Princess Tea Party

Back in September me and several of my Church friends hosted a princess tea party at my Church. It was a blast planning baking and decorating. We had about 80 little princesses attend.

Thanks for the pictures Beth

My Dream Business

If I could own my own business, this would be it! Crown and Crumpet is everything I would want for my own "tea shop" inspiration. I would love to take Charlotte there someday.

A Giveaway

Check out my friend Beth from Dot In The City and her amazing blog for her birthday giveaway featuring several cool handemade shops!

Chicken Enchilada Pasta

I've been trying to eat healthier these days. It's actually been fun searching for healthy recipes via the web and planning my meals throughout the week. I have allowed myself a cheat meal every saturday night so I can still enjoy those not so healthy comfort meals.

I got this recipe from my friend Beth via pinterest. It was so stinking delicious. It was definitely worth the yummy calories that went with it. Jason loved it too!

Friday Night Dinner

Barbeque chicken caramelized red onions with scallion skillet flatbread.

I made this flatbread recipe from Whole Living. It was a great healthy bread alternative.

Almond Coconut Curry Chicken

Last night for dinner I made a chicken dish inspired by this recipe from Whole Living. I didn't have some of the ingredients so I used what I had and it came out awesome. I'm thinking that my recipe might have even been better than the inspiration recipe.

Instead of the Almond milk I used a can of lite coconut milk. I added a 1/4 cup of almonds to a food processor and 2 tablespoons of shredded coconut along with the coconut milk and blitzed away. I used boneless skinless chicken breast instead of thighs cut into chunks and sauted the chicken along with the onions added the milk mixture and the rest of the ingredients that is in the inspiration recipe. I didn't have slivered almonds but I had whole ones that I broke up and sprinkled on top. I served it over rice. It looks like a big pile of poop but it was yummy!

I'm Back!!!

Yup, It's been way too long. I could sit here and write down lots of excuses why I have not blogged in a very long time, but why bother! I'm back baby! I really hope to get my creative juices flowing again.

I'm trying to be healthy and lose weight once again, yup, been too long since I've done that as well.... So, I am going to cook healthy recipes taken from some of my favorite websites, blogs and health magazines and share them with you.

Last night I made Pork Chops with Apples and Thyme. It was absolutely delicious! I forgot to take a picture so I took this one from the recipe.

My last project that was this blanket for my friends baby girl Clara.

Hope to be back soon with other recipes and things I've created!

Flash back to the 80's

I made this cake for my friend Sue's surprise 40th birthday party. The theme was everything eighties. Sue was madly in love with Jack Wagner. She had a weird love for Ziggy, yes, the character Ziggy. she worked at Little Ceasar's Pizza and loved listening the the group "The Bangels. I added a rubix cube, a bottle of aqua net hairspray, Mtv logo, I heart 80's, pacman, and a big 40! The really need to get better working with fondant. It was really humid so it really wasn't fun. I would rather just bake.

For baby Joy

I'm no Bob Ross, but not bad for the first try of the artsy thing.

I made this for my friends Janis and Louis who just had a baby girl named Joy.

I made them a meal, and wanted to bring a little gift for Joy, but didn't have extra

money for a gift, so I thought about drawing a picture and painting it with water colors.

I was pretty impressed that I could draw considering I have no drawing skills.

I wanted to keep this for Charlotte. I think I might try to make some cute drawing for the kids bedroom.

Almond Butter

A couple weeks ago I was making a chicken dish and the recipe called for almond butter. I didn't want to go to the store and spend a fortune on almond butter, so I decided to make some since I had almonds in the pantry.

It was really easy, just takes a little patience.

Toast your almonds until lightly fragrant.

Put toasted almonds in food processor, blend until smooth

It takes a good 5 minutes. You'll think it will never

be smooth, but it does happen, I promise.

I uses slivered almonds because that's what I had, but you can

use whole almonds, it will probably take around 10 minutes.

Add a little sea salt to taste, then your done!

YUM!

I am excited about making all kinds of nut butters.....

the possibilities are endless. I'm thinking of a walnut/hazelnut with cinnamon and cardamom.

Pecan with cinnamon and brown sugar, pistachio and sea salt, pumpkin maple and chocolate!

I could go on and on. Anyone have any great combinations that they would want to try?

Double Chocolate Cake

Yesterday I made this unbelievable chocolate cake for my friend Tracy who is expecting a baby boy at the end of the month. We had a small shower for her last night at my small group meeting.

