The Biggest’s Birthday Bash and Spring Finally Arrives!!!

The thing about those cute, little, cuddly babies is they grow up. Fast. Way too fast. It seems like my biggest was just born and completely dependent on us for everything. Now she is practically grown. My biggest turned eight two weeks ago. She does her chores, makes her own lunch for school, pours her own cereal, dresses herself, and generally knows what is off-limits without being told. We have a few moments where she doesn’t think before she does something but than can be expected. I’m very proud of my biggest little. She’s growing into quite the young lady. 

For her birthday we asked what kind of cake she wanted. And without much hesitation promptly replied, “A fairy cake that is a little cake on top of a bigger cake on top of a bigger cake.” Okay then. I did scale back from 3 tiers to 2 since we weren’t feeding an army and this was my first attempt at a tiered cake. But I did manage to make 2 fairy figures. The first one was a little rough but the second showed some progress. The most important thing was that my birthday girl was happy with it. 

 

 

 

Not only was this my first attempt at figures, but I tried my hand at fondant and gum paste flowers. I’m pleased since they were my first attempt. 

And what did my biggest ask for as a present for her birthday? A bow. She has wanted one since she saw “Brave” and even more since watching “Hunger Games”. Well, hubs and I decided to get her one and see if she would stay interested in it for more than a day. And she has so far. It takes her some effort to pull it back and she can’t quite hit the target yet, but she’s getting there. I’m proud she hasn’t given up. 

And now that we are nearing the end of April, spring has finally decided to show up. About time too. The garden is getting a late start because it has been cold and done nothing but rain for the last few weeks. Hopefully things will still come in. I’m looking forward to garden grown veggies. And we all enjoy being outside instead of inside so I’m looking forward to some warm, dry weather. 

The littlest has decided that throwing rocks and walking through puddles is the greatest thing ever. 

 

And anytime we pass flowers (real or fake) or anything green (like ferns, cacti, or my veggie sprouts) she wants to smell them. 

First time baking….in a while!!

So I finally am getting things back in working order. It’s taking WAY too long.

We are doing really good with our new lifestyle. We have seriously cut back on processed foods. We are eating mostly fresh foods and our snacks now consist of fruits and veggies. I have completely given up carbonated beverages. I only have sweet tea every now and then (I am southern so I can’t do without it completely). And I am using MyFitnessPal to track my food. It’s amazing the impact it can have to see what you are putting in your mouth. I’ve even been very diligent about my workouts. I’m on the treadmill at least 5 days a week. I actually enjoy it! And the fact that I’ve lost 17 pounds is pretty encouraging too!

I’ve been thinking about what I want to plant this year. I’m not sure if I’m going to do a big garden or just some containers on the porch. It’s the first year that I won’t have dad to ask questions when I get lost or confused (which isn’t difficult for me), I’m taking advantage of Pinterest. I’ve found a few interesting posts about growing avocado trees and citrus trees which excites me. You’ll see in a minute.

So I got my tail in the kitchen a few weeks ago and baked a few cupcakes. Few. That’s an understatement. I think it ended up being like 36 or so. And I had about 6 different flavor combos.

Supposedly, it’s spring. I couldn’t tell due to the 46 degree high today. And it was even colder yesterday. So I decided to take advantage of the lemons and fresh strawberries we picked up on the last shopping trip.

So I started perusing the internet (yeah, Pinterest again). And found a few inspirations that involved lemons and a few that involved strawberries. So I pretty much picked and poked and stole from a few different places.

The first recipe I found was from The Cake Blog. Vanilla Bean Cupcakes. Yumm. Topped with Strawberry & Vanilla Buttercream. Yumm. Well it sounds yumm. I didn’t use the buttercream recipe listed in the recipe. I tried. It didn’t work for me. Not sure why. Mine didn’t look pretty and whipped and soft like the picture. Mine was clumping and runny and tasted like pure butter. I’m sure it was my fault. I probably didn’t have the butter at the right temp. So I reverted back to my trusty Buttercream Dream recipe. I didn’t add the vanilla to it though. I waited since I wanted some strawberry flavored and some vanilla. So I divided it into three bowls. I added pureed strawberries in one bowl (On a side note, you should probably leave out the milk and add the strawberry instead. It would keep it from being a little runny). Then I added vanilla to the second bowl. I kept the third bowl plain. You’ll see why in a sec.

