Two Random Things

Finally organized all of my jewelry and accessories, after years of having everything kicking around in 5 different boxes and drawers. Now I can actually see and find what I have! Love it! And I am more than a little obsessed with that Paper Source paper back there.

What do you do when your 8x8 glass pan goes missing? I feel pretty incredibly brilliant for thinking this up. It worked so perfectly that I don't think I even need to buy a new 8x8 any time soon. How does one of those just disappear anyway?

Thank You, St. Patrick

Well, seeing as how we're not the green-beer-swilling-type, I instead just finished eating a lot of food. Irish food. Or, what Americans think is Irish food, anyway. I don't know how accurate it is but I do know that it is delicious.

The feast was gobbled up before I was able to take any photos but it consisted of:

Corned Beef
Boiled Cabbage
Roasted Potatoes
Roasted Asparagus
Sparkling Limeade
Cupcakes

It was pretty incredible, if I do say so myself. Also, I think St. Patrick's Day may be my favorite holiday as the entire meal took about 15 minutes total of my actual time. The rest of the time it just tended to itself. That just doesn't happen with Easter or Thanksgiving or Christmas foods. They are all so much more time consuming what with the grating, stirring, rising, rolling out, etc.



Also, a word about the cupcakes. This morning I woke up really wanting to bake. I love baking but can only do it occasionally -- only when I'm able to spread the calories around to other people rather than ingesting them all myself.

I found the cupcake recipe on a food blog I love, Whipped. They are POM Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. POM as in POM Wonderful Pomegranate juice. The POM juice actually replaces the butter and eggs that would normally be in a cupcake batter. Vegan! (Just don't mind the frosting -- definitely not vegan.) So I had to try them.

But, upon first taste out of the oven, I was pretty disappointed. They didn't seem very moist, the tops got hard/crispy and they did not want to come out of the cupcake liners without a struggle. However, I couldn't imagine throwing out 30 cupcakes. So, I frosted them with some green-tinted cream cheese icing, dressed them up with a peppermint leaf from the garden (woot!) and distributed them among our friends. Feeling just a little bit reluctant. I do not want to be known for dry cupcakes.



However, it seems that a combination of Refrigeration and Time worked some magic and by the time I tried another one after dinner -- moist! soft! no struggle! It was really pretty great. Mostly the cream cheese frosting could make anything edible, but they were pretty good after all.

I don't know that I'll make these particular cupcakes again -- they weren't the best ever -- but they were definitely worth eating. :) I don't know what I could have done to make them turn out differently. If you happen to try this recipe, please report back with your results!

So, Happy St. Patty's day everyone and HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY to my sister Bethany! (I ate a cupcake, or two, in your honor, Beth.)

A Happy Birthday Among the Germans

John's birthday was yesterday!



A couple of months ago John requested German Chocolate Cake for his birthday. I had never made one before, so I was a bit nervous. I just used the recipe on the German's Sweet Baking Chocolate box and it turned out great! From the looks of the baked cake, I was worried that it wasn't going to be very moist (it doesn't look very moist, does it?)and wasn't sure about the delish factor. But it was and it had it. We are having the last couple of pieces for dessert tonight. Along with the best vanilla ice cream ever, from Trader Joe's (it also happens to have about 100 calories more per serving than cheap-y vanilla ice cream -- but so worth it).

A local farm here, Underwood Family Farms, is having Oktoberfest this weekend so we had to hit that up. We listened to German music and watched men dance around in lederhosen and ate knockwurst with sauerkraut. What could be better? (Actually, if it wasn't 95 degrees it would have been way better. Also, actually being in Germany.)



We put William in a big pen of beans and I think he had more fun than he's ever had. He was very sad and cried when we finally had to leave -- maybe I'll have to put some beans in a box for him to play with here at home.



I think we made it up to him though, by getting these amazing handmade toys from a booth there at the fest. These wooden toys are handmade by a really nice man named Arlen, right here in town. I was freaking out at his booth. The toys are all adorable, really well made and very reasonably priced.

I have looked at wooden, American-made toys online and they are pretty pricey. And you have to pay shipping on top of that! That won't stop me from getting a couple of choice things, but I am really happy to have found someone local who makes such incredible toys. I wish he had a website so you could see all of his other toys -- helicopters, stack rings, cars, tic tac toe, tops and more. I'm sure you'll eventually see more of them here on this blog. :)

We also had dinner out with friends and attended a very fancy baby shower (which you'll soon hear more about), this weekend. And John got a panini press for his bday so we will definitely being trying that out this evening. Yum! Happy Birthday, John!

A Tragedy

Something happened today. Something that has never before happened in my lifetime. To me, anyway. It was devastating and a bit traumatic. Are you ready for this?

I threw 7/8 of a pie in the trash. Can you believe that? A pie.

Last Friday I made a pie with delicious peaches from the farmer's market. I was so excited about the peaches. And so excited about the pie. I ate a piece the night I made it and it was amazing.

So what happened, you ask? It seems that in my house I am the only one not immune to the call of baked goods. Whenever I make bread or muffins or pie or pretty much anything besides cookies, I am the only one that eats any of it. Which means I can't bake nearly as often as I would like. So anyway, that's what happened this time. Apparently no one else was interested in the pie.

Sadly, I am on a pretty strict "diet" (I don't want to call it a diet -- cause it's not -- it just entails NOT eating an entire pie by myself). So, I ate one slice and then managed to not eat any more. And then this morning I was going to be really naughty and eat a piece of pie for breakfast. As luck would have it, the entire pie was just a soggy, sick mess. The crust was soaked and it was stale and just really gross (which I suppose should be expected for a 5 day old pie). So, I tossed the pie in the trash. Actually, I had to have John do it cause I was so traumatized.

So there you have it. It's a sad day.

But! Speaking of pie -- Pushing Daisies is coming back in exactly 2 weeks and I can. not. wait!!!

Dag Yo

Babies certainly cut into one's blogging time. As does making dinner, eating dinner, cleaning up dinner, doing laundry, working, grocery shopping, sleeping and working out. I need to get my priorities in order here. :P

So, I'm stoked that ya'll are digging the banana bread! I'm glad it's turning out so well for you! When I made it I didn't mash up the bananas very well (okay, I didn't actually mash them up at all, I just broke them into chunks) cause I was in a hurry and also I'm lazy. So my bread had little pockets of mushy banana. Which wasn't bad necessarily, but was also a little freaky. I knew that if I had mashed up the banana up properly it would be perfect. So anyway...yay!



So that picture up there is of my new necklace. Isn't it the cutest??? I got it at Urban Outfitters for $10! I finally found something on clearance worth buying! I love necklaces and earrings but have a hard time bringing myself to buy a necklace for $24 when I could be using that money to buy actual clothing. So I love it when I find something good on sale. Also, I got some pine cone earrings for $5! They look just like the necklace but they are silver. Love it!

Also, that shirt is one of my new shirts from Anthropologie -- also on sale! And I had a million gift cards. Sa-weet!

After William wakes up we're going to Whole Foods and to the farmer's market. However, it's 92 degrees out right now. Kill me. By 3 o'clock (when the market opens) it'll be even hotter. I hate the heat. But I am really stoked that there is a market so close now.

Tonight we're having friends over for dinner. I'm making this whole summer dinner menu from a Martha Stewart I've been saving for a million years. I'm really excited -- it all looks so yummy. I'll let you know how it all turns out...

Applesauce Banana Bread

This looks nothing like the bread I made.
I've been looking for the perfect banana bread recipe for awhile now. It seems I never have enough over-ripe bananas for most recipes -- they usually call for 4 and I usually only have 2. Which was the case today. I figured it must be possible to substitute applesauce for the remaining banana so I just looked around online.

I found this recipe which calls for only 2 bananas so I was stoked. The guy says he doesn't know how he survived for 30 years without ever having tasted this bread, so I figured it was the right recipe to try.

It had some serious trouble coming out of the pan (I never let things cool enough before trying to take them out of their pans. I'm too excited I guess) so I didn't take photos. It looks like a pile. But...it takes SO good! And is super moist. It really is great. I rewrote the recipe for you here (it was out of order and stuff on the website):

Applesauce Banana Bread

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
2 large, over-ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the eggs and beat well. Mix in
flour. Add bananas and the remaining
ingredients. Bake in greased loaf pan
for about 1 hour.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes; remove from
pan and finish cooling on wire rack.


A note: this made a bit too
much batter for my glass loaf pan -- it
ended up overflowing a tiny bit. So you
probably want to watch that. Don't put
it all in or something.

Strawberry Shortcake

Make these. They are yummy.

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cups cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
Sweetened Strawberries (below)
Sweetened Whipped Cream (8 oz carton)

Preheat oven to 425 F. In a foods processor, combine flour, butter, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt; process until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add milk; pulse just until moistened, 4 or 5 times. Do not overprocess.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface; with floured hands, gently pat into a 4-by-8-inch rectangle.

Dust a large knife with flour; cut dough into eight squares. Transfer to a baking sheet; sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake until golden, 25 to 30 minutes; cool on baking sheet.

To serve, split biscuits with a serrated knife; layer with berries and whipped cream.

Sweetened Strawberries:
Hull and quarter 1 1/2 pounds fresh strawberries; toss in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup sugar. Let stand until syrupy, tossing occasionally, at least 20 minutes (and up to 1 day, covered and refrigerated).

I don't know where this recipe came from so I can't give proper credit. It's from some magazine. Anyway, this is a really easy and fast summer dessert. Happy strawberry season!

Once again, excellent photos by John

Hi, Did You Miss Me?

Unbaked pumpkin pie is one of my favorite colors
Hello, no baby here yet. He's not due until next Wednesday anyway so...I need to be patient. I'm really tired of the swelling and the being a beached whale and whatnot but, I'm happy to wait for him to come when he's ready. I just hope it's sooner than later. :)


Please take note of the best looking pie crust I've made to date. It's only taken me 14 years to get to this point.
We've apparently started a tradition of having a Pumpkin Party every year at the beginning of October. This was the 3rd year we did it and I hope to continue. Pumpkin is just too yummy to not celebrate! We had Ravioli with Sausage and Pumpkin Sauce (I forgot to take a photo but believe me, it's delicioius. Please try it!), green beans, baguette and of course, Pumpkin Pie. In previous years we've also carved pumpkins but, that just wasn't going to happen this year. And when you have your Pumpkin Party, don't forget to watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.



I did decorate for Autumn though and it's so fun. It's 85 degrees outside and we have the AC on, but at least it looks somewhat fall-ish in here.

I've also done quite a bit of sewing in the past few days but unfortunately, don't have photos of it all cause my brain is pretty spacey lately.



First is this Bath Caddy for all the baby's bath things (we don't have enough cupboard space for anymore towels or toiletries) which will hang from the closet door. This pattern is from Amy Butler's In Stitches and the fabric is from superbuzzy.com. I was WAY intimidated by this project. It entailed using interfacing and canvas and boning and had about a million steps. Yikes. But I did it! Sewing certainly has taught me some good life lessons: don't get overwhelmed, take things one step at a time, take risks and to pay attention to details. They really make all the difference.

Exciting News: Our good friends, Cary and Erin, beat us to the punch and had their baby boy yesterday -- 11 days early! I finished the blanket for Quincy (hi, cutest name ever) last night and sent it out in the mail this morning, totally forgetting to take photos first. I used the same Scalloped Baby Blanket pattern from Bend-the-Rules Sewing that I used for this helicopter blanket but in these fabrics I ordered recently from superbuzzy.com. Just use your imagination. :) Congratulations, little family! We can't wait to meet the new guy!

Finally, I also finished another project yesterday but I can't show you until the end of January when my friend Nellie's baby arrives. It turned out so cute! I want to show it off right now!

Alright, well this pregnant lady needs to go lay around some more. 39 weeks! I'm definitely feeling every one of them right now.

Take care! Check in tomorrow for pics of the knitted Vintage Car Coat. Darling!

Belly, Cake, Mail

Dear Baby:
Please come out soon -- but not too soon. I'm tired of being tired and heavy and puffy with water. I'm tired of having achy joints and ligaments. I'm tired of waking up at 3am to take Tums. I'm tired of being hot and uncomfortable. I'd much rather be able to hang out and take care of you. So please come soon. How does next Sunday sound?
love, Your Mommy



Yesterday was John's birthday and I made him this coconut cake. I actually started it on Wednesday. It was a long process, but the results were worth it - it was very yummy. I got the recipe from a food blog that I read regularly: Creme Puffs in Venice. She always has the yummiest stuff.



And, I got some mail! This package arrived from Christen with lots of fun things -- a sewing and a knitting book, a piece of darling fabric (with birds on it, of course), some trims (Christen -- where did you get those??) and a couple of Stamper's Sampler magazines which Christen is the Managing Editor of. Fancy, right? She's famous. I feel so cool just knowing her. And this package was so much fun to receive! Thank you lady!

Alright, I'm off to lay on the couch -- I feel especially light-headed and yucky today -- to look at the gray sky out the window. That's right, it's totally overcast and cool! I'm so happy. Just yesterday we had the air conditioning back on. Crazy weather.