The Brazile Brief

Love Muffins: Apple Streusel Muffin

2009-02-20T05:03:00.000-08:00

Kenn love love loved these muffins! And the best part is she had no idea she was getting carrots, apples, oats, and added fiber...so moist and light. Thanks Mrs. Seinfeld for this recipe. I will definitely be picking up this cookbook!

Streusel topping:

2/3 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter or Nuttelex, melted

Cake batter:

1 1/2 cups plain all purpose flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
4 heaped teaspoons Fibresure

3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 apple coarsely grated
1/2 cup carrot puree (as you can see mine didn’t exactly become a puree)
1/2 cup skimmed soy milk with a squeeze of lemon juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg

1. Mix Streusel topping ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 400F/200C. In a medium bowl, mix all dry ingredients well to ensure it is well combined (flour, oats, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and Fibresure powder).

3. In a larger bowl mix the remaining ingredients thoroughly (applesauce, apple, carrot, soy, brown sugar and egg).

4. Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until just combined, do not overmix.

5. Line a muffin tray with cases and spoon the filling into the 12 holes. Sprinkle the Streusl mix on top and bake for 15-18 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in tray for 5 minutes.

Special thanks to NotQuiteNigella.com for publishing this recipe!

Coming up...Honey Corn Muffins from the Neely's!

Love Muffins

2009-02-12T09:34:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

For the past two weeks, I've been baking muffins on Sundays for breakfast bites for the week...Kenn and Kyle are loving them to pieces (literally!). Last week, I adapted Katie Lee Joel's banana bread recipe into muffins, and this week, I altered it a bit for double berry muffins....recipes follow...

Banana Nut Muffins
2 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. kosher salt
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. canola oil
2 large eggs
1 t. pure vanilla extract
1/2c. buttermilk
3 medium bananas, mashed
1/2 c. walnuts, finely minced (about 2 oz.) - I used almond slivers here since Kyle isn't a huge walnuts fan.

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lay cupcake cups in a cupcake/ muffin pan. In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2. In a medium bowl, beat together the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla until well combined. Alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk in three additions. Gently stir in the bananas and nuts.
3. Pour the batter into the muffin pan. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes. (for the double berry muffins use 1 cup of roughly chopped craisins and fresh blueberries instead of mashed banana)

Next, I plan to try a recipe with chocolate or something with veggies since Kenn loves mama's love muffins and hates vegetables. I also plan to try some dessert recipes our friends featured on The Cody Report ...yum!!!

How far apart are they?!?

2009-02-12T06:28:00.000-08:00

It's been a moment, so today will consist of a series of posts on what's been going on in the Brazile camp. Yesterday was a pretty interesting work day. I arrived to a co-worker who showed up at work and went into labor! She was 37.5 weeks, so it was inevitable that she would pop anyday. When I got to work, she was contracting 3 minutes apart, and as far as I was concerned, it was time for her to get to the hospital. Luckily, its right on campus! I drove her to the hospital and by the time I got back, she'd sent a text saying she was 6cm dilated!

Congratulations to her and hubby on the birth of Jonathan Charles, 6lbs 2ounces!

Munchkin's Snowy Day!!!

2009-01-20T19:04:00.000-08:00

SNOW DAY!!

2009-01-20T05:27:00.000-08:00

Today, North Carolina got swamped in an inch and a half of snow (yes, I am being facetious)! Here, that means its a snow day! Pictures pending of the munchkin's first snow!!!

Beauty Basics for Baby!

2009-01-19T19:33:00.000-08:00

Eek! The winter has taken its toll on mama's little sweetfaced beauty...her posh little pout is peeling, her cute little coif is crackling dry and her supple skin is sallow! :( Not to worry little one, mama's here to save face!!!

Kenna's hair is wavy, not so much curly, and drinks oil like a Hummer! Just when I resigned to saying good bye to her little pigtails to inevitable breakage from dryness, I reached back to my own mother's toolbox for some beauty basics...that's where I rediscovered LIV. That's not an acronym people, its a fantastic alternative to goopy hair grease! After being told by, count 'em four of my five aunties that hair styling was not my gift, they all gifted me jars of grease!...including Royal Crown! Around 6th grade, my mom discovered Liv, a dense moisturizing creme dress that kept my hair soft and manageable. I immediately ran to my neighborhood Korean- owned beauty supply, as I knew Target wouldn't have it...but the Koreans did. Eureka! Her little pigtails are better than new!

