music calms my soul..

Martin and I were shopping in Santa Cruz, heard a song being played in a store, asked the guy working there who it was, and he told us. Mumford and Sons. They're from London England, so they've got great accents, and they play "folk rock," which is kind of my new thing. Anyways, the song is called the cave. I have their cd in my car, and this one is my fav.

Also, The Swell Season, is one of our favorite bands, and I think you would love them. They won an oscar for a song they wrote and performed in the movie once, and it's amazing. I fell in love with that song and bought the piano sheet music and fall in love with it more and more everytime I play it. We went to their concert a few weeks ago, and they are inspiring. A guy and girl duo with a band. Guy is irish, girl is czech; so both have great accents, and they're wonderful. Here's a song they played at the show.

{I've been wanting to share the Swell Season with you for a while, I hope you enjoy. And of course I hope you're having a wonderful weekend.}

I know.. I've gone cupcake crazy

But... I have one more to show you! During all the birthday mania this last week or so, I threw this one into the mix, because I know britney wanted chocolate frosting, and I know she loves junior mints :)

Also, I made up a simple chocolate buttercream recipe.

the easy choco buttercream:
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. cocoa powder
2 c. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla
1-3 T. milk

Cream the butter and shortening in a mixer. Add the cocoa powder and mix until the lumps have completely smoothed out. Add the powdered sugar and mix completely. The mix will be dry, but continue to mix to ensure that the powdered sugar and butter mixture are combined (make sure to scrap down the edges). Add the vanilla and 1 Tablespoon of milk. Mix thoroughly. Continue adding milk a Tablespoon at a time until the desired texture is reached.
Keep refrigerated until about an hour before use. If it's too warm it won't hold a form, if it's too firm it makes it more difficult to pipe.
Use sprinkles and candy to decorate!

(I'm sorry if this recipe doesn't turn out perfect. I don't always keep track of what I'm putting in a mixing bowl! Just taste test along the way and you'll be fine.)

Reese's Peanut Butter cupcakes!

Peanut Butter Buttercream
(this is for one basic cake mix)

3/4 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. butter (1 cube)
3 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. milk
1 T. vanilla
1/2 c. cream

Cream the peanut butter and butter until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and beat until the powdered sugar is completely combined and there are no lumps. Add the milk 1 tablespoon at a time while mixing until all milk is in. Mix in vanilla. You can just add milk until the desired texture is reached if you prefer to not use cream, or if you don't have any on hand. But the cream gives it more rich and cohesive consistency. Mix for 1 to 2 minutes. Add sifted powdered sugar to thicken the frosting or add more milk to thin.

This should frost about 2 dozen cupcakes (1 cake mix)

strawberry cream cheese cupcakes

I have had a busy week! With Jennifer's birthday which I made cupcakes and brownies for, cousins coming into town, a murray/gallagher family birthday party (including Martin's brother, father, aunt, and grandma who all have birthdays this week, if you can believe that) which I made cupcakes for, 2 Martin Murray shows, a giants game, a party for my friend Alissa who won the Singing Bee (a lyrics tv game show on CMT) which I brought cupcakes to.. and geez, I'm sure there was more.

Anyways.. these are the cupcakes I made for 2 of the parties and they were a huge success!! Super easy and super delicious, I hope you enjoy!

Cupcakes:

1 box of white cake mix

3/4 c. my mom's strawberry jam :)

(just kidding you can use any kind, hers is just the best though)

Frosting:

1 box of cream cheese

2 c. powdered sugar

1 t. vanilla

Sprinkles!

Follow the cake mix instructions for the cupcakes. I like to use the foil baking cups found at any grocery store (it's a double cup, the bottom layer a foil cup, the top layer, a plain white baking cup). It keeps the cupcakes from burning or overcooking on the outsides. If your oven usually burns, turn the heat down to 325, sometimes the box instructions says to do the same. Make sure you don't overcook them! They're only delicious if there moist, so if the box says 20-26, you're most likely going to take them out at 20. Use a toothpick, test the center, it should come out with batter on it, but a few crumbs is fine. Cool before frosting. I like to refrigerate them.

For the frosting, cream the cheese and sugar together in a mixing bowl with the whisk attachment, or with beaters. Mix until there are no more powdered sugar lumps; make sure the edges are scraped down. Add the vanilla, and mix till completely combined. If it is too thick you can add a few drops of milk. I use a frosting bag and a decorating tip, but you can frost with just a spoon to make it easier. Surprisingly, decorating with a bag makes things go much quicker. It does take some practice but once you have the hang of it, it's like riding a bike, you just don't forget. For an even more strawberry cupcake you can add a few spoonfuls of strawberry jam to the frosting and pink/red food coloring, like I did with these pinkalicious strawberry cupcakes.

I used two kinds of sprinkles; the colored sugar crystals, and the mini white pearls. Rainbow sprinkles would also go great with this cupcake.

p.s. Mary, thank you for the adorable pink cake stands :)

my early sketches...

