Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Oh, the possibilities...

It all started at a garage sale,
homemade waffle whoopie pies.

Homemade and baked and sweet,
yup, I had to have some.
YUMMY!




So time to try it out,
my friend tried it first and said
it works with the recipe that we
use for whoopie pies.



What is the recipe?
The easiest and quickest way
to make one of our families all time
favorite treats.



1 cake mix
1 cup of flour
and ingredients on the back of the box of mix.

Add an extra cup of flour to dry ingredients
and add the eggs, oil and water,
mix for two minutes
scoop and drop on cookie sheet and bake.



OR scoop and drop in your waffle iron
for about 1 min.

Fill 'er up with your favorite frosting
and wa-la - whoopie pies for all.

One box makes about 20 whoopie pies.


And I added about 1/2 cup of
 mini chocolate chips
to the batter before "baking."

The possibilities for these are endless,
leave the filling out and make
a dessert with fruit and whipped cream
and use any kind of cake mix
you like.  My friend is going to make
ice cream sandwiches with them.





My favorite is...
with chocolate frosting.



Happy waffle making!!


Linking up at Paisley Passions
                     Whatever goes Wednesday
                     This Chick Cooks
                     Sweet Peas and Bumblebees
                     Ladybug Blessings
                     What's cooking Wednesday
                     The answer is Chocolate
                     Creativly-U




Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Coffee break...




Today my coffee break was a
carmel frappe.

So refreshing.

Are you enjoying the weather,
warm and summer-y?



Summer is my favorite season and to kick off the
warm weather season
I spent a day with some
long time friends.

The beach was lovely and the water was cold,
but spending the day with
my girlfriends was the
best part.



We saw lots of dolphins swimming near shore
 but never when I had my camera ready,
so I picked a stationary target
for photo taking.
This kind of fishing I wouldn't mind trying,
I think a beach chair next to this would be next to perfect
on a lovely day.


We had dinner at a great seafood restaurant
in town and I ordered
Costa Rican Talipia
with a coconut rum sauce.
It was delish!


After much debate we finally decided to
head back to the beach in
the evening and go for a
walk. 

Thanks ladies,
I really enjoyed our time together,
although short, it was sweet.



Cupcakes for a luau party in 1st grade!

Enjoy your summer-y day
and have yourself an iced coffee,
it's just the kick you need.








Photobucket


Monday, May 23, 2011

An open book...

A cake.

This was for a teammate of my son.

The cake was half chocolate with buttercream
and half vanilla with strawberry filling.


The lilies are made from fondant and
were fairly easy to make.  But there
is always room for improvement.


Happy Monday to you!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

SWEET TREATS

Can you say sugar coma?



I had to try it!



And yes, a glass of milk is needed.



Peanut butter ~ Nutella ~ Marshmallows

Some strawberries or bananas would have been a
perfect compliment to this combo.


Happy Thursday to you!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Banana Streusel Muffins

The other week my sister called to ask me
a question about my banana muffins.

I have banana muffins?!   Good to know.
She said that she had gotton the recipe from
me and so off I went to sort thru my recipes to
find "my" banana muffins.



I found it and just so happened to have some super ripe
bananas that needed to be used.


Her question about the muffins was if it
would work as a coffee cake instead.
Did it work, Sis?

Click on the recipe to enlarge.

Linking up: Muffin Monday

Popcorn for my sweet daughter!

One day about 10 months ago
I thought of my daughter's next birthday cake.
And here it is.

She loves popcorn and I knew this was the
perfect cake for her. 


The cake had a few issues along the way
but I did the best I could.
I used red food coloring and a small
paint brush to decorate this cake.

Originally, I was going to make the popcorn out
of white chocolate but time was not on my side this week
and so I decided to top it with carmel popcorn.



My family was here for the celebration and
lots of fun memories were made with cousins.


Lindsey~Kortnee~Morgan

After this picture my daughter said lets do
a crazy picture...
...I think we just did!

And for those of you who guessed "cotton candy"
for the cupcakes - that was what I was thinking too.




A homemade card from Lacee...
...and yummy food.



