Jude's First Birthday Party

Well, all of our work paid off!

Jude's Birthday Party came and went and it was a great time!

We had (more than) enough food, drinks, cakes, etc.

We were going for a pretty laid back event and I'm pretty sure that was successful. Everyone showed up right around 2:00. Everyone hung out, ate and mingled for awhile and then I decided to do cake.

We had bought a cake for the guests to eat and since I wanted to make a cake for Jude, I made a special one for him.

This was the cake for the guests:

it was a Doctor Seuss theme and looked AWESOME! I loved it! I let Cannon's pretty much design it on their own and I'm so happy I did!

They put little blurbs from different books...

Jude's cake was a banana cake. I used all vegan ingredients (from a vegan cookbook) so that my dear friend Meghan could indulge in Jude's first Birthday cake. Jude loved it! I changed the recipe just a little, but it turned out well (I took some ingredients out, added some extra of another and used a different frosting than they called for).

Everyone gathered in the front yard to sing happy birthday.... so the candle barely stayed aflame.

We opted out of the big "open presents in front of everyone thing". Instead, as most people were leaving, I gave Jude his gifts and opened the cards myself. He only got a handful of toys and played with them all.

Jude's mom-mom (my mom) made him his first birthday shirt

He looked so cute in his little hat!

We had ooddles of food - and Ryan played grill master... and then turned it over to Curt. Speaking of food, I made a Strawberry layer cheesecake thing as my final 'seasonal dessert'! I got the recipe from Barbie. Of course I can't just make it as indicated, so I changed it a bit. I had it at a mom's night and personally thought it could use more strawberries and pound cake, so I got about double the pound cake and easily double the strawberries. I started with the whipped cream bottom, strawberries and pound cake, then did the whipped cream, more pound cake and the rest of the strawberries. The melted chocolate over the strawberries was oh-so-yummy. The dish was gone in minutes!

But back to the birthday... Jude didn't get strawberry cheesecake... instead he got some of the fruit salad.

All in all, it was a great day! The weather was wonderful and the friends were just as lovely.

After just about everyone cleared out, Ryan started up a fire pit and we sat around and hung out for the evening. After a long day, Jude slept like a champ.

Our Second Cinco de Mayo Together

Jude's 1st Birthday was fairly uneventful.

The night before his birthday, I set up his toy room so that he could wake up and go downstairs to play. He seemed confused about why all of his toys were moved, but seem interested in the new space.




After breakfast we had his 12 month check up. He unfortunately had to have 2 shots... which I felt terrible about! The check up went normally. Jude is right on track and doing well. He was 19lbs 15 ounces and 29.5" long. The doctor mentioned that he has noticed that Jude may have a slight heart murmur, but that there's nothing to be concerned about. He advised me that it's not uncommon in young children (and I compared it to my dog Zoey... she had one too that she was supposed to outgrow). He said it's so slight that he has no restrictions for Jude, he just thought he'd let me know in case for some reason someone else noticed it and mentioned it. He didn't want us to think he wasn't paying attention.

I got the go ahead to stop nursing and to switch to whole milk. We're still not totally ready... but at least the options there.

After our check up we had a nice relaxing lunch with Uncle Bryan and Aunt Katy and then headed home. I considered going to a park or something, but there was much to do around the house. Instead, Jude and I planted some stuff in the garden and once Ryan got home we did some painting and finishing touches on Jude's toy room (photos to follow).

The day quickly got away from us and so we decided to go out for dinner. Being Cinco De Mayo, we tried to be a little festive. We went to Applebees. Ok... that's not the festive part... Ryan got a Corona, I got a Margarita (or two...).

After hurrying home to meet up with Uncle Byran and Aunt Katy and Ryan Creed, we gave Jude his first of three birthday cakes. It was a classic funfetti cake with vanilla frosting, and Jude loved it.











The day really went by so quickly. It's still hard to believe that he's a year old!

**I can 'technically' cross off 'make jude a birthday cake' from my list with this cake... but I'd say I officially crossed it off with his birthday party cake. Either way, it's done!

