A Sunday of Messes and Successes

This morning I woke up early and sweet talked Peter into going to the grocery store for me to pick up just a few things so that I could test out a couple of recipes. It did not take too much groveling on my part, just the promise of breakfast.

I started the day with Breakfast Muffins from Martha Stewart Living- The New Classics. I wanted to test out the dried blueberries and cherry's that I had recently picked up to see how they would compare to fresh berries in the muffins. Also, the recipe called for vanilla bean which I have never used before but had also just recently purchased. These muffins were easy to prepare, came together like a typical muffin and looked fabulous coming out of the oven.

Much to my dismay this is would be the last time I would see most of these muffins in the beautiful state in which they came out of the oven. As directed I cooled them in the muffin tin for 15 minutes and then removed them......this is what I found.

Completely raw in the middle!!!! This was to no fault but my own, I knew I should have done a toothpick test before removing them from the oven.......lesson learned. Luckily there were two that survived and we enjoyed them for breakfast. I was happy to find that the dried fruit worked great and during the baking process became soft and plump again.

Onto Black & White Cookies, http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/106171. I have had this cake like cookies several times so I decided to give it a whirl. No problems to speak of while putting them together. The batter was a pretty yellow which was very thick and cake like.

The cookies baked up beautifully. The only thing I will do different next time is to flatten the raw dough out a bit more before baking. These cookies did not spread very much and I think by doing this it will create a flatter cookie.

The frosting was tasty as well and very simple to make. Next time I will add less water make it a little thicker as to avoid dripping.

I took these tasty treats over to the Gilbertson's for friends to enjoy. Unfortunately some of the frosting was "damaged" in the transport, but none the less they were enjoyed by all. We had a great Sunday afternoon chatting and watching football.

I did not have a chance today to sit down and plan out our weekly menu's but will get to it tomorrow. I am thinking of making roasted chicken, since I have two whole chickens in the fridge now, and maybe chicken and dumplings.......I wonder if Peter will eat chicken and dumplings. I think it is worth a shot, I am still feeling victorious over the meatloaf from last week!