Saturday, April 30, 2011

Mission: Cupcake ~ Week 7 (and a Recipe!)

For this week’s experiment, I decided to make cupcakes that would double as dessert and a little parting gift for our Easter brunch guests. I wanted a simple cupcake with pure white frosting so that I could embellish the tops with a flower from our front yard and tie it in with the table décor. So I went with Spring Bouquet Cupcakes, a simple yellow cake topped with a buttery vanilla & almond cream frosting. These not only tasted great (J said they reminded him of a pancake…not sure if I agree, but he LOVES pancakes so I’ll take it!), but they are perfect if you want a yummy cupcake and a clean palette to work with. These would be perfect for any springtime celebration; bridal showers, graduation parties, baby showers, Mothers day, etc. Just add a flower or two to the top & voile!


For Easter, I put them in individual cupcake boxes packed with colorful filler papers and then topped each one with a flower. I pinned place cards to the lids of each box using mini clothespins, and everyone took their cupcakes home to enjoy later (because we were all STUFFED from Easter brunch!).

As requested, below is the recipe from Week#2, Cinnamon Sugar Puff Cupcakes. Enjoy!

Cupcakes:
1 ½ C. Unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¾ stick unsalted butter (at room temperature)
½ C. sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
½ C. milk

Coating:

¾ stick unsalted butter, melted
½ C. sugar
1 ¼ tsp ground cinnamon

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Spray the inside of 12 muffin tin cups with nonstick cooking spray.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt & nutmeg into a medium bowl. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Beat in the egg, mixing until smooth & thick. On low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in two additions, beginning & ending with the flour mixture and mixing just until the flour is incorporated and the batter looks smooth.

Fill each muffin cup with about 3 tablespoons of batter, to about ½ inch below the top (I use a large ice cream scoop). Bake just until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool for about 5 minutes.

Stir the cinnamon & sugar together for the coating. Dip the tops of each cupcake first in the melted butter, and then in the cinnamon sugar mixture to coat it completely. Serve warm or at room temperature; I recommend in the morning with a cup of java! J

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Awkward & Awesome Thursday!

Awkward:

Having your waitress, a complete stranger, tell you all of her personal problems & complaints about her non-committal boyfriend as though you were her new BFF. So you feel compelled to offer some consolation & advice even though you couldn’t care less about her biological clock ticking away.

Trying to sleep on your side with a runny nose. So you jam tissues up both nostrils (hoping husband doesn’t lean over for a goodnight kiss) and breathe heavily through your mouth & pray you don’t drool on your pillow.

Getting a pedicure. All I want to do is read my US Weekly & enjoy my chair massage…not make forced small talk while my toe nails are being clipped.

Awesome:

Self serve frozen yogurt!!

80 degree weather…although it’s very hard to work when the beach is calling your name.

Feeling little baby kicks! There are so many awkward aspects of pregnancy, but this part is definitely awesome!!

Getting a new magazine in the mail. I am obsessed with magazines! The only problem is I get so excited that I race through them too fast and then I have to wait a whole month before getting another one.






Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Good Samaritans


We were up in PQ tonight visiting J’s parents (the usual routine on Wednesdays) and after a delicious meal (Roast Chicken, my favorite!), I got a craving for some frozen yogurt. Speaking of which…what is up with craving something sweet after EVERY single meal? I don’t know if it’s a girl thing, but I definitely didn’t have this when I was preggo with Jayden. Anyway, I digress…SO, I mention that some frozen yogurt would really hit the spot & we decide to take a walk over to Cool Cravings in Torrey Highlands. I am definitely feeling these new yogurt places where you can serve yourself and pile on the toppings. A little tip: Grab one of those little sample cups & you can try out every flavor before you commit…AND you end up with half the yogurt (and price tag, consequently) since you stuff yourself with all the free samples J

So everything is going great until the walk home and we see this little boy, probably about 5 years old, walking with determination around the block by himself…not an adult in sight. It looks pretty odd to us all, so we decide to follow him and he continues to walk alone for several minutes before we finally ask him where he is going & where his parents are. Long story short: we searched the neighborhood for anyone looking for a lost boy and fortunately found a woman that recognized him & knew his mother. She said he lived WAY down the street…so apparently he decided it would be nice to leave the house & go for a little walk on his own. Crazy eh?

In other news, it appears that whatever Jayden had is finally catching up with me L I’ve got a sore throat, headache, stuffy and runny nose (yes, both at the same time), and a serious case of the whines. Feel sorry for me. J

CLICK. CLICK CLICK. CLICK. CLICK CLICKETY CLICK.

