I am so excited, guys! This weekend I’ll be standing in my twinny’s wedding! Why is she my twinny you ask? I guess you could say we were glued at the hip in college, we were both super social butterflies, we had the same initials and even the same last name (now)! I am so happy that she found the man of her dreams and couldn’t be happier for them to start their lives together (with Smokey and Bandit the adorable kitten duo too). Here’s a few pictures of me and my twinny through the years.

And I’ll leave you with a peek at their beautiful engagement pictures, taken by Orris Photography!  Congrats to them!

Also, this weekend I’ll be having my first baby shower!  It’s kind of surreal to think that time has flown by so fast and it’s already here.  Only 10 more weeks to go (but I’m hoping for 8 haha).  It’s just so exciting to be able to celebrate with family and friends and it’s a blessing to know that so many people care for and love our baby boy already and he’s  not even born.    He’s already been spoiled with so many gifts and we’re SO appreciative of it.  It’s nice to be able to fill the space in our new home too.  And it’s so crazy to think that this is our last trip of the year as I won’t be able to travel pretty soon here, but I’m excited to spend the time at home too.

P.S. GO BLUE!  Beat Michigan State!

P.P.S. Have you entered the Jaclyn1432 $20 shop credit jewelry giveaway yet?

There’s a few exciting events that I’m looking forward to this weekend…

My company is throwing me (and others who have made it) a 5-year luncheon at a yummy revolving restaurant in KC!  It’s kind of crazy to think that I’ve been a working woman for FIVE WHOLE years, and at the same place too!  Time really flies!  As a present, I will be receiving a clock, woohoo!!  So… in honor of the tickity-tock, I bring you a fabulous flavors to follow inspiration board!

1. me and you venn diagram clock seen on making it lovely
2. wedding photo session on style me pretty
3. brass filigree pocket watch necklace made by oh, hello friend.
4. doily clock seen on make it perfect
5. teasmade alarm clock wakes you up to tea seen on unplggd
6. elephant clock sold by decoylab
7. chalkboard clock seen on poppytalk
8. love shoot by olive juice photo seen on dandelion and grey
9. valery design works clock seen on creamy life
10. DKNY turquoise translucent watch with white dial seen on red vines for breakfast
11. clock tutorial on remodaholic
12. bottle cap clock magnets seen on happiness is

Alright, I’m off to my weekend full of Bachelorette Party shenanigans!  My friend Roanna is coming down to KC and we’ve planned a fun, naughty nice, full of food and drinks weekend for her.  She’ll be getting married in just 5 weeks, and at the rate this year is flying by, the wedding will be here in no time!

Here’s a pic of Marvin and me at our wedding with the Bachelorette and her fiance!  Can’t wait for the fabulous weekend!  See you all on Monday, when I’m in Ohio, AGAIN!

P.S. Thanks so much for all of your support and encouragement on my last post, xo.  Don’t forget to enter my bunting banner giveaway if you haven’t already done so.

What better way to celebrate Earth Day then with some GREEN dessert??    BTW, see the resemblance of the picture to the Earth?  Yes, the colors blue and green!

First off, can I just describe my love for all things green tea?  There’s straight up green tea drink, green tea ice cream, green tea mochi, green tea cheesecake, green tea pocky (yes, they make this) and my newly discovered green tea CUPCAKES!  Do you need me to continue or are you already drooling?  And I’m sure I don’t need to bore you with the long list of health benefits that green tea has… but I will, it lowers your chance for heart disease and certain types of cancers, it has antioxidant properties, and it can be helpful for weight loss management (so Wikipedia says), HOLLA!!

