I'll bring dessert.

Tonight I went to a dinner party at a friend's house. She prepared a tasty entrée consisting of  arugula salad with lemon vinaigrette topping a breaded chicken breast, pasta, & a-mazing garlic parmesan bread rolls.  Someone else brought the wine. And I brought a dessert. 
I saw these white cupcakes with strawberry icing and fruit garnishing on one of my favorite blogs and thought it was the perfect summer treat! Plus, who doesn't love cupcakes? I was really looking forward to trying out a new recipe, and of course sharing these at dinner. My buttercream icing did not come out exactly  right (No wonder they always say never to try cooking something new before bringing it to share with others!) but luckily for me (and everyone who ate one), they still tasted good and the strawberry flavoring was light and tasty. It was a fun dinner party (especially meal preparation!) with old and some new friends, over a delicious meal and great conversation.

Martha Stewart's recipe for cupcakes with strawberry buttercream icing.

Random Thought

I've just decided that I NEED to create a recipe book. I have cut-outs and print-outs and rip-outs scattered all over the house and my room, stuck in random books and in several drawers. By the end of July I am determined to create a cute booklet to put my random recipes, my favorite recipes from my Mom and Grandmother, and leave room for recipes to come! 
I'm excited.

Sweet Tooth, Beware!

In keeping with my New Year's Resolutions, I have been doing quite a bit of cooking and baking. And I found that I really love it! I have also found that I can cook (nudge to all of my friends who use to ruthlessly mock what they interpreted to be epic failure in the kitchen). Anyway, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen over the weekend and I wanted to share the recipes I used with y'all.


On Friday night I cooked dinner for myself and the roomies. I saw this recipe for a spicy pork lettuce wrap on a friend's blog and thought it sounded absolutely delicious. Fact: It was! It will definitely be a repeat meal in the house.
Then there was dessert. Let me start by saying that I love cupcakes. Let me finish by saying that I love baking cupcakes.

I found this recipe for Black Bottom Cupcakes online, and boy oh boy are they tasty!

Chocolate cupcakes

Added the cream cheese filling

The finished product.
The presentation is not as great as the taste....A new challenge for next time.

And in the Valentine's Day spirit, I made Red Velvet cupcakes with a delicious cream cheese icing. (And I'm not talking about the cake mix out of the box.) Yummy yummy!

I cut the end off of a Ziploc bag to do the icing.

All of these recipes come highly recommended from a girl who loves food. Let me know if you give any of them a try!

Apple of My Eye

Instead of going the traditional route this year and making a pumpkin pie, I opted for an apple pie. This was my first time ever making an apple pie. It was also my first time making pie crust from scratch. And it was even my first time using an apple peeler. Needless to say, I am super excited about this and I can't wait to dig in tomorrow!

The ingredients for the pie crust.

In the works....

The pie recipe.
This is a cookbook that we've had since 1994.
Moms from our elementary school submitted their favorite recipes and then the school compiled a cookbook!

The recipe called for 6 Granny Smith apples, but I ended up only using 5.

I love baking!

Just before adding the rest of the ingredients and the top crust.

Before going in the oven...

...and after!
(Looks a little messy, but a great first attempt!)

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!