I love books–and a giveaway!

I love books.  Josh thinks I love them a little too much.  Luckily, I have been able to refrain from buying too many lately, although I tend to check out way more than I can read each time I go to the library.
Today I bought my heart out.  I had so much fun.
I read a blog called Scotty Boy & Katy Girl.  It was Katy’s birthday this week and to celebrate with all of her blog-reading friends, she is hosting a giveaway.  The best part of this giveaway is that to enter, you need to donate a book (or 2, or 3, or….)
Each children’s book donated will be sent to a hospital through the Joyful Life Library project.
Here is what I donated, along with a few others that wouldn’t fit in the widget:

Can you tell I LOVE Little Critter and Richard Scarry?  Those were some of my favorite books when I was little.
To see all the details of donations (and prizes), head over to the blog and celebrate with Katy:


Happy reading and happy giving!

Wedding Weekend

My big sister got married on May 7.  Remember this cake?  It was for her wedding.  We changed a number of the details and came up with a cake that was perfect for her and her sweetie.  I take that back…we came up with A LOT of cakes that were perfect.
Here’s a quick view of the fun.

Mulry Wedding VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

In all, there were nine flavors of cake.  Seven of those were prepared by the aunts (bakers) and sisters (decorators).  Two of the flavors were baked by another aunt.  This cake buffet was definitely an act of love. 
May 7 was also Kentucky Derby day, so we had some Derby fun at the wedding.  Many ladies wore their finest hats.  We had a lot of fun in the prep hours and a ton of fun at the event.
Congrats Crystal and Bill!

Stash Increase

One of our local quilting stores had a fat quarter sale on Saturday so I headed over there for a little fun.  I was at the store last week and and a good idea of some of the fabrics I wanted to purchase.  I didn’t reach my fq limit, but I did get close.  Look at the great pieces I found:


No pictures of the fat quarters in action, although I did work with them on Saturday afternoon.  I have 2 new quilt tops cut out and will work on putting them together this week.  Below is a sneak peek at one of my favorite in-progress quilts.  I love the lilac fabric!


Happy Sewing!

Getting Ready for a Wedding

One of my favorite sisters is getting married in a few weeks and my other favorite sister and I are making the cakes.  Crystal has chosen a cake buffet with a few different flavors of cake.  The centerpiece of the table will be a cake like this one – it represents the love of nature that Crystal and Bill share.  They spend lots of time at parks and Crystal loves photographing wildflowers, so this natural cake is a perfect touch for them.  Bill also took Crystal to a state park to propose!
It’s been a while since I’ve made a sculpted cake, so I need to practice.  This one is pretty easy to sculpt, but covering it in fondant is not as easy.  Luckily I have a few more weeks to practice.
Crystal drew inspiration for this cake from this photo, which can be found on the Cupcake Envy web site.

Below is a photo journey of my afternoon.
  Cakes are baked, cooled, and have amaretto simple sugar on them.
Cakes are stacked and trimmed so the sides are flush.
I think a basket of flowers would make a nice cake also.
The half-finished cake with chocolate fondant on it.  Next time I will put even less buttercream under the fondant.  It looks a bit puffy here.
  The finished cake.  I made the grass and flowers out of fondant as well.  Crystal and Bill’s initials are inside the heart and since the top seemed so empty, I drew in the tree rings also.

The Basics Charity Challenge

I donate to various community organizations on a regular basis.  My favorite place to donate material items is the Home of the Innocents.  I got connected with this organization shortly after I moved here - 6+ years ago already!  I volunteered for a short time, but with a major change in my work, I couldn’t guarantee being able to be there on a set schedule, which was necessary for my volunteer position so I stopped volunteering.   I never stopped donating, though.
I donate everything from clothes, to personal needs, to art supplies, and I feel good knowing that what I donate is used by the children at the center.  Look here for a list of their current needs.
Today’s post isn’t about the Home of the Innocents, though.  It’s about a post I saw while blog surfing on my sick day.  Yes, the teacher finally took a sick day.  I’m actually on day two of being out of school, having been sick all weekend.   What better way to recuperate than to read blogs and help other people???
Cara over at CaraQuilts, has a great post HERE about her pull to donate to a local shelter.  I can’t write it better than her, so please read her post.