As stated in the last post, I have wished at several points to be some kind of stylist or creator of something fashionable. I think because I have a passion for art it makes it easier, because I like to sketch things up real quick. Well here's proof; proof that yes, I didn't make that up to make myself sound more interesting, and proof that I have had intentions of pursuing that goal. I don't think I have the creative chops to be a designer, but I would love to be able to sew my own clothes; I have always wanted to learn. I know how to sew on a button and fix a seam and even hem, but that's about it, and I don't know how to do those things well, I just make do. Does anyone know a good place to take classes? I have heard Joann’s has classes. But I don't know. I would like to learn. My lovely sister-in-law Heidi, and I bought material and patterns to make ourselves dresses last year, maybe even the year before that, but it just never happened. But Heidi, I promise, it's gonna happen :)

The first picture was a shot of my room, well the floor of my room. I have those sketchbooks all over the place. I buy one, have so much drive to do something with it, and 10 pages in it stops being used and gets put on a shelf, and then the cycle starts all over.

The little cartoon girls are cute, I know :) I was so proud.

About me.. well a little bit

In order for me to show you some of the things that I have been up to, or thinking about I have to explain a little bit about myself; get a little personal. Now I'm not going to tell you my bra size or anything like that (Mom don't be mad, it was just a joke), so consider yourself privileged, I don't open up often.

Since I was a little girl I have had a number of things I've been interested in, enough to pursue. Unfortunately a lot of them stuck, so I still have all these things that I wish I could accomplish, but you can only do so much. As far as my memory can go back, this is what I have been interested in (from early on to current)..

(keep in mind that with all these goals/dreams in mind I still wanted to find prince charming and have a family of 6 at somepoint... yes my number has since gone down)

-becoming a dancer or a gymnast

I grew too tall for a gymnast, and was to shy to dance

-modelling

I was fortunate to get some good genes, this I know, but I'm not cindy crawford :) I subscribed to vogue magazine when I was 12 I think. I had a little obsession for pretty people.

-being a wedding coordinator

oddly enough this was one of the first things I wanted to do, I just loved weddings

-being a wedding cake designer

the whole wedding seemed like to much of a hassle so I started thinking about individual parts of weddings

-designing wedding dresses

notice the wedding trend..

-designing dresses/clothes

then I went through a bit of a fashion phase. having 4 older brothers left me with a girly/stylish void that needed to be filled around the teen years

-being an artist of some kind

I took an art class in high school and found out I was really good, it just came to me. My dad is a fabulous artist, so I guess that's where it comes from. I also took a photography class that I loved, so all areas of art interested me.

-being an art teacher

I realized I wasn't the best of the best, and that I didn't have a huge passion for creating art, but I loved it enough to teach it. This one stuck for a while, on and off it was the long term plan.

-becoming a pastry chef

I thought about going to cooking school for a short period of time. Even though I absolutely love cooking, I knew I would have plenty of opportunities to cook for a future family and current family, so I might not want it as a profession. I also really wanted to go to a 4 year and take a well rounded bunch of classes.

-going to school for nutrition

I had a lot of random health problems (still do) and so I have always enjoyed learning about health/nutrition; but I didn't really want to be a nutritionist.

-This one is a little harder to explain in a few words. Now I have always loved Martha Stewart, and Better Homes and Gardens, and anything like that. It has been a reoccurring dream of mine to work for or do something like that on my own. I love cooking and home and garden and all of that. It was a goal of mine to at least have a blog/website with recipes posted and I have gotten that far, we'll see if I can keep it up.

-The current plan/dream.. Nursing school

I have been going to college on and off for 7 years now and have finally got on track to finish. This plan has only been in action for a few months now, so on paper, I don't have much accomplished, but as for planning out and preparation I think I'm doing great. Just this past week I went to a seminar at Cal State East Bay for the nursing program and I am just so excited about starting this journey. I have a lot of friends and family friends to thank for turning me onto the idea, and I can't wait to pursue this. School starts in september!

Just because I am in the works to pursue the most recent goal doesn't mean I have dropped all the others. Well some of them have been completely dropped, like being a dancer :)

So sad, but true..

{picture found at threemeninatub.blogspot.com}

My mom has left for the weekend.. and she took her camera (our shared camera). We finally got home from all our shenanigans of vacations and I have so been in the mood to do some cooking and work on some of my food styling, but I am cameraless. I love that I have a camera to use, by the way. My mom is great to let me borrow it as often as I do. It works in my favor that she really doesn't use it very often, so thank you mom. But since I will be waiting on some recipe posts that I would love to do, I have a few others that have been on my mind. So I apologize if you only come here for the food!

I hope everyone is having a fabulous friday :)

with love,

Kristin Ann

Lasagna!

This delicious lasagna was given to us by Martin's grandmother. I know, I didn't make it, so I should be allowed to post it, but I just have to. It was delicious lasagna, and gluten free! Lately my issues with gluten have been getting worse and worse, and I crave it more and more. If I stayed at home and cooked for myself it would be that bad, but you just can't get away from it. Well, lasagna is a meal that both my husband and I absolutely love and our creative grandparents made a gluten free option for us. Oddly enough, it wasn't with the intention of being gluten free or for me, they just happened to have a whole bunch of left over zucchini (given to them by us because of our abundance of zucchini) and so it was used as a substitute for the pasta. Great idea! I have no recipe for you, but I will create one soon!