Fantabulous Friday Freebie: Thanksgiving Cupcake Wrapper Sample + Recipe

Weekly Wrap-Up:
Make Your Own Monday: Chevron Paper
Trendwatch Tuesday: Chevrons
Project Wednesday: Subway Art on a Shutter

Soooo..... Thanksgiving is really next week?  You aren't kidding me?  I know any moment I'm going to wake up and it will still be October.  Pinch me... please!

No?  Well, I suppose it's time to face reality.  And that reality is that I'm way behind on just about everything!

If you are feeling like me, be sure to check out the VDBC Annual Holiday Gift Giving Guide for quick and easy gift ideas.  It's so huge, we had to do it in two parts!

VDBC Annual Holiday Gift Giving Guide - Part 1

VDBC Annual Holiday Gift Giving Guide - Part 2

If you are going ahead with this "Thanksgiving is next week" concept, I might as well help out with a little recipe and a little free sample.  Who doesn't love free samples?  Oh, and there's going to be another BOGO deal in the mix, too.

First, I'd like to share with you the easiest and most delicious muffin recipe you'll ever taste, make, or lick the bowl from.  It's No-Measure Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.  It took longer to type that name thank it does to make them.  Seriously easy and hilariously delicious.  I'm also sharing my secret muffin baking methods.  I guess they won't be secret anymore.  But it's too good to keep to myself.

You may have seen as similar recipe floating around the pinterest-sphere.  That recipe insists that just the cake mix and pumpkin will make great muffins.  I'm sure they'll be fine, but I think the eggs are my secret ingredient for getting fluffier muffins.  I wouldn't make them without the eggs but you certainly can try.

And as for the chocolate chip addition... welll, duh!   What doesn't taste better with chocolate chips?  Okay, maybe a few things wouldn't but just go with me here.  They totally enhance the muffin experience, so put them in.

FYI, you can also substitute other cake flavors.  Spice is my favorite, though.

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No-Measure Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 box Spice Cake Mix
1 can Pumpkin
2 eggs
1/2 bag of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Combine the first three ingredients in your mixer and beat.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Fill muffin tins and bake for 10 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350° F and bake for 15-20 minutes longer.

Remove from muffin tins and cool on a wire rack.

Jan's Tips for Big Muffins

You know you want big muffins with a high dome, right?  But every time you make muffins they come out looking like measly little cupcakes, barely risen out of the pan.  Here's my secrets for getting the highest, fluffiest dome on a muffin.

1. Fill your muffin cups almost full (not 2/3 like some recipes will tell you).  This will require that you have a fairly thick batter.  If your muffin batter has a cake batter like consistency, add some more flour until it's more like brownie batter.

2. Fill any empty muffin cups with water.  The recipe above will make about 14 standard sized muffins.  If you only have 1 muffin tin that makes a dozen muffins, don't fill all the cups the first time around.  Leave a few empty and fill the empty ones with water.  A nice humid oven is good for muffins.

3. Bake the first 10 minutes on a higher temperature.  Then lower down to the regular temperature for the rest of the baking time.  Why does this work?  I have no idea, it just does, so I go with it.

Seriously, just look at the size of the dome on that muffin!

Now, what's a delicious muffin without a pretty wrapper?  I couple of weeks ago I tried making Pumpkin-Apple muffins using some pretty autumn patterned cupcake papers.  Wow, what a mistake that was!  The muffins stuck to the wrappers like undeserved fame on a Kardashian. Won't make that mistake again!  For Thanksgiving, how about cutting out some "post-baking" decorative Cupcake Wrappers!

This one is from my Cupcake Wrappers - Thanksgiving set.  So easy and so pretty!  Just pup the muffin inside and you've got instant eye candy.

Before I give away a little free sample, I want to let you know that if you buy the whole set of Thanksgiving Cupcake Wrappers from the Sam & Hailey Designs store this weekend, you'll get my Thanksgiving Placecards set absolutely free!  More fun and easy Thanksgiving decorations for free? Why yes, thank you!  I'll have seconds! Remember to get the deal, you'll need to put both of those products in your cart at the same time.  Don't make me have to track you down to give you your free file!

Okay, on to your free sample!  Gobble up this Pilgrim Hat and Leaf Cupcake Wrapper right now!

Boring but Important Legal Stuff: My terms of use are included in each zipped download. If you have any questions about how you may use this file, please read it. By clicking to download the file, you are agreeing to abide by the terms. If you'd like to share it, please don't. Rather, send your friends a link to this blog post. Once it's no longer available as a freebie, you might be tempted to share it with someone. Please don't! 'Nuf said!

This design will be up until Monday. Get it while it's hot! Click to wrap up your favorite file type:

Sorry!  This download has expired!  Look for this design and plenty of others in the Sam & Hailey Designs store!

Don't forget about that BOGO deal!  Only good through Monday!

