Thankful Thursday: Thankful Notes

I am always thankful for thank you notes. Whether I'm writing them or receiving them they truly make my day.

Do you know this feeling? The feeling that someone was thinking of you, wanting to tell you how much they love you or are thankful for you, just being you? This is what I am thankful for.

I love incorporating thankful notes or words of encouragement into my parties. Advice for Newlyweds, Wishes for new babies or kind words or thoughts, always so appreciated.



When my husband and I were first married I started a "Thinking Of You" group, where women from our church would come over to my home to write thank you notes to friends and family they knew. I loved being a part of this and spending a moment just to stop and think of ones I love.

Another suggestion I just heard today was a "Note Shower" -- showering a friend overseas with notes of love and kindness. They planned a whole party here in the States and mailed off the letters. So thoughtful.

Take a moment this week, and send off a few letters. It'll really fill your heart!

Woo-Hoo Wednesday: *Surprise* Gender Baby Shower

For both of my pregnancy's my husband and I did not find out the gender of the baby until the day we were blessed to see their beautiful faces. So for my first baby showers, we obviously had a gender neutral party! My Aunt, Cousin and Mom through me a beautiful shower and I thought the "activities" were so perfect I just had to share. My aunt made sugar heart cookies and had blue and pink frosting for everyone to decorate for themselves.



They also had for my guest book a framed photo of one of the sonogram pictures where the guests wrote their name in either pink or blue depending on what they thought I was having. So cute! (In fact we have it hanging in my daughters room now).


A quick idea for a guest gift at a baby shower: (And actually a wedding or bridal shower too!). I was watching David Tutera's - My Fair Wedding this week and the featured family was a part of the Make A Wish Foundation, where the son of the Bride used his wish to have David plan their wedding. As the gift for their guests, they had silver dollars in which each guest made a wish on and tossed it into a fountain. All of the coins were then donated back to the Make A Wish foundation.

I absolutely LOVED this idea. I loved the concept behind it, loved the donation, loved the fact that each guest would truly cherish their wish in knowing their prayers/hopes would be heard and I'm not going to lie, but I really liked the cost effective part of it. Think about it...only a dollar for a guest gift? Pretty good if you ask me :)

So for a baby shower, I thought it would be fun to Make A Wish for the baby and it would be donated to either (1) a bank account/college fund for the child (2) to help the new parents out (3) to buy diapers or baby food (4) or maybe donated to homeless/abandoned mothers in the community.

Same goes for bridal or wedding gifts - Although, for a wedding, I think it should be donated to a charity rather than to the bride and groom.

I cannot wait to use this idea for an upcoming party! So fun

How- To Tuesday: Make Tissue Paper Puff Balls

I am currently in love with decorating with tissue paper puff balls-- my husband on the other hand, well...he's not a fan at all. I'm thinking he thinks they take up way too much room in my already over-flowing craft/decor area. hah!

I have used them several times with different parties, so I thought I'd share a few pics and then the video where I learned how to make them.

Enjoy :)






And for the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KLZ_4sXk2E

Weekend Wrap: Something Spice, Something Nice

For the past week or so my husband has been commenting about how much he and a co-worker of his enjoys spice cake. In fact, a week ago Friday, he suggested I make Spice Cake flavored "Cake Balls." For those of you that don't know about the cake ball trend, it is simply baked cake, mixed with frosting, rolled into a ball and dipped in chocolate. (yum).

He says, "Oooo, spice cake and white frosting, so delicious."

"White frosting sweetie? Don't you mean a cream cheese frosting?"

"No - white, that's the only way to have it."

"No, I'm pretty sure you are thinking CREAM CHEESE"

(And yes, this is a typical evening conversation in our home)


I told him to go talk to his co-worker about which frosting and that I was certainly positive that spice cake would have a cream cheese frosting. (all the while being in disbelief that this was even a discussion. I thought it was something we agreed on)

The following day, he comes back and responds, "Yes, you were right, as always, it's cream cheese" (ok, so maybe not those exact words, but I was definitely right).


I decided that I really did not want to bake a cake from scratch to turn into cake balls, not that night at least, so I thumbed through some of my recipes and came across one that was in a Holiday Magazine by Paula Deen.


Gingerbread Cake with Cranberry Filling and an Orange Cream Cheese Frosting was exactly what his co-workers needed, at least I thought so!




Before I get started with the recipe I want to make a few notes.

• Start out by making the filling first as it needs to be refrigerated for at least 2 hours. 
• When stirring your cranberry filling over medium-low heat, it states to heat for 15 minutes, which for me it only took about 12-13. 
• The recipe calls to make a three-tiered cake, but personally I always make a two-tiered cake instead of three. (For a few reasons: (1) three tiers is way too much cake for one slice, (2) sometimes one cake doesn't come out of the pan clean enough for my liking, so I always just plan to have a back-up layer (3) by only making two tiers I am able to sample the cake before serving it to guests.
• If you plan to slice the cake before serving it, refrigerate it once you frost the cake; this will make the frosting and cake firm enough to have a clean slice. 
•  For the lemon and orange zest, you can usually get 1 teaspoon out of one lemon, and 1 tablespoon out of 1- 1 1/2 oranges. 
• You can garnish the cake with gingerbread cookies (which I didn't), but I think gingersnaps crumbled on top (or bottom) would also be really yummy.
• If you choose to only make a two tiered cake like I do, use the additional layer to make 1/2 a cake. Slice it in half and prepare like you would a whole cake (filling and frosting). This also works well if you want to serve more cake for a larger crowd, pre-slice your cake like I did and you'll have at least 5 more slices.
• I thought the cake tasted even better the day after, verses the day of, as the filling was able to sink in to part of the cake, so delicious!

