Light and Fluffy Muffins!

Tying on my favorite apron

berries are rolling off of the table

happy faces eat warm muffins

                                 By, Reese Carri

Hello everyone! How are we all doing on this breezy Saturday evening? :-) I am at work with my two favorite coworkers (until midnight) and after work we are going to have a super late din din at Beth's cafe! I have never been, but it's a popular greasy spoon  that I have heard about for years and  am excited to go to!

Speaking of eating, last evening I made the most delicious batch of vegan blueberry muffins! Man were they good! 

Here is the recipe! As my mother says about her amazing recipes "What a hit".......I decided that a vegan blueberry muffin, warm out of the oven and a fresh cup of earl grey tea can put a smile on any one's face. :-) 

Here is the recipe:

• 2 cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour (you can use brown rice flour too)
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 2 Lemons For Lemon Zest
• 3/4 to 1 cup Sugar
• 1 cup Milk, any (I used almond milk)
• 1/3 cup Canola Oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
• 1 tablespoon White Vinegar 
• 1 and 1/2 cups fresh blueberries 

1. Preheat the oven to 375F  for 15 minutes. Lightly grease a muffin tin.
2. In a medium bowl, combine together flour, baking soda, salt and lemon zest.
3. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, milk, oil, extract, and vinegar. Mix well.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stir until just combined. Don’t over stir.
5. Gently fold in the berries using a rubber spatula.
6. Fill the muffin tins about 2/3rds full.
7. Bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, about 22 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes. After that remove the muffins from the tins and cool on a wire rack.

 I now feel like I have some baking skills and have learned that following directions is the key! I am so happy and excited to be able to successfully pull this off! My next baking adventure is vegan-gluten free carrot cake muffins! Yummy!

If you have any baking tips, stories or recipes please share with everyone! Have a great weekend everyone! XOXO

Keep it light,

Miss Reese

Fishies and puppies!

I am not eccentric. It's just that I am more alive than most people. I am an unpopular electric eel set in a pond of goldfish. 

                        Dame Edith Sitwell

Good afternoon everyone! I would like to introduce you to my new fishy Barry Manilow. He was left to me by a friend and now I am his mama! Watching him swim around is very calming and when I am not around him I close my eyes and envision his soothing and calm nature......

 

I would also like to introduce you to Miss Violet. She is a doggy that comes to my Tuesday and Thursday class with her mama Hope! She is the cutest little thing and she loves her auntie Reese! I realized how wonderful it is to have animals around to love and hug and squish and kiss!(Well just the love part for Barry or else he would probably die). :-)

I have just returned from an amazing massage and this time she did a little reiki too! She felt like a pussy cat lightly pawing at my forehead. I asked her if she had a cat and she said that she had four of them and that she is extremely close with all of them! Weird! I thought that she was going to start meowing! 


Next week we are going to do more reiki! Has anyone ever had it done to them before? There was actually a fire drill right in between our session! It was quite weird! I had to get dressed really quick and then once it was over get undressed again and get back on the table! Ha!

I am off to class now! I really wanted to stay home, put on my yammies and watch my netflix deliveries, however I rallied and here I am! Quinoa and avocado salad for dindin! Home made iced tea for a treat!

My goal for tonight is to keep it light and have fun! I hope that you do the same! 

With a smile,

Reese :-) 

Time for a backpack!

 

Hello and happy Monday! It is another beautiful and warm day here in the Emerald city! I am at work and I have decided to start my hunt for the perfect backpack. All of you young readers listen up! Years of carrying a heavy one shouldered bag has left my shoulders in a sorry state!

I am now getting weekly massages because my shoulders are starting to feel as stiff as a marble staircase! So with the advice of my massage therapist I am on the hunt for a vessel to go on my back to carry all of my personal belongings! The days of carrying bags on one shoulder are OVER! Hooray! I have been on Etsy all morning! I have attached some pictures for you to take a gander at. Let me know which ones are your favorite! Have a wonderful day and keep it light! :-)

Which one is your favorite? Where is your favorite place to shop for a backpack? How many of you use one?