Time to get crafty, people!

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Trendwatch Tuesday: Black & White Halloween

You know how when a man gets a cold, we say he has a "Man Cold?" Okay, at least I say that. It's the kind of cold that at the slightest hint of the sniffles a man, {say for example, your husband, not that I'm pointing any fingers} wanders the house looking pitiful until you order them to bed for the tenth time and they finally go.  Then they get to sleep blissfully with no interruptions for as long as they like?  Yeah, that's the kind of "Man Cold" I'm talking about. Well, I have a "Mom Cold" this week.  That's the kind of cold that no matter how bad it gets, you still have to get up and do all the Mom stuff you'd normally do.  Make breakfast, get kids up and dressed, make lunches, get kids home from school, get homework done, make dinner, get kids ready for bed, etc.  I'm grateful that I was able to get a little extra sleep yesterday while the kids were at school.  I'm also really grateful for the numerous texts my husband sent me during my naptime to see how I was feeling.  He's so caring!  No really, I am grateful.  He took the kids to the bus stop yesterday on his way to work.  That was a huge help as I just couldn't see myself walking a block down the street.  Today I'm feeling a smidgen better.  I figure I can at least sit and write for a while before crashing in bed again.

Okay, time for a little Trendwatch fun!  I hope you still have some room for Halloween decor, because these ideas quite possibly will inspire you to get creative and actually make something! Shocking, I know!

Todays trend is: Black & While Halloween

The other day, I was perusing the Better Homes and Gardens website for Halloween Decor.  Lots of great Black and & White Halloween ideas.

Here's an idea to make your own creepy dishtowels in Black and White:

I love this idea for using white plates with images and numbers to display your house number!  I think it would be great to change out the images for each season.

Speaking of plates, why not add the black and white theme to your table decor.  Having a Halloween party??

Lastly, from BHG is this white pumpkin idea.  I've got a white pumpkin downstairs that's been staring at me, just daring me to put something on it.  I'm not a huge fan of carving pumpkins.  I don't much care for the slimy mess.  But slapping some vinyl on one?  I'm all over that.  I wish I had that hat, though.

Enough of you BHG, let's switch over to the iconic Martha Stewart.  Here's a cute idea.  At least, I think it's cute.  My kids would probably refuse to go into the bathroom.  This would be cool done in some removable glass etch vinyl:

Also from Martha, check out this skirt!  Of course, as cool as it is, I just couldn't bear to wear a spider on me, even if it's fake and two-dimensional.  Spiders of any kind are not welcome in my house.  It would be an awesome witch skirt though, wouldn't it?

Elsewhere on the web, this fun party decor idea from Room For Dessert is an awesome blend of black, white, sliver, and awesomeness.  I love it.

Speaking of parties... why not some black and white party food!  Here's an idea from myrecipes.com for Bittersweet Chocolate Skeleton Cookies.  Those boys are just sitting around all year long doing nothing, flirting with the angel cookie cutters, leaving crumbs around, etc... let's put them to work a couple of months early!  Time they earned their keep around here. These are so cute I  just want to bite their little heads off!

I sure hope this inspires you to include a little more Black & White in everything from your Halloween decor to your Halloween food!  Have fun with it!

Time to get crafty, people!

Color Swatch Thursday: Peppers

Happy belated, Labor Day!  Rather I should say, Happy BBQ Day then Four Day Work Week!  Does anyone really know what Labor Day is about anymore?

Every Labor Day for the past few years our family has joined with our neighbors in making a giant batch of delicious Green Corn Tamales.  Not exactly a rest from our labors now that I think about it.  I know, I know, you are going to ask for the recipe.  I'll try to tell you how in a minute.

Today, it's time for another of our regularly scheduled blog features!  Every Thursday, I'll be posting a color swatch palette from a photo that inspired me. 

Today's color swatch is inspired by:  Peppers

I took this photo at the mexican market Food City in Tucson, AZ last Monday while I was on the hunt for corn for tamales.  The colors of the peppers just screamed at me! 

You can download an Adobe Swatch Exchange File for this color scheme from Adobe Kuler. 

Okay you want the Tamale Recipe.  I understand, who wouldn't? I wish I could help you, really I do.  But I'm more of the laborer than the master tamale maker.  Here, I'll give you a general idea of what happened on Monday.