I've been practicing many recipes for cakes that I am making for a wedding in May. This one is definitely a keeper. I made white chocolate butter cream frosting for the layers and a swiss butter cream for the outside of the cake.

I am making 5 different flavor cakes for the wedding. We are making a "dessert" bar instead of a traditional 4-5 tiered wedding cake. I am excited about this project that I have ahead of me.

Up next will be the Lemon cake.

Pizza Party

Sunday night I made pizzas

for something yummy to

eat while watching the

Oscars.

Last week I watched an episode of

"Best thing I ever ate"

on Food network

and they were featuring

favorite pizzas.

I took a couple ideas from

some of the chefs that were

featured.

Instead of a traditional pizza dough

I made a Naan bread dough and grilled

it first.

One of them had thinly sliced

Yukon gold potatoes with a garlic

sauce. The other one had fresh

Parmesan cheese, thinly sliced

red onions and pistachios with

drizzle of olive oil. That one was to

was so unique and very tasty. The other one I made was

diced tomatoes with fresh mozzarella

and basil.

Shower Gift

My good friend is having a baby boy this march, and her mother threw her a small baby shower on saturday. I made these blankets and banner for her baby boy Thomas. It was nice breaking out my sewing machine again. I'm inspired to sew lots of things now. Only if I had time...

Thanks Carol for the banner idea!

Homemade bagels

A couple weeks ago I made bagels for a friends breakfast party. They were absolutely delicious!

I used this recipe. I also made "french toast" flavor.

Super Mario

A cake I made for a friends little boys birthday!

Henry's birthday cake

My baby boy celebrated

his 4th birthday yesterday

with family.

He wanted a "Transformer"cake,

and this is what he got.

An Autobot symbol.

It was my first time using fondant

which was very challenging

in 90 degrees weather with 100%

humidity. I only made a couple

mistakes.

The cake is a 3 layered marble

and vanilla cake with a

chocolate butter cream.

It was darn good. Not a fan of

the fondant though....

Bacon Shallot and Gouda Souffle.

This is the first attempt on making a souffle and it came out delicious. It could have looked better if I owned and used a traditional souffle dish. But it was scrumptious!

I used a basic souffle recipe for the base and added my own goodness.

The recipe is at the end of this post.

Gather and prep ingredients.

Butter dish then coat with fresh bread crumbs and parm cheese

Melt butter and add flour to make a roux.

Add milk. Combine and bring simmer and stir till it's thick.

Beat egg whites until peaks form.

Add spices and such.

Add egg yokes.

Transfer into bowl, let cool for a few minutes.

Add the rest of the goodness.

Combine whites.

Pour into a souffle bowl, or in my case whatever will work.

Cook until it's nice and brown on the top and puffy.

Scoop that deliciousness onto a plate and enjoy with a couple

slices of a fresh baguette. Yum!!

INGREDIENTS

1. 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus softened butter for brushing
2. 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
3. 1/4 cup fresh toasted bread crumbs
4. 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5. 1 1/2 cups milk
6. 3/4 teaspoon salt
7. 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
8. 1 teaspoon of a blend of parisian spices
9. 6 slices of bacon
10. 2 sliced shallots
11. 6 large eggs, separated
12. 6 ounces shredded aged Gouda
13. 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 375° and brush 8-cup ramekin with butter. Lightly coat the Parmigiano-Reggiano and bread crumbs and set them on a sturdy baking sheet.
2. Saute bacon then shallots until caramelized.
3. In a medium saucepan, melt the 4 tablespoons of butter. Whisk in the flour and cook over moderate heat for 1 minute. Whisk in the milk and cook over moderately low heat until smooth and very thick, about 2 minutes. Stir in the salt and cayenneand parisian spices. Off the heat, whisk in the egg yolks. Let cool slightly. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the Gouda, bacon and shallots.
4. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar at medium-high speed until frothy. Increase the speed to high and beat until firm peaks form. With a rubber spatula, fold the egg whites into the soufflé base until no streaks of white remain.
5. Spoon the soufflé mixture into the ramekin filling it to 1/2-inch below the rim. Run your thumb inside the rim of each ramekin to help the soufflés rise evenly. Sprinkle the remaining Parmigiano-Reggiano on top and bake in the bottom third of the oven until the soufflés are puffed and golden brown, about 35-40 minutes. Serve immediately.

I got my basic souffle recipe from Food and wine and then made it my own.