Onto her soft little skin and lips. I somehow knew that my go to lip balm(C.O. Bigelow) would burn my child's lips to toast and I hardly think the subtle tinge of color is appropriate for a 1 year old. Her skin was suffering big time, so I grabbed the one thing I hated as a toddler...olive oil! Before church, my mother would stand me on top of the camode and shalack olive oil on my face with reckless abandon. In her beauty book, a shiny baby was a pretty baby. Warning ladies: Just a dab will do ya here. If your kid looks like she/ he narrowly escaped a fish fry, you've done too much. Vaseline also works great for those extremely dry areas around the mouth and nose!

In other news, your favorite toddler mistook a portrait of Dr. King today as her daddy! During a ceremony at my center, she saw his picture and shouted and pointed "Daddy!". Upon my telling her "that's not daddy", she shouted even louder at the man she was convinced was her father. LOL!

What the Crap!

2009-01-11T08:53:00.000-08:00

So...

We.Are.Sick

And by WE, I mean everybody en la casa de Brazile! It started off with Kenn, who came home from preschool (aka the germ box) with an upset tummy and the squirts. This phenomena quickly hit mommy and daddy who are too weak for words. After a long night that I won't go into, we realized some sad truths:

a. Kenn is our best hope for anyone taking care of us when we get old! She read me her fav stories, Hop on Pop and Blue Hat Green Hat, as I laid on the couch praying to God that my body would pick a climate and stick to it!

b. We have no friends here in the woods. We live at least 45 minutes from anyone who could come pick me up off the floor, and since the big sis is probably in church, we should probably consider this not happening again until we move to Durham.

c. I should probably get started on that resolution to attempt to make friends here. I am very social usually, but have long held the notion that since I have such fab girlfriends elsewhere, there was no rush. Yea, none of them can pick my lifeless body off the floor, so I probably need to re-visit that logic!

Hubby and Kenn are taking naps now, so I am going to try and will myself healed in the next hour!

Hello 2009!

2009-01-05T06:20:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!

I am assuming most of us are back to work as usual! KB and I SO enjoyed having some time off. We had a play date while Kenn was in school that involved trips to the grocery store, the mall (roamed aimlessly)and TJ Maxx HomeGoods. For grown ups, that was a great day, haha!

The highlight of my time off was our FIRST FAMILY PICTURE since Kenn was 6 weeks old! We never got around to taking one, so I spent lots of time roaming closets to design the perfect looks for everyone, and literally fought with Kenn for an hour to do her hair. On the way to the studio, I encouraged KB to practice his smile. He has a great one, but usually, his pictures either make it look as if he's squinting or he does this partial mouth closed/ lips parted grin. He tried REALLY hard, as he let me know before we viewed the pictures...this is the outcome:

Can't say I loved it right away...In fact, I was a little peeved that EVERY picture looked exactly the same. But, the more I look at it, the more endearing it becomes... :)

Stay tuned for more news in la Casa de Brazile!

Goodbye 2008!

2008-12-31T07:24:00.000-08:00

This year has been filled with some major events, both in the Brazile household and all over the world. As we reflect on lessons learned and the milestones we were blessed to see, we look ahead to 2009 with hope, anticipation of great things to come and the relief of leaving some things behind.

The resolution of the Brazile household this year is simple: to separate our lives into that which we'll make time for, and that which we won't. This will encompass everything from more travel and healthier lifestyles to spending more time with Kenn and watching her grow.

We can't wait to take you on this fantastic ride with us as we move and shake our way through what will be an amazing year! The best is yet to come...have an awesomely reflective day, and a rocking new year!!! Stay tuned!

Love,

The Braziles

A Literacy PSA from Kennedy...on Christmas Morning!

2008-12-29T07:09:00.000-08:00

A Very Merry!...

