Fall is coming!

School has started and fall is coming. I am kind of sad that summer has ended, (at least for me) but fall has some good things about it as well. I always struggle with fall clothes though. What to wear.... I recently went to Target and bought a pair of gray suede boots, that I absolutely LOVE! I also bought a purple solid color shirt, and a pale blue shirt.

What exactly do you think are fall colors? When I think of fall, I think of deep, dark colors. Burnt oranges, dark greens, plum purples etc. But I don't really like those colors. At least they don't look that great on me. So I was thinking of using lots of gray, blue, different shades of purple, and some green. Not exactly fall colors, but I like to change things up.

I only like fall sometimes. (Confusing, I know :) I do not like fall when it is always dark and dreary, and when it rains a lot. I like fall when it is just starting to get cool, and the leaves are slowly changing. Last year fall was very depressing. (And winter- to much snow!)

Several days ago I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache, and white chocolate curls on top. YUM!! I used the chocolate ganache recipe from Georgetown Cupcake. All you need is 2 C. chocolate chips, and 1 C. heavy cream. Easy, right? You just put a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water and add in the chocolate and the cream, while stirring the whole time. It only takes about 3 minutes to make, and it taste great! After I made the cupcakes, I had left over ganache and I dipped pretzels in it. :P They also said that it is great warm, over ice cream. I am sure that would be wonderful. ;)

-Caroline

My favorite TV shows

I thought I would do a series of posts on my favorite TV shows. So here is number 1!!

DC CUPCAKES!

Not only is DC Cupcakes a cute show, but all of their cupcakes are homemade, and look delicious!

Sophie (on the left) and Katherine (on the right) are sisters who opened up a cupcake bakery in DC called Georgetown Cupcake.

You can go to this site to view their list of flavors!

Their bio:

"Georgetown Cupcake is DC's destination for gourmet cupcakes. We bake our cupcakes on site daily and use the finest ingredients- Valrhona chocolate, Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla, European sweet cream butter and gourmet chocolate sprinkles."

Meet Katherine & Sophie

Georgetown Cupcake was founded by sisters Katherine Kallinis and Sophie LaMontagne. Katherine and Sophie traded careers in fashion and private equity to pursue something a little sweeter — their passion for artful cupcakes. Both lifelong bakers, inspired by their grandmothers, Katherine and Sophie opened Georgetown Cupcake in February 2008 as DC’s first and only cupcakery.

All of their flavors sound fantastic! I can't wait to go there some day. :)

Can you say "YUM?"

All of the pink boxes behind them are used to package each cupcake. How cute!

In several of their episodes, both girls have worn matching pink rainboots, black pants and shirt, and pink aprons. Not only can they make amazing cupcakes, they have a really cute sense of style!

You can watch DC cupcakes for free online at TLC or Hulu.com

XOXO

Caroline

Mothers Day

As you can tell, I am a little late on doing my Mothers Day post! Better late than never I guess!

We had a really nice, relaxing Mothers Day. My sisters and I (& my Dad) made my Mom lunch, after getting back from church. For lunch, we had a mexican theme- Grilled chicken, corn-bean-

cilantro salad, salad with avocado and tomatos, and dessert.

We invited both of our Grandma's but only one could come. :( On the way home from shopping on Saturday, (I got an adorable blue and white striped towel with red lobsters! So fun! I could onl find a picture of sheets, but my towel looks exactly like this, except with bigger stripes.)

we went by a "pick your own" flower field, full of all different colored Irises. We got some in all different shades of purple. The lady who owns it had opened it in the 70's and now her daughters help her with it. It was so nice to still have a home business, and we enjoyed being able to pick out all our own flowers.

How was your Mothers Day?

Xx

cCr

Honky Tonks!

Last night my family and I went to a newly opened restaurant called Honky Tonks BBQ. The neat thing about Honky Tonks is that it is not a specific style of barbeque, it is their own style! The sauce that goes on it is delicious and so were their sides! We got three cheese macaroni & cheese, fries, BBQ sandwiches and Jalapeno beans. (Sounds healthy, right?) Well let me tell you, it was great! I think it was probably some of the best BBQ I have ever tried! It is not a sit down restaurant, you just go in and pick up your order. The colors were green and black, which made it really cute! If you have a Honky Tonks in your city/state be sure to stop by! I am sure you will love it!

In other news, I got two new guitar picks yesterday! Can you guess which colors I got? Why pink & green of course! I also want a navy one, but I can wait. I also need to get a guitar strap, the problem was that I don't like any of the ones I have seen. Most of them had flames, sculls and cross bones or hawaiian flowers. I wasn't exactly jumping up and down with joy. I looked on Etsy and Ebay. I found one on Etsy that is homemade and pretty cute. I love the pattern.

