Wedding cupcakes!

My sister-in-law just had a beautiful wedding and I was honored to make the cupcakes and cupcake wrappers for her. This is something I use to do about year ago as a business, but with two small children and running a household, it was too much and it started to affect my health. I still LOVE to do it, and so I just cater friends and family events now.

The colors were silver and white, and the wedding had a slight vintage feel. I came up with cupcake wrappers with "brooches" on the front (there were actually little scrapbooking embellishments) and it looked great with her simple yet glamorous theme. A bakery made the cake because she found one she loved and wanted it replicated. Turned out beautiful!

Delightful Quote of the Day

My husband started playing the organ this Sunday for our Church. My kids and I sat in the third row to watch Daddy's big debut. The first song we heard him play was a very serious and reverent song and the congregation was very quiet. When the song stopped, in the dead silence, my 18 month old started clapping and my almost three year old shouted, "Good Job, Daddy" for everyone to hear! Then my little guy made a break for it and ran up to the organ! Needless to say, we spent the remainder of the meeting in the hall.

Delightful Quote of the Day

Me (yelling from a different room) : Annalise, we are going to the park. We need to put our socks and shoes on. Do you have socks on right now?

Annalise: No, I don't have socks on. I just have my feet on.

Christmas Sugar Cookies 2011

I just love edible art! :)

Neighbor Christmas Gifts...

Homemade Fajita Seasoning!

It all started about 9 months ago when my husband and I ran out of fajita seasoning while making fajitas for dinner. In a panic, my husband looked online to see if we could make it ourselves at home. We found a recipe and whipped up a batch and... it was delicious! We started putting this seasoning on everything we made that was even remotely Mexican. We vowed we would never buy seasoning again- and then I got to thinking...this would make a really unique neighbor gift for Christmas time. And not just neighbors, but it should be shared with everyone.

I bought the shaker bottles from IKEA for a $1 each and the seasoning from Costco. I made a huge batch of the seasoning, filled the bottles and because I was crunched for time (we just moved and are completely overwhelmed) I ordered some labels from VistaPrint for the bottles. (I would recommend making them, it would be much cheaper and more fun!)

Unfortunately, I found you can't put labels flat on a cone shaped bottle, so some tweaking was required by putting the label on card stock and then putting it on the bottle with poster tape, but the basic idea came out OK and I can't wait to share our seasoning with the neighborhood!

Packaged up and ready to be delivered!

Fajita Seasoning Mix Recipe
(original recipe by Linda Larsen, About.com Guide, modified to suit our tastes)

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. salt
1 Tbsp. paprika
1 Tbsp. sugar
1-1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. cumin

Preparation:
Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Pour into small glass or plastic container, seal tightly and store in a cool, dry place. Makes the equivalent of 3 packets of commercial or purchased Fajita Seasoning Mix.

Delightful Quotes of the Day

Quote #1

Annalise:  Mommy, I think I want another baby in your tummy.

Me:  Maybe someday, but not for a little while. You know, you use to be in Mommy's tummy?

Annalise:  Yes and I want to go back in your tummy and play with some toys.

Quote #2

Annalise is sitting in her little red Cozy Coupe car.

Annalise (shouting):   Dada, I need some money!

Me:  What do you need money for?

Annalise:  I need some money for my car. DADA I NEED SOME MONEY...MONEY!

Me to Bryant:  I don't think this is the last time we will hear that.

Things I LOVE about Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving

I have loved carving pumpkins since I can remember, it is something I look forward to all year. But for someone who loves pumpkin carving so much, my pumpkin carving skills are sorely lacking. See that little pumpkin on the far left that looks like my 5 year nephew carved it? It's mine, and they have looked that way my whole life. My pumpkin carving skills stopped improving at about age 7 and some years I think they are even getting worse! This year after I was done I turned the pumpkin around to face my family and declared "Another Masterpiece" and everyone got a good laugh- so my creations still bring everyone joy!

Decorating Spooky Halloween Cookies

This has been a tradition in my family for my whole life, but we always used buttercream. The last few years I have been experimenting with royal icing and have made some cute cookies, but when the family decorated theirs and went to take a bite, all they got was a goopy mess of royal icing that  hadn't set. I was sick of it of telling hungry guest they had to wait a few hours to eat their cookies so this year opted for a more party friendly glaze approach- and guess what- it worked just as well and tasted even better! Since taste is my number one priority I am using glaze for all my cookies now and never looking back! Here are my cookies with glaze decorations (I will have to find a way to make the edges look better, this time I just poured the glaze over the cookies on a wire rack). 

I even got my hubby to do one! Not too bad! :)

Here are my current favorite recipes:

Sugar cookie recipe:

via Brown Eyed Baker http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2010/04/22/soft-chewy-sugar-cookies/

Glaze Icing Recipe:

1 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

1 TBS milk

Mix ingredients together by hand or with a mixer, adding more milk little by little, until you get a glue-like consistency. Pour over cookies on a wire rack or spread to the edge of cookie with a reverse spatula or back of spoon.

To make glaze to pipe decorations:

Add more powdered sugar to the icing until very thick- it will be hard to stir your spoon. Color icing and pipe with piping bags and piping tips #0, 1, 2 or 3.

Any Baked Goods with Pumpkin

MMMmmmm, I love pumpkin desserts this time of year- breads, cookies, cakes. One of my favorite combos is pumpkin cake with maple cream cheese buttercream. This year I wanted to make the cupcakes look a little more festive and did a jack-o-lantern face on them with chocolate chips- turned out so cute! And the texture and taste from the chocolate chips was awesome! I piped the frosting with a bigger round tip to give a little texture too.

I LOVE the pumpkin cupcake recipe from Ina Garten- so YUMMY!

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Frosting from Ina Garten

Makes 10 cupcakes

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup canned pumpkin purée (8 ounces), not pie filling

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Brush or spray the top of 10 muffin tins with vegetable oil and line them with 10 paper liners.

2. Into a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. In a larger bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin purée, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vegetable oil. Add the flour mixture and stir until combined.

3. Divide the batter among the prepared tins (I use a level 2 1/4-inch ice cream scoop) and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool completely.

I also only baked mine for 16 minutes- they were so moist and perfect!

 I did my own favorite cream cheese frosting recipe which is:

1 8oz cube of cream cheese

1 stick of butter

2 tsp vanilla

6 cups powdered sugar 

And then I added about 1/2 TBS of maple syrup to get a mild maple flavor

Mix softened cream cheese and butter

Add vanilla and maple syrup

Slowly add powdered sugar

Costumes 

I love dressing up for Halloween- some years I was the only adult who was dressing up for Halloween, but I still did it because it is so much fun! Now that I have kids to dress up it is even better!

This year we dressed up as Goldilocks and the Three Bears:

The Smell of Burning Pumpkin

When I was a kid, almost every home on my street had carved pumpkins with lit candles inside. So now the fun of trick or treating is forever infused with the smell of burning pumpkin, and I just love it!. I love the sight of the jack-o-lanterns all lit up too! How fun!