I have always loved cupcakes. They are so portable, and somehow you don’t feel as guilty eating a mini cupcake as you do eating a real piece of cake. Plus, you know that if I am making them that they are made using only the best and freshest ingredients available. I would never sell anything that I wouldn’t serve my family. (In moderation of course.)

We have two versions available right now, and if you want a different combination than what I offer, please ask and I am sure I can accommodate.

First we have my personal favorite, French Vanilla Cupcakes with Fresh Strawberry Buttercream

These are little bites of heaven wrapped in a cupcake wrapper. Butter, vanilla, and what is that?

Yes, it’s fresh strawberry buttercream. Made from real, fresh, and in season strawberries.

Made from scratch and frosted by hand, these cupcakes are to die for. They are sold in either batch of 50 mini cupcakes or about 2 dozen full size. Cupcake wrapper can be customized to match your event. How cute would these be for a bridal shower or baby shower?

The strawberry buttercream is also awesome on the Dark Chocolate Cupcakes…. just so you know.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

These are little bites of heaven wrapped in a cupcake wrapper. Notes of chocolate, real butter and yes, real vanilla make this cupcake something to sing about. These are Trav’s favorite. I now not allowed to buy frosting anymore. The homemade butter cream is just too good. Sweet; but not too sweet, it has a creamy, buttery goodness that compliments the vanilla nicely.

Last but certainly not least,

Sinful Caramel Brownies

Personal trainer to work them off not included. Made with dark chocolate, chocolate chips, gooey, flowing caramel and topped with a decadent cover of powdered sugar, these are brownies you won’t forget.

You will receive one 8x8ish sized pan of unblemished brownie perfection. Suggested servings per pan is 16 brownies. You know, in case you want to share.

Without being overly dramatic, I can honestly say that it is EVERYTHING I HOPED IT WOULD BE! It is extremely easy to use and I love it.

By far, one of my favorite apps that I have “bought” is Instagram. It’s a free app that allows you to crop your iPhone photos and apply fun filters (like running an action in photoshop) to your photos and share them with friends in Instagram or even share them on Twitter or Facebook.

Here are a few of my favorite instagram photos:

This by far is my favorite non-Alton photo. Isn’t it pretty?

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The one little downside of Instragram is that the picture size is small… only 612×612 by pixels. But that doesn’t mean you can’t print them!

The fine people over at Persnickety Prints have come to save the day! (And your Instagram photos!)

They offer an upload service to print your instagram directly from your iPhone, or you can go old school, download them to your computer and use one of their free templates to print several on a sheet for as low as .99 cents!

They have a whole page that tells you the SEVEN ways you can print your Instagram photos with Persnickety…

So if you have an iPhone give Instagram a try. You will love it.  If you want to follow me on Instagram, my name there is jengraham.

Have an awesome day. Take a picture.

Travis grew up with his uncle living down the street from the early 80s. This is when Laurel got the confirmed bachelor to give marriage another try. “The Other Grahams”, we at every family event, and it wasn’t a party until Lowell and Larry were fighting over who got to wash the dishes. (Yes ladies, those men do exist.)

When Travis and I started dating, I am pretty certain that it was a shock to his parents. I wasn’t thin, blonde or from Bel Air, Beverly Hills, or The Hill. But Larry was always gracious with me and immediately accepted me as a member of the family. He and Laurel somehow sensed what Travis’s parents did not, that Travis and I were good for each other and Larry would often quip when I did something that amazed or befuddled him, (I possess a mechanical inclination that has escaped the previous two generations of Grahams)

“I’ll dance at your wedding.”

I took this as his stamp of approval, that he would welcome me into the crazy Graham clan.

Well we didn’t have dancing at our reception. It rained and we were all crammed into Trav’s parents house. But Larry and Laurel were in our wedding. So in a way he was right.

When Travis’s dad died, Larry became like a second father to Trav. Every North Carolina basketball game was an excuse for a family get together, and he was a fixture in our living room for every major sporting event. When Travis’s dad was alive we enjoyed doing those things with him, and I know that Travis has cherished doing the same thing with Larry.

“Larry’s going to outlive us all.” was a familiar family saying. Lowell ate bran and gave up fat and desserts and he died early. “Larry drank his way through the 80′s, thinks that Bologna is a food group and wouldn’t recognize a glass of water if you diagrammed it for him, but darn it, he is going to live to be 100!”

Have I mentioned that Larry, like all Graham males is stubborn? He drinks Diet Coke like he should be drinking water and has used chewing tobacco for as long as I have known him. We have been trying to get him off of “the chaw” since their oldest learned about second hand smoke, but Larry is stubborn. He wouldn’t give it up.

He was diagnosed with Throat Cancer recently, and even more recently he came down with double pneumonia. I think he is still not speaking to George (his oldest son) for having to call 911. Larry doesn’t like hospitals. This morning he is going into surgery. Which wouldn’t be a big deal except all of a sudden Larry has gotten frail. To the point where he reminds me of my grandfather… and what he was like before he died. I makes me wonder, have we done enough to make sure that he knows God. So that at the end of the day when that day comes that Larry will go home to be with Jesus like his younger brother did six summers ago?

