Simple Girl

Soft and Sweet is the perfect theme for Ella.  The youngest of four, Ella has always been my sweet dessert.  She takes her time. She enjoys life.  She observes intelligently.  She loves wholeheartedly. This week she came home from kindergarten and said, "Mom, every day is a great day, isn't it?"  When I look at life through Ella's eyes, each day always is.

When my freezer looks like THIS (see below!), I am thankful that I am assigned to  baked goods  for the spring Bible Study brunch!  Another moment of gratitude comes after realizing that, in my quest to bake through Martha Stewart's  Cupcakes  book, I have yet to try the Banana-Pecan Cupcakes! For this purpose, however, we are not going to call them cupcakes.  What self-respecting southern lady would eat a cupcake for breakfast -  in public, no less?  Instead, we shall call them muffins!   In an attempt to make these dainty little cakes a little more muffin-like, I made a few changes to the recipe.  I substituted white whole wheat flour for Cake flour, canola oil for butter and reduced the sugar by half. To half of the batter, I added Trader Joe's Sweet and Spicy Pecans.  I started chopping them with my knife, but ended up running them through my parmesan cheese grater for a finer chop.  These pecans happened to be muc...

Perhaps one of the most challenging things I have ever tried to photograph -  a Winter White Dwarf Hamster named Fuzzy.  Only three inches long and perpetual motion, she was exactly what Anna wanted for her 10th birthday.  When we went to the pet store, Fuzzy crawled right out of her tightly knit litter and into Anna's hands.  It's been love ever since.  Can you feel it?  Fuzzy, don't be offended that Grandpa thinks of you like your kinfolk that ate the crackers out of his pantry.  Although it's your lot in life to be misunderstood, you'll always have a friend in Anna. Do I need to play Michael Jackson's 1972 hit song?  OK, here it is........ Ben, the two of us need look no more We both found what we were looking for    With my friend to call my own I'll never be alone   And you my friend will see, you've got a friend in me Ben, you're always running here and there You feel you're not wanted anywhere If you ever look behind an...

These decorated cupcakes, from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Book make a beautiful addition to traditional dyed Easter eggs!  Made with Royal Icing, the cupcake designs are fun and simple to create. Make Royal Icing and divide among bowls.  Tint each a different color using gel-paste food color, like Wiltons. For wavy line cupcakes, outline the top of a cupcake with one color of icing, and then pipe more icing to flood (or fill) the inside.   Working quickly, pipe, four or five parallel lines in a different color.  Use a toothpick to draw lines perpendicular to the piped ones, alternating between dragging downward and upward. For a swirled effect, Outline cupcake with one color, and pipe squiggly lines inside the outline.  Fill in spaces with another color icing to completely cover.  Use a toothpick to swirl the colors. Allow icing to set. Try different colors and use this same technique for any season or even cookies!   The applications are li...

I was doing a little cupcake shopping today at   Gigi's Cupcakes  when I ran across these adorable Bunnies!   Little pink and white fondant ears top yellow cupcakes with pink frosting swirls. Turn them around and you can see the cute mini-marshmallow cotton tail! Not in the mood for bunnies?  How about Key Lime? Or Hunka Chunka Banana Love?   Their menu changes daily. What's not to love about a cupcake?

The great thing about being on vacation is that you can be driving through the middle of nowhere, like through the Everglades in Florida - a place where there is nothing but a two-lane road and swamps and alligators and not even a McDonald's - and out of nowhere, and I mean nowhere , there is a sanctuary filled with art.  As a parent, you can decide that even though the kids think that this is just a mindless beach vacation, you will take this moment to engage their imagination and expand their repertoire of creativity by stopping and viewing the timeless photographs of  Clyde Butcher , Photographer of the Everglades. Like Ansel Adams, Clyde Butcher uses his art form of photography as "inspiration for others to work together to save nature's places of spiritual sanctuary for future generations." "Like the work of Ansel Adams, Clyde Butcher's remarkable photographs give us an access to nature we rarely see or experience.  They not only reveal the intim...

Sometimes wind speaks fiercely, sending us cowering in our basements,  like the tornadoes that swept through the south last night.   Sometimes, however, wind whispers softly like a light spring breeze -  a still, small voice that refreshes our soul.   Oh, what a difference a day makes.

Are these too cute or what?  I posted these adorable Peep Cupcakes last year, but thought they were so cute, they deserved an encore.  They are easy to make and the perfect crowd pleaser for any Easter celebration or class party. Simply bake your favorite cupcake in some festive liners.  Buy Peeps in your favorite colors and color some frosting to match.  Canned frosting is fine, but a homemade cream cheese or buttercream is soooooo much better! Put the frosting in a gallon Ziploc bag.  Snip a hole in a lower corner approximately 3/8 inch across.  Pipe the frosting onto the cupcake in swirls.  Sprinkle with matching colored sprinkles for a sparkly, but uniform look. Set the Peeps on top for a festive cupcake that will garner Oohs and Ahhs from both the young and young at heart!

I have to admit, I'm partial to chocolate.  There's something about spring, however, that lures me to something lighter.  A change of season gives rise to a change of palate.  These Chai Tea Mini Cupcakes were a surprising mix of comfort and delight. The recipe starts by steeping tea bags in milk.  I veered from the recipe slightly and used two bags of Tazo Chai.  (**Note to self:  Buy Plain Black Tea before Dad comes to visit!)  To a fairly standard cake batter, came a mix of flavorful and fragrant spices:  cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom.  Opening up the jar of cardamom brought back instant memories of my Norwegian grandma.  Norwegians don't use many spices, but cardamom is frequently one of them!  I omitted the ground black pepper (don't really like it) as well as the ground ginger (MIA).  I figured I was basically covered in both areas with the spicy Tazo Chai tea that I used. The Condensed Milk Icing was an in...