Makeover

Well, what do you think??

I like it. Actually, I love it. I was so excited when we finished the header that I made the snail start talking. Because, see? He's reading the title! I love my snail.

I still have to tweak the fonts, but Blogger is being annoying and not letting me. Anyone else having that issue?

Thank you to the bestest sister in the world. We may get rocky at times, we may rub each other the wrong way often, but we love each other, and I couldn't have done this without her. And it was SO much FUN!!

I'm sorry for keeping you up late, and being picky, and not always being the nicest sister in the world. I owe you BIGtime for this, and I love you, no matter what.

THANK YOU, SHRA!!!

Kitchen, Curtains, and Carrot Cake

It's time for PICTURES!!! First, my beautiful bathrooms. They're a bit bare, and needing accessories, but still. Just having themes for each is more than I've ever had!

The boys/guest bathroom...

My Mom called it the Bollywood bathroom :)

And MY bathroom...

I am madly in love with my bathroom. I have always loved blue-and-white prints, and this feels so luxurious to me!! *happy dance*

Our patio, my new food-photography studio...

My (ahem, our) new computer desk!! Our first real furniture purchase together in our whole marriage!!

Love love love. 

And of course, last but by NO means least... My Kitchen.

I still can't quite believe it. It looked lots smaller in the online pictures!! Forget looking for a house, maybe we'll have to just stay here.

To celebrate the gorgeousness of this kitchen, I decided to attempt something brand new: Carrot Cake. I have never made a carrot cake, can you believe it?! This recipe is (mostly) from my Mom's best friend when we lived in Colorado, Cherie Haaland. She was our neighbor for the first stay, and has been a family friend ever since. She had lived in England, and was the most elegant person I had ever met at the age of 12. She had dishes and furniture from England, books, recipes, clothes... That was about when my obsession really took off. There was also a gorgeous garnet velvet chaise that I wanted soooo bad... and still do...

Carrot Cake (adapted from Cherie Haaland)

Printable Recipe

3 c flour
3 c sugar
1 t salt
1 T b. soda
1 T cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 c oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 T vanilla
1 1/2 c shredded coconut
5-6 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1-2 inch chunks
3/4 c crushed and drained pineapple
1 cup walnuts/pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and/or line two 9 inch springform or -sided cake pans. Whisk flour, sugar, salt, soda,and spices together in a large bowl. 

In a blender or food processor, combine the oil, eggs, carrots, pineapple, and coconut. Blend till smooth.

Add the carrot mixture to the dry ingredients, and mix well. 

Pour into prepared cake pans, and bake 45-50 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting. 

Frosting:

1 8 oz package cream cheese, room temperature

6 Tb butter, room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar

juice of 1/2 lemon

2 tsp vanilla

Cream butter and cheese together. Add liquids. Slowly add sugar until fully mixed. Frost your cake!

Okay, this is probably the most unattractive cake I have ever made. It's not the recipe's fault! It's mine, I messed up the frosting, and used the wrong pans! :) Now, I would normally get all angry and furious and cry about my ruined cake, but apparently blogging has taught me baking perspective, because I just laughed and went with it!

Uuuuuugly!! :)

Oh well. It's what's on the inside that matters, right?

Well, how does that look? :)

Mmmmm... cream cheese awesomeness...

After I cut that slice, the frosting just pooled in the middle... *giggle*

My crazy husband who is randomly picky doesn't like the teeny bit of lemon in the frosting. Ha!

This is sweet, spicy, toothsome carrot cake at it's best. You still get little bits of carrots to chew, but the cake holds together much better without all those big chunks!

 Stephen doesn't like it. I do. You will too. I hope the boys can help me finish it!! Hooray for a new kitchen!

Link & Mingle 5

Hello Again, Everyone!! It's Mingle Time again! I have to admit, with the crazyness of the past week, I was considering skipping out this week... but I didn't! I'll use today as a catch-up day, and tell you about some fun blogging happenings! First, Thank you so much to everyone for reading! I'm so thrilled to read all of your comments, I never dreamed I would have found so many friends so quickly! Keep commenting, it makes my week :) and I will keep replying and trying to visit you back (I'm catching up soon, I promise!) Second, my sister and I stayed up way too late last night, finally nailing down the details of the new blog header she's designing me!! I won't show you until the WHOLE design is finished, but the hardest part is done, and It. Is. Marvelous. 

The long of it is, the "Link and Mingle: Sisters in Blogging Social Media Linkup". The short is, the "Link & Mingle". Call it what you wish. :)

Meet our weekly hosts!

