Great cupcake recipes!

Over the last couple weeks I’ve been dabbling in a bit of baking.  This is something completely new to me so I’m definitely in the learning phase.  But I’ve found two great cupcake recipes for chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.  The other ones I’ve tried just don’t compare.  The vanilla recipe comes from a famous bakery in New York, Magnolia’s.  This recipe was very easy to follow and the cupcakes were moist and delicious!  You can find it here.  The chocolate buttermilk recipe I found in the book, The Artful Cupcake, but you can also find it here…you can add the ganache if you’re feeling sassy but it’s not necessary. 

Here are some good tips for first time cupcake bakers:

1. Follow the recipe!  With baking it’s best to stick to the recipe and don’t try to get all creative unless you’re experienced.  If the recipe calls for a teaspoon of baking soda, just obey!  And, if the recipe calls for random ingredients that you don’t have or you don’t know how to prepare, find another recipe!  Also, avoid doing substitutions.  I’ve been reading a lot of reviews of recipies and often times a recipe will have a ton of great reviews and the few bad reviews will say something like ”I substituted this for that and that for this” which just seems so silly to me.  It’s not the recipe’s fault that your cupcakes turned out less than perfect! 

2. Don’t overfill your pans.  If the recipe says to fill halfway, fill halfway.  They can overflow very easily.

3. Do not disturb.  Once you put your cupcakes in the oven, don’t open it until the minimum amount of time the recipe calls for has been reached.  If you do, you can fall victim to the dreaded cupcake dimple…just like you don’t want them on your thighs, you don’t want them on your cupcake.

4. Use good ingredients.  Don’t buy the vanilla substitute from Wal-Mart and stuff like that (voice of experience here- I’m a bargain shopper what can I say?).  Quality ingredients make a big difference.

4. Store in airtight containers!  Like most bake goods, your cupcakes will stay moist and yummy if you store them in airtight containers.  But make sure they cool completely before storing.  If you can avoid refrigerating that’s best because refrigeration can dry them out.

The Other Boleyn Girl Review

I finished reading The Other Boleyn Girl a while back.  I have to say, I was thoroughly captivated.  It’s a total page turner.  I’m kind of bummed to hear that a couple of Gregory’s historical sources have distanced themselves from her because some of her major details aren’t historically supported.  I don’t like that.  I think it’s fine to create a fictional story based on historical information but I think you should stay true to the known facts.  So that’s my gripe with it.  I did enjoy the book very much but I felt it dragged in parts and there were times where I questioned whether reading this story line was a productive use of my time (of course it wasn’t).   I like analyzing what I’m reading but I didn’t feel like there were a lot of opportunities to do that with this book.  It’s was kind of like watching reality tv: completely entertaining, enjoy every minute, total waste of time.

“Endless Referrals” Review

I’m almost done reading Endless Referrals, by Bob Burg.  This is a must read for people in business.  The basic theme is that business professionals need to position themselves as givers because what goes around comes around.  This is absolutely my business philosophy.  It’s what I love about my job…I have to create relationships and meet people and be helpful and giving in order to be successful.  I mean, who doesn’t want to be a giver?  The great thing about the book is that it gives you different ideas on how to be helpful and position yourself as a resource.  It’s a great read!

Layli’s invites

It’s finally here…Layli’s first birthday will be on Friday! We’re going to have a small party for her and naturally, I had to hand make her invitations. Below is a picture of my handiwork…I’m quite proud. We decided that we’re not going to put any limitations on gifts since it’s her first birthday and she won’t really know any better. But we’re thinking that for future birthdays however many birthday toys she receives, she has to donate that many of her old toys to a charity…hopefully we can find something where she can actually go and deliver the toys herself so she can experience that.

