Simple Girl

I became passionate about black and white photography after receiving my first Ansel Adams calendar in high school.  I love how black and white erases the clutter and, instead, draws the viewer into contrast and texture and light. This photo of my niece, Sherah, and her husband, Andy, was taken at their wedding on the Oregon coast.  Surrounded by majestic rock and harsh waters, their solid embrace holds a future of promise that will withstand all that life throws their way. The June day was windy and cold.  Who knew that this pragmatic bride, never flinching, wore long underwear under her gorgeous gown?

Every year before their Thanksgiving Feast, the second grade class reads a book called Knots On A Counting Rope by Bill Martin and John Archembault.  The book is about a Native American boy who requests his favorite story from his grandfather --- the story of the special night when the boy came into the world.  Though born blind, the boy learns many ways to see without needing his eyes.  Each time the Grandfather tells the boy's tale, he adds another knot to the counting rope.  Once the rope is full, the boy will know the wonderful story by heart and will be able to tell it himself. After the children have heard the story, the parents are invited to the class to tell a story of their child.  Here is my humorous and sentimental story of Arielle. Photo by Ken Rada When Arielle was born, we knew we had our hands full.   She was the child that made me wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and say, “I’m the mom, I can do this!”   It wa...

Sweet potatoes have never been a Thanksgiving tradition in our house, but now that we are "Southerners", I thought it would be fun to incorporate this root vegetable into our family feast.  These Candied Sweet Potato Cupcakes, from Martha Stewart's Cupcake book are a take on the famous southern side dish, complete with a marshmallow and candied pecan topping! My first step in tackling these cupcakes was to simplify the recipe!  Rather than roasting sweet potatoes specifically for these cupcakes,  I opted for canned sweet potato puree.  While I'm sure that homemade roasted sweet potatoes would be even more delicious than the canned version - my family will never know! Thanksgiving break is a great time to incorporate the little bakers.  Cracking the eggs (into a separate cup, please!) seems to be the favorite task! I made a few more substitutions in the recipe including the use of white whole wheat flour and substituting one stick of butter for 1/2 cup of ...

When I was growing up in the midwest, we would wake up on a winter morning and say, "I hope it snows, today!"  Now, that we live in the south, my kids say, "I hope it snows this year!"  The girls' older sister, Anna, came up with the idea of paper snowflakes for this week's I Heart Faces theme:  Paper! For more great photos, visit I Heart Faces !

Our Annual Oreo Turkey making all began eight years ago when Samuel was in kindergarten.  Still unaware of the overachieving alpha room-mom type, I naively volunteered to bring dessert to the kindergarten Thanksgiving Party.  In my mind I was thinking, "Two-dozen grocery store cupcakes?"  The room mom had other ideas.  "Why don't you search the internet for some cute Thanksgiving dessert ideas?  Maybe you could make something that looks like a turkey?"  Eight years ago, I had a 5-year old, a 2-year old and a baby.  I showed up to school parties with a double stroller and a diaper bag.  I barely knew what the internet was!  My competitive nature, however, spurred me on and I came across these adorable Oreo Turkeys. Thus began my journey into food crafts and, perhaps, makes me now a little guilty of being a slightly overachieving room-mom type myself.  In any case, eight years later, I think I have these turkeys down to a science ...

When Anna said she wanted an "Art Party" for her 10th Birthday, I knew these cupcakes were just the ticket.  Who says beautiful has to be complicated?  Simple chocolate cupcakes (in my new brown glassine paper liners !) topped with 7 different colors of icing.  How easy is that?  The idea for these Artist's Palette cupcakes came from the latest addition to my cupcake cookbook library, What's New, Cupcake? by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.  The edible paint brush is made from a breadstick, three rolled out and fringed Tootsie Rolls and a red Fruit Roll Up. Ten grown-up girls enjoyed an evening of painting, munching and giggling. In addition to their masterpieces, each girl went home with a bound journal.  I was fortunate enough to find these for $1.00 at Michael's with each of the girls' initials!  I tucked a King-sized Hershey's bar behind them, bagged them in cellophane and tied them with a black and white polka-dotted ribbon. HAPPY 10TH ...

I wasn't actually planning to participate in today's I Heart Faces challenge.  I had no silhouette photos up my sleeve.  I've been housebound for several days with a sick little girl and the forecast has been nothing but rain.  On the way to the bathtub, however, I came across this little sweet inspiration.   Even the rain has a silver lining...

With Thanksgiving parties galore just around the corner, this month I selected Marshmallow Turkey Cupcakes for the Martha Stewart Cupcake Club.  These cupcakes, looking so adorable in the glossy cookbook photo were fun, but slightly difficult to make.   The cupcake base started with Martha's One Bowl Chocolate Cupcake recipe.  Being the master of shortcuts that I am, I was thrilled to see a recipe that actually gave me permission to dump everything together!  It reminded me of an old recipe my Grandma used to make called "Crazy Cake".  She took it one step further and mixed it right in the 9X13" pan! The recipe called for brown cupcake liners.  I found these glassine brown paper liners here  and I love them!  They are a bit heavier and less transparent than standard liners and give the cupcake a nice base.  Shipping was a little expensive, so I decided it would be better to buy more !  (300 to be exact!)  I'm sure you will be s...

It's my kids' most requested Birthday treat - the homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie cake!  Easy to make and tastier than store bought, this cake starts out with my basic Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough 1 1/3 cups butter or shortening (I like Earth Balance for less saturated fat) 1 cup sugar 1 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 2  tsp vanilla 3 cups flour (I use white whole wheat flour) 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 2 cups chocolate chip Blend butter and sugar and beat until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Beat until light and fluffy again.  Add flour, baking soda and salt.  Beat until well mixed.  The dough will be stiff.  Add chocolate chips and combine with a spoon. For the cookie cake, line a 1/2 sheet cake pan with parchment paper.  I did this gleefully this morning.  I have owned this 1/2 sheet cake pan for five years, but this is the first time (thanks to a kitchen facelift that included a new 30" oven!) t...

A friend referred me to this great website called I Heart Faces .  The purpose of the site is to encourage the photography of beautiful and unique faces.  Every week they have a different photo challenge theme and photographers are invited to submit a photo!  Now, I am not a professional photographer - just a mom with a camera.  I do have, however, four beautiful faces (six if you include the husband and the dog!) that I love to photograph. This week's photo challenge was Orange!  Here, my daughter, Arielle, sits in the pumpkin patch.  No need to carve a pumpkin when you have your own Jack-O-Lantern smile!

After a month of listening to, "MOM, when can we get our pumpkins?" I looked at the calendar and it said - OCTOBER 30th!  Where had the month gone? TIME TO GET THE PUMPKINS! Fortunately, it was a perfect day for the big hunt. A perfect day to just be outside! It was a perfect day.... ... to find the perfect pumpkin!

When Anna's fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Harris, had the fun idea to wrap up their Native American studies with student presentations and a party with Native American foods, cupcakes were not the first thing that came to mind.  Then I found these fabulous cupcakes in the book Hello, Cupcake! by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.  What could be more Native to America than corn? These easy to make, albeit a little putsy, cupcakes really come to life with the addition of little, shiny Jelly Bellys! To make, simply start with plain vanilla cupcakes and frost with icing, tinted a pale yellow. Arrange about 5 rows of jelly beans, close together on each cupcake.  I bought roughly two pounds - 1 1/2 pounds of yellow (pina colada) and 1/2 pound of white with yellow specks (buttered popcorn - not my favorite flavor, but all that Publix had!) To finish, place 3 cupcakes side by side and insert one corn holder in each end of the cupcakes.  For butter pats, soften a starbu...