If you know of anyone, or anyplace who makes them, please leave me a comment and let me know! Wouldn't a monogrammed one be cute?

XOXO

CCR

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

Some times getting into the 'Christmas Spirit" is hard for me. Once Thanksgiving is over, we have gotten our tree, (might I say that our tree looks fantastic!! Gets better every year! ;) and bake Christmas food, I feel a little bit more ready!! Sooo, here are some of my very favorite Christmas treats!

Ice Cubes Candy

Sparkling Cider

Mary Poppins (or sausage Cheese balls)

Peppermint Chocolate cookies

My Grandmas Punch

My grandmas Chex mix (aka Trash. Have no clue where the name came from!)

Chex

Sugared Pecans

Mini Spinach Quiche

Cheese Straws

Hot Chocolate

Italian Wedding Cookies

I hope I have done my job in getting you into the Christmas spirit, and making you extremely hungry. (I know I made myself hungry!)

What are some of your family food traditions?

xoxo

CCR

Grilling

Grilling is the best way to cook ever! (Well that and roasting {click here for an amazing Ina Garten roasted berries dish- YUM} ) Sunday, my mom asked me what to make for lunch, the first thing (s) I thought of were kabobs. It was really warm yesterday and I guess that is what made me choose a summer menu. They were delish! I wish I had taken pictures. We had......


Grilled chicken, red and yellow pepper kabobs


Grilled Asparagus


Pesto Pasta


Iced tea


For dessert we had something that was a lot like tiramisu (MY FAVORITE DESSERT!) but it was slightly different.


YUMMY!!




Oh my word, I just looked out the window (At 5:32 PM) and it is dark. DARK!!! So early!! NOOOOOO! Well I guess that is what comes inside the winter package. Darkness, cold, and snow. Sounds good to me. (HA)

Have a good rest of the week!

xoxo
CCR

A Latte of Pumpkin Pie

Yesterday evening I really wanted to make a pumpkin spice latte. So I got out all of the ingredients, and started making it. Lets just say it didn't turn out as desired. It was way to thick to be a latte, but I didn't want to waste it.

The texture of the "latte" was more like a pumpkin pie, so I made pumpkin pie!

(I did look up pumpkin pie and add what I had left out!;)

It actually tasted great! (and if you are wondering, no you could not taste the coffee! I guess it baked out.)

Having pumpkin pie made me think about all the wonderful things about fall.

-Bonfires with friends

-Our family fall festival with our good friends

-s'mores

-Thanksgiving

-long walks on cold days

-Leaf piles

-Fall fashion- (not this years!) Classic cords, rain-boots, long sleeved shirts

What do you think of what when you hear the word "fall?"

Sincerely,

CCR

PEACH ice cream

What is better than peach ice cream???? HOMEMADE peach ice cream. It was my parent anniversary, so while they were away, they picked up a HUGE basket of peaches. The peaches didn't look the best on the outside, but you could easily cut off the bad parts. The peaches still tasted delish, and a whole box of a peaches was a steal because they were starting to go bad.

The ice cream turned out tasting wonderful. (Even though our ice cream maker broke, a little more than half way through. Thank heavens for freezers!)

It has been a (family) tradition on road trips, to stop by a road fruit stand and get a cone of homemade peach ice cream. Does your family have/had any food traditions like that?

Inside of the directions for our ice cream maker I found a recipe for homemade banana ice cream. It just sounded to good to be true, so I thought I would post it-

2 Quarts of Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients

3 medium sized ripe bananas

2 cups of milk

1 cup of sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups heavy whipping cream

Directions

Scald 1 cup milk until luke warm: add sugar and salt. stir until dissolved. Add remaining milk. pour into ice cream can. add nutmeg & vanilla extract. Fold in lightly whipped cream. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes. Crush Bananas with a fork to fine pulp, stir in lemon juice. add to chilled mixture before churning. Churn according to directions. (It should say how long on you ice cream maker.)

I will definitely have to try it out some time!

The Club

Ahhhhhh........ Working out!! While we are in ___________ my dad bought us a gym member-ship. The Gym is awesome!! They have.... Indoor and outdoor tennis courts, indoor and outdoor pools, a HUGE work out room, track, and spa.* (*not included.... Unfortunately...)

We have been trying to go regularly, but it does not always work out with my 'waking up' schedule. I am ashamed to say..... BUT- we are going to try going before lunch. Like we did today! Hopefully that will work out!