Joining the club…

I turned 30 last week and despite the fact that being alive for three decades is something to celebrate, my birthday wasn’t all too exciting to me.  Usually on my birthday I can’t wait to celebrate me…but this year it was different.  Now that I’m a mom, birthdays have new meaning.  I feel like Layli’s birthday is my birthday. Whenever I think about the day she was born, I can’t help but get emotional.  I feel like I should be celebrated on her birthday because the day she was born is so incredibly special to me.

A close friend of mine called me to wish me Happy Birthday and also to share with me that she’s pregnant.  She has no idea how much happiness that little piece of news brought me…I think I was more excited than she was.  When I was pregnant, mothers who didn’t even know me would be so excited to hear I was having my first baby.  I thought it was comical at the time but now I understand it…parents are all in on the secret…that life’s greatest joy lies in your baby’s smile.   It’s an experience that we all understand intellectually but don’t truly know until we go through it.  This is why our mothers can’t wait for us to have children as soon as we get married….because the joy you experience when you have a child is complete, perfect and miraculous.

Everyone needs to watch Sicko!

We decided to watch Sicko the other night.  I had been trying to get out of watching it because I didn’t want to watch a downer.  I already knew that our health care system is barbaric, but I really didnt’ understand the extent of it until after watching this movie.  Afterwards, I felt sad but surprisingly I felt empowered…I won’t say anymore, just go watch it.

End of the Month Drama

In the mortgage business, the end of the month is high stress time.  Yesterday morning at about 7 am, the stress set in.  I work from home on Fridays so I was trying to manage my accounts and keep an eye on my crawling/climbing 8 month old at the same time.  At one point I was allowing my stress to eat away at me for a couple minutes when I realized that I hadn’t been watching Layli!  So I quickly surveyed my office and found her staring at me with her face smooshed up against the glass door.  I just started dying laughing…that was exactly what I needed.

The perfect woman

Before Layli was born, Billy and I both wanted a boy. I mainly wanted a boy because I knew that was what Billy wanted. When the doctor told us she was a girl we were totally in denial…we walked out of the office in silence, holding hands, lamenting our son’s non-existence. Over the next few days I became much more excited about the thought of having a girl, but Billy didn’t truly get over it until Layli was born. I had no idea how much he was going to adore her. I guess I just didn’t think about it. Billy is the type of person that kids idolize but he doesn’t share the same affection. Don’t get me wrong, he loves kids, but he’s just not as into them as they are to him…no matter how cute they are. From the minute Layli was born, she had her dada wrapped around her miniature pinky. He is totally enamoured with her and has said that he’s glad we didn’t have a boy- he loves that he can “oh & ah” over her and it might have been different if she were a boy. So I’ve been thinking lately, besides the obvious, what is Billy so crazy about? And it came to me…baby girls are men’s dream women! Think about it:

He can figure her out. Her needs are simple and in many cases predictable.

She is always happy to see him and happy in general. Not only that, but she doesn’t need thoughtful gifts or chivalrous acts to make her happy…just his smile will do it.

She’s no drama. She rarely complains, and if she does he’s pretty sure how to fix whatever she’s needing (dirty diaper, hunger, sleep).

She’s beautiful.

She accepts him for who he is. She’s fine with his shameless addiction to chess and in fact encourages it by sitting still with him as he plays for however long.

So there we have it. The truth behind the term “Daddy’s Girl.”

Baby Mum-mums

I recently heard about these baby snacks, Baby Mum-Mums,  that are gluten, egg, nut free and a bunch of other good-for-babies things.  They’re really great because they dissolve rather than leave crumbs so they’re relatively mess free.  We gave them to Layli tonight and she practically inhaled them.  It was awesome because rather than feeding her baby food, she could just hold it and feed herself which was SO nice.  Anyway, I definitely recommend them; they’re a really great snack!  They are made in Australia but there are local retailers that sell them…

Wal-Mart
Fred Meyer
Haggen
Harmon’s
Rosauers
Yokes
Super One
QFC

Experimenting with pictures

There’s a really great blog with photography tips.  I took some of his advice to edit this picture…

I used the rule of thirds, focal point, and space to look into to frame it…

What do you think?

