Notice: Exercising is Hazardous to Your Health!

In the span of 48 hours I had two exercise-related accidents.
1) Friday afternoon. Sholl house.
Cory has started doing his P90X again (good job baby!) and he had his pull-up bar hanging over the door to the yellow room. I was getting Christmas decorations out, which are located in the closet in the yellow room. We usually keep the doors to the spare bedrooms shut, so when I was done, I started to pull the door shut. Down came the (heavy, solid) pull-up bar. On my shoulder. Ow.
2) Sunday morning. Seabrook trails.
I met Lisa on her marathon-training long run. I am not training for anything, but just trying to get back in shape, so on the weekends I meet Lisa and Melissa to run with them! We were just finishing (12 miles for her and 7 for me), when I lost my footing on an uneven surface, turned my ankle, and fell down. I've got some lovely scrapes on my hands and knee, and a twisted ankle to show for it. Ow. Again.
Moral of this story: don't exercise ;)

Snow in the LC

It snowed in Houston again for the second year in a row! Apparently some people further north in the city actually got some accumulation, but down in League City we did not. It was pretty though, and I'm enjoying the cold weather since it makes it feel more like the holidays to me!

Deck the Halls

Last weekend Cory and I put up lights outside for Christmas! I really wanted to hang icicles on the peaks, which really meant that Cory climbed up the ladder and hung them while I watched and held the ladder. He wanted to wrap them around our trees. We did both! This is our 4th Christmas in our house, and the first time we hung lights outside! I like how it turned out!

I haven't done any other Christmas decorating yet. Hopefully I'll get to some soon, because it's less than three weeks now until we leave for PA!

Look what I can do!

I momentarily lost my mind last Friday and went black Friday shopping with Lisa and Melissa. At 3:30 in the morning. Before a full day of work. BUT! I got exactly what I went for - a Cricut. It's the awesomest scrapbooking/crafting tool ever!

I finally got to take it out of it's box today and see what it can do. Here are some things I made just playing around with it, and then I got to business and made some Christmas tags!

I love this thing! I may never need to leave the house again ;) Even Cory was thoroughly impressed! What can I cut for you??

My First Wedding Cake

My good friend Beth's brother is getting married tomorrow. They're having a small wedding at home, and dessert for the guests was covered, but they wanted a small wedding cake for the two of them. And Beth asked if I would like to make it! Of course I would!!

They wanted a simple white cake, so I tried out a recipe last weekend. It tasted delicious, but being the perfectionist that I am, I was not happy with the way it was looking. I was having a hard time getting the buttercream smooth. I found a neat trick online, and I have to say, the final cake turned out pretty darn good. I am proud! I hope Brian and his new wife like it!! Congratulations to them!

Here are a few shots I took before Beth whisked it away (I hope it survives the hour car ride to their house tomorrow!). Please ignore the disaster that is my kitchen counter.

Thanks to Beth for thinking I'm a good enough baker to make her brother's wedding cake, and thanks to Jaime for letting me borrow your oven! (Mine broke two days ago, just in time for me to have to bake Thanksgiving pies and someones wedding cake!).

Anyone else need a cake?? :)

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Cory and I are currently at work in the MCC, keeping the astronauts onboard the ISS safe. It sucks, but somebody has to do it, and at least we're together.
After work we're going to Alicia and the dude's house for turkey dinner, with some of our other Houston friends. Living far away from our families is really hard sometimes, especially at holidays, so I'm thankful to have such close friends here. We really are like a little family here, since almost all of us are far away from our biological families. We love you H-town family!
We love our families in PA, too, and we miss you and can't wait to see you at Christmas!
T-8 hours until turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and pies (made by me) and whatever else people are bringing. YUM!
Please feel free to leave your best turkey impression in the comments ;) Gobble gobble!

Concert Obsession

Cory and I have been going to a lot of concerts lately, which I'm really enjoying! Houston has a lot of neat music venues! Here's who we saw lately:

Our Lady Peace at the House of Blues. Awesome venue, and the band put on a great live show. I can't wait to go back there.

Shinedown, with Cavo and Sick Puppies opening, at the Verizon Wireless Theater. Another awesome venue, and all three bands were great. I'd never heard of Cavo, and didn't know much of Sick Puppies either, but they were both great. I got a little sick of Shinedown's stories that he told, and the mosh pit was a little scary (Beth took an elbow to the chin - yikes!) but the live show was great!

