May's Favorites

My dear friends. It is June.
Holy mother of pancakes...it's June! Maybe the rest of you already came to the realization that summer is here. But my poor addled brain just beheld, processed, and accepted my surroundings. I'm a little late to the party, I understand. But I'm here now...so let get this sunny, hot, beach-going, bare-footed party started! Oh wait...let's recap the delicious month of May first. Then we can start pumping the beats for June.

My sister visited me THREE times in May. Three times! That's three times the long deep conversations in the driveway, three times the laughs at inside jokes, three times the amount of coffee in my system, and of course...three times the fun! My sister is so awesome. Sometimes I forget this because she lives two hours away, but she really is the bestest. (HI, BEST FRIEND.)

Oh yeah...you wish you had a sister this awesome...

Alsoooo....Mother's Day! My mom deserves everything beautiful and sparkly and expensive beyond belief. Usually she just gets handmade cards or homemade food. It's so unfair. But it's probably a good thing because if she was beautiful and smart and funny and had all the prettiest things in the world...well. She would probably get mobbed or something because the whole population would be overcome with jealousy.

I mean, look at this lovely lady!

Memorial Day came and went. We were most unpatriotic and threw a thoroughly British tea party at 4 o'clock. (cheerio!) There wasn't an American dish in sight. We had so much fun...it was like Downton Abbey! Except no one died and we didn't say as many witty things at the Dowager and Mary. Because they are the queens of witty and we wouldn't dream of competing with their womanly genius. But we had fun pretending. :)

And here are the Pinterest Finds! Did I tell you I like pinterest? I like pinterest.
Something about baking illustrations makes me giddy. They are just perfect...like this cake would be if it were in fact edible.

Aren't these macarons the cutest thing you've ever seen? Even if you don't like tomatoes you'll agree with me...these must be eaten. Or just looked at, because they are adorable. And the photography stylizing is perfect for those little sugar tomatoes.

Oh yeah...cute food? It's a thing. I love it.

Your May Favorites:

-Facebook-

Mint Citrus Shortbread

-Pinterest-

Sausage Mushroom Angel Hair Pasta

Have a Happy June everybody!! It's going to be a crazy busy month for me, I have a lot planned. I'm really excited for it. :)

April's Favorites

I have been on the brink of death.
Seriously. I thought I was going to die. At one point I wanted to very very bad.
I had the flu. And then I had a sinus infection, and then I went to the walk in clinic, scratch that, the next day I went to the Emergency Room. IV in, meds taken, I slept for 48 hours.
I am finally (THANK JESUS) back on my feet. I'm ready to start baking and blogging once more!
Man, I've missed it. Really really missed it.
Same way I missed being able to breathe through my nose or stand up without my head turning to a raging pain. Ohhh...it's good to be back. It's like the world is an oyster and everything is pearls. (That could very well be a side effect of the nice cocktail of meds I've been downing for the past two weeks, but it's okay. :D)
Sadly, I have no new recipes to blog. :( This is the only really bad thing about the world right now. Otherwise I am a new woman. ;)

So that whole paragraph was to make you feel sorry for me and forgive me for being a bit behind with "April's Favorites". Jumping right in...
We will skip the list of fun activities and such since we have already established that most of April was indeed me lying wrapped blankets and scarves, eating soup, swallowing pills and sleeping at odd hours. Annnnndddd so!
April's Pinterest Finds:

Oh my goodness! May is the first month of farmers market here in little Duvall.And it's tiny and lacks the big city farmer's market hoo-ha, but it's charming and I can not wait till Thursday when I will make my huge grinning appearance to buy flowers and honey and bread and veggies. I'm so excited. This print from etsy is charming too, yes?

 Since my mom has been trying to eat healthier lately, I think I might buy some flowers and surprise her with this garden cake instead of my traditional route of the sugar laden kind.

This blew my cupcake obsessed mind. Frosting in every bite? I should have discovered the true way to eat a cupcake so long ago...

Your March Favorites

Facebook's Favorite

 Orange Pistachio Almond Cupcakes

Pinterest's Favorite

Return of the Turtle Cake...I've got to make another one of these cute cakes...they seem to be popular. 

So here's to May!! It's here already, I know. And it's been absolutely 100% beautiful. I'm hoping the gorgeous weather and good health are both here to stay. ;)

March's Favorites

Hurrah! Round two of monthly favorites here. March was a fun fun month. First off, EASTER. We have already established that Easter is the best day of the entire year. So, yes. Secondly, lots of exciting baking things happened. And thirdly, lots of NON baking (but just as exciting) things happened.

Exciting Non Baking things first:
Ruby The Berry 
Sadly, my trusty (kinda) dependable  car, Florence, finally bit the dust. Driving on the thruway something popped, everything rattled. And my car died. An adventure ensued, my mother got feisty with a police officer, the police officer got catty, diabetic glucose lows happened. Annnnnd. My car took one final trip to the dump. :( BUT! Just as all good things come to an end...more good things are right around the corner. Like this brand new happy red little vehicle named Ruby the Berry.