Time to cut the cake...
The surprise inside was so cool
(at least I thought it was)
and so when I cut the cake and
Kortnee and her cousins saw the inside
their response was priceless to me.




A busy weekend and lots of fun
but sometimes....


Sweet dreams ~ my sweet nephew!

...You just need a nap!


Happy 10th Birthday
to our precious daughter!
We love you and we love
seeing you grow in so many ways.

You are loved!
So much!

Monday, May 16, 2011

It's good to see you...Monday!!

A crazy weekend makes a quiet Monday
a breath of fresh air.

My weekend involved cakes,
baseball games,
public auction of Grandma and Grandpa's treasures that they collected over the years,
20 year *gasp* class reunion,
cakes,
cupcakes,
dinner with all my family,
a birthday party for my daughter's 10th birthday.


As a cake decorator it is always encouraging
when the vision I had
is seen by others.

I knew what these cupcakes looked like to me,
but would everyone else
"see" it?

They did, do YOU?



And here is the cake that I decorated
when I got home at 11:00
the night before my daughter's birthday.

This one has a surprise that I will show you in the next post.
And the reaction it got was better then
expected!!

A busy week, a busy weekend,
and welcomed Monday!


Linking up:



Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Coffee break...

Its time to take a break and enjoy a
coffee before I am off to another
ballgame this evening.

If you sat down to join me for coffee,
what would you tell me?
Would you bring along some homemade
cinnamon rolls for me to taste?
I am a good taster and would let you know if they
are delicious or I might need a second one to
know for sure.


I would tell you that our family
is moving and
I will become a full-time student,
for the next year,
with my family at
a Spanish language school
in Costa Rica.

So many of my days are spent trying to figure out
what goes along and what
stays here in storage.

Figuring out the details and trusting
God to answer any questions we have.

I am so completely amazed at
His provisions already.
His timing is perfect.


I am totally loving the weather we
are having and even
though I am not outside as much as
I would like,
we have ballgames every evening this week,
and I enjoy the beautiful evenings,
and evenings always have great light for
taking pictures.



I'm excited for tomorrow!
Its D-day - that is short for dentist.
Excited may be a bit of a strong word but
I am ready to go.
My tooth is killing me and
Advil and I are becoming fast friends.



My cup of Panamanian coffee with its
cream burlee creamer is finished and so
good evening to you!

And join me over here for more coffee.



Photobucket

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the Moms and Moms-to-be,

Happy Mother's Day!!

Because it is mother's day I decided
to give you a glimpse into the
amazing talent and art of my Mom.

An appliqued wall hanging.


When it was time for a new bedspread,
me and Mom headed off to the fabric store and
picked out fabric for a new quilt for my daughters bedroom.


And in no time this is what she created!


Another wall hanging for a contest she entered.




Hand quilted.

The back - the stitching is amazing to me,
so uniform and detailed.

My Mom has an amazing gift of creativity and
even her food presentation is
a work of art.


When I ask her to bring the cranberry salad for
Thanksgiving, she brought in an
art form.


And the neat thing is -
She is passsing it on to the next generation.


Cody and Grandma - sewing!


As I was writing this I was looking for
a picture of my Mom and I
 to post here,
but couldn't find one.
So next time we are together it is time for
a photo shoot.
(are you "listening", Marilyn?)


Enjoy your day with your Mom
or
being a Mom.


Friday, May 6, 2011

Baltimore, MD

We had a great weekend with our friends in Maryland
this past weekend and on the way home we stopped
by Inner Harbor.  It was a tab bit cold but we
enjoyed spending the day at the harbor.


We went up to the 27th floor to an observation deck
and had a great view of the harbor.





And of course after walking around for awhile,
we got hungry.

So many options, but we ended up here.



The burgers were so good
and melt in your mouth with
lots of toppings to choose from.
Its good there is not one of these burger joints by
our house because that would be
bad news for our health.

After lunch we headed over
to the science museum.
 And the kids got to try lots of
hands on stuff.



And the 3D - IMAX



After a long weekend
and lots of fun
we headed home for a new week.




Have a great weekend!