Anyhoo, back to the cupcakes, for this dessert, matcha otherwise known as green tea powder was used.  Matcha is basically finely grained green tea and the traditional Japanese tea ceremonies were based around the preparation and serving of this fine little powda!  You can usually find it as Asian grocery stores, that’s where my husband got ours!  Besides that, the rest of the ingredients are pretty standard, except for maybe cake flour which BTW I had no idea this was different than regular flour, but now we are all in the know!  Cake flour is made of soft wheat flours and has a low protein count and promotes gluten. All-purpose flour is made from a blend of hard and soft wheat flours.  So without further ado, here’s the recipe I used to make these lovely little green tea flavored desserts.  The cupcakes itself were pretty dense with a hint of green tea… but the frosting, let me tell you, was probably the best part… it really added a necessary sweetness and green color to the cupcake so please do not skip out on the frosting!

Wow, just how many times did I say green in this post?  First one to guess it gets a green prize!  No joke, whoever guesses it first in the comment, I’m totally sending you something GREEN! And YES, the Green in the title does count, and the rest I made real easy by highlighting in green for you, including the one below this line.  Have fun counting…. oh and baking too if you decide to make these!

Green Tea Cupcakes (taken from Sweetest Kitchen and Martha Stewart)

• 1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons matcha powder
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, salt and matcha powder; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until the cubes of butter are peanut-sized or a little smaller.
3. In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.
4. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about 2/3 full. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.
5. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Matcha Buttercream Frosting (taken from Matcha Source)

• 1 stick butter, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons half and half or light cream
• 1 tablespoon matcha powder
• 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1. Mix matcha in with the light cream to make a paste.
2. Beat butter briefly, scrape bowl.
3. Add the sifted powdered sugar and matcha paste. Beat until smooth.

Happy Earth Day everyone!  Make sure to recycle, carpool, turn off lights if you don’t need them on, or plant a tree! 

Earlier this week, I blogged about a Baby Pocket Bib and Burp Cloth that I made for my friend’s baby shower.  Well, by now you know that I bring my Canon 50D with me everywhere, so I just wanted to share with you some of the pictures I took at her shower. In Picasa collage form, here we go… and make sure to click on the collages to see a bigger version!

{Decor}

{Food}

{Performance and Prizes}

{Presents}

Oh yes, she sure is!

We can’t wait to meet Baby Brandon in June!

P.S. A few posts ago I mentioned that another giveaway was coming up, remember?  Well, it’s coming up on Monday, so don’t forget to check back next week!

Because Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year are both coming up on Sunday, February 14, 2010, I decided on the color RED for my Flavors to Follow theme this week.  For Chinese New Year, red should be worn as it signifies joy, good fortune and also scares off evil.  And I don’t think I need to mention that red signifies LOVE for Valentine’s Day… OK, so I just mentioned it.  Without further ado, here is your eye candy!

eat: perfect chocolate cupcakes created by diane
see: chinese new year lanterns by eye poetry
craft: DIY Printable Teabag Cozies on oh, hello friend
sew: yo-yo frame on the sometimes crafter
inspire: pretty dresses on pink clouds
wed: paper airplane engagement on adrienne gunde & featured on ever ours
decorate: lovely dining room on this lovely city
wear: pin-up bow headband by lou and lee and featured on a beautiful mess

Hope you all have a great Valentine’s Day and a Happy Year of the Tiger!

I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t end the post without sharing some cute tiger crafts I found on Etsy!
1) Kawaii Tiger Brooch by Fluffington
2) Clutch by ThePrintTree
3) Cute pink tiger buttons by Modes4u

OK, seriously, this is the end of this post, have a wonderful weekend full of love, passion and celebration!

Tomorrow marks the day that the 2010 Winter Olympic Cauldron will be lit in Vancouver, BC.  There will be over 80 countries competing over 17 days in Alpine Skiing, Biathlon, Bobsleigh, Cross Country, Curling, Figure Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Hockey, Luge, Nordic Combined, Short Track, Skeleton, Ski Jumping, Snowboarding, and Speed Skating.  I actually used to take Figure Skating lessons when I was younger so this is the one sport I look forward to seeing the most!  My husband and I actually took a trip to Vancouver a few months ago and absolutely fell in love with the city! Here are my recommendations on must eat places… in medal order.

