I'm back!

I feel SO bad for leaving you all without any recipes, photos, words, etc. for the past week or so. No excuses, but lets face it, I was unorganized, very busy, tired and lazy. I went out of town too. Here's a sneak peak to what I did over the long Easter weekend. Can you guess where I went? :)

I do have a few recipes/photos to share with you ASAP! I know that you really just cannot wait any longer to hear from me, but I hope to have some more posts later this week. If you really want to chat though or want to share a recipe for me to try, by all means send me an email. You would seriously make my day! :)

P.S. Did I tell you I'm playing kickball on Wednesday nights? Can you believe it? :) Hey, I didn't say I was any good though...

Have a wonderful week!

Bitty Baked Brownies

Salad justifies a brownie, right? Especially a bitty one. Good, because I'm pretty sure we had salad for dinner the night my friend Jessica and I made these little babies...And hey, we had a chocolate craving. What's a girl to do? Thank the Lord, I had all the ingredients on hand to make these. I had been wanting to make "The Baked Brownie" for a while, but it always seemed like too much work when I needed a brownie ASAP.

Since Jessica was over and willing to help, the prep time in half. Done.Now J is not normally a baker, but she was sweet to help me out. We learned how to halve a recipe haha- don't forget you must halve ALL the ingredients! :) We learned a lot too- did I mention that?

As for the brownies, they are so rich and decadent. You can really taste the quality in the chocolate. The directions said to wait until they were cool, but I thought they had a whole other dimension while warm and slightly gooey. With ice cream. :)

New York Style Crumb Cake

Crumb Cake. Coffee Cake. Cake. Know what all those things have in common? I'll give you three guesses...

I could talk about my love for all things cakey all day, but some people get bored with that. Some people prefer to talk about shoes or candy or queso dip or even work. Yuck. I do like shoes...

Every day once in a while  I have a big craving for a breakfast pastry, cake or cinny roll- I know, I need help. Thank goodness I found this recipe from Bree to help me in a crisis. Along with a couple helper boys, I managed to eat every last piece of this breakfast treat. The buttery brown sugar, cakey parts and snowflakes of powered sugar all mix together to form a little piece of heaven. I seriously thought I heard a harp playing when I took my first bite. Long story short, I think you might like this. Also, if you need help eating it, I'm so there for you. That's what friends are for. BTW, I am so not eating Carrot Cake French Toast as I write this...

Is it still my birthday?

24 hours seems like a short time for a day when its your birthday. Especially when you are sleeping for 8 hours of it (I'm being optimistic) and working for 9 1/2 (also optimistic). Not that I'm complaining! I had a great time out at dinner with friends. Would you be shocked if I told you I surprised myself with a cupcake cake? :) Well it was from my Mom and Dad (Thanks guys!), but it might have been my idea...

 

I did take Friday off work to enjoy myself and really didn't get much done other than sleeping in and laundry, but I think beauty sleep is priceless.  My Aunt Cathie and Uncle David passed through Austin Friday night on their road trip back to San Diego, so of course I had to show them the Austin highlights.

Aunt Cathie and me at Guerro's- a local Mexican restaurant

Saturday one of my close friends from college (and roommate of 2 years!), Michelle, came to visit me from Houston and we had a fun night out!

Michelle and me downtown

Here are a few photos from my birthday dinner for your enjoyment. I guess I forgot to get one of the whole group, however I was very insistent on getting a photo with each person. Thank you everyone for making my birthday so special! :)

Brittney and me- IDK what was so funny?

Brittney, Mandy and Kelly

Sandy, Jessica and me

The big 2-4

Yes, today is my 24 birthday! Happy Birthday to me! :) I also have 24 (update- 25!) followers- I just wanted to say THANK YOU to all of you for reading my blog. It blows my mind that anyone wants to read it except for me and my mom- haha.

"Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said, 'Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?'"
2 Samuel 7:18 (ESV)

I am so blessed in so many ways!

Snickerdoodley-do my darling

I've not been craving chocolate lately. I've wanted vanilla-y stuff. I've been looking for a reason to make vanilla cupcakes with vanilla icing just because I never do that. It sounds delicious. :) Anyway, I ended up making these snickerdoodles for a few reasons.

1. cookies are decidedly easier to make than cupcakes
2. I had all the ingredients
3. they would be ready to eat sooner

SOLD! This recipe is from Bree- are you surprised? I just love everything she makes!

These were really tasty- I got the A-OK approval from all tasting parties. :) I even packaged half of them up to give to my friend Ashley at Ashley D Photography to thank her for giving me some photography lessons.

I know you're wondering why my photography hasn't improved yet now that you know this, but just be patient! I've only had one lesson and it was AFTER I made these. :) I'm working on it... My major problem is that I only have time to do my baking late at night, so its dark...Stop thinking about that and start thinking about making these cookies. :) The cookie dough is also yummy, but if anyone asks, I'm not the one who told you to eat raw dough!

Homemade Meat Sauce

 
My go-to meat sauce is ground beef + a jar of tomato sauce. Nothing wrong with that! I wanted to try something new and came across Nonnies Meat Sauce from Bree's blog. This is perfect to make on a Sunday afternoon while you've got a couple loads of laundry in and you're doing some cleaning...or laying on the couch in front of the TV. :) It just needs a couple hours to simmer.

 This sauce is good- the mushrooms really add that richness. I could not find dried porcini mushrooms at HEB, so I used dried shitake (found in the Asian foods aisle). I still think it needs a little extra something though. Next time I'll add some more seasonings and maybe somemore tomato sauce. If you like your sauce very thick, don't change a thing though! Yum :) Can't mess with Nonnie, right?