J's first father's day.

Baby isn't here yet, but we are only days away from our due date/guess date.  (Less than a week, I can't believe it.)  This point of pregnancy is really eerie to think about because I have a babe inside of me that would live and thrive out in the real world now.  It's very much like being sandwiched between two worlds at the moment.
Since Jason has been so supportive and caring throughout my whole pregnancy, I wanted to do something especially nice for him for Father's Day.   In the afternoon we went to see Moonrise Kingdom, but before our day officially began, I surprised him with breakfast.

Nutella and banana crepes, that is.  They were a big hit, and I was even able to sit while I made them.  (Heavenly.)

Recipe!

**The crepes themselves look a bit darker than they normally would because I used whole wheat flour.**

I now pronounce you Smoothie and Popsicle.

Next to barbeque sauce on everything, the only other thing I have been craving has been sweets.  The way I have been getting around eating ice cream every single moment of the day has been popsicles.  Tart popsicles, sweet popsicles, I don't care.  Let me tell you, it does the trick, and I end up getting a good serving of fruit in the process.  Can't go wrong.
Jason has been really into smoothies lately, so we have been combining our current favorite treats to make a sweet treat wonderland.

Pink Peach Mango Smoothie

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup Orange juice
• 1/3 cup Whole milk (feel free to use any kind of milk you want, I have to drink whole milk, so I sneak it in where I can.)
• Frozen strawberries
• Frozen raspberries
• Frozen mango
• Frozen peaches

Directions

1. Throw an individual handfull of frozen strawberries, raspberries, mango, and peaches into the blender.
2. Add orange juice and whole milk.  Securely top blender and proceed to blend.  If you want your smoothie to be more thick, add more fruit.  If you would like your smoothie to be more liquidy, add more orange juice and milk.

Pink Peach Mango Popsicle

1. Make Pink Peach Mango Smoothie, then pour smoothie mixture into a Popsicle mold  (I got my set from a thrift store for 90 cents!)  You can also use paper cups with popsicle sticks if you do not have a popsicle mold.
2. Let freeze over night.
3. Run mold under warm water until you can remove the popsicle with ease.  Enjoy!

Favorite Baking Blogs

I love to get my bake on.  I love watching butter and sugar get all creamy and fantastical, but mostly I love eating the treats once they are done.
Like most people, the muse isn't always upon me.  Creativity comes in waves, and sometimes we could all use a little inspiration to encourage blossoms to bloom.  So I thought I would quickly share my favorite baking blogs with you, just in case you could use a little miracle grow for your creative juices today.

Joy the Baker

Witty writing, yummy treats!

Sweetapolita

Lovely cakes and recipes.  Always, always.

Smitten Kitchen

A wide variety of everything sweet and savory.

TRY the DIY.

Here's a collections of some great DIY projects that I'm itching to try!  I knew you would all be pretty interested too, so I thought I would share.

1.)  I've been seeing these knitted pouf stools everywhere lately.  And they are always extremely expensive.So if you're like me, and you're asking yourself "how the heck can I get this look for less?":  look no further!
Click here for a knitted floor pouf tutorial from Norwegian Knitting Website, Pickles!
Wouldn't this pattern work great with a stretched jersey fabric instead of yarn?

2.)  DIY sprinkles!  I know, right?  Can we just talk about how many times I have gone to the grocery store to buy just plain white sprinkles and all I can find is a rainbow funfetti vomit fest?  Now I never have to worry about it again.  This tutorial makes so much sense, and I am POed that I never thought of it before.
Click here to learn how to make your own sprinkles!

3.)  Spumoni Bombe!  Think Neapolitan ice cream and Baked Alaska had a chunky Italian baby.
Click here for a step by step Spumoni Bombe recipe!

Idaho Spud? Charleston Chew?

I'm in love!  This is a graphic organizer of every chocolate bar you could think of, and what it is made of.  Amazing.  Even the good old Idaho Spud was listed.

via, and buy it via

Cherries.

Can we just talk about how one of my recipes have been featured on grassroutestravel.com?  Yeah!  And it was my very first baking recipe that I ever created; a hearty, rustic fresh cherry scone.  I feel so very honored for the nod.  Thanks for thinking of us, GRT!

You can find the "What to do with Cherries" post: HERE!
You can find the direct link to my cherry and oat scone recipe:  HERE!

 

via echoesofthepastonline

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! 
Jason and I made the most amazing dinner!
We made a pecorino asparagus tart, lemon potato's, and tiny broccoli mushroom quiche.  Traditionally my family always had lamb on Easter, and Jason's family would have ham, so it was nice to make something a little special for a holiday with just the two of us.

How did you celebrate?

Sippin' soda with Billy Mack.

Jason and I moved a week and a half ago (that's why I've been absent!)  Billy, Katherine, and Edwin came from Pennsylvania and Michigan to help us celebrate at our housewarming party, and gosh we're so happy they did!

Since a little bit after the tour started, Billy and Katherine have been taste-testing local soda across the country.  What a clever idea!

Dang

Thanksgiving 2010

I love holidays, but Thanksgiving is extra special for me because it reminds me most of Jason.  One of my happiest memories with Jason is of us dancing in our living room last year because we had four days off together for the first time ever.  We were both over worked and exhausted, and I had pneumonia, but we were so happy that we had to dance.
I don't think Jason even remembers it, but it's one of my most treasured memories.
Thanksgiving is also the only holiday that we have already created our own family traditions.  Baking my mom's cheese cake recipe together (and complaining the whole time about how we wish we had a mixer), making a beautiful vegetarian dinner all day, and watching It's A Wonderful Life before bed.

Check out the Quorn Turk'y ;)

This Thanksgiving we had our friends Kari and Wes over, since we were all kind of misplaced.  It was very relaxed and informal, with no drunk uncles or awkward baby stories.  Yes please.

Musical Cookbooks, Edible flags, and more.

Sorry I haven't been around lately... I've been busy teaching Punk Rock Aerobics and electric guitar to 9-15 year old girls.


Anyway! I just wanted to share some cool things with everyone.

1.) Top 10 best Musical Cookbooks

Loretta Lynn, Frank Sinatra, and yes, even Coolio.
(I know, right?!)


2.) Top 10 Songs about Coffee
And although Bob Dylan wrote one of the songs,
he isn't singing it.
(As it should be. Thank God.)

3.) Edible Flags
Guessing games can be fun...
especially when they involve food.

How to cut a mango.

Mango's and avacado's are a pain in the butt to cut. But let's face it, they're worth it.
Getting to the yum can be hard, but it doesn't have to be!

How to cut a Mango.

1. Cut the Avacado down along where the flat side of the stone (pit) is located. (You will know because the flat side is widest.)

2. Repeat on other flat side of stone.


3. Cut the fruit off the remaining sides of the stone.



4. Cut slashes into the fruit, and pop out your cubes of mango.



Yum!

Rhubarb From Jean.

Jean is our chatty neighbor whom we split our backyard with. She is a cute, older woman, who loves to garden, and she often teaches me tricks on how to make my garden more fruitful.
She is also a retired Nun, which I think is really sweet.
She even has a wedding ring to God.

Anyway, today she gave me some Rhubarb, and I got so excited I had to blog about it!
It's going in the freezer until the strawberries are ripe!

(Now that's for another post!)

I call these my Rhubarb-erine Claws.

Get it? ....Like Wolverine Claws?
eh? eh?

A little sneak peak!

Another reason why I haven't been able to blog lately about my creative life would be that I am finishing up my album. (Which will be released on June 3rd, on my 24th birthday!)

I've been working on this album consciously for about a year and a half, but there are songs on it that I've been working on since I taught myself to play guitar five years ago.
It's a long time coming.
I just want to thank everyone for being so patient.
And I thought I would do so by posting a recent collaboration that I've done with New South Bear.

"I've sent my blues"

Thanks for still checking up on me!
I love you!

Poor Man's Hummus Recipe

Poor Man's Hummus...now, you might ask, why does it have such a name?
Well. I will tell you. I substitute the tahini with cumin!!
And let me also tell you, I don't really miss it.
You also make twice the amount that you would normally buy, only for a fraction of the price!
Great for entertaining on a budget.
Count me in!

Poor Man's Hummus Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 can Chickpeas/garbonzo beans (whatever you call them works for me.)
• 3 to 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp cumin
  
• pinch of salt
• pinch of pepper
• about a cup of water, give or take
  
• **I also put in a bit of mixed herb goat cheese this time around because I had it in the fridge, but I normally wouldn't add this.
  

Additional Supplies:

• Blender
• A teasoon.
  

Directions:

1. Drain one can of ready to serve chickpeas/garbonzo beans. Put them into your blender.
2. Plop 3 to 4 peeled and diced cloves of garlic into the blender, along with cumin, slat, pepper, and enough water for it to blend up. Usually around 1 cup of water, give or take, will do.
3. Once it is blended to the consistency you prefer, top it with a dash of cumin and pepper.
4. Done!
   

Things are happening.

This is the calm before the storm...

...and boy, does the calm feel good.




In other news, I taught the little one how to spell "Cat" and "Dog" today.
And we're about to get some pie with our friends, Stephen and Colleen.

So yeah, things are happening.