Lunch date....

Matt's Uncle Rich was in this week visiting from Florida, so we invited him for lunch today to meet Luke.  Coincidentally, a friend of his, Sr. Christine, was also in town, so we invited her, too.  It was nice to see them both, and Luke was an angel.  I wanted to make something light but delicious, so I searched through some old cookbooks and blogs and came up with the following menu...

Arugula Salad with Lemon-Parmesan Dressing

I added some shaved parmesan to this and it was FANTASTIC.  My sister-in-law topped pizza with a similar recipe a few months back, and it was amazing.  Try it.  Immediately.

Cream of Mango Soup

In an effort to make this a little healthier, I swapped out the sugar for Splenda.  Also, the mangos at the market didn't look quite ripe, so I found a bag of frozen mangos at Trader Joe's.  It actually cut out a lot of time with cutting the mangos myself, and I don't think it affected the flavor at all.  This was sweet and perfect.  In fact, Matt polished off the leftovers as soon as our guests left!  I tried to be fancy and swirl in a cream heart....

Cucumber Sandwhiches

This may be one of my favorite recipes.  I LOVE cucumber sandwhiches and stumbled upon this recipe a few years ago.  It is simple and delicious, and if it weren't for the fact that cream cheese and mayo are not the healthiest things in the world, I'd make this every day for lunch! 

Start by scoring a cucumber with a fork.

Then slice them into thin rounds and soak them in water and apple cider vinegar.



Then mix cream cheese, mayo, worcestershire sauce, onion salt, and garlic powder together and spread on whatever bread you like best.  I used a Canadian white bread from Trader Joe's.   The recipe doesn't call for this but I like to add a few shakes of dill weed, then layer on the cucumbers. 

Cut off the crusts then sprinkle with paprika, and you are ready to go.  Yum!

Lime Meltaways

For dessert, I wanted to put out some fruit and cookies to just keep it simple.  I flipped through my Martha Stewart Cookies Cookbook and found these little jems.  They sounded light and summery, and since its the unofficial last weekend of summer, I went for it.   These were suprisingly easy to make.

Something about fresh lime zest that screams summer to me!

No eggs in this recipe, so I felt free to try out the dough :)

Martha had the suggestion of using a roller to help roll out a log from the dough.  I thought she was nuts, but it did work...

After baking for about 13 minutes, you let them cool slightly then toss in confectioners sugar. 

These cookies are named perfectly.  They melt in your mouth! 

Something about a nicely set table that just makes me smile :)

Happy Birthday, Matt!

For Matt's 31st birthday,  I tried out my new Cricut Cake!

This thing is very cool, but it definitely has a learning curve.  It took me awhile to get the hang of it, but I think once I get used to it, I will be able to make some pretty cute things. 

The Saturday before Matt's birthday, we drove to Allentown to visit with his grandfather who is in from Puerto Rico.  Luke got to meet his great grandfather for the first time!  It was a great day, and I made Matt's favorite cake...vanilla cake with vanilla bean frosting.  I'm not sure what I did with the recipe, but the cake was a little dry.  The icing was fantastic, though.  Soooo buttery and smooth! 

The directions for the Cricut say that gumpaste works best, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  I think I like it a little better than fondant, but again, I need some practice with it. 

Some of the more intricate designs need to be cut out at larger sizes...

This was Matt's first birthday cake that said, "Daddy." 

He was extremely happy when Luke helped him blow out his candles. 

Happy 31st birthday, Matt.  Luke and I love you so much!

Jedi Jack!

Happy 4th Birthday, Jack!

Our godson, Jack, loves himself some Star Wars, which is why he was thrilled when we named our son, Luke.  When Jack walked into the room just a few hours after was Luke was born, the first thing he asked was, "Is he going to be a Jedi?"  Needless to say, his fourth birthday was Star Wars themed.  Again, Matt came up with a pretty neat idea for his cake...a Death Star!  This time, even my dad got involved.  He helped me roll out fondant and even designed the rivets in the bottom of the cake. 

Matt was super excited to buy Jack a Darth Vader helmet.  It actually is a voice changer as well.  Matt had fun saying, "Luke...I am your father!" over and over again.  Unfortunately, with Jack's skinny legs, he ends up looking a little more like
Dark Helmet from Spaceballs. 

Even Luke got in on the action with a teeny tiny Star Wars onesie. 

Happy 4th Birthday, Jedi Jack!  May the Force be with you!!!



Go Phillies!

Happy 4th Birthday, Connor!