As I read her post, I thought about how often I donate to HOTI, and how often I don’t donate to other locations.  There is a shelter very near my school that serves many families, including some of my own students.  I volunteered at the shelter on a community-wide volunteering day a few years ago, but I had never donated anything there.  CHANGE THAT!  This is an organization that helps my own students and their families.  How can I not help them?  I promptly sent a donation through their web site and will have a donation of wish-list items for them as soon as I get over this bug that’s hanging on.
I’m offering you the same challenge.  Drive past a local shelter.  Check their web site.  Give them a call.  Find out what they need.  Donate something.  Help those around us. You can do it, and I bet you’ll have fun doing it.
Happy Giving,

Scotch Cookies

I have been patiently waiting for our photographer to let us know our wedding pictures are ready so I can add them to the blog, but we haven’t heard a thing from her!  Her contract says it could take up to 90 days since this is the busy season, and we’ve just barely past 30 days, so it could be a long wait. 
Today’s photo and recipe are the Scotch cookies from our wedding.  These were a must-have as they are a family favorite on my mom’s side of the family.  It’s a tradition (or should I say a requirement) to make them the same way every time.  My mom did deviate in one way this time—she made them in hearts instead of circles.  Even the fork-poke holes in the top of the cookie must be made the same way when making our cookies.  When you bake, though, do whatever design you want!

Scotch Cookies

½ pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ pound light brown sugar
¾ pound flour (most of)
Cream butter with brown sugar. Add ½ pound flour; blend well. Add enough of the remaining flour to make a firm dough.
Roll out ¼ inch thick; cut one test cookie and bake 7-10 minutes at 350º until very light brown. Compare to cookie cutter; if bigger, add more flour. If same size, proceed with remaining dough.

Related articles by Zemanta

• A Taste of Scotland: A Recipe for Scottish Shortbread (trifter.com)
• Scotland, as seen on a shortbread tin (independent.co.uk)

 

Wedding Fun

Josh and I have been married for almost a month and we are still celebrating.  We have one more gathering this weekend where we will celebrate with Wisconsin friends and family.  After that, I will begin to post stories and recipes from the wedding.
Between the wedding, reception, family gatherings, and honeymoon, we have eaten well and enjoyed spending extra time with special people for a whole month! 

The Beginning of Another Adventure

June 17 is a special day for us.  Two years ago today, our friend Rebecca asked the fateful question "Can I give him your email address?"  Two days from today, Josh and I will get married.
We took a break from house renovating and wedding preparations to go on a date tonight.  We left the families at home and went out for an evening alone.  Josh had planned to take me to Buck’s for my birthday.  That night, instead, we went to Amici with my family since my mom was in town.  Tonight we finally made it to Buck’s.

I love you, Josh.

An Engagement Dinner

My friend, Madonna, at A Mommy Talks posted this activity, which is currently floating among bloggers.  I actually read about the activity on Rachael’s page, so go visit her also.
Here are the directions:

1. Go to your photo files, select the 8th photo folder.
2. Select the 8th photo in that folder.
3. Post that photo along with the story behind it.
4. Then challenge 8 blogging friends to do the same!

Here’s what I found:

What a great memory.  This was our unofficial engagement dinner.  Josh had proposed while we were relaxing at the hotel in Split and we were on a mission to find a souvenir of the trip—the engagement ring.  We made our way down the coast through all the little towns, looking for a jewelry store.  We stopped for dinner in Marina and hoped to enjoy an evening on the patio.  We were able to watch people setting up for a concert/political event.  As we sat at the restaurant eating our food, it started to rain so we finished inside.  Oh, how the owner rushed to get us inside quickly!  We were the only people there so we got great service. 
After that, we carefully made our way back out of Marina—no easy task, being right on the coast, with narrow roads full of cars and people headed to the evening’s event, water on our right, and hills and houses on our left—and went to Trogir where we didn’t find a ring, but we did find awesome gelato and a concert.
A few highlights from that trip can be found here.  You’ll notice the only highlights I chose to talk about were food-related.  We loved the food on that trip!
I’m not tagging anyone for this activity, but I’d love to see your 8th picture!

I’ve been adopted!

My last post introduced a new ‘activity’ I am participating in.  One evening back in January, I was surfing food blogs, gathering inspiration to continue working on my blog, and looking for yummy recipes to try.  I came across this post at Dine and Dish.  I was interested in the idea.  I commented on the post, stating that by the rules I would be an experienced blogger, but felt I am still very much a newbie.
I was paired up with Deanna, from Occasional Sugar.  I mentioned her in my last post where I also described the adoption process.  The night I posted I was supposed to be doing some online PD, not reading her blog, so I wrote very little.  Since then, I have sifted through her many posts and found that we are quite similar in many ways.  I’ll leave it to you to read her blog and find those similarities.  Deanna said she also still feels like a newbie so we are working through the mentoring process together, helping each other continue to learn and grow in blogging abilities.
While I was reading some of her posts on Tuesday, I was also baking.  A few teachers at school had requested cupcakes for Wednesday and I wanted to try another vanilla recipe for the wedding.  Josh knew I would be baking cupcakes so he requested chocolate.  How could I turn him down?
I turned to Deanna’s blog for inspiration and found what appears to be her favorite chocolate cake recipe.  A match made in heaven…or my kitchen.  Josh wants chocolate cake and she has chocolate cake!  I promptly made these cupcakes:

Josh and I didn’t like the flavor of these cupcakes as much as another chocolate recipe I found, but they were quite good.  The teachers at school gave them rave reviews.
I am looking forward to the next few months of blogging and learning with Deanna.
Emily's Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake
from Occasional Sugar
2 cups sifted flour
1 cup sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
3 Tbsp cocoa
1 cup cold water
1 cup mayo
1 tsp vanilla
Sift together the dry ingredients.
Add 1 cup cold water, 1 cup mayonnaise and 1 tsp vanilla.
Beat until well combined.
Bake in 8 x 8 x 2” pan, 30 – 45 min. at 350.
Double ingredients for 9 x 13” pan. Bake 50 – 60 minutes.
(325 for glass pans)

Another new experience: Adopt-a-blogger

I’m always up for new experiences and I’ve found a good one.  I was reading Dine and Dish one day and stumbled upon a post about adopting a new blogger to mentor them through a few months of food blogging.
I left my comment stating that I’d love to be mentored even though I technically qualified to be a mentor.  I’m certainly not experienced even though I’ve been on here for a while.  I recently received a message from my new buddy Deanna from Occasional Sugar.   Interestingly, she had also ‘signed up’ to be mentored, not to be a mentor.  We’ve decided that we’ll mentor each other through the next few months and see where we end up. 
Now, since it’s a school night and tomorrow is a very busy day, I must sign off.  In the next few days I’ll post a little more about Deanna, and hopefully give an update on what’s been going on in my kitchen. 
As I go, I’ll leave you with this post from Occasional Sugar.
She says:

Most of you probably know that I am getting married this year and most of you have probably figured out that I am planning on baking cupcakes to serve at this massive event. There has been a lot of talking but not a whole lot of baking going on and I'm starting to get anxious.

…does anyone see the similarities between me and Deanna already?  This could be a fun couple of months.

Coupon Binder Giveaway

Super Jenn is offering another cool giveaway.

She is offering a coupon binder.  I’ve been pondering possibilities and working on my own couponing skills (my best was saving 48% on a grocery trip), but haven’t gotten up to a binder for organization yet.  How wonderful would it be to have someone give you the binder?  I just can’t seem to find the time to work on that project for myself.  What a jump-start that would be!
Visit Jenn here for details on the giveaway:
http://www.superjenn.com/coupon-binder-giveaway-2/

Blog update in progress

I am trying to increase my blogging abilities…writing, photographing, posting, layout settings, etc…  Please bear with me as this blog goes through some changes in the coming days and weeks.
If you have any suggestions about learning to blog, please feel free to share them.
Thank you,
allison


thoughts of spring on another chilly snow day…

~ Love on a Snowy Day ~

Winter in Louisville means an occasional snow day.  On the first lucky day in February, I decided to make blueberry muffins.  While Josh headed outside to shovel my drive and uncover my car, I headed to the kitchen to make breakfast for us.

Yes, the muffins are heart-shaped.  I have the regular and mini Wilton silicone pans.  I’m still trying to decide if I like them.  While muffins always bake well in them, the pans are terrible to clean.  I’ve followed many tips for using them, including baking with and without non-stick spray.  Either way, I cannot get the muffins to come out in one piece and I always have a tough time getting the spray gunk off the pans after.  Anyone have any suggestions (other than throwing the pans away and going back to my regular metal muffin pans)?
I had blueberries in the freezer that I chose to use in these muffins.  Instead of letting them thaw, I threw the frozen berries into the batter and they promptly froze the batter.  It was a little difficult to evenly fill the muffin pans, but I liked that none of the berries got mushed while I was folding them into the batter.  They stayed fat and round, and looked wonderful in the hot muffins.
Here’s my favorite muffin recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

We Love Pancakes!

Last week The Most Awesome Kindergarten Teacher and The Most Awesome Librarian continued a collaboration project with The Most Awesome Kindergarten Class. We have been working on informational writing, specifically How-To stories. After the students wrote a story to teach me how to find a book in the library (thanks for the great idea Awesome Librarian), we decided to write a story teaching people how to make pancakes.

To begin our study, we read two books about making pancakes. One was Pancakes by Jan Pritchett, a book in our Rigby Literacy series. This was a great teaching tool because it is a wordless book so the students had to verbalize all parts of the story and couldn’t rely on the text.

The second book was Let’s Make Pancakes by Emma Rossi. This is a leveled reader also, one that I found in our school’s bookroom. This book had text to read and the steps were slightly different from the steps in the first book, so we were able to have a discussion to compare and contrast the two books, which added to the depth of literacy skills covered throughout the week.

After we studied both books, the students created their own ‘book’ by listing the pancake-making steps on separate pieces of paper, then reading through them and correcting the sequence of steps. They then matched pictures (Google Images and MS Word clip art are wonderful resources) to the steps to finish the pages.

As a culminating activity, The Most Awesome Teacher and Librarian used the students’ created directions to make pancakes—a true test to the accuracy of their work. We made it through an intruder drill and a tripped fuse in our power strip to make the pancakes during writing time.
Every student had a hand measuring ingredients so it was truly a class project. Take a look at these pictures to see our fun.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup shortening, melted

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine the egg, milk and shortening; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
2. Pour batter by 1/4 cupful onto a greased hot griddle. Turn when bubbles form on top of pancakes; cook until the second side is golden brown.

Happy Birthday, Janelle!

Janelle attended Wyatt's birtday party last fall and loved his cake. Her birthday was shortly after his and she wanted something similar. Since her favorite color is pink and she loves the Disney princesses, I created this cake for her.

Happy Birthday, Wyatt!

Wyatt turned 3 this month. Amy asked for a cake...no specifications. I love that!
I'd wanted to do a rainbow cake for a while and it seemed like the perfect thing for a 3-year-old. I had no idea that the party was going to be a carnival. Amy had no idea that the cake was going to be colorful. It made for a great surprise when they cut into it.

May Food Fun

I missed the Daring Bakers challenge in May, but I have a very good excuse.

Josh was home on leave and thought it would be a good idea to hit the road...and the water...and the air. We'd been dreaming of a trip to Croatia for months, and this was the right time.

Josh came to visit my school on his first Friday in town. We were talking with another teacher after dismissal about what we would be doing while he was on leave. His response to her questions was, "We are going to elope to Croatia...start the rumor." Little did I know that we were really going to go. One desperate phone call explaining the change in plans to my mother and a quick online search later, and we had ourselves 2 tickets to Split. WOW!
Only half of the rumor is true, though. We did go to Croatia, but we didn't get married.

Yes, we did consider it.

Here are some of the highlights from that trip...you'll notice a theme in all these pictures...we like to eat.

Our first night in Split. Josh ordered a seafood plate and I ordered scampi. I got a kabob. Not wanting to be rude, I kept it and we worked our way through both dishes. As we were finishing, the waiter came by and said, "Your scampi will be right out." Wait a minute!!?? What? Yes, I got the scampi after the kabob. We were confused and stuffed after that dinner.
 
 
The mountaintop winery: 
* Prosciutto with sheep's cheese
* Lentils and lamb 
* 'Pancake' with walnut spread
  

During our drive down to Dubrovnik we stopped at a roadside stand and found strawberries! They were small and juicy and quite possibly better than any strawberries I've had in Wisconsin. We also bought a bag of oranges, and after much prodding by the eager saleslady, a bottle of blackberry brandy. We also tried the olive oil…on our skin. :)
 
 
Dinner in Marina: 


Gelato in Trogir:

 
Eating pistachio and tiramisu gelato...or was it kiwi and coffee gelato? We went twice that night.

Lunch at Luna Cafe (right next to Pink Cafe) 
 
* scampi
* mussels in white wine
* Bitter Lemon
* brochette with fresh mozzarella

We saved the best for last. This was our final dinner in Croatia, at a little roadside restaurant on the way back to Split.