Breakfast of the Week!!

Dun Dun Dun!! Apple Walnut Muffins!!! Martha Stewart. I suggest you make them like now.

Halloween 2009

Oh Lord. I know it's late but here's how Halloween with the Santillans went down. I'll be writing an update post as well to let you guys know what's going on and why I haven't been posting as much lately.

First off, Halloween was gunna be awesome this year. Dustin had heard from work that we could volunteer to sign in some local kids onto base to trick-or-treat. So I took off from work and we decided what our costumes would be. We were gunna be Mickey and Minnie and it was going to be adorable. I even took the whole day off from work and everything.

The first thing that went wrong was my costume. I ordered Dustin's costume for Disneystore.com because that was the only place that sold it. I, on the other hand, wanted a...well, sluttier version of my costume. So I ordered a non-official Disney costume from Amazon and it got here right quick. Only problem was...it didn't fit. And not only a little bit. It was a small and I'm not big by any means, but it seemed more like a dress for a toddler than for a size small adult. I got stuck in it when I tried it on! And since it was seasonal, I could only exchange it for another costume. I didn't wanna do that because I didn't want the same thing to happen all over again.

So I sucked it up and ordered the cute but way less slutty, Disney Minnie costume. That was about a week later. I ordered Dustin's costume on September 26th. Ordered mine the beginning of October. I thought that would be more than enough time. I thought wrong. It's November 17th today and the costumes still aren't here. I emailed Disney and they were very nice and informed me that with APO addresses, it takes about 6-8 weeks for packages to arrive. Wish I had known that before.

So we had no costumes. But I was determined to make the best of it. We would give out candy to trick-or-treaters for awhile and then we planned to meet some friends at the Banyan Tree Club and just have a good time.

But first! Since it was Saturday and I was off, I had to make Dustin breakfast in bed. I do this because I'm a nice girl and because I don't want Dustin to punch me in the mouth when I wake him up. Kinda like a peace offering. I knew I wanted to make something pumpkin because it's fall and that means everything I make should either have pumpkin, apples, pecans, and cinnamon. I searched on TastyKitchen.com and found the perfect recipe. Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal!

Let me take a moment to give props to the amazing woman that created TastyKitchen. Her name is Ree Drummond and it you haven't heard of her blog, The Pioneer Woman, then you're missing out on something truly wonderful. Her blog has reached such huge proportions that she now even has a cookbook out that I want but the BX doesn't sell. But TastyKitchen is her other website where you can search for recipes, add recipes, talk to other people, whatever. And it's grown a lot since she started it only a few months ago. It's pretty awesome.

Especially since this baked oatmeal was BEYOND good!

Oh man. I think I'm gunna make this again this weekend. It was so delicious and the perfect way to start the holidays. Those are glazed pecans on top by the way.


Here's our cauldron of candy with the flash on. The kids loved the Fun Dip more than anything else. Good thing to know for next year.

Flash off.

I made Dustin hold it up by our lamp so I could take pictures. Then I backed up and took this picture of him and then realized that he wasn't even paying attention. Can you tell the t.v. was on?? That's essentially the face I deal with on a daily basis when I try to talk to him while the t.v. is on. You'd think I would've learned by now.

We kept the door open so the kids would know we were giving out candy and Apollo could hardly stand it. He wanted to be let out and see the kids sooo badly. He basically stayed by the door like this the whole time.

I got his attention for about a second.

There weren't that many trick-or-treaters at all because it was pouring outside. That's Okinawa for you. I even heard a lot of kids crying and begging their parents to take them home because they were wet and tired. It was cute and sad. But at least we didn't have to deal with any obnoxious kids. It's nice living in base housing.

So then we got ready to go out. I was just gunna dress up in whatever and ended up with an 80's type outfit. Just from clothes I happen to have in my closet. I didn't plan it either. It just sorta happened which was cool. That leather jacket is actually from the 80's too. My Nana gave it to me when I was in NY in May. If you take a closer look you can see my orange nails.

