Rachel's Getting Married!

And last week she had her bridal shower. I may have been the only one with a camera, so I thought I would post for those of you who might have missed it, and so Rachel can have some pictures (sorry they aren't great Rachel!)


Lots of Friends and Family!

YUMMY FOOD!

And of Course the Lucky Girl!

And just so I can be selfish for a moment, I got to make all the desserts. It was a lot of fun. It was fun to think of all the different treats I could do around Rachel's wedding colors, White, Green and Black:

The Cupcakes were chocolate coconut with coconut butter cream frosting and Zucchini Pistachio with Lime Cream Cheese Frosting. The cookies are Shortbread Cookies (recipe from Pioneer Woman); I had never made shortbread cookies before but they were sooo yummy! And only 4 ingredients, how easy is that? I did a ring of cream cheese frosting and topped with a Kiwi, I loved how Kiwi cover all three colors!

These cookies are Chocolate Cookies with Mint Chips, and how could I not make Oreo Balls! MMMM!!!!

I also made the cupcake tower, the other serving trays and the cupcake wrappers. So FUN!

Fun at the Depot!

Dental Depot that is!



First off, no one judge us that we've been here for a year and have finally just gone to the dentist... I don't want to hear about it.... We are now good OK?

Secondly, I just want to know why there wasn't a place like this when I was a kid! I have never been necessarily afraid of the dentist and as an Adult, actually enjoyed the experience - mostly because of the joy of having clean teeth after leaving. And I have had my share of dental issues - mostly revolving around my two center teeth (lets see it all started with a mean dentist who made me wear silver caps during my tender middle school years and into high school, all because he didn't want to put on permanent one and then have to have a root canal... well guess what after he finally put them on, I had to have one five years later anyway! And now I have to wear a mouth guard after my most recent replacement of the two teeth, otherwise I have horrible mouth pain... I have many more I could mention, but that's enough for now).


Moving on, soon after we moved here and were driving around the area, we drove past a brand new dental office aptly named "Dental Depot" with a big train out front. Adam immediately indicated he would go to the dentist if we could go there. Well I finally was able to figure out our insurance and saw they were on the list, so I figured what the heck!



Last week was our appointments, Adam's was first and when he came back home to report, I've never seen someone so excited about there trip to the dentist! There are trains running through the whole office and the inside looks like a depot! There are fun old black and white train pictures on the walls and of course it all started with this fun guy out front (not the dentist, the train... sorry don't have my own picture, so I stole this from the newspaper)



When I went for my appointment, they also gave me a t shirt and it was certainly fun having the trains go through the office and even in the rooms. My dad would LOVE this place and he HATES the dentist. Seriously, why wasn't this around when I was little... As I left that day I saw a mom and her son getting out of the car ready to go in. She let the boy jump on the train and ring the bell and he was having so much fun...and I though to myself, I am definitely bringing my children here some day.

Another cake..

So I am still practicing my cakes and had an opportunity this week for mutual. We were celebrating a few birthdays and the going away of a couple of our girls so I made this fun "girly" cake. (My inspiration was from cakes from PinkCakeBox, their cakes are AWESOME!)

For these cakes and Adam's Birthday cake, I actually made my own fondant. It tasted much better than the pre-made stuff, but its a lot of work! It also is a little shinier and was a little harder to get really smooth. But for practising its just great! I was really surprise how many of the girls wanted to eat all the little flowers, starts and circles - even though they were hard! I always thought most people don't like fondant anyway, but all the girls said they loved it; and that was before they even tried mine.

Happy Birthday!

This post is a few days late; Last weekend we celebrated Adam's Birthday by taking a tour of Taliesin West (Frank Lloyd Wright's Winter home). It was fabulous!

We were amazed at all the structures he built and to learn about Frank Lloyd Wright and how eccentric he was. I highly recommend the tour, though it is a little pricey; luckily we had passes so it was especially nice that it was free for us!


Saturday evening we had a little pool party with some friends and enjoyed some cake and ice cream. I've discovered that I really am horrible at taking pictures as I didn't get any of our weekend, except for the cake I made! (I guess still objects are easier!)

Wheat!

We recently bought one of these:

Love it! We love adding whole wheat to our foods (I even snuck it in brownies and you couldn't tell!). My favorite thing so far were some delicious chocolate chip zucchini muffins that I substituted wheat flour for white, they were so good I had to text Adam that he should come home from work and eat some; yeah he did, SIX of them!

Here's the recipe

(Original Link here to Allrecipes where I got it)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used all whole wheat)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup shredded zucchini (I also shredded one apple and added it, it made them super moist!)
• 1/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts ( I didn't have any nuts so I left them out)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Combine the egg, oil, milk, lemon juice and vanilla; mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in zucchini, chocolate chips and walnuts. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done.

I don't have any pictures; but trust me they were TASTY!

I do have some pictures of my first attempt at bread though!