Jett, Our Lady Peace, Puddle of Mudd, Saving Abel, Chevelle, Alice in Chains, all at Buzzfest at the Woodlands Pavillion. Puddle of Mudd was my favorite of the day, and I love the Woodlands for these all day outdoor concerts. You just can't beat the people-watching there.

Papa Roach at Warehouse Live. Another great venue, another great live show. I was surprised Papa Roach played at such a small venue, but I really enjoyed it. His energy is contagious and it was really fun!

Cory and friends also went to the spring BuzzFest, which I ended up missing because I was in France (I know, poor me). And last year we went to BuzzFest and I can't remember who all played, but Three Doors Down was the headliner and they were awesome. Another really great live performance!

I really enjoy going to concerts, and went to so many throughout college, but hadn't really gone to anything the first few years I lived here. So I'm glad to be doing it again, and can't wait to see what we go to next!

Cory's Birthday

Cory's birthday was last Saturday, and to celebrate, we had a party at our house with some close friends! Cory chose a sports theme, so we went with stadium food - hot dogs with ample topping options, soft pretzels (thanks A&B!), popcorn, Frito pies, french fries, cotton candy (which the humidity was not kind to) - YUM! I got cracker jacks for favors, with an awesome collector's Cory Sholl football card attached ;) I made Cory's birthday cake, a 14-layer beauty that was delicious as well!

We also asked people to dress up in their favorite sports team attire, or anything creative involving sports. Cory was a wakeboarder, which later earned him the name DJ Wakeboard as he played us some tunes. I was Maria Sharapova, or just a tennis player ;) We really had to put our thinking caps on to come up with something more creative than our Penn State jerseys! I was impressed with our friends' creativity! Charlie won the prize for most creative with Alicia and Jaime as runners up. You can see their awesome costumes in the pictures below.

In keeping with the sports theme, Cory and I also made a cornhole board, a popular tailgating game, which turned out to be pretty fun, although a bit loud in the house!

Another new thing for this party was.... babies! Two couples of our friends are new parents, and little Charlie and Zara were champs at the party, being all adorable and sweet and mostly sleeping to allow their parents to hang out for a pretty long time! Even little Charlie showed his Texas and LSU pride!

All in all, it was a great party, and a great birthday for Cory! I'm pretty sure he loved my present to him, the new Call of Duty video game, which he got a few days early on the day it came out so he could have his online date with his friends ;)

Enjoy the pictures!

Happy Birthday Irv!

Today was Cory's dad's birthday - Happy Birthday Irv! Hope you had a great day!

Merry Christmas to us!

A little early, but Cory and I got our Christmas present last week. A shiny new iMac! Cory has had his desktop since college, and my laptop is 4 or 5 years old already, so we got a new family computer. Cory did some research and we decided to go the Mac route and we are very happy so far. Plus, it's really purdy ;)

One of my favorite features so far, besides the ginormous screen, is the video chat. My parents got an iMac a year or so ago, so we tried it out with them and it was so cool! I think they really enjoyed it too, especially getting to see their granddog! I think this will be very nice to have down the road when we have kids, since we live so far away from our families. So everyone else, go get an iMac so we can video chat with you!

Carolyn's visit

My bff from college, Carolyn, came to visit last weekend! I hadn't seen her since me and Cory's wedding, and she hadn't been to H-town since the year I moved here (almost 6 years ago!), so it was great to see her and catch up. She also got to see our house and meet Cosmo!

Friday we stuffed ourselves silly at BJ's and then fell asleep watching Transformers 2 at home. Saturday was Buzzfest with the Wilke's and Francesca. The weather was gorgeous and the music was great - we had a great time!

Sunday we watched the PSU game vs Michigan that we taped on Saturday. We won, go Penn State! Monday we carved the most awesome pumpkins ever, and other than that we just relaxed and watched tv and movies and talked! It was a great visit! Thanks for coming Car, I already miss you! xoxo!

Alicia's Wedding

This past weekend, Cory and I travelled to PA for Alicia and Brent's wedding. It was great to be home in our motherland, and even though the weather was rainy, I still enjoyed the cold! I had lots of fun in the days leading up to the wedding, helping with last minute preparations, having martinis with the gals, getting mani's and pedi's, rehearsal dinner-ing, and of course on the day of, standing up for one of my closest friends as she married the love of her life. Alicia was beautiful, Brent was handsome, the place was gorgeous, the ceremony was lovely, the food was delish, and the drinks were flowing! It was so fun! Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Woods!