Birthday party ideas

Layli’s half birthday was last month which was surprisingly a little emotional for me.  I can’t believe my baby is a half year old already!  I started thinking about what I want to do for her first birthday.  The thought of her receiving more toys worries me since she already has a closet full of stuff.  So the hunt for gift giving ideas began.  I think the best idea we’ve come up with so far is in lieu of gifts to ask our guests to perform random acts of kindness and then have them recorded in a scrapbook at her party. 

It got me to thinking…what about her future birthdays?  I would love to do something like donate all her gifts to foster children or some other cause but I would feel bad if someone gave her something that they really wanted Layli to have.  But then Billy came up with a great idea!- she can keep all of her new gifts but then she’ll have to give the same number of toys from her toy box away to a cause of her choice. 

Any other ideas out there?

What does it mean to pay points?

When you go to get home financing, your lender will quote you an interest rate and it will usually cost you around 1 point, or 1% origination (both mean the same thing) to get that interest rate.  You can opt to not pay any points if you would like but your interest rate would be higher.  1 point is equal to 1% of your loan amount, so if your loan amount is $300,000 you will have to pay $3,000 for that interest rate.  Generally speaking, it usually makes more financial sense to pay the point if you’re planning to keep the loan for more than three to five years.  If you think that you’re going to refinance or sell your home in a couple years then it usually doesn’t make sense to pay the point.

Here is the best thing to do, have your lender quote you a rate with paying the point and then the rate with not paying the point.  Then take your origination cost and divide it by the difference in your monthly payments.  That number is the number of months it will take you to make up for the cost of the origination.  Which mean every month after that you will be saving because you paid the point.  Here’s an example:

$300,000 loan

Origination (or 1 point) will cost $3,000

The interest rate with paying the point will be 6.125%, so your payment will be $1822.83

The interest rate with not paying the point will be 6.5%, your payment will be $1896.20

The difference is $73.37/month.

So take $3,000 and divide it by $73.37 and you get about 41 months.  So after 3 and a half years (41 months) you will make up the cost of the origination which means ever month after that you will be saving $73.37 because you paid the point up front.

Also something to remember, your origination cost is tax deductible…make sure you talk to your CPA about it for the details though!

Jokester

I love this picture.  It’s like she’s telling me the punchline of a really great joke.

Layli’s intuition

Last night we had some people over to our house.  One of them was an 78 year old man who just lost his wife two months ago.  They were married for 58 years!  That’s almost twice my lifetime!  I felt really sad for him to be alone now but I also thought what a blessing to have spent a lifetime his spouse. 

These days, Layli is a little weary of strangers.  She needs to thoroughly check you out before she’ll let you hold her and even then she may still cry in your face if you pick her up.  This man took a great interest in her from the minute he saw her and I just knew that he wanted to hold her.  But I was so worried because I didn’t want her to reject him after all he had been through.  There were five other “strangers” there but she was most interested in him.  After a while he picked her up and I held my breath and faked a smile…she just looked at him as if to say, “Finally I can take a look at you up close” and then she was totally content in his arms.  I was elated, beaming with pride that my daughter chose to bring happiness to this man who was in much need of it!  It almost makes the other times that she’s wailed in peoples faces acceptable.  I like to think that she’s highly intuitive and knows who truly needs her affection.

Interest Rates

Because I do mortgages, a lot of people ask me about interest rates.  Often times you will hear in the news that the Fed lowered or raised interest rates.  When you hear that, that doesn’t mean you should go out and refinance your home loan or thank your lucky stars for your low interest rate.   The Federal Funds Rate (which is usually what you hear about in the news) directly effects short-term interest rates like bank loans, credit card interest rates, adjustable rate mortgages and not long term fixed mortgages.  So the next time you hear that the Fed dropped the rates (which will most likely happen again by the end of the month) know that it will have more of an influence on your credit card interest rates or your home equity line of credit and not on fixed mortgages.

