Hola Amigos!

pumpkin cupcakes with brown butter icing...

These cupcakes were really yummy. To prevent dryness take them out early.

A Martha Stewart Recipe

Cupcake recipe:
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup fresh sage leaves, I chopped them
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup canned pumpkin puree, not pie filling
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Brush muffin tins with butter and dust with flour. In a saucepan over medium-low heat melt the butter. Add the sage and swirl until butter is golden brown. Skim foam from top, and remove from heat. Pour into a bowl to stop from cooking; let cool.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, both sugars, eggs, and brown-butter, mixture. Add flour mixture and whisk until combined.
3. Divide batter evenly among cups. Bake for 20 minutes, rotating tins halfway through.Transfer cupcakes to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
4. To finish, dip each cupcake in icing, then turn over quickly to set.

Brown Butter Icing Recipe:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk, plus more if needed

1. In a saucepan over medium heat melt the butter, swirl pan until butter is nut-brown in color, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl.
2. Add confectioners' sugar, vanilla and 2 tablespoons of milk to brown butter; stir until smooth. Add more milk if needed, until icing is spreadable. Use immediately.

Stewart, Martha. (2009).Martha Stewart's cupcakes: 175 inspired ideas for everyone's favorite treat. New York: Clark/Potter Publishers.

http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/archives/2009/Jul/

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Mitchell Lake, Earl and I, and Minnesota.

a pinched tire... not so bad on a beautiful day.

fun. fun. fun.

yes, we will take some cheese for the road!

Chicago (shi-cago)...

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Roar...

You'll start out today with lots of energy -- so much so that you might leap out of bed prepared for anything. Plenty of emotions, ideas, and hopes are swimming around in your head right now, and they are giving you a blast of physical endurance and energy that will carry you through the entire day. There is no question that you will have the ability to tackle all tasks with the efficiency of a supercomputer. This is a great day for any physical competition.

Should of rode my bike to do errands...

*Picture courtesy of allposters.com and horoscope courtesy of myYahoo.

spontaneity. impulsivity. coming together. friends.