SWEET POTATO MUFFINS

It was hard to get back into school mode after being on spring break for a week. I had a test, 2 papers, and a presentation this week. Lets just say it was hard to get motivated. It seems that from now until finals teachers are trying to cram every bit of information they can into our brains. I have a test, project or paper due every week until finals. Thank god for weekends.

This week my roommates and I wanted to bake something that we would be able to grab and go as a breakfast since we were all so busy. As we were searching the Internet we came across this recipe that looked a little strange since it contained sweet potatoes in muffins. We all love sweet potatoes but weren’t sure that they would taste that great in muffins.

After making the muffins they were by far the most devious muffins I have ever tasted. You could barely tell that they even had sweet potatoes in the recipe. They also do not contain as many calories as the muffins that you would buy at the grocery store or at a coffee shop. These muffins are one of my new favorite recipes and are also really easy to make.

Sweet Potato Muffins Stuffed with Cream Cheese

Recipe: Makes 10 muffins
Muffins –

2 cups white whole-wheat flour (it is just as nutritious as brown whole wheat flour)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2-teaspoon table salt
1/4-teaspoon baking soda
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp milk
1/3-cup heavy whipping cream
1-cup sweet potato puree
1 1/2 tsp good quality vanilla extract (I also threw in some vanilla beans!)
1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3-cup brown sugar
2 eggs
Stuffing -
8 tbsp cream cheese
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
& Cinnamon-sugar mixture to sprinkle on tops of muffins before baking.
1. In a medium bowl, combine all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda and ground nutmeg. Set aside.

2. In another medium bowl combine cream, milk, sweet potato puree and vanilla extract. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and dark brown sugar with an electric mixer, until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

4. Also with the electric mixer, alternately mix in dry and wet ingredients into the butter, starting and ending with the dry; mix only until each addition is just incorporated.

5. Coat a muffin pan with nonstick spray and divide the batter into 10 cups. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with a generous amount of cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until it they pass the toothpick test.

6. The stuffing: combine all ingredients and beat until well incorporated. To fill the muffins, I carved out a smallish hole and squeezed the stuffing in from a plastic baggy with a tiny hole in the corner.

Benefits:
Sweet potato * SO good for you. Loads of vitamin A, (C, copper, manganese, and fiber). The vitamin A acts as an anti oxidant in the body to eliminate free radicals that harm DNA.

EXTRA CREDIT!

After reading Sissy and comparing it to Ragged Dick, we see completely different themes in both the novels. In Sissy I found that he broke the mold of the “American boy” the other authors set up. Rather then being tough and dirty like Ragged Dick, Sissy was clean and somewhat feminine. Sissy didn’t care what other people thought, which was not a problem cause everyone accepted him, "he made no effort to conceal his tastes and preferences, but openly pursued his girl-work and good naturedly maintained that it was more respectable and enjoyable than getting into the dirt "to mumble the peg", or than hopping about o none foot, and kicking a bit of china or brick across lines, as in "hop-scotch" (546). The boys never gave him a hard time from him acting like a girl. Everyone really liked him. In Ragged Dick we see this rough, mischievous character. Even though he caused trouble he still got away with all of his actions, "I am afraid he swore sometimes, and now and then he played tricks upon unsophisticated boys from the country, or gave a wrong direction to honest old gentlemen unused to the city"(367). Sissy put a new spin on little boys that I found really interesting and fun to read about whereas Ragged Dick was more predictable and we kind of new what to expect from him. Sissy invited people to be open with whom they are and that boys can be accepted even though they may have some famine characteristics. In Ragged Dick, I think it showed that little boys can get away with being mischievous and rebellious and in Sissy we see that he is calm and he likes to be “good”. I think both Sissy and Ragged Dick showed two different perspectives on how little boys can grow up to be and that there is not just one stereotype.

THE LUCK OF ROARING CAMP

After reading “The Luck of Roaring Camp,” what struck me about this reading was that there was no true female in the story. Most of the pieces we have read this year entailed of a young girl, or a young girl and her mother. Every female was different: some were poor and lived on the streets, some were ugly, some were pretty, some were crazy and some were wealthy, but never did we encounter a female prostitute of any sort. The one woman that was mentioned in, "The Luck of Roaring Camp" was looked down upon by the entire community. I'm sure it did not help that she was the only female, so practically an outcast since she could not easily relate to the men, and the men found it hard to accept her simply because she was mentally and physically different. Even though when she dies giving birth to the only baby that Roaring Camp has ever seen or had, they make it clear they don't want another female among their presence. "It was argued that no decent woman could be prevailed to accept Roaring Camp as her home, and the speaker urged that 'they didn't want any more of the other kind.'" It is weird though how these men strongly believed that this baby, Luck, brought all the luck that Roaring Camp had ever had. This baby had come from a woman, one they looked down upon, but she gave birth to a being that brought luck to them. This baby was viewed as something of value to these men. If the baby was a girl I wonder if the circumstances would have changed. This is also we see a baby viewed in a positive way. I think this was a very interesting reading especially since this roaring camp was male dominant, which is something we aren’t use to.

