Upgrade

Our new camera arrived last week! With the London/Paris trip slowly approaching, we decided that we needed a new camera to capture all the loveliness that we are expecting to see!  With that in mind, we went with the Canon EOS Rebel T2i for our new family camera.  We have a lot to learn, but we tested it out this weekend on a trip down to Atlanta to visit the family and celebrate my mom's upcoming birthday.  

Troy and I hope to catch a class before London so that we can get the most out of the fancy new camera.  I will say, even with my simple "no-flash, point & click" pictures (like the one above!) this weekend, the quality is one million times better than my usual iPhone and small digital camera pictures! 

See...

 

Miyah loves her some Uncle Troy...but hey, I can't blame her! He's so lovable!

Also, Miyah is crawling ya'll!!! I could not believe it! She is crawling (fast!!) and puling up.  That means, most likely, the next time that I see her, she will be walking.  Oh goodness, what's next, college?! Too fast!  But anywho, as you can see from the last picture, I took mom to Ici Paris, the same spa we visited last year for her birthday, for mother-daughter massages! It was great!! 

We ended the day with dinner at Flip where I had the one-of-a-kind Krispy Kreme milkshake! 

Oh, and speaking of delicious sweet things, mom also requested my famous lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese icing.  My friends request that I bake this more than anything else so I actually hadn't baked them in over a year to give them a rest.  This camera (we've named the camera Lea after the fabulous photographer who did our wedding pictures) took the best cupcake pictures I've ever taken! And again, this is just on a basic "no flash" setting.  I have not even come to understand all of the personalized settings.

 making the icing...

So, I realized, mid-baking, that I was out of piping bags and cutting a hole in a ziploc bag to use my piping tools failed, so my bootleg attempt to ice the cupcakes was just cut a hole in a Ziploc bag and squeeze the icing through the hole...

After chilling in the fridge over night. Packed and ready to go to Georgia...

Also, let me just say this--this was my first time making cupcakes with Gretel, my stand mixer.  WOW!! So much easier!!!!!!  I almost didn't know what to do with myself when I wasn't personally mixing things with a hand mixer! So great!!  Stand mixer = yet another major upgrade!

Yay for the upgrade (and double yay for an excellent Saturday),

SG

Music To My Ears!...

Gretel's First Spin!! 

I love her!,

SG

A Few Things...

1. So much has happened since I last blogged, celebrated 3 years of marriage, went to D.C. for work for 9 days (the longest I've ever been away from home since Troy and I got married), went to Myrtle Beach, saw Regina graduate from law school, visited Morgan in Atlanta for her birthday, quick trip to Charleston, and a few other things I'm just not remembering at the moment.  Blog entries to come to cover at least some of those things!
2. I have a new toy--Pinterest!! You can collect all kinds of things in one place.  I think it's genius!!
3. I haven't baked in so long it's not funny.  So, I've taken a stance and made myself bake something this past Saturday (which I found on pinterest).  Details on that later.  
4. I've started yoga!! And I'm loving it!!
5. Starting next month (July) I'm beginning a food related challenge.  I'm going to go "vegetarian" 2 days a week in July, 3 days a week in August, and 4 days a week in September.  The goal is not to give up meat, but to make myself eat more vegetables and just be more aware of the food that I intake each day.  I am also hoping to practice substituting no-so-healthy snacks with things like fruit, cheese, etc...  I'm looking forward to it and I'll be blogging about how it goes.  I've started saving meals on my pinterest!!
6. We're getting a grill!! And I've been youtubing how to grill things! I'm pretty excited about it! And, one final pinterest mention, I've started collecting grilling recipes/ideas on pinterest!
7. It's baby central over my way!! No, not me. But practically everyone else I know!!!  It's a super exciting time!   
8. Oh, I'm going to see WICKED in Atlanta in September!!! YES!!!!  So excited to see it again!! 

Okay, that's a quick update on what's going on over my way.  What's going on over your way?

Did I mention I'm loving pinterest,
SG

Recipe: Lemon Glaze Bundt Cake

Well, I told you a few days ago that Annie and I were about to have some baking fun!! I'm SOOOO excited to say that today I did two things that I have never done before--made my own recipe and made a cake from scratch!  And we had friends and family over for a Glee night and the verdict is in--the cake is DELICIOUS!!! Moist, tasty, and lemony!  Here are the details...

