Sweet Things

Lately I am obsessed with making desserts.  Sugar cookies with royal icing, decorative cakes...etc.  I made a few batches of sugar cookies for my niece's birthday and for my ballet teacher's baby shower.

The baby onsie cookies were a hit.  So then I was asked to make a cake for my ballet teacher's shower as well.  Having only made one "fancy" cake in my lifetime I decided I needed to practice first!  3 boxes of white cake mix, 12 egg whites, and alot of wisking later I had a nice 11 x 15 sheet cake.  I decorated it to look like a baby blanket. 

The best news?  It actually tasted awesome.  The cake didn't rise a lot so it left it dense like pound cake, which I like....and the homemade buttercream was delicious!



Baby Boy :o)

About two weeks ago my friend Katie and I decided we wanted to learn how to decorate sugar cookies with royal icing.  You know the ones.  Cute little cut out designs with perfect icing on top.  So far I have made pumpkins, and cupcakes for my niece's birthday.  My ballet teacher Donna, is expecting a baby boy in January so I wanted to put my new cookie-making skills to work and create a sweet treat for her.   These cookies are not difficult once you learn the basic technique, but they can be time consuming.  Since Ben and I decided we were allowed to be lazy on this Fall Saturday, I thought cookie-decorating would be a great way to spend the afternoon.

I use a really basic sugar cookie recipe that my family has used for as long as I can remember.  I like them because they aren't that sweet by themselves, so the royal icing compliments them nicely.

 Outline the cookies first, then "flood" them with thinned out icing.

 Ben demonstrating how to make use of a "Lazy Saturday"  :o)

I hope Donna likes her baby-onsie cookies!

Food Blogs

Thanks to Miriam and Katie, I recently discovered food blogs.  Where have I been??!!  One reason I love food blogs is because I'm a huge fan of a recipe with a photo to go along with it.  This is why I've never been a fan of cookbooks.  There might be a photo along with every 10th recipe or so, and I'm way more inclined to want to cook something if I can see how it looks.  It can be really hard to visualize a dish based on it's title and ingredient list alone.  On the food blogs, there is a photo with every single dish posted.  My two favorite blogs so far are linked below.  One is weight watchers friendly too, which is awesome.  On that blog you can even search for recipes by their designated points value.  Happy Browsing!  Oh...and happy cooking too!

http://annies-eats.com/

http://www.skinnytaste.com/

Look who's 3

I have never had nieces before, and according to my brother I probably never will.  Luckily, Ben has two beautiful nieces who I now get to call my own.  Katherine turned 3 yesterday on the 13th, and baby sister Elizabeth (Libby) turns 1 on the 22nd.  I am sending them a present plus homemade cookies in the mail.  Happy birthday sweet baby girls!!

Stuffed Peppers!

I was actually kind of amazed at how simple this recipe is, but how intricate it looks (and tastes!!)

What you need for two servings:
2 large green bell peppers
1/2 cup uncooked Arborio rice
1 cup water
2 Tbs olive oil
3 green onions sliced thin
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp italian seasoning
1 tsp salt
1 tomato diced
pinch of ground black pepper

Preheat Oven to 400 and cut peppers in half (clean out inside of seeds).  Roast peppers cut side down on a greased baking sheet for about 25 minutes.  (should start to brown slightly)

Bring 1 cup water to a boil, add rice, cook, and set aside.

Heat olive oil. Saute onions, salt & pepper, italian seasoning, and basil for about 5 minutes.  Add diced tomato, rice, and feta.  Stir together and let cook over low heat a few more minutes to let the flavors blend.

Spoon mixture into peppers and serve immediately!

A Little About Me

I have lived in the same town since I was 18 months old and plan on photographing all the places I love about this town in the next year.  My fiance Ben and I will be moving in the next 2 years to a place yet to be determined.  Ben is currently a 3rd year medical student and is also in the army (West Point grad!  Go Army!)

There are 6 military residencies available and we're not sure where we'll end up.  The options are Hawaii (sweet!), Washington State, San Antonio or El Paso Texas, Washignton DC, and Georgia.  We're kind of hoping for San Antonio.  Yee Haw!  I think I could get used to the cowboy boot look!

I spent 6 years as a nurse at Brenner Children's Hospital and three of those years were spent commuting back and forth to UNC-Chapel Hill for graduate school.  I graduated from UNC with my Pediatric Nurse Practitoner degree.  Now I'm loving my job as a PNP at a practice here in my home town.

Ben and I got engaged in May and have our wedding planned for May 29, 2011.  We live with our furry children Sebastian, Malayah, and Knightly Gray.

New to blogging

I'm not sure why it took me this long to decide blogging was a pretty cool thing.  I have always loved cooking and sharing recipes, and taking great pictures.  I also love having a way to keep up with my friends and family, and share what's going on in my life with them as well.  I was completely inspired my by friend Miriam's blog.  I think this will be a place for me to share my cooking successes, my wedding planning updates, my photography, and the life and times of my three adorable pets.  So here I go!

ps - Thanks Mir for letting me steal ALL your good ideas :o)