Tasty Tuesday~ Nutella Cupcakes

I have been asked for this recipe for a while, so here as promised......Nutella Cupcakes! With these two words put together how can you go wrong? Those two words are two of my favorite words in the world! When you put them together you have a little bit of sweet genius! Anything with Nutella I am willing to try, so I made these a few months ago. They are delicious! Then I ran out of Nutella.... TRAGIC! but we went barge shopping for our years supply and Keith and I stocked up on Nutella. I really should buy stock in it! hehehe. When I made mine I used egg replacer and they worked well but I bet with eggs would be so fluffy and light and even more delicious. If you like Nutella try them, you will love them. They don't even need to be frosted! DELICIOUS!

Nutella Cupcakes
1/4 cup butter at room temperature.
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup Nutella at room temp.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

In a bowl beat butter, oil, and sugar with mixer till light and fluffy. add eggs and vanilla. Beat till smooth.

In a separate bowl stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and beat on low till all combined. Batter will be thick. It needs to be so you can swirl the nutella.

Divide Batter in 12 paper lined muffin cups. Drop a spoonful of Nutella on top and swirl through batter with a Knife or bamboo skewer. Bake 25-30 minutes. Let them cool.... then hide them because they will be gone soon!=)

Blueberry Hill

I posted last week that it was Blueberry season here in Galena, and I now have pictures of our picking adventure. We went out with Shell and Chris and their kids and headed to a few places we thought there would some berries. We found a cool trail up by the dunes that none of us had walked. It was so pretty, no berries but it was a fun walk. We moved on to one spot I knew there were some berries and headed out. It was fun to take 5 kids. I am surprised we got any berries but we did and had a great time! Blueberry pancakes are looking good right now!=)

 "The Bear went over the mountain, to see what he could see"

 

 What a pretty hike!

 Pretty View

 Nice trail to walk

 The boys picking berries

 Searching

 Serious berry hunter, he wants a pie with blueberries

 It was a challenge to keep Isaiah out of the berry bucket

 Shell with some help

 YUM YUM YUM!

 Little helpers

 Isaiah and Kara

 Found some

 LOVE my berry picker!

 Kaden

 Tasting them to make sure they are sweet

 Yep they are sweet

A Years Worth

• 10 boxes Bisquick
• 40 cans chicken
• 25 cans green chilies
• 20 cans pumpkin
• 35 cans tuna
• 8 boxes velvetta
• 10 bags chocolate chips
• 10 bags coconut
• 150 lb flour
• 150 lbs bread flour
• 150 lbs sugar
• 100 lbs rice
• 40 boxes mac & cheese
• Instant potatoes
• 48 boxes life long milk
• 10 boxes powder milk
• 40 cans tomato sauce
• 30 boxes crackers
• 12 bags dog food
• Beans
• peaches
• pineapple
• oatmeal
• and endless supply of coffee
• 365 rolls of toilet paper.(yes this is one important necessity and we don't want to run out!)

OK this is just a sample of what we buy for our years supply of groceries. There is another 4 pages of things we buy too but I didn't want to bore you with the WHOLE list.  After a frantic 3 days of shopping and packing, the biggest discouragement is you arrive home with nothing to show for it.... At least till the barge arrives. When the barge arrives in Galena it is like Christmas in July! It is so exciting sitting on the side of the river and watching the barge arrive and knowing our stuff is on it. And it is exciting to know it that all that work made it safely to our town. If you look closely the barge is almost level with the water level. Makes you pray that no big wave comes to wash over the barge.

 Here it comes

 

 While it is docking I am thinking all the yummy things I can now cook because my supply is back up to full. Muffins, breads, breakfast, lunch, dinners and desserts. Yep it is so exciting!

 There is ours! The 4 black Fish totes

 Here comes 2

 Up the steep bank. Glad Charlie is such a good driver on the forklift too!

 I didn't get any pictures of unloading at the dock, but it happened so fast I didn't get a chance. One thing I love about Galena is the way people jump in and help you. We had asked our friend Myra to help us transport stuff from the barge to our house since she has a large truck. So she followed us to the barge and then a bunch of others that saw us unloading and asked if they could help us.  And when we ran out of room in our trucks they offered their vehicles.  And when then they followed us to the house and helped us unload everything. We only had to make one trip with all the vehicles. It was awesome! Thanks friends! We were so blessed to have help!

Unloading at our house

 Even the kids helped carry stuff into our garage

It was great to get all of our stuff home and then I spent the rest of the day...... can you guess? Yep Organizing! I am still organizing our pantry! It takes a little bit to organize 1 years worth of food. I hope to take pictures later when I am done.  Any one needing to know how much stuff they use in a year.... call me. I know! =)

Galena Newest Animal

When You think animals that live in Alaska what animals do you think of?