Shaylee Ann | Mother {at} Heart

Kim | Singledou[b]t
Kendra | Adventures of Brad & Kendra
Courtney | Thoughts From the Birdhouse
Britt | Yellow Umbrella
Courtney | Baxtron{Life}
April | Dimples and Delights

and for this week's co-host, we have
Mallory | The Grace of Southern Charm

Thank you, ladies!

The "rules" are thus:
visit/follow/like as many links as you can,

link up to as many social media sites that apply to you (please link up only links that apply - blog posts and other links that do not apply will be removed),

share, tweet, and blog about this link party if you so wish,

grab the button {below},

and have fun meeting new people!

Links are connected to each header, to show you just what you should link up. :)

We would love it if you followed all of your hosts and co-hosts, but that's not mandatory. Just have fun! :)

If you would be interested in co-hosting this party periodically, send an email to {shaylee.motheratheart@gmail.com}.

Want to have this blog hop on your site? Click the URL at the bottom of each linkup to get the code. Tweet #link&mingle if you post the hop!

Alright, ladies! Button-up, link-up, and meet-up! :)

Tweet

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

<center> <a href="http://www.mother-at-heart.com/search/label/Link%20and%20Mingle" target="_blank"><img alt="Mother {at} Heart" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkQNvGlAo7y-sgtt6cIsx2OKxKOx6pKS4l-dlsYuXWSW0UXxepqBBKA8smOmob1Sy6HWyhsfeyQfwyhyPXsx-Gas0DDpaZhr4yKIvW59Ck-4zy1DHs2gGXy7IzMjPvCiuP6IO3w5MWCSc/s487/button.png" width="250"/></a></center>

Thank you for linking up!

Come back next Thursday for another round of the Link & Mingle!

Lemon Blueberry Cookies

Today has been a very, very busy shopping day! We bought pretty things for both bathrooms, (I've never had pretty bathrooms before!!) a computer desk that I am in LOVE with, and random odds and ends. I'm putting the home together, I promise pictures as soon as I'm done!!

Let it be known: I have granite countertops. *swoon*

I'm going to put lots of fun things together tonight for my next few posts, so this one will be short. It's the recipe for the cookies I made to go with the scones for his thesis defense. Lemons and berries are on the way out, but we can hang on to them for a few more weeks, can't we??

Lemon Blueberry Cookies (adapted from Miss Karli Brae)
Printable Recipe

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 1/8 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups blueberries
Zest of one lemon
Juice of one lemon
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Mix in vanilla, zest, and lemon juice. In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.  Gradually add the dry ingredients into the batter. Carefully fold in berries.

Scoop or roll cookies into about 2 Tb sized balls.  Allow dough balls to cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour, up to overnight. When ready to bake, place balls of dough on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the bottoms are slightly golden.

Looks like I should have used a colored tablecloth!! Oh well, I'm still learning :)

I love these little cookies. They're like a cross between cake and cookies... not quite as airy as a cake, not quite as dense as a cookie, but with the best bits of both! Plenty of soft, zesty lemon-ness, and pockets of sweet blueberry. I ate three before I knew what I was doing...

And this cookie base is so versatile!! You could do anything with it. Play with different extracts and berries, add chocolate or white chocolate chips... have fun with it! I am pretty sure I will have to try it with raspberries someday...

Scones and cookies, Summer and Fall. I may like Fall better as a season, but goodness knows I dearly love the flavors of both!!

Shared at Foodie Friends Friday

Aaaand, We're Back!!

Hello Everyone!! Oh, how I have missed you!! And wow, do I have a lot to catch up on! Thank you SOOOO much for posting for me, Shaylee, that was the sweetest thing ever. I feel so loved, and so do the boys. I could dwell on how sad it is that I'm already gone, but I think I'll just be happy I met you at all!!

Now, let's start with the move, shall we??

Because we knew, weeks ahead, that there would be no way to nail down a moving date, we started packing very early. Packed up everything we wouldn't need, and everything we could do without. That left us with half the kitchen, toys, clothes, and odds and ends on the last day. Stephen was a packing animal, he got everything packed himself, while I ran all the Last Day errands. He even started loading the truck before our help arrived! We also decided to skip our teeny deposit, and not stress about deep-cleaning the apartment. It's nearly impossible to clean them anyway.

We knocked 3 hours off our trip that night by driving to Green River, then had 5 hours of driving the next day. Usually Stephen is our driver, so it was different for me to drive that far! I got back into the groove pretty fast though. :) The boys and I listened to kid music, pop music, and all the stuff Daddy can't stand. They were fabulous, as usual! I took some pictures, coming over the pass, but had to stop after a few swerves...

