A Nannying Gig

For the first 3 weeks of this summer, I'll be nannying. A friend of mine has a bunch of stuff going on, so I am helping out with her children, Horace and Lady Margo. Today was my first day, and as I got to their house, Lady Margo had written me this adorable note.

"To: Vieve
From: Lady Margo
Thank you for comeing to babysit. I hope we have fun. I think we should go to the poor or see Mr. Inspector. We could have alot of fun!"

This note was perfectly adorable and a great way to start off our weeks together!

Chocolate Strawberry Chocolate Cupcakes

So, after my disaster of the Raspberry Lemon cupcakes, I wanted to make another fruit frosting, to see if I could make it work. So, I made a regular ol' batch of chocolate cupcakes, and then I did a strawberry frosting. In my fantasy, I had saved this recipe and could share it for generations to come, but as I'm going back through my notes and trying to look through things, I see that I actually didn't even save it! How embarrassing! Let's take a look at the cupcake.

I pureed some strawberry pie filling in the blender, and then piped it onto the cupcakes, using a ziploc bag for ease. These were super delicious, but like the raspberry frosting, these had to be kept in the fridge, because the strawberry frosting was melting all over! Maybe that's just what happens with a fruit frosting. I'll fix this. I'll figure it out.

Lemon Cupcakes with Raspberry Frosting

In a month or so, I'm catering the cupcakes for a wedding again, a neighbor. She wants pretty plain cupcakes - vanilla, chocolate, and lemon. I asked what frosting she wanted with the lemon and she wasn't sure, so I offered to make a raspberry frosting for her, to see how it worked. I did that today. as a trial to see how it tasted. Here's the recipe I used for the frosting:
(for the cupcakes, I literally just cheated and used a box, adding 2 TB of lemon juice to make it more lemony delicious)

1/2 cup fresh raspberries
1 cup butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
4+ cups powdered sugar (you know the drill, you be the judge when you start adding)

Puree the 1/2 cup raspberries in a blender. It's such a small amount that if you put it in a food processor (at least in my case) that after 1 spin of processing, it's on the side and the blades couldn't reach anymore. So basically, I dirtied the food processor for no reason. You should be left with 3-4 tablespoons raspberry puree. I left the seeds because I liked the look, and it seemed more trouble than it was worth to get them out. Beat butter and cream cheese together until smooth and creamy. Add powdered sugar a cup at a time while beating and cream. Add raspberry puree  and beat until creamy. I thought it was a bit runny, so even though I stopped adding powdered sugar (I didn't want it to be too sweet, a complaint the original blog was getting) it was a bit too...unstable. So I put it in the fridge for about a half hour before frosting, that helped. I think a cause to that was that I had my butter and cream cheese to soft. (while I was softening them, I realized I had to make a side for a BBQ I was going to tonight - so cupcakes were put on hold for a bit) So in the future, I would do that differently. And then I frosted these beauties, putting a raspberry on top.

Et voila. And then, the taste. The frosting is pretty good, despite the flaws. The cupcake is good, of course. But together? The aftertaste is...sour. It's not horrible but it just leaves you with a taste in your mouth of sourness. And that's all right. It's not the best, it's not the worst. I just know to improve from here!
(and as a side note, the bride-to-be has rejected this cupcake, wanting a different frosting. It's ok, that's about what I expected. We'll move on!)

Weekly Gecko

What a bunch of cuties this week. I have more Gecko than Darth, but that's all right. Let's get to it.

 "Whatcha thinking 'bout" "Oh, just baby stuff."

Milk tongue is a danger with this guy.

This little fatty has gained a bunch in the last few weeks. Look at those cheeks! Too cute and too much.

Meatless Monday - Sugar Snap Pea and Carrot Soba Noodles

We have decided of late to make Mondays a meatless day, just for variation and fun. This week, this is the recipe we did. Let me tell you how I made it. First of all, I was supposed to get soba noodles to make this, but after going to the store, I couldn't find them. Instead, I just used spaghetti. So first off, make 6 ounces of spaghetti noodles according to package directions. Then, 

2 cups frozen organic edamame

5 ounces (about 1 cups) sugar snap peas or snow peas

6 medium-sized carrots, peeled

1 red pepper, diced 

¼ cup sesame seeds

I just shredded the carrot, I didn't have a julienne peeler like the recipe called for, so I did that. In the future I probably would just buy a package of carrots that are already cut into the long thin strips. Boil the edamame according to package directions. Put the noodles and vegetables into a bowl (after they're all prepared and cooked) and add the sauce. 

For the sauce:

¼ cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons quality peanut oil or extra-virgin olive oil

1 small lime, juiced (3 TB of lime juice, if you just have juice and not limes)

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon honey or agave nectar

2 teaspoons ginger powder

1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce

Mix all together, and pour on the vegetables. Mix mix mix and then eat, its delicious.

This was so good, I couldn't get enough of it! In the future, I think I would add a few more ounces of spaghetti, there was more vegetables than noodles left over at the end. Otherwise, a great addition the menu.

Disneyland Part 2

Today was a much more chill day, everyone was pretty worn out from the grueling pace I had done the day before, and that was all right. We enjoyed rides and Dole Whips and the atmosphere in general. We had a fancy lunch, and they give you three tiny-sized desserts, and holy cow they were super delicious!

Creme brulee, a small s'mores dessert and a chocolate covered strawberry, yum We watched the electrical parade, which was awesome,

and then sadly, the fireworks were cancelled due to winds. And thus ended our two day adventure. I would love to go back again, but now with school about to start for both myself and Husband, our vacations will be put on hold for a bit. But I sure loved this one!

