Simple Girl

Perhaps the most anticipated event of the year - The Daddy-Daughter Dance.  This is the night where tomboys transform into princesses and the man of their dreams sweeps them off their feet.  I'm so proud of my husband for being the perfect Prince Charming to our three little princesses.  I'm so proud of him for modeling what a perfect gentleman should be.  I'm so proud of him for having the stamina to endure three relentless hours of 80's music, the electric slide and Justin Bieber! As one by one he carried our girls up to bed last night, I can still see Ella, fast asleep in his arms, clenching her single pink rose - a magical night, indeed! Find more Daddy-Daughter photos here !

Today I had the opportunity to use both my cookie cutters and my camera.  Life just doesn't get much better!  The occasion?  Second grade Revolutionary War Day.   I love these special presentation days at school and Revolutionary War Day is no exception.  First of all, I get to bake!  Look at this giant platter of perfect little iced two-bite star cookies.  You just can't get more patriotic than that.  I used my secret freezer stash of Pillsbury Sheet Cookie Dough and cut out nearly 100 stars from two packages.  What I love about these sheets is that the cookies turn out perfectly every time!  No big, puffy, lop-sided stars!  I topped them with Wilton's glossy cookie icing.  This is truly the perfect cookie icing.  It hardens enough for stacking, but doesn't get that break-your-teeth crunch like Royal Icing does.  The red stars were frosted with the icing that came with the cookies.  As you can see, they are not...

Another page in my journey through the Martha Stewart Cupcakes book, these should technically be called Creme Filled Standard-Sized Cupcakes.  This is not because I don't own a jumbo sized cupcake pan (I do), but because I was serving them to a class of second graders.  The occasion happened to be the second grade teacher's birthday, and I decided it would be no present to her if I gave all the kids jumbo sized cupcakes! Trying to be a studious baker, I dirtied two bowls - one for wet and one for dry ingredients.  I added extra cocoa powder after reading comments that the recipe didn't seem chocolate-y enough. Here's the combined batter. -  and 24 four standard-sized cupcakes (vs. 12 jumbo). The cupcake batter was heavy and resulted in a crackly top. To fill the cupcakes, carve out the top and fill.  Replace the top. Martha's recipe simply had a marshmallow creme  topping swirled on top.  I added an extra layer of chocolate frosting (sh...

My interpretation of this week's challenge lies somewhere between Innocent Wonder and Shock and Awe!  I don't know who was more surprised at the giant catch - My five year old daughter, Anna, or the 10-pound catfish!  We captured this shot with an old cell phone camera and retrieved it recently for Anna (now in fourth grade!) as she wrote a descriptive essay on this historic event in her life.  Her face in this photo tells it all. To read Anna's essay, just continue.   To jump to the comment form, scroll down to the bottom! To view more great photos, click iheartfaces ! My Ten Pound Catfish By Anna         I’ll never forget the time I caught a ten-pound catfish!  I was five years old when I went fishing with my dad, my sister, Arielle, and my brother, Samuel.  My dad drove the boat to our lucky spot.   I baited my hook with a nice big, fat, juicy, live night crawler.   My dad cast my line right under the ...

I was busy photographing my Black Forest Cupcakes when my six- and seven-year old girls came home from school after their Fun Friday Finale class.  They were all smiles, carrying cupcakes of their own.  "Mom, blog about our cupcakes!" they pleaded.  So, of course, I said YES! The class is called "Fancy Nancy".  During each class they read a Fancy Nancy book and then participate in a fun activity relating to the book.  On this particular day, they read  Fancy Nancy and the Delectable Cupcake  by Jane O'Connor.   With some satin ribbon and jewels, these fast-food drink holders transform into beautiful five-cupcake holders. Red Velvet cupcakes get a fancy upgrade with lots of frosting, swirls, sprinkles and gumdrops! I don't think all the cupcakes made it home. We had to wipe a few faces before they were picture perfect!

The man behind the post is usually the man behind the camera.  He's the man who bought me my first (and second) Nikon.  He's the man who taught me, mentored me and encouraged me to take better pictures.  He's the man who made sure that each and every year we had a family Christmas photo card.  The man in this week's photo is my dad.   My dad grew up in Minnesota, the first born son of an immigrant Norwegian father and a Finnish mother.  Early in his life, he developed a love for photography.  He put himself through engineering school by photographing weddings, reunions and portraits.  He won photo contests.  He documented our lives.  When  my parents took me and my brother on family vacations he would supply us with seemingly endless rolls of film.  We would then tour the national parks where he would show us God's beautiful creation and teach us the art of composition. In our family, we thought it was completely normal to s...

Necessity is the mother of invention. --Plato If you've been following my blog this week, you know that we've been snowed in for a record five days!    A measly six inches of snow has frozen a southern town - a town that does not own a snowplow, a sand truck or a shovel.  For a week, we've been without school, without mail and without pizza delivery!  As a midwestern girl living in the south, I used to laugh when the mere mention of snow would send people into a frenzy, emptying the grocery store shelves of milk, bread and water, but no more!  Shamefully, I looked in the garage this week and realized we owned neither a snow shovel nor an ice scraper!  I'm turning into a southern belle! Next time I will head their warning.... Next time I will buy my cupcake ingredients in advance!   As for today, I will listen to Plato and use my resourcefulness to bake my version of.....  Black Forest Cupcakes! When I realized that driving to the grocery stor...

Of course, trying to portray the deliciousness of white chocolate on white popcorn in a white box is nearly impossible, but this simple to make treat is simply delicious!   I was first introduced to this sweet and salty ambrosia by my friend, Anne, who brought a giant bowl of it to a school Valentine's Party a few years ago.  Guess what?  It all disappeared.  Consider this your fair warning.  Whatever you make will be consumed!  It's that addicting! I knew this would be the perfect treat for movie night on our FOURTH snow day! White Chocolate Popcorn Recipe Courtesy of Anne Pryor 2 Bags Orville Redenbacher's Tender White Microwave Popcorn, Popped 8-oz high quality white chocolate, melted Note:  According to Anne, best results are obtained by using Orville Redenbacher's Tender White microwave popcorn.  Because my new, fancy convection/microwave oven does everything but pop popcorn, I resorted to the old-fashioned stove ...

With our normal early wake-up call, a hot breakfast is an infrequent luxury.  Today, however, waking up to our THIRD snow day, I decided that Gingerbread Waffles would be the perfect snow-bound treat. Yes, even I was impressed to find all these ingredients on hand! This recipe, courtesy of Rachael Ray and The Food Network, makes a delicious, thick batter.   I made my usual substitutions of white whole wheat flour and canola oil. It took a little finessing to spoon the batter into my barnyard-shaped Williams-Sonoma waffle maker. A little patience, a little perseverance and VOILA!  Perfect barn, cow, chick and pig waffles. Despite the extra thick batter, the waffles turned out deliciously fluffy with a crispy exterior and a tender interior.   The kid-o-meter gave it four out of four stars! I made a double batch.  One for today and one for the freezer.   Now we won't need a snow day to enjoy a tasty, hot breakfast! Gingerbread Waffles Adapted f...