With a smile,

Miss Reese

The Secret Gardens

lip gloss in my hair

fresh iced tea sparkles in the sun

toaster goes up in flames

By, 

Reese Carri   

Good early evening everyone! 

How is everyone doing? 

It was an absolutely sunny and beautiful breezy Sunday here in Seattle! As soon as I awoke I did a shot of a liver cleanse that my massage therapist Sabrina recommended. It is a tablespoon of olive oil, an organic lemon and a few sprinkles of cayenne pepper. It is supposed to be taken on an empty stomach and you should wait 30 minutes before you eat or drink anything! So far I have done it for 3 days! I will do it for 10 days. Logan is doing it too! We are scrub a dubbing our livers! Squeaky clean for spring time! :-)

Once the 30 minutes was up I made an iced coffee, grabbed an organic banana and some almonds and skipped off to take some pictures in my lovely neighborhood of Queen Anne! I came home afterwards to make a little bit of lunch and I set the toaster on fire while trying to toast a tortilla! The toaster now lives outside amongst the tulips until it properly cools down! Now I am at work until midnight! I'm enjoying a quinoa salad with black beans and spinach and a delicious glass of home made iced tea with fresh organic lemon..... 

Time to stop playing with the blog and start doing some much needed reading for homework! I am a bachelor's student and that means no horsing around, or not nearly as much as I did before! Ha! I hope everyone has a relaxing and fun week with lots of sunshine and blue skies! Enjoy! 

Keep it light,
Miss Reese 

A day spent with Sam!

Salt is born of the purest of parents, 

the sun and the sea........

                                          

-Pythagoras

I had the pleasure of interviewing my very dear friend Sam for this blog.

She graciously invited me into her lovely home to teach me the recipe for her delicious Sam's fiesta no time for a siesta salsa! She learned how to make it while she was living in Querna vaca, Mexico. She was staying there one summer and said that there was a thunder and lightning storm every evening! How enchanting!  

One of Sam's hobbies is reading and she highly recommended "The happiness project" written by Gretchen Rubin. She keeps a reading basket near her chair and in the morning she sips her coffee and reads in front of her sunshiney window.....How cozy does that sound?!

She also enjoys riding her bike around town and working on new sewing projects!

She also loves getting dressed up and going to her favorite happy hour at Ocho (in Ballard) where she enjoys a refreshing glass of white sangria and her favorite tapas!  

When I got to Sam's house she was just about to make a healthy shake. She gets weekly seasonal vegetables and fruits from New Roots Organics. They deliver a basket of local organic goodies to her doorstep every week  for $30! Wow! How healthy and inexpensive! 

She blendered up something mighty yummy and we sipped it while she started the salsa....

The ingredients for the salsa are:

1. bulb of garlic (1)

2. white onion (1)

3. cilantro (1 bunch)

4. avocado (1)

5. lime (3)

6. jalapeno (1)

7. tomatillos (12-16)

 Start with peeling the tomatillios......

Then put them into a pot of water and boil until they very slightly start to change colors (almost light brown means they're done)....

Here is Sam sprinkling some salt into the pot! Is that a martini shaker filled with salt you ask? Why yes it is! Tres Chic! 

While the tomatillos are cooking you can cut all of the ingredients up and throw them into the blender!

She loves her lime squeezer (it works for lemons too)

She also loves her garlic press!  

Once the tomatillos are done, put them into a bowl of ice for a few minutes. 

Once they have cooled down, you want to take the tops off....

Squeeze only the meat of the tomatillo into the blender. Take the left over skins and put them into your compost bin. 

Blend all of the ingredients together, adding salt and pepper as you go along. It depends on how smooth or chunky you prefer it to be, so blend it to your liking.

When you are done pour it into a glass jar and put into the fridge to cool. Give it about an hour and then fill a bowl with your favorite tortilla chips and enjoy! 

We listened to an Elton John record while Sam made a delicious veggie stir fry lunch!  Boy was it amazing! Then we ate some blueberry muffins that I brought over for dessert! We all know why I didn't bake them! :-) 

I would like to thank Sam for taking the time to share this delicious recipe with me and for being the ultimate hostess!!!!!!!