 Dad, these colors are for you!

 The mountains are for you, Mom...

By the time we got to Denver, things were starting to crumble a bit. My back was killing me, Joe was beginning to self-destruct (3 days with no naps!!) I was hot and grimy and tired, and then there wasn't any parking!! It took just under two hours for our moving help to unload the truck, during which I found out my facebook had been hacked, our phones barely work in our apartment for some reason, and we would be without internet until Wednesday. I was craaaanky.

Yes, that is my KitchenAid being used as a doorstop... *twitch*

But as soon as everything was in the apartment, we had eaten, the boys had been calmed, and facebook had been fixed, I calmed down and really took a look around.

Our new home is glorious. (More about that tomorrow!)

Life is, again, GOOD. We have nice neighbors, we back up to the creek with some wilderness for the boys and the beast, we have time to explore and have fun before work/school start again, and we are just plain thrilled to be here!! Of course, it couldn't possibly be Home until I cooked something, so just because I love you, I'm sharing my recipe for award-winning chili! Well, that's what Stephen calls it, anyway. He's convinced it would win a chili cook-off, but to be honest, it's never been put to the test.

Simple Chili
Printable Recipe

1/2 yellow onion, diced small
2 Tb butter
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb lean ground beef
1 can tomato sauce
2 cans Ranch Style Beans (you can also use red or pinto beans, but these are my favorite, because they already have some kind of mysterious seasonings in them...)
1/2 cup-3/4 cup beef broth
1 Tb chili powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
3 Tb Worcestershire sauce
splash of Tabasco

Melt butter in a large pot/saucepan over medium high heat. Add onions and a pinch of salt, saute till translucent. Add garlic, stirr and cook about 30 seconds. Add beef, making sure to crush it up and mix those onions and garlic in. Sprinkle with about half a teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Cook the meat until partly browned, till it starts to soften up a bit.

Add all of the other ingredients, bring to a boil, and lower to a simmer, at LEAST an hour, up to three hours. If it starts getting a little too thick, add a bit more broth.

Top with cheese, sour cream, onions, whatever strikes your fancy!\

Chili certainly isn't the most photogenic of foods, is it?? Oh well, I did my best. One of my Dad's classic Sunday meals when I was growing up was Ranch Style Beans. Just some beans and some ground beef. Not sure if there was anything else in it. But we loved it.

You could fancy-up this chili with peppers, corn, kidney beans, wine, chocolate, peanut butter... (no really, I've heard of those last two!) But we like our chili simple around here. It took me 6 years to nail this chili down. But it has been captured at last. Oh, if you have some of those annoying crushed chip bits left in the bottom of a bag, throw those in too, along with the beans and everything. Just decrease the salt a bit in the meat. I usually do, but I didn't have any this time. Enjoy!!

Guest Post - Shaylee, from Mother {at} Heart

Hi, Dimples and Delights readers!

I'm Shaylee, April's new friend from Mother {at} Heart.

While April is gone, I am in charge of doing a guest post for her. I was supposed to do this yesterday, but I was lame and let life get in the way of posting. So today, I'm going to post about one of my favorite subjects: my adorable [ adopted ] nephews. 

April's precious little sons have made me their newest aunt, and I couldn't be more thrilled. ;) X)

I got to spend all day Friday watching Joe and little Stephen (whom I now lovingly call "Pip") for her and Stephen while they got ready for the move - packing, loading, cleaning, etc.

During that time, I became a baby panda's mother while traveling to Samoa in our awesome and very speedy car; fed giant spiders cake-flavored chewing gum; discovered a baby monkey in California; and learned that Pip loves me 90%, just 10% less than he loves his Paddington bear - and much, much more. ;)

Check out these hunks of handsomeness:

JOE

 

[little] Stephen

My Boys

[and baby sister]

I seriously cannot get over how blinking cute they are. I miss them so much already, and I am very glad that I actually got to meet them before they left!

Also, since this post is about April's boys, I must talk about that wonder of a women too. ;) She's my officially adopted sister as of . . . the first time I met her. She is an amazing, amazing cook. She's a darling wife and a marvelous mother. She's cute and funny. She loves Bollywood movies/music - which I am not converted to as well. And, I pretty much adore her, almost as much as I do her boys - you know, about 90%. ;)

Thanks, April, for having me post!

Happy middle-of-September, friends! :)