.la bebe has an un-birthday.

I can't believe it took me so long to write this up. Wait, no, I can. This is me we're talking about. :) Regardless, 2 weeks ago we threw an early birthday party for la bebe. We dubbed it the Un-Birthday and it was a wild and crazy awesome time. We had it a month early because we knew we were going to be moving before her birthday but not the exact date. We wanted to throw her a party where our friends could come, versus it just being the three of us on her actual birthday half way across the country.

The "theme" was nice and simple, polka dots. I had a ton of fun doing everything and I'm so glad everybody who came out could join us! Now here's what everyone really wants from first birthday's; the pictures!

I decorated her high chair with ribbons and she had this cute sash for the cake smashing. 

Don't mind that stupid balloon that died.

Her cute little tutu'ed* booty.

We played pin the candle on the cupcake**!  

The spread! I was really proud of how it all turned out! We had turkey meatballs with sweet chili sauce, goldfish and teddy grahams, guacamole and pita chips, a fruit salad, chocolate dipped oreos with sprinkles, cupcakes and the smash cake! 

Chocolate dipped oreos with sprinkles, shredded coconut and nuts are super easy! I did them the night before and it was pretty fun. They also tasted great! There is a great tutorial here.

No recipe for the cupcakes because I totally used a box mix! Yeah! Ha.

Made the little lady a vegan chocolate cake. No recipe for that either cause I didn't like it. 

She seemed impressed though.

Tentative at first.

And then not so tentative. :) She didn't really eat a lot of the cake but she went to town on the icing.

Sugar high!!!

Close up of the aftermath. 

All in all it was a fantastic day. I'm so glad for all the awesome friends we've made here and I'm glad Tyler got her 1st birthday party! Even if it was her un-birthday. 

XO

.tagalong with me.

I woke up this morning with a hankering to bake. Sometimes it happens. I also bought some girl scout cookies last week. So I thought to myself, "Self, what would go good with girl scout cookies?" To which I replied, "Well, Self, probably a big ol' chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting."

Yeah, I'm pretty much a genius y'all.

I also had some cream cheese and sour cream in the fridge that I wanted to use up, and with that, I bring you Tagalong Cupcakes. I used the Guinness Chocolate Cupcake recipe from my birthday, but instead of Guinness I just used a little bit of extra sour cream and 2 tablespoons of milk. It was fate, these were the most perfect looking cupcakes I've ever baked. The frosting was also to die for.

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting  
frosts 6 cupcakes
2.5 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons milk
3/4- 1 cup powdered sugar

Combine the cream cheese and peanut butter until mixed. Add the milk and vanilla, combine. Add the powdered sugar, 1/4 cup at a time. I only used 3/4 cup powdered sugar and it was very thick frosting, just the way I like it! I found that this also made the perfect amount of frosting for the 6 cupcakes, finally! But, y'all know I'm not huge on the frosting so if you like copious amounts of the stuff I would double this recipe.



After the cupcakes are completely cooled, frost them to your liking. Then place a Tagalong cookie on top. Easy peasy!

I loved being able to scoop the frosting with the cookie!

XO

.pretty much my most favorite soup evah, and, oh yeah, cupcakes.

If I wasn't so rigid about my title format that would actually read "Pretty much my MOST favorite soup EVAH! And, oh yeah, CUPCAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

But, the format is how I roll so. Yes, lets talk soup. Or stew. Or stoup, if you're my homegirl RayRay ( that would be Rachel Ray, for those of you who aren't tight with her, like me). Anyways, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. That delicious little concoction that is "thinner than a stew, but thicker than a soup." You can make it out of any soup or stew that you like, for me, I prefer the Chicken Tortilla Soup. So delicioso. Yeah, I'm getting spicy on y'all.

Oh this pot has some stories....

  I discovered this delightful little soup while in college in Austin, TX   
  (and no, not at UT, try again). Which, if you can't find good chicken 
  tortilla soup in Austin, you can't find good chicken tortilla soup 
  anywhere... north of the border. I didn't attempt to replicate this soup
  until I had already moved to Alaska. Why would I? I had a steady
  supply at my fingertips everywhere in the ATX. That supply was
  nowhere to be found up in the Last Frontier, however, so I had to
  make my own. I looked at multiple recipes from all over and finally
  just made a hodge podge of my own tastes that made the soup quite a bit thicker than I had ever found it. This included doing away with the tortilla section of chicken tortilla soup, unfortunately, because I could never find cute little tortilla strips in the Safeways up there. Bummer dudes. I'll let you in on a secret though.... don't tell....

...the soup is just as good without the tortilla strips...