On Saturday, we watched the Penn State game with the bride and her parents and my parents. Then on Sunday we got to see Cory's parents, which was great!

I also got to give all the parents their copies of our wedding album that I finally finished, and they really liked it so that made me happy. All in all, a wonderful weekend, and what a let down to come back to reality ;)

Next weekend, Carolyn comes to Houston!!!

Here's me and Cory, well into the reception if you can't tell. PS - I promise I wasn't naked.

The Day I Didn't Meet Bono

U2 is playing in Houston tomorrow night. We are not going because my bff Alicia is getting married in Pennsylvania, which is well worth missing it for. But if they ever come back, she's buying me tickets (she might not know this yet)! ;)

Bono and The Edge were in the Mission Control Center today. They were sitting at the CapCom's console (that's the position that communicates everything to the crew onboard the ISS). CapCom sits next to TOPO (that's my position). I was supposed to be on console today, but I traded shifts with someone.

So today was the day I SHOULD have, but sadly, did not, meet Bono :(

Here's a picture Cory took of NASA tv when they were showing the PAO event with U2. I would have been just off to the left...

Happy Anniversary!

Today is me and Cory's one year anniversary! I really cannot believe that it's been a whole year since our wedding, the time has just flown by. It's been a great year and I'm looking forward to many more together. Love you baby!

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.

Thawing...

Our cake top is currently thawing in the fridge, waiting to be eaten tomorrow. That's two layers of plastic wrap, one layer of aluminum foil, a giant plastic bag, and a box, and NO freezer burn! We'll see how she tastes tomorrow!

Eating with Erin

I think that's what I'm going to call all future food posts, but let me know if you have any better ideas :)

Last weekend I made Pioneer Woman's Sesame Noodles and Asian Lettuce wraps from PW's recipe site, Tasty Kitchen. Both were really delicious, and really simple, made with ingredients I mostly had on hand already.

I also made Cory a mini heart-shaped coconut cake. For Nujoud's baby shower cake, I doubled the recipe and made 4 9 inch round cakes, but I only used three. So I used a little heart cookie cutter and made Cory a two layer little heart cake with the rest!

(Please ignore the crappy food-photography. I'm still working on that ;) )

Blast from the Past, 7th Edition

Since I've been slacking on this blog and left you hanging without a post for a month, here's three posts in one day to keep you busy!
This is Heather and me when we were 1-ish. She's the one holding the teddy bear cuz she wouldn't stop crying. Some things never change, huh Heather? ;)

Babies Galore!

I seem to be surrounded by babies lately! Two of my dear friends are pregnant and having babies very soon! I can't believe I'm old enough to have friends having babies (and more so that I'm feeling myself be more and more ready for one!)!
Lisa and I made a diaper cake for Lauri with a dinosaur theme. It turned out super cute!! Her shower was the day after I got home from Moscow and was lots of fun and very educational :)
Nujoud's shower was today and was also fun and educational! There's so much about babies that I don't know! I made the cake for Nujoud's shower and everyone said it was delish, which made me very happy!
Here are pics (Lauri, sorry there's more from Nujoud's, I was still on a different timezone at yours ;) ) Can't wait to meet your lil bugga's ladies!