I love it. I have to pay 200 bucks a month for five years to have it, true. But I'm excited. I'm excited to have a car that isn't held together by zip ties, and I'm excited to be paying for my own things, making a way in the grown up world of adults, building up credit and all those things. And I'm able to do it all sporting a cute car!

Brazil Trip
Last week we had our first official Missions Meeting at our house on Sunday night. This June I and a team of people will be traveling to Brazil for a one of a kind missions trip. There is so much stirring and moving going on around this trip. Wayyyy too much for me to explain in one small post. I haven't been back to Brazil since high school, so that's five years of doubts and fears I'm dealing with. But also five years of giddiness and catching up to do with good old Brazil and me. There will be water filters, and boats on rivers, Portuguese (yikes!) and hopefully churrasco and guarana! Hurray Brazil food...I am very nervous and mostly looking forward to it with lots of excitement! More news to come...

Baking Things!!
Homemade Cheese:
Best. Time. Ever. Go find the recipe (oh look, a link! How convenient...) and make it as soon as humanly possible. It will change your life. It was my number one fun kitchen adventure this month.

March's Pinterest Finds:

Crocheted Apples...cutest snack in the world!

Homemade Fettuccine. Looks good, no?

A tutorial on how to make caramel swirls for decorating. I've got to try this. 

Your March Favorites:

Facebook Favorite:

Honey Peanut Cupcakes

Pinterest Favorite:

Bailey's Irish Mousse

I am SO looking forward to April! I can't wait for the warm weather and the sunny days, lighter flavors, more veggies and gardening...hope yours is just as wonderful to look forward to. :)

-Candice

February's Favorites

So I think I'm going to start recapping the awesome things that happen every month. You know, the things I'm enjoying, the things you dear people are enjoying. The highlights of the month so to speak.
I like thinking back over the month and seeing the things I've made or the stuff I've learned.
It will be fun. Let's start, shall we?

Things I am diggin' about Febrary:
-Infused ingredients. 
I recently tried infused honey--Awesommmme! Cranberry Orange Honey? Newest obsession. I've been drinking tea all the time now. Not that I didn't drink tea before. But I might be averaging close to four cups of tea a day now. I also have in my possession two infused vinegars: nettle and dandelion and elderberry ginger. I haven't tried anything with them yet but I think a salad dressing with those could be monumentally amazing. And thus my infusion dreams begin. I want to try my hand at infusing everything! Olive oil, honey, vinegars, making my own extracts...this spring will hold some of these infusing adventures, I'm sure. I can't wait.

-Kitchen Volunteering. 
My church eats so much food. This is not a bad thing at all. Good things happen when people get together to eat with one another. But our main kitchen volunteer is getting worn down cooking huge meals three to five times a week. So I've volunteered to cook a meal for the ministry leaders meetings every quarter to help her out. This first one was this past month and I had lots of fun. I actually spent one whole Saturday making almost 400 homemade meatballs for Italian sub sandwiches. (It was such a good Saturday, let me tell you.) I got to use the church's commercial convection oven, which is so cool! I am thinking of signing up to do a few more volunteer meals or maybe start making desserts for bible studies. I love food and I love making people happy, so I am looking forward to future kitchen volunteering times. :)

-Care Packages. 
Since February is the month of Valentines, I was able to send out little packages of happy cookies to some people I love. Mainly this one and this one. Making really extensive time consuming cookies was a blast. Probably not something I want to do every month, but it was worth it. :) Word of kitchen wisdom to anyone looking for a three step program for improving relationships? Step 1: Make cookies. Heart shaped cookies work exceptionally well. Step 2: Give cookies to people you like. Step 3: Bask in the love....

Valentine's Heart Cookies for my Care Packages...

-Creperies.
I was able to finally visit a creperie this month! I've wanted to for awhile, especially since I had a Christmas Crepe Dinner Party this past year. Creperie Voila is a super cute crepe stand in downtown Seattle. They have amazing crepes that they make right there while you watch. So cool. My favorite one was the "Seasonal Crepe" which had fig and apple compote with Chevre cheese. Oh wow. I came home and immediately looked up how hard it was to raise a goat. That goat cheese was life changing, I'm serious. I've made simple crepes at home which turned out really good, but I'm planning on recreating that recipe because it is like a disco on your taste buds.

My poor instagram picture of Hipster Dude making my astoundingly delicious crepe.

My Favorite Pinterest Finds this Month:

Cupcake Art. I wish I knew whose work this is...the link is a dead end. 

 

Rolling the Pizza Dough by Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie on Flickr. This little girl is adorable.

 Strawberry Hearts Pound Cake by Go Bold with Butter. I didn't get around to making this for Valentine's Day this year, but it definitely going on the list for next! It's too cute.

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Things You're Diggin' about February:

Most Pinned Post on Pinterest: Sea Turtle Cake

 

 Most Liked on Facebook: Blueberry Cobbler Cupcakes

Hope this past February was a great one for everyone, here's to an even better March!
-Candice