First time homebuyers

If you have been following the news on the mortgage industry you know there has been a lot of drama lately.  Basically, the honeymoon’s over (at least for now) for creative financing.  Right now there are very few 100% loan programs but they’re still out there!  The FHA and VA governement loans are really great products for first time home buyers with less than perfect credit because they allow you to put little to no money down and still get great rates.  Make sure you also ask your lender about other 100% financing options since FHA/VA loans have loan amount limits and more costs attached to them. 

Don’t be discouraged by all the hype in the media.  Rates are still really good…actually they’re great right now- today 6.125% on a 30 year fixed (with 1 point-see my previous post on points).  Right now is a great time to buy and a horrible time to sell.  It’s truly a buyer’s market.  Winter is traditionally slow because everyone is too busy with the holidays so you’re more likely to find sellers who are willing to negotiate! 

Here are some tips:

1. If you don’t have money for closing costs, tell your realtor that you want to have the sellers pay your closing costs.  That can be negotiated into your contract.  With most loans, you can have the sellers pay up to 6% (of your loan amount) in closing costs.  Check with your lender to make sure there aren’t any restrictions.

2. Make sure you ask your lender about any prepayment penalties.  It’s important to know about those ahead of time.  My take is, unless you don’t have any other option, don’t take a pre-payment penalty. 

3. Whether you’re thinking about buying a house this month, in six months, in a year, in two years, go to a lender and get pre-approved now!  I love it when clients come to me and they’re not planning to buy for a year or so.  That way, I can get them pre-approved and if there are any issues we have a lot of time to resolve them and also I can give them tips on what they can do to maximize their purchasing power.  It’s like trying to run a marathon without training…if you just would have trained months in advance you would have been able to run the best race possible!  Bad analogy, but go with it. 

4. Don’t get comfortable renting! You are throwing thousands of dollars away each year!

5. Just a tip- obtaining auto financing can lower your credit score by about 40-80 points and it can take several months to go back up.  Make sure you don’t buy a car right before you buy a house. 

6.  Remember, all your liability payments reduce your purchasing power.  For example, if you have a $300 car payment you will be approved for about $50,000 less than if you didn’t have that payment.  Think again before opening another credit card, financing jewlery or buying a car.

Debt-to-Income Ratio

Your debt to income ratio is a very important factor in determining how much of a monthly mortgage payment you can afford.  The bank likes to see your debt-to-income ratio at about 45% or less.  Some programs allow you to go as high as 55% and some only allow you to go up to 39%.  But 45% is a safe estimate since most programs accept that. 

So, if you need your DTI to be about 45%, how much does that mean your monthly payment needs to be?  Take your gross monthly income and subtract your liability payments.  Your liabilities are things like, car loan payments, student loan payments, minimum credit card payments, personal loan payments.  Think of it as loans that you are paying back.  So things like utilities, gym memberships, cell phone service are things that you are utilizing and paying as you go, so those you don’t count.  After you subtract your liabilities, multiply it by 45% and that is how much of a monthly mortgage payment (included taxes & insurance) that you can afford.

Example:

You and your spouse bring in together 6,000 a month.  Your liabilities are:

$250 car payment

$30 minimum credit card payment

$150 student loan payment

So subtract your liabilities from your gross monthly income and you get $5,570.  Then multiply $5,570 by 45% and you get $2506.50.  And that is how much of a mortgage payment you can afford. 

Remember that payment of $2506.50 includes property taxes and homeowners insurance.  Those payments can vary but for general purposes, multiply your desired sales price by 1.25% and divide by twelve for your monthly taxes and multiply your sales price by .2% to get your monthly insurance.  Example:

$300,000 house

300,000 x 1.25% / 12 = $312.50

300,000 x .2% / 12 = $50

So your taxes & insurance monthly payment would be $362.50.  Subtract that from 2,506.50 and you get $2,144.  That means your mortgage payment should be around $2,144. 