Moscow

Three days after the Shuttle mission was over, I left for Moscow for a week for work. I'm working on a multi-lateral project with the Europeans and the Russians. The same project I went to France for in May. This tri-lateral meeting was held in Russia.
I'm so glad I finally got to go there! It was so neat to see where our Russian counterparts work, and to see their MCC. I also got to see a lot of neat things on the weekend we got there and in the evenings after work. I'll give a brief description of everything and it should go along with the pictures that follow!
Saturday after we got checked into our hotel, me and two of the girls on the trip that were also in France with me (Melissa and Heidi - that's who 'we' will be in this whole post) went to Red Square. It was neat to see the Kremlin, and St. Basil's Cathedral is more beautiful than the pictures show. After that we walked over to Arbat street, a touristy street with street vendors. We ate shashlik (meat on a stick) at a restaurant there and finally headed home to sleep after being up for 24 hrs.
Sunday we went to Ismailavo, which is basically a giant flea market. Except they sell cool Russian stuff like Matrioshkas (nesting dolls). I got a bunch of souvenirs for the fam. Then we went to VDNK, a park and museum with a cool rocket statue. There was also a really neat red church at that metro station.
Monday work started of course. That evening we tried to do the Moscow River boat tour, but got there about 2 minutes late! We had met up with some of our European work friends so we found a restaurant and got a beer and some food instead.
Tuesday I don't think we really did anything except eat dinner at this really good Thai restaurant.
Wednesday was Heidi's birthday! We got dropped off the work van by the Kosmos hotel and had dinner there and then saw the Russian National Dance Show . It was amazing! This youtube video has some clips but it really doesn't do it justice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U9tBJnF0N8
Thursday we had our social with our work people. We went bowling, and I discovered that I am the worst bowler EVER. I got a 34 and yes, I was trying. On the second round I used 'unique' bowling techniques and I already had a 46 when we had to stop!
Friday we only worked a half day so we took the metro out to Tsaritsyno. It was a beautiful palace on beautiful grounds built for Catherine the Great, but apparently she hated it and never lived there. We couldn't really see why, it was amazing. Unfortunately my camera died while we were there, so I am waiting to get those pictures from Melissa and Heidi. After that we finally got to do the Moscow River boat tour (waiting on those pictures as well), which was lots of fun. We got champagne and relaxed and it was a little cold but I loved it! Then we got something to eat and have a shot of Vodka. We were near Red Square so we walked over to see it at night, which capped off a wonderful trip!
Here's the pictures! (Sorry there's a ton, I was lazy and didn't go through them, so it's everything I took. The last ones at Red Square are on my iphone, so the quality isn't great. Tsaritsyno and Boat Tour coming soon.)

STS-128/17A

Cory and I are both currently working the Shuttle mission in the MCC. We started a couple days ago and we have 8 more days left! STS-128 means it's the 128th Shuttle mission, and 17A is the ISS assembly stage. Cory and I are both the leads for our groups for this mission. That means we've been the ones doing all the prep work for months leading up to it. It also means we're working the same shift, which is great since we're working weird hours.
The goal of this mission is basically to bring some stuff to the Space Station, the most well known item being the COLBERT, or Combined Operational Load-Bearing Resistance Treadmill. Or just 'treadmill' for short. I'm sure you remember when NASA was having the contest to name Node 3 and Colbert wanted it to be named after him. Well NASA had put it to a popular vote and Colbert actually won. So he had astronaut Suni Williams on his show to tell him the fate of Node 3's name. Sadly, it would not be 'Colbert'. But NASA did name this treadmill after him, and it's being brought up on our mission!

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Space Module: Colbert - Sunita Williams
http://www.colbertnation.com/
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Protests

Here's to a successful mission, and to the COLBERT!

Vegas, Baby!

Well, the Shuttle slipped a bit, and Cory and I got to go to Las Vegas to my cousin Jessie's wedding! Neither of us had ever been before, and we had a great time celebrating and hanging out with family. My immediate family was there, and so were some of my extended family, including an aunt and uncle and some cousins. I don't get to see these cousins very often anymore, in fact I can't remember ever spending this much time with them since we are all 'adults'. It was really fun!!

We got there early Thursday and pretty much ended up being awake for more than 24 hours except for a brief nap. The guys gambled and me and my sister and mom walked the strip, seeing all the cool hotels (and awesome high-end shoe stores). That night was the bachelor and bachelorette party and the girls had lots of fun!

Friday we relaxed at the pool and the bride and groom hosted a cocktail hour. After that we went with my immediate family to see Cirque du Soleil's 'O' at the Bellagio. We got to see the fountain and lights show before-hand. These two things were by far the highlight of the trip (other than being at Jessie's wedding and seeing family, obviously)! The fountains were just so cool, and 'O' was simply amazing! I highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in Vegas.

Saturday was the wedding, and the reception at the Mandalay Bay buffet, followed by open bar at the Mix Lounge on top of Mandalay Bay's 'THE Hotel'. All was delicious and lots of fun, and Jessie looked beautiful!

Cory and I left early Sunday morning and now we're back in H-town, waiting for Discovery to get off the ground!

Mentees, or 'I am old'

My freshman year in college, I participated in WEPO, the Women in Engineering Program Orientation. It's a program where freshman women entering an engineering major at Penn State head up a few days before freshman orientation and meet other women in engineering, do a design project, and meet people in industry. When I was a senior and a super-senior, I became a mentor for this program. Being a mentor, and meeting Cheryl, the woman in charge of this masterpiece, were the best parts of WEPO for me.
One of my little mentees, Chloe, has followed in my footsteps, or so I like to think. She's all grown up and graduated and lives down here in H-town and works at NASA. Chloe has remained close friends with two of the other girls that were in our group, Shannon and Ashley. This past weekend was Chloe's birthday, and the girls were in town from Austin to celebrate.
It was so great to see my mentees again, and I can't believe they've graduated already! I feel old, but it was great to see them!