This is the lovely sound I get to hear at night as I am trying to fall asleep. It’s the sound of J playing on his computer….and me going insane. Thank you Mac for making the mouse on your Mac laptops sooooo incredibly irritating. Couldn’t there have been a silent option? If someone knows of one…PLEASE share!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Short & Sweet

I think my body is exhausted from growing this little person inside me (sometimes I think all of her bouncing around somehow makes me extra tired!), so I am going to pass out early tonight…hopefully. And I am going to pray that both kids stay super quiet all night…no 2am nightmares or crazy baby squirming. Wish me luck.

And in the meantime, check out Jayden hunting for “eggies” yesterday…


And Jayden chillin with his cousin Izzy…how cute are they???! 




Sweet dreams!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter!

I know I’ve been lagging on posts the past couple of days, but it’s only because I’ve been busy shopping, sewing, cooking, cleaning & decorating (oh, and nursing my hubby back to health J). Why you ask? Because this year we (ok, I) decided to host a little (just my parents, brothers & J's parents) Easter celebration at our casa…one holiday where J&I can stay home & not run around to multiple gatherings. And it only took approximately one year after decorating the dining room to actually sit down and have a meal in it. J

Alright, back to the decorations (because that's my favorite part!). I really wanted a bright, spring theme for the table, which was fairly difficult given that our dining room has a very Tuscan feel. The main colors were pink & turquoise, because I LOVE these two colors together. And I stole LOTS of ideas from the blogs I read...I'll try to give them credit!


The pom pom hanging from the chandelier, along with the peeps on the drinking glasses both came from Annika's blog "Cakes Likes a Party"...thanks for the tutorials! 

I sewed napkins (that's right, finally finished my second sewing project of the year!), and made menu cards for each setting. The printables all came from Hostess Blog, another one of my faves.

I also made place cards and attached them to the party favors, my cupcake of the week (you will have to wait for the details on this cupcake later!).




Remember last week when I said I was working with burlap? I made these utensil holders, which turned out pretty cute in the end even though I was fairly nervous about them. And Amber, you were right...burlap is messy stuff to work with!!




And I was completely determined on serving an Easter brunch, so we had breakfast at 3pm…weird, I know, but it was d-lish! 

Jayden also enjoyed his first Easter egg hunt...I really tried to think of other items to fill in his eggs besides candy (stickers, balls, etc), but nothing got a response like the jelly beans. Kids and their sugar!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! 

x

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Mission: Cupcake ~ Week 6


After last week’s success with citrus, I decided to try it again this week, but this time with oranges instead of lemons. I also wanted to try a different texture, so I made orange chiffon cupcakes with orange butter icing. I really wasn’t sure what chiffon cake was, but based on how these cupcakes turned out it’s very similar to angel food cake…perhaps slightly more dense. And the verdict? Pretty tasty, but not amaaaaazing. J tried one without knowing what to expect and wasn’t crazy about them…but then I told him they were supposed to be like angel food cake and when he ate another one with that expectation, he really liked them. And the critics all agree: the icing is the best part. Can you really go wrong with powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, and orange zest? I thinketh not!


Wednesday, April 20, 2011

The Patient


My hubby got a nose job today…ok, not really. It was a deviated septum…but he DID go under the knife L So I’ve got a child recovering from being sick & J recovering from surgery…another exhausting day (NOT that I’m complaining…my two boys have it MUCH worse than I do)! But the excellent news is that hopefully he won’t have to hold one nostril open to breathe every night. I can’t imagine going 32 years without being able to breathe through half of my nose!! I tried to get a picture of the recovering patient, but he wasn't super thrilled with the idea of me taking photos of him with gauze & tubes stuck up his nose...imagine that!


ShoutOut: Five Guys Burgers and Fries


My coworkers & I went to this new burger joint in La Jolla for lunch today that reminded me of In n Out, only without the drive through. I got the little bacon cheeseburger…which wasn’t little at all! It was super d-lish, so I’m giving this place a shoutout for the burger. The fries, on the other hand, could have been crispier & a little lighter on the Cajun seasoning…I didn’t know we were ordering the “my mouth is on fire but thank goodness there are two massive soda machines” fries. And speaking of the soda machines, they really needed an instruction manual on how to work them. I ended up overflowing my cup with ice about three times (and looking like a complete idiot) while trying to figure out how to get the soda to come out. Thank goodness for the veterans standing around that helped me out. But confusing aspect aside, the soda machines are pretty sweet…you put your basic soda in (sprite, coke, lemonade, etc) and then you can select from a variety of flavors to add to it. So you customize your drink! I did feel slightly guilty about pouring several failed flavor combo attempts down the soda machine drain…but only a little J