Cake Ingredients:

1 cup butter @ room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups of cake flour
zest of 1 large lemon
1 cup evaporated milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 box lemon pudding

Glaze Ingredients:
3-5 teaspoons lemon juice
2 cups confectioners sugar

Step by Step:

1.  Preheat oven 350 degrees.

2.  Cream butter until fluffy. 

3.  Add sugar and continue to cream well with butter. 

4.  Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

5. Add flour and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour.

6. Add vanilla & lemon zest & lemon juice and continue to beat until just mixed. 

7. Add baking powder and salt.

8. Add pudding mix.

9. Place batter in bundt cake pan: Bake 35 minutes.

10.  Cool in pan 2 minutes. Invert cake onto cooling rack. 

11.  Make glaze.  Mix sugar and lemon juice adding more juice for tart glaze and more sugar for sweeter/thicker glaze.

12.  Place cake on plate and glaze cake.

Pictures: 

Like A Child In A Toy Store....

I purchased a fun new toy today!! A baking toy!  My first bundt cake pan!  I went into Macys with hopes to purchase this one made by Calphalon since all of our bakeware is made by Calphalon, but then I saw this beauty...

Meet Annie!  She has really cool silicon handles that will make removing the cake from the pan super easy!!  I'm pretty excited!! In fact, Troy had to eventually shoo me out of the bakeware section of Macys because it really is like a toy store for me!!  So many fun things that I want!  But, for today, one of the many items from my "baking wish list" can be scratched off!!  

And why did I purchase this lovely cake pan today you ask?  Well, this week I plan to venture into the unknown--making a cake from scratch!!  The plan is to make a lemon cake with lemon glaze!  I finalized my recipe this afternoon after weeks of looking at other recipes and talking to other bakers.  So stay tuned for the adventures of Annie and I! 

Also, anyone out there know much about Anolon compared to Calphalon? I played around with some of the Anolon bakeware and found it to be better quality than Calphalon.  This is my first venture with Anolon, so wondering if anyone out there knows more?  Holler at me! :-D

Way too excited over here (like, really!),

SG

Recipe: Almond Sugar Cookie Bars

Well the baking bug hit me and I thought I'd try something easy, new, and something that required things that were already in our cabinets.  So here's what I came up with! I'm not fully sold on the name yet, but I went with what it tasted like--an almond sugar cookie bars!  If you like sugar cookies or almonds or blondies, chances are you'll love this!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 large egg

1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1 hand full sliced almonds 

1 cup all purpose flour

Step by Step:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Spray 8x8 pyrex glass dish.

3. Cream butter and both sugars until light.

4. Beat in salt, egg, and vanilla extract.

5. Add in almonds.

6. Add in flour.  Stir until everything is well-blended.

7. Pour mixture into pyrex dish and smooth it out with spatula.

8. Stir together the remaining sugar & ground cinnamon.

9. Sprinkle mixture/dough with the cinnamon sugar.

10. Bake for 30 minutes.
11. Cut and eat!

Pictures:

 

 

 

Yum,
SG

Recipe: Creme Brulee French Toast

My friend Brittany made this incredible meal for me a few weeks ago and I had to give it a whirl!!  Thankfully I had an honest audience this weekend--my niece and nephew! And yup, they loved it!! The recipe is from a cookbook printed by the Hill House Bed and Breakfast in Asheville, NC!

Ingredients:

1 stick butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 tbsp. light corn syrup

6 or more (1-inch thick) slices French bread (fresh from bakery; not in bread aisle)

5 eggs

1.5 cups half-and-half cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Note: this dish needs to chill overnight.

Step by Step:

1. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. 

2. Mix in brown sugar and corn syrup, stirring until sugar is dissolved. 

3. Pour into a 13x9-inch baking dish. 

4. Arrange bread slices in the baking dish in a single layer. 

5. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, half-and-half & vanilla extract. 

6. Pour over the bread. 

7. Cover and chill at least 8 hours, or overnight.

8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

9. Remove the dish from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature. 

10. Bake uncovered 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven, until puffed and lightly browned. 

11. Remove from oven & flip so that caramelized side is on top. 

Pictures: 

 some are prettier than others...

Definitely going to try this recipe again soon!,

SG

Easy Bake Oven: Blueberry Quick Bread with Orange Glaze

Nah, I didn't pull a throw back to one of my favorite childhood toys, but last week I made a yummy blueberry quick bread that was quite easy since it came from the box.  The adventure part, however, was the glaze I made--my very first glaze!! And it was SO easy, I'm sure MANY glazed yummies are in my future!

Blueberry Quick Bread:

boxed blue berry muffin mix

fresh blueberries (some box mixes come with canned blueberries)

eggs (box will tell you how many)

milk (box will tell you how much)
virgin olive oil (box will tell you how much)

Tools:

bread pan 

Orange Glaze:

2 tablespoons orange juice

3/4 cup powdered sugar

Step by Step:

1. Make blueberry bread according to box directions.

2. Bake.

3. Allow bread to cool 30 minutes.

4. Remove bread from bread pan. Cool additional hour.

5. Glaze. whisk orange juice and powdered sugar in a mixing bowl.

6. Pour glaze over bread.

Pictures: 

YUM,

SG