For the swirl effect, put the vanilla in one small piping bag (no tip) and the strawberry buttercream in one small piping bag (no tip) and then put those into a large piping bag fitted with the tip of your choice. The strawberry gives it a very pale pink color. You could always add a little red coloring if you wanted it to have more color. See? You can’t really see it in the picture. (Sorry these are all crappy cell phone pics, I had people yelling they wanted to eat them.)

You can kind of see the swirl in this picture. 

I kept one bowl of buttercream without vanilla because I wanted to have lemon buttercream on some cupcakes. I didn’t want vanilla and lemon competing. So the next batch of cupcakes I made two versions of based on a Vanilla Cupcake recipe from BrownEyedBaker. I made one as stated in the recipe and the other I left out vanilla extract and added lemon extract and some lemon zest instead. Mmm. Once these two batches baked up I realized I didn’t have enough buttercream. Now what??

Cream. Cheese. But even better…..wait for it…..can you guess? Yep. Lemon Cream Cheese frosting. Oh yeah. So I found the recipe from the Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes from The Nesting Project and adjusted the frosting. I added lemon extract instead of orange. I also added some zest and fresh lemon juice just to pack the lemon punch in. Yeah. It was good. So I began frosting.

I put some lemon buttercream on a few vanilla cupcakes and a few lemon cupcakes.

 

 

 

Then I used the Lemon Cream Cheese on a few of both cupcake flavors.

And then I noticed I had some naked cupcakes. And I had some leftover strawberry buttercream. So I mixed some the lemon buttercream and the strawberry buttercream.

 

I even added some leftover pureed strawberries in with the lemon cream cheese. So I had a few of everything. And they were good.

 

 

So I decided to work with some gumpaste and see what I could accomplish. I made a baby shoe. It’s not perfect. It’s the first one I have ever made though. And I’m proud of it.

So I was really productive and knocked out a batch of Marshmallow Fondant to play with too. I decided I needed to put some practice into Mickey Mouse because my lil’ squirmy one is all about some “Meemmeee” Mouse. And choo-choos. And nanas. She loves her some nanas. Little monkey. 

 

And this is the result. I had to use my food color pens because I don’t have any food grade brushes for painting right now and it isn’t nearly as clean as I would have liked, but for a first time, I’m happy. And so was the squirmy one. The squealed “Meemmmeee” and ran to the kitchen for a good 5 minutes. I was impatient and didn’t give her enough time to dry before decorating her but it’s a learn as I go process. And I’m learning a lot.

Starting my new journey

Hello again everyone! I have been away for a while. I’d like to say that I am up to date and up to par on everything…but I’m not. I am still slacking at the school work. I’m trying to work on my study habits and keep my grades up. I just find it monotonous. Any tips to help me improve that outlook? 

Meanwhile, I have taken a serious step in the right direction for my health. I have completely eliminated all carbonated beverages, significantly decreased my sweet tea habit (down to less than a cup a week), and increased my water intake a ginormous amount! I don’t even drink tea when we eat out much anymore. I went from about 1 cup of water a day to at least 8 and often more. That’s a big leap for someone who drank about a gallon of tea a day. Not even exaggerating that statement. And since I’ve started cutting out the bad drinks, I’m doing better on the food front too. More healthy snacks and way less eating out. 

On top of that, I’ve started walking/jogging on a treadmill everyday. Walmart had one on sale and I jumped on it while I was feeling motivated. And I’ve stuck with it for a week so far. A week may not be that long, but it’s a pretty long time for me. And it isn’t a chore or anything for me to convince myself to get to walking everyday. 

Just by changing those little things, I’ve lost ten pounds already. Ten pounds is good deal of weight. And it encourages me to keep at it and that discipline and self-control pay off. So now that I’m getting into a routine for that, I’ve got to work on everything else. 

I think I need to conquer my study habits first. And when I get that squared away, I’ll start keeping up with this blog on a much more regular basis. I’m thinking maybe a regular post once a week. Or at least once every two weeks since my work schedule makes my life hectic sometimes. 

Coping and Growing

I miss my daddy. I’m coping with him not being here. But I keep having moments where I remember that he isn’t here. Like the other day I was thinking about the vegetable garden we are going to plant in the spring. I have always asked daddy how I should do things like that. 

The Squirmy One is growing up…too much. I can’t believe that she is going to be two this year. She crawled up in her daddy’s lap and looked right at him and said “I bite.” And she will bite. She has been on the receiving end of a few spankings for biting. Yeah. He has his hands full with that girl.

Our Midget is growing up too. During the time her papaw was in the hospital, daddy sat her down and told her that papaw was not going to come home. She was worried about whether or not I knew and if I was OK and who was going to tell her cousin.