Cleaning out the Cupboards

So, I had a whole other post prepared on homemade baby wipes... and decided that I haven't had enough experience with them to fully post. So, I'll be holding off on that... and discussing another topic: Cleaning out the Cupboards. This is not so much a 'go green' tactic as it is a 'save some green' option. Call me lazy, call me poor, call me cheap... call me what you will, but this without a doubt is a great way to save some money every now and then.

How many of you have at least 1/2 a pantry full of non-perishables that at one point or another you bought and just have never used? Cans of this, boxes of that, a freezer full of something... however, even though all of this stuff is in your cabinet, you open your pantry door or freezer and think "I need to go to the store, there's nothing in this house to eat!". We are very guilty of this.

However, every now and then I put my foot down. I insist that whatever is in our cabinets will be eaten before I make another trip to the grocery store. This means mixing random ingredients to make a baked good of some sort, getting creative with dinner or snacking in new and interesting ways. I can pretty much guarantee that hiding in your cupboards is at least a meal or two (probably 3 or 4 - or more).

Just recently, we went at least a week on having 'nothing' in our cabinets. We had a little bit of meat in the freezer that we mixed with random ingredients, often making surprisingly yummy meals. For example, one night, I baked chicken in some cream of mushroom soup (I had a few extra cans from the last roast I cooked) and some red wine and it was oh so yummy. I paired that with some egg noodles (that I planned to make chicken noodle soup with) lightly tossed in butter and some herbs and there you have it! A meal. When Ryan wanted something sweet, I made sometime. I went through my cookbooks to find the perfect recipe that we had all the ingredients for (instead of setting my mind to a specific recipe and going out to buy the ingredients).

By the time I gave in and said "that's it, we're going to the grocery store", we seriously had nothing but condiments in our fridge. My brother had finished off the graham crackers left from a fire pit, Ryan had taken finger-fuls of decorating icing that was left from decorating a cake, I had made that box of pudding that had been hanging around and Jude had finished off the stray bags of frozen veggies in the freezer. Our usual supply of 5-6 boxes of pasta, a variety of sides, snacks and fresh fruits and veggies had been diminished.

If this is something you'd consider doing, allrecipes.com has a great tool where you can enter a list of ingredients you want to use (and those you don't) and it will spit out recipes based on what you've entered, making it even easier.

Seasonal Dessert #3:

The other day I was in the mood for baking. I knew winter would be ending and I still hadn't made my winter dessert, so I decided to tackle that.

I ended up making a gingerbread molasses bunt cake.

I put it in the oven while Jude was eating breakfast and towards the end of my mixing and prepping, Jude got a little antsy. So, I threw it in the cake pan and got him out of his highchair.

Before long, the house smelled amazing! After the expected baking time, I took the pan out and took a little taste - YUM! I then got distracted and came back about an hour later to take the cake out of the pan.

Well, I forgot to put the flour int he pan to keep teh cake from sticking, and I didn't take the cake out quickly enough, so it was stuck :( I tried to ease it out, but it wouldn't come. The cake ended up in a crumbly mess on the plate.

Even though it didn't look great, it tasted yummy.

Only one more seasonal dessert to go!

Question: What desserts to you think of when you think of spring?

MMM Dessert

Question: it's almost winter. do you have a dessert in mind?

Answer: This is in reference to my 101 item that is to make 4 seasonal desserts (one for each season - in one year).

I was actually just thinking about this the other day. I have a couple of ideas in mind, but mostly based on flavors that strike me as 'wintery'.

I've considered making my brother some peppermint bark. But just about anything peppermint seems wintery. Then there's cranberry and ginger too. Also, pomegranite seem pretty in-season right now. So I have a lot of options.

If I go with ginger, I'll make gingerbread men or a gingerbread house. If i go the pom. or cranberry route, then I'll have to find a recipe. For peppermint, there's a bunch of options.

Whatever I end up making I will probably be taking to my grandparents for Christmas Eve, so it will hopefully get eaten!

Me vs. Icing

Icing: 2 - Me: 1

SCORE!

You all may remember the story about my adventure with the Raspberry Buttercream. basically it turned out to be a runny, nasty, hopeless mess (until I added a bunch of flour). Well, the other night Ryan wanted something sweet. I wanted to make something sweet. So I made something sweet.

