Happy Valentine's Day!

Matt and I went out for dinner and a movie to celebrate this year's Valentine's Day. At Masa, we had a great mexican feast - www.masa-restaurant.com/. We then made our way over to Edina to see "The King's Speech.". The movie was really good.

During the day, however, the kids helped me try out a new cupcake recipe. The recipe was for strawberry banana cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting. They turned out great and I thought I would share the recipe with you to try.

Cupcakes

• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 1 cup of white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream
• 1 teaspon of baking soda
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspon of vanilla
• 1 cup of mashed bananas (about 2 bananas) and
• 1 cup macerated strawberries (just puree them in a blender)

Cream butter and sugar. mix in eggs, yogurt, flour, baking soda and vanilla. Stir in bananas and strawberries until combined. Full cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Frosting

• 1/4 cup butter (room temperature)
• 1 8 oz. package of cream cheese (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup strawberries (pureed in blended)
• 3 to 4 cups of powdered sugar (I used 4)

Cream butter and cream cheese. Mix in the strawberries. Add the powdered sugar to the taste and consistency you prefer. Then cover your cupcakes and enjoy!

SUPERBOWL SUNDAY

Matt did not want to have a party since the Vikings were not in the Superbowl, but we still had a good spread of Australian Sausage Rolls, Chili and some other good eats. The Green Bay Packers were taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers, teams we were both quite familiar with. The kids dressed up in their black and yellow to support the Steelers. Troy, wearing a Vikings jersey like his father, was waving his terrible towel. We cheered for the Steelers, but they ended up losing in what was a really enjoyable and close game.

Next year it will be unlikely that we will get to any games since the Vikings stadium is well, sunk. There may not be a season anyway with the potential lockout, so hopefully the Vikings can get their act together and take advantage of the time to build a new and improved stadium. We just hope they do not move away.

If You Give A Moose A Muffin....

We went to see the children's play, "If You Give A Moose A Muffin" a couple of weekends ago. I won the tickets in a silent auction for Stages Theatre Company out of Hopkins, MN. The kids loved it since there was a lot of audience participation and most of the characters in the play were children ages 10 and up.
They sat really well for the most part and Troy was so enamoured that he took his program up to the kids afterwards to get their autographs. He told the main actor that his favorite part was when he gave the moose his muffin.
We have a couple of more plays to see before the season is over. Look out for details on our next play, "Pinkalicious" coming soon!