These were my last Halloween nails for the year. :( Now I have no nails so I can give my real nails a chance to see the world. But as soon as December is here, you'd better believe I'll have Christmas nails up the wazoo!

This is what Dustin wore to the club. He calls it his "cock shirt" and I don't let him normally wear it out of the house. But it was Halloween so I said, "what the hey" and let him look weird. Oh, and he did put shoes on eventually before we left the house.

So we drank with some friends, had some fun, and laughed at some crazy costumes at the club. Someone was even dressed as Quail Man!! You know, right?? Doug Funny?? Anyone?

Anyways, even though I was mad about our costumes (and still am!) we made the best of the night and had quite a bit of fun.

Be friends with yeast. It won't bite

Did you know that aside from desserts, I can also bake up some yeast bread?? Well, I can. I started when I was 11? 12? 13? Mom, do you remember?? I was young though. And I haven't made any in a loooong while. I know I haven't made any since moving in with Dustin. Ooops.

So I made some a week or so ago (I'm really getting behind on my posts) and it came out perfectly beautiful and perfectly delish. Why are people so afraid of working with yeast? It's easy peasy.
This one is Garlic Rosemary Bubble Loaf and we managed to finish pretty much all of it before it got stale.

Yea, baby.

All that work for nuttin'

Last week we made stuffed acorn squash. We (Dustin) carefully cut the tops off.

We (Dustin) scooped the seeds out.

We stuffed them full of rice and other tasty fall goodies. Sorry, no picture.

And then we realized that we pretty much hate acorn squash.

Go figure.

That being said...go see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs!!

Mini muffins will be the death of me

I was gunna put these pictures in the fall post but decided they needed their own post. These muffins were that good. I made them twice in one week. Dustin and I consumed 24 Sweet Onion Mini Muffins in one night. One night of pure bliss.

Pretend this is a picture of chopped walnuts and not a picture of chopped walnuts and chopped pecans because I ran out of walnuts. Pretend these pictures aren't from the second batch of mini muffins I made because we ate the first batch too quickly. No time for pictures. There are walnuts in these muffins which we weren't too sure about until we tasted one.

First batch had yellow onions which turned out to make a far superior muffin than the second batch with red onions.

Sweet amazing deliciousness. I actually turned down dessert one night just so I could shove more muffins into my face. I chose onions over sugar! Am I turning into Dustin??? Scary.

Eat it. You want to.

*Sigh* Now I'm considering making these for dinner. Nothing else. Just mini muffins.

I'd happily email anyone the recipe so you can have the amazing mini muffin experience for yourself.

Too many cupcakes and no one to eat it

I get overwhelming urges to bake things a couple times a week. It's starting to get to be a real problem though. I bake too much and then have a million cupcakes or cookies without anyone to consume them. I end up throwing at least half of them away. It's such a shame and it makes me wanna cry every time. I need therapy. For compulsive baking.

Last week I made carrot cake cupcakes with caramel frosting. I should've halved the recipe since I ended up with about 3 dozen cupcakes. I put a few unfrosted ones in the freezer because they actually ended up tasting more like muffins than cupcakes and would make an awesome breakfast. I threw out a bunch of the frosted ones today and it was extremely hard to do because they were so damn good. :( They had pineapple and coconut in them and everything.

*sigh* So pretty when they were first made. I messed up the frosting a tad and made it too soupy so I had to keep these in the fridge at all times after they were done.

This weekend we went to a going away party for one of the guys that Dustin works with. He's also one of the few guys we've actually hung out with so I wasn't too pleased with the news that he was leaving. But anyways, I wanted to bring my millions of carrot cake cuppies to the party BUT the party was on the beach and I knew for a fact that the frosting didn't stand a chance against the heat and humidity of this island.

So I made different cupcakes. I made 2 dozen chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. I wanted to play it safe and pick a recipe that I knew would come out awesome and that I wouldn't fudge up. It was a good choice. And it was a great hit at the party. Sadly though, we didn't stay long and ended up still taking about 6 or 7 cupcakes home that night.

Can someone please come and visit us so I can bake things and not have to see them go to waste?? You have no idea how perfect that'll make my life.

