18 months!

Happy half-birthday to my sweetheart!
I made a cake for you the other night, but unfortunately Mommy and Daddy either have food poisoning or the stomach flu, and we could barely eat a thing today!
You amaze me every day.
We have hardly talked about sheep, but today you pointed right at a little cartoon lamb and said “baaaa”!
You love saying “hi” and “bye”.
You still refuse to say “Mama”. I say “say, Hi Mama!”, and you repeat “Hi Dada".
I love when you lean in to give me baby kisses.
You get major separation anxiety when I leave your side.
When I put in my contacts yesterday, you mimicked me by sticking your fingers into my lens case and then into your eyes.
You have a curious and adventurous spirit, and you make us so very happy.
18 months already—wow!

raspberry chocolate chip bars

Ingredients:
1  1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup raspberry preserves
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 13 x 9 inch baking pan.

Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla. Blend well with an electric mixer on medium speed.

Reserve a 1/2 cup of the mixture for the topping. Spread remaining mixture onto the bottom of prepared pan. (This will be a very thin layer, and takes patience to cover the pan. I used the tiny spatula in the photo below.)

Spread raspberry preserves evenly over the dough.

Sprinkle chocolate chips over the top.
Then drop the reserved dough by 1/2 teaspoonfuls over the chocolate chips.

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.

Chocolate and raspberries—taste delicious when combined!

march pin-spired

The goal of Pin-spired is to use Pinterest to find new outfit ideas, and then recreate them using items already in your closet.  I had fun putting together an outfit in February for the first link party, and so here’s my second try at a fashion post :)

Inspiration #1:

source

chambray: Target (a similar shirt)
leggings: Target 
boots: Steve Madden (a similar pair)

Inspiration #2:

source

shirt: borrow your man’s super old flannel :)
pants: a.n.a. Premium Coated Skinny Jeans at jcp ($20)
shoes: Kohl’s several years ago. (a similar pair)

and Inspiration #3:

source

cardigan: Target (similar)   
shirt: bought in France (similar)
pants: a.n.a. Premium Skinny Jeans at jcp 
shoes: Lands’ End Joanne Driving Mocs   

Linking up with these stylish friends:
Shay at Mix & Match Mama,
Sheaffer at Pinterest Told Me To,
and Mel at The Larson Lingo

How did I do at recreating these outfits?

Happy March! Here’s to hoping for that early spring!

chocolate chip mini cupcakes with cookie dough frosting

In the past, I have tried recipes for chocolate chip cookie dough, minus the raw eggs, so that it would be safe to eat by the spoonful. None of these recipes ever tasted like the real deal to me, and so I resolved that it was impossible to recreate the delicious dough eggless. Until yesterday… when I tried these cupcakes... The cookie dough frosting is incredible, and it tastes just like my pre-baked Toll House cookies!

Thank you to my mother-in-law, Alice, who had the intuition to buy me a mini muffin tin a couple weeks ago!

Ingredients:
1 large egg
3/4 cup loosely packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted & cooled
1  1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1  1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons milk
1/2 cup chocolate chips (mini chips would be great for this)

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line a mini muffin/cupcake tin with mini wrappers, or spray generously with Pam. (Recipe should yield around 30 mini cupcakes.)

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg and brown sugar. Add vanilla and butter, and stir until combined. Mix in the flour, baking soda, oats, and salt. Mix in the milk, and fold in chocolate chips.

Fill the muffin tin cups 1/2 to 3/4 full with batter. Bake for 9-12 minutes, or until set and golden. After a few minutes, remove them from the pan and let them cool before frosting.

Cookie Dough Frosting

Ingredients:
1  1/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
6 Tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1  3/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1  1/2 Tablespoons milk
1  1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:
Beat together the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer until creamy. Mix in powdered sugar until smooth. Beat in the flour and salt. Mix in milk and vanilla until well-blended and smooth.
Frost the cupcakes generously.

Original recipe found here on Take a Mega Bite.

Enjoy!

a dumpster-dresser makeover

About a month ago, we decided that we really needed a dresser for Nolan. We’d been making-do with the shelves of his changing table, but Nolan would go up to it and swipe all of the neatly-folded clothes onto the floor.

We checked Target.com for a dresser—too expensive. I thought about a future trip to IKEA (about an hour and a half away). A few nights later, Steve was taking out the garbage, and he excitedly told me that he found a dresser in the dumpster.

Is this really a dresser? I’m not 100% sure. I don’t know why it’s so wide or why it has doors. But I do know that it’s huge, heavy, all-wood and not particle board, and it has plenty of space for Nolan’s clothes.

So Steve cleaned it, sanded it…

painted it with one coat…

painted it with a second coat, and took out the tracks from the top two drawers since the drawers were missing anyway.
(P.S. isn’t that guitar cute? Steve painted that for Nolan last year.)

And we think it looks great!

Happy weekend!

hillsong united's "bones"

A few weeks ago, I fell in love with this song, based on Ezekiel 37.

And isn't Jill McCloghry beautiful?

Hillsong United's "Bones"
"You can take my dry bones
Breathe life into this skin
You called me by name
Raised me to life again

You can calm the oceans
Speak peace into my soul
Take me as I am
Awaken my heart to beat again

Oh Jesus
Alive in me

You move in the unseen
You set the captives free
As I stand and sing
You're breaking the chains off me

Breathe in me Your life
I can feel You are close now
I can never hide
You are here and You know me
All I need is You
And I love You."

mississippi mud bars

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, divided
4 ounces white chocolate, divided
1 cup walnuts, chopped and divided 

For the chocolates, I bought these 4 ounce baking bars, since it is originally a Ghirardelli recipe. I chopped them into pieces, but you certainly could measure 4 ounces of chocolate chips or chunks.



^ chocolate bars, chopped and divided

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Mix in flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in half of the semi-sweet chocolate, half of the white chocolate, and half of the walnuts.



Spread in greased, foil-lined 9 inch square baking pan.



Bake 12-15 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean.



Sprinkle with remaining semi-sweet and white chocolates.



Cover with foil. Let stand 5 minutes or until chocolates are melted. Swirl chocolates with small knife to marbleize. Sprinkle with remaining walnuts. Cool in pan until firm, then cut into bars.



You can see my bars don’t have walnuts in them. My son hasn’t had nuts yet, and since he likes to taste-test my desserts, I didn’t add them. But I’m sure it would add to their tastiness!

Bon Appetit!