My grandma is coming to see us for a week and 2

days!! I can't wait. I am sure we will be fixing her 'signature dishes.' Chicken salad, homemade macaroni and cheese, chicken croissant and brie, scalloped potatoes....Ummmmmm..... I am so thankful that she is in good health and can come see us!

Yesterday we went to Goodwill. I got a black and white/wicker/bamboo handled purse, an old Trixie Belden book, and a cocoon sweater.

This is as close of a picture as I could find! Mine is cream and not as cocoon-ish looking. Also- I would NEVER wear an outfit like this.... I am just lovin' the leggings and high heels!!. lol

Caroline

Italian Wedding Soup

Saturday, my family and I went to a cute little Italian restaurant called- "The Spaghetti Warehouse."

The walls had tons of vintage decorating, and right in the middle was a caboose, which you could eat inside! The food was excellent, the service- marvelous, and the decorating- fun. They had lots of old commercial food posters, like 'Squirt, Coka Cola, ETC.

For dinner I got- Alfredo, shrimp, angel hair pasta, Italian wedding

soup, sour dough bread with garlic butter, and Italian Spumoni. (Cherry, pistachio, and chocolate ice cream.)

I LOVED the Italian wedding soup. That same day I had been

looking at Ina Gartens book, 'Barefoot Contessa Back to the Basics,' and seen the recipe, needless to say- I was excited to find it on the menu!

For Italian Wedding Soup recipe, click HERE

Several days ago, as I was flipping through the cook book above, I found a recipe for a French Apple tart. I was feeling the need for something sweet so I decided to try it out.

French Apple Tart Recipe, HERE

The same day we went to the SPaghetti Warehouse, we also went on a tour of the City. We went on an amazing tour called 'Just Duck Tours.' It was a nice little red bus. But the thing about this bus, is that it went on land, and WATER!! So we got to tour the area from two different angles!! Who invented those things!?!??!

After that we went to the pool, and played some tennis. I m trying to get good at that. I would like to be able to do SOME sort of sport! And plus tennis is cute, and fun!!

xoxo

-Caroline

For you? 5 dolla!

I am getting ready to go to the farmers market and sell some homemade things with my friend Miriam. I am making some flower hair accessories, earrings racks, and some earrings. So fun!! The only part I am not so happy about it- the price at craft stores. Sometimes it seems almost cheaper to buy a pair of earrings than to make them, but it still is really fun. Why do they charge so much? I am hoping that I will sell enough stuff so that I will make as much, or more money than I had to start with. You could pray that it goes well!

The name of my earrings and earring racks, are 'Wired' Creations by Caroline, and for the flowers? No name yet. I am still thinking! Maybe I should open an account on Etsy. If I still have a lot of things left after this, I may!

Yesterday night was Abby's schools 8th grade graduation. (Abby wasn't graduating) The graduation was really nice, although it was almost an hour long! (At least it seemed that long, I was really tired.) Several of the students got up and made short testimonial (is that a word? ;) speeches. They were all really good. After that, their was a reception. The food was wonderful, and the decorations- spectacular! The lights were dimm, candles shone on the tables, and their were white Chrismas lights hanging from the ceiling. Not to mention that the food was great!

We went strawberrie picking with some friends from chruch yesterday. I guess it was my third time this year. We went to a place I had never been to before. THE strawberries were delightfully LARGE, and they tasted a lot better than the ones that are in grocery stores. (which are shipped from basically the other side of the U.S.A. I guess they loose their flavor and get mushy after a while. ;0) The last time we went strawberry picking, the strawberries were really good, but they were small. YIPPIE for big strawberries!

Thank you for all yoru sweet comments on my last post-They made my day! ;)

-CaRoLiNe

Kick butt chicken recipe

Last night my mom had a cold so she asked my sisters (thats two links) and I to cook. I didn't think I was in a cooking mood but once I started, it was a blast!!! (I would still have had to do it even if I wasn't in a cooking mood! ;)





Dinner-

• Basil Chicken with red onions


• Rice


• Steamed broccoli and carrots


• French bread


• Fudge (made by mom)

For the chicken-

• Several chicken breast, cut into strips


• one small red onion


• 1-2 cloves of fresh garlic


• melted butter


• basil (I used dried but fresh would probably taste DELISH!)


• onion powder


• coarse sea salt (to taste)


• pepper (to taste)

*note- I have NO clue how much of everything I put in. I made the recipe up, so it all depends on how much flavoring you want. Really garlic-y, onion-y, or buttery. Your choice.

