Muffin Monday! Cranberry Cornbread

This weekend was another glorious one, filled with a healthy dose of excitement, sleep, stress and giddiness.

11/11/11 11:11 happened, and I knew I had to do something epic, so Sam and I went roller blading.

And I went home for my friend Jantzen's homecoming. That meant spending time with my wonderful sisters.

Today's Muffin Monday is Cranberry Cornbread muffins.

Recipe here

I'm getting really sick of muffin pictures. They're just so boring... but they don't taste that way!

Writing, and other strange acts

I actually wrote this a few days ago, but forgot to publish it. So here goes.

As I am writing my novel, and fighting valiantly through the happiness and stress of my life, I have a list of things that I must always remember. I am amazed at how similar those two things are. Perhaps it is a good sign that my novel's character is so similar to me, because she helps me not forget those things which I must not forget. They seem cryptic only because they apply across the spectrum of my existence.

1. I am not the victim.
2. The answer will come.
3. I am fearless.

Today I'm feeling ill, so I'm staying home from class. Although this really isn't making me feel better, because now I'm just stressed about everything I'm missing. I'm trying to use this time to get caught up in all my assignments, but ugh... one day I will done with school!

-Meg

p.s. NaNoWriMo updated. I'm at about 11k words. I would never be able to do it without Sam or Katie. It's far from over but I don't know how I would have even survived this long without their support. I just thought I'd mention that because they are just super cool. 

p.p.s. I came home and a Weeping Angel was in my room, on my compy. Ya, I was terrified, in a happy way.

Creating novels and recipes...

I write what I feel inside of me. So my novel is never going to be turned into a movie, or even a play. It is just my little story, my reckoning with the thoughts in my head. It is my connection with my ancestors. Not my grandma-- not that close. Far, far distant. I'm talking about my ancestors who were hunter-gatherers. And I feel connected with them so I write about it.

It isn't an easy story to explain, and it isn't really about the plot anyway. It's about love, and writing just to write. I love it.

I wrote my own recipe on Sunday, actually. I adapted it from the basic muffin recipe that came in my muffin cook book.  Here it is! (all my muffin pictures are starting to look the same! ahh!)

1 1/2 cup normal white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 or 3/4 cup butter milk (I don't remember how much I put it, so take your pick.)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 stick of unsalted butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
2 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
chocolate chips

I baked it at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. But check it.

Yes peeps, I made a recipe. I am become domesticated. The world is about to end...! You better believe I'm in love.

-Meg

Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins

You're probably wondering how I disappeared off the face of the planet. It is a combination of several things, one of which is NaNoWriMo. That is short for National Novel Writing Month. 

That is why I was so negligent in posting last week's muffin Monday. So this is shamefully late. Forgive me. Recipe found here.

Roommate Katie saved my butt again. Whenever I make cooking mistakes she saves me. Thank you thank you!

-Meg

Happy Halloween!

This has been the hottest Halloween of my life. In both senses of the word, as my roommate Hailey would say.

Saturday I surprised Sam and took him horseback riding with my family and Jay. The air was crisp and Smoke understood me, as always. I trust that horse so much. 

Sam had never before ridden. Not in his entire life! I am glad this was remedied. 

The air was crisp, but fresh and light and even though everything was dying, it was a rustic beauty. 

The horse adventure took longer than I anticipated, but after we finished, we ate at The Oaks and headed back down to good ol' SLC. 

We finished our costumes, helped the roommies get ready, and headed off to Halloween madness.

Sam and I were Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart, respectively. 

 It was all sorts of fun. And the morning came early, but it was worth it because we had Stake Conference, and it was fantastic. I was in the choir and it was just a lot of fun. I love singing so very much.

We carved pumpkins and I got to meet all of Sam's family. And that was a lot of people (he is the youngest of six).

So I pretty much spent the entire weekend with Sam, and that's saying something about him because usually cannot handle being with people for that long. But it went by so fast and I was so happy the entire time.

I know today ought to be Muffin Monday, but these muffins I've been working on have taken much longer than I anticipated. I started it on Sunday, and it won't be done until Tuesday. I ran out of butter, and my roommate Katie was so awesome and went and got me butter from the store this morning. She's always serving me, it's freaking amazing. Anyway, I ran out of time before work, but this recipe is going to be amazing, I can just feel it.

-Meg

Thriller! And a thrilling, but mindless, account of my favorite dresses

Sam took me to see Thriller on Tuesday night. We had been looking forward to the performance for some time, because I had never seen it and Sam hadn't seen it for two years.

It was a blend of funny, strange and intriguing, drenched and dipped in every flavor of Halloween.

I wore my new pale chartreuse sweater today, and it reminded me of the time I was trying to decide between two prom dresses: one was dark green and one was chartreuse.

The one I got looked like this: (Ya, I'm on the far left, looking weird. I couldn't find the pictures of when I actually wore this to a dance. Anyway.)

Chartreuse is a color that looks like this.

found here
I think the deciding factor in the end was that chartreuse just reminded me too much of the famed "lettuce dress." I don't have a picture of this because it's kind of holy. And I mean that both ways.

Picture a flamenco dress. Not unlike this:

found here

And it belonged in our dress up box. We loved that thing and did silly dances in it, and as fun as that was... there was something inside me that could not bear to be that daring.

Being who I am now, I'd probably go for it, but then as a teenager, I was all like, "I'll take the poofy dress!" Even though my mom always said that guys like girls who wear skinny, tighter-fitting dresses better. (Mom? Why you be so cool/weird/awesome?)

But the dark green dress does have beading that somewhat resembles the White Tree from Return of the King. And I do love that big green dress...

Then it was Lindsey's turn to get formals! Yay! And she got a light green dress, which I have never had a chance to properly wear. But if I ever do, I can remember the skinny chartreuse dress I never got.

Now that I can finally (almost) spell chartreuse after writing this whole mindless torment, I'm going to get back to living my wonderful amazing existence. Please and thank you.

-Meg

More falling

I am falling in every direction--behind, asleep, in love...

Random things:

The new Coldplay album is fantastic. Familiar but so new and beautiful.

This weekend we went to a corn maze. That meant lugging all my Salt Lake city folk up to the edge of the boonies. I am pretty certain we all had a blast... especially in phase 3.

I got to my friend Alexis! And I hope to see her again before she leaves on her mission to Sacramento Cali.

Utah tripped over itself. Our football team is having issues. I feel bad for them, poor little beat up kids. That game was so boring. Even if we loose it should be exciting.

This Muffin Monday is one of the best.

I thought it was going to be awful, because I misread the recipe. So ya, kind of double it and add a lot more flour.Trust your gut and ask your roommate for help if you don't know how to fix your recipe. It's good. Imagine a pumpkin roll in a cup. Yup.


I am the luckiest girl in the world.

-Meg