Granville Island

A public market in the middle of the city that has fascinating history and is an eclectic artistic community. This island is filled with waterfront restaurants, galleries, shops, and cafes. I don’t exactly remember where the pot pie and these delicious desserts were… so you’ll just have to walk around and find them for yourself!

Guu with Garlic

Japanese izakaya’s are HUGE in Vancouver. They are drinking establishments accompanied by tapas style foods. When we first walked into the restaurant, the chatty and fun atmosphere made us feel like we were instantly back in Asia.

JapaDog

Yes, this is a hot dog stand. No, this is not a typical one. It’s basically an infusion of Japanese food items on top of a traditional American hot dog. The one Jojo is eating is the Terimayo dog which contains Teriyaki Sauce, Japanese Mayonnaise, and Seaweed as toppings, mmmmm. Anthony Bourdain recommends it on No Reservations. Need I say more?

HONORABLE MENTION

Bubble Queen

You may look at this and say… that’s just Bubble Tea, I can get Bubble Tea anywhere. But no, it is not your average Bubble Tea… it is the scrumptious, sweet, succulent, (insert more s words that mean delicious) Ferroro Rocher Bubble Tea! Ohhhh how I could go for one of these right now!

And on a separate note, if you haven’t seen this years Olympic mascots (Quatchi, Miga, Sumi, & side-kick Mukmuk), you really must take a gander at http://www.vancouver2010.com/mascot/. These mascots were created by the ever talented Meomi. My favorites are Mukmuk (the newest addition side-kick marmot) and Miga (a sea bear):

And yes, those are cookies, handmade by the AMAZING Sweetopia. She gives a tutorial on how to make these on her blog, go check it out! She makes it look soo simple, but I don’t think mine would ever turn out this well.

What Winter Olympic sports do you look forward to watching the most??

In the spirit of the upcoming Super Bowl, I really wanted to make something in to the shape of a football.  And since footballs are brown, the options were basically limited to something meaty or chocolatey.  Of course I chose CHOCOLATE!  Our last attempt at brownies was somewhat of a failure because we decided to go with the organic box kind and they were a bit too… cardboard tasting.  I must admit though, I’ve never made brownies from scratch before.  I know I know…how can I have a blog that touts cooking when I’ve always made the boxed kind of brownies?  Well, it’s time to think outside the box.  Here’s my first attempt at making Cocoa Brownies from scratch…and forming them into football shapes!

• 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)
  1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cold large eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup walnut or pecan pieces (optional)

1. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F. Line the bottom and sides of an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides.
2. In a medium heatproof bowl, add the butter and set on top of a large sauce pan with barely simmering water. Melt the butter, then add sugar and salt, and stir until well combined. Next add the cocoa powder and stir until mixture is smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger fairly quickly after dipping it in to test. Remove the bowl from the skillet and set aside briefly until the mixture is only warm, not hot.
3. Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer, then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with the wooden spoon or a rubber spatula. Stir in the nuts, if using. Spread evenly in the lined pan.
4. Bake until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool completely on a rack.
5. Lift up the ends of the parchment or foil liner, and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 large  or 25 small squares.

Recipe from Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate by Alice Medrech

If making footballs shapes, you should be able to cut out at least 8 large football shaped brownies.  Warning: You may end up eating all the brownie scraps while cutting!  I cut a football shaped template out of cardstock and then placed it on top of the brownies and cut around it.  Sure beats going to the store and spending money on a football shaped cookie cutter that you’ll probably only use twice a year, max.  To create the white lines, I scooped frosting into a plastic bag, cut a corner off the bag, and squeezed the frosting out on top of the footballs.

These Cocoa Brownies turned out to be one of the best brownies I’ve ever eaten, seriously.  They are fudgy, chocolatey and not too sweet.  They were rather simple to make and not too time consuming either!  Think outside the box and you’ll be rewarded!

These football brownies are sure to “score a touchdown” at your tailgate party!