Gender Reveal Party

This has been a crazy thing for me to wrap my head around, but my little sister is having a baby! A few weeks ago she and her husband went for their 20 week ultrasound and decided to find out the baby's gender. She was very excited and wanted to have some type of fun way to tell us if the baby was a boy or girl. She came up with the idea of making cupcakes with either pink or blue frosting as her "big reveal", but ended up having to work longer hours (and wasn't feeling well) the day before the ultrasound.

I love to plan a party, even a small one, so I volunteered to make the cupcakes for her. I thought it would build more suspense if the cupcakes were colored and we actually had to unwrap/bite into them to see the color, so that's what I did!

I don't know how I managed to take every single photo at an awkward angle, but I did...

Vanilla cupcakes from this incredibly simple, but delicious recipe that  you mix  in the food processor

Pink and Blue!

Ready to bake...

Topped with a simple chocolate ganache to completely cover the cake and conceal the color!

My girls happened to be extra cooperative that day, so I had some fun setting up a little tablescape for her as well. This was a very small scale event (she was just "revealing" to myself, my husband, my daughter, and her step-kids), but could easily be adapted for a full family event!

Pink tablecloth, blue fabric "runner" from my fabric scrap bin, cupcakes on display, and pink/blue gift bags  with a small gender specific gift (baby hats!)

Friday Five: Reasons Pets are AWESOME

I had a different Friday Five planned, but I've got other things on my mind today. My parents have become "snowbirds" and spend their winters in Florida. This year they were gone from mid January through last weekend. While they were gone, my mom mentioned that my childhood cat was "getting skinny" and "refusing her favorite foods" a few times, but I didn't realize the severity of the issue until they got home last Sunday.

Our poor kitty was down to about 5 pounds and on my extremely non-veterinary trained exam seemed to have some tenderness and fullness in her belly. The next day trip to the vet confirmed my suspicions; intertwined GI tumors with no potential treatment. The vet advised my parents to keep her comfortable at home as long as possible, and call if things got worse.

In what I would describe as the best possible outcome she passed sometime early this morning in the home she loved, with my parents (who adore her) and her grown-up kitten (she was pregnant when we rescued her) nearby. Rest in peace Mousey, you will be missed.

In her honor I am sharing five reasons that life is so much better with a pet...

1. They comfort you when you are sad. Sometimes their big expressive eyes say more to soothe you than any words any person could come up with.
2. They wait for you to come home and act SO excited to see you every single day - which totally makes you feel like a rock star.
3. Their warm little bodies next to you can calm you after even the worst day.
4. They LOVE you in exchange for the simple act of meeting their basic needs.
5. They love you SO much, they love (tolerate?) your kids.

Friday Five: Real Food Recipes

For some time now I've been looking harder at the foods I feed to my family. Many times my best intentions have been crushed by the time consuming nature and financial burden of providing real food three meals a day for three (now four!) people. I've also been so lost weeding through all the different claims regarding which foods are REALLY the best that I can't shop without spending hours reading labels and find myself staying awake at night worrying about what I am going to cook the next day.

Finally, I've found a way to simplify matters:

• I buy the highest quality meats, dairy, and produce I can by mini-shopping multiple times per week.
• I'm only buying local dairy from Meadowbrook Farms or Battenkill Creamery and looking for a more local source for eggs.
• I am anxiously awaiting fresh local produce, but I am also accepting the rule that conventional produce is better than no produce.
• I've stopped cooking things like potatoes, rice, or pasta just because I think there needs to be a "starch" on the table.
• Anything I can make, I am trying to make myself including sandwich bread, rolls, pita bread, granola, yogurt, ricotta, etc. I've also started juicing (more on that later...).

I'm premiering my new focus on nutrition with a Friday Five featuring some of the meals I've made in the past few weeks.

1. Crock pot Free-Range, Organic Chicken. Original recipe can be found here - I left out the cayenne pepper to make sure it wasn't too spicy for my bug. The chicken cooks up so tender it literally falls apart when you take it out of the crock pot. The huge advantage of cooking a whole chicken is that I can get at least two meals out of it. The first night we eat it straight out of the crock pot with veggies as a side. Second meal ideas? Chicken salad, chicken/cheese/veggie quesadillas, chicken fried rice, etc, etc, etc!

