Okay!  We're ready!  Come on baby girl!

A muffin recipe and a quote.  That's what I've got for you today.  

We've been a little boring lately, but I've enjoyed it.  Hopefully I've done a good job entertaining you on here anyways :)  

We were pretty steadily busy starting in November with the Canary Islands, then my brother visiting for 10 days, Christmas, my trip back to the US for 3 weeks, and then Berlin at the end of January.  Ever since though, we've been laying low and its been nice.  Jason and I have had very few stretches since we met almost 8 years ago where we're able to get into a routine.  We're not quite in one yet here, but there was a short time in Kuwait and Colorado where we did and maybe it'll happen soon here.  

It just feels good to occasionally have some down time where you get into a groove and allow yourself to mentally catch up with life.  We don't have much planned over the next 10 weeks as we wait for the little one to arrive, so I plan to enjoy it as much as I can.

Germany is very different from the US in so many ways, but not in the stark ways that Kuwait was.  You could have a completely ordinary day in Kuwait and it could involve the most random occurrences that made for entertaining posts.  Here its not quite that eventful, so I struggle sometimes to come up with unique things to share, so this tends to be more of a glimpse into our world vs. a lesson living in Germany.

This year is going to be a full one.  Starting with the baby, we'll have non-stop company from the end of April through mid-July.  Then we head to Italy with family towards the end of July.  At the beginning of September we'll head back to the States for a wedding and to see family and friends, and then it'll soon be Fall and the holidays again!  Not to mention we'll have a little mini-me strapped to our side throughout all this which will make it all the more interesting.  

Anyways, enough rambling.  I hope you enjoy my little day to day posts, as ordinary as they may be sometimes :)

This was Tuesday's creation that I sent in with Jason to work.  My nesting has taken me to a whole new level - sending homemade things in with my husband.  

In the past, wives that did this annoyed me.  When we briefly lived in Georgia, the wives of the men Jason worked with would all send things in.  It was almost like a competition.  Because of this, I refused to take part.  I don't think anyone sends stuff in here, so its a little different and it seems to be appreciated.  I hope they enjoy it, because I have a feeling this trend wont last ;)

I got this recipe from a friend, but here is one very similar.  The cookie is from a mix, not from scratch, so its pretty easy to make but looks fancy.  The frosting is a mix between cream cheese, whipping cream, lemon juice, & sugar.  Then you decorate however you'd like.

I've been cooking & baking A LOT since I got home.  I cook quite a bit usually, but I usually do it for a couple days and then get burnt out for a couple days (then repeat).  I've been on a longer streak than normal though.  I thought it'd be a fun task to attempt to organize my mass amounts of Pintrest recipes into tried and not tried.

I wanted to share some of the ones I've tried this week.

I've never made meatball subs before.  I'm not sure I've even ever had one before this week.  I had ground beef though and I'm on a sandwich kick (which is difficult to satisfy without deli-meat!) AND I thought Jason might like this.  

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.  The meatballs weren't too hard to make and the end result looked almost exactly like the image above!  I went easy on the spices because it seemed like a lot and I'm so glad I did.  I might decrease it by half next time even.

This is not a new find, but its definitely a "tried-and-true" in our house.  My husband actually found this recipe and we continue to use it both for grilled and baked salmon.  I don't cook the fish in our house, that's all Jason.  I wanted to share though because its a really simple recipe and a lot of the stuff we usually just have on hand already.

These were great to have on hand this week.  I had never baked with fresh cranberries, so it was a little new to me.  These are very scone-like scones - i.e. not overly sweet.  I skipped the icing, but did sprinkle a little sugar on the egg wash prior to baking.  The cranberries are tart and they're not overly sweet (and also not really that bad for you!), but they were perfect with a cup of tea in my opinion.  

I will say though, that I had to use a lot more milk than it called for, just FYI.  I would start by adding a 1/4 c. at a time until the dough comes together.  Mine was still fairly sticky so I just did blobs for scones vs. cute little triangles.

This is my contribution to the Super Bowl snacks tonight.  I had made puppy chow once in Home Ec in high school, but not since.  It was really easy and turned out good!  I did end up mixing in the chocolate with my hands which was pretty messy, but I found it much more effective than trying to do it with a spoon.

Oh I saved the best for last!

These are amazing!  My husband said it was in the top 5 things I've ever made.  That and the fact that he ate 3 of them is the highest praise I could get.  He doesn't get overly crazy about food in general.

The dough for this turned out awesome - just like it was supposed to and the fresh cranberries (leftover from the scones I made earlier in the week) mellowed out after baking and complimented perfectly with the orange flavors.  

I used storebought icing because I had run out of confectioners sugar, but I still mixed in the fresh orange juice.  Also, I had some red juice from the cranberries sitting in the bottom of the pan when I took them out in the morning.  This didn't seem to affect anything though, just FYI.  

These would be impressive to make for company and it wasn't terribly hard.  I'd really recommend this recipe.  My favorite of the week by far!

I've been trying some new recipes lately and have gone back to some old favorites.  I'm back on a Pioneer Woman kick.  If you haven't tried her yet, you should.

Cookies made at sea level are so much prettier than high altitude!  Yay for not baking in the mile high city anymore!

I want to be eating this right now :)