Pink & Red Valentines Day Sugar Cookies...

I was going to wait to post these until it was officially the month of love, but I just can't wait any longer. Plus, I mean, the first is this weekend so I might as well get a head start right?!

My sweet friend Angela always brings these delectable sugar cookies to little events and parties. They always look so perfectly frosted (almost like they were done professionally)! I thought, "these probably take her FOREVER",  to which she replied, "they really are pretty easy", and that's when I said, "ooooh, teach me your ways!"  So like a good friend, she did just that...

...and in return I am sharing it with all of you (which she generously agreed to! *happy dance). 

Here are the steps & recipe (it includes the secret ingredients...thank you karo syrup and almost extract):

Sugar cookies
1 cup sugar 
1 cup butter (softened)
3 oz cream cheese (softened)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
2 1/4 cups flourMix butter, cream cheese and sugar. Add extracts and egg yolk. Mix well. Add flour and salt. Refrigerate a few hours or overnight. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes. (Edges are just barely brown when done.) Cool completely.

Frosting
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 tsp almond extract 

Mix all ingredients adjusting powdered sugar for desired thickness. Frost cookies and let set up overnight.  ***If you want to do decorate trimming or words/designs, simply take the original frosting and add more powdered sugar to make it thicker. So that the consistency resembles something compared to soft taffy.

San Francisco...

Starting a new year always gives me a bit of anxiety. There is so much hype and expectation...wouldn't you agree?! So this year, I have made one resolution and that is to SIMPLIFY. I will be posting a lot more about that in the coming week but until than I thought I'd share some photos of our short getaway to the golden city (or some call it baghdad by the bay, or frisco, or fog city...i mean the list goes on and on).

It was our seven year anniversary and we wanted to make it memorable (plus there was football game that the mister wanted to go to as well...funny how that worked out?!)  I fall more in love with this place each time I walk down it's streets...all things artsy fartsy with a spritz of organic city life. Oh, and don't get me started about the food; lets just say we might have based the majority of our stay around where we were going to eat?! :-)

My favorite things this time around were:
-going to the BYU game and seeing a bunch of old friends from our college days 
-the farmers market down by the warf is AMAZING (most of the pics Im sharing in this post are from there)
-loved watching people preform their talents on the side of the street, especially the Drum King. 
-Ghirardelli factory
-Lombard Street on Russian Hill 
-the gorgeous and intricate gingerbread castle at the Westin St. Francis hotel
-spending the afternoon with my sisters, niece and nephews

okay now lets talk food, since we were only there for 2 1/2 days we didn't get to hit all the places we wanted but our favorites were:
***breakfast: Dotties and Sears
***lunch: Botts
***Dinner: Hillstone and actually the cafe in Neiman Marcus was really good
***treats: Swensens Icecream and the farmers market has phenomenal tasty things galore 

Places we heard were really good but never got around to trying them:
***breakfast: Zazies and Plow
***lunch/dinner: Tonga Room, Boulevard, State Bird Provisions, McCormick & Kuleto, Frascatis (the pork chops are supposedly amazin'!)
***treats: Icecream bar for great sodas (thanks Rachel for that one!)  and Twirl & Dip for delicious homemade waffle cones and soft serve

^^^ our flight was delayed, so I went and got a bag of candy that cost waaaay more than it should've...

Josh wasn't too amused haha. Airports are such a rip off.

 ^^^ 1 1/2 hour wait for Dotties but totally worth it

^^^ this is all made out of sugar, graham crackers and frosting...the detail was jaw dropping

^^^ I kind of want a kitchen with green cupboards after seeing this little boutique

^^^ wreaths made out of tiffany&co. boxes... love it!

I couldn't get enough of this guy, I could've stayed and watched him for hours!!! 

The Pecan Pie that has stolen my heart...

Yesterday, I was in search for the perfect dessert to fix for my Halloween feast. I finally decided on Pioneer Womans Pecan Pie (she calls it The Pie That'll Make You Cry) and holy macaroni!

Josh didn't believe I made it...goes to show how much trust he has in my baking skills?! This pie is good my friends, like I wanted to lick the pan clean than make another one, good. I did a few things different to the recipe just because I'm weird like that.

My little twist:
I used 1 1/2 cups pecan chips instead of 1 cup chopped (they're just smaller and easier to chew)
I added a little extra vanilla and brown sugar
I used 3/4 cup corn syrup rather than 1 cup
I cooked it for about 1 hour and 10  minutes
...and lastly, instead of serving it cold I let it sit in the fridge for about six hours and then when I got it out to serve I warmed up the slices in the microwave and added a scoop of icecream (it seemed to be the more popular vote over a cold slice)

SEE THE ORIGINAL RECIPE HERE

Ree, you dog gone done it again. This pie was pretty tear jerking!

 is your mouth watering yet?