Falentine's Weekend

My Valentine and I decided to get a jump on Valentine's Day and do a little celebrating this past weekend.  I call it Falentine's Day (you know I like to make up words).

The scones we made last year turned out so well that we decided to make them again.  B looked mad in the first picture I took so I told him to look excited.  This is what I got....

The beer was to help with the baking...not an actual ingredient.  We also had our friend, pregnant (with an orange baby) Russian measuring cup doll to assist us with our ingredients. 

I used the scones in the Falentine's Day brunch I prepared for us on Sunday (featuring fruit/granola parfaits).  The bacon and potatoes (from the breakfast buffet at Harris Teeter) were a late add.

"Oh hey guys, it just me, Hobie.  I would really like to take some of that bacon off your hands.  Can you see me here?  I'm waiting patiently but I will leap up on the coffee table if necessary."

"Mmmm, these also smell nice.  What's that?  Orange and cranberry?  But really, just give me some of the bacon."

It was a lovely Sunday Morning brunch.  B also took me out for a nice Falentine Dinner on Saturday on what turned out to be the coldest night of winter so far.  Good times. 

Later this week I will unveil the amazing Valentine's Day card I made B while watching How I Met Your Mother last night.

Are you doing anything for Valentine's Day?
Or do you hate Valentine's Day and think it's a stupid fake holiday made up by greeting card companies?

Either way, Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!!

Holiday Vacation 2011 Recap-Part One-Christmas and Christmas-ish activities

Wow, so I think this is the longest blog vacation I've ever taken.  It just sort of happened.  Around mid December I was struck with an intense cold that lasted until past Christmas.  Then I was off work for a week and a half so I just decided to let the blog rest for awhile.  But I'm back.  My vacation was officially over at 6AM today when I woke up for work.  But my vacation was awesome so I'd like to hand out some awards to my friends and family for making it so good.

Today we will discuss Fristmas, Christmas and the 1st Annual (yeah I'm going there-it should definitely be yearly) Post-Christmas Extravaganza....

Later I will recap New Years and my husband's birthday.

Best Baking-I'm going to go ahead and call this a tie between B and I.  I was too ill to prepare the Gingerbread dough the night before we made the cookies so B followed my recipe and I coached him through it.  There was a slight mix up between baking soda and baking powder but we worked through it.  Then I used my new cake ball maker to whip up these brownie peppermint cake balls.  They might have been slightly hard but look how cute they are.

Best Holiday Decor in my House-Another tie between B and I.  B for single-handedly bringing in the tree by himself and setting it up on the tree stand.  Me, for acquiring Christmas decor over the years and sitting it around the house.

Best attempt to open/eat his own Christmas presents-Hobie!  Christmas is really about the kids, right.  Hobie really enjoyed opening his presents on Fristmas*.  He wasn't bad at gift giving either.  He managed to get B and I some much needed new salt and pepper shakers.

Most Photogenic-My brother and sister.  My brother gets it for actually agreeing to be in a photo and look at the camera and L-Fab is always great in photos!

 Best Couple-Obviously B and sleeping Hobie win best couple.  Always.

Best Inter-family Mingling-This goes to B's family below and my family (in the next pic).  It was the first time we had members of both our families hang out together on Christmas.  Plus B's family forced me to watch A Christmas Story which is good since I've never actually seen that movie all the way through (Crazy, I know).

Best Feast-My mom wins the Best Feast award for preparing billions of dishes for Christmas eve dinner as well as multiple meats.  She even made a few vegan dishes for my mother-in-law.  My Aunt gets runner up for the December 23rd holiday meal she made us.  Delightful.

Best Post Christmas Gathering goes to me and all my homies who met up on December 27th for some good times.  Special Shout out to the Young's for their guest appearance all the way from Vegas.

I was so excited to fit everyone in our freshly
painted basement!

Special shoutout to me for deciding not to cook a bunch of food and instead just get 3 Stouffers Lasagnas and some wine and beer.

