Adorable cupcakes

 How adorable are these cupcake animals?! See more at Cotton Candy Bakeshop. 

hey you

tropical depression

Bust out the umbrellas people, apparently we are going to get some rain! 

Maryland wine tour

This weekend we went on a winery tour in Maryland. Which made us realize why we had never been to a winery in MD, because they barely exist! Not going to lie- I wouldn't recommend it. haha but we had a fun little day! We visited Linganore: 

And Black Ankle:

Which is a cute little sustainable place!

We picked Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and ate them. They were super sweet!

And saw some cows waiting in line? and chickens! I'm such a city girl. haha

we're livers, not fighters

One of my really good friends has been in and out of the hospital for a very long time. She has been on the donor list for awhile and it was finally her turn! She got a new liver put in yesterday and is awake today!! She opened her eyes, wrote a note, and squeezed her fiance's hand! We could not be MORE excited for her!! We love you so much Kimmy and hope for a great recovery!

Want to help? Donate Life here. 

Marshmallow Oreo Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes this weekend and they were delicious!! You layer the cupcakes with batter, oreos, marshmallow fluff, then more batter. The batter is super moist because it has a box of instant pudding mix in it! 

I think I put a little too much batter on the bottom.. they were overflowing the muffin tins, but still tasted great!

And check out the inside:

My frosting was a little on the thin side, but still delicious! Here is the recipe from Picky Palate:

Fluffer-Oreo Birthday Boy Cupcakes

1 yellow cake mix

1/2 Cup water

1/2 Cup canola or vegetable oil

4 eggs

1 box instant vanilla pudding mix

4 oz softened cream cheese

5 Oreo Cookies, crushed plus 12-24 whole Oreos to layer inside cupcakes

1/2 Cup marshmallow cream plus 1/2 Cup to layer

5 or so Oreos crushed to sprinkle over each frosted Cupcake (or mini Oreos on top)

Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 oz softened cream cheese

1 stick softened butter

3 Cups powdered sugar

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Using your stand mixer, beat the cake mix, water, oil, eggs, pudding mix, cream cheese, 5 crushed oreos and 1/2 Cup Marshmallow cream until well combined, about 1 minute.

2.  Line your muffin tin with paper liners and place 1 Tablespoon of batter into the bottom of each cup.  Layer with an Oreo then a dollop of marshmallow cream. Top with 2 more Tablespoons of cupcake batter, should be about 3/4 full.  Don’t fill more than that or you’ll have a mess in your oven.

3.  Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until just golden brown and cooked through.  Let cool completely. 

4. Place cream cheese and butter into mixer, beat until well combined.  Slowly add in powdered sugar until good frosting consistency then spread with cream cheese frosting. Frost and top with crushed or mini oreos.

Enjoy!!

xoxo engagement sesh

omg, I LOVE these balloons. I need them in my life. 

found: Trent Bailey

pencil v. camera

How cool are these. They are done by Ben Heine. See more here. 

morning

found: here.

goodbye summer

Well today is officially the last day of summer, and it sure feels like it around here! I love this 75-80 ish weather. Feels like fall! Time to start thinking about pumpkins, Halloween, and changing leaves!

found: Style Notes

blacksburg

I was in Blacksburg this weekend, my favorite little town in the whole world. And we finally won, Go Hokies!!

It was the Orange Effect game, can you tell? And of course I couldn't leave Blacksburg without getting my favorite sandwich in the whole world:

oh Sub Station, how I miss you. And I picked up this little guy for my cube:

scoops of flower

OMG, can someone buy these for me? My birthday is coming upppp. AH, love them! Found from ModCloth.

heart trails

I'm in love with this cake. So adorable. Made by Hello Naomi. 

ba ba blackberry sheep

life

Buy this poster at Holstee! 

hi, hola, ciao!

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who stops by my blog from other countries! I use a website I like to call my stalker tool, but it tells me that people from 51 countries have seen my blog! That seems so crazy to me! And amazing!! Literally people from all over the world have looked at things I've posted. YAY. Here's just a couple countries: The UK, Qatar, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Russia, Germany, France, Mexico, Taiwan, South Africa, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, Georgia, Croatia, Costa Rica, Thailand.. haha i'm getting carried away, but I'm SO excited! Love it, see you soon!


