chris' bday cupcakes

i really wish this was on my desk right now.


vanilla cupcakes with mocha buttercream frosting and COCONUT! i was going to post the frosting recipe but i guess i can't find it.
sad.

silver plume tea room

saturday ashley and i took gma to the silver plume tea room to celebrate her bday. roxy read about it in one of her magazines so of course we had to check it out. it was the cutest place and the food and tea were so good. the town itself only has about 180 residents but it has the coolest houses, all painted in bright colors with lots of wildflowers growing all over.

i opened my front door this morning to put my netflix movie in the mailbox and found a lovely bowl of tomatoes from my neighbor! i decided i'm going to give her one of my homemade ice cream sandwiches as a thank you. the cookies for the sandwiches are chocolate white chocolate chip. for the ice cream i just used the ben and jerry's french vanilla recipe. so yummy! here's the cookie recipe i used from foodnetwork.com.
Chocolate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Copyright 2001 Barefoot Contessa Parties!

1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup good unsweetened cocoa
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 pounds good white chocolate, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream the butter and 2 sugars until light and fluffy in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the vanilla, then the eggs, 1 at a time, and mix well. Add the cocoa and mix again. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt and add to the chocolate with the mixer on low speed until just combined. Fold in the chopped white chocolate.

Drop the dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, using a 1 3/4-inch ice cream scoop or a rounded tablespoon. Dampen your hands and flatten the dough slightly. Bake for exactly 15 minutes (the cookies will seem underdone). Remove from the oven and let cool slightly on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

hibernation

i can tell it's turning to fall because i'm in the mood to clean and clean out. i think i'm getting ready for winter hibernation. i cleaned out my pottery shelf on sunday. i have so many of the same size bowls! my intention was to put them all in a tote in the crawl space but roxy talked me into try to get as many out around the house as possible. i was able to save about 10 of them from a crawl space future and i gifted one at a bbq and i even threw one away! it had a bad bottom. sad.

corncob cupcakes

i've been wanting to make these corncob cupcakes for a while and when better than a labor day bbq. the "kernels" are different flavors of jelly belly's and the "butter" is a smooshed starburst. of course, in the magazine they had cute little corn plates that they set them on. i used a broiler pan. clever.

i was stung by a wasp on monday and apparently he had bacteria on his stinger and he gave me cellulitis. three trips to the doc, three shots and two prescriptions and i still look like this:



i wrote a story about the wasp. my friend angie thought the moral of the story was that i got an STD. ha!

once upon a time there was a dirty little wasp named harvey. harvey liked to stick his stinger in places he shouldn't, taking little to no precautions to keep his stinger clean. one night harvey had too many bee-tinis and became agressive for no apparent reason beyond being drunk and stung an innocent girl, we'll call her lucy, who was just trying to peacefully co-habitat with harvey and his unruly friends.
unbeknownst to harvey, lucy had an extravaganZZa(R) to attend but due to harvey's behavior, lucy was going to have to cancel.
maybe if harvey had known about lucy's plans he would have been more kind
to her but who knows.
we all know what happens when you have a dirty stinger and too many
bee-tinis.

thrift/art gallery finds from hazen

all of this came from the cute little art gallery in my town except the two little painting which are from the arc. i'm most excited about the typewriter. i've wanted an old one forever and it was only $12 and it works.

aprons!

the first one is a bday present for my friend brooke. (i hope she doesn't read this because her bday isn't until next week) it's reversible although in these two pics both sides sort of look the same. it's really really cute in person. i don't think these pics do it justice.
the second one i made for my friend angie. she loves gardening so we made her a garden apron.
thanks for the help roxy!

pics from nodak

the first pic is of our dinner guests on saturday night. we made indian tacos in honor of angie's bday...and also because i love them! i'm going to have indian taco night soon. second pic is nate's new el camino, which is very pretty but isn't working so well and the last is of my dad's pride and joy, which is parked in front of my mom's pride and joy-her grain bin gazebo.

crapload of family pics and pics from bday party

we've got the geurts clan in here as well as the andersons and the worst picture of geno ever. good times.
oh and my gma rocking my ridiculously high heeled shoes.