I decided to make a cake. I bust out my recipe book and whip up a pretty basic yellow cake mix and threw it in the oven. Then I realized - we didn't have icing. Shoot.

I didn't want to go through the trial and error of how-much-flour-is-the-right-amount-of-flour, so I almost just didn't finish the cake. Then I decided I'd give it a whirl again.

In the same book that I got the cake recipe, I found a chocolate frosting recipe. I fortunately had all the ingredients, so I gave it a whirl. I started adding some ingredients and it looked like it was going down the same runny path, but some how it all came together and turned out pretty yummy (and thick enough to actually stay on the cake).

So! Here's to me winning one in the battle for amazing icing/frosting/buttercream.

Ahhh Autumn

Today, Ryan and I took Jude man to Milburn Orchards. It wasn't Jude's first trip to Milburn, but it was his first apple picking trip and we got him his first pumpkin. It was probably one of the most perfect days to go. The weather was great!

First we got some of their famous apple cider donuts and then headed over to the apple area to do some pickin'.

Afterwards, we came back to the pumpkin patch and got Jude his pumpkin - we sat him down in a patch of pumpkins and he started playing with the nubby one, so of course we got it for him.

Mommom and Poppop met us there

The Woodlands came along and the boys both likes the little pumpkin.

After all of the pumpkin and apple pickin' and choosin' the Woodlands came over to do some baking with us. I made my apple crisp (#2 of 4 seasonal desserts - winter and spring left to do). It was pretty yummy. The recipe made quite a bit and it's best when warm, so I can imagine quite a bit of it will go to waste unless it heats up well. I can't help but think it would be delicious with some vanilla ice cream... perhaps I'll get some before I make my apple pie later this week

It doesn't look like much, but it's pretty good.

Cookies and A Hike

Today was glorious!

First Jude slept until 10:30 this morning! Well, he woke up to eat and went right back to sleep - but still 10:30!

Afterwards, I bustled around the house and got ready for my tiny little cookie party. Judging from the number of people who responded, I didn't expect a big turn out but I was fine with that. In the end, Michele and Katy showed up with ingredients and recipes and Meghan came around later for company. We got snicker-doodles, russian tea cakes (aka butter balls?) and chocolate chip cookies. This was probably the second time in the last year that I've really taken advantage of our double oven and again I'm not sure what I would do without it!

Ryan was recently telling me how they might be doing a "cash-for-clunkers" type program for appliances. While I would love to get a more attractive/energy efficient stove, I'm not sure I'm willing to sacrifice my 50 year old double oven... perhaps I'll have to talk Ryan into a counter top stove and in-wall double oven like I've always wanted???

But anyway! On with the rest of the day. After tons of mixing, baking and chatting I did a quick clean up and was done. Of course since I'm not a fan of exact measurements (and I just love cookie dough) I was constantly dipping in and 'tasting' the batter. The batter and cookies mixed with a few glasses of Kool-Aide made me feel about as large as a house. So, I convinced Ryan, Bryan and Katy to go for a walk. I snuggled Jude into his carrier and was off.

Originally we planned to go to the rt. 40 walking park and decided instead to take a walk through the neighborhood. We conveniently live right next to Rittenhouse Park and so while taking our normal path through the neighborhood we decided to detour onto the path to Rittenhouse Park.

It was a much longer walk than I think I/we had expected, but we all felt good in the end! The path ended up taking us up along the creek all the way to the main park entrance. Jude slept in my arms about 90% of the time. Also! While walking we passed by a pavilion and playground that I couldn't help but think would be great for a little party. I'm not at all thinking about Jude's first birthday (we still have 8 months to go!) but I couldn't help but think it could be an adorable spot!

Updated Photo (raspberry cake)

Once again, what I was TRYING to create:

The first try with no flour:

The revised/re-iced cake (as I said, still not exactly perfect, but thicker and holding shape) - with a sweet little sign from my cousin.

As requested:

The Solution:

After writing out last night's blog about the cake I did a little research and found the solution to my runny cake problem! FLOUR!

It's such a simple solution I feel like a goon for not thinking of it myself.

