More Park Pictures and Polenta

Here are a few more pictures from our visit to the Conservation park in Claremore.

The deer were really that close. It was awesome.



Sweet P giving her daddy pebbles along the walk.



Not sure what she's pointing to here, but we looked.



And daddy teaching his girl the art of hunting and stalking deer.



Now on to a totally different subject, I made polenta (basically cornmeal) for the very first time. I had it at one of the Biga wine dinners a while back and decided to try to make my own. Now that I know how easy it is, I will trying many more recipes.

I found this recipe and altered it a little. I didn't have fresh parsley or parmesan cheese so I used some dried parsley and topped ours with a little feta and fresh green onion.



It turned out pretty good but you have to eat it right away or the polenta gets a little hard.

P is for... (part two)

Thank you guys for your sweet comments on the decorations yesterday! Now onto part two of "p is for" and it's all about the cake and the rest of the party!



As you know, the birthday girl's nickname is Sweet Pea. Well, she also happens to be our little princess so I thought it would be fun to try to make a "princess and the pea" cake. Hopefully you know the story of the Princess and the Pea because I had to explain it to my husband. Sad.

Anyway, I set out to make a layered cake with each layer representing the mattresses and a little pea at the very bottom. My first thought was to put a jellybean at the bottom but I ended up just saving some of the batter, dying it green and baking a mini cupcake . I rolled it up into a ball, added a little frosting to keep it together and voila, a pea!

I had a little too much fun making this cake! I started with just a box of butter cake mix, mixed it all up and added a few drops of pink food coloring to make a very light pink. I poured it into a small, 6"x2" round cake pan. Once it was done baking, I set it on a rack to cool and started on another layer.

I just added several more drops of pink food coloring to make a darker shade of pink. I poured it into the same pan and baked it, let it cool while I finished up the last layer. I added several more drops of pink food coloring to the remaining batter, baked and cooled it.



Then the fun began!

While the three layers of cake were cooling, I made this frosting. It tasted so good and make plenty for the entire cake, 12 cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes! Plus I had a little left over.

Anyway, next I cut each of the three cake rounds in half so I would have 6 cake layers.

I started to assemble the cake. First I put the "pea" down.



Then topped it with the lightest pink cake layer and some frosting.




Next, I put a darker pink layer on top and frosted it.



Followed by the middle shade of pink and frosting.



Then I started all over with the light, then dark and finished with the last layer and frosted it.



I added a little bunting with her name on it and string it between two pinwheels, and ta-da! Her very own cake!



Now, I realize she totally didn't care what her cake looked like, and I admit, I probably had more fun making it than she did eating it, BUT, I think she'll enjoying looking back at her pictures from her birthday one day and smile. AND, she did enjoy eating it!





Here you can see the pea and a little helping hand from her sister-cousin.



more digging in





Thanks, Ashley, for getting such great pics of her eating her cake!!

We are blessed to have so many close relatives living near and it made for a super fun party for my girl. She was doused with love and attention and tons of gifts. There were a couple of very special gifts I wanted to share with you.

Her auntie had this pillow made by my friend Anna. It's so girly and I love the verse on it. Proverbs 3:24 - perfect.



Anna also sent this amazing little quilt to P to open at her party!



You can't really see it very well in the photo because P thinks she's a matador with it but it has her name and birth stats. Gorgeous. I think Anna might post posted a better picture on her blog soon so check it out.
 
And last up, to finish up the party fun, is P's very own, custom doll house. My sister decorated each little room with fabric from her nursery!!



How cute is that!? Sweet P has already found her picture in one of the rooms and points a talks to it. She also really likes the little rocking chair and putting her play food in the rooms! This is one of those gifts that I might be found playing with and decorating without her.

So there you have it, Sweet P's first birthday party. It's hard to believe she's been here an entire year but I have loved every minute of it! Here's to another fun, kiss, laughter and hug-filled year!

Oatmeal Cream Pies

Since I've been working in the office on Thursdays and have had family watch P, Wednesday has become a baking day. I've been trying to make little treats for the person watching my girl, a small thank you.

This week was chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and oatmeal cream pies.

I used this recipe from Everyday Food for the cookies (minus the what germ because I rarely have it) and this recipe (using pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon) for the cream filling. After making them, I should have gone with a chewier cookie. These were a little crispy. Oh well, they were still good!

Dry ingredients


Buttery goodness


Adding the eggs and vanilla


Adding the dry to the buttery goodness


Then the chocolate chips


Little dough balls


Making the cream filling


Mini Oatmeal Cream Pie rady to eat!!

My Tasty Kitchen Recipe

I submitted my Blackened (cat) Fish Taco recipe to Tasty Kitchen! Here's the original post.


And this is the screen shot of it on the TK homepage!

Homemade Banana Bread Muffins (with chocolate chips!)

FRIDAY FOOD DAY!




Here's another recipe from Tasty Kitchen! I think this is my new favorite place to find recipes!

I've never made homemade banana bread so I don't really know how this recipe compares, but it was SO simple and fast...and delicious.

I didn't have any muffin tin liners so I made mini-muffins instead. I kind of like mini things better anyway, you can just pop them right in your mouth and they're gone!

So here's my photo tutorial for making banana bread with chocolate chips...

Preparing the dry ingredients.


Mashing the bananas.


Adding the wet ingredients.




Adding the bananas.


Mixing in the chocolate chips.


In the pan and ready for the crumb topping.


Preparing the crumb topping.


Crumb topping on and ready to bake.


Ready to eat!!!