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Baby Fever


Today was a rough day in the Trapp household as baby bubbies is running a 104 degree fever and definitely feeling under the weather L The only upside is that I haven’t experienced this much cuddling since he was an infant! I left work early today to be with him (even though he was already in great hands with Aunt “Bobbie” (Debbie) and Cousin Shannon); It’s just hard to be away when I know he is sick…all I want to do is hold him, comfort him & make it “all bebbers”…I’m sure all you mommies out there can relate!

So I spent most of the day on the couch while we watched his favorite shows…and I squeezed in some work when he would let me. The evening ended with him falling asleep in my arms as we watched the movie “Tangled” (super cute by the way), which was even more proof that my sweetie is under the weather because he NEVER falls asleep unless we force him to go night night. We also discovered that a spoonful of ice cream helps the medicine go down J

Quick Monday Recap:
We went up to Carlsbad state beach to visit my parents and have some din din. And this was J’s monster burger:


He ate the entire thing! I don’t know where he fits it…
Oh! And thank you again to the new stretch of 52…I made it home from Carlsbad in a record 35 minutes. Word.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

And the Black & White Knight Wins!


Today we went back in time; medieval time that is! We ended up with quite the crew; 16 of us (brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces & nephews) made the trek up north to take in some serious sword fighting, tournament games, and jousting...and of course they had to throw in a little romance. Oh yes, and let’s not forgot the royal feast served utensil-free (I was extremely close to smuggling in some silverware from home)…but it turns out eating with your fingers isn’t so terrible when the lights are dim and no one is watching you eat…and to my relief they pass out wet naps at the end J

Jayden stayed entertained with the overpriced souvenir we bought for him before the show. Plastic sword with flashing lights: $12. Hours of entertainment before AND during the show: priceless. And it was thrice the fun when each of his cousins got one & they could have sword fights in the lobby.





To top it all of, our black and white knight ended up defeating the much hated green knight to win the tournament and save the king! It was a great day spent with family, and a fun way to finish up a long weekend. 

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Flashback Party: Jayden turns twooo twooo!


We celebrated Jayden’s second birthday in January with a train themed party & it turned out really cute so I wanted to share all the details! For those of you who know Jayden, he is obsessed with choo choos, so I knew he would be over the moon with this party theme.

I wanted to create a central focus that really showcased the theme rather than having little splashes of it all over the house, so I turned our kitchen island into the food/dessert bar & put most of the effort there. J made me an awesome backdrop (he is handy like that!) and I attached coordinating streamers to it.



My mom made the cake after I gave her a vague description of the theme/colors...and it was crazy how perfect it matched everything on the table. We topped it with one of the Thomas trains Jayden got for Christmas, and it turned into the centerpiece! And of couse there were cupcakes! My grandma gave me the cupcake liners for Christmas that coordinated perfectly.




I bought the red & blue bags from Michaels & filled them with kettle corn (made from Scratch! ..haha..ok I bought the bags you pop in the microwave) and the take out boxes are packed with BBQ potato chips. Everything was made to grab & go...and utensil free! Oh and that bean dip you see in the background was made by Auntie Jess and it disappeared in about 5 minutes after the party started! :) Yum!






 The handy hubby made the Jayden crossing sign for the front yard, while I worked on the choo choo track for the entryway...





What party would be complete without a few games for the adults and a jumpy for the kiddos?? 





Thanks for coming aboard and I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Mission: Cupcake ~ Week 5

“Babe, your cupcakes taste great, but you could improve on the presentation a bit.”
As much as J loves to eat my cupcakes, he isn’t afraid to offer some constructive criticism regarding what I can improve on. So this week I decided to get a little more creative and make a cupcake that would look pretty, even if it meant sacrificing taste. So I made these lemon poppy seed cupcakes, which I turned into little butterflies by cutting off the cake tops & transforming them into wings and then piping a stripe of lemon curd for the body (I had to point out to all the boys what the cupcakes resembled, whereas the women saw it immediately…interesting…).



So I was pretty happy with how they looked, but I was definitely curious how they would score on flavor. To my surprise, they were actually several tasters favorite cupcakes so far. While some still hold week 1’s chocolate cupcake as their favorite, several felt the lighter; refreshing aspect of this cupcake moved it into the #1 position. And as you can see, Jayden wasn’t shy about getting his fill of them J Bon appetit! 



Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Tuesday Craft Night


I grew up watching my mom sew and have always wanted to learn…I’ve just always been intimidated by all those patterns & pins. But about a year ago I pushed those fears aside and bought a sewing machine, confident that I could teach myself how to do it. I also purchased “Sewing for Dummies” and a book of easy sewing projects...because that would motivate me to get busy. What have I made so far??? A change purse. Yep, that’s it.

But now I have Tuesdays. One night of the week to indulge myself in whatever activity/hobby/project I want (J gets Thursday nights to play softball, so I negotiated for Tuesdays to do crafts!). So I cleared the cobwebs off my sewing machine, bought some burlap & fabric from Joann’s (50% off sale right now!) and got busy on table decorations for Easter Sunday brunch at our house. And just as I got all setup to sew, I realized I didn’t have the right color of thread. Just my luck.

I guess there’s always next Tuesday. 

P.S. For you cupcake fans, I will be featuring this week’s edition on Thursday so stay tuned!!

Monday, April 11, 2011

Happy Happy Happy…

Birthday to my wonderful hubby/old man! We had a great night celebrating with J’s family at Outback Steakouse (one of my personal favorites…jeesh, you’d have thought it was my birthday!)…and to top it all off Jess & Izzy made a spontaneous trip down from San Fran to surprise J for his birthday! Always excited to see my favorite sister-in-law and the cutest baby ever! She rocks the party hat better than anyone I have ever seen J

I also busted out my very best party décor (aka the $5 “party in a bag” from Target) in the 20 minutes I had before J got home…I was seriously sweating & out of breath from blowing up balloons (pathetic!...but I’ll blame it on the pregnancy).


I better get back to the birthday boy now ;) 

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Obedient Wife

So J has been asking me (well, more like nagging me) for about 2 months now to make him some gluten free bread. Step 1 was to hunt down all of the ingredients, which of course were nowhere to be found at a normal grocery store since it calls for specialty flours and ingredients. And I almost gave up the cause when I finally found the last ingredient at Henry’s. All I needed was one tablespoon of xantham gum, but of course I had to spend 14 buckaroos on a bag of the stuff that would probably make about 50 loaves! Aaaanyways…I finally pulled together all of the ingredients and dusted off the old bread machine, which hasn’t seen the light of day since 2006 (the year we got married).



So 3 hours later the entire house smells like freshly baked bread and the machine starts beeping, letting me know it’s time to take out my perfectly shaped, cooked to perfection loaf of bread. And this is what I got.

Oh well…better luck next time. That being said, it actually still tasted alright and we made chicken pesto panini’s with it for dinner. So not a total loss J

Friday, April 8, 2011

Baby Love

I have a confession…well, really more like an obsession…with baby girl clothes. Ok and baby girl hats. And baby girl headbands. And baby girl shoes. And I feel guilty because with Jayden, I’ve always just thrown on whatever happens to be clean at the moment (and admittedly, things don’t always match). But now I am relentlessly scouring every baby store and website for a navy blue headband, because without it I have an incomplete outfit. Let’s do a little comparison, shall we???
Here is Gracie’s closet and accessory collection:



And now here is Jayden’s portion of the closet:



You see what I mean? Well at least I know I am not alone here…there is something about a miniature-sized frilly wardrobe that makes all women swoon. But now I am out of budget...and the baby isn't due until July. So I've sworn off all baby stores to resist the tempation...for now :)


In other news, J took Jayden to the grocery store tonight, so I decided to soak up every second of this scarce alone time by looking through old baby photos. And I got totally choked up over how fast he is growing up. Just look at him sleeping on J just a few days after he was born...
 ..and now he practically takes up the whole couch! :) Btw, this is Jayden's "I'm watching TV and ready for my belly tickle" position.


Sometimes I think about how easy life would be without kiddos, and I am jealous of friends that get to have big nights out on the town or that can make plans at the drop of a hat without a babysitter hunt...but then I see these pictures & remember that I need to soak up every last minute of childhood that Jayden has...because it really does go by fast...


"He didn't have to wake up
He'd been up all night
Layin’ there in bed listenin’
To his new born baby cry
He makes a pot of coffee
He splashes water on his face
His wife gives him a kiss and says
It gonna be OK

It won’t be like this for long
One day we'll look back laughin’
At the week we brought her home
This phase is gonna fly by
So baby just hold on
‘Cause it won't be like this for long"

...so true Darius Rucker...ok, gotta go wipe the tears off my keyboard now...