few crumbles of goat cheese and fresh basil on each slice.

Add a slice of fresh peach on top of each slices and then put them on a serving platter.

These appetizers are so easy and perfect to make and serve at your next barbecue.

Olympic Rice Crispy Treats

This is the easiest Olympic snack to make. You simply need Rice Crispy Treats (homemade or store bought) and m&m's.

Make little cups or piles of m&m's in blue, brown, red, yellow and green.  Press the candy with the m's facing down.

I made a huge pan full of these treats for Christian to take to the church youth group meeting tonight.

St. Francis Peg Dolls for Religion Class

"For it is in giving that we receive." - St. Francis

I am a substitute Religion teacher. I always have a Saint peg doll for the kids when we learn about that Saint.

I think the children will enjoy learning about Saint Francis. So since it is the summer I am trying to get a little ahead and started by painting St. Francis of Assisi.

I always buy my wooden pegs at Hobby Lobby - you can get 8 pegs for $3.99 but I always use a 40% off coupon. So I pay about $2.40 for 8 pegs!

I had all of the paint colors that I needed in my craft cabinet and a bunch of paint pens and Sharpie pens. Noelle bought me a couple of good brushes and I use my old brushes on the large sections.

First I painted two coats of brown for the robe. Then Noelle painted the belt and the three knots.  The three knots are for poverty, charity and obedience.

Then I painted two coats of flesh for the head. And used brown again for the hair and beard. I used a black Sharpie pen for the eyes and smile.

St. Francis was the first person to receive the Stigmata of Christ.

Using a piece of scrapbook paper I cut out a bunch of little birds and Modged Podged them over the other hand. St. Francis became a preacher to both the rich and poor. He was even known to preach to birds.

St. Francis was born into a very wealthy family and gave up it all up for a life of poverty. He loved all animals. There are so many interesting facts about St. Francis to teach the children!

Today the Pope is in Assisi And Monsignor John prayed the prayer of St. Francis this morning at Bible study.