The Artful Parent

Baby pics

I'm still feeling short on words, but wanted to post a few photos. These were taken by my mom who, besides snapping pictures left and right, has been incredibly helpful these past couple of weeks.

A sleeping Daphne.

Baby feet and a flower from Maia.

Swinging with Maia.

Eyes wide open.

A heart for Maia

Hello there. It's been a while. Two weeks of nursing, changing diapers, postpartum mood swings, gazing nonstop at my sweet baby's face, and just beginning to figure out how to balance the needs of an active four year old and a newborn. Thank goodness for wonderful friends, family, and dinners delivered to our doorstep!

Today I wanted to share this -- a heart I made for Maia. The day Daphne was born I woke up at 4:30 in the morning with mild contractions. Unable to sleep, I turned on my bedside lamp and thumbed through Amanda Soule's Handmade Home, a gift from a friend at my blessingway the week before.

I came across the "family heart" and knew that I had to give one to Maia when we left for the hospital. So, early that morning, while Harry and Maia were still sleeping, I sewed her a heart with a little pocket for love notes. It was an easy project, finished before the rest of the house was awake. I sewed through mild contractions full of love for my daughter whose life I knew was about to change with the addition of a sister.

That afternoon we dropped Maia off at a friend's house, the heart tucked into her overnight bag, and headed to the hospital. Daphne was born soon after and I became a mother of two; Maia a big sister.

Introducing Daphne

We have a new member of the family! Daphne surprised us by coming on Monday, two weeks early.

I don't have much to say now, but thought I'd share the news and a few photos.

As you can imagine, Maia is a very proud and excited big sister!

Make Ahead Freezer Blueberry Muffins

I baked some of our freezer muffins this morning for breakfast and since you asked for a follow up, here's a pic. They were delicious! I'll save the rest for after baby but wanted to test them before making another batch.

I love scones and think I'll try this idea with scones as well. There wasn't a recipe in The Best Make-Ahead Recipe, but if it works for muffins, it'll probably work for scones too, right? That's my thinking anyway.(Update: I do this all the time with scones now. Works great!)

We do this with cookies all the time, by the way. Harry's the cookie chef in our family and he'll bake half a recipe and freeze the other half as cookie balls so we can have fresh-baked cookies anytime we want them (dangerous!).

I'm starting to feel like the blogger who doesn't blog. My only two posts this week are on the same topic. Lame, eh? But my energy, when I have it, is going into cooking, cleaning, preparing, and catching up with friends right now.

Oh, and keeping up with Maia. The rest of the time I feel pretty tired. I took a two hour nap BEFORE NOON earlier this week! And this is from someone who can rarely fall asleep during the day. I'm 37 weeks today. It feels like a milestone. But also a reminder of how much I still want to get done before the baby comes.

---

Make Ahead Blueberry Muffins for the Freezer

(An abbreviated version of the Anytime Muffin recipe from The Best Make-Ahead Recipe)

INGREDIENTS

• 3 c. all purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 10 Tbsp (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups plain whole milk yogurt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Set aside.

2. Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together at medium-high until light and fluffy, about 2 min. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each.

3. Reduce mixer speed to medium-low and beat in half of the flour mixture, followed by one-third of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining flour mixture, followed by half of the remaining yogurt; repeat with the remaining flour mixture and yogurt.

4. Mix in 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries. I also added 1 Tbsp lemon zest, although it wasn't part of the recipe, just because I like lemon and blueberry together.

5. Spoon batter into muffin tins that have either been oiled or lined with paper cupcake liners.

6. At this point you can either cook them immediately (375 degrees F. for 25 to 35 min.) or freeze for later. If freezing, it says you can wrap the whole muffin tin with plastic wrap, freeze for 6 hours, then pop out the frozen muffins and put into a freezer bag. Transfer back to muffin tin when ready to bake. For frozen muffins, bake at 375 degrees F. for 35 to 40 minutes.

Notes:

• I used nonfat yogurt because that's what I had in my fridge this time and it worked fine.
• Next time I'm going to try using half whole wheat flour and see how they turn out. Also, the cookbook has all kinds of variations for this recipe.
• The recipe says it makes 12 muffins. For me it made almost double that—maybe because I used the cupcake liners.

Preparations

Yesterday was Maia's first day at a new preschool. Other parents were taking pictures of their kids. Being the stellar mom that I am, I didn't even think to bring my camera. I take pictures of every art project to happen under our roof and the silly food I cook, but don't quite get the real milestones. And no, I didn't take a picture last year either when it was her very first day of preschool ever. I think I was too busy taking a picture of the contents of her lunch box. What's wrong with me?!

I'm feeling a little guilt. Can you tell?

So this is what you get today instead. Chicken enchiladas. I spent my day making food for the freezer for after the baby comes. (We ate some for dinner, too.)

I picked up a copy of The Best Make-Ahead Recipe from the library and made a list of everything I want to make. Besides the enchiladas, I made a big batch of blueberry muffins yesterday that you just pop out of the freezer and into the oven.

The uncooked batter gets frozen first in muffin tins (with or without paper liners) then dropped into a freezer bag. When you're ready for a few blueberry muffins, you just take what you want, put them back in a muffin tin and straight into the oven. You don't even need to thaw them first, apparently. I think this is brilliant! I'm going to test a few soon, though, just to make sure it actually works before making another batch (orange cranberry next). Although, considering that these are the same people who do America's Test Kitchen, the testing on my part is mostly so I have an excuse to eat a few of these blueberry muffins before the baby comes.