triple apple oat muffins

i needed to throw together a quick treat for a co-worker's birthday this week.  i was short on time, so i decided to whip up a batch of muffins.

it just so happened that we had a bowl full of fresh apples sitting on our kitchen table.  we also had a fresh container of apple cider in the fridge as well as some homemade applesauce in there too.  thus, triple apple oat muffins!

these muffins have such an amazing apple flavor.  how could they not?  they are really packed full of apple goodness!  they have diced apples, applesauce, and apple cider in them.  it's not possible to get much more apple favor than that!

the muffins have pieces of apples in every bite and they are wonderfully moist.  the oats give them a little something special too.  they are the perfect fall treat!

triple apple oat muffins
prep time: 15 minutes
cooking time: 10 minutes
baking time: 20 minutes
yields: 12-14 muffins
adapted from annie's eats

ingredients:
4 tablespoons salted butter
2 medium apples
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons apple cider, divided
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup old fashioned oats

directions:
preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat.  swirl occasionally until the butter is a deep golden brown color, be careful to to burn it.  once browned, remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

peel, core, and dice the apples.  add the apples to a skillet over medium heat with 2 tablespoons of the apple cider, 1/4 of the cinnamon, and the nutmeg.  cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples are softened (about 8-10 minutes). remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

in the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the sugar, vanilla, applesauce, egg, and remaining 1/3 cup of the apple cider.  mix in the cooled melted butter.  in a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, allspice and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.  add the sifted dry ingredients all at once to the batter along with the oats.  mix just until combined.  use a spatula to fold in the cooked apples.

scoop the batter into the cups of a greased muffin pan.  top with a few oats.  bake for 20 minutes until the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the muffins comes out clean.  allow the muffins to cool in the pans for 5 minutes before removing them from the pans and transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

enjoy!

love, laurie

kitten cuddles

leko is always a lover, but he gets especially cuddly when it starts getting colder outside.  he loves sitting on our laps wherever we are: in bed, on the couch, even eating morning cereal!  of course, we don't mind at all.  we just love his kitten cuddles.

here are two pictures that ryan snapped on his phone recently of leko napping on his lap.  this little guy sure knows how to make himself comfortable!

it's a dark, cool, and rainy day today.  it was really hard to get myself motivated to get out of bed to go to work.  i'd much rather be at home cuddling up with our little fur baby!

love, laurie

veterans day

for the past few years, the student veterans alliance at the university where i work has displayed thousands of american flags on campus in honor of veterans day.  this year they did their "flags for the fallen campaign" again, displaying 6,800 american flags on campus.  each flag represents a fallen service member.  it's really something to see the thousands of flags arranged in perfectly straight lines, blowing gently in the breeze.  the project is such a lovely tribute to the veterans who served our country.

love, laurie

hummingbird cake

it has been three weeks since i've shared a recipe, and we are long overdue for something delicious here on the blog.  i'm sorry to have kept you waiting, but i have a special treat for you today with this great cake recipe!

for years, i have come across hummingbird cake recipes all over the place.  i've seen numerous versions of this cake online and i have recipes for it in several of my cookbooks at home.  every time i have thought about making it, i have decided not to because not everyone in our family enjoys coconut.  as it turns out, after all those years of pushing the recipe aside, there isn't even any coconut in the cake (just on the outside).

over the weekend, i was flipping through a cookbook and flipped past a recipe for hummingbird cake.  it reminded me that i still had never tried this cake, so i thought it would be the perfect recipe to make for my dad's birthday.  so, i set to it and made it for my dad's birthday dessert which we enjoyed after cleaning up all of those leaves this weekend.

hummingbird cake is thought to have been invented in jamaica sometime in the late 1960s.  in an effort to attract tourists, the jamaican tourist board sent press kits to the united states which included a few recipes from the island (one of which was a version of this cake).

the cake became popular in the southern part of the united states and gained the nickname "the cake that doesn't last."  southern living magazine claims that it has become the most requested recipe in the magazine's history since they first ran a recipe for the cake in 1978.  (in fact, the first known publication of a hummingbird cake recipe was in the february 1978 issue of southern living magazine.)

so what the heck is hummingbird cake?  i had the same question.  it's a banana cake with pineapple and pecans.  it reminds me so much of carrot cake (just minus the carrots, of course).  it's dense (in a good way) just like banana bread. and is unique since it has more fruit in it than flour.

this cake is covered in fluffy cream cheese frosting and decorated with toasted coconut.  the combination of the bananas, pineapple, pecans, cream cheese, and toasted coconut give it a very tropical taste.

