Birthday Cupcakes

I'm usually of the mind that food made at home is cheaper, healthier and tastes better than store bought or mixes. I can think of only one exception and it's the Wegman's Ultimate Chocolate Cake-My favorite cake!! But that little gem IS expensive and probably has things in it I wouldn't want in my food. (SO I don't read the label!)

Tomorrow is my girlie's 4th birthday celebration with family. (Lucky for my wallet and sanity we have not started the kiddie birthday party thing yet.) She wants pink and purple cupcakes with princess sprinkles. (I have translated that to mean pink and purple shiny sprinkles but I could be WAY off on that one!) On the plus side, I have a CHEAP killer cupcake recipe! I recently had cupcakes from Wegman's that were good. Probably full of crap. Let me tell you, this cupcake kicks the Wegman's cupcake's butt! (Did I just write that? I used to think of myself as edgy..Now I'm threatening a Wegman's cupcake....)

This recipe is by no means health food. It's all white flour. The icing is sweet enough to make your teeth hurt but it actually DOES pipe onto the cupcake like the ones you see here in the picture. The cake is not too sweet so it is actually a great cake for the icing.

It's simple! Not much harder than using a mix.There is nothing in this cake that you don't already have in your home.

It's made with real butter-I AM a butter snob, I'll admit it.

And really, it's a great cupcake!

I was going to type it out, but really, it's not my recipe so I'll just link you to it!

Best Cupcake and Frosting Recipe

It calls for self rising flour but you can make that yourself at home. For each cup of all-purpose flour, add 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

And the complaining continues......

Yeah I know I'm supposed to be writing about Frugal stuff.... I feel unfrugal this month as Christmas nears (even though I am spending the bare minimum) All this spending has me edgy.... And every time I think of frugal things to write I get sidetracked and it never gets done. Possibly because I'm spending on more than just gifts. Parties and donations and cards, the list goes on... Nothing seems frugal to me.....It all seems like too much-Too many presents. Too many cookies and too much to do.

And Govt Patterson has proposed taxes on Haircuts, beer, cinema tickets, cigars, taxi rides, massages, ipod downloads, and sugary soft drinks as well as getting rid of the star rebate check taxpayers receive each year. Ok, when I looked at that list I noticed that in the past 6 months to a year I have purcahsed NONE of those things on the list except a haircut this past August and possibly beer once in a while. (I mean I don't even OWN an iPod!) Still.... These things seem so extreme. Are we not looking into the problem FIRST before proposing more money as a solution??? Serioualy, when I have a financial problem I try and figure out what it is before I look for another source of income....

And finally on my list of complaints is children's underware. Today I took my Grandma Christmas Shopping. We went to get my girl some new undies. Size 4T. SIZE 4 FREAKING T. For those of you not in the know, the T stands for TODDLER. And yes, there in the children's undie section, right near the Dora undies were packs of BIKING UNDERWARE WITH LACE ON THEM SIZE 4T.... What the *&#@? What $&#*%^! genius thinks it's appropriate to dress a 4 year old girl in bikini undies... I have enough ttrouble with princess boots, I about had a heart attack over the underware.... Needless to say, we got briefs. We had to hunt for them, but we found them.....

Merry Christmas...
-Scrooge

Bloggy Love!

The wonderful Karley over at The Chic and Green Blog gave me this lovely blog award! You must check out her blog, she does daily reviews of the most luscious handmade products online and best of all, she has her own line of Natural Good-For-You Skin Care Products. She was also recently featured in Martha Stewart's Body and Soul Magazine for her Goats Milk Facial Cream. Her shop is vacation until the first of the year, but make it your New Years Resolution to check her out! She also has how very own dot come website going online Jan 1st!

The rules for this award are to list 5 of your addictions and 5 Blogs you would like to recommend for this award!

So on to the addictions!

1) Books-I'm a reader! I read every day. I was an English major in college-Probably because I wanted to get credit for reading books-I probably should have been a business major! Anyway, I love all kinds of books, series mysteries, Classics, and I love non-fiction where I read everything from Gardening to History to How-to's!

2) Coffee-Anywhere, Any Kind, With a Friend, Alone, Shopping at Target, Driving somewhere, In the morning, you get the picture.

3) Gardening-At this time of year I don't have a lot to say about this, but in the nicer months I can wax philosophical for hours!

4) eBay- I have an eBay store that I love to work on. It pays my astronomical property taxes and provides me with a sense of accomplishment that I can work from home. And it's fun.

5) Early American Anything- Every since reading the Little House on The Prairie Books as a child I have been hooked. I love anything Early American. Homes, Decoration, Recipes, etc... My favorite magazine is Early American Life and this past October I went and lived like a pioneer!

Blogs I frequent

The Fine Art Of Motherhood-My best friend Deanna share her mothering, crafting & sense of humor!

Get Rich Slowly
Personal Finance That Makes Sense


Millionaire Mommy Next Door
A self-made millionaire shares her recipe for success, happiness and financial freedom


Leslie Land
Cooking *Gardening* Home Style


Granny Miller
A Journal of Agrarian Politics Philosophy and Practice. This woman is the real deal! She grows her own food, spins wool, cans, cooks, etc....

And of course, Karley's Chic and Green Blog!

Repurposing Cranberry Sauce

I admit it. I love leftovers. I love eating them. And I love planning meals that assure leftovers and I love eating something great twice and only having to cook it once. So for me, Thanksgiving is like Christmas as far as leftovers are concerned.

I love seeing how people use leftovers in creative ways-I've made sweet potato turkey hash! And this past Sat I had a brunch and made home fries from leftover sweet potatoes!

But what to do with cranberry sauce. I make my own and don't like it to go to waste. (This year it was cinnamon orange flavored!) I've seen muffins with this dolloped on top before baking. That sounds good. But I made something I 've never seen anywhere.

My daughter loves popsicles, even at this time of year. Our popsicles are usually made from plain yogurt with fruit mixed in. This week I got creative and made cranberry sauce popsicles! She loved the sauce at the table, what's not to love mixed with a little yogurt! And since there is a good deal of sugar in the Cranberry sauce, I just used a little. It was really yummy, a pretty pink and made a surprisingly Thanksgiving like popsicle!

Black Friday Disgust

I don't usually use this blog as a place for complaining, airing my disgust with people,talking politics or airing opinions which may offend or irritate others. There are places for that. This blog is not one. This blog is my attempt at focusing on the good/beautiful/enriching things that I find for a bargain or for free. The good things in my life.

Having said that, I need to step away from that mission for a minute.

A Wal-Mart worker was KILLED today when shoppers broke down the doors at Wla-Mart in Long Island TO GO SHOPPING.

Broke them down! For what? A deal on an Ipod? For Christmas. A holiday where we celebrate the Birth of Christ. A man was killed. For cheap crap from China. People in such a frenzy for stuff with no regard for the safety of others. With only the sale on their mind. People kept going, few stopped. PEOPLE KEPT SHOPPING. What have we turned into? What are we teaching our children? This isn't a 3rd world country and these were not starving people stampeding for food to feed their children. These were adults still stuffed from Thanksgiving, beginning the gluttony that has become Christmas giving. To beat their neighbor to the cheap crap made in Chinese Sweatshops to give to their love ones.

With no regard for the loved ones of others.

With more than 200 people waiting in line, literally BUSTING THE DOORS DOWN, it's hard to imagine that this country is actually in a state of economic upheaval.

The madness of Christmas giving reached it's unfortunate crescendo this morning.

It's sickening.

Disney Princess Boots

Today my parenting moxie was tested. Not by something major and earth shattering mind you, but by a pair of Disney Princess Boots.

As I dropped my girl off at pre-school I told her I was going to buy her some boots. At that very moment she was walking by another girl and looked down and saw what I thought were an ugly pair of Disney Princess Boots. She looked up at me with the sweetest little voice and said:

"Mommy, can I PLEASE have boots like those?"

I was non-commital, mentioning that I didn't know where her mommy got them.

Apparently her mommy got them at Marshall's because they were RIGHT next to a pair of HIGH QUALITY black and purple boots that I wanted to get her.

I'm not much of a Disney Mommy. She's never seen the movies, I didn't plan to be a character buying parent (anyone who saw the red Elmo cake I made for her 2nd B-Day can laugh right now if they want.) and I don't like the idea of marketing to children. And I also think most character clothing looks cheap.

These princesses have come into our life through means completely not of our own making-through books she's been given and other girls at school with princess stuff.

Ok, it's not like I think the Disney Princesses are evil or anything extreme like that. It's just that I find the older Disney princesses vapid and longing only for husbands. It actually says in the book that the dwarves asked Snow White to stay because she COULD COOK. (one hopes that at least when she was wisked off by prince charming (who was actually a COMPLETE STRANGER), that she would at least have some domestic help to help her get over picking up after 8 sloppy men for god knows how long!) At least Belle in Beauty and The Beast likes book and gets to KNOW the Beast and loves him when he is a beast!

To my chagrin these princesses are enchanting my little girl.

What to do? I walked around that darn store with the purple boots for 30 min. I called Deanna over this moral crisis. Would I buy the nice sensible high quality boots or would I cave and get the princess boots. I would never choose something like those boots for her and yet, she, herself would be so pleased with them. I never say yes to stuff like this. Am I letting an ideal I don't support into my house on the soles of her feet or am I over thinking this?

I came to the conclusion I'm not any fun anymore and I bought the princess boots.

She loved them. Really loved them.

The only frugal thing about this entire activity is the fact that the Disney Boots actually cost less than the High Quality Purple Boots.

Battening Down The Hatches!

Winter is quickly approaching here and my 76 year old house, while full of charm and high ceilings, is also quite drafty and cold! In an effort to conserve energy and cash I am looking at ways to make things a little more toasty without having to turn up the thermostat!

We have these cute little windows in our closets?!?!? They serve no purpose (although do let in nice light to see with during the day) and they have absolutely NO insulation or storms. Our closets are typically markedly COLDER than the rest of the house. Last night I installed window insulation over them and I can see a difference already! I am also going to do this in the 2 windows in my 3rd floor office. (one of which is very pretty and decorative from the outside but gets ICE on it during the winter!) I probably would not do this on normal windows that everyone sees but if you did, I can imagine it would really make your house warmer. The kit (which I already had from my old house) costs $20 for 9 windows! (Big windows I might add, I was able to cut the plastic in half) And using the blow dryer to help seal the plastic gives a satisfaction that is akin to popping the bubbles on bubble wrap, it's fun!

I'll also be making bean snakes for the doors out of material that I already have. The doors are original to the house but some seem to have been planed to accommodate the seventies shag carpet which once covered my lovely wood floors.

I've added outlet and switch plate insulation to some of the outlets and switch plates on outside facing walls since when I put my hand near them I could feel an actual DRAFT. A package of 8 is under $2. I am planning to finish off the ones I didn't get to last year.

My kitchen is rather new but I noticed there is a gap between 2 cabinets that you can't see but also lets a draft in. I'm thinking of filling it with that expandable foam, Good Stuff, but I may just stuff it with foam packing material to avoid the mess and cost.

I'm also thinking of replacing the weather stripping on the doors but I haven't decided if I'm that motivated yet. I do need paint for the dining room so I guess I'll be checking out weatherstripping supplies while I'm there.