Black Bears?~ Yes

Grizzly Bears?~ Yes

Moose~ Yes

Eagles~ Yes

Polar Bears~ Yes

Whales, Seals, Sea Lions..... Yes in some places

But would you guess chickens, turkeys, ducks? Well yes in our community Chickens are becoming the popular animals to raise and get some eggs. But The newest addition to our animal community is  can you guess??? ...... A pig! YEP Galena has it's FIRST PIG! I feel privileged to be friends with this pig. Our dog kennel was used to transport the little piglet. Jason and Myra Harris and Kenton Moos have gone into the Bacon business. He doesn't have a name yet but we all call him something different. Hamlet, Porky, Kevin Bacon...hehehehe Jason has even gotten the pig to "purr", yeah he is having fun raising a pig. He even makes veggie stew for the pig since the pig is a little picky on how he eats his veggies. So while Jason gets attached to the pig, Kenton is the back up to make sure it ends up in the freezer in the end. But for the mean time, Porkster, is the entertainment of all the kids. Harris' Petting Farm. Yep, We all take field trips to see the pig and we are all saving our veggies and table scraps to feed the pig.  He is pretty cool! I am just waiting for Charlotte the spider to come up with a cool web design!

 Chowing down on some grub!

 What a pig!

 Isaiah getting Piggy Kisses

 Kaden and Isaiah visiting the pig in the pen.

 Piggy got a little to close for Isaiah's comfort!

 So he ended up on Uncle Jason's shoulders.

 He loves the pig at a distance.

 One Special Pig,

 I mean what other pig gets a post from ME and is the Talk of the town?

Tasty Tuesday~ Blueberry Pound Cake

It's Blueberry season here in Galena, and Keith and I have gone out a few times to pick some. I love being outside and picking berries! But I must say having to watch out for bears, kind of takes some fun out of the adventure. But out we go!  We found a good batch of blueberries and now I am craving blueberry pound cake. I used to make this all the time in Florida where blueberries were easier to get.....at the super market! But the effort to pick them makes them taste that much better, or at least it makes me want to use them sparingly! hehehehe  This is a delicious pound cake and one of our favorites. I have not made it in so long because of Kaden's allergy to eggs. It uses 4 and I must say this is one recipe that Egg Replacer DOES NOT WORK!!! You end up with a flat POUND cake and I mean that it is so dense that it weighs a POUND! So I would not recommend this recipe with out real eggs. And because eggs cost more here we don't buy them very often. So because of these reasons I have not made this in a while. But I am craving it now. I may have to go buy some eggs (more then $5 per dozen) so I can make a cake..... then send Kaden and Isaiah to the other room while I sneak a piece!=) OK I will be nice and wait till they go to bed..... hehehe. I may have to buy a gallon of milk($11) just to drink a glass with it! This cake really is good!  Try it!

Blueberry Pound Cake
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp Baking Powder
2 cups blueberries

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time till light and fluffy. add vanilla.
Sift 2 cups flour, salt, baking powder together then add them to creamed ingredients. Beat well. Drege Bluberries in about 1/2 cup flour. This helps them not smash when you are folding them in. Fold the berries in to mixture. Grease bundt pan and pour batter in Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes. 

"Bear"y exciting Life!!

We had a visitor the other night and it was "bear"y exciting. Can you see it?.... Look closer......

 

 Do you see it?

 

  Yep that is a bear in our neighbors yard. It walked all around our little town. Makes me feel like I live in Alaska or something.....Oh yeah I do! I think I forget that I live in the wilds of Alaska till one of these shows up close to our house. Then it makes me a little nervous since these BIG animals walk through the forest without a sound. I always wonder how big animals like elephants, rhinos bears and other big animals can walk so quiet. It is amazing.

 

 But there is something about thinking a bear can sneak up on you so easily without you knowing it. Especially when Kaden and some friends were just outside playing in the yard right before the bear showed up. Makes me kind of want to carry our shotgun around EVERYWHERE...in the yard, to church across the street, to the bathroom and kitchen.... OK maybe not that bad but it does make me keep my attention looking in the forest all the time and keep my kids closer to me.  This bear is a young one  but a big one and has not much fear off people that becomes a problem so you do keep an eye out for them.  He walked all around our yard and our neighbor hood. 

Here is the bear investigating our yard!

This week there have been moose, bears and wolves running around town. Makes life adventurous and exciting!  And gives me something to blog about and to write home about. Makes my mom proud....You think?=) hehehehe Who would want a boring life? Not me! But I wouldn't mind the bears staying a little FARTHER away from my house! =)

Dandilions & Boys

You know growing up it was SO fun to pick up those fluffy white seed pods of the Dandelion and blow them all over the place. Admit it, all of us did that. As a grown up and a wife of a gardener who has to help weed dandelions out of the garden.... it is NOT so much fun to blow them anymore!! But they are still a very pretty weed to take pictures in! Growing up we used to take pictures in the bluebonnets in Texas when we were on furlough. Since we don't have bluebonnets and lupines don't really grow around here, I will take whatever pretty flowers I can find......even if they are weeds! But check out my cute boys in this pretty field. Kaden had fun blowing them. Isaiah, who doesn't quite know how to blow yet, likes to EAT THEM! Yum yum! But aren't my boys cute in their African shirts? These boys are such blessings to my life and I am learning daily the sweetness and joy that they have!

Kaden~ Handsome

 Bright & Intelligent

Clever

Wants to learn

Caring

Joyful

 Cheeky

 Isaiah~ Cute

 

 Adventurous

 

 Fearless

 Tries new things(even if it is eating flowers)

 Loving

 Brothers

 Great together...most of the time

 Smell it!

 And he ate it!

"Jesus loves the little children, 

all the children of the world. 

Red and yellow black and white. 

They are precious in his sights, 

Jesus loves the children of the world!"