Special shoutout award to Curly J aka the Brayer for suggesting we play Dirty Santa (aka White Elephant) and for bringing this awesome Sweet Talking Ken Doll as one of the prizes.  It was hysterical and fun playing with my closest friends.  (Curly T, you better be able to describe the whole second season of Parks and Rec to me next time I see you).

No special shoutout to Shanzles for bringing this wreath made of plastic bags (although it did come with a Starbucks gift card so not the worst gift ever.)

Best Holiday Craft-Shanzles.  Shannon previously failed at beach craft hour but came back strong with these cute book themed Christmas ornament.  You are officially redeemed!

Overall, it was an amazing break but I'm so happy to be back at work today.  FALSE.  I am not happy to be back at work today (but I am grateful that my University totally shuts down between Christmas and New Year's so I don't have to work).

I will return later this week with part deux of my holiday recap.  You can't wait!

*Fristmas is the made up holiday B and I share where we open up our Christmas presents to each other a few days before real Christmas and then eat some sort of delightful breakfast or dinner together.

Wordless Wednesday-Halloween Baking

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars from What's Gaby Cooking...

Cast Iron Skillet Apple pie by Beezus5...

Both were delightful.

Did you do any Halloween baking?

Making Stuff is Hard-Vegan Cupcakes

And for another installment of how baking is hard.....

This weekend my mother-in-law and sister in-law were in town and staying with us.  Well my MIL is a vegan and her birthday was a couple weeks ago so I decided to make her some vegan cupcakes.  My mom recently bought me the Southern Living Big Book of Cupcakes and there was a vegan recipe in there so I decided to give it a try.
The cupcake part turned out well, actually much better than I expected.
Then we got to the icing.  That is when the above mishap occurred.  This icing involved something called vegan shortening.  Vegan shortening looks kind of gross and does not blend at all.  I paused the mixer for a few minutes and left the bowl on the counter and as you can see, it fell on the floor and on me.  Good times.

So then I pulled out the big guns for my second attempt..........
Mr. Green Kitchenaid Mixer.

I was finally able to get something that resembled icing.

I think my finished product ended up looking pretty good.  I added some blackberries.

They tasted decent.  I could tell the difference from normal cupcakes but B's mom seemed to really enjoy them.  And they are all gone now so I think that's a good sign.

Here is the recipe if you are interested....

1 tbsp cider vinegar

1 1/2 cups vanilla soymilk
2 cups all purpose soft wheat flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
paper baking cups
vegetable cooking spray

Vegan frosting
8 tbsp vegan butter or shortening
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup vanilla soymilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 16oz package powdered sugar

For the cakes....mix the vinegar and soymilk together and let it sit for five minutes.  Then mix the flour and next four (all the dry) ingredients in a separate bowl.  Add the oil and extracts to the soymilk mixture and then mix that into the flour mixture.  Bake in a mini cupcake pan at 350 for about 12 minutes.

For the icing....mix the first four ingredients until combined (the hardest part) and then add in the sugar until you get icing. 

Best daughter-in-law ever?

Have you ever done any vegan baking?

Or attempted to make your mother-in-law like you by making her cupcakes?

My Homemade Birthday Present Streak Continues...

Curly J was back from her honeymoon just in time to celebrate her 30th birthday this weekend.  Of course I had to attempt to make her present since I made that goal of making all birthday presents this year.  Plus I wrote about that goal on my blog and she reads my blog. 

I kind of took the easy way out and made some earrings.  It's just too hot for any more t-shirt scarves at this time and I was drawing blanks on everything else.  I also gave her a bunch of photos from her wedding shower, bachelorette party and wedding and an album.  I had big plans to make an album but they fell through.  So, earrings it is.

Plus I made her a birthday cake.  It's my go-to chocolate chip poundcake which I have finally mastered over the years.  And by mastered, I mean it actually came all the way out of the pan instead of getting stuck in there and ripping apart.  Yay me!