Chloe and me

me, Shannon, Chloe, Ashley

Wedded Bliss

Happy Anniversary Heather and Aaron! Two years ago today, my little baby sister (haha that's so funny, 'cause we're twins, get it?) married the love of her life. I can't believe it's been two years. Two years of pure bliss, right guys? We love you!

Recreating Paris, and other yummy treats

Cory finally came home on Thursday, after two weeks in Russia and one cancelled flight. To celebrate his homecoming, I planned a dinner to recreate our trip to Paris. We started with homemade french bread and brie. I'm really enjoying making bread, and it's super easy with my Kitchen Aid, and oh so tasty. For the main course I made lamb curry; I realize curry is not french, but we had a lot of lamb there and Cory had a curry dish he really liked. The lamb was delicious and tender and I can't wait to cook with it more! I finally tried out our kitchen torch on the creme brulee I made for dessert. We had creme brulee in Paris just about every night and we love it! It was much easier than I thought it would be to make and it turned out delicious! All of this was, of course, accompanied by some French wine. Bon appetit!

My good friend Beth had surgery a few weeks ago, and in my opinion, nothing says recovery like food :) So I made some chai tea latte cupcakes and some vanilla fro yo for her! I also gave some cupcakes to my other chai-loving-friends, Jaime and Lisa.

Last week I went to Alicia's for dinner and brough some macerated berries with cool whip for a yummy healthy dessert. What do do with leftover berries that are getting mushy? Why, make a mini berry crisp of course! And then eat the whole thing yourself. Not that I did that. Maybe.

Blast from the Past, 6th Edition, Puppy Style

I'm sorry. I couldn't resist. Look how cute Cosmo was when we got her, almost 3 1/2 years ago!

For more cuteness, see these videos that I posted on YouTube. We have lots of pictures from when she was little, but these are the only videos. Thanks to Josh for taking them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga4TsV9Zm3M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq209ezGXJo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8HY0hNCUb4

Corpus Christi, Moscow, Pennsylvania

It's been almost a month since I've posted, and that's mostly because I like to have pictures when I post, and I didn't. But now I do!

The Sholls are world traveler's apparently ;)

Cory and I spent the 4th of July weekend in Corpus Christi with the Wilkes at their friends the Ketters' house! Neither of us had ever been there, and it was a fun, relaxing weekend! It was great to meet Susan and Toby and their two adorable girls, and they were wonderful hosts. We forgot our camera, and Beth keeps pictures on her camera for years (I'm not exaggerating), so I don't have any pictures.

After that we spent a few weeks waiting for the next Shuttle mission to launch and seeing if Cory would be going to Russia for two weeks. It slipped a couple times but he's finally there now. He left last Thursday and will be back next Wednesday. I miss him. He posted some pictures on facebook, but here is one of St. Basil's Cathedral, and of the Omega watch he got!

This past weekend, I went to Pennsylvania to celebrate Alicia's upcoming nuptials. We had her bridal shower on Saturday and her bachelorette party that night. Both events were lots of fun, and the public-friendly pictures are posted here, courtesy of Heather

http://picasaweb.google.com/heatherly.hamm/AliciaSShower#

Here is one of all the girls from the bachelorette party!

In addition to Alicia's festivities, I got to see a good friend from high school and my parents. Oh and I got to eat lots of good Pennsylvania food! It was a great trip!

Now I'm busying myself watching girly movies and trying to wait patiently for Cory to come home!

Next stop: Vegas! Hopefully, depending on the next Shuttle launch...

House Project: Office Makeover

When we first moved into our house, we had our desk in one of our spare bedrooms. But then we got another bed to make the spare bedroom a real guest room, so the desk moved to what is supposed to be our living room. We knew we never wanted a formal living room, but this room was basically a mess. In addition to our desk with our computer on it amidst lots of junk, we had my 'scrapbooking table' which consisted of a card table loaded 2 feet high with supplies and other random stuff, and my Grandpa's old chair that I inherited when I moved to Houston, also loaded with lots of random stuff. Here are some 'before' pictures.

