Remember when you were a student how the end of the school year was always spent running around like a crazy person trying to get projects finished, study for tests, and wrap up all the little loose ends? Wel, it's like that for teachers, too, except maybe worse... the month of May is over halfway done, and I don't know where it has gone!
Last weekend, my parents came out to visit. While my Business Man and dad worked on some house projects, my mom and I (naturally) headed down to Columbus for some shopping and girly time. It's always best to leave the mess at home. Plus, we were celebrating both our birthdays and Mother's Day, so it was definitely necessary.
The best part? We were both equipped with lots of gift cards and birthday money, so very little spending was done from our own pockets. Gotta love it.
The other best part? These chocolates they were handing out at Coldwater Creek. For free. (I knew we went into the old lady store for a reason. Just kidding Mom.)
We lunched at the Cheesecake Factory. It was a beautiful day, and we only waited 5 minutes for a table outside in the sunshine. Such great time spent with my momma.
Sunday, we spent a lot of time gardening, and enjoyed a nice Mother's Day lunch of beef brisket, fruit, and potato salad before my parents had to leave to go back to Illinois.
Unfortunately, I developed a cold pretty much as soon as they left, and have been battling it ever since. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were pretty rough. Today I have finally started to feel better. You know you're starting to feel better when food actually sounds good and tastes good again!
I did spend some time baking this week... I just had to try out my new batter bowl from Sur La Table. (Thanks Uncle Joe & Aunt Shannon!)
My students and I were brainstorming cupcake recipes earlier this week (isn't that a regular topic of converation at your job?) when one of them suggested a Heath Bar Cupcake. Ummm, yes! So I found this Toffee Crunch recipe and did a little adaptation.
It calls for two frostings - a ring of chocolate ganache (my fav) and then a caramel swiss meringue buttercream piped in the middle.
This was my first time making swiss meringue buttercream, and WOW! It is so silky smooth and sweet. (Who cares that it has one whole pound of butter in just the frosting recipe? That only frosts 24 cupcakes... which averages out to be approximately 1.25 tablespoons of butter per cupcake, in just the frosting. Sometimes it's not so fun being a math teacher... but these are TOTALLY worth it. And that's why we share with our friends, hehe.)
And that's about all that's new... cupcakes are the biggest excitement of this week. And the fact that we're down to just 6 (!) days of school! Ahhh... summer is so close I can taste it. All the more time for cupcake baking and running, my two favorite things. :)
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| And they brought this precious one. |
Last weekend, my parents came out to visit. While my Business Man and dad worked on some house projects, my mom and I (naturally) headed down to Columbus for some shopping and girly time. It's always best to leave the mess at home. Plus, we were celebrating both our birthdays and Mother's Day, so it was definitely necessary.
 |
| Trying to self-photo with the iPhone. Not so successful. |
The best part? We were both equipped with lots of gift cards and birthday money, so very little spending was done from our own pockets. Gotta love it.
The other best part? These chocolates they were handing out at Coldwater Creek. For free. (I knew we went into the old lady store for a reason. Just kidding Mom.)
We lunched at the Cheesecake Factory. It was a beautiful day, and we only waited 5 minutes for a table outside in the sunshine. Such great time spent with my momma.
Sunday, we spent a lot of time gardening, and enjoyed a nice Mother's Day lunch of beef brisket, fruit, and potato salad before my parents had to leave to go back to Illinois.
Unfortunately, I developed a cold pretty much as soon as they left, and have been battling it ever since. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were pretty rough. Today I have finally started to feel better. You know you're starting to feel better when food actually sounds good and tastes good again!
I did spend some time baking this week... I just had to try out my new batter bowl from Sur La Table. (Thanks Uncle Joe & Aunt Shannon!)
My students and I were brainstorming cupcake recipes earlier this week (isn't that a regular topic of converation at your job?) when one of them suggested a Heath Bar Cupcake. Ummm, yes! So I found this Toffee Crunch recipe and did a little adaptation.
It calls for two frostings - a ring of chocolate ganache (my fav) and then a caramel swiss meringue buttercream piped in the middle.
 |
| My new bowl plus the luscious swiss meringue. |
And that's about all that's new... cupcakes are the biggest excitement of this week. And the fact that we're down to just 6 (!) days of school! Ahhh... summer is so close I can taste it. All the more time for cupcake baking and running, my two favorite things. :)
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