Midget is my angel. Squirmy One is the deviant child. I blame her father. Not only does Squirmy One have his temper, he stays home with her all day. I stayed home with Midget.

And on top of the deviant child, we have the hell spawn of a cat. He likes to latch on whatever body part happens to get near enough. And he does the typical, “Pet me” rubbing his head against you and then when you have met the desired level of attention, he attacks. Typical cat stuff? I don’t know. I think all the cats I have ever owned have just been evil. All two of them. Yeah. I’m a dog person by nature.

I’ve spent the last week or so trying to get up to date on my school work. I hate being this far behind. But part of this is because I am a professional procrastinator. Yep. I am. I get it from my momma. She does the same thing.

I’ve also fell off of, been ran over, and left by the healthy lifestyle wagon. I have been very preoccupied and found myself more often than not with very little time and nothing prepped for snacks or dinner. So the obvious answer was to run out and grab something. Yeah, I have no willpower. No judgement.

Last night, however, I did something to help remedy that. We had already eaten dinner, homemade chili, and I wanted something else. Instead, I had a glass of water and when I was still craving something, I had an apple. It’s a step in the right direction. Hopefully, the first of many.

 Now, as soon as I get everything else under control and back to normal (I’m almost there), I am going to get back to working in the kitchen. I miss it. I need it. It’s my therapy. And I know I’ll feel better when I do.

Saying Goodbye

My dear daddy died Sunday.

 

And for right now, my heart and head just aren’t in baking and blogging. I’m sure at some point, soon, I’ll be back in the kitchen. It is, afterall, my passion and my therapy.

 

But with all the things going on in the last few weeks, I’ve fallen very far behind in my school work and desperately need to catch up and find my motivation again.

 

So I’m taking a break for a while…..

 

But I’ll be back.

 

 

New Year’s

I had every intention of sitting down and writing decent post yesterday on my day off. I had a rough draft written and everything. My day took a horrible turn before I even got started on anything. My mom called and told me to come over (she lives next door) because my dad was laying on the floor. I didn’t wait for anything else. I immediately ran next door and to my dad laying on his side on the floor. He was taken to the hospital and flown to a major hospital nearby. He has suffered a stroke. He wasn’t able to move much on his own and couldn’t talk. As of this morning, he is moving around on his own. He still can’t talk. The doctor said he has suffered some brain damage in the area of his brain responsible for speech. He has a 99% blockage in his carotid artery leading to his brain. They can’t operate until the damaged parts of his brain have a chance to heal a little otherwise it could cause a major bleed and kill him. He is also part of a clinical trial for a drug that is supposed to help limit the damage done as the stroke continues the next day or so. (I had no idea that strokes took place over a few days and weren’t just a one time thing that was over in an hour or so.) So we are hoping for the best and taking it one day at a time. So bear with me. I have great hopes for this blog in 2013.

Hope everyone has had a great start to the new year.

Look down…

Hey! If you don’t mind…could you like my Facebook page? You don’t have to. But I think it would be really awesome! I’m going to update that page as I update the blog plus you’ll get to see all of the cool stuff I share. Well, I think it’s cool stuff. The link should be on the right under the other widgets. Please and thank you!

Finally getting some stuff done!!!

Wow! I have been semi-productive since my last post. It just took some motivation. I finished Littlest’s blanket and managed to bake some goodies.

So first, the quilt. It is not perfect. Not even close. It is the first thing I have ever created by sewing and I was way out of my comfort zone. I am so much better at following and tweaking recipes than I am instructions for sewing and quilting. All in all, I managed to finish it with only a few curse words. Although, I did threaten the cat’s life a few times because he found it necessary to chase the cord of the iron, slap at the quilt as it was hanging off the ironing board, and then wanted to chase the binding as it dangled from my sewing machine. But we all managed to get through it without any damage, permanent damage anyway.

Now on to the baked goods. I was most excited to be bake in the kitchen doing what I’m good at. Hubby has been begging for brownies for about…3 months. I’m not even exaggerating that number. It may be longer than that. I finally broke down and made his brownies. I used a new recipe that I found and I have to say, I am quite impressed with it. It was as good as the reviews said and even the hubby agreed. In fact, he said they were the best brownies I have ever made. I cooked them in a slightly smaller pan, so they were thicker and fudgy. Mmm. That’s how we like our brownies. Mom approved, too, because when I took her two squares, she didn’t share anything except the crumbs. It makes me happy when my mom and hubby say my treats are good. Here is the link to the brownie recipe.

