Gwyneth and the Cookie

Over the weekend I got made a double batch of the world's best chocolate chip cookie. One for immediate consumption and the other for future enjoyment.

Gwyneth approves of this decision as she too has fallen victim to the passion that comes with these cookies.







It should be noted she would have eaten the whole thing if I let her. This is after she refused to eat her delicious lunch five minutes prior. Just saying.

Insta-Friday {16th Edition}

It's that time of week again. Time to dump all those pictures from the ol' iphone and see what our week consisted of. I'm proud to say this week happened to be full of baked goods and snowmen.

1.  Over the weekend I tried out a chocolate chip recipe that boasted it was the best. Let me just tell you that that recipe made hands down the best freaking cookie I've ever laid eyes on. Oh man. I will be sharing the complete recipe on Tuesday. Meanwhile, we shared them with some family but not all the family because we wanted to have them all to ourselves. Don't feel bad for the rest of the family, they got cupcakes. Speaking of which I totally found a white cake mix recipe that finally tasted like white cake mix, not corn bread. I will share in due time.


2. We got a light dusting of snow last week (finally) and our front yard is pretty well shaded from the afternoon sun, which meant fabulous snowman making snow. We suited up and played in the front yard and the baby liked the snow a lot more when it was powdery and hours fresh  compared to the icy month old snow we put her in up at Tahoe a few weeks ago. It took her a little while but she finally figured out just how awesome snow can be and also maybe got trampled by the dogs who were romping in the snow. She cried a little as I dusted the snow out of her pink princess sunglasses and carried on like a trooper.


3. & 4. 7 years ago I studied abroad in France and I was given a firsthand learning experience by my french Host Mom on Crepe Day  (jours des crepes, which is really a thing) how to make crepes. For years since my return from France my husband has asked for me to make crepes, constantly telling me about some other girl who came back from France and made crepes all the time. For my birthday last year I was given Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook. Yet I still haven't made a single crepe. On Monday it finally happened. I made my first batch of crepes a la Julia Child, in the blender. She totally tells you to make them in the blender and with brandy. The brandy made them taste like brandy but all in all they were delicious and fun to make. I think they will become a recurring thing on our menu from here on out.

And that marks the second week that of Gwen-less Insta-Fridays. What is going on in the world?! What'd you do this week? Whip up anything fun in the kitchen? Did you go to Target? Didya?

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A Ladybug First Birthday Party

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What a party! Everything was covered in polka dots and black and red. Crepe paper was strewn about, polka dot balloons lined the yard, and Gwen was dressed to the nines with her ruby red slippers.  She made the obligatory mess of her ginormous cupcake and put on quite the show opening and playing with all of her presents.

A few days before the party I asked the husband to put a slideshow on our tv during the party. Little did we know our AppleTV had the coolest slideshow setting ever. We set a playlist from our itunes which was our background music for the party while the photos slowly went across our tv in picture frames. It would've been painstaking to sit and watch that as a slideshow of photos, but as a background for a party it was perfect and fun to look at pictures from the past year.

We also had a cute little photobooth setup in the kitchen where we found it quite difficult to pose with props and a one year old.

Ladybug Photobooth

And here's a tutorial on the banner I made for behind her highchair.

Crepe Paper Banner Tutorial

{I am linking up to these parties}

Mini Banana Muffins

I made some banana muffins today and thought, "I must blog about this!" 

Apparently I love them so much I've blogged about them twice before. Here and recipe here.

You should really make some.

And in mini muffin form, they are addicting. After Sir Sunderland was heard rummaging in the kitchen I went back to find seven (!) already gone. I then proceeded to eat {ahem} three myself {ahem}.

One batch of banana bread makes 24 mini muffins and six regular sized ones. The mini muffins take about 15 minutes to bake while the regular sized take about 25 minutes.

I'd highly recommend greasing the bejeebitz out of your pan instead of wasting delicious morsels on cupcake liners.

Also, don't sweat it with the number of bananas. We had five bananas that went bad, so I just tossed them all in one batch. I've made it with three before and it came out just as great.

The End.

Mini Banana Muffins

I made some banana muffins today and thought, "I must blog about this!" 

Apparently I love them so much I've blogged about them twice before. Here and recipe here.

Ooozing Blueberry Muffin Recipe

For my second attempt at blueberry muffins I tweaked the recipe a bit. I used the same recipe from the last batch, added some extra blueberries and did without the crumb topping to create:




Lauren’s Oozing Blueberry Muffins
1 ½ cups flour
¾ cups sugar
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking POWDER (not soda, I know, throws you off)
1/3 cup applesauce (healthier substitute for veg. oil, made them VERY moist (kind of chewy))
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
2 cups fresh blueberries (1 1/2 cups if you prefer more muffin to blueberry ratio)

Mix all ingredients but blueberries. Fold in blueberries. Put into cupcake liners and bake at 400 for 20 minutes and enjoy!

Ooozing Blueberry Muffin Recipe

For my second attempt at blueberry muffins I tweaked the recipe a bit. I used the same recipe from the last batch, added some extra blueberries and did without the crumb topping to create:

Bananas to Bread

When your bananas start looking like this, it’s time to make this: