Oh, the possibilities...

It all started at a garage sale,
homemade waffle whoopie pies.

Homemade and baked and sweet,
yup, I had to have some.
YUMMY!

So time to try it out,
my friend tried it first and said
it works with the recipe that we
use for whoopie pies.

What is the recipe?
The easiest and quickest way
to make one of our families all time
favorite treats.

1 cake mix
1 cup of flour
and ingredients on the back of the box of mix.

Add an extra cup of flour to dry ingredients
and add the eggs, oil and water,
mix for two minutes
scoop and drop on cookie sheet and bake.

OR scoop and drop in your waffle iron
for about 1 min.

Fill 'er up with your favorite frosting
and wa-la - whoopie pies for all.

One box makes about 20 whoopie pies.

And I added about 1/2 cup of
 mini chocolate chips
to the batter before "baking."

The possibilities for these are endless,
leave the filling out and make
a dessert with fruit and whipped cream
and use any kind of cake mix
you like.  My friend is going to make
ice cream sandwiches with them.

My favorite is...

with chocolate frosting.

Happy waffle making!!


Linking up at Paisley Passions
                     Whatever goes Wednesday
                     This Chick Cooks
                     Sweet Peas and Bumblebees
                     Ladybug Blessings
                     What's cooking Wednesday
                     The answer is Chocolate
                     Creativly-U

Coffee break...

Today my coffee break was a

carmel frappe.

So refreshing.

Are you enjoying the weather,

warm and summer-y?

Summer is my favorite season and to kick off the

warm weather season

I spent a day with some

long time friends.

The beach was lovely and the water was cold,

but spending the day with

my girlfriends was the

best part.

We saw lots of dolphins swimming near shore

 but never when I had my camera ready,

so I picked a stationary target

for photo taking.

This kind of fishing I wouldn't mind trying,

I think a beach chair next to this would be next to perfect

on a lovely day.

We had dinner at a great seafood restaurant

in town and I ordered

Costa Rican Talipia

with a coconut rum sauce.

It was delish!

After much debate we finally decided to

head back to the beach in

the evening and go for a

walk. 

Thanks ladies,

I really enjoyed our time together,

although short, it was sweet.

Cupcakes for a luau party in 1st grade!

Enjoy your summer-y day

and have yourself an iced coffee,

it's just the kick you need.

An open book...

A cake.

This was for a teammate of my son.

The cake was half chocolate with buttercream
and half vanilla with strawberry filling.

The lilies are made from fondant and
were fairly easy to make.  But there
is always room for improvement.

Happy Monday to you!

SWEET TREATS

Can you say sugar coma?

I had to try it!

And yes, a glass of milk is needed.

Peanut butter ~ Nutella ~ Marshmallows

Some strawberries or bananas would have been a
perfect compliment to this combo.


Happy Thursday to you!

Banana Streusel Muffins

The other week my sister called to ask me

a question about my banana muffins.

I have banana muffins?!   Good to know.

She said that she had gotton the recipe from

me and so off I went to sort thru my recipes to

find "my" banana muffins.

I found it and just so happened to have some super ripe

bananas that needed to be used.

Her question about the muffins was if it

would work as a coffee cake instead.

Did it work, Sis?

Click on the recipe to enlarge.

Linking up: Muffin Monday

Popcorn for my sweet daughter!

One day about 10 months ago

I thought of my daughter's next birthday cake.

And here it is.

She loves popcorn and I knew this was the

perfect cake for her. 

The cake had a few issues along the way

but I did the best I could.

I used red food coloring and a small

paint brush to decorate this cake.

Originally, I was going to make the popcorn out

of white chocolate but time was not on my side this week

and so I decided to top it with carmel popcorn.

My family was here for the celebration and

lots of fun memories were made with cousins.

Lindsey~Kortnee~Morgan

After this picture my daughter said lets do

a crazy picture...

...I think we just did!

And for those of you who guessed "cotton candy"

for the cupcakes - that was what I was thinking too.

A homemade card from Lacee...

...and yummy food.

Time to cut the cake...