Really, it is. I promise. But, if you are in a place where you can easily find tortilla strips, or if you want to make your own, by all means, they should definitely be in there. Most recipes also called for cilantro, which I am not a fan of, so I also leave that out. Without further adieu, here is my chicken tortilla "stoup" recipe.

Chicken Tortilla Stoup serves 6-8

Sauteing up the veggies

3 large chicken breasts
14.5 ounces fire roasted diced tomatoes
14.5 ounces black beans
1 small or medium onion
2 jalapenos
2-3 cloves minced garlic
6 cups chicken stock, or water
1-2 cups rice
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper for taste
Grated cheese for taste
Lime for garnish

Ok, let me start by saying, in terms of the ingredients, I use a TON of cheese, I also might not use that much water or stock, it just depends on how much it takes to cover everything in the pot, and how thick I want the stoup to be. The rice plays a big roll in the thickness as well, so you can adjust that to maybe 1 cup if you prefer, or leave it out completely as many recipes do, but I like my rice. Also, this time around I used approximately 1 leek. Very tasty addition.

Looks like "blah" tastes like "BANG!"

In a large stock pot heat olive oil. Add the onion and leek for about 3 minutes. Then add garlic and jalapeno for another 2 to 3 minutes, or until the onions are beginning to get soft. Add the stock/water, tomatoes, beans, rice, chicken, and salt and pepper, bring to a boil. After it starts to boil, lower the temp and cover the stock pot. Let the chicken cook for at least 30 minutes. I usually let it all cook for more like 45 minutes or even longer. When the chicken is tender enough to shred with two forks, do so. Let everything simmer for about 10 minutes longer. Add salt and pepper as needed. Place in bowls, garnish with grated cheese and lime.

I also discovered a nice little tip this time. At the first taste test my mouth was pretty much scorched with jalapeno spiciness... too spicy to be tasty, so upon a little google research and many choices I decided to add about 1.5 teaspoons of baking soda, which is supposed to quickly counteract the spicy. And it did! Hoorah! Other options were cheese, sour cream, etc. Just a little tip-ti-dip from me.

And now, no, I did not forget. I owe you cupcakes. I do not disappoint.

I've been checking out this blog (<-click for link) and am completely in love with the idea of only making enough dessert for two. That being said, all of her cupcake recipes make 4 cupcakes! The man and I would absolutely scarf down 2 cupcakes apiece but I decided, to celebrate the in-laws coming to visit this weekend, we could all suffice with only 1 per person. Upon telling my husband my brilliant cupcake plan he, in a nutshell, said "Noooo, I want all the cupcakes for myself." I then had to remind him that he lived with me and that I would make him cupcakes any time he wanted them. This appeased his inner cupcake demon.

I decided on Ms. Christina's Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. Recipe can be found here.

This recipe was so good. No joke. I have to be skrate though... I did not follow it exactly. Eep. I know. If there's one thing y'all should learn from me it's that I don't follow recipes well. My first question was "what on earth is the vinegar for?" Cause I had never worked with that before in baked goods. Christina told me it was to make the cupcakes rise. I looked up substitutes for it (as I don't have it just laying around my kitchen), and found that you can sub lemon juice, but then wound up going to the store last night anyway so, I picked some up. What I did not pick up, however, was buttermilk. Double eep! I substituted a little fakey buttermilk, by mixing some regular milk with extra white vinegar. This seemed to do the trick just fine.

Furthermore, let me say, I have seen some lovely pictures of gorgeous red velvet cupcake batter, but I have to admit, mine looked like fake Hollywood blood. And baked very dark. Any tips? Yeah. I also got that nefarious batter splatter that I ALWAYS get. Any other bakers have that little guy lurking around every batch of cupcakes? Man, that ish pisses me off! Just get in the appropriate place you glob! 

After the cupcakes cooled it was time for frosting. Holy dancing sugar plums Batman. This frosting is the REAL DEAL. It was so delicious I probably could have put it on a piece of homemade honey wheat bread and eaten it like that.

Oh wait. I did. For lunch, no less.

Only because there was so much left over though! This amount of frosting could have easily frosted about 2 to 3 more cupcakes, maybe even 4 if you pushed it. But maybe I'm just not a frosting fiend? Who knows. It was the best frosting I've tasted in quite some time. I'm thinking it will be my new go-to frosting recipe. For everything. Or just, you know, everything that requires frosting anyway.

So, there you have it. A very successful meal for the mister and the parentals, on what is increasingly becoming chilly Georgia nights. NOW GO MAKE THIS FROSTING. Right meow.

Cook on.