Wow, I don’t know if anyone really cares about that, but there you go…

My take on Environmentalism

I guess I have always known that there was an environmental problem, but I really didn’t understand the gravity of it until I watched An Inconvenient Truth.  Since then, I have been trying to implement changes in our lives that are better for the environment.  I bought The Green Book which has been a great resource in educating me on all the everyday choices that I can make to contribute less to the problem of climate change.  But some of the information out there is a little overwhelming.  I just don’t think it’s reasonable to expect everyone to make such huge sacrifices to our convenience.  I mean, I’m a California girl at heart- I can’t not buy paper towels!  I kind of feel like people’s overzealous need to reduce, reuse, recycle is contributing to the problem because it creates an unrealistic expectation on how we should live.  I think my apathetic attitude towards global warming (prior to seeing An Inconvenient Truth) was partly because the choices I would see people making (and subconsciously expecting me to make) were so extreme and not anything I could realistically implement into my life.  So here’s what I think: I think everyone should take the time to educate themselves on the choices they can make in their lives to help the environment and choose the ones that make the most sense for their lifestyle.  Some may be able to make the extreme choices and others may not.  And gradually, we can each try to implement more and more choices.  That’s what I think. J

What I’m reading…

I just got finished reading The Time Traveler’s Wife.  I have to say, I was very interested in the plot but I had a really hard time empathizing with the characters.  I just found the story heart-wrenching and depressing and in the end, the characters weren’t worth the ache the book gave me.  And because it was so far beyond my reality, it was hard for me to find value in the little nuances of the story line, which I something I love to do, but just wasn’t able to with this book.  So now I’m on to Eat Love Pray.  I saw the author on Oprah and just had to run out and buy the book.  I didn’t watch the whole interview because I was totally enthralled by the first twenty minutes and I love a good book and didn’t want to hear any spoilers.  I’m on page 19 and I absolutely love it so far.  Elizabeth Gilbert is a fantastic storyteller!  I’ll keep you updated!

Trees

Billy and I choose our home based on one feature…the trees in our backyard.  We chose this house over many other ”better” homes mainly because they just didn’t have the stunning green belt that we do.  We love trees so much that they are even a common decorative theme within our home.  Before Layli was born, I would lie on our bed watching the trees sway and daydream about what life would be like with our new addition. 

 

Every morning I bring Layli into our bed to nurse her.  Then I sit her up and she does the same thing I do…stares at our conifers, mesmerized by their dance.  It amazes me that they have the same affect on an infant.  She can watch them for minutes (which is hours in baby time).  They can calm her instantly; if she’s upset we just take her outside to watch the trees and she’s fine- as if mother earth herself soothes her.  How interesting that in all my prenatal daydreaming, never did I imagine that my daughter would sit quietly and appreciate these majestic elders, allowing them to bring her peace, like they do me.

Target’s Method products

I’m trying my best to make changes in our house that are better for the environment.  I bought a bunch of cleaning products from Target’s environmental brand, Method.  I chose Method mainly because I’m a Target junkie and because it was a line that was promoted on Oprah’s green show.  I’m especially happy with their detergent because it has no fragrances or dyes which is great for me since I have pretty sensitive skin.  Today we had our monthly interfaith devotional which meant that I needed to do the project that I detest the most…cleaning the floors.  I really don’t like to clean the floors so I usually try to pawn it off on Billy, but I was actually excited about it today because I bought Method’s mop system which is kind of like their answer to the Swiffer.  It’s really nice because you just squirt the cleaner directly on the floor and then mop it up with a mop that has a washable microfiber cloth at the end of it.  Unfortunately, it just wasn’t as functional as it needs to be.  It reminded me why I hate cleaning the floors.  I have porcelain tile floors (which I don’t suggest to anyone- if we ever redo our floors we will definitely go with bamboo) and the mop would only move in one direction, it would collapse when I would try to move it towards me.  It was SO frustrating.  I definitely recommend the all-purpose cleaner, detergents & dryer sheets and their cleaning wipes but unfortunately, not their mop.  If anyone has any suggestions on how to make cleaning the floors easier, besides a maid, PLEASE let me know!