Flour as most of you know is just a thickening agent. You add it to cookies, cakes, etc to give it the texture, but the rest of the ingredients (butter, sugar, etc) are what actually add the flavor. If flour does anything to the taste, it makes the flavor a little less harsh (ever taste your chocolate chip cookie recipe BEFORE you add the flour? it's very strong). Ryan loved the flavor of the cake with the raspberry buttercream frosting as it was, but one finger dip into the bowl was enough for me, it was just very sweet! With the flour though, it was a much softer taste.

So, what I did, was take the balance of the frosting I had after "decorating" the cake and added a couple cups of flour to it (I kept adding little bits until it was the desired consistency, so the amount used is questionable). I scrapped a little bit of the runny yucky icing off the already decorated cake (some of it had seeped INTO the cake - but if anything it just made it moist) and slopped on the nicer/prettier icing. While decorating I decided it could have used more flour in my opinion (to make it more "manageable"), but at least it was thicker and able to stay ON the cake.

Problem solved! Just goes to show you that recipes are not ALWAYS right!

First Seasonal Dessert

Today I made the first of my four seasonal desserts. On my list of 101 things to do, my goal was to make 4 seasonal desserts each season for a year. So, one summer, one fall, winter and spring.

For my wedding, I had a super yummy raspberry buttercream cake (well, one of the layers, the others were all different). I love it! I thought since raspberries are in season that I would give it a try to make myself. I went so far as to pick fresh raspberries, make cake from scratch, etc.

What my goal was:

What it actually looked like:

Obviously I was disappointed with the way it looked, but according to Ryan it tasted delicious. He said that the cake was much better than the store bought/boxed cake and all though the icing was soupy, it was very yummy (which is saying something since he doesn't like the wedding cake I was trying to imitate)! AND - my cousin Michael just walked in (I had sent a piece to my grandparent's house) and said he devoured it while he was there!

This is my second try making a buttercream icing (last time it was just regular buttercream - no raspberry) and both times the consistency just wasn't right. It always turns out runny. I hope to in the future do a little research and find out how to avoid it from happening.

Some reasons I think it might be off:
- not enough confectioners sugar.
- didn't dry the raspberries off enough
- too many raspberries
- too much butter

If i ever figure out what's wrong I'll be sure to blog about it!

Next season I think I'll try an apple crisp! Stay tuned!

cooooookies!

Feeling very "home-ec" last night I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies. I remember when I was younger my dad used to make them, but ONLY for special occasions (holidays). Seeing how simple it is to whip together some cookies, I really don't understand why??

Lately I've been on a make-our-own-treats kind of kick making Ryan "blondies" (kind of like a brownie, but a little different), chocolate chip cookies, brownies and peanut butter cookies, etc. Most of the ingredients in any cookie or dessert are the same, sugar, brown sugar, flour, egg, etc. So buying these staple ingredients and whipping something up yourself usually is cheaper than buying something premade (oreos, chips ahoy...). And not to float my own boat too much, but I think I usually make some pretty delicious desserts!

So after coming back from the park I get to work. I first feed Jude and leave him to his father to put him to sleep. I mix all the ingredients together and start to put little dollops on the cookie trays. I could tell from the way they were laying that there wasn't enough flour. I typically add extra to the recipe because for some reason they just don't seem thick enough to me using the suggested amount (maybe I just like mine fluffier). Unfortunately I was out of flour at that point so I couldn't add more.

Then shortly after I put the first batch into the oven I get a fussy baby. Ryan had tried and tried to get him to sleep, but he wouldn't. Instead Jude made himself more upset and made it even harder to fall asleep. Since I was trying to help calm him down, of course the first batch of cookies gets slightly over done.

I calm him down a little, give him back to Ryan and go work on batch number two. And what do you know... he starts crying again (little guy wants his mommy... what can I say??). So - batch number two slightly over cooked again (did I mention Ryan was put in charge of taking the cookies out?? There's nothing like a woman's touch when it comes to baking).

Imagine this continuing through all four batches of cookies. So, while the cookies aren't entirely un-edible, they're just not what I would expect from myself...

But at least the batter tasted delicious!