Several months back, I was contacted through the fabulous world of Facebook by a friend of mine to make her son's 4th birthday cake.  Kelly and I played basketball together in high school and even ended up at the same college.  We have been out of touch for awhile, so I was thrilled and surprised when she asked if I could make a Phillies themed cake for Connor.  Although the cake was needed for only a few short weeks after Luke was born, I couldn't pass up an oportunity to make a Phillies themed birthday cake.  As you probably remember from posts past, my husband is a Mets fan.  I am, however, not.  And I am determined to make my child a Phillies Phan!!! 

Kelly asked for a cake for the party and cupcakes to take home as favors.  Conor is allergic to nuts and likes vanilla cake, so I made my simple vanilla cake recipe from my Magnolia Bakery cookbook.   I will admit that the design of this cake is all Matt.  For a Mets fan, he really got into making this cake (I think he's a Phillies Phan at heart!). 

I cut all of the designs out of fondant for the cake and just piped on some red icing for the cupcakes.  I think they turned out pretty good.

Kelly wrapped the cupcakes up in these adorable boxes and tied them with a pretty red ribbon.

I will admit here that I am terrible at covering entire cakes in fondant.  I need a lot of practice.  Because of that, I had a lot of cracks along the side of the cake.  Matt came up with the great idea of covering oreos with fondant to make baseballs.  Genius.  Necessity is the mother of invention...

In order to cover up another large crack, Matt cut out this great MLB logo out of fondant.  I think he may be better at this than me!



Happy 4th Birthday, Connor!

Speaking of the Phillies and trying to make Luke a Phillies Phan, we got one step closer a couple of weeks ago while on our way to visit my parents in Raleigh, NC.  While waiting for our plane, the Phillie Phanatic and a few players were helping out at Southwest Airlines.  Luke got in pictures with a few current players, a few past players and the Phillie Phanatic!  He even made the local news...CHECK IT OUT!!!!!

Here is Luke with Larry Anderson, Gary Matthews and John Mayberry, Jr.  A few weeks later, my brother and sister-in-law met John Mayberry, Jr. at a charity function, and he said he remembered Luke!!  So cool.

Here is Luke and I with Shane Victorino. 

And of course with the Phillie Phanatic!!!

It was such a cool experience that we ended up missing our flight!  Luckily, Southwest Airlines was very gracious and put us on the very next flight and we were only an hour later than we originally planned. 

GO PHILLIES!!!!



Holly turns 3!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Holly!

I'm sure you all remember Holly from birthdays and showers past...

Well, Holly turned three this year and decided that she wanted a "Pink Piggy" party.  With some help from my mom, Matt and a baby who sleeps well, we were able to accomplish some cute cakes and cupcakes. 

I will admit that in my new mom stupor, I messed up one of the batches of cupcakes, but we recovered and produced a small chocolate cake and two batches of cupcakes...one chocolate and one vanilla.

After mulling around some design ideas for a few weeks, my godmother stopped by and gave me a new cupcake book.  Wouldn't you know, they had a cute idea for piggy cupcakes!?  So, after a few modifications, this is what we came up with...

I was a little preoccupied in that Luke was less than two weeks old so I didn't get any pictures.  Luckily, Matt was a little more on the ball and snapped these gems. 

Happy Birthday, Holly... We love you!!!

So....Its been awhile....

But I have a good reason....

Luke Alexander York was born on April 19, 2011 at 3:30 pm.  At 8 pounds, 12 ounces, and 21.25 inches long, he was a perfect specimen of baby deliciousness.  He is a happy little boy who has already brought so much joy and love into so many people's lives.  (Bonus...he lets his mommy sleep most nights!) 

Look at that tiny little face...

Although, not so little anymore....

Needless to say, this little guy has kept me pretty busy; although not busy enough to keep me from baking!  Just too busy to blog about it.  However, Luke is napping like a good boy right now, and I am determined to update you on all of my adventures.  Hopefully, over the next few days,  I will show you some of the cool things I have worked on, and over the next few weeks I will show you the new things that I will make with the very awesome present my parents bought me....

A Cricut Cake!!!!!

How cool is this?  I will be trying this baby out this weekend for my husband, Matt's birthday.  I can't wait. 

