Snuggle Down!

My Mom is going to a baby shower for her friend's new granddaughter (she was born early so she's already here) and asked me to make something for her to gift. I was told that the new mom was a little bit goth and was having a girl. So, I found this awesome jersey cotton fabric and decided to make a swaddler. Apparently babies love to be wrapped up like a burrito and cuddled. I used a suuuper soft fleece for the lining and no-snag Velcro to hold the flaps in their 'swaddle position'. I think it turned out extremely cute and I can't wait to make another. Hope it goes over well at the baby shower this weekend! Here are some pics:
Open

Fold flap one

Secure flap two

Let me know what you think!

Comfort foods?

Now that it’s starting to be Summer I’ve started working on my “recipes I’d like to try” binder. It’s quite large and overflowing. Last night I made Congo Bars from a Bakerella recipe and Turkey Meatballs from a Real Simple Magazine recipe. I've never made meatballs before and I'm fairly certain I've never had meatballs before. Insanity, I know. But I stopped eating red meat in the 7th grade and my mom's spaghetti sauce always had the meat mixed in, not in meatball form. Anywho, both recipes turned out delicious. I changed a few things to my liking as always, so you can click on the links to see the original recipes or check out my versions below.




Congo Bars

Ingredients:
2 3/4c all purpose flour
2 1/2t baking powder
1/2t salt
2/3c butter, softened
1 lb. dark brown sugar
3 eggs
1t vanilla
12 ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven at 350F
Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
Combine butter and sugar using a mixer until blended.
Add eggs, one at a time to sugar mixture, mixing on low in between each addition.
Add vanilla and mix.
Add flour and mix until combined.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.



Turkey Meatballs

Ingredients:
4T olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 (28oz) can tomato puree
1 (6oz) can tomato paste
1 T sugar
1t cayenne pepper
1T Italian seasoning
1/2c grated Parmesan
2T chopped fresh oregano, divided
S & P
1 large egg
1lb ground turkey
16 saltine crackers, finely crushed (about 3⁄4 cup)
12 ounces spaghetti (3⁄4 box)

Directions
Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and half the garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the tomato puree and paste, sugar, cayenne pepper, Italian seasoning, half the Parmesan, 1 tablespoon of the oregano, ½ teaspoon salt, and 1½ cups water. Simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, lightly beat the egg. Add the turkey, crackers, the remaining Parmesan, garlic, and oregano, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Shape the mixture into 12 meatballs (about 1½ inches each).
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook the meatballs, turning occasionally, until browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Add to the sauce and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens, 25 to 30 minutes.
Cook the spaghetti (I used Hodgson Mill Whole Wheat Spinach Spaghetti, gave it kind of a Christmas in May look haha) according to the package directions. Serve with the meatballs and sauce.

Give me a shout if you ever try any of the recipes I share here with you! enjoy!

Etsy Baby Shower

I recently signed up to participate in the Etsy Baby Shower. Basically a bunch of expecting moms sign up to receive gifts from Etsy stores that carry baby products. Then Etsy stores sign up to donate gifts to these moms. Each mom gets 4 gifts (usually from 4 different stores) and each Etsy shop can sign up to give as many gifts as they want. I signed up to give 4 gifts and I got 3 moms (one set of boy/girl twins!!!). Throughout the process the Etsy Baby Shower organizers promote the shops participating kind of as a thank you for donating. Here is a Treasury that I’ve been featured in:


Last night I started working on my gifts. I bought this adorable baby hat pattern about a month ago and I finally gave it a try. I think it turned out adorable! The sizes from the pattern are a little large for a newborn, so I’m going to try and scale down the pattern for my gifts. I’ll post updates as I make the gifts for the cuties I’ve been assigned. Here’s a pic of the first hat I made:



I used corduroy for the outside, jersey cotton for the lining, and a scrap of suede for the argyle patch. Let me know what you think!