I made two different types of cupcakes. The first was a simple Vanilla Cupcake from Brown Eyed Baker. Here is the link for that batter. I used the Buttercream Dream recipe from Cake Central and tinted it blue. I also used the Marshmallow Fondant recipe and topped three of the cupcake with some very special decorations. One went to Midget’s Pre-K/Kindergarten teacher, who is expecting her first child, and a co-worker and his wife, who are expecting their second, both of which are little boys.

The second batch of cupcakes was something a little more “seasonal.” In honor of fall and the wonderful weather it brings, I decided to make something a little different. I almost made something pumpkin-y. I decided I would save that for a little later, but I’ve already got it planned. I settled on something with apples. I found an idea for Caramel Apple Cupcakes, which sounded divine. And still does. But I was swayed more toward Apple Pie Cupcakes. I am very pleased with the results. And so was everyone else who ate them. All of the cupcakes I took to work were eaten. Some people had more than one. I take it as a compliment when someone comes back for seconds.

I only have to get through this weekend and next week I am going to be off for an entire seven days in a row! I plan on taking full advantage of my time. I hope I can stay on my motivated streak. I will have homework in addition to my baking projects. I have a standing request for some banana bread, and those Caramel Apple Cupcakes sound pretty good too!

Where does time go?

Where does time go anyway? It’s never around when I need it.

It always seems like a day turns into a week and week into a month and then I realize I haven’t updated the blog or my Twitter or anything else in an eternity. Then I realize I have homework due.

I really haven’t done much baking so I don’t have any sweet-ness to share.

I have been spending my free time painting a coffee table and making a craft table and trying to learn to sew. That is complicated stuff. At least for me.

And then I woke up last week with a horrible, itchy rash all over my arms and the back of my neck. I went to the doctor and got a steroid shot. I thought I might be allergic to something like the paint for the table but the doc said it looked more like a rash from a viral infection. Regardless, it’s not contagious because I’m the only one that has it. Yes. I still have bumps on my arm but they aren’t red or itchy and they seem to be subsiding. Very slowly.

I have been scouring the Internet searching for some source of inspiration to get baking again. It’s hard since the hubs and I are trying to lose weight. We have no self-control so it’s just better for us to not have it in the house, which puts a damper on material for the blog.

I found a recipe for cinnamon roll cupcake which sounds very promising.

We also started working on the menus and made some crock pot meals that I found on Pinterest. So far so good. It has kept us from eating out a lot which is something I discovered we do way too much of. I made Beef and Broccoli in the crock pot last night and pizza balls tonight. Both were successful meals. I considered meals successful if my husband and children like them. I can like something they hate and therefore it doesn’t count as success and never gets made again. Just differences in taste.

So if you have suggestions or ideas for baking let me know. Or some good crock pot dinners or anything else really, let me know.

School Days and Doughnut Muffins

Today is bittersweet day. My Midget went back to school. She started second grade.

This just drives home the fact that my little girl is growing up. And I only have 3 years before the baby starts school.

I am not relishing the idea that my girls are growing up. I would much rather them stay small and depend on my husband and me forever. I also would rather not deal with those pre-teen and teenage years that are peaking around the corner at me. On top of the “I know everything” attitude, it means we’ll be dealing with boyfriends boys who want to date our daughters and the joys that comes along with that. Daddy says no dating until they are 35. I say good luck with that.

So about lunch time, I awoke from my nap. Yes, I took a nap today. As soon as we got home from dropping Midget off at school, which was around 8:15.  I like my sleep. Anyway, I woke up feeling a bit peckish starving. Since we don’t really have any “snack food” hiding in the kitchen, I decided to make something. What did I decide to make? A sandwich. No. Cupcakes. No. Glazed doughnut muffins. Yes!

I remembered I had a recipe pinned on Pinterest. Yes, I am addicted. No, I’m not ready to seek help. Yet. So I found the pin and headed to My Baking Addiction and printed off the recipe and went to work.

I used my homemade vanilla extract in this recipe! I think it needs a little more time to extract all the goodness of the vanilla beans but it was still good.

I think next time I will use less nutmeg. I also use fresh nutmeg, not the pre-ground swept off the floor stuff. It was a little overpowering and I only used the 3/4 teaspoon which was on the low-end of the recipe. I think I’ll use a scant 1/2 teaspoon next time. But other than that, these were good. Daddy and Sophie approved. And these were topped with a wonderful vanilla graze.

And I double dipped them. This is what they look like when the glaze sets.