Spiced Sweet Potato Muffins with Walnut Streusel

So, I'm going to start posting about things I make that are nummy! I don't promise good pictures, but I think you'll be inspired to make some of this great stuff too :-)

(Also, this is a good way for me to keep track of what I've made and the recipe... More than half the time I make something new, I like it and then forget about it and loose the recipe. Bummer!)

I made the Spiced Sweet Potato Muffins with Walnut Streusel on Wednesday morning. Very simple to make and delicious!



Sweet Potato Muffins
1 sweet potato or yam
1/2 cup milk
2 large eggs, beaten
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon salt

Walnut Streusel
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter 12 muffin cups or line with paper liners.

Peel and cube the potato. Place into a saucepan, add water to cover and cook over medium heat until just tender, about 20 minutes. Drain, cool and mash in a mixing bowl. You should have about 1 cup mashed potato.

Stir together potato and mild. Beat in the eggs and melted butter. In another bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cardamom and salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the potato mixture just until blended.

Make the streusel in a small bowl. Stir the walnuts, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon together. Add butter; mix until crumbly. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, filling them two-thirds full. Sprinkel with the streusel mixture and gently pat it.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from the cups and cool on a wire rack.

*Makes 12 muffins.

Cardamom is an interesting spice and I'm looking forward to making more recipes with it. It's expensive, so I suggest borrowing some to try first and finding a few recipes to make with it!

Recipe found in Beatrice Ojakangas' Great Holiday Baking Book, pg. 221.

Headband

I had this headband for Ruby to wear in the pictures we took Thanksgiving day, but I totally forgot about it! So, I had to get pictures of her once we got home :-)


Don't you just want to smooch that double chin of hers?!

Thanksgiving 2009

The Fuller's all get together with Ron's side of the family for Thanksgiving. So, around 11:45 today we all took off from our house and headed to Aunt Jeanette and Larry's house in Granbury, TX. By "we all" I mean all 13 of us! Jan, Lindsay, Libby, Ruby and I rode in Jan's car. Jon, Sawyer, Laurie and Ron drove Brandon's car. And, Brandon rode with Daniel, Elizabeth and Kellen.

Aunt Jeanette and Larry have a beautiful lake home! I didn't get many pictures of their property, but here are a few. The first is a cute little house that holds all of Jeanette's family memorabilia. If I lived here, I would spend hours sitting in this cute little house with it's darling little room, drinking coffee and reading books!




The Ducks were thankful we were there to feed them!



More random shots around the house.





The boys played football in the front yard.



Kellen and Sawyer had the same shirt on, totally by accident! It actually ended up being very cute :-)


After lunch and before the Cowboy's football game we took tons of family pictures. Jon's Great-Grandma Bertha is with us still. So we had to get 5 generations in one picture! Bertha's daughter Paulette is Ron's mom. (And, just for more background Paulette and Jeanette are sisters)



More Fuller's! Back Row: Me, Ruby, Sawyer, Jon, Laurie, Daniel, Brandon and Lindsay. Front Row: Jan, Ron, Kellen, Liz and Libby


Kellen, Daniel and Liz.


Jan, Libby, Brandon and Ron.


Us with Stacy, Keeli, Kade and Randall.


And, just some more random pics of the kiddo's taken throughout the day.






A super cute pic of Jon and Sawyer and a doggy!


And, lastly some really good looking people! :-)


Gobble, gobble!!!

Sweet, Little Ruby Girl

Ruby is SO dang cute! She is getting SO big and starting to chunk out a bit :-) Mama's Milk is working wonders! (especially considering how tiny she was to start off with) She has these little rolls on her legs that are so cute! She's turning out to be a really easy baby, a lot like Sawyer was. The other night she slept from 10pm to 4:30am, which was very nice for Mommy! I can't believe she is already 2 and half months old... Time flies!

I know this is a "boy-ish" looking outfit, but I love it! I got it as a shower gift when I was pregnant with Sawyer and like any new mommy I didn't put it on him right away because I always thought it was too big... Then, when I finally did try it on him it was too small and he only wore it once. So, Ruby's going to wear while she can!

These jammies are a size 3 Months and they fit!