Meeting Heroes

I went to Disneyland this week with Adam's family. With the siblings, the spouses, babies, etc, we were a group of 16 people. That is a lot of people to keep track of! We had a blast though. At lunch one day, princesses kept walking by. I grabbed a picture with my second favorite princess, Tiana.

We had a full day of riding basically every single ride (with only 2 days here, we have no time to waste!) On our way out of one park into the other, I saw Cruella DeVille and HAD to get a picture with her. She gave me plenty of sass, but helped me pose like a diva, and that was so much fun.

The day was fun and so warm, and then we got SOAKED at World of Color, standing on the boardwalk. We hit some wind, and the wind blew all of the water at us. At first we were kind of mad and then we just embraced it, singing at the top of our lungs to Let it Go. What a great day, I love this place!

Darth and Gecko

The baby pics are coming a day early, but never fear, they are still adorable. This week, they're wearing matching shirts and are amaaaazing.

Its too bad we couldn't get them in a picture together but alas, these jokers don't photograph well together, too much wiggling.

A Fancy Manicure

Recently I decided to have a fancy manicure done. Not for any real reason, but because sometimes it just feels nice to have your nails look a little bit fancy. I had them done in a navy blue, which is super distracting. Not to others, but to myself. Every time my eyes caught a bit of the blue, it made me realize how much I move my hands when I talked. It's not super bad, just something I became more aware of. My nails were getting too long, so I either had to redo them, or just take the polish off. I decided to redo them, to have a Disney theme, since the family is going to Disneyland this week. After about an hour or so at the nail place, I emerged with these amazing nails.

I just love these so hard, I want my nails to be like this always. If only it wasn't so expensive! But I am pleased, and it gives me such joy to see these nails every time I look down.

Lemon Cookies

For stamp and chat, I made some cookies, and they were pretty delicious. The only flaw was that I used white chocolate chips to make them, and I just don't like white chocolate. At least it's an easy recipe:

1 box lemon cake mix
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
Juice from one lemon (which is about 3 TB)
1 cup white chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well. Dough will be quite sticky. Chill in refrigerator for 60 minutes, to firm it up.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees. When heated, remove cookie dough from fridge and drop by spoonfuls (I used my handy dandy cookie scoop) onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until very lightly browned - I did for about 9 minutes, they were just a little too underdone at 7. Let cool completely!

These are super delicious, very lemony and tasty. I would like to try with regular chocolate chips and see how they taste. Next time.

Foto Friday

This month, our Stamp and Chat got moved from Wednesday to Thursday. Of course it was loads of fun, with a small group of us having a grand time making cards. They were adorable cards, and when we finished, we ate so many treats that we had all brought! Looking forward to next month, naturally.

Darth and Gecko

These two little nephews of mine are the best. I'm getting so many good pics of these jokers.

Look at this guy, turning on the smolder. 

I bought him this tiny outfit when I was visiting because its SO DANG CUTE with this tiny plaid turtle! And this is something he does all the time, raising one hand like this. I kept asking him if he had a question.

THESE CHEEKS!

He's still not sure how to smile for the camera. What a guy.

Feeling Like Spring

I have wooden block letters for all the special holidays between October to April. But then after Easter, I really don't have anything to put up for the month. So last night, I was looking online at Wood Connections, and I saw that the wooden blocks for Spring were on sale. I figured, I could get those, paint them and put them up, so easy! So I went on over, and as I was looking through the store, I found a finished set of letters for as much (ok, cheaper) than it would be for me to do it myself! So instead of buying the 'ingredients' to do it myself, I just bought it done already and actually feel much better about it, since mine never look as good as theirs do. And it looks spiffy up on my ledge.

Second place!

Yesterday was the Provo City 5K. I was looking forward to this one, this is one of my favorite races of the year! I felt pretty good about the race as I was going, it felt like I wasn't dying. When I finished, I looked at my time, 25:13, and found that I finished in first place! Then, after a little time, I found that I was in second place - the first place in my age group was third overall, (I never would have beat her) so she wasn't counted at first. After waiting for about an hour in the cold and rain, I got my medal!

I feel pretty good about this medal - getting any medal is fine with me, so I don't even care what place it was. After the race, we walked the 3 miles back to the car and while it was cold and rainy, it was pretty fun, and I'm totally looking forward to next years race! 

Vacation for Babies

This past week, I went to visit my sister and her new baby. Along with the old baby, Darth. He's a toddler I guess now, but I still refer to him as baby, I'll do my best to stop that. We just had a chill week of park playing, walks, and playing games. I'll post a few favorites of the pics.

I had a fun time, and luckily I learned that new baby, Gecko, really likes Hamilton, that was the only thing that would calm him down when he was screaming. What a great guy, already recognizes the amazing stuff that's in this world. I was sad to leave this guys, and I'm looking forward to seeing them again!

I'm back!

Has it been an entire month since I've last blogged? Yes. Is this my fault? Not entirely. In the last month, I have studied for, and finished my finals and my semester. This wasn't my favorite semester in any way, shape, or form, and I have never been so happy to have something be over. I got my final grades yesterday and honestly, I wasn't pleased with them, even though I tried this year, I didn't get my coveted 4.0. I didn't fail, by any means, but I am sad at how this semester ended. At least it's all over, and now I can get to my next classes, the ones I'm looking forward to the most, the accounting ones. Hopefully I will like those, I'll find out in June, when my summer semester starts. I'm not going to worry about back-drafting any blogs, I'll just pick it up from here like the last month didn't exist. I look forward to my few weeks of summer vacation!