  

A big smile and a full belly,

Miss Reese 

First day of school

If every day in the life of a school could be the last day but one, there would be little fault to find with it.

          -Stephen Leacock 

Hello everyone!

Today was my first day of school!

It went so great! I wore my new Kate Spade polka dotted socks and my fancy party shoes.......

 I love my teacher Dr. Hunt and my two friends U and H that are in there with me! :-)  We all sat in the same row and made eyebrow gestures and odd faces to each other when we didn't understand something....

 After class I had a date. We went to a place called the living room located on Olive.I had a pinot grigio and a tomato basil focaccia bread. We had fine conversations and even shared a laugh.  All in all in a fine evening.....

When I got home Colby had dessert ready which was a key lime pie gelato served with organic orange..... We ate it with a clam fork, it was divine.....

 It's almost 1:15a.m. and I should go to sleep so that I can awake early and work on my first homework assignment!

Sweet Dreams,

Reese 

April Flowers*

"I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden."                               

  -Ruth Stout 

Good morning everyone and Happy April Fool's Day! :-) Today is my brother Ant's 40th birthday! Happy Birthday Ant! 

Here I am with my brothers Sal and Ant! We had just gotten home from my ballet recital! I think I was around 8 years old, so it must have been 1983! The recital was held at Hofstra University and Carrie Frederick and I were in the same class! I remember that we got ready in the dressing rooms where all of the professional dancers and actors would get ready. It was a huge room lined with glamorous hair and make up stations and light bulb framed mirrors! I remember how grown up and excited we were to be performing there! For the rest of the summer both Carrie and myself wore our leotards to run through the sprinklers on hot and humid Long Island summer days! Such ballerinas we were! Ha!

I remember when my brother Ant had taken ill with the chicken pox. He was 8 and I was 4. He was to stay in bed in his jammies and rest all day. I decided that I too wanted to stay in my jammies all day and rest in bed with him and keep him company! I  ended up also getting the chicken pox which my mum was fine with since she could kill two birds with one stone! I never really thought about how horrible that saying is. Why are we killing two birds anyway? Who came up with that? Probably a hunter! I am changing it to shattering two light bulbs with one wand, much better!!!!

I also remember when we worked on the film "A Bronx Tale" together. I was 15 and Ant was 19. It was filmed in Astoria- Queens, NY and it was directed by and also starred Mr. Robert Deniro. We played high school students in the year 1968. We worked on the hallway scene and the school yard scene for a week. Ant had also worked on a funeral scene the week before. We were  transformed with hair, make up and wardrobe. When Ant stepped out of the wardrobe trailer, I believe I fell to the ground laughing. I had never seen my brother in such tight clothing before. He looked like he belonged on "Star Trek." His hair was slicked back and he had on the tightest mustard colored sweater and the tightest maroon colored pants known to man! It was great! I was in a pea green burlap dress  which I am sure housed a dozen or more potatoes before they made it into a dress.  I also had a bee hive that could have touched the sky! It was an awesome experience and we made life long friends on that set! Soon after that we worked on an episode of "law and order"....We played two characters that day, homeless kids in the first scene (he was pushing me around in a shopping cart) and for the second scene I was a prostitute while Ant was a pimp, oh boy my mum must be so proud! Ha! 

Happy Birthday to my amazing brother! May this year prove to be magical and full of love and laughter! I love you! I also love my other brother, so Sal you are awesome too and always find the time to tease me, which I know means you LOVE ME TOO! Okay enough mush for one day! 

I've been trying to meditate in the morning! I'm not sure if meditating is hard for everyone, but golly gee sometimes my mind just can't quiet down. I find the best times to meditate is when I get out of the shower in the morning or when I get out of the bath in the evening. I suppose washing away all of the dirt also feels like washing away all of the noise in one's head.....I like sitting on my floor, towel on my wet head, heating pad under my bum and a few minutes of imagining myself walking through lavender fields on a crisp blue day!

My new goal for April is to meditate a little more each day, I also want to find a new canvas tote and if I stumble upon some fresh linen candles, pick up a few for my home......Love the smell of fresh linen!


Keep a good mood,

Smiles,
Reese