Ok, now on to the recipe:

Gingerbread Cake with Cranberry Filling

Makes 1 (9-inch) cake)

CAKE:
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup unsulfured molasses
3 large eggs
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/4 cups whole buttermilk

CRANBERRY FILLING:

(Makes about 1 cup)
16 ounce can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

ORANGE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:

(Makes about 3 cups)
8 ounces cream cheese -- softened
1/2 cup butter -- softened
1 tablespoon orange zest
4 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

GARNISH: Gingerbread cookies

CAKE -
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 3 (9-inch) cake pans with non-stick cooking spray with flour.

In a large bowl, combine oil, sugar, molasses, and eggs. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until well combined.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, lemon zest, salt, and cloves. Gradually add to oil mixture, alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Pour evenly into prepared pans, and bake for 20 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and cook completely on wire racks. Spread Cranberry Filling evenly between layers. Spread Orange Cream Cheese Frosting on top and sides of cake. Garnish with gingerbread cookies, if desired. Note: Pepperidge Farm and Archway make gingerbread cookies.

Cranberry Filling -
In a medium saucepan, combine cranberry sauce, orange zest, and orange juice. Cook over medium-low heat for 15 minutes, or until thickened. Cover and chill for 2 hours. Makes about 1 cup.

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting -
In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, and orange zest at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually beat in confectioner's sugar until smooth. Makes about 3 cups.

Source:
"Paula Deen's Holiday Baking 2008"

I am definitely going to be adding this to my favorites recipes and cannot wait to bake it again!

Thankful Thursday: Thankful for God's Gifts

This Thankful Thursday I want to make note of how thankful I am for the talents and passion God has given to me. I absolutely love that He has instilled in me a joy in design, party planning, cooking, and decorating. (and writing)

Although at times I may get stressed in the moment about preparing for a party or being creatively stumped with a project, through it all I find so much joy in this path that I am on; the one He has designed just for me.

I am also truly thankful for the amazingly talented friends and family that He has also placed in my life that help to make each of my events such a huge success. Thank you to you all ...

Last weekend we celebrated the release of my book with my California family and I wanted to make sure you all got a bit of the action through the photos...hope you enjoy!

Woo-Hoo Wednesday: Fall Time Centerpiece

For my release party I really wanted to incorporate fall-time flare in with my party decor and in doing so I was able to have such a welcoming and fun entrance decor...





Using just a black sharpie and copying a script font on my computer I wrote out "Welcome Friends" on two pumpkins I got from Trade Joe's for 3 bucks a piece.  You could also use stencils from your local craft or scrapbooking store, but I felt free-handing it would give me more of the look I wanted.

So cute right?

I now have those same pumpkins as a centerpiece on my kitchen bistro table to welcome me each morning. I am in love...and cannot wait to play around with other decor using this same concept.

How- To Tuesday: Make one of the easiest dinners ever...

Even though it's pretty late this Tuesday evening, I just had to get back to you all at Honey Crust. Two weeks ago I posted my "Out of Office" reply as I was preparing to head out to CA for my cookbook release party. Little did I know that upon returning, my internet would be out for a week, the house would be in disarray, and I'd be headed back out of town for the weekend. Needless to say...this is how life has been...



A kid on each hip, comfy leggins and lotsa coffee. (And to answer your question, yes my son only has one sock on...not sure where the other ended up).

So today, as I tried to get caught back up on all the emails, marketing and housework, dinner was the last thing on my mind. My son hasn't been napping, so as a last resort in efforts to get him to sleep I tossed him in my moby wrap and tried to compose myself long enough to figure out something to make.

CHICKEN AND RICE was my answer. It literally took me 5 minutes to mix up and placed in the oven to forget about for an hour while I tended to other items that needed attention.

I really never took the time to realize how simple and delicious this recipe truly is. With only 5 ingredients and two dishes you can have an amazing home cooked meal that you don't have to fret over.

So here it goes - Your late night How-to Tuesday: Make one of the easiest dinners ever.



Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cans cream of celery (or chicken) soup
1 can filled with milk
1-2 TB seasoning salt
1 cup uncooked white rice

Mix together soup, milk and rice in bowl. Pour mixture into a greased 9x13 inch casserole dish. Place chicken breasts on top of rice mixture and sprinkle with seasoning salt. Cook in oven at 350 degrees (covered) for one hour, or until rice is tender.

Enjoy.

** My hubby and I have been on a chicken and rice burrito kick lately. Add a bit of shredded cheddar cheese, roll it up in a tortilla and sink your teeth into some creamy goodness.