PS I also have at least one visitor from every single state in the USA, except North Dakota and Kansas. Woo! That is a pretty good statistic.


PS how cool are those edible flags? They are for Sydney's International Food Festival. 

happy birthday to bloggy

well friends, this little bloggy has made it to one year! I just want to say thanks to everyone who stalks me (I most likely stalk you back) or anyone who just stops by! Sometimes I wonder if anyone really reads this, but then I realize, I don't really care! I still love posting, and that is all that matters! I know I have some loyal readers, and LOVE it when you let me know you've seen this little baby! So stay tuned... and follow me and comment on my posts... it makes me feel really special! haha love you guys!

cake pops!

So if you haven't checked out these cake pops by Bakerella, you are missing out! She just came out with a book so it finally inspired Madeleine and I to attempt them! There is a great video tutorial on amazon that I watched to prepare. It's really pretty simple. 

Here are the steps:

1. Bake a box of cake as instructed for 13 x 9 pan. (I used funfetti as it is the best cake in the world). After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl. 
2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can frosting. (Bakerella uses the back of a large spoon, but I just used my fingers to mix together. But, be warned, it will get messy. Also, you may not need the entire can of frosting, so start out by using almost the entire can and add more if you need to.)
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and place on wax paper covered cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50)
4. Melt chocolate in the microwave per directions on package. (30 sec intervals, stirring in between.)
5. Dip the tip of your lollipop stick in a little of the melted candy coating and insert into the cake balls. (Insert a little less than halfway.)
6. Place them in the freezer for a little while to firm up.
7. Once firm, carefully insert the cake ball into the candy coating by holding the lollipop stick and rotating until covered. Once covered remove and softly tap and rotate until the excess chocolate falls off. Don’t tap too hard or the cake ball will fall off, too.
8. Place in a styrofoam block to dry.

And there you are! Madeleine made purple and I made pink for bridal showers we had last weekend. They were a huge hit at both parties! 

grilled ribeye steak with onion gorgonzola sauce

My sister made this meal the other night- seriously the most amazing sauce i've ever tasted! And I don't even like Gorgonzola cheese! But omg, it was SO delicious!! Seriously- you HAVE to try this sauce, it's TO DIE FOR. 

Ingredients

• 2 whole Ribeye Steaks
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• Salt
• Pepper
• 4 Tablespoons Butter
• 1 whole Very Large Yellow Onion, Sliced
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• ½ cups Crumbled Blue Cheese

Preparation Instructions

Salt and pepper both sides of the steaks. Grill in 2 tablespoons butter until medium rare. (We had boys make us massive cave-men size steaks- perfectly grilled!)

Saute onions in 4 tablespoons butter over high heat. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes, or until dark and caramelized. Reduce heat to simmer and pour in cream. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until reduced by half. Stir in blue cheese until melted. Serve steaks on generous portion of sauce.

Faint. Straight from the mouth of the Pioneer Woman. 

My sister also made zucchini boats and pasta salad, which were equally amazing. Best dinner EVER. 

boyfriend/girlfriend

So cute. See more here. 

the notebook

How freaking adorable is this engagement shoot?! Obviously based on The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks. I have never cried harder reading a book. 

See more here. 

Minnesotan's like it big

So this trip to Minnesota as we were driving all over the place, from Minneapolis to Duluth to Brainerd to Grand Rapids I seemed to notice a trend. People from Minnesota like HUGE statues of things on the side of the road. Here are some of the things we saw. We also saw a huge chef, but were in a hurry on the way to the airport. 

We also missed Babe the Blue Ox (to go along with Paul Bunyan up there) who was born in Minnesota. We'll have to hit that next time!

jucy lucy

So the very first stop when we got into Minneapolis this past weekend was Matt's Bar. It won The Travel Channel's "Food Wars" Challenge for the "Jucy Lucy/Juicy Lucy". Adam Richman also stopped by for an episode of Man V. Food! It's a burger with melted cheese in the ooey gooey cheese melted in the middle. It was freaking delicious!! 

The cheese inside was steaming hot. And of course, even though the waitress warned me... I totally burned my lips. I couldn't wait though! Which brings up the question...

See more info about the Food Wars challege here, Man V. Food here, and Matt's bar's website here.