Like many other people I know I tend to keep my faith to myself somewhat. I have a comfortable Christian bubble that I live in. I attend a church sponsored Moms group, we attend church every Saturday night, and most of my friends are ladies that I know from these venues. So it’s easy to live my faith with them, and talk about God and Jesus.  But if I am honest with myself, I haven’t done enough. I haven’t talked to Larry about his salvation ever. I haven’t asked him what his thoughts are about God and Jesus because it was too easy to pretend that we had forever… Larry is going to live to be 100 remember? Plus I was afraid he would ask me a question that I didn’t know the answer to or goodness forbid pull out his lawyering skills and argue with me and I didn’t want to be uncomfortable.

So here we are. I just pray that we have Larry for longer than just tomorrow and that somehow God gives me or Travis the words to speak to Larry’s heart that he might know Jesus, and that Jesus died so that he can be with God again. If you are praying sort please pray for Larry on Friday.

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I love halibut. It is my favorite of all the fish and this week Sprouts has wild caught fresh (not frozen!) halibut on sale. So I made it for dinner tonight. Alton finished his “halibut chicken” at top speed, and Trav and I savored our portions. They were like buttah… Somehow today during my travels on the wilds of the internets, I found a recipe for “Creamy” Brown Rice, and I made that too. I forgot we were out of lettuce, so instead of making the Pistachio, Bacon and Strawberry Salad, I’d planned on making, I made a fresh berry salad instead. (Alton also devoured that like he’d not been fed all day.)

The Lemon Halibut was prepared like so:
1 1/4 pound of halibut filets
1 cup of flour for dredging
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 T butter
1 T grapeseed oil
Juice of 1 lemon

Dry the fish with a paper towel and then dredge in the flour/salt/pepper mixture. Set aside.
Melt the butter in a large skillet and drizzle with the oil. (This keeps the butter from burning while you cook the fish.)
When the pan is good and hot (medium heat) place the filets in the pan with the thicker parts in the center.
Once they are cooked about half way through, (depending on how big your fish is, about 5 minutes or so for mine) gently flip the halibut, and then squeeze the lemon over the fish and in the pan drippings.
Once the filets are done, (don’t be afraid to remove the smaller, thinner pieces sooner, you don’t want them to dry out!) transfer them to their serving plate and then drizzle the fish with the “sauce” that’s left in the pan.

The Triple Berry Salad
1 pint of strawberries quartered
1 pint of blackberries
1 pint of blueberries
drizzle of honey
juice of 1 orange

Wash and spin your berries dry. Then drizzle on top a bit of honey. (I do one big spiral drizzle and that is usually the perfect amount to sweeten the berries.) Halve your orange and squeeze the juice over the berries. Stir the berries gently to distribute the “sauce” and then enjoy!

I know that there are purists who believe you should NEVER serve cheese with fish. While I normally agree with this rule, I am going to go on record saying that this rice was AWESOME and it wasn’t overly cheesey, so it went well with the fish tonight.  Travis was seriously eating it straight out of the casserole dish and I finished my whole portion, even though it was brown rice. Make it soon without delay.

Have a good night!

Alton has outgrown the primary colored fish bathroom decor that we got at Target when he has born. Plus the lotion dispenser and soap dish were long ago broken, so I decided it was time to update “the girl bathroom” in our house.

The before:

Luckily, today is my birthday and I had a gift card and some coupons so I was able to redo the whole thing for less than $35 out of pocket. Quite the feat I would say since most shower curtains alone are at least $30.00

The After:

I LOVE my new shower curtain to pieces. I got it at Cost Plus. I am a member of their rewards program, so they sent me $10 free for my birthday. Plus today they sent a 10% off coupon which I used for the shower curtain and the beautimous new soap dish shown below.

I got a new shower curtain liner at Bed, Bath and Beyond, (love their coupons!!!) and the new toothbrush holder. I also got the new shower curtain rings there, and the new bath mat at Costco. They have the same bath mat at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but it’s MUCH cheaper at Costco. (I don’t count this in my total since DH bought the floor mat on Saturday…)

The basket I already had, I just re-purposed it for bathroom use. I can not remember if I bought it at Bed Bath and Beyond or Target. It’s got nifty little dividers to make organizing in a small space possible. It holds our wash cloths, Q-tips, a plant (the one plant I haven’t killed since Alton’s been born), and Trav’s razor with room to spare. It will hold the cotton jar too once I remember to get more at Target.

My favorite part is the new soap dish and soap. My friend Leigh and her husband Paul make these wonderful, all natural soaps by hand. This one is her Coffee and Cinnamon soap and it has little grounds of real coffee in it so it exfoliates nicely. Plus it makes the bathroom smell really good, which is something we should all be striving for anyway right?