hummingbird cake
prep time: 15 minutes
baking time: 45 minutes
yields: one two layer 9-inch round cake (16-18 servings)
adapted from cooking classy

cake ingredients:
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups mashed ripe bananas
1 cup finely chopped pineapple
1 cup chopped pecans

frosting ingredients:
16 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 cups powdered sugar

directions:
preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  grease and flour the side of two 9-inch round baking pans and line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper.  to make the cake: in a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg.  toss the chopped pineapple with 1/4 cup of flour and set aside.  in the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the sugars and eggs until pale and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes).  mix in the oil and vanilla.  add 1/2 of the flour mixture and mix just until combined.  mix in the mashed bananas, then mix in the remaining flour mixture.  fold in the pineapple and the pecans.  evenly divide the batter between the prepared pans.  bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.  once baked, allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing the cakes form the pans and allowing them to cool completely on a wire cooling rack.

to make the frosting: in a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, combine the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and 1 cup of the powdered sugar.  mix to combine.  gradually add the remaining powered sugar to achieve desired consistency and thickness.  spread the frosting over one layer of the cooled cake, place the second layer on top and spread the remaining frosting over the entire cake.  decorate with toasted coconut.

enjoy!

love, laurie

fall cleanup party

on saturday we headed down to my parents' house for a fall cleanup party.  it's that time of the year when the leaves fall, and it is quite a project to clean them all up.  we all got to it and spent a few hours cleaning up all of the leaves on my parents' property.  my mom and i were armed with leaf blowers and rakes, and my dad and ryan were armed with the two lawn mowers.  they say, "many hands make light work" but my arms and back are still sore this morning from all of that!

ryan had a good time riding around on my dad's new mower for sure (and now he wants one of his own)!  it may have been an unconventional way to celebrate my dad's birthday, but we had a good time and got a lot of work done!

after all of that hard work, we enjoyed kicking back on the couch with two movies, a pizza, some birthday cake, and of course the kitties!

hope everyone had a great weekend!

love, laurie

fun links

wow, this week really flew by!  i feel like i blinked and here we are at friday already.  i'm not complaining though, because i'm looking forward to continuing my dad's birthday celebrations this weekend!  here are a few fun links that i found around the internet recently:

1. i cannot wait to make these pumpkin dinner rolls

2. burn 200 calories in 20 minutes with this quick workout video

3. cats who made poor choices

4. i thought this photo was so cute (and reminded me of leko when we leave for work)

5. i'm intrigued by this kale and caramelized onion stuffing

6. i want to dive right into a loaf of this pumpkin cinnamon swirl bread

7. craving something sweet?  here are 7 healthy hacks to beat sugar cravings

8. real life locations that inspired disney movies

9. and finally, my dad found this gem . . . i mean, come on!  what is the world coming to?

have a wonderful weekend!

love, laurie

a birthday dinner celebration

last night after work, we met up with my parents for dinner to celebrate my dad's birthday!  my dad didn't know that ryan and i were coming, so it turned out to be a nice surprise.

we had a good time enjoying dinner together, and we topped the night off with a cannoli for dessert (one of my dad's favorites).  we're looking forward to continuing the birthday celebrations with my parents this weekend!

happy birthday, daddio!

love, laurie

happy birthday, dad!

dad, thanks for putting up with this big mouth for over three decades.
to me, you are the greatest!!!
happy birthday, papa! 

love, laurie

date night: dinner and a show

for ryan's birthday back in august, i bought him tickets to see the book of mormon tour when it came to our town in october.  after a few months of waiting, we finally got to see the show last week on thursday night.  we made a date night out of it and went out to dinner at our favorite thai restaurant downtown before heading to the show.  our seats were awesome and we really enjoyed the show.  it was filthy, politically incorrect, and probably sacrilegious, but it was hysterical!  a few photos we snapped on our phones . . .

love, laurie

halloween 2015

on saturday, my parents came up to our house to celebrate halloween.  we put halloween-themed lights up, decorated the house, and spent the afternoon cooking an array of appetizers for dinner which we ate in the living room as we sat on the couch and waited for trick-or-treaters to come.

in total we handed out candy to 179 trick-or-treaters!  we had a lot of fun handing out candy and seeing all of the different costumes that the kids were wearing.  homemade costumes are always my favorite.  of course, leko kept an eye on the trick-or-treaters too.

^when our families get together there's always a lot of food.  between us and my mom, we made: cranberry relish, spanakopita, salmon cakes, deviled eggs, coconut shrimp, waldorf salad, pot stickers, and baba ganoush.  it was all so good!^

^for dessert, we had pumpkin spice cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting decorated with leaf sprinkles!^

^lots of candy next to the front door ready for trick-or-treaters, and a notepad of course to keep tally of the number of trick-or-treaters.^

^looking out the front door, waiting for the trick-or-treaters to come.  since we went to las vegas this year, we decided that leko's "costume" would be the world's cutest golden nugget since we saw the world's largest golden nugget at the golden nugget hotel on fremont street in vegas.  he is the perfect color of gold, after all!^

hope everyone had a great halloween!

love, laurie

. . . 

previous halloweens: 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014