Pouliot Pets

Many of you may have seen on Facebook that for Christmas, I got this cutie:

Sadly, she had to go live on my dad's farm. The decision to let her go was a really hard one for me. Ask my husband. I was crying ball of crazy. There were many reasons we couldn't keep her, but the main one is that she just wasn't a good fit for our family. She was not very good with the baby (constantly tackling him and making him cry if he had food in his hands). Also, she was STINKY and DESTRUCTIVE and HATED being inside! She was a pig after all. She now lives on a farm with other animals and I think it is a good fit for her. We can still visit whenever we want, too.

Anyways, I was pretty upset because baby Michael adores animals. He just gravitates towards them and I really wanted him to have a pet. For the most part, though, I was turned off to the idea of a pet after the pig was such a disaster. My husband even more so since he hadn't wanted a pet at all. 

After some thinking and talking, we came to the conclusion that eventually we would get an outside dog (that comes inside sometimes). Well, eventually to me meant start looking on craigslist. I think my husband meant in 10 years. But then a family miracle happened. I found an outside border collie puppy for sale! This was a miracle because it is the ONE pet my husband LOVES! He grew up with a border collie named Ty and knew that it would be a great pet for our family. It didn't take 10 seconds for him to say yes.

So last night we drove to pick up the newest member of our family:

Meet Minnie! She is already a perfect fit for our family. Why?

1. She is super affectionate and gentle to everyone, especially the baby.
2. She is used to being outside, so no need to worry about that. Although she is coming inside these first few days for bonding.
3. My husband LOVES her and she loves him. This is key as the pig and my husband had a very rocky relationship which led to a lot of anger in our home.


Alright, so we got her yesterday and she "slept" in our bed last night. BIG MISTAKE! She didn't sleep at all. It was like we had a new baby. Only this one loved kisses and laying on your head. Even though we are a little sleep deprived, she is still just the cutest thing ever and we are super happy to have a pet in our home.

She is definitely going to make our family happy! :) 

Donut Mufifins

Last night as I was perusing Facebook, I came upon the recipes for muffins that taste like donuts. Now, I love donuts. I mean, if I could eat them every day without consequence, I think I would. This morning as I was driving home from taking my husband to work I was VERY tempted to stop and buy donuts. Thankfully, I remembered this little recipe and saved myself some money.

I went home and made them and anxiously awaited the results. Unfortunately, they did not taste ANYTHING like donuts. They were still yummy, just not donut tasting. I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but it always seems that the recipes I find online via social media are always a little off. They never quite turn out how you hope. For example, I made cake batter fudge I found on Pinterest and it turned into a giant glob of super sweet dough. There was nothing fudge-y about it! Needless to say, I was really hoping that this would not end the same.

In addition, I wanted to practice some food photography for the monthly challenge over on photographersconnecion.com. I also wanted to try some different editing techniques for food.

SPOILER:

Oh yeah, look at that thing!!

Okay, as these babies were cooking, my house smelled AMAZING! I was beginning to think that even if they turned out bad, I'd still make them before guests come over so my house would smell good!

I could hardly wait for them to get done!!

I've really started loving the look of matte photos! Check out that glaze!

I wasn't the only one who was excited about these muffins. Baby Michael almost pulled the tablecloth off trying to get these guys.

Alright, so your probably wondering when I'm gonna get to the recipe. Let me preface that by saying these were pretty and smelled delicious, but they did have a few problems that I'm gonna change next time.

First, the recipe calls for 1/2 tsp of Nutmeg. I think next time I'll do 1/4 tsp instead. I am not big Nutmeg fan as it is.

Second, the original recipe calls for a melted butter and a cinnamon sugar glaze. I decided to make it more of a donut glaze and used powdered sugar and milk with a tiny bit of vanilla and cinnamon. I'd looked pretty,
but it really didn't work with these muffins. Next time, I'll just do the cinnamon sugar and melted butter.

Third, these are the farthest thing from healthy and probably shouldn't be eaten as a breakfast. I think there is probably a way to make these healthy, but you'd have to ask my dear friend over at Life with JaM. She is amazingly talented at making deliciously healthy recipes!

Okay, here is is!!

Not-so-Donut-Tasting Donut Muffins:

1 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Nutmeg (like I said, I'd use about half that)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon (the original recipe calls for only 1/4 tsp, but I used 1/2)
3/4 cup White Sugar
1/3 cup Vegetable or Canola Oil
1 egg
3/4 cup Milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Mix dry ingredients in bowl. In separate bowl, mix wet ingredients. Slowly beat wet ingredients into dry being careful not to over mix them.

Bake for 20-25 min. (Mine were done after 20 minutes.)

While they are baking, mix melted butter and cinnamon sugar to make "icing". Soon after muffins are done, coat in "icing"

Michael-isms and the funny things that make us love him!

I have been really wanting to write down all the little things Michael does that makes him so special, so here I am. And now that I'm here writing it, I am sure I'll forget some.

-He is SO clumsy! (He is my child, after all.) You can see in this pictures he is sporting a nice "Joker" cut. How did this happen? He fell into a file cabinet!! Later that day, he fell and slammed his eye into my head and gave himself a black eye! GAH!!

-He is constantly saying "What's this??" It was really cute for the first hour... three weeks later? Are you kidding me... its still super cute (mostly).

-He is a camera CHEESE!! He loves having his picture taken. It could be because I am constantly taking his picture.... But seriously? How cute is he??? He even poses now!

Love his smiley eyes!

-He finds it really funny if you tell him his feet are stinky! In fact, he will stick his feet in your face to get you to do it!

-Somehow he has come to think "fold your arms" means lay down on  your stomach and put your hands above your head. (Like someone praising Allah.) We did not teach him this, but every time we kneel for prayer he lays down and it cracks me up. Sometimes I can't even say the prayer I am laughing so hard! At least he's being reverent! People are gonna start thinkink we're closet Muslims. Were not, by the way! :)

-He loves anything dangerous. (Goes great with how clumsy he is!) Anyways, he has recently discovered the wonders of climbing! In this picture, he has wheeled a wagon over to his tool set and climbed on it... oh my!

-He is NOT a picky eater... I mean, he tried to eat a crayon for Pete's sake and the pigs food (YUCK). He will pretty much eat any thing that looks like food! It has been such a blessing!

-He loves books. He had so many, I bought a bookshelf for them, but he prefers them on the floor for easy access... UGH.... will I ever have a clean house?

-He really loves Bananas! (He calls them Nanas, though.) The other night he wouldn't eat dinner (as I mentioned previously, this was such a strange thing since he loves food). Anyways, later in the evening I had a mommy genius moment. I made him banana-peanut-butter-oatmeal "ice cream." Basically you just blend frozen bananas and toppings into ice cream consistency. It is super sweet and nutritious! YAY!!

Basically he is one crazy wonderful blessing to us. We are loving watching his personality develop and hope that we can teach him all the things he needs to know!