Sleeping

I’m one of those old school moms who doesn’t sleep with her baby.  I know co-sleeping and family beds are the thing to do these days, but I’m just not that mom.  My sister-in-law told me a while back that being able to put yourself to sleep is a life skill and that is really something that has stuck with me.  I don’t want my daughter to be afraid to sleep or have trouble falling to sleep.  So since she was little we had her in a co-sleeper and kept her swaddled up tight and she did just fine.  When she was four months we transitioned her to sleeping in her crib in her own room (she was use to taking naps in there so it wasn’t so foreign to her).  She did just great! We created a routine of washing her hands, changing her diaper, putting on pajamas, reading two stories (Baby Elmo & Goodnight Moon), saying prayers, nursing her and then putting her in her crib to go to sleep.  She took to it right away and didn’t really put up a fight so we were really lucky.  During the days I usually nurse her right before her nap to help her get sleepy and when I put her in her crib she just rolls over and falls asleep and I’m in mommy heaven.  Well the last couple weeks Layli has decided to change our flawless routine!  Now, after I nurse her, instead of being sleepy, she starts squealing with delight and flashing those delectable dimples (she got ‘em from her mama) and looking at me as if to say,”how could you possibly part with me right now, I’m so much fun!”  Aye!

Orchids

I love orchids.  I think they’re an easy way to beautify your home and they’re cheap!  I am definitely not an expert at taking care of them but I have had pretty good luck and thought I would impart what little I know.  You can get them at almost any grocery store, but I suggest Trader Joes because they’re usually in pretty good shape and they’re only $13!  The closest Trader Joes is 35 minutes from me and I’m pretty bitter about it…I’m convinced that Olympia is the biggest tree hugging town in the country and I can’t believe we don’t have a TraderJoes!  Anyway, when you pick one out, make sure it looks healthy and you’ll want to get one with maybe just two flowering orchids and then at least 2 more buds.  That way when those die, you’ll have some more to replace them!  All I do is emmerse the pot in a bucket of water for 20 seconds and then let it drain in the sink.  I do that once a week and my orchids look just great for months.  I got my care advice from Hooshang, the master flower man so if yours die you can blame him.

$250 breast pump?

So I’m a working mom, for shame.  I work in the office three days a week while my mom takes care of Layli.  And then the other two days I pretend to work from home.  I’ve pretty much wanted to be a mom forever, so it surprises me that I actually enjoy the three days of “freedom” at work.  I had convinced myself that I didn’t need the expensive $250 breast pump, and that the frustrating $50 hand pump did the job just fine.  After four months of nursing drama, I finally broke down and bought the expensive electric pump and I WISH I would have just got it from the beginning.  I had no idea how much nursing completely changes your life (more-so than the child herself, it seems sometimes).  The electric breast pump just brings a little relief to such a time consuming-but wonderful, of course, responsibility.

Gdiapers

This week we decided to try using gdiapers instead of the disposables we were using.  I always admired people who could do cloth but I just felt like I wasn’t “that kind of mom.”  A couple weeks ago, I realized that my pure, perfect daughter’s first impression on the world will be the mark of 6,000 dirty diapers in our landfills.  I hate that thought and so I started researching different options and reading about the cloth vs. disposable debate.  Well gdiapers seem to be the perfect answer to the problem.  We have only been using them for the last week but so far so good.  We’re still using disposables at night because, when it comes down to it, I’m still a California girl and I just don’t want to wake up to a wet diaper/pajama/sheet/baby.  But at this point, I’m pleased with the change.