Soccer Baby Booties

Remember baby Hannah for whom I made the pink tag elephant? Well, her mom emailed me the other day to ask if I could make some baby soccer booties for her because the Sambas they have won't be fitting her for awhile. I am, of course, always happy to promote soccer at a young age so I was excited to start this project. I decided to make them similar to actual Sambas but without the trademarked adidas 3 stripes. Here are some pictures of the final product:



They are up on my Etsy store if you fancy a pair for your nugget!

Sprinkles Cupcakes

Recently a Sprinkles Cupcakes opened in Houston and I finally made it into the city to give them a try this past weekend. I waited in a bit of a line because the actual shop is teeny tiny.

Once my turn was up I ordered key lime, chocolate marshmallow, peanut butter chocolate, and red velvet.

I also ordered a doggie cupcake for Baloo. Generally when I try cupcakes I am comparing them to my own recipes and deciding if they're worth paying for in comparison to my homemade version. Here I was also comparing them to my Houston favorite, Crave Cupcakes which was only a few miles away from the Sprinkles location. My first cupcake was the peanut butter chocolate.

This is easily one of my favorite flavor combos so I was excited to try this one first. It definitely didn't disappoint. Peanut butter tends to make everything really dry, but the peanut butter cake was amazingly moist and the chocolate chips were well distributed. The milk chocolate icing was just enough more chocolate to make the cupcake perfect. I could have done without the chocolate sprinkles, but the place is called Sprinkles so I guess they're a necessity.

Later that day and the following day I proceeded to eat the 3 remaining cupcakes. They were a slight disappointment after the amazingness of the peanut butter chocolate. The key lime was lacking flavor, the red velvet was a bit dry, and the chocolate marshmallow was essentially a hostess cake. Baloo did enjoy his doggie cupcake from what I could tell (he inhaled it).


Over all I would give them a 7 mostly because they offered doggie cupcakes and everyone knows I'm a sucker for spoiling my dog and because the peanut butter chocolate was so amazing.

Guittard Chocolates

All of my favorite baking bloggers preach the amazingness of the Guittard chocolates. I've never been able to find it at the groceries near me, but I happened to stop at H.E.B. after work on Friday since it was on the way to Jo-Anna and I saw the chocolates in the baking aisle. So I snagged some white chocolate chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips. I can't wait to find some great treats with these goodies. Stay tuned!

Mod Vintage Lavender booties

I've been cruising ModCloth a lot lately in search of dresses for various happenings and I think all the modern/ vintage styles are seeping into my brain because I made these super cute mod vintage lavender booties the other day:

They are made from a cotton fabric with a geometric print and spiced up with a little lace and bobble detailing. They're now available on my Etsy store (yes I still have one I've just been neglecting it lately). Let me know what you think!

Straight Up Chocolaty Goodness Brownies

I wanted to bake something Sunday night without having to make a trip to the grocery (it was raining and I was lazy). So, I perused my ever expanding binder of recipes I want to try and found one from an old Martha Stewart Living for 'Double-Chocolate Brownies'. They seemed easy enough and I've still not found an acceptable substitute for boxed mix brownies so I decided to give this recipe a try. In the past I have found that from scratch brownies I've tried were either too grainy (from soo much sugar), too cakey (probably too many eggs), or too crunchy (too much crust on the top). This recipe turned out excellent! I switched out the regular cocoa for Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa (as always) and I think it made it even more chocolaty. Here's a couple pics I've managed to snap in between scarfing the brownies:



Recipe:

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into large pieces
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/2c sugar
3 lg eggs
1/4c unsweetened special dark cocoa powder
1/2 t salt
1/2c + 2T flour

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease 8x8in square pan. Melt butter and chocolate in double boiler, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar. Whisk in eggs, one at a time until combined. Whisk in cocoa and salt. Fold in flour until just combined. Pour batter into pan. Bake about 35-40 minutes. Let cool. Or, let cool slightly and then serve warm with ice cream, yum! Enjoy!

San Antonio

One last Texas city trip before Christine leaves! This past weekend Christine and I went to San Antonio for the first time and saw all the sights. We stayed about a block from the riverwalk in a great hotel called the O'Brien Historic riverwalk Hotel. We first went to see the Alamo and walk around the little park they had created there. It was so packed that we didn't go inside the museum but we did get a couple of pictures outside:



Then we explored the riverwalk and eyed up some places for dinner etc.



After showering and a mini nap we headed back out to the riverwalk for a wine tasting at A Taste of Texas Wine and dinner at Paesanos Ristorante. We had originally wanted to do a food and wine tour of the city but this weekend was one of the few on which the tour was not running. We ended up having a great time at the wine tasting and convinced our bartender to drink with us. Here are the 5 Texas wines we tasted for only $3!!!


After a few more drinks we called it a night and headed back to the hotel. In the morning we were greeted with a continental breakfast featuring Texas-shaped waffles! So fun!


We were able to go to mass at the San Fernando Cathedral on Sunday and the church was really pretty. It is the oldest standing church building in Texas. Unfortunately, the only English mass of the morning was full of hymns and readings in Spanish, so that was pretty disappointing. After one last cruise of the riverwalk and picking up some candy apples, we headed back to Houston. It was a great trip, but I'm feeling pretty sad because it was Christine's last weekend in Texas before moving to Washington and starting her life with Ben. I get to see her again in a month for her wedding so that's something to look forward to :) Good luck in Washington, Christine, hope you enjoyed your stay in Texas!

Violet Velvet Cookies

Everyone knows that red velvet cake is a staple and favorite of the South. I personally love red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing all year round and the mention of red velvet always brings to mind the Steel Magnolias groomsman cake. I stumbled upon an interesting variation to this Southern classic the other day and I had to try them immediately. They were red velvet cookies with black and white icing. I wanted them to be more like their cake name-sake and switched the icing to cream cheese. After I started mixing I realized I didn't have any red food coloring due to so many previous batched of red velvet cupcakes and I substituted with violet food coloring. And voila, violet velvet cookies with cream cheese icing:



As expected, they were delicious and I pretty much inhaled them.

Violet Velvet Cookies:

1 1/4c flour
1 T dark cocoa powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
5 T butter, room temp
3/4c sugar
1 lg egg
1 T violet food coloring
1 t vanilla
1/2c buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, food coloring, and vanilla. Add in flour and buttermilk alternating until smooth and fully Incorporated. Place 1/4c scoops 2 in apart on baking sheet. Spread the batter out slightly until somewhat flat. Bake about 12-15 minutes. Let cookies sit 5 minutes and then transfer to a rack to cool.

Cream Cheese Icing

1 (8oz) brick cream cheese, room temp
1 t vanilla
~5c powdered sugar

Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Ass vanilla and powdered sugar until desired consistency is achieved. Spread icing on cooled cookies. Enjoy!