Gender Reveal Cake

Growing up, I was fortunate enough to have three awesome older brothers who taught me the coolness of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, wrestling, and GI Joe.  I learned to throw a baseball the correct way, to throw a punch without breaking my thumb, and how to box out for a rebound.  I wouldn't change this experience for anything in the world, especially now that we still remain close, and I know my brothers would do anything for me.  However, because of this overload of testosterone, girly things were not always on the top of my agenda, despite my mother's best efforts.  Yes, I owned more Barbies than any one girl should, and my Barbie Dream House stood proudly in the basement.  But no, there wasn't always someone in the house who wanted to play those things unless Superfly Jimmy Snuka was invited to the party.  (Small side note--I'd like to give my brother, Jimmy, a shout out for always offering to play the Sweet Valley High Board Game with me...his only requirement was that he had to be Elizabeth or he wasn't playing!) 

Enter, the blessing that was the Szelagowski Family.  Three girls, all around my age, with an overload of girl toys and games, only two houses away.  Mall Madness, Girl Talk Boardgame (sticker zits included), and Bop Magazine were always available.  Doing each other's hair and playing "school" and "house" were on the agenda almost every day.  I have very few memories of my childhood where this family was not involved.

Throughout the years, we've vaguely kept in touch, but through the wonders of facebook, we've now been able to keep abreast of each other's lives.  All three girls have started beautiful families of their own, and its been wonderful to see what great lives they have been able to create for themselves.  The middle daughter, Kate, started her own side business making all sorts of creative things, including headbands and bows for little girls as well as beautiful invitations, cards, etc.  When I found out that I was pregnant, I knew that I wanted to ask her to create an announcement for our son when he was born. I emailed Kate, and she created ten of the cutest cards I could imagine!  I can't wait for our son to be born and mail those beauties out. 

Well, a few weeks ago, Kate announced that she was expecting a second child.  She already has one adorable little girl who is Kate's spitting image.  Kate asked if I would consider making a cake for her to reveal the gender of her baby.  I, of course, said, "YES!"  Last week, Kate had an ultrasound where she asked the technician to seal the results of the ultrasound in an envelope, which Kate delivered to me immediately.  I was to keep my lips sealed for an entire week and then bake a cake tinted either pink or blue inside.  I am so honored that I got to be part of this awesome suprise!  I had a lot of fun making the cake and helping to celebrate the life of another Szelagowski grandchild!

I decided to turn to my trusty Magnolia cookbook and use the vanilla cake recipe.  I love this recipe for its simplicity and fresh taste.  The recipe calls for half self-rising flour and half all-purpose flour.  I swapped out the all-purpose flour for cake flour, which I think makes it a little more tender and light.  I also swapped out the vanilla extract for vanilla bean paste, to give it a richer taste.  Also, there is something decadent about seeing all of those little vanilla beans in the batter!  I also used the same cookbook for the vanilla buttercream recipe.  Again, simple and delicious. 

For decorations, I wanted something baby-ish that didn't necessarily give away the baby's gender.  I was inspired by a cake that my co-worker's sister made for her baby shower...check it out at The Sunday Flog.  I thought the buttons were a cute idea. 

The buttons and letters were made from fondant dyed pastel colors.

My frosting job wasn't my finest.  I have found that the most delicious tasting frostings don't always spread the best or most evenly.

I used round cookie cutters to cut out the circles, then a slightly smaller one to indent the edges of the larger buttons.  The end of a straw was all I used to cut out the little button holes.  Easy-peasey, as my godson likes to say.

I made sure to seal the box up with a label so that any peeking ahead of time would be obvious!

Have I mentioned that I love my labels?

The little girl with the adorable look on her face is the big-sister-to-be, Julianne.  I love her expression in this picture.  So excited to find out!

Its a.....

GIRL!!!!!

Kate said she was definitely suprised...she guessed boy.  Congratulations to Kate and Jim Asher!!  Thanks for letting me be a part of your celebration!

Superbowl Sunday

What I learned today...

is that I shouldn't try to decorate things when I'm not in the mood/haven't had much sleep.  We were heading to our friend, Jeff's yesterday for the Superbowl, and I had wanted to make cute football themed desserts.  I found a recipe for peanut butter balls and thought I could turn them into footballs.  Good idea, in theory, at least.  They were not turning out quite football shaped and I couldn't get the white chocolate to pipe on correctly.  I gave up. 

The good news was that the boys at the party loved them, no matter what they looked like.  I think Andy and Jerry were personally responsible for housing most of them!

I also wanted to make another bite size snack that wasn't too fussy but would be delicious none the less.  I found a recipe over at The Pioneer Woman for Graham Cracker Cookie Bars.  I happen to have all of the ingredients necessary and although they were a little sloppy to make, they were my favorite of the night. 

Despite my lack of decorating skills yesterday, and my  lack of sleep the night before, I had a great time at Jeff's and am glad for such good friends!