2008-12-27T17:54:00.000-08:00

Hi All!

Christmas was amazing! The Braziles are really big on giving ,so we enjoyed speaking to relatives and hearing how much they enjoyed their gifts. As for us, we got the biggest, best, most amazing present ever on Christmas Eve!!! I told Kenna 'I love YOU!', and she answered, 'I of OOOH!'...I teared up with amazement, and KB just stared at her in awe!

We surprised Kenn on Christmas morning with a new playroom (formerly the unused dining room) equipped with an ABCs playmat, new toys and books! Amid playing, our gracious and amazing little one stopped playing to get up and give us both hugs! As a parent, knowing that on some level she's conscious of her blessings brings us so much joy. And it is absolutely hilarious that she goes "awwwww" whenever she does something sweet! Kyle and I also enjoyed opening our present from her, a framed picture decorated with snowflakes and her little fingerprints. She made t in school, and KB has already claimed it for his desk at work.

In other news, Kenn had her checkup on Christmas Eve, and while she is average in height and a lightweight, out girl is in the 99th percentile for development! The doctor was super impressed wit her vocabulary, and ability to finish songs like "Ring around the Rosie" and "Wheels on the Bus". She even got extra points for closing a book I was holding and saying "Eee N". Translation...the end!

Auntie Sharma...

2008-12-23T10:15:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, Kenn met her Auntie Sharma, the third in my Chicago trilogy of girlfriends. Can you say head over heels!?! Kenn doesn't have a great history of taking to women quickly. She loves her Godmom Pori and although she loves her Grammy and my sister (Auntie Joi), you better believe they had to work hard for that relationship! Auntie Sharma, however, was loved right away!

She literally spent the weekend hugging and chatting it up with her. She took to Auntie Keish and Auntie Carmin much the same way, but hands down, Auntie Sharma's her fav of the three. I'm so glad she loves them just as much as I do!

In other news, after receiving Kenn's gifts by shipment from her Auntie Seela and Uncle Daran (Kyle's brother and our sister in law), along with gifts from Grammy and Pops, we have decided to turn our vacant dining area into Kenn's playroom...pictures are forthcoming!

Little Miss Opinionated!

2008-12-19T11:29:00.000-08:00

So, lately its been becoming increasingly clear that

A.) Kenn has her own ideas about how life should go
B.) Kenn is in control
C.) We're just here for the ride.

For several reasons, including that Kyle and I both work in Chapel Hill now, we moved Kenn to an awesome Christian school closer to where we work. The teachers are very engaging, she learns something new everyday, and its immaculately clean. When picking her up from school the other day, she told her daddy 'bye' and waved followed by her signature blowing of the kiss. Nothing abnormal to us, since they say bye bye ALL the time, even when she's not leaving.

Her teachers then turn to us and ask "Does Kennedy talk much at home?". We both end up laughing because we initially thought they were kidding...but, they were not... Turns out the little one who hums her ABCs while walking around the house, constantly command us to say ahh, put our hands up and sit down (yes, she really owns us) doesn't say a word during the day. We think she just has to get used to them, but she's aware of what she's doing...when asked if she talks to her teachers, she shook her head NO in a way that makes me think she's hazing her teachers...and maybe even her friends...

We're home again today, so I'll let you know if things change when she goes back on Monday...

In other news, Auntie Sharma's coming to town tomorrow, and cousin John is sick :(...

Welcome!

2008-12-18T11:47:00.000-08:00

Hi All!

We've officially moved into our new cyber house. I had some time to work on it since the little one is at home sick today :(. Now that she's at her new school, she's adjusting to a whole new set of germs. She's also adjusting to new dietary options. We don't give her much sugar at home, and since they don't drain the fruit cups at school like we do (obsessive, I know!), the sugary syrup messes with her tummy a bit. She also had a wicked cough, so we took a sick trip to the doctor.

We saw a new pediatrician at her office, and he was awesomely thorough. You get doctors these days who act a little like their herding cattle. This one sat down, and even chatted it up with Kenn before examining her!

Tonight, we'll probably add on to the Christmas decor in our house. I'll let you know how it goes!