Pecan Pie Squares...want some?

Some days I wake up in the morning (afternoon) and I've overcome with the need to bake something. This happens multiple times a week. Pretty much every time I'm off from work or don't have to go until later. This happened last week.

I quickly pulled out my new giant Taste of Home Baking book and looked through every recipe. I've probably looked through it about 5 dozen times by then but had only made one thing from it so far. I knew I wanted to make something different. Something other than cookies, cupcakes or pies which is what I usually go for when I wanna relieve some stress.

Then I found it. Pecan Pie Squares.

And geezaloo, am I glad I made these! They were so easy and pretty and retardedly delish! And it made me want fall to be here so they would be more relevant.

Please take a moment and just stare at this picture. Isn't my camera wonderful??

That's me. I'm testing out Dustin's piece to make sure it's safe for him to eat.

Just so you know, I'm not very good with knives. I almost sliced my finger off a few times.

Good Lordy look at that!

Is this artistic? I don't know. I don't really care how it looked because it tasted amazing. If you don't make these and eat them right away you probably have no reason to live anymore.

Isn't it a lovely love affair?

Dustin has been having a secret love affair with my camera lately. I don't know what started it. Maybe I'm not paying enough attention to him. Maybe he just needs his own camera. Or MAYBE he can have my camera since he likes it so much and I can get a brand spanking new one! I like this idea.

But anywho, I realized just how many pictures he had taken over the days when I caught him trying to take a candid shot of me as I put together his lunch for him. I snatched the camera away and deleted the pictures ( yes plural! I really need to start being aware of my surroundings) of me. That's when I saw that there were 17 pictures that I had nothing to do with. I went through them and decided that I might as well post them.

So here they are.

Even Apollo was in on this affair and he didn't even have the nerve to let me know! We're not on speaking terms right now.

I guess I got Dustin into taking pictures of food. But unlike him, I don't wanna take pictures of every single thing I make. Just the things that I'm especially proud of or think are super cute or pretty. And I don't take pictures of recipes.

But maybe Dustin was just really proud of this chicken pot pie that I let him help me with. He DID do the crust and that's the first time he's ever worked with any kind of pastry. He did a good job and it was really yummy. I guess I'll let this one go.

See his reflection? I think it's cute. And the way he positioned the spoon makes me wanna pinch his cheeks.

This picture is adorable and completely shows what goes on every friggin' day. If we're in the kitchen, Apollo is right there waiting for us to feed him something. And he always looks so annoyingly cute doing it too.

Yogurt marmalade cake. Dustin had nothing to do with this creation but he wanted to take pictures of it anyway. The only reason I didn't was because I just wanted it in my face. It took longer than it was supposed to in the oven and I was a grumpy mess when it was finally done. I just wanted to grumble and complain while I ate it.

He made me pose with the knife and tried to get me in the shot but I wouldn't allow it. I was Sunday morning! And everyone knows that Sundays mean Tara doesn't get dressed, stick in contacts, do her hair, or wear makeup! Whats that? You didn't know that? Well...now you do. I'm quite sure I had no pants on at this time.

Why is it that...

I can't, for the life of me, flip pancakes properly but for some bizarre-o reason I rock at flipping crepes??

You'd think that I'd be worse at flipping crepes because they're basically the thinner and more delicate version of pancakes. But apparently I'm awesome at producing 10 perfectly round and unbroken crepes. Me and pancakes just don't get along I guess.

By the way, I made crepes for Dustin for breakfast yesterday. And yes, they were awesome.

Just thought I'd share

Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream frosting. I made them two days ago and would've had more (and better pictures) if the batteries in my camera didn't die and I didn't have to then wait for Dustin to buy a battery charger and then wait again for the dead batteries to charge. Yup.

But I'm very proud of these cuppycakes because they're super amazing and delicious! I gave a bunch to the neighbors because it's dangerous to have this many sugary delights in the house.

I need a new camera. I'm so sick and tired of blurry pictures of my food creations. *sigh* Someone please buy me a lovely new camera so I can take GOOD pictures on my honeymoon. Please???