Tails’ Blography

Today I happily got busy in the kitchen with my new set of muffin trays. I mixed up a batch of Snowflake’s Easy Mix Choc-Mint Muffin mix (sorry they didnt have a pic of the choc-mint packet) and eagerly spooned it out into the freshly washed silicone trays. One batch made 12 medium muffins and 12 mini muffins.

I put the individual cups onto a baking tray along with the tray of minis, and popped that into the oven. I set the timer for 10 minutes as I was unsure of how long the minis should bake for. When the timer beeped, I breezed through to the kitchen to have a peek through the glass and they were rising nicely! At this point I squealed the words, “Awwww they’re sooo cute!!!” and promptly called the oh-so-patient bf to come and see the minis rising. He came to look and thoroughly agreed they were cute (and whilst walking back to his PC, laughed and said that only I would be so excited about half-baked muffins, mini or otherwise…and he’s probably right!). I set the timer for another 5 min, then another 5 min, and after those went off I took them out to cool and put in the next batch of six from the big tray. Set the timer for 20 min now that I knew my precious goods would be fine.

While the second batch was baking, of course we had to try a mini while it was still warm – and it was so light and fluffy and cute! It tasted really good (and they even had little mint chips in them!). Of course, the rats got one mini muffin each, and they were so pleased about that, almost melting themselves through the bars of their cage to get to me when I brought them near.

And of course, I took some photos. Let me know what you think!

The large muffins

Large and mini muffins galore!

Isn’t that the CUTEST muffin you’ve ever seen!

And of course I simply had to post pics of the rats enjoying their treats!

“We want! We want! We want!”

Ramoth doing an impression of an alligator (wish this was in focus haha)

Orlith eagerly clinging on

Wirenth looking ominous that I’m taking a photo of her eating

So yesterday the bf and I went grocery shopping, and we were discussing warm winter treats and desserts.

Flapjacks came up, as did muffins and hot chocolate. So, making our way through the baking aisle, we came across some muffin trays. Now, I’ve always wanted a silicone muffin tray (I have muffin mix at home already, as seen in picture) but they always seem too expensive or I see them when I have no money and so on and so forth. You know the story.

Anyway, so we’re debating buying a 6-cup muffin tray (R60), when just above the muffin trays, I spot a whole silicone baking set (R99)! {cue angel choir} It has everything I wanted and more: 12-cup muffin tray (light blue), 6 medium individual cupcake cups (red, neon yellow, & neon green), and (eeeek! *excited squeal*) a 12-cup MINI MUFFIN TRAY (darker blue. F.R.I.E.N.D.S made me fall in love with them! Episode clip below)!

So, I look over to the bf with a huge smile on my face, and say with glee how much of a better bargain the set is (it already wins the bargin-debate by having double the amount of cups than the original tray for less than half the price more) when he replies, with a smile, a simple, “ok.” Ok!?! Yay! He then informs me I better make him some muffins soon…how ominous! Hehe.

So we came home with the cutest, most cheerful looking baking set ever! I cant wait to use em…of course, that will be this weekend! Yay! Its been making me smile all day thinking about them, so I figured I had to blog about it.

The F.R.I.E.N.D.S clip is really funny, and features the mini-muffins (you even get to see one briefly! It’s cute!!):

In winter, thinking about homemade soup brings me to days of rain, wind and cold. Whilst preparing and making this soup, I cant help be thankful for everything I have. A warm bed at night, warm clothes, and a roof over my head to name a few. It’s heartbreaking to know there are so many out there without these essentials. If you can, donate a blanket or other warm items whenever you can to homeless shelters. Keep an eye out for collection boxes and try help where you can.

Homemade Soup!

This leads me to my homemade soup recipe. I’ve been eating too much bread lately at work so I’ve been making and bringing soup for lunch instead. Much healthier, warmer, and tastier. And if you prefer a little carbs in your diet, then a slice of toast would go down well with this meal too.

When making this soup, you can omit the meat if you prefer a plain veg soup, so just tweak it the way you’d prefer it. You could also blend it all to make a thicker, puree if you dont like chunky pieces (I’m a fan of chunks in the soup). Kids might prefer the puree version too. Also feel free to add pretty much any veg you’d like. The only thing to note, is potato doesnt freeze well so if you’re going to freeze it, remove the potato chunks first.

First, put your tomatoes into a bowl and fill with boiling water. Leave for a few minutes, then replace hot water with cold water. When tomatoes are cool, take a sharp knife and gently slice the skin down one side. The skin should peel away with ease. Dice this up and put in a large bowl.

Dice up your onion and cube your meat. Put this in a pot with a tiny dash of olive oil. Not too much oil, as the meat will provide extra when browning.

Peel your carrots, turnips & potatoes.

Chop & grate your veg and put it in a bowl

Chop up half your carrots into thin slices. I prefer using the end part of the carrot so your pieces arent too huge floating in the pot. Chop up your celery and potatoes and put all chopped food into the bowl with the diced tomatoes (if you’re going to take a while with the grating, put the potato chunks into a bowl of water so they dont go brown whilst waiting). Grate the left over ingredients and add to the bowl of chopped veg.

Prepare the brown onion soup mix/Ina Paarmen’s stock powder.

Brown the meat & onions, prepare the stock, add the veg and top up with water

Brown your onions and meat on high. Add the rest of the vegetables and samp. Pour in the stock, top up with boiling water and crumble in your stock cube. Turn to a low heat, cover, and leave to simmer for one to one and a half hours, stirring occasionally. Serve hot.

Store in glass when in fridge, as soup will sour when kept in plastic. Freeze in plastic, but remove potatoes.

My First Gingerbread Men

Cutting out some shapes

Right outta the oven

Cooling on the rack before icing

Ok before I get started with this post may I just say how annoyed Blogger is making me! All I’m trying to do is post my pictures, center them, and center the little tiny line of text below each picture. Now, either when I try to jump to the next line, it makes a HUGE space, or the space happens somewhere else. Then when I try and center my text, it centers everything. Its a huge fuckin’ pain. Yes, thats how annoyed I am. I’m cussing at Blogger for stressing me out! As it is, look, I cant even center that line above otherwise EVERYTHING is centered. Even when I type the code manually. And you know what, I code for a living, I dont friggen want to be doing it while I’m blogging. Plus this teeny-tiny window that I have to type in is too small!

I’ve been thinking of jumping ship to another blog space, so if anyone has suggestions let me know! I have a friend who told me before I joined Blogger to join Wordpress, so if WP is any easier, please tell me and I’ll check it out. Plus other blogs have cool falling snow widgets/gadgets and Blogger just doesnt.

Well now this post doesnt seem so festive anymore I was going to say how much fun it was making my first ever gingerbread men and tell you about my bf’s work function on Sat night. *sigh* Now I’m not in the mood But yes, the gingerbread men were fun to make and decorate and I’ve even whipped up a second batch for tomorrow’s family get together Lets hope they like them!

Anyway, let me know if you’re using another blog space and please tell me what its like……Blogger is really pissing me off!! Thanks!

I searched high and low through all the shops in my area…and then the ones outside of my area…and I even went so far as to ask an online friend to source one for me from America (thanks, Christy )…and then I found it!!! Hidden in an obscure location was a catalog on a baking website….the Wilton’s 101 Piece Cookie Cutter Set!! {cue Hallelujah choir singers)

Only one problem…its in Pretoria. I’m in Cape Town. To make a long story short, eventually after a lot of thinking, I managed to find someone who was willing to collect it for me, and post it to me

My Gingerbread Man – the perfect shape!!

The entire set laid out on the kitchen counter (taken with my cellphone)