The Gringo's Guide to Tamale Making
To make Green Corn Tamales, you basically follow these steps:

1. Search all over southern Arizona for the right kind of corn. You want Mexican June Corn, a white field corn that is not sweet at all.  Regular old sweet corn just won't do.  This is {not surprisingly} the hardest part of the whole process.
2. When you can't find that kind of corn you might finally settle on store bought masa.  Not the greatest option I'll say {'cuz you know I'm an expert}.  Better to buy the lime-soaked corn kernels than use 100% of the masa dough itself.  We tried that one year and they were yucky.
3. You might finally settle on a combination of masa dough, lime-soaked corn kernels, and white corn from the grocery store that you suspect might be too sweet but ends up working out just fine.  It's a gamble, truly.  You want to end up with about 8 dozen ears worth of corn.  Or a boat-load, which ever comes first.
4. The easier things to buy are Hatch or Anaheim Peppers {a few dozen), a bell pepper or two, shreeded cheese of some kind, lard {shudder... you can use shortening or corn oil instead}, and corn husks.
5. Get everyone together and start cutting the corn off the cobs.  Get as much as you can off the cob without cutting off the cob itself... or your fingers for that matter.  Save those corn cobs for later, I'll try to remember to explain why.
6. Grind up all the corn you managed to gather in a meat grinder {the Kitchenaid one rocks} into one or more ginormous bowls.  Throw in {some} green bell pepper while you are grinding.  Don't ask me how much, just until it looks right.  Oh, and throw in {some} salt after you grind it. Hahahaha! 
7. Dang, I almost forgot about the lard/shortening/oil!  You would have been mad at me if you actually tried this.  Melt the lard or shortening in a pot on the stove.  Then mix it into the masa.  I really haven't a clue how much other than it was added until the masa was about the consistency of.... trying to think of what it was like... coming up blank... sorry.  Maybe a bit thicker than brownie batter?  It held it's shape but didn't stick to the spoon at all.  Like a thick cornbread batter.  Yeah, that's it. {After reading this, my neighbor Heather says you need an Arlo - her husband - to come over and say, "Yeah, that's about right."  He's the expert.}
8. While you are doing all that, throw your peppers on the grill or under the broiler.  Turn them occasionally until they are blistered.  Let them cool a little.  Then peel off the skins and remove the tops and seeds.  Tear them into long strips of pepper.
9. Oh, and while you are doing that soak your corn husks in a tub of water.  You can use the fresh ones off the corn if you managed to actually find the right corn.  You don't need to soak fresh husks.  Hey, do I sound like I know what I'm doing yet?
10. Assemble all your ingredients and gather all your neighbors around a big table.  You should have big bowls of masa, pepper strips, shredded cheese, soaked or fresh corn husks, and several willing laborers {who are really just there to steal the cheese out of the bowl}.  Hey, that's me!
11. Step 10??  Sure you are still reading? Okay, time for assembling.  Did you know an assembly line works well for assembling things?  Well it does. 
12. One person plops a big spoonful of masa in the middle of a corn husk.  How much?  Why are you asking {me}?  I'm just here for the cheese.
13. Then another person throws on some pepper strips.
14. Pass it to the cheese person...  no comment... they throw some cheese on top.  I was informed that the pepper and the cheese person could be the same person, but don't believe them.
15. Now it's time for the folding.  I stink at this part.  Basically, you wrap the masa in the corn husk like a cozy robe.  Squish the filling up towards the top and fold the bottom up.  That's what they tell me, anyway.
16. Remember I said to save the corn cobs?  I remembered why!  Throw a single layer of them inside a ginormous pot {a canning pot works good for this}. Line the pot with aluminum foil.  The corn cobs are to keep the tamales from coming into contact with the bottom of the pot during cooking.  You could throw some canning rings or a wire rack down there if you didn't end up with corn cobs.
17. Lay the tamales inside the pot with their folded ends down.  You can squish about 50 tamales in a big canning pot.  You might need two pots if you are doing a big batch.  It helps if you can tip the pot on it's side and prop it up with a rolled up towel while you are filling it up.
18. Before you pop your pots onto the stove, pour a few of cups of water into the bottom of the pot.  Don't pour the water directly on the tamales, but pull the foil up on a side and pour it behind the foil.  How much water exactly?  I can't believe you are still reading, let along asking me questions about this.
19. Okay, you've got your tamales in the pot with some water in it.  Now you can put it on the stove and bring the water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.  Put the lid on the pot.  You want the tamales to steam cook for about two or maybe even three hours.  Keep checking everyone once in a while to make sure there is still water in the pot.  Dry pot + hot stove + tamales = bad juju.
20. After a couple of hours the tamales should have set up.  You can test by taking one out of the middle.  Let it cool until you can handle it.  Open it up and taste it.  It shouldn't be soft or juicy at all.  And it shouldn't taste dough-y at all, either.  I'm an expert at the tasting part.
21. Take the tamales out of the pot {BBQ tongs are good for not burning your fingers} and lay them on cookie sheets to cool.
22. Store them in the fridge or freezer in zipper bags.
23. To reheat, lay 4-6 tamales on a microwave plate and cover with wet paper towels.  Microwave until hot in the middle.  I have no idea if that's an officially approved tamale heating method, but it works for me.

Oh, are you still here?  Here's what they looked like.  Nom-time!

Time to get crafty, people!