2. Homemade Chicken Stock with the leftovers from above. Recipe can be found here. I used some of the stock right away to make a delicious chicken, alphabet noodle, and vegetable soup and froze the rest in ice cube trays so I have a freezer bag full of stock cubes on hand when I need them.

3. Eggplant stacks with homemade ricotta. Eggplant slices were pre-salted to draw out the water and then prepped with egg wash, dipped in homemade whole wheat breadcrumbs, and pan-fried in olive oil. Ricotta and fresh basil were sandwiched between the slices and topped with marina sauce and fresh mozzarella before baking. This was delicious and I can't wait to try it again with fresh eggplant this summer.

 

4. Cobb Salad tweaked from a recipe found here. I added shrimp because the bug loves it and shrimp made the salad into more of a "meal" for my husband. All of my produce was store-brought organic, but I can't wait until we start getting fresh, local tomatoes and cucumbers to make it with. I used feta cheese instead of blue cheese because I always have it on hand. The salad dressing recipe was delicious with either red wine or apple cider vinegar and feta instead of blue cheese, but I recommend reducing olive oil to 2-3 TBSP.



5. Homemade yogurt! In the past, one of my co-workers and his wife told me that they made their own yogurt. At the time I was confused and slightly put-off by the idea. After reading up on the technique, I realized how easy it was and decided to give it a try! I followed the instructions here, but halved the recipe as it was my first batch ever and I didn't want to waste milk if it didn't work out. I started with whole milk from Meadowbrook Farms and Stonyfield Organic Whole Milk yogurt. I've been eating this for breakfast all week with bananas, frozen berries, and homemade granola. If I really want to sweeten it, I add a swirl of maple syrup or honey. FYI - I never used to look forward to eating yogurt for breakfast because I would always feel hungry an hour later - this is SO not the case when you have real yogurt made from real milk.

 

Here's a listing of some of the reading and viewing I've done recently to help me along:
Nina Planck's Real Food for Mother and Baby
Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma
Real Food Tastes Good
100 Days of Real Food
Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead
Hungry for Change

Brave Party: Details, details, details!

I have to admit I have been struggling with getting the rest of my party details up here. This isn't yet classified on the DSM, but I think I am suffering from my annual case of post-party depression. Each year I spend months and months planning and prepping for bug's birthday party and then I invariably end up disappointed when it's over. The day of the party things get too crazy and I don't get to properly display, enjoy, or photograph all of the projects I obsessed over.

When I settle down to share the party details on here, I realize how much is missing from the photos. Then I get sad. So silly, but so true. I think I am finally recovering because I had a new event to plan (more on that soon). Anyway, here are the photos I have of all the extra details I haven't yet posted about.

I made the frilly tablecloth decoration I pinned from here and decorated the TV stand with Brave plush toys from the Disney Store

Birthday banner made using the Cricut Pretty Pennants cartridge.
I also created a very cute bunting using the Cricut and some bias tape that decorated the stairs leading into the party, but we have no pictures. Maybe I'll post a separate tutorial for that because it was so cute and so easy!

Birthdays aren't complete without balloons! We clustered bunches of 3-4 balloons and tied them up around the party space

I've been planning this party long enough that I picked up the garland and the fancy glittery stars hanging on the light from Target after christmas for literally pennies.

I dennoted all the "party rooms" by making decorative banners over each doorway. The doors were also labeled with fun Brave themed references such as, "Queen Elinor's Closet" for dress-up, "The Crafty Carver" for arts and crafts, and "Mor'du's lair - Do Not Enter" for my messy supply room. 

View of the decorations from the downstairs looking up.

My husband's uncle works for a bottling plant, so he gets me empty plastic bottles and any color cap I want to make these with any drink I want in them. Fun!

I included this photo to show the fun "Conversation with the Birthday Girl" I printed out (you can see it right next to the cellphone held by my cousin with the gorgeous curly red hair). I stole the questions from this blog.