Nesting Mode

I am 35 1/2 weeks and counting and now that we have a new chest freezer in the basement, I no longer have an excuse to delay making up some meals in preparation for #2's arrival. Wednesday I decided to make Cooking Light's Ground Turkey Chili, found here. This is a staple in my house. I doubled it so I have enough for 3 dinners. I also decided to make cornbread, however I didn't look to make sure I had cornmeal in my pantry... so instead I had buttermilk and melted butter, but no cornmeal. This is typical of me. So I improvised and made an Irish Soda Bread instead.

I also decided to jump on the Marcella Hazan bandwagon of late and make her Simple Tomato Sauce, which I read about here. It is almost too simple that is seems impossible that it could taste good. Butter, canned whole tomatoes, and an onion. The verdict: I really liked it. It almost reminded me of the pizza sauce on Bertucci's pizza. It was very light, yet flavorful. The hub thought it missed something, like basil or some seasoning.

Next on the cooking front will be Bolognese sauce & meatballs. (Yes, I'm Italian) Although the thought of making meatballs nauseates me right now, so I may have to recruit the hub.

It's really true about the end of pregnancy and the overwhelming urge one has to get things in order. I have a big list for this weekend, which includes packing my hospital bag, getting the carseat ready and out of the attic, etc. Now that the Big Girl Room is complete, I have to make sure the nursery is in order for the new occupant!

Labor of Love - My First Quilt

This title is tongue-in-cheek. As you may have gathered, Internet, I am expecting Baby #2 very soon, hence the Labor. (Ugh don't want to think about it!) My first quilt was certainly a laborious process, and many times I did NOT enjoy it in the least! In fact, it took me over a year to complete due to my tendency to procrastinate. I don't know if I thought it would just make itself, or what, but I finally finished the top piece in November, and brought it to the quilt store for them to finish it for me.

In preparation for Baby #2, the Hub and I decided to make our guest room into our 3-year-old's new "big girl room." We are pretty pleased with how it all turned out and I think it's the perfect little girl's room. Luckily the little, or shall I say, "big", girl loves it, too. Here are some pictures of the quilt. The top piece has a variety of fabrics, and the underside of the quilt is a pink Peter Rabbit toile.

Don't act like you're not impressed: Minnie Mouse Cupcakes

Yes, we are still celebrating my daughter's birthday a week later. Isn't that how we all like our birthdays to be? Today we held a party for her and some of her little friends at one of those indoor moon bounce places. It seemed to be a hit with most of the kids and the best part was that I did not have to clean my house before or after the party. The only effort I had to put forth was making up some goody bags and making these cupcakes.

I actually saw this idea on http://acupfullofcake.blogspot.com/2009/08/minnie-mouse-themed-cake-and-cupcakes.html

and decided to try my hand at it. I used chocolate cake mix and made per the directions on the box, iced them, and made Minnie's bows out of bite-sized Twizzlers and the ears were Oreos, sans the cream filling. Unfortunately, the Oreo "ears" got pretty soft overnight, and they kind of broke off, so I had some repair work to do this morning, but otherwise, they were a big hit and tasted delicious!

Cake Boss Wanna-Be

Happy New Year, Internet!

I was not nursing a hangover this New Year's Day because I am 31 1/2 weeks pregnant, but I did enjoy sleeping in this morning. The child also slept in until 9 (!) which was a gift unto itself, especially since she has been getting over a nasty cough/cold. So today we are headed to an aunt's for some traditional New Year's Roast Pork and I offered to bring a birthday cake for J because the whole family will be together and her birthday falls on 1/5. I feel a little bad lumping her birthday into New Year's, but I figure she's too little to know any better. :)

So my project for this morning involved making a Minnie Mouse-inspired cake. As you can see, this was a very amateur effort. Basically, I used 2 boxes of cake mix and made two cakes in 9-inch pans (4 altogether). One cake turned into the "face" and the other, I cut in half for the "ears." If I ever have to do this again, I would probably just invest in some smaller cake pans b/c icing the "ears" was pretty annoying. I used some pink fondant icing from a tube from AC Moore, and made Minnie's bow with those fruit slice jelly candy. The Minnie image is actually stickers that I just laid on top of the icing - not edible! If I ever have more time (ha!) I will play around with fondant. Cake Boss, I am not! I think my soon-to-be 3-year-old will like this regardless.