Mini weekend catch-up :)

Hello Sweets,

I hope everyone has been enjoying their weekends.  Nathan and I are having a great time down at the Texas Motor Speedway!  Did any of you have something special going on this weekend?  I would love to hear all about it. :)  I wanted to write a quick filler blog since I am not baking or cooking this weekend, besides the batch of Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes I whipped up yesterday before the race, I wanted to give all my lovely readers an update.

Well we just finished day two of three of our race weekend, which means the longest race is tomorrow, which also means it's the most exciting day. :)  Now I know not everyone likes racing, or maybe you don't know much about it either.  I was that person (both ways) up until April of this year.  Nathan, his dad, cousin, and uncle all get season tickets every year out at the Texas Motor Speedway, and for 3 weekends a year, they are next to unreachable lol.

Last year at Christmas time, Nathan had asked me if I liked racing, or if I'd be willing to go to a race and see what it was all about.  Now I was one of those people who always thought there really wasn't anything interesting about racing (ask me to go to a hockey game and I'm in!).  But I love him, and love sharing past times with him almost as much, so of course I said yes, and for the April races his dad told me I could have his ticket :) (so sweet of him, since I was a newb and all).  First, and really only concern of mine, was the noise.  Now anyone who knows me, knows I suffer from daily migraines (it's a really good day if I DON'T get one :( ), but they reassured me I wouldn't have an issue since they had noise cancelling headsets.  I was a little weary as to how well they would work, but I'll be damned, they work wonders, and made it extremely easy for me to enjoy the races!  Not to mention they have scanners that allow you to listen to the drivers and their crew.  This is one aspect I REALLY enjoy, but once Nathan explained all the science that goes into the whole ordeal, I was officially a NASCAR girl!  I thoroughly enjoyed my first experience with NASCAR, and ever since April I have been given a ticket to go with them :) (they love me lol).

Really the best part of a NASCAR weekend, is the tailgating you do before and after!  You and your friends arrive at the speedway at least a few hours before the race to sit, chat, grill a few hot dogs, and maybe make some friendly wagers in the parking lot before heading in.  Just about thirty minutes before the race is set to start, we make our way to the seats (which by the way have a COMPLETE view of the track!), get all settled with the headsets and scanners just in time for the famous "Drivers, start your engines!".  Because we have two sets of radios, one a scanner for the drivers/broadcast, and one to talk to each other, we can listen to the drivers talk smack, and of course, smack talk each other lol, all in good sport of course.  Once the race is over, the driver does his victory lap complete with a "smoke show" burnout, the fireworks adorn the backstretch, then it's back out to the the parking lot to wait at our little tailgate party/BBQ while the traffic thins out.  The best part of tailgating at NASCAR is really two things; 1) meeting new people and 2) seeing that complete strangers will help you out even if you didn't ask, they really are super sweet people.

While I was packing up all the baked goods I made (officially the popular baker of NASCAR now lol), and all the other miscellaneous items we needed, I grabbed a tin of Altoids.  Now I'm not sure if any of you have had Altoids before, but I never buy them so I did not know about their "curiously strong facts".  Well this particular tin had a "fact" that had me in tears because I was laughing so hard that I just had to share it with all of you in my blog world :p

I hope you all find this as funny as I did

Of course Nathan, being raised a proper southern gentlemen, walked with me for a little while to check out the vendors and what they were peddling to the public.  We came across a cute little vendor called "Race Angels".  They're geared strictly towards women and sell really cute racing related items.  I thought we were just window shopping but when I said "are you ready to go back?", Nathan replied "well did you see something you liked?", and of course, I did.  Needless to say, Nathan bought me a cute little "racing princess" t-shirt.  I absolutely love it, and will be wearing it tomorrow!  The sales girl mentioned a shirt that was on sale for $10, but after he had already paid with his card (I'm sure she didn't make that mistake again tonight lol).  Needless to say, we're going to wander back down tomorrow, and if it's still there, we're going to make them an offer they cannot refuse!  

Isn't it pretty? :)  He spoils me so much!

Well we are both exhausted and have to try and get to bed at a half decent time as tomorrows race is a day race, so that means I need to get some beauty sleep or strong coffee in the morning lol.  Until we do though, this is what we're doing/ where we'll be;

Best feeling in the world, relaxing with your feet up!

I promise a full NASCAR dedicated post, probably Tuesday, as I forgot to pack my computer adapter for my camera, lol figures, but I'll do a couple mini ones tomorrow and Monday.  Until next time......

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxo 

Canuckette's crazy bake off!!!

