lace cupcakes

Yesterday I had a little party over at my house for a few ladies.  My sweet Evaleigh slept through the entire party despite the 10 spirited children making ruckus downstairs!  I made these lace dusted cupcakes and they turned out pretty good!

All you do is place a piece of lace over the cupcake and sift powdered sugar on top of it.

The recipie I used was:

1 box devils food cake mix

a half box of vanilla pudding mix

cup and a half chocolate chips

Follow the recipie on the cake box. (except if it calls for 3 eggs, that's just crazy. Mine did so I only used two.). Mix all ingredients together. Then bake according to the box!

(If anyone local is interested in coming to our monthly Pinterest groups, send me an email!)

pin idea here

garden birthday party

Last night Janie(and her cute baby bump) and I threw a little Garden Picnic Birthday party for our dear red headed friend Lisa.

We had:

big balloons

watermelon popsicles

brie and homemade crabapple jelly

chocolate coconut milk cake

pomegranate gingerale

ultimate dance party 1997 iTunes mix

layered vintage table cloths (many from the old oat house on the ranch, THANKS KATHY,I LOVE THEM!)

binding garland from last Christmas

fresh flowers from Trader Joes in milk glass vases

big balloons

Happy Birthday sweet friend, we love you!

summer treat

So far I have made 3 different kinds of these pudding pops. They are delicious on a hot day or probably any day really! Plus they are so easy:

1 3/4 cups half and half

1 package sugar free cheesecake instant pudding mix (1 ounce)

1 cup fresh blueberries

2 teaspoons zested lemon

Combine half and half and pudding mix in blender and blend til smooth. Add blueberries and zest and pulse to break up berries.

Freeze in pop molds for 4 hours.

This recipe is from Our Best Bites. I have already also made their Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie Pops and Cherry Almond Fudge Pops (which are freezing right now, can't wait to try them tonight!) I am going to get a lot of mileage out of our pop molds this summer I can feel it!

the best birthday of my life

6:30 wake
6:50 birthday cake for breakfast
7:20 waited outside for john while he went to the grocery to pick up juice for the youth breakfast at church.  i breathed in the cold morning air and listened to the birds chirp and welcome the day.
7:35 watched the sun rise. john said, "when we're old and retired and living in the Caribbean somewhere, I want to see the sunrise and the sunset everyday."  You got it baby.
8:00 threw a football and basketball around with mr. murphy. i'm no athlete but i believe a good grunt is in order every time you throw a ball.
8:30 pancake breakfast with the youth
9:00 trash pick up for 2 hours on the road our church adopted.  giving service feels so good.
11:20 eagle scout project with one of the youth
11:55 i complain and want to go home because i have to pee and im really hungry
12:15 john says we can leave and he tries to crank the versa. car wont start.
12:16 i start to cry
12:17 john says we should pray and asks me to do it, i say no. he does it. he asks for our car to start. then asks me to count to 3.
12:18 i count to 3
12:18 the car starts
12:19 we bust out laughing and john says a prayer again
12:30 we eat checkers and i have a glorious big buford and fries.
1:30 Nap
3:30 caramel apples on porch with john and mom
4:00 hang out with mom and fix things on her computer
5:00 i'm not tellin'
6:00 Shower while John serenades me with "let me die in my footsteps"
7:30 head out for dinner
7:45 Drive to Macaroni Grill and talk to family on the way there
8:30 Dinner
8:40 Pomegranate Italian Soda and Cranberry Orange Spritzers
9:15 Practiced writing Evaleigh's name all over the table with crayons and decided it was a lot of fun to do
9:30 surprise birthday chocolate cake and a table side opera performance of the Italian Happy Birthday song
9:33 smooch
10:10 hold hands in the car on the way home
10:30 john puts up with a photo snapping session
11:11 talk to momma
11:24- baby kicks. john felt her four times in a row.
11:25 john gets distracted and finds gray hairs on my head. 24 is not that old is it?
11:57 birth minute toast with sparkling white grape juice in my new birthday goblets from husband. they are golden yellow and from anthro...does he know me or does he know me?  he knows me.
11:58 watch parks & rec and the office on hulu.
12:00 not my birthday anymore
12:30 fall asleep while husband tickles my arm

24 is going to be perfect, i just know it.

My first time making sweet sweet whoopie...

...Whoopie Pies that is.

Geeze guys, get your heads out of the gutter!  (Although that was fun too.)

When we have our giveaways we request that those who enter the giveaway send us a recipe.  We receive so many amazing things and can't wait to try them all!  

The first official Tunes and Spoons Recipe Feature is from Elizabeth (I mean Emily) Day at daileyeday.blogspot.com  She is a clever little San Diegoian with a love for all things JJ and vintage.  She lovingly sent us a recipe for her Grandmother's Whoopie Pies.  Even in her G-ma's very own handwriting.  (In fact she is having a schmancy giveaway herself right now.  E.day not her G-ma)

Here is the recipe.  It's old school so you don't have step by step directions, you just kind of throw things in bowls and mix them together. We are so babied nowadays. 

(Step 1. Get out butter Step 2. Take off wrapper Step 3. Mix dry ingredients Step 4. Mix wet ingredients Step 5. Alternate mixing wet and dry ingredients sifting the dry. BLAH BLAH BLAH, JUST THROW IT IN THERE!)

We got this vanilla in Honduras on our honeymoon.  I'm not sure what I'm more concerned about:  the fact that I've used that much vanilla in 5 months or the fact that its called vainilla.

After making the filling I made the batter for the pies.  That stuff was SO thick it made my mixer motor get hot!  The beaters were struggling.

After they came out I let them cool for about 10 minutes, which was really hard for me.  I like to eat things right away.  In fact I eat the stuff more before it's baked....oh salmonella hasn't gotten me yet!

Then there you have it. 

Me, making whoopie at 1 in the morning

I thoroughly enjoyed it and from the look on John's face he liked it too.  

Making whoopie is fun and delicious and you all should try it too!

LAST REMINDER: Enter our GIVEAWAY for a CUSTOM MADE GUITAR STRING RING AND 4 BEAUTIFUL ANTHROPOLOGIE LATTE BOWLS

(enter here)

We will announce the winner tonight!

Hey, it's ok.

I am here to tell you that if you have a bad day it's ok to go home and make a batch of homemade chocolate icing and eat it.  Really, because bad days happen and we all need a little something to help us over the hump.

I am giving you all the permission you will ever need. So, go ahead.

Do you want my recipe?  Its the best.

2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

1 stick unsalted butter (I believe in unsalted butter)

1 block cream cheese

However much Hershey's Cocoa you'd like (about 1/4 cup)

Some people may call this justification but I call it therapy.

Here is a little back story before I spill my guts about yesterday.  All throughout college I have been a babysitter.  I am a great babysitter.  I love children, I think they are the breath of life.  They say the funniest things and when they run as hard and as fast and crash in to you its one of the best feelings ever.  When they put their little hands on your face and talk to you, you feel so respected and loved.  Someday I can't wait to be a mommy with John.

So, yesterday I was babysitting two kids.  They are 3 and 5.  In order to protect those involved I will not disclose the genders and names of these kids.  I was doing my job picking them up from school and as soon as I got the one kid the kid flipped out and told me "I'm going to be mean to you and I don't want to be your friend anymore.  I'm going to put you in jail"  OUCH.  So, I tried to talk to the kid to see what happened at school.  Then things escalated (I'll spare ALL of the HORRIBLE details) and lets just say I ended up being spit on twice, hit, and scratched.  I called the parents immediately because I had never dealt with anything like that before, ever.  It made me so sad.

On the way home from work I called my mother crying.  I felt like the worst babysitter in the world and all of the sudden so very incapable of doing something that I have always been good at.  But I know I handled that very sensitive and difficult situation the best that I could.  It was so scary and I tried to control it the best I knew how.

So, when I got home I let out my frustrations and sadness on some cooking.  Being in the kitchen is my therapy.  Cooking makes me feel so calm and I know it is something that I am good at, and at that point I really needed to feel confident about something.

I made:

Creamy and Sweet Pumpkin Soup with Cinnamon Croutons

Here is what you'll need:

3 tablespoons brown sugar

15 oz can pumpkin puree

2 cans chicken broth, 14 ½ oz each

1 cup chopped onion

5 tablespoons softened butter

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

whole wheat bread loaf (bread cut into cubes)

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 tablespoon white pepper

1/4 tablespoon white sugar

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix together 1/2 teaspoon of the cinnamon, 3 tablespoons of the brown sugar, and 3 tablespoons of melted butter.  Dip bread cubes in the mixture and place on baking sheet with buttered side up and bake for about 8 minutes or until the bread is toasted.

Sauté the onion in the rest of the butter in a saucepan until tender, then add half the chicken broth. Stir the mixture well, bring it to a boil, then cover the pan, turn the heat down, and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

Process the broth in a food processor or a blender until it is smooth, then put it back in the saucepan and add the other can of broth, the salt, cinnamon, white sugar, brown sugar, white pepper, pumpkin puree, and black pepper.

Stir the mixture well and bring it to a boil.

Cover the pan, turn the heat down, and let the pumpkin soup simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring it occasionally.

Stir in the cream and warm it throughout without boiling.

Ladle the soup into 6 serving bowls and top each one with some yummy cinnamon croutons.

On another note:

You have until Monday October 25th to enter our GIVEAWAY!  We are giving away A CUSTOM MADE GUITAR STRING RING and 4 ANTHROPOLOGIE LATTE BOWLS

(enter here)

Vintage tablecloths, Handkerchiefs, and Birthdays-1

This weekend I enjoyed quite the birthday celebration.  I have been out "partying" so please forgive the lack. of. posts. 2 days, big deal right?

Friday I was not feeling so hot so my dear friend Meaghan came and relieved me from my babysitting job. (Thanks Meg!)

My hubs was home Friday so he was able to be with me on the day honoring my birth.  So, he took me to Fresh 2 Order and we had a yummy birth DAY lunch.

(I dig these mustard plates)

Then we had these incredibly moist and chocolaty birthday cupcakes from F2O.  The only thing missing was a candle.

Then hubs took me to see Toy Story 3 at the dollar theater.  I laughed, I cried, I really wanted to be a child again and go home and play with my Baby Lissy and Maryanne.  It was the perfect movie for a birthday,  I felt surprisingly reflective about my life and nostalgic for my childhood.

Then John took me one more place for my last birthday gift.  We went to Antiques and Interiors in Sandy Springs and he bought me a vintage tablecloth and 3 old handkerchiefs.  I had really been wanting some colorful hankys to hang on my wall (much more to come on this later, our dining room now looks incredibly wonderful), so like he always does, he fulfilled my wish.

Then we went home to Mom and Dad's and they planned a special dinner for me.

(Apparently, I made everyone stand on my right.)

We had...

and...

Daddy bought me sunflowers.

My mother, once again, did not disappoint.  She lit torches on the porch and we ate by firelight and the moon and stars.  The night bugs were making their sounds and we kept our family tradition and my parents told me about how I was born.  I really love hearing that story.  It was a magical moment.

I learned that birthdays are much better with husbands to share them with, particularly mine.

 I only have 363 more days til the next birthday.  I wonder what life will be like then...