GILMAN AND CHOPIN

Throughout this semester we have been reading excerpts from children’s literature that are longer in length then a short story, which has a quick story and ending. My reading habits completely change when I am reading a short story as opposed to a long novel. I pay more attention to short stories and I can focus more on every word in the story cause I know it is going to end soon. Unlike long novels where there is a lot of detail and sometimes I tend to skip over some words and not read it as carefully. I also think since short stories only have like 10 or fewer pages to them if you do not read it carefully you may miss an important part of the story. Whereas long novels have a lot of detail and you can still figure out what’s going on in the story.
In the short stories written by Gilman and Chopin, I Paid a lot of attention to all the words and details that went on in those readings. After reading The Yellow Wallpaper I found that I could not skim this story at all because I would miss some of the important aspects of the story. “Then I peeled off all the paper I could reach standing on the floor. It sticks horribly and the pattern just enjoys it. All those strangled heads and bulbous eyes and waddling fungus growths just shriek with derision”(515). This quote from The Yellow Wallpaper shows how important every word of detail is especially since this quote is towards the end of the short story and is pretty much trying to pull the whole story together. This shows how important details and short stories are.

LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY

By knowing that Frances Burnett, the author of “Little Lord Fauntleroy” is a woman makes me look at the story differently. Especially in the way she describes Cedric, she says “He has a beautiful face and a fine, strong, graceful figure; he has a bring smile and a sweet, gay voice; he was brave and generous, and has the kindest hart in the world….”(442). The adjectives she uses are extremely famine and ones that I believe only a woman author would choose to use in describing a little boy. She also makes Cedric extremely sensitive to other people’s feelings and also the way he dresses is exactly how a woman would picture a clean-cut boy to dress like. After Cedric won the race against Billy we see him console him by saying “I guess I won because my legs are a little longer then yours. I guess that was it. You see, I’m three days older then you, and that gives me a ‘vantage. I’m three days older” (476). Most little boys are not usually sensitive to other people’s feelings, they usually only care about themselves and the glory they got from winning. In this passage we see signs of how Frances Burnett may have used Cedric to have a woman’s sensitive nature in caring and consoling Billy.
By not knowing whether the author of a story is a woman or a man it allows you to have no biases of how the story is written. If we can’t tell at the beginning of a story of whether the author was a male or female we tend not to look at that as a important part of the story. I think the gender of the author makes a difference in the story. Once we found out that Frances Burnett was a woman it made more sense that she was describing Cedric in words such as “beautiful.”

TOM SAWYER

One of the most interesting things that I found about Tom Sawyer is how likeable a character he is, yet he does create mischief and trick others around him for his own personal gain. This passage is an example of one of the ways he convinces a boy to do something mischievous.
“Say. Jim, I’ll fetch the water if you’ll whitewasl some.”
Jim Shook his head and said:
“Can’t, Mars Tom. Ole Missis, she tole me I goe to go an’ git dis water an’ not stop foolin’ roun’ wid anybody. She say she spec’ Mars Tom gwine to ax me to whitewash, an’ so she tole me to go ‘long an’ ‘tend to my own business-she ‘lowed she’d ‘tend to de whitewashin’.”
“Oh, never you mind what she said, Jim. That’s the way she always talks. Gimme the bucket- I won’t be gone only a minute. She won’t ever know.” (409).
Tom goes on to convince Jim, assuring him that he will not really get in trouble and that his punishment will never as bad as it seems. This shows one of the many ways that Tom is excellent at tricking people into getting his way. Even though he deceives and tricks a lot of people, we all still love him. In another passage we see Tom persuading the kids that painting is fun, “Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth-stepped back to note the effect-added a touch here and there-criticized the effect again- Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed” (413). Tom made painting look like so much fun that kids where paying him things such as a key, marbles, and bottle glass to be able to paint. Tom had an extremely strong personality that always got him his way, especially when he wanted other people to do his work for him. Even though we see this as extreme laziness, his witty personality made people like him as a character.

RAGGED DICK

In the other 19th century readings from Children’s Literature we have been dealing with little girls and their constant struggles and roles in society. In the story Ragged Dick, however, has introduced us to little boys. By comparing Dick to the other little girl characters, such as Ellen and Gerty, we are able to draw differences between the two.
We have seen that little boys tend to be more rebellious and mischievous, on that note, they always seem to get away with it too. "I am afraid he swore sometimes, and now and then he played tricks upon unsophisticated boys from the country, or gave a wrong direction to honest old gentlemen unused to the city"(367). Whereas little girls where always striving to be “good.” Little boys where also more self-relient unlike Ellen and Gerty who were extremely dependent on their guardians. In Capitola’s case she has to dress up like a little boy in order to fend for herself. That shows that little boys may have been a lot more respected.
Dick has no problem being self-reliant and living on his own. Unlike the little girls we see no type of parent figure in Dick’s life and he seems to be content about it. Humor is another difference we see between little boys and little girls. The little girl characters have not really shown much humor at all. In Ragged Dick we see Dick’s character with a very entertaining side to him. In speaking with one of his clients about his clothing Dicks says, comically, "This coat once belonged to General Washington" (337). The last difference I saw in little boys and girls was the importance of religion. We constantly saw Ellen and Gerty struggling with the Bible and the meaning of God in their lives, but in Ragged Dick we see no religious undertones at all. The one time the Bible was brought up Dick tells Frank, "I heard it's a good book, but I never read one. I isn’t much on reading. It makes my head ache"(387). Little girls in 19th century Children's Literature take on life much more seriously. They are always striving to be moral and good and please their elders. 19th century little boys, however, in a way "play" and "poke fun" at American society and all its seriousness.