Hello Sweets,

Oh man oh man am I baking exhausted, lol.  After a double batch of my original pecan pie muffins, one batch of the new pecan pie muffins, and one batch of pecan dream (originally walnut, but my love likes pecans more), even an avid baker like myself can find that quite exhausting.  Let me paint you a little bit of a more fun picture of what I was doing.  Imagine if you would: me spinning around like a tornado from station to station, and to the oven for about 3 hours straight, lol, funny eh (see what I did there :p)?  The only downside was that during the prep of the pecan dreams, I forgot to take some of the in between photos :( bad bad Jennifer!

So the reason I tried a new pecan pie muffin recipe was because my go to recipe only had 5 ingredients, and this new one has much more, and a different approach all together.  Sometimes it's fun to try new recipes, whether they are just a different variation of one of your favorite recipes, or a completely new recipe, like the second one I will be sharing with you guys tonight; passed down to me via my auntie Peggy (shout out), whom it was given to by my grandma Oburni for Pecan Dreams :)

I know it seems a little crazy baking three different things in the same evening, but I am a little crazy, for anyone who knows me, knows it's true.  I'm pretty sure trying a new pecan pie muffin recipe when I already have a phenomenal one is a little crazy, but alas, I am venturing down this crazy road, won't you join me?

Pecan Pie Muffins (via Southern Living)

Ingredients

1C firmly packed light brown sugar

1C pecans, chopped

1/2C all-purpose flour

1/2Tsp baking powder

1/4Tsp salt

1/2C butter, melted

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1Tsp vanilla extract

vegetable cooking spray

1/2C pecans, finely chopped

Directions:

1)  Preheat oven to 425F.  Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; make a well in center of the mixture.  

2)  Stir together butter and next 2 ingredients; add to brown sugar mixture, and stir just until moistened.

3)  Coat 2 (12 cup) miniature muffin pans (I used a regular one and yielded 18) well with cooking spray.  Place 1Tsp of the finely chopped pecans in each muffin cup; spoon batter over pecans, filling almost to top.  Place muffin pans on an aluminum foil-lined jelly roll pan.

4)  Bake at 425F for 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool for 2 minutes.  Run a knife around edge of each cup to loosen muffins (I didn't need to do this as I used an ample amount of cooking spray), and remove from pans. 

They look, smell, and taste delicious of course, lol, I did make them after all!  But alas, during my tornado baking spree I don't have a final pic, but later in this post there will be a group shot of all the goodies!

So this next recipe was sent to me from my auntie Peggy, she is probably one of my biggest supporters of my blog, and was very excited to try it, since it was passed down through the family.  :)  Now as I said earlier, it did call for walnuts, but here in Texas, pecans are the way to go, so that is my only adjustment since they have the same texture and structure.  On to the dream!

Pecan Dreams (via my auntie)

Ingredients:

2Tbs butter

5Tbs all-purpose flour

1/8Tsp baking soda

1C pecans, coarsely chopped

2 eggs

3/4Tsp vanilla extract

1/4Tsp lemon extract

1C brown sugar, packed

forgot the eggs lol lame

Directions:

1)  Melt butter in an 8" square pan.

2)  Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together; stir in walnuts.

3)  Beat eggs and extracts; add brown sugar gradually, blend until thick.  Blend in dry ingredients.

4)  Turn into pan over the melted butter, do not stir.

finally a picture! pre oven

5)  Bake at 350F for 30 minutes, when finished a toothpick placed in the center will come out clean.

Yummy cookie like treats....I mean dreams :p

6)  Loosen around the edges immediately after cooking.  Then cut and enjoy!

mmmmm yummers!!

Ahh so yes this was a lot of work, and my shoulders and neck are currently in protest, but it's the one thing that can pick up my mood when having a bad day, so I trucked on through, and I even got a shoulder massage after from my man :)

Don't forget you can find the original pecan pie muffin recipe here!

Above is my conquest in the kitchen tonight, not a bad haul :)  I think I will be the favorite "foodie" at NASCAR race weekend starting tomorrow.  So please bare with me if my posts are spaced a little further apart as I will not be at my computer for large portions of the day, but I'll try to do some recap posts on what we did, ate, and saw.  I'll even snap a few pictures of our tailgating crew.  They are all super nice and friendly...actually pretty much all NASCAR attendees are.  I hope you enjoy the recipes I provided tonight. Let me know what you think of them.  Also, I would love to hear some of your family recipes that have been passed down, because they are to savory to pass up :)  Until then......

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxo