today is a special day, part two.

Reason number three today is a special day: It is my best friend's birthday.

My best friend, H, is completely amazing. She is one of the only people who 'gets' me and I am pretty sure that feeling goes in both directions. She is an amazing mother, a loving girlfriend, and the best friend a girl could ask for. We have had plenty of adventures, laughs, and cake eating... What is a best friend if you do not do your fair share of cake eating?!? Another bonus: I can order pizza without consulting her first because I know she is the only other person who likes pineapple on their pizza.

Ham, I hope you have the greatest, bestest, most wonderfullest birthday in the history of birthdays. I love you lots and lots and will see you later for a chow down which includes cake, duh.

{The perfect BFF: Posing with statues of bears with fruit on their heads.}

{The perfect BFF: Frequent concert going. Rascal Flatts, 2006.}

{Kenny Chesney, 2007}

{Kenny Chesney, 2007.}

{Brooks and Dunn, 2010.}

{The perfect BFF: Random selfies.}

{The perfect BFF: Holiday Parties.}

{The perfect BFF: Appreciating a good plate of nachos.}

{The perfect BFF: Feeding small hounds Doritos while drunk.}

{The perfect BFF: Resourcefulness when it comes to cake eating.}

{The perfect BFF: Frequent trips to one of your favorite places on earth.}

In honor of Hamson turing the big 2-7, I am sharing my favorite chocolate cake recipe courtesy of the Barefoot Contessa.

Ingredients:

Butter and flour for greasing the pan

1 3/4 cups all-pupose flour

2 cups sugar

3/4 cups cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup buttermilk*

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 extra-large eggs, room temperature**

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup of freshly brewed hot coffee***

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 8" round cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper.****

2. Combine all dry ingredients and mix in an electric mixer.

3. In a separate bowl, mix all wet ingredients with the exception of the coffee and add to dry mixture. Mix on a low speed until combine and then pour in your coffee. (The batter will be runny and that is absolutely okay, I promise.)

4. Pour into prepared pans and bake for 30-40 minutes.

5. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes than turn them out and let them completely cool on a wire rack.

6. Frost accordingly. :)

*In my opinion using the real deal buttermilk instead of the milk & vinegar or milk & lemon option makes it taste better.

**I have always used large eggs instead of extra-large eggs with this recipe and it always turns out great.

***Hot coffee is the key here so do not omit it! I promise you won't really be able to taste it and it brings out the chocolate flavor of the cake. (And that is coming from someone who is not a coffee fan.)

****This recipe can also be used for cupcakes. It will make roughly 2 dozen cupcakes. They should only bake for about 30 minutes, maybe even less. I baked them for 40 minutes and dried them out a little bit. :(

I have not found a chocolate frosting recipe that I am completely in love with yet. Today I am going to try Williams Sonoma chocolate buttercream recipe. It can be found here.

I'll update later with how that recipe turns out. 

And here's the update:

So the chocolate frosting recipe isn't too bad. Still not my fave but it was good for B's birthday bash. It is super duper sweet... Almost too sweet to use on chocolate cake. And, it makes a TON of frosting. I used the recipe to frost H's cupcakes and then froze the rest to frost B's cupcakes for his birthday and I still threw out like half of the frosting! I recommend cutting the recipe in half.

That being said, I am still on the hunt for good frosting recipes. If you have one please share it in the comments! 

today is a special day, part one.

Today is a very special day for three important reasons, therefore this post must be done in two posts because they deserve it! 

First, today was the day that B was originally due. He politely decline eviction and consequently was born five days later. I was just happy that he was finally out. So, happy almost-birthday B! 

Reason number two that today is a special day is that it is the day the hubs and I got hitched. It has been an exciting five years filled with love, caring, and understanding. It has been filled with adventures and its ups & downs and I would not trade it for anything. 

To celebrate, I am posting some of my fave S & N pics as well as some of my fave wedding pics.

{Engagement Pictures, 2008}

{San Francisco Trip, 2006-ish)

.

{Wedding, 2008}

{What a gorgeous group of people...}

{My favorite girls.}

{Brooks & Dunn, 2010. I was 20 weeks pregnant.}

Happy five years mister. I love you more than you will ever know. :)

On behalf of our anniversary I am going to share one of his favorite recipes: Garlic Chicken Pizza. I have to run out the door so i'll update this one later. Stay tuned....

lately through the camera roll

Forewarning: Since I have been gone so long this is going to be a little picture heavy... 

But, they are cute pictures. :)

{1. B at a hockey game looking rather studly.}

{2. Violet deciding that my head is a good place to sleep.}

{3. Typical small hound.}

{4. Mine & B's great thrift shop score.}

{5. Grumpy B at his friend's pirate themed birthday party.}

{6. The view in my rearview mirror a few weeks ago.}

{7. Target fun.}

{8. Cutest sign holder ever.}

{9. Two of my fave guys.}

{10. My first freshly picked flower from B.}

{11. B after a late night of partying.}

{12. Beach Day.}

{13. Backseat (well drivers seat) drivers.}

{14. I just found this... I am pretty sure B took this of my BFF.}

{15. Lil.}

{16. Morning with Big Tim.}

{17. Apparently pizza dough on your eye is fun.}

{18. Late night dinner with the coolest kid I know.}

{19. Me & B.}

{20. Catching the Octonauts at the mall.}

{21. B's first Subway sandwich...}

it's been a while...

So, it's been a while since I last posted. 

The pups are great, as is B and the rest of us.

The hubs and I took a pretty amazing trip to Costa Rica and then came home to some pretty sad stuff going on. I went back to school and that leads to the present.

There are lots of fun things coming up, like B starting teeny tiny tot soccer and his third birthday. Lots of yummy recipes coming your way and some DIY projects i'd love to share.

So stay tuned. :)

{the gorgeous print above is available at www.thepaintedarrow.com}

turkey-loaf cupcakes

As of lately we have been trying to eat better and limit our eating out to once a week.... Which is a very difficult task for me because my family eats out ALL THE TIME. The hubs has it a little bit easier because his mom is Martha Stewart in the flesh and blood and made him meals three times a day when he was growing up. Along with our eating-better goal, I have limited my meat intake to just chicken and turkey. It's just a personal choice, plus I feel a lot better when I don't eat red meats or pork. My husband still eats other meats and so does my son, but they are kind of forced on the limited-meat diet because I am the cook in our household.

Tonight, I made turkey-loaf cupcakes. They were soooooooo good. I tried cooking with ground turkey once making turkey burgers and I did not like them, but this recipe is a total keeper. It's a modified version of the Six Sisters' Stuff Meatloaf Cupcakes recipe so if you want to make it with ground beef check out that recipe... But the turkey ones are pretty good. :)

Turkey-loaf Cupcakes
1/2 of a large yellow onion
2 celery stalks
2 carrots
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 garlic cloves (the original recipe calls for 2, I used 3 small cloves)
1/2 cup of ketchup
1 1/4 pound of extra lean ground turkey
1 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
2 tablespoons of mustard
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 eggs

For the Glaze:
1 cup of ketchup
1 heaping tablespoon of brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon of dry mustard

For the Mashed Potatoes:
3 large russet potatoes
1/2-1 cup milk
1/2-1 cup sour cream
1 stick of butter
garlic powder, pepper, and sea salt to season

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

2. Put onion, carrot, celery, oregano, and garlic into a food processor until chopped to your liking. Personally, I am not a huge fan of super chunky meat loaf, so my veggies get a really good chopping. While the veggies are going in the processor, put the olive oil in a skillet to heat up. After the oil is heated through your veggies in there and give them a good sauté.

3. Combine the sautéed veggies, 1/2 cup of ketchup, and remaining ingredients into a bowl and give it a good mixing.

4. Combine the ingredients for the glaze in a small separate bowl and stir until the brown sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

5. Spray a cupcake pan with vegetable oil spray and scoop the meat mixture into the cups. Make sure you are completely filling the cups. After the cups are filled, glaze the tops of the meat with the ketchup glaze. Pop them in the oven for about a half an hour or so.

6. While the turkey-loaf cakes are in the oven, bring a pot of water to a boil. Peel and cut up potatoes and boil them for about 20 minutes.

7. When the potatoes are soft remove them from the heat and drain out the water. Add the rest of the mashed potato ingredients and mix either by hand or by electric mixer.

8. When the the turkey loaf cakes are done, carefully remove them from the pan and then scoop some mashed potatoes on them. If you want to get super fancy-pants you can put mashed potatoes in a pastry bag and make your mashed potatoes look like frosting.

9. ENJOY! :)

Note: I chose mashed potatoes because I had some russet potatoes that needed to be eaten. Mashed sweet potatoes would probably be a good choice as well.



After I made them, and B & his dad devoured them, I went to put the left overs in the fridge. I have no idea what exactly I did, but my clumsiness got the best of me and the pups scored big time!

{Guess they thought they were pretty yummy too!}

{B wanted his picture taken once I took a picture of the pups.}

our week through the camera roll

Last week was pretty uneventful, but I caught some cute shots with my iPhone. :)

Enjoy!

{This is what happens when I try to lay on the couch.}

{I think B was watching Elmo... How cute are his doggie boxers?!}

{Violet is not a burrower... She uses pillows for blankets.}

{I made some new pillow covers for the couch in my front room.}

{I swear Vi sleeps in the most random spots. Here she is on the arm rest of the couch.}

{B & I on our way to my parents' 70's themed party}

{Us at the end of the night... It was super hot out.}

{I snaked my mom's party afro. It kinda matched my real hair.}

{How great is this print?! Totally wanted it but it was $150... On sale!}