Yeap, like I said, she's pretty darn cute! :-)

Day's of Sawyer's Life 08/16/2009 - 11/23/2009

It's been three months since my last Day's update for Sawyer... I have no idea where to start with all the things he has done over the last three months... Everyday he does something new. Watching him grown up has been absolutely amazing!

Sawyer is 1 year and 7 months as of this week (19 Months). Jon and I started writing down all the words he can say and I stopped at about 200. Yeap, TWO HUNDRED!!! Sawyer speaks in sentences. We'll ask him a question, like "Sawyer, do you want to go outside?" and he responds "Yes, I do." He also says things like "I want up.", "I want down." And of course "Mine" is a word he likes to use often! He knows all of his Texas family members names and says most of them well. He also knows all the dogs names. When someone comes over and knocks on door, he shouts "Come In!". This is one of my favorite things he does. It's SO cute!

Other cute stuff: When Sawyer toots, he'll smile at me and hold his booty and say "Noises". When he falls down he says "booty hurts". When I'm nursing Ruby he says "Ruby, hungry, milk". He probably says "I hungry" the most through out the day! When we put Sawyer down for a nap and he doesn't go to sleep right away, sometimes he'll yell "Mommy, Daddy, I stuck" (as in stuck in his crib)! We're still waiting to hear "I love you!". I'm guessing he'll say it to Ruby first :-)

Also, Sawyer finally says "Cracker". For the longest time he would call them cookies and now he knows the difference!

Sawyer likes to play with his animal puppets. He makes them kiss each other!



All tucked in!


One day couple weeks ago, Sawyer was playing on the floor with a car and with each roll back and forth he counted one, two, three, four! I didn't even know he could count! Jon and I had been saying numbers and counting to him, but he hadn't done it himself. Now, he can count up to 7. He says all the numbers up to 10, but I haven't heard him say them in order passed 7.

I'm also thinking he might be teething again... I'm not sure when the 2nd molars come in... His diapers have been HORRENDOUS, seriously clear the room stinky, just awful! He's very irritable, which could also have something to do with the Terrible Twos. He's chewing on his fingers again and the other day he gagged himself and threw-up chunks of Hot Dog and Mac-N-Cheese! Pretty nasty...

Sawyer is SO sweet to Ruby. Amazingly sweet. Couldn't ask for it to have gone any better sweet. I hope his kind and tender nature towards her lasts!

Sawyer likes to wear these Skidder shoes he got from Nannie. He calls them his boots!


The other day I got Sawyer up from his nap and brought him out to the living room to cuddle with me on the couch. He crawled down to the floor, curled up by his toys and slept on the floor for about a half hour. It was pretty funny! :-)


He is very attached to Jon right now. It's very sweet, but kind of hurts my feelings sometimes too... Like this past Sunday we were at Chucky Cheese and Jon wanted to go play some "big boy" games. So, he passed Sawyer to me so I could hold him and Sawyer screamed, literally SCREAMED, "NO! I want Daddy!!!". I was crushed... When Jon's gone, Sawyer constantly asks for him. Usually Jon's at work, so I tell Sawyer that daddy's at work. This week when Sawyer asked where daddy was, I asked him the question back and he said "Daddy at work". He's definitely his daddy's boy right now!



He is a very happy little boy. Always wanting to play outside and copy everything his mommy and daddy do! He's non-stop, running around most of the time. But, there are times when he will just sit and be still, which is very nice! Jon and I are both really enjoying the age he is at right now :-)

Visiting Family in Aubrey, TX

On Sunday this past weekend we made the hour drive north to Aubrey, TX to visit Jon's Uncle Randall and Aunt Stacy and their two kids Kade and Keeli (I blogged about these guys earlier this year). We met them at their church and then spent the day hanging out at their house. Kade and Keeli are totally in love with Ruby and wanted to hold her as soon as we got home.

Then it was Uncle Randall and Aunt Stacy's turn!


Kade showed Sawyer his Guinea Pigs which Sawyer started off calling "pigs", but then switched to calling them "bunnies".




The backyard has all kinds of fun stuff for kiddo's to do and Sawyer had a great time :-)

Stacy showed me how to make bows and hats. Here's one of their kitty cats sleeping on the table with the things we (by we I mean Stacy!) made.

We had a great time and are hoping to make monthly visits :-)