Amari had a party

My niece, Amari, turned 1 this past week. Her parents threw her a party at Gatti's in Oak Ridge. I, of course, supplied the cupcakes.

Also, my little sister, Julie, and her boyfriend, Mike came to visit on Saturday and Sunday. We had fun hanging out and going to church with them on Saturday and then Julie and Mike came with me to Amari's party on Sunday while Brian was at work.

Julie and the birthday girl.

Amari sleeping on her grammy's shoulder.

Mike and Julie.

Melinda and Tezra - OGs.

Amari and her "baby cake" Which, sadly, I decorated.

It looks turdlike. I need lessons.

Sharon's Birthday

Okay, some friends have recently commented that my blog seems to be more and more about food. So, I have to make two comments to that.
1) I have created a blog to display the treats I've made http://ktowntreats.blogspot.com/
2) This post is about my friend, Sharon. (we just happened to make cupcakes)

and on to the post...

Sharon's birthday was November 30th. After going out for Mexican food, we came back to the house and made almond sponge cupcakes (almond spongecake cupcakes?). Sharon is quite the baker - you should see her folding technique...I felt a little threatened.

Finished product = very yummy.

Sharon enjoying her birthday treats.

Christmas-time!

The day after Thanksgiving, we put up our brand new pre-lit Christmas tree. Since this is our first married Christmas, we learned new things about each other even in this process :) There may have even been a 'discussion' over ornaments. We had fun though and here are a few pictures to prove it.

Brian 'building' the tree.

I think this one is funny.

Obligatory self-portrait.

Finished product.

Girl's Night + Ornaments

Here is the post that three of my friends have already posted. A long time ago (well, almost two weeks) The ladies from our small group met at Mellow Mushroom for some great food and an ornament exchange.

I am very glad that Bird got the bird ornament. My favorite moment was when Jen S. opened the last package which was a photo frame ornament with a picture of Bird in it!! hysterical!

Tracy and me being fabulous.

exchanging ornaments.

Bird and bird.

Chocolate Spritz Cookies

It was my turn to make dessert for small group this week, so I consulted with my nephew on what to make. He told me I should make something chocolate. We decided to make chocolate spritz cookies.

Devan got bored after the actual cookie making process. He did love using the cookie press, which looks an awful lot like a space age gun. Anyway, after the cookies were cool, I got creative with the chocolate and sprinkles and here's what came out.

Two-toned hearts. We're gonna call these other guys wreaths.

cute little christmas tree.

Here's the tray of cookies all ready to be consumed by small group friends. I was secretly delighted when Evan had to take the tray and hide them from members who wanted to snack before group even started. (dessert is supposed to be after small group)

Here's Devan eating one of the finished products. He regained interest when they were all done :)

Gingerbread Cuties

Okay, I know I have a boring life when all I can find to blog about is food. Either that or I just really love to bake.

This past week, I took on gingerbread. The first batch I made (of which I have no pictures) I rolled out too thin. The result was tasty, but crispy cookies. The second batch (seen here) were both delicious and soft.

Maeson and I got to share them with my mom and little brothers and then with Brian and his fellow medics.





Unfrosted gingerbread. Don't you love my gingerbread dog? Also, this is my gingerbread twist - I did this with the dough that remained after the last cookie cutting.

Frosted delights. I used maple flavoring in the icing -mmmm mmmm. And, as you see here, I put some of my gingerbread cookies on a spice cake with maple buttercream frosting. My cake decorating skills leave something to be desired, but rest assured it tasted fantastic.

halloween cookies

Because I had been wanting to use my giant assortment of cookie cutters and because I wanted to occupy Maeson for the afternoon, we made halloween sugar cookies yesterday.

The best part of this experience is that I think I finally found an icing recipe that does what I want. It dries hard and shiny and, with the addition of almond flavoring, tastes just like a bakery that used to be in downtown Oak Ridge.



I may try to get my cookies a little fluffier or chewier next time, these were a bit crispy for me. My icing technique needs some work too, but I think this was a successful attempt.

Pre-icing cookies.

I experimented with using different sprinkles to make pumpkin stems. Also, this is Maeson's cute and girly pumpkin.

Bat, cat, and ridiculously cute ghost.