DIRECTIONS

1. Begin by cutting your thawed chicken into strips.


2. Melt butter.


3. Place chicken strips in butter. (poke several holes into the chicken, so that it will absorb more of the butter)


4. Sprinkle onion powder on it.


5. Place into a pan. cook several minutes, add garlic, chopped red onion, salt, and basil.


6. Continue cooking until cooked to perfection.


7. Make sure onions are tender. Pepper to taste.

Yep, that's all! It was super easy, and turned out great!

lets see:

rice- self-explanatory

Bread- self-explanatory

vegetables- steam with water. Add butter and salt to taste.

Thats it! Some time soon I will have to post that fudge recipe... DELIIIIIIISHHHHHHH!!!!

2 DAYS UNTIL SCHOOL IS OUT!!!! YIPPPPEE SKIPPPY!!!

Tonight, (if you are not planning anything) Baskin Robbins is having, a $0.31 scoop night... You will find me at B.R. tonight!!! (hopefully!)

K.....This is completely random but...... Isn't this bathroom neat!?!?!?!
I like black and green together, and that B&W floor is rockin. I might do several adjustments to it if it was mine.

Okay, I am done... Officially.
-Caroline

Craving Spring

I had a marvelous weekend, and it all ended way to quickly! After my trip I had to start school again. Icky. Getting home from trips is always so depressing.

Anyways, today I babysat for Annie Catherine- one of the sweetest cutest two years old I think I have ever met!! I always love it when I can babysit for her! We played play-dough, watched 'Sid the Science Kid,' (has anyone seen it?? It seriously is weird. But Annie likes it sooo... anyhoo.) ate lunch, and dressed her up in a really cute outfit! I love dressing little kids up. It is so fun. So I was there from 10:00 AM until about 3:40 PM. It was long but she went down for a nap for 2 hours.

Lately I have been on a cooking craze. I LOVE COOKING! It's a blast. (its odd though, because I only really feel like cooking at night......hmmm....) Tonight I made a white cake, with whipped cream icing, and strawberries. Now that my friends is "spring" in your mouth. ;) Hopefully, when I get done with this post, we can eat it.... yuuuuummmmmm....

Annie Catherine's mom really inspired our family. She always has iced tea in her fridge. But not just 'iced tea' she has peppermint iced tea, gingerbread iced tea, etc. What she does is she makes her tea but substitutes 2 bags of regular tea for a flavored kind. (seasonal) Peppermint so far is my favorite, but Yesterday I made orange spice, and I must say it was pretty darn good!

The peppermint, is really refreshing cold. You should try it! ;) watch out though, you may just forget about the coffee! *Wink Wink*;)

I made banana nut bread yesterday as well. I didn't think I was a big fan of it, but it is pretty good! Now I want some....

I am craving spring. Just to be blunt. I hate this switch-y on and off weather. It is confusing. I was so happy early this week that we were having hot weather, but it changed and now it is humid slushy gunk. I like rain in the spring as long as it isn't humid.

In my last post, I talked about some things I found on my trip. We checked out a goodwill at the beach, and several other thrift stores as well as the Tanger outlets, and antique stores. So it was a nice variety! (which was VERY clean. I mean the floors literally sparkled, and the clothes were colour coded!!! MARVELOUS!!!;)

Here is a picture of my 1930's Nancy Drew book- (I already had two copies of this book but, it was to old and cheap to pass up. Plus this version is COMPLETELY different from the new version, so it is like reading a whole new book! Did you know that the Nancy Drew books were written by three different people over a period of time? The reason that this book is a different version is because 2 of teh people writing them decided that they didn't like the other persons version, so they re-wrote it! So there are at least three different versions of the same book, floating around somewhere in cyberspace.

Ugly yellow/green cable knit sweater-

Bird cage- Can you see the purple bird inside?

My old Valentines- I found both of the frames at goodwill, and the coloured card stock behind them are some pieces of paper I dyed.

The valentine on the left says- "Lettuce be valentines dear" and the one on the right says "No trouble A- Tall to be your Valentine" AWWWWW.....

A can of buttons- My hat-

Vinatge patterns- Hopefully I will find some frames to frame them in, (Lauren's idea!;) but until then I am keeping the with all my Nancy Drew books.Goodwill argyle sweater-

Sailor dress-

I also got a purple shirt, and some vintage bottle caps to make earrings out of.

I got my hair cut!!! I am still slightly in shock from it being so short, but I do like it.

See ya later! I am going to eat cake!;)

-Caroline