Margarita Cupcakes

My friend Todd's birthday was on Cinco de Mayo so I made him Margarita Cupcakes in celebration. I got the recipe from Baked by Joanna's blog. These cupcakes were suuuper delicious. They're basically lime cupcakes with a hint of tequila. Definitely a fresh alternative to chocolate and vanilla. The frosting recipe doesn't make a whole lot of frosting, but it's so strong you really shouldn't put more than a thin layer on each cupcake. Here are a few pics of mine (you can see really nicely done ones on Joanna's blog):



And now the recipe. I re-wrote some of it because it makes more sense to me when recipes are split up into batter and frosting:

Ingredients

Cupcakes:
2 sticks butter, softened
2c sugar
4 large eggs, plus 1 large egg white
2T vegetable oil
2 3/4c flour
2 1/2t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
1t salt
3/4c plus 2T milk
2T lime juice
1/2t vanilla
Zest from 3 small limes

Frosting:
1 stick butter, softened
2T tequila (or more)
1/2t vanilla
1/4c minus the 2T from the batter lime juice
Zest from 3 small limes
1t salt
2 1/2c confectioners sugar (or more to reach desired consistency)
Sanding sugar for the edges

Cupcake Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare 2 cupcake pans with baking liners.

2. Beat butter and the granulated sugar together until creamy. Then, beat in the eggs, egg white, and oil gradually.

3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a small bowl, stir together the milk, lime juice, and vanilla extract. Alternate adding the milk mixture and then the flour mixture into the beaten butter until all has been incorporated.

4. Add the lime zest to the batter and mix.

5. Fill each baking liner about two-thirds full with batter, and bake for about 17 minutes (golden yellow). Once complete, set aside to cool completely before frosting.


Frosting Directions:
1. To make the frosting, beat the butter until creamy; then add 1 cup confectioners' sugar and continue to mix. Once thoroughly combined, add the tequila, remaining lime juice, vanilla, lime zest and salt until smooth and creamy. Finish by beating in the remaining 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar a third at a time.

7. Lightly frost the cooled cupcakes and cover the sides with sanding sugar; similar to a ring of salt on the rim of a margarita glass.

Enjoy!

Fun-filled Weekend

Super fun weekend! Started off on Friday with an Astros game and Friday night fireworks. The Astros lost (not surprising) to the Padres, but we won big with discount tickets and an awesome fireworks show. Side note: Yankees beat the Red Sox 10-3 Friday ;) Here are some pics from the evening:


Saturday was a win versus Hello Kitty in Gilruth soccer, followed by baking margarita cupcakes for the Todd's birthday celebration (recipe soon to follow). Lots of people gathered at the Flying Saucer for Todd's 10th anniversary of his 21st birthday. I haven't been to the saucer since July!! So happy to be back. I Had a delicious Dogfish Head Burton Baton added to my beer list. Then I headed back out to Clear Lake for some Spazmatics!! I haven't seen them in forever as well so that was loads of fun. Here are some pics from that gathering:



Wished my wonderful Mom a Happy Mother's Day on Sunday. Hope everyone had a great weekend! And now back to work :(

Baloo, so hansome

Baloo has been acting weird and clingy lately. I don't know if he knows we're moving or what's up with him. he climbed into our armchair with me the other day, which never happens. 80 pound dog+ 5'8" me in one chair is a little cozy to say the least. He cuddled with me until I go too hot sitting there and then he enjoyed the chair by himself. Here's a couple of pics of his cuteness:

Happy Friday!

Bake for Hope

I know I promised to take pictures of the goodies I made to donate to the Bake for Hope bake sale, but I was so rushed that I forgot. Whoopsies. I made dark chocolate cupcakes, butterscotch blondies, and Oreo chunk chocolate chip cookies in case you're wondering. The bake sale was in League City led by Mandy Loeffler. The bake sale raised $220 for Bake for Hope. The money will go towards breast cancer research and all similar efforts as the Susan G. Komen society benefits. Here is a picture of the ladies running the bake sale and a few items that were available: