My little kitchen "helper"

My biggest weakness is sweets. Here is the yummy icing recipe I've been favoring lately...

4 sticks of butter, softened just a little bit

One of the big bags of powdered sugar...I think it's 2lbs

2tsp real vanilla...not the imitation kind!

one pinch of kosher salt

Start with 3Tablespoons WHOLE milk (very convenient if you have a baby around who drinks whole milk!)... you'll add as much as you need to get the consistency you want

You can half this recipe...just use a smaller pinch of salt. You can also add crushed oreos or butterfingers...yum! I just piped the icing with a big swirl using a big star tip on top of chocolate cupcakes (use the recipe from the back of the Hershey's cocoa powder box- delicious!) Oh they were so yummy. I wish I had a picture of them.... Look back at Stacy's shower, or William's party. For the big swirl I needed all of the icing, for regular cupcakes or a round cake you probably only need half. But it freezes well if you make too much FYI :-) Enjoy and then hit the gym!

My other new thing to make are mini peanut butter cups. Are you ready for the ease of this....

Wilton milk chocolates candy melts(2.49)

Wilton white chocolates candy melts (2.49)

Wilton plastic/ disposable icing bags...pretty cheap, don't try ziplocs...it doesn't work, I tried!

Peanut butter

Candy molds...I used Wilton (they are $1.99)

Put half the bag of chocolate candy melts in a disposable icing bag. Defrost in your microwave for a few minutes...maybe 2...just until they are soft. Cut the bottom off of the icing bag and pipe or squeeze into the molds...fill them 1/3 to 1/2 way. Malt the white chocolate candy melts just like the others, but in a bowl. When they are almost finished add a big spoon of PB and stir until it melts. Pour into an icing bag, snip the top and fill the molds the rest of the way. I tap mine on the counter to make them smooth. Cool on counter or in the fridge if you're impatient. Pop out of the molds and like WDP says, "Ta-da"...yum! If there's chocolate left in the bags you can squeeze it onto parchment paper, let it cool and then reuse it later. There are sooo many fun uses for candy melts! A coworker told me she eats this with a banana- tried it this morning and she's right- quite delicious.... again, hit the gym when finished!

oops...mommy has looked the other way for a minute....I'll show her how much fun I can have when she's making candy....

uh oh i just wanted to pretend like this was a cup

Gardening

We had amazing weather in TN this weekend- 73 was the high on Sunday...It was just a sneak peak of fall, it'll be 94 Thursday, but William LOVED it! He is becoming my little gardening buddy. Straight from the garden to his tummy....

Check out our cantaloupe!!!!

I have scrapped the idea of having him drink milk from a sippie and we are continuing on with the bottle for now. He won't take a bottle forever I have to keep telling myself! He is into juice boxes now...How cute, right?

Check him out trying to feed himself. Just when Chad and I start to think he's so smart he'll bring us back to reality and eat rocks when we take him outside :-)

Did anyone see my FB status Friday night? WDP was so sweet. When I was giving him his bottle before bed he reached under my arm and patted me on the back while he drank his bottle. I tell you, he is the sweetest baby!!!

Back Pack

So it is becoming apparent that William understands us...maybe not everything, but I'm guessing it's a lot. His new thing is to want to go "Bye-Bye"...or take a walk. He used to bring Chad his shoes and the other day he only brought one and so Chad said "Go get the other shoe" and he did.... Then Chad said, "Go get the backpack" and WDP will chant "packpack" as he walks over, picks up the backpack and drags it over to Chad. It's adorable!!!!!! He's also started throwing his hands up like "I don't know" if you ask him something he's clueless about like "What's the square root of 64?" I'll try to get a video of him doing "I don't know" this weekend...but for now it's the march of the "pack pack." Happy Weekend to you!

Ahh, the fair...maybe this is why I haven't posted in a while...well this and the fact school is back in session, sigh..... back to the fair. I thought I would do better, I mean, my stuff's cute, right? Only one lowly red ribbon for my strawberry jam. The last minute entry, the I didn't think that would win, but I'll just throw it in just 'cause. But a ribbon's a ribbon.Even if it is 2nd place..and $8!!!! Oh yeah, did I mention there's a cash prize? And lucky for someone I'm sending it to them! If you ever click on my blog links, click Twelve and then click his daughter's site...or just click here. She's raising money for a well. So sweet! So My $8 is going there...along with my pencil money from school. Oh yeah, that's right. Mrs. Perry is hard core this year. No more freebie pencils or pens. 25 cents a piece and I don't give change, so some pay $1. That's OK with me. It's high school, they should remember to bring a pencil.....

Katie, do you have chickens like this...I think these should be called "rockstar chickens"

Seriously, this got 2nd? I could've at least taken second place! Sorry, I'm being a spoiled sport, but it hurt my feelings to not win!

We closed out the summer o'parties this weekend hosting a Stock the Bar shower for my dear friend Stacy and her swettie pie Matt. It was quite nice and the best part...I decorated with glassware from the labs at school. We did a major rennovation so glassware came out of the woodworks- the old stuff is sooo much cooler that what we have today. But if I do say so myself I feel like the volumetric flasks were a nice touch on the table. She liked them too and that's all that matters, right?

These were by far my best cupcakes ever.... I need to post the icing recipe- de.lic.ious...I mean worth every calorie, yummy...I'll post it soon, promise!

My next post will be all about that sweetie pie baby who has oh, so many new tricks!

So I began cleaning closets this week...not really because I wanted to, but because I had misplaced all of my powerpoints and quizzes and class stuff...smart me decided to ONLY keep an electronic copy (I did find it in my glove box of all places) but back to cleaning, through cleaning I found more things we don't use anymore and decided to put them on ebay and pulled out William's old bouncy seat. He climbed right in and started hanging off the edges :-) Chad and I couldn't help but remember how tiny he had been in it...remember.....

He was soooo tiny!!!

The fair starts this week. I drop off my jam tomorrow. I've already taken my clothes and his little "William" banner. there were a ton of entries. Now I'm nervous. I like to enter when no one else does...then you can win. Kind of like the Weaverville Firecracker 5K- I'll never forget the year I won first place for my age group...as I'm walking up there to get my prize which I was so proud of the guy announced that there were no 2nd or3rd place entries. Oh well! a victory is still a victory for me :-) keep your fingers crossed for the fair!!!! I want the ribbon...and the $6 first prize check :-)

Here are a few other projects I've worked on...the green and white bubble is at the fair, the rest are already in the hands of their new owners. the sewing room is officially closing after I do 2 more projects for at least a month. I can't start school and want to sew all the time....so I'll clean it up and pack it up...at least until September. I can't believe how quickly the summer has gone by. I start on Thursday....soooo sad!