Red Velvet Pancakes...

What can I say, we are a pancake family. We choose pancakes over waffles, french toast, eggs, bacon, muffins, crepes...they always out trump any other breakfast food in this house.

When I saw this red velvet pancake mix from World Market it was a no brainer. 

Seriously you guys, you have to try this stuff. So, so good...and who's to say that heart pancakes are only for Valentines Day? I say every day is a heart pancake kind of a day :-).

^^^ pac man pancakes lol ^^^

Strawberry Fields Forever...

I will never forget when I heard this song for the first time. In middle school, my oldest sister was super into the Beatles; this was my favorite song on their track (as she played it over and over and over again). Oh, it brings back such fond memories. 

Speaking of strawberries me and a friend ventured out to the Carlsbad strawberry fields to pick our own.  These strawberries are SO good and juicy. It seemed like our bucket never got passed the half way mark when Sage was filling it up. I think she ate her weight in them! :-)

I have to admit, picking these juicy, red strawberries made me want to go bake my triple layer cake again, but then I remembered how if I bake one more dessert my husband my disown me (...speaking of eating your weight in something)! 

Anyways it was a fun afternoon, thanks Abby and baby Jack for joining us!

 ^^^one is not like the other :-)

An Eruption of Color

I always love getting emails from blogging friends who see something colorful and send it my way! Just today I got one from Cheryl that made my jaw drop to the floor. Not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined an entire village covered in colorful flower petals. However, it really happened...

"An advertising agency commissioned photographer Nick Meek to bring this vision to life to promote Sony's new 4K TV. It took the creative team and the inhabitants of an entire village in Costa Rica over two weeks to pluck all the petals of the brightest, most vibrant flowers they could find. Over 8 million flower petals were collected to represent the 8 million pixels of Sony's new TV. The flower petals were released creating breathtaking visuals. The petals swept through the town, erupted from a volcano and floated down the river."

I wish I could have been there to witness something so amazing and breathtaking as this. At least I now know that if someone can manage to gather up 8 million flower petals and have them erupt out of a fire breathing mountain...anything, and I mean ANYTHING is possible! 

 

Triple Layer Lemon Strawberry Cake that'll make your mouth "wat-ah"

I am more of a chocolatey, peanut buttery, caramel lovin' type of girl. However, every once in a while when I stumble upon a "to good to be true" fruity dessert...well I make the leap and bake it. 

This cake is a moist, triple layered, strawberry & lemon infused dessert of delectability (can ya feel me here?!). No joke, the whole reason I wanted to make it was because of how pretty I imagined it could be. Then, oh then, I had a piece...and it made me fall in love with lemon flavoring all over again. 

Now, lets talk about the frosting...because it really is what takes this cake to the next level. It's light, fluffy and easy to manage. This sort of balances out the pound cake texture of the layers. I could've slathered this light, fluffy creamy bit of heaven all over the floor, and would have gladly licked it clean. 

So, with that said this cake is worth making. I mean think about all the praise and admiration you'll get as you waltz into a party with this thing in tote. whoa.

 ^^^now starts the fun part...the frosting and decorating***happy fingers^^^

^^^My sisters goldendoodle, Renzi. The biggest beggar of all. 

CAKE:

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs, separated

3 cups flour

1 TBS. baking powder

1/8 tsp. salt

1 cup milk

1 TBS. lemon zest

1 TBS. fresh lemon juice

strawberry-lemonade jam (we used strawberry-pineapple instead)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating until blended after each addition.

2. Stir together flour and next 2 ingredients; add butter mix alternately with flour mix. Beat low until blended. Add zest and juice.

3. Beat egg whites in large bowl until stiff peaks form. Gently fold into batter. Spoon batter into three greased (and floured) 9 inch pans.

4. Bake at 350 for about 17 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely on wire racks.

5. Place layer on cake stand, spread a nice layer of jam on top. Repeat with second layer.

STRAWBERRY FROSTING:

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened

2/3 cup sugar, divided

2/3 cup chopped fresh strawberries

1 drop pink food coloring

1 1/2 cups heavy whip cream

3 TBS. fresh lemon juice

1. Beat cream cheese and 1/3 cup sugar with electric mixer until smooth; add strawberries and food coloring; beat until well blended.

2. Beat whipping cream and juice at medium speed until foamy; slowly add remaining 1/3 cup of sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Fold into cream cheese mixture. Immediately spread onto cake layers

***When I make this next time, I think instead of the jam...I'll use the frosting in between the layers. I just think it would be that much better.***

Party Table Color Schemes

My one and only blondie sister is getting hitched in May...so my other sister is taking the reigns on the bridal shower and we are trying to conjur up a few color palette ideas. Here are some of my favorites...thought I'd throw it out there for you to give your opinion. I tend to go more for corals and pinks...with yellows and greens. It's crazy how much you can do with a few good group of colors, aint it?! :-)

photo cred:  pic1   ////    pic2    ////     pic3     ////     pic4      ////     pic5

Valentines Day Heart-astic Headbands...

My sister showed me this amazing bohemian headdress for Thanksgiving...and so I sort of took that idea and used it to make a headdress for Valentines Day! Oh my gosh, I stuck them on my little girls and wanted to melt into a big love puddle...they looked so cute! Plus, they loved wearing them...such a fun thing for Valentines Day!

What you need: 

-a few different fabric scraps (I just got a 1/4 a yard of each pattern)

-about 1/2 yard of canvas fabric

-knit elastic

-iron on backing 

-scissors

-iron

-sewing machine

 ^^^cut out your hearts (different sizes) I did about four-five per headband

^^^arrange your hearts on the "iron-on backing"

(or you can do one heart at a time...I'm just impatient so I wanted to do it all at one time)

^^^slowly flip it over making sure none of the hearts are overlapping and iron them on

(this just makes it so the fabric sit straight up)

 ^^^cut out each heart and set aside

^^^take the canvas material and fold over twice...than iron it flat so it's easier to sew together. 

 ^^^measure the canvas fabric so it fits almost around the entire head leaving about two inches of space

^^^my little assistant

 ^^^sew canvas material down the edge

^^^pin on your hearts and sew a straight line down the middle of the them

^^^insert elastic into both ends and sew to the canvas material (we messed up and did this before we sewed on the hearts...but learn from my mistake and do it at the end...it'll make your life much easier!)

gosh I love these little peanuts...***sigh