The evening started with dinner at her favorite Mexican restaurant followed by game night at her house.  B and I were victorious at a game of LCR and scored $7 in prize money.  Have you ever played LCR (left, center, right)?  I was pretty skeptical at first but it ended up being pretty fun.

So in conclusion, Mexican food and cake are good, LCR is fun, and I'm still doing ok on my handmade presents. 

Sororities and Baked Goods!

When I was in college, the closest I came to joining a Sorority was watching the hit MTV series, Sorority Life with my senior year roomie Mo.  ("Who wants to be ordinary in a crazy mixed up world."  I still remember the theme song like it was yesterday).  There was also that one sorority party I went to Freshman year.  I have nothing against sororities especially since today I'm joining one.  Ok well not really, but I am going to College today to help my sister's sorority with their fundraiser bake sale.  My sister organized her Sorority's Relay for Life team and they are trying to earn a few extra bucks to donate by selling baked goods during lunch on campus and tonight at their Relay for Life event.

B and I will be delivering baked goods made by both my mom and I (mostly my mom, who went crazy with the baking) to add to the baked goods that the sistas are already making.  (Side Note-I get a little mad when my sister refers to her sorority Big Sister as her Big Sister.  I'm like, "uh I'm your big sister, hello?") 

Here are some pics of the baked deliciousness that my mom and I made....

 My favorites are the mini pies...

 And here is my attempt to bake in my new shoes so I can get used to them...

OK.

So, sororities?   Yay or Nay?
MTV's hit reality show Sorority Life?  Yay or Nay?
Baked Goods?  Yay or Nay?

The Best Dessert I've Made in a Long Time aka the Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich....

OK I'm back.  I have mostly recovered from my debilitating illness.  I kid, it wasn't debilitating, but I just do not handle colds very well.  On Friday when I got off work at 11 am (yeah it's awesome) I spent my afternoon baking cookies for the basketball team my husband coaches.  They had an ice cream social on Saturday to celebrate the end of the season.  We had a few cookies leftover but I was tired of eating just the cookies.  Plus it was really nice outside this weekend for the first time.  So we bought this...

This ice cream is good on it's own.  The cookies are good on their own.  But then I came up with a better idea...

Delightful...

These cookies are chocolate chip oatmeal.  I got the recipe from "What's Gaby Cooking."  This is a great site for recipes, especially if you like guacamole.

So what did you do this weekend?

What's your favorite summertimes dessert?

Valentine's Week-Making Stuff is Fun!?!?! (and maybe romantic)

Apparently my husband thinks I like making stuff.

After making me shower, get dressed, put shoes on, put a coat on, put in earrings, etc., I learned that my Valentine's Date was actually in the living room.  My husband had set up a craft and baking date for me.  We started out by tie-dying t-shirts.  I can't wait for him to wear his purple, red and fuchsia tie dyed shirt out for a night on the town.  I always wanted to tie-dye a shirt when I was a kid but I guess I just never got around to it, so this was pretty exciting.

I know I look 'special' in this picture.

Tie-dyeing is serious stuff that requires gloves.

The worst part was that we had to wait 8 hours before we could unroll the shirts.

Then we moved on to the baking portion of the evening.  My husband had printed out a recipe for cranberry-orange scones and purchased all the necessary ingredients.

It's ok to wear a cupcake apron as long as you have a beer in your hand.

Another great action photo of me and no, I'm not pouring my glass of wine into the batter

He did all the hard stuff.

Hobie was little to no help.

Fin.  These scones were delightful by the way.

In conclusion....
My husband is a fun craft/baking partner. 
Crafting is more fun when you drink wine. 
Baking is harder when you bake after crafting with wine. 
Baking is easier when someone else measures out all the ingredients for you and just tells you what to do.

Good Date, B!  Let's do this again next year.