Mission: Organization

So what have we covered under the things I love?  Smores, cupcakes, pumpkin, well, food basically.  Another thing I love to do is ORGANIZE!  It makes me happy when my house is clean and everything is in its designated spot.  Call me OCD if you will, but I love bins, labels and all that is organization.  Just this morning I thought, "I need to get a bin for all the chip bags in my pantry".  I ran across these ideas at the Crafting Chicks and my wheels started turning!



I could probably do without the little flags on the top, but you get the idea.  You can click on their link for directions.

Taking a picture at the end of each month?  I don't think so.  I can't even keep track of the thousands of pictures I take, but I'm sure there is some craft and organized person out there who would like this idea.  I just like the calendar and think it is really cool that it is made of magnets.

Happy organizing my friends!

Cupcake of the Month- Pumpkin!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE fall!  Although it is now September 2nd and 100 degrees outside, I can feel fall coming, or maybe I just am wishing it would be here a little sooner.  One of the reasons I love fall so much is that I {heart} pumpkin!  I know this blog makes it look like I LOVE all foods.  This is probably a true statement.  When I was in college I noticed that IHop had the pumpkin pancake and Dairy Queen had the pumpkin Blizzard.  It was my mission in life to eat as much pumpkin flavored confections as I possibly could.  They are usually only around for a few months a year after all. 
I got pretty excited when I saw September coming up and thought about how I could finally post a pumpkin post.  At first I wanted to post about my pumpkin spice sheet cake that I used to make for Thanksgiving because it brings back memories of spending Thanksgiving at my grandma's house and being in the kitchen with my grandma, mom, sister, aunt and cousin.  Because my grandma is no longer with us, Thanksgiving doesn't quite have the same feeling it used to so I decided to hold onto that one for a little longer and possibly add a couple memorable stories.  I'll probably bring it out in November...stay tuned. 

I found this pumpkin cupcake recipe on Pioneer Woman (thanks Bethany...another hook up from you.  Remember when we were both preggers and eating every party mix in sight!?).  You all should make sure you catch the new PW show on the Food Network.  Happy Fall Y'all (here's hoping)!

 

Ingredients

■Muffin Ingredients:

■1 cup All-purpose Flour

■1/2 cup Sugar

■2 teaspoons Baking Powder

■1-1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

■1/4 teaspoon Ground Ginger

■1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg

■1/2 teaspoon Salt

■4 Tablespoons Butter, cut into pieces

■1 cup (heaping) Pumpkin Puree

■1/2 cup Evaporated Milk

■1 whole Egg

■1-1/2 teaspoon Vanilla

■1/2 cup Golden Raisins (optional!)


Topping

■2 Tablespoons Sugar

■1 teaspoon Cinnamon

■1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg


FOR FROSTING:

■1/4 cup Softened Butter

■4 ounces, weight Cream Cheese

■1/2 pound Powdered Sugar

■1/2 teaspoon Vanilla

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously grease 12 muffin tins.

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Cut in butter with two knives or a pastry blender until it is fully incorporated. In a separate bowl, mix together pumpkin, evaporated milk, egg, and vanilla. Pour pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Add raisins. Fold gently until mixture is just combined.

Pour into a greased muffin pan—batter hardly ever fills all twelve unless you keep it down to 1/2 full. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar-nutmeg mixture over the top of each unbaked muffin.

Bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove and allow to cool. Ice with cream cheese frosting.

To make the frosting, mix all ingredients on high until soft and whipped. Spread onto completely cooled muffins, or place into a large pastry bag with a large star tip and go crazy! Store in the fridge, as icing will soften at room temperature.

Grilled Chicken and Corn Salad With Avocado and Parmesan

This could quite possibly be the best salad I have ever made!  I am a pretty big fan of salads, but this one is over the top yum!  It is a perfect way to round up some summer grilling (sniff) and bring in the fall.  I found this in my Real Simple Magazine, but you can also find the recipe online.  Click the link.  This baby is also pretty low in calories and I am guessing if you take the avocado off {if you're crazy!} it would be even lower.  I got a new calorie counter app on my phone so I'm into that these days.

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

4 tablespoons olive oil

kosher salt and black pepper

2 6-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts

3 ears corn, shucked

5 ounces baby spinach (about 5 cups)

1 avocado, cut into bite-size pieces

2 ounces Parmesan, shaved

Directions:

1.Heat grill to medium-high. In a medium bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, rosemary, garlic, 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Transfer half the dressing to a small bowl; set aside. Add the chicken to the remaining dressing and turn to coat.

2.Rub the corn with the remaining tablespoon of oil and season with ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Grill the corn and chicken, covered, turning occasionally, until the corn is tender and lightly charred, 4 to 6 minutes, and the chicken is cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes. Cut the kernels off the cobs and slice the chicken.

3.Toss the spinach, chicken, corn, and avocado with the reserved dressing and sprinkle with the Parmesan.

Here are some time saving tips-

 I actually figured this out on accident, but you can grill chicken tenderloins (I buy Smart Chicken Tenderloins) and cut the cooking time in half, plus you can just throw them on the salad rather than cutting them up!

I also just drizzled the dressing over the top and it worked the same as tossing it with the lettuce.

When we were finished with this meal, my husband said, "I wish we had more!"  In return I told him I would give him the leftovers for his lunch.  I kid you not, he JUST emailed me as I am typing this and said, "That salad is awesome!"  It's super easy (took about 15 minutes start to finish) and super good.  Bible.

Part-Time-Stay-At-Home Mama

First, I'll start with an apology for not posting basically all summer.  Second, I tip my hat to those mommies out there who blog their hearts out, make home cooked meals every night, have a clean house and run a small business out of their homes.  You are the reasons I thought I could do it all.  Turns out I can't.  The blog took a backseat to all the summer and new school year activities.  However, I think I am back.

I'll start with a few highlights this of the summer.  Everett and I had an absolute blast!  Our days pretty much went as follows:
Mommy would get up super early for a run or to go to the gym.  The half marathon I am running is in 6 short weeks...AAAAAHHHHH!
E would wake up and we would eat breakfast.
I usually had a few errands to run so we would do that before lunch and nap.
While Everett would nap, I would do a few sewing projects.  I never like to sew when he is awake.  I don't want the time I could be spending with him to be used on my little hobby.
After nap we would go to Blackbob Bay.  Turns out this is pretty much a toddler's paradise.  From the fountains to the lazy river, we spent almost every afternoon soaking up the sun and having snacks by the kiddie pool.  Awesome.
We would usually head home around dinner time to eat with Daddy and then head outside to play t-ball.  Yes, we played t-ball {and still do} just about every single night.  The kid loves it.
Bath, Books, Bed.  Repeat.

Highlights of our summer.  In pictures.

Open gym at Matt Ross.  All he really did was try to play basketball.  We probably could have done that at home. 

Great Wolf Lodge.  This sweet picture is from story time at the clock tower. 

 At the lake with Nana and Grampie.

He LOVED the jet ski.  He actually rode it so much he fell asleep on it.  This is the kids who never falls asleep in the car.  I have a picture of it, but I will spare you the photo of my big white thigh.  Trust me, you're welcome.

This brings us up to the beginning of the school year.  Oh boy, where to begin?  Many of you know that my family had planned on me working a job share this school year.  What that looks like is I work Mondays, Wednesdays and every other Friday.  It is perfect because I like to work both because I love where I work and I like to feel like I am contributing financially to my family.  This also allows me to be home with Everett two or three days a week.  Super.  Great.  Plan approved.  Looks like everything is going to work out.  Yeah, not so much.  It is not something I will go into on a blog.  Just know that the beginning of this school year did not turn out the way it was supposed to and I literally started losing my hair and crying quite a bit.  There are many reasons for this, but just know that once again my family had to make a huge decision and think about my going back to full time teaching again.
Enter a lot of people who did a lot of work for me.  Most importantly my new job share partner and frankly my life savor Whitney!  I will be forever grateful to those people who pulled me out of a really crappy situation and quite frankly put me in a much better position than I would have been.  Whitney, if you're reading this you're a freaking rockstar and I love working with you.  You're the bomb girl.  To those of you that sent or said encouraging words through the mess that was the beginning of the year, thank you thank you thank you.  You're awesome and so sweet and put things in perspective for me and my family.  You're very good friends.

Whew, now that the school year is in full swing, things you can look forward to reading about are:

More cupcakes of the month!

More recipes!  I've been making a lot of fun stuff and depriving you of all its yumminess.

Fluffy Cakes!  Did you know this little bus-i-nass has been around for almost a year?  Look for a birthday giveaway!

My first FC's show!  I actually had a dry-run this summer, but this show is the real deal baby!  Stay tuned.

Last, but not least, HASH HOUSE UPDATES:)  This family is so ready for fall!  It's the best time in Kansas City!  Can't wait for the Plaza Art Fair, Helen Gold 10K, Holiday Mart, Halloween, soups, jeans, chili, comfort food, ahhhhhh.  I can see it now....

Cupcake of the Month

Yes, yes, I know.  You haven't heard from me in a while.  However, I am back on the blogging in a big way.  I have decided to pay homage to my love of cupcakes by starting a "Cupcake of the Month" post each month.  I'm going to finish up August with what else?  Smores cupcakes!  Did you know that August is the home of National Smores Day?  It's only fitting that I post a recipe for these little gems-





Crust:

1 1/2 cups graham crackers (approx. 1 pkg out of the Honeymaid box)

1/4 cup sugar

5 T unsalted butter, melted

2 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces

Marshmallows (you'll need about 100 mini marshmallows)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners. In food processor, pulse graham crackers until they are fine crumbs. Add sugar and melted butter and mix until well combined. Add approximately 1 tablespoon of crumbs to the bottom of each liner. Use a small circle object (I used a shot glass) to press the crumb mixture evenly into the bottom of each liner. Bake for 5 minutes and remove from the oven. Divide the chopped chocolate evenly among the cupcakes. Add approximately 4 marshmallows to each tin.


Cake:

2 cups plus 2 T sugar

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup canola oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt in your mixing bowl. In a small bowl, add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla and whisk together. Add to dry ingredients and beat on low speed until just incorporated. Increase speed to medium and beat 2 minutes. Add boiling water and beat on low until just combined.

Spoon batter evenly into cupcake liners, filling each about 3/4 of the way full. The marshmallows will float to the top but that's okay. Bake approximately 18 - 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center cupcake comes out clean. Cool for about 5 minutes in the pan and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting:

8 egg whites, room temperature

2 cups sugar

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 large Hershey bar

In a clean stainless steel mixing bowl or double boiler, combine egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar. Whisk frequently, heating the mixture over medium-high heat until the temperature reaches 160 degrees. Transfer egg mixture to stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Begin mixing at low speed, gradually increasing to medium-high speed as the mixture becomes thicker. Beat until stiff, glossy peaks form. Add in the vanilla and mix until just combined. Transfer frosting to a piping bag fitted with a large star tip and frost as desired.

Using a kitchen torch held about 6 inches away from the cupcakes on a non-flammable surface, brown the cupcakes lightly as desired. Keep the torch moving so you don't catch any spot on fire. Just like toasting marshmallows by a campfire, slow and steady is a better approach than sticking the marshmallow to close to the fire, you're going for lightly toasted frosting not black and bubbly marshmallow. Garnish with chocolate bar segments.





I found this recipe at homemade by holman

Don't worry, there will be more posts about my new stay-at-home-part-time-mom status soon!

We landed on the moon!

A few weeks ago my little family packed up the car and headed for the Rockies.  When I say packed up the car, I mean stroller, booster, 3 suitcases, 2 coolers, a baby, a Samsonite briefcase, a bird named Petey and the kitchen sink.  If you travel with kids, you know what I mean.  However, I still lurch at the idea of buying a minivan so we will just settle for not being able to see out the back window of the ole' CRV.

We stayed in Estes Park which is home to the Stanley Hotel.  I have to tell you that going to the hotel was what I most looked forward to as well as my favorite part of the trip.  Grant and I had so much fun taking a Haunted History Ghost Tour.  Our tour guide explained how the hotel {which is still serving guests} is haunted and was the inspiration for a little movie called The Shining!  If you haven't seen it, get it immediately.  It is one of my favorites and as my childhood friend Emily and my adulthood friend Ann can attest to, I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE scary movies!  I was disappointed to learn that the major motion picture was not actually filmed at the hotel, however it was the inspiration for the movie Stephen King's version was filmed at the SH. 



Ah, just looking at this makes me want to rent it right now!  If you have seen it, you may be interested to know that this little number was a picture I took with the flash on at the end of a dark staircase leading up to the hotel's bell tower.  Read it carefully.  Freaky huh?

Also, I did have a ghostly experience in what used to be the children's wing of the hotel.  I won't go into it now, but I'd love to tell you about it over some cosmo's.  Call me.

Another unknown fact to me until I got there was that Dumb and Dumber was filmed at the Stanley Hotel as well.  Please enjoy clips from the movie and how they are oddly similar to the places we hung before the tour began.

Movie version:

Our version:

Movie's view:

Our view:

Movie:

Us:

Last, but certainly not least.  We had a chance to meet up with great friends who also happen to be Everett's future in-laws.  My friend Krystl sucked it up through car sickness to drive through the mountains to eat dinner with us.  Please enjoy our baby's first real date and the genius that is the iPad.  Thank you iPad for giving the adults some time to catch up.  Thank you friends for taking the time to visit us.  I am more jealous than you will ever know that you live in Fort Collins {my favorite place on the planet}.  Like your perfect little genius adorable family needed to get anymore perfect!  I still love you guys very much and miss you even more!

Look Who We Met!

Last week the head coach at ONW asked me to come up and pick up our STATE CHAMPION (you know I had to plug it one more time) shirts.  He also said Cole Aldrich was running his summer basketball camp in the gym so I should bring E up to meet him and Tyrel Reed.  Uh, no prob!  So here is basically how my morning went...

8:15- I knew the camp started at 9:00, so I had to be out of the house by 8:35 at the latest in order to possibly catch the guys before camp started.

8:20- Put E in his KU Basketball gear (of course!) and hand him a container of Cheerios for breakfast on the go.  I know, I am such a great mom.  Oops.

8:35- We are out the door and on our way

8:50- I am seriously sweating because of #1 the heat, it is like 1,000 degrees in Kansas City right now and #2 I didn't pay the $150 for this camp.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I don't know if they will let me take pictures of the players let alone the players with my kid!

The rest of the story goes as follows...

I walk into the commons of ONW and see Cole and Tyrel sitting at a table selling camp t-shirts and signing a few things for kids who, you know, actually paid to be there.  I think to myself, "I just can't walk up there.  I will look like such a weirdo.  I will just go back to the weight room, get my t-shirts and be on my merry way.  At least I got to see them up close and personal.  That's good enough".  As I am walking away I hear a lady ask if she can take her son's picture with the boys.  Ok, here's my chance!  I back that train up in reverse and do the same thing.  Who can resist a one year old with a KU t-shirt on?  I mean, please. 

I first ask Tyrel is very nicely agrees and tries to get Everett to smile at him.  No luck.  Everett is hanging onto me like a monkey.  I say, "Don't worry about it, you can hold him," as I seriously pry Everett off my hip and basically throw him at Tyrel.  Then Cole walks up behind him and grabs Everett out of Tyrel's hands.  Now Everett hears all the boys in the gym dribbling so he is screaming, I mean screaming, "B Ball!  B Ball!" and pointing wide eyed at all the kids.  Cole says to him, "You're gonna play basketball!  You're a stud!" OH-EM-GEE, I kid you not.  You can see in the picture that Cole is facing a different direction because Everett was basically trying to claw his way over Cole's shoulder to see the boys playing basketball.  I love it!  Everett is starting a little collection of KU pictures and his parent's could not be prouder.