Baking Day

We watch Food Network... We browse Pinterest... We flip through cookbooks... and maybe you can relate, but I get overwhelmed with so many amazing looking recipes that I want to make and I never get around to actually rollin' up my sleeves, puttin' on my apron and gettin' in the kitchen! Well, one day over the break, Courtney and I did just that. 

We made Pioneer Woman's Homemade Oatmeal Cakes. I'm all about following a recipe {especially when baking} to a "T" the first time I try, but I think some of our little glitches in this batch were because we didn't. Here is our review: they were good. Next time I would make each patty smaller and thinner. We used the marshmallow creme filling {which was yum} and I would try the second filling option just for kicks. 

We also made Pioneer Woman's Christmas Finger Jello. Her pictures of it are gorgeous and they had me at first glance. These little jello jigglies just looked fun to eat. Making them was a task in that you had to work layer by layer... very easy but very time consuming. It worked out fine because we we were in the kitchen all day anyway! They were good... tasted like jello... we used raspberry instead of strawberry like the original recipe says and it was yum. They would be the perfect festive addition to a heavy holiday meal.

Next up was a Pinterest recipe that I have been drooling over for quite some time... Better than Brownies Chocolate Cookies. They were probably my favorite item we made. They were chewy and rich and literally melted in my mouth right out of the oven. A warm cookie and a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream would be heaven. Make these today!!

And last but not least, we made Ina Garten's Fleur de Sel Caramels. Of course we did not have any "fleur de sel" salt on hand so we used sea salt... not as elegant but close to the same flavor. Also, with the combination of a pan too large and 90% humidity, our little caramels started to resemble turds. They didn't taste like it though! They were very rich {almost too rich for me- but that's not saying much} but were a big hit with our taste testers.

Our little baking day ended with us piled on the couch in a sugar coma with aching legs and feet... Baking that many desserts was hard work! We packaged up all of the goodies and delivered them to our families. We were very popular that day! Like we always say after making a new recipe, it felt good to get those recipes "out of our system" and now we feel that we can move on. We hope to make "baking day" an annual tradition!

It was a Happy New Year

We made our way over to SanDestin to celebrate the new year with Brad, Emily and Tucker. Last year, as Em was  dry heaving while Tucker was in the womb, we talked about how this year would be so different with the addition of little Tucker man and it was...

... in the sweetest, most fun way possible!!

He was one of the guys...

... holding his bottle all by himself with those feet crossed... Heaven help me.

Brad has him nicknamed "the hat shark"...

We bundled him up and he was ready to go to town!

Baytown is such a fun place to stay... There is lots to see and do. Oh, and the boys totally did not plan to match... Em and I said yeah right. 

And Tucker wanted to be just like them!

The food was amazing and we thoroughly enjoyed our meals as long as we kept him occupied. He's a wild man!

The nights did end a tad earlier, but honestly none of us were complaining!

Baytown is such a fun place to celebrate New Years, especially if you're able to stay there. Our balcony overlooked the band and fireworks and we had so much fun!



Tucker even enjoyed the fireworks from his bed.

I know all of my posts are "photo overload" but I can't help it... I want to capture every little thing and most of the time I don't even come close, but here are a few little extras from the weekend...













We say 2013 got off to a pretty good start!

A Very Merry Morning

As you can tell somebody loved their new headphones! ^^

Christmas morning is a time my sisters and I look forward to all year long. We go around one by one and open each gift Mrs. Clause took the time to wrap. Afterwards, it looks as though a tornado hit the room. 

Santa goes all out... He had seven people to bring gifts to this year! Three of my favorite gifts were that beautiful piece of artwork you see by the fireplace, a dyson ball vacuum cleaner and a set of steak knives... Oh my word I am getting OLD. As evidenced by the picture below, no matter how "old" they are, boys love their toys...

I whipped up a batch of homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast... and when I say "whipped" I mean I made the dough the night before and basically cut them out that morning. They were delicious!

Our very merry morning ended on a sweet note! Thanks for reading (if you even did ;) all of my belated Christmas posts. I promise belated Christmas is better than growth charts and fetal monitoring! {I'm in my maternal child rotation} :) I will be back very soon with a New Years post. Until then folks!

A Fabulous Feast

Just what you wanted... more Christmas!! Hey, at least I'm blogging... and this post is about food... enough said.

For the past several years, we ( my mom and sisters and I) have made cooking up a fabulous Christmas Eve feast a tradition. We all contribute to the menu by browsing through cookbooks, pinterest, etc and come up with a fabulous feast to prepare.

This year, I took it upon myself to plan and make most of the dinner and my mom made the meat. I wasn't complaining because I have been having cooking withdrawals with the busyness of school... Meaning, I've been whipping up more "quick and easy" meals {if anything at all} rather than being able to go all out and make a meal extra special. Would you like to know what was on the menu? (The colored recipes are linked to where I found them online. The other ones I just made up.)

Cranberry and Brie Bites

Split Pea Soup

Roasted Beef Tenderloin

Mushroom Sauce

Sweet Potato Souffle

Sauteed Lemony String Beans

Creamy Orrecchiette and Cheese

Brown Sugar Souffles with Creme Anglaise

With all the craziness in the kitchen I wasn't able to photograph everything, but I did capture the beautiful souffles!

... and the Cranberry Brie bites.

I love to cook for my family and test new recipes. They are the perfect guinnea pigs! And when I find a dish that they all rant and rave about, I know it's a keeper. And it never hurts to have a little constructive criticism on how it can be made better next time. That's what cooking is all about.

The food and table decorations were way fancier than our attire, but that's the beauty of family... who the heck cares!!



The food was delicious, the conversations reflecting on what we are thankful for this past year were rich, and the company... well it was all of my favorite people... so yeah, that was my favorite part.

Mississippi Holiday, part II

We celebrated Christmas with my Papaw in Fairhope before we made our way to Mississippi.  Next stop was Meemaw and Papaw JB. Like I said in part one, every Christmas with my grandparents is such a special gift.

We love spending time with our cousins!!

Newman and Belle became friends! And I'm pretty sure any pics I would've attempted to take of those two would have been blurry because they played the whole time. They were so cute together. 

As busy as the holiday season is, I absolutely love it. I love getting to spend time with my family that I don't get to see very often... I love all of the amazing food... I love not having any major responsibilities and just relaxing. That's exactly what we did. 

And opening presents is pretty fun too!