The surprise inside was so cool

(at least I thought it was)

and so when I cut the cake and

Kortnee and her cousins saw the inside

their response was priceless to me.

A busy weekend and lots of fun

but sometimes....

Sweet dreams ~ my sweet nephew!

...You just need a nap!

Happy 10th Birthday

to our precious daughter!

We love you and we love

seeing you grow in so many ways.

You are loved!

So much!

It's good to see you...Monday!!

A crazy weekend makes a quiet Monday

a breath of fresh air.

My weekend involved cakes,

baseball games,

public auction of Grandma and Grandpa's treasures that they collected over the years,

20 year *gasp* class reunion,

cakes,

cupcakes,

dinner with all my family,

a birthday party for my daughter's 10th birthday.

As a cake decorator it is always encouraging

when the vision I had

is seen by others.

I knew what these cupcakes looked like to me,

but would everyone else

"see" it?

They did, do YOU?

And here is the cake that I decorated

when I got home at 11:00

the night before my daughter's birthday.

This one has a surprise that I will show you in the next post.

And the reaction it got was better then

expected!!

A busy week, a busy weekend,

and welcomed Monday!

Linking up:

Skip to My Lou

Life Made Lovely

Paisley Passions

Coffee break...

Its time to take a break and enjoy a

coffee before I am off to another

ballgame this evening.

If you sat down to join me for coffee,

what would you tell me?

Would you bring along some homemade

cinnamon rolls for me to taste?

I am a good taster and would let you know if they

are delicious or I might need a second one to

know for sure.

I would tell you that our family

is moving and

I will become a full-time student,

for the next year,

with my family at

a Spanish language school

in Costa Rica.

So many of my days are spent trying to figure out

what goes along and what

stays here in storage.

Figuring out the details and trusting

God to answer any questions we have.

I am so completely amazed at

His provisions already.

His timing is perfect.

I am totally loving the weather we

are having and even

though I am not outside as much as

I would like,

we have ballgames every evening this week,

and I enjoy the beautiful evenings,

and evenings always have great light for

taking pictures.

I'm excited for tomorrow!

Its D-day - that is short for dentist.

Excited may be a bit of a strong word but

I am ready to go.

My tooth is killing me and

Advil and I are becoming fast friends.

My cup of Panamanian coffee with its

cream burlee creamer is finished and so

good evening to you!

And join me over here for more coffee.

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the Moms and Moms-to-be,

Happy Mother's Day!!

Because it is mother's day I decided

to give you a glimpse into the

amazing talent and art of my Mom.

An appliqued wall hanging.

When it was time for a new bedspread,

me and Mom headed off to the fabric store and

picked out fabric for a new quilt for my daughters bedroom.

And in no time this is what she created!

Another wall hanging for a contest she entered.

Hand quilted.

The back - the stitching is amazing to me,

so uniform and detailed.

My Mom has an amazing gift of creativity and

even her food presentation is

a work of art.



When I ask her to bring the cranberry salad for
Thanksgiving, she brought in an
art form.



And the neat thing is -

She is passsing it on to the next generation.

Cody and Grandma - sewing!


As I was writing this I was looking for
a picture of my Mom and I
 to post here,
but couldn't find one.
So next time we are together it is time for
a photo shoot.
(are you "listening", Marilyn?)


Enjoy your day with your Mom
or
being a Mom.

Baltimore, MD

We had a great weekend with our friends in Maryland

this past weekend and on the way home we stopped

by Inner Harbor.  It was a tab bit cold but we

enjoyed spending the day at the harbor.

We went up to the 27th floor to an observation deck

and had a great view of the harbor.

And of course after walking around for awhile,

we got hungry.

So many options, but we ended up here.

The burgers were so good

and melt in your mouth with

lots of toppings to choose from.

Its good there is not one of these burger joints by

our house because that would be

bad news for our health.

After lunch we headed over

to the science museum.

 And the kids got to try lots of

hands on stuff.

And the 3D - IMAX

After a long weekend

and lots of fun

we headed home for a new week.

Have a great weekend!