Travis and Alton like the new bathroom. Travis says that it looks like boys don’t even live here… I think that’s a compliment? Sometime I would like to paint this bathroom a light  turquoise and add some wall art, but for now it’s nice  the way it is.

Have a happy day!

So far it is everything I hoped it would be. I have even been using it in Manual mode… there are just so many good photography tutorials out there. Do you know of any good ones you’d like to share?

Anyway as the title of my post suggests, I have been hybrid scrapping this week.

First from Wm[squared] I used her Christmas Wishes collection to make this card:

Next, I used Kate Hadfield’s Nativity to make Alton a darling Christmas t-shirt

and I also made myself a new stocking. It’s not hybrid or anything, but I love how it came out!

I used the leftover fabric that I had from making my camera strap cover. I am deeply smitten with this tiffany blue fabric! I used an awesome tutorial found here.

and two actual layouts!

Uses Wyld Web Designs A Very Merry Holiday Bundle by Wyld Web Designs

and this photoless layout uses I used the Kate Hadfield doodle pack, Night Before Christmas, Sahlin Studio Paper Pack painted: fresh snow papers, Valorie Wibbens Elements from Brrrrr Elements and  Rachel Young Papers from Christmas Waltz Papers

This is a photo I took once people had already started to eat it. My bad.

This is a pretty one from the Allrecipes site, I love how it looks!

You don’t have a trifle bowl? No problem, make individual trifles in assorted cocktail glasses.

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Ingredients

• 1 (14.5 ounce) package gingerbread cake mix
• 3 cups eggnog
• 1 (5.1 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup sweetened dried cranberries, chopped (optional)
• 2 tablespoons gingersnap cookie crumbs (optional)

Footnotes

• You can use already made whipped cream, but I prefer to flavor my whipped cream myself. You can substitute bourbon for the vanilla extract in the whipped cream if you like.
• If you use low fat eggnog for the pudding, your pudding will be loose.
• The pudding is my favorite part. I am not opposed to doubling the pudding portion.

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Mama, the Over Achiever

Alton the lover of the sprinkles

Daddy who came late the party, but still wanted to play

Travis ended up using one of the reject sad little spread cookies that were left over. He wanted “a really really big one!”

We ended up having 10 kids over to decorate and it was a lot fun! We initally had everything set up on our patio outside, but then it started to rain. Rain and sugar sprinkles do not mix it turns out, so into the tiny living room we crammed.

I think it’s pretty funny that in this picture, half of the boys aren’t even decorating cookies, but in fact joyfully consuming them instead. That’s my girlfriend Kathryn’s daughter, Mia eating red frosting directly from the can.

This one was my very favorite… I couldn’t bear to eat it, so I ended up giving it to a friend instead. I don’t know how I did it, but all of the little stars ended up looking like little flowers. So pretty!

I don’t think I will be making Santa sugar cookies though. I think I am going to make him these:

Walnut Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Ingredients
1 cup of butter (room temperature)
1 Cup White Sugar
1 Cup Brown Sugar
2 eggs (room temperature)
1 tsp Vanilla

2 cups of Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups chocolate chips (your choice of milk or semi-sweet)
1/2-1 cup chopped walnuts (I used 1/2 a cup, but I think they should be nuttier)

Preheat your oven to 375

Cream the butter and sugars until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, and then add the vanilla

Sift your dry ingredients and add gradually to the butter mixture.

Stir in the nuts and chips.

Bake for 8-10 minutes for about a tablespoon of dough. I use a #40 ice cream scooper to scoop my dough and if you go that big, you will need to bake them for 12 1/2-13 minutes. Let them cool on the baking sheet for two minutes before you transfer them to the cooling rack.

Adapted from a recipe on Allrecipes

If you just don’t have time to make these yourself, they are available in my store.

Despite being armed with the knowledge of my short coming, I inevitably and annually cave to societal pressure, and attempt to make sugar cookies from scratch so that I can decorate them with my mini-sous chef. In fact, emboldened by our somewhat successful making of Gingerbread cookie cut outs with assistance from the fine people at Pillsbury last weekend, I decided to decorate Sugar cookies this weekend, and invited 10 of Alton’s closest friends and their mothers to come over and join us.

This is what happened when I tried to cheat the Kitchen Gods of the holiday season and used the Pillsbury Sugar cookie dough:

Dude. They spread like the waist line of a woman who’s discovered Christmas Crack and Salted Caramel Brownies!

The mittens are almost unrecognizable and don’t even get me started on the trees! They all stuck to the cookie sheets and they look nothing like the ones on the Pillsbury sugar cookie package. Luckily there are a number of boys coming over to decorate cookies in the morning, and let’s be honest. The boys don’t really care what the cookies look like per se; they just want a vehicle to shovel frosting and sprinkles into their mouths faster than their mamas can notice.

Anyway, I have some “Not supposed to spread and your cut outs will keep their shape” sugar cookie dough that I made from scratch now chilling in the fridge. I will report back on how it does.

Enough about me, I have shop news.

Introducing, Eggnog Pound Cake