Upon my daily visit to SouleMama, I discovered that she is doing a new feature on Fridays called {This Moment} She describes it as; "A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."
Sounds good to me!

yoga, scones, and headbands

If I were to fill out a questionnaire and it asked for "hobbies" I would say; crafting, baking, and yoga. Although, yoga is a little deeper than a hobby...but that's a whole other blog entry. Anyway, those are the things that, when I do them, I feel peaceful, happy, energized, and maybe even like I'm contributing something. I strive to do at least one of these things everyday. It's been harder since I am on a 4 month old's schedule now (yes, she's FOUR MONTHS!) but I try. It's been good lately though. She's on a good sleep schedule for now and I've been able to do "me" things a bit more often.
Last night I made these scones. Oh. my. stars. Stop reading this blog and make them RIGHT NOW! They were phenomenal. That may be a bit dramatic when I'm talking about baked goods. But wow. They were so light. And that's not very scone-like behavior. I used some of the last of the dried cranberries we brought back last month from the States, I also added a good bit of lemon zest. They were gone in less than 24 hours.
I wake up early most mornings, and then my amazing husband takes the baby for a few hours until he has to leave around 9:30. I typically spend that time sleeping. Either because I was up late, or because I have a full day of mama-ing ahead of me and I want to rest up. But this morning I was awake around 6:30 or so and I stayed up. I could have gone back to bed, but I decided to get in a quick yoga practice in before Ira had to leave. It was pretty brief, but it felt great. It's taken me a while to get back in my yoga grove since the baby was born. Fatigue, travel, irregular schedules, etc. make it difficult to find time for anything consistent. But today I decided to forget about that and just practice.
After that, I sat down at the sewing machine and made 2 headbands that I had been thinking about doing for weeks. One was using material I had from an Amy Butler fat quarter bundle I got at Spool in Philly last month. Kinda cute, right? And the other was 2 toddler headbands from the Gap that I chopped up and sewed back together so Ramona and I can, well, match. She has a dress in the same material. I promise, I'll only torture her until she's like 2.
I went on to have a really great day, and even banged out some Oatmeal Raisin Cookies during afternoon nap! Not all days are like this, but the ones that are are pretty great.

Breakfast, lately

The jet lag is finally wearing off after our trip home to the States. It was a good week or so of the baby and I having a "who can sleep more" contest. She won. So in an effort to get back to "normal" I'm trying out some new recipes. As usual, I have to modify them for what is available here, something I think I'm finally used to. Although I've been making things for meals throughout the day, here's what breakfast has looked like lately...
Strawberry season is in full swing so here are some strawberry muffins (and some One Good Woman coffee)
Next up are Mushroom and Cheddar Frittata Cups with home fries... Now for the recipes...

Strawberry Muffins
I used this one to start but the batter was too thick and I wanted to make a few changes...

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 to 1 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries

1tsp lemon zest
3 tsps sugar
1 tbs cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and mix well.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to butter mixture. Add vanilla. Gently stir in strawberries and lemon zest.

Spoon batter into muffin pans.

Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over muffins.

Bake at 400º for 20-25 minutes.

Makes one dozen muffins.

As for the frittata cups, they were an early morning idea I had while lying in bed. I've seen similar recipes (South Beach, maybe?) but this one is all my own.

Mushroom and Cheddar Fritatta Cups

I only have a 6 muffin tin, but you could easily double this for a bigger pan. I could see this being an easy brunch dish!

7 eggs
1/4 cup milk
handful sliced mushrooms
handful grated cheddar
butter for the pan
salt and pepper to taste

pre heat oven to 350
grease the muffin pan
in a bowl whisk together the eggs and the milk
gently pour the egg mixture into the individual muffin cups
evenly divide the cheddar and the mushrooms between each cup and sprinkle each over top
salt and pepper each cup
Bake for about 20 minutes or until brown on top

Consider these recipes a make up kiss for not blogging enough. I'll try to not stay away so long next time... : )