So on our long list of improvements we want to make to our home was turning the living room into a nice office. After we got the carpet, I really wanted to get new bedroom furniture, but Cory and I both agreed we were pretty sick of this space, and since it is one of the first rooms people see when they walk in, this became our top priority. We didn't think we were going to do it this soon, but a shopping trip to Ikea with Beth will change your mind quick ;) Here are the 'after' pictures! Let me know what you think!

Thanks so much for your ideas and inspiration, Beth!

Crafty-ness

In addition to spending time in the kitchen, I also really enjoy scrapbooking and making cards. I haven't scrapbooked in a while, but I recently made my own wedding invitations, some bridal shower and bachelorette party invitations, and many birthday cards. And I would like to share some of them with you so you know I do other things than bake and eat what I bake ;)

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy birthday to the best dad ever! You've always been a great dad, and now that I'm older I'm so glad we're friends too. I wish I was there to celebrate with you! I'll drink a Yuengling with you in spirit!
Here's my daddy at me and Cory's wedding last October (so handsome!):

Feelin' hot hot HOT!

The past few weeks have been so freiken hot here in Houston. I don't really remember the actual temperatures being this high before, but maybe I just blocked it out.

This is what my car thermometer read on the way home from work today at 5:30.

And a few minutes later:

When I washed my face when I got home, I had only the cold water on and it was hot. Usually in the summer here, you can't get cold water, its usually warm, but this felt like I had the hot water turned on. I hope it's ok to water my tomato plants with hot water!

(Public service announcement: My car was not in motion when I took those pictures!)

Wedding Photo

For our wedding 'guest book', we did a signature mat. We finally got it framed and picked it up yesterday and brought it right home to hang it up above our mantel. I LOVE it!!! Cory and I rarely agree in our decorating tastes, and I actually liked a different frame better, but I went with what he wanted this time. And I'm glad I did because I think it looks fantastic in our new family room!
Here's a picture of it hanging up with some sconces that we got for our wedding. The wrought iron matches the shelves we already have in this room.

A little closer:
And here's a close-up of the frame itself:

Blast from the Past, Fifth Edition

This is Heather and me on Christmas morning when we were about 5 I think. We'd just come downstairs to see the tree and presents that Santa had brought! I love the expressions on our faces, and I love my mom peeking around the corner. I'm on the right; this time I know for sure because I know that's my doll ;)

Houst Project: Bedroom Curtains

We're still doing things to spruce up our house and make it exactly how we want it. This weekend I got some curtains for our bedroom and Cory helped me hang them. Since the wall color ended up darker than we thought we'd picked, I thought something white and airy would help lighten it up. We're still playing with exactly how we want to bunch them, but I love them!

Before:

After:

Nom nom nom

Although I was having a great time in Paris, I missed a lot of things while I was gone: mostly Cory, Cosmo, my friends, my bed... the list goes on. I also really missed cooking and baking! It's become quite a hobby of mine this year and I was excited to get back to it! Here are some things I've whipped up the past few weeks! I've also been working on my food photography skills and I think I'm improving a little bit.

PW's Strawberry Shortcake Cake
recipe here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/strawberry-shortcake-cake1.pdf
This was DELICIOUS! I made it for a concert in the park that we went to with some friends (yay 80s cover band!) and everyone loved it. I had to give the rest away so I didn't polish it off myself!


Banana's Foster Cupcakes
recipe here: http://healthyeatsandsinfultreats.blogspot.com/2008/09/bananas-foster-cupcakes.html
I made these as a late birthday treat for Josh since I was in Toulouse on his bday. He loves all things banana, but he's not the biggest cream cheese fan, so I made a brown sugar icing that was to die for! The cupcakes were good, but the recipe has you actually make bananas foster and put it in the batter, so I was expecting a little more. They kinda just tasted like banana bread, so I thought the icing really saved them.

Crumbly Cookie's Pain Ordinaire
recipe here: http://www.crumblycookie.net/2008/10/03/pain-ordinaire/
I've been loving this baking kick I'm on, but my waist has seen better days. So this weekend I made something slightly healthier! This was not my first time using yeast (I've made pizza crust and soft pretzels) but it was my first time baking bread. I think I could have shaped it better into a more 'sandwich' size loaf but it tastes great and I can't wait to make more!

Pastor Ryan's Chicken Tikka Masala
recipe here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/pastor-ryans-chicken-tikka-masala1.pdf
Cory really likes curry, and my taste for it has been growing, so when I saw this recipe I knew I had to try it for him. It was AMAZING! I heart Pioneer Woman, and her guest blogger Pastor Ryan! Please go make it. Now.