Life

Video #1--At Central Market. They had little carts! I love little carts.

Video #2--Michael explaining the game of LIFE. 

What do you think?

Sugar&Greens Blog

I've started another blog called Sugar & Greens. It's a place where I'll journal nutritional knowledge as I read and learn, and also track some of my personal goals. Right now it's not too exciting, as I've just been writing about how much sugar I stuff into my mouth, but I hope to start incorporating healthy recipes, guest posts of friends and their struggles with weight loss and nutrition, and research on organic vs conventional food and home cleaning products. Click here to follow along!

Swimming

This summer has already included a lot of swimming for our family. Michael and I will sometimes head up to the Mountlake Terrace indoor pool, but now that the sun is coming out we've been enjoying swimming in Enumclaw with friends, or going to the Greenlake Wading Pool *My absolute favorite go-to destination.

Last time we were there, I was wishing for ice cream. Then I spotted a guy sitting with his ice cream stand! Sweet. I got my chocolate bar, and Michael requested the Spiderman frozen treat. (Next time I'll just share because the thing melted faster than he could eat it, and he didn't understand that he couldn't just leave it with me for a little while to play).

And some random iPhone video of our swimming. (Michael was scared of the big pool and preferred to play outside of it the majority of the time). And the other video is really wiggly (because we were walking back to the car), but it shows Michael beating the ninjas and zombies that were in our way.

Hello Cupcake

I know, I'm on a roll with this sugary deliciousness here. Perhaps you'll remember one of my all time favorite posts on this blog about me. Upon first moving to Seattle, I was really into cookies, and now it seems I've moved on to cupcakes.

Well, feast your eyes on these:

Chocolate Balsamic Raspberry Cupcakes

This is the first time I have ever made cupcakes, and been absolutely terrified that I would even like them at all. I have never worked with Balsamic vinegar before, and the minute I opened it, I wanted to run away from that smell. I cautiously poured it in--tablespoon by tablespoon. When the frosting had thickened up, I dipped my finger in, closed my eyes and thought, "Here I go!"

I was blown away.

At first my tongue was wowed with the flavor, but shortly the taste of sweet raspberry rested on my tongue. I was quickly addicted--and of course, went back for more. It tastes 10x better when it's complimented with the chocolate cake made with pureed raspberries, coconut milk and balsamic vinegar.

Believe me. These are well worth your time.

Recipe stolen from Layla's blog, who stole it from Love and Olive Oil. I love how all of our frosting styles come out very different from one another. Word of suggestion if you use Layla's recipe: Either double your cake batter recipe, or 1/2 your frosting measurements. Got it? Good.

Pampering

Two things I would do weekly if I could afford it:

1) Get my hair done.

2) Get a 1-hr back massage.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes

Today I made these:

They were SOOOOO good! Probably my favorites cupcakes I've decorated yet. And the chocolate buttercream was delicious (really sweet), but my cake wasn't very sweet at all so it balanced out. I have posted the frosting recipe (and more pictures) on our "Mothers in the Kitchen" blog.

I have to give credit to Whitney (Wilcock) Berge for the idea. She has started her own cupcake business called The Modern Cake. I have fallen in love with all of her cupcakes (although I have yet to eat any of them, but her flavors are original and her decorating is creative). I saw her rendition of the Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcake and knew I wanted to give it a shot.

As always, with cupcakes, I make more than my family can eat. So, I took a walk to a few people in the ward who live nearby us, dropped off these beauties, and enjoyed getting to know some people better.