Well Wed on the Cape

I'm really, really excited for this saturday. My honey and me will be taking a little trip down to the cape to attent the WellWed Cape and Islands wedding affair. yahoo!. 

  A weekend ago we attended the Great bridal Expo in Boston. Insert huge yawn here. It was

sooo not my thing. We made a quick round, got a few free wedding mags (for inspiration book purposes) and left. It was pretty much the culmination of all the things about weddings that drive me crazy. Bla, cookie cutter, and expensive. But it was my very first wedding event anything. Even though I had a slight (ok huge) idea I wouldnt get too much of it, I still made us go. It was free, with the exception of gas and parking and it got us out of the house.

   So this saturday is looking like a lot of like-minded fun. Artsy-fartsy, colorful, lively fun. And even though I don't anticipate being able to afford many of the vendors or services, one can dream. Dream translates to steal  borrow ideas, make them myself and take all the glorious credit. bwa-hahahah!

Banana Choc. Chip muffins

     I've been on a self prescribed low sugar diet for over a month now. It is tuuuuuuff! First off, I love sweets. Second, I love to bake. I gave in a little the other day and made some banana chocolate chip muffins that came out nice and moist.  I ate a few. Yikes. My knees and joints, which had been taking a much deserved vacation from pain (I am so convinced it is from the low sugar!) began to ache and swell a few hours after my indulgences. Now, is this all in my head? I'd like to think not. Cutting the sugar and feeling the result of decreased pain gives a sense of control over something that normally plagues me daily and a pain reliever doesn't help. So I'm on a quest for low sugar recipes for baked goods so that I can have the best of both worlds. Anyhoot, here is the recipe for the muffins! I must say they came out just the way I had hoped. Is it just me or does this picture gives them a oatmealy raisin appearance?

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

preheat oven to 350 F, and lightly grease muffin pans or use paper muffin cups

Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups flour                               
• 2 teasp. baking powder
• 1 teasp. baking soda
• 1/2 teasp. salt

Wet ingredients

• 1/3 c sugar
• 1/3 c loosely packed brown sugar
• 1/2 melted unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1-1 1/4 cup of mashed ripe banana, I used 2 medium.
• 3 Tablespoons milk, or cream
• 1 teasp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips

 Sift together the dry ingredients. In another bowl mix together all of the wet ingredients except

for the chocolate chips. Then incorporate the two and add the chips. simple enough right?

I used medium-ish muffin pans and at 18 minutes they came out just right. I got 16 muffins.

 I'm going to make these again using a large muffin pan and muffin liners for that straight from

the bakery case feel.

Macaroon (Macaron) craze

 You probably would have had to be living under a rock for the past year, maybe two? three? for the macaron craze to have eluded you. Ok, I say macaroon but I will spell it Macaron so that I can somewhat feel authentic. However I am going to attempt to train myself to say it authentically so that it doesn't impede itself on my beloved coconut macaroon.

 I have never had the pleasure of tasting one. But from the sound of it, I think it would be something I would really enjoy. A smooth, crunchy exterior with a slightly chewy, soft center? add to it a buttercream or jam filling, endless flavor possibilities and combinations and always having a base of almond. YUM! I Have requested this book from my library and eagerly await for the arrival.

I'm having some friends over next weekend and will attempt to make one or two flavors.

There is one area I will do a little more research into, which is coloring. I believe the

addition of a fruit juice for color may disrupt the chemistry that makes a meringue,

however I am not sure. I would like to eventually add the India Tree natural food coloring set

to my little baking stash. I havn't had much luck in finding it so more than likely I will order

                   it from Amazon.

Mmmmm, brightly hued frosting, why does it look so good?

from "I will" to "I do" and everything in between.

So It has happened, (well actually a few months ago now) We are FINALLY engaged!

It took the boy 10 years, but the glorious day came.

on October 29th,on our 10 year "dating" anniversary(also his birthday),

my sweetie woke me up, got onto his knee and opened the ring box. I teared up, and smiled.

I had teased him for years that I wanted an unexpected, surprise of a proposal. um, this it was.

Just the day before I was talking with a good friend on the phone. "do you think he'll do it tomorrow? your 10 year?" No waaay i said and thought. We have been in each others faces

every non-working, waking and sleeping moment for the past 10 years. and for the past year, even more so, working on our first home, our personal "Money Pit". :)

So yes! when he came to my side of the bed before our normal wake up for work time, I thought perhaps it was just a cute little anniversary morning kiss. Then it took over. Whats he doing? why is he on the floor? I'm half awake, this must be important. He smiled devilishly, and popped an open ring box into my sight. You know, I'm not sure of what was even said. Giddiness, smiles, some tears of joy and then phone calls to Mom, Dad and my sister.

I suddenly remembered it was a Friday morning. " you have to go to work" I said with a frown, I think he thought I was crazy. "of course i took the day off" he said and laughed.

I desperately need to get back into crafting, creating, imagining and doing.

This wedding may be just the thing i need to kick start myself back into creativity.

I want to make as much as possible. It will be a simple, yet elegant, do-it-myself, homespun and homemade type of occasion. I mean what better way to incorporate all of my loves?

Crafting, baking, planning, gardening & lists, endless lists! I cannot wait!

Awaiting spring's surprises

It seems too early, but who am I to tell mother nature how to do her thing. February is coming to an end and green shoots are erupting. We closed on our home in September (I can't believe it's been 5 months!) so the spring scenery is going to be a pleasant surprise to us. Our offer was accepted in late July, so we had 2 months to watch the property that we hoped would be ours, take its turn into fall. Once we had our key, our attention was pretty much solely on turning the inside of the home inhabitable by the time winter came, and so the yard got slightly neglected. The one thing I got done was to weed the flower bedding that surrounds the entrance steps. A few hardy mums had become leggy reaching for light through the heavy masses of weeds that had taken over. Today I found lots of growth

I forgot to replant this bulb cluster , but it doesn't seem to mind.

Daffodils?

Buds growing in the old Christmas swag I can't wait to see what this one is