For the baby mama (& family)

I feel really blessed in life to have such great family and friends. After giving birth to both kids we had so many awesome meals brought over by our friends (both in San Luis Obispo where Logan was born, and here in Tucson where Rachel was born). I remember what a blessing it was to not have to worry about making dinner, getting groceries, or any of those details.

Here is my go-to meal when I take food to families who have recently had baby: Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad, French bread (I cut & butter & wrap in foil so they can just pop it in the oven), and of course dessert (I try to remember fruit too, but recently I forgot about that). What I like about the meal is that it's simple, fresh, and generally not something that someone else is making. Plus there aren't too many spices just in case a nursing mom is worried about that (I was with Logan, but wasn't with Rachel...both seemed equally gassy so not sure if it made a difference or not).

Since I love dessert, I'll start there and share my latest recipe attempt...and success! Here are Bakerella's Snickerdoodle Duo (taken from Martha Stewart recipes). The cupcake and cookie are both made from scratch, but I bought simple white frosting for the middle and put a little food coloring to make it pink. Not gonna lie, they taste amazing. I decided they would transfer better if I didn't have frosting on the top like Bakerella did...and I'm thinking about always doing a cookie on top when I want to send or take cupcakes places now. Seriously. Much easier, and oh so yummy! Here is the RECIPE.

I've also started making onsies or tiny shirts to put with the food. Here are pics of two different kinds I've made. I blurred out some of the details for privacy issues for the families, but you get the point.

Here is a picture of the salad all ready to be tossed together when they are ready to eat. I use a rotisserie chicken because I like the flavor, pasta (with a little of the caesar dressing so it doesn't get sticky, plus the flavor soaks in), parmesan cheese, croutons, Romain lettuce, and I give them a bottle of the dressing. This fit in a 9X13 disposable baking dish, which is also easier for them to cleanup (but you could do separate containers, or whatever).

Cupcake all wrapped up. I had to make them a day in advance and wanted to keep them fresh.

And here is one of the packages all put together (thanks to a leftover basket from Christmas and a little ribbon).

To everyone who gave us meals when we had our kids: THANK YOU! Especially when we had Rachel and our closest family was a 12-hour drive away...we felt loved and blessed and taken care of. I can only hope and pray others will feel just as blessed by our food.

Oh me, Oh my...better than pie

Ridiculous title for the post. I know. The truth is: I love pie! So, it isn't an attempt to say that the following two desserts are actually better than pie, it just happened to rhyme.

It's probably no secret how much I love chocolate, but even better than plain chocolate is molten lava chocolate!!!! Gooey in the middle, warm and cake-y on the outside...delicious!

I've made a few molten lava cakes in the last few years, but this recipe is my FAVORITE and also seems to be the easiest. Just to make sure I wasn't fooling myself, we had over a few friends on Saturday night and they were a hit for them too.

I've mentioned her blog before (and maybe this recipe) but seriously, if you aren't following The Pioneer Woman, what are you waiting for? Here is her post about the recipe she found on the Tasty Kitchen:

Molten Lava Cake (click on this link or copy & paste below)

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/07/molten-chocolate-lava-cake/

Since I made these on Saturday, I figured something with fruit would be better for our small group potluck on Sunday night. I didn't really want to have to buy anything I didn't have in our kitchen already, so I found a recipe on the Tasty Kitchen and adapted it. Why I didn't take picture? I have no idea!

So, here is the original recipe for Strawberry Cobbler Cake http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/desserts/strawberry-cobbler-cake/

What I did differently: I doubled the recipe & baked in a 9 X 13 X 3 stoneware cake pan. I think it took about 60 minutes. I also used frozen fruit that I had thawed and did strawberries, blueberries & blackberries. I will make this again! (*drool)

Rachel's first birthday

I can't believe it's already been 1 year since my sweet baby girl was born.

A lot changes in a year...

The birthday girl one year later (already half her friends are in college)...

So we all celebrated with little homemade cake: white cake with raspberry filling,

raspberry-chocolate buttercream frosting, and fondant decorations...I love baking!

Rachel's cake:

Logan's cake (or so he thought, but in reality the rest of us and our guests shared this one):

Logan giving his baby sister some pointers about what to do with the cake:

My inspiration for the cake design:

I feel so incredibly blessed to have this little girl in my life. It is fun seeing bits of her personality become more defined: she's a bit of a firecracker (she's got spunk even at this age); determined (when she sees dad's records she will do anything to get to them and throw them down); silly (she likes rolling around the couch laughing and growling); sweet (she claps for us when we do things she likes, blows kisses, and smiles at everyone); independent (put her in a room full of kids and she'll go find some stuff to do by herself for awhile).

Thank you Jesus for the privilege of being a mom to Logan and Rachel!