Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Are you ready for this? Are you sure? This is going to blow your mind--this is the mother load of all desserts: this is cheesecake stuffed strawberries. I made these a while back after hearing a friend of mine always talking about how she made them for every event she went to. The name alone sparked my interest, and I had to see what all of the fuss was about. I googled a recipe for these, and man-oh-man am I glad I did. These are AMAZING--and they will be a HIT at any event you take them to. Best part? They are SO easy to make! 

Ingredients:
1 lb. of fresh strawberries, rinsed and pat dry
8 oz. of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Graham cracker crumbs, optional

Directions:
With a pairing knife, cut off the strawberry stems. Cut around the inside of the strawberry, hollowing out slightly and creating a well for the cheesecake. (You can also do this with a small melon baller). Cut off a small portion of the pointy tip so that each strawberry can stand. Place each on a large baking sheet.

In a medium bowl, with a standing or handheld mixer, beat the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy, about 2 minutes on medium speed. Place mixture in a pastry bag and pipe into each strawberry, adding a little extra to the top. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. 

Optionally, sprinkle graham cracker crumbs on top of each stuffed strawberry. (I added the graham cracker crumbs and personally I loved it. I felt like it really finished the dessert off with a "crust-like" texture)

Enjoy!

Tip: If you don't have a pastry bag, filling a ziploc bag and cutting the tip off works just as well. Also, don't make more than 5 hours in advance: you risk your strawberries sweating and becoming soggy, and you risk eating all of them before you get to the party ;)

New Baking Stuff!

There are few things in this world that get me more excited than getting new baking stuff! Yesterday I made a trip to Costco for no reason in particular (I know--I'm the crazy person who went to Costco with no intention of buying food). Browsing the aisles, I came across two kitchen items that I could definitely use: a set of 4 mixing bowls with lids, and a 36-cupcake tote. With as much baking as I do, its kinda ridiculous that I didn't own any mixing bowls! The only mixing bowl I owned went to the stand up mixer that I had that broke (but I kept the bowl because, well, I had nothing else). The cupcake tote, though, I'm really excited about. I cant count how many times I've transported cupcakes and stressed out about them smashing together or falling over--and now I don't have to worry about that anymore! Between these two things, I spent $39 (the cupcake tote is on sale now for around $14 I think, if you're interested). Lets take a look: 

Here's the 4-piece bowl set.. they're made out of melamine and seem very durable.

Each one comes with a lid, and all of them have a rubber bottom so that the bowl doesn't slide around while you're mixing. 

...and the best part? They all stack together for easy storage! I LOVE that!

The other item I bought, the cupcake tote, is SO cool. It has so many different things you can do with it! First and foremost, it is 3 tiers which snap together--so if you're only carrying 12 or 24 cupcakes, you can take the tiers off to accommodate your needs. Its all "snap and stack" so its very easy to take apart and put back together.

Here it is, all stacked together. You can see the 3 tiers, and inside the 3 tiers are the removable cupcake holders. Kinda weird, but this also comes with two 12-egg holder trays--for when you want to transport your eggs and cupcakes? I have no idea, but I'll take it!

Here's what one of the cupcake trays looks like. It has two handles for easy removal out of the tote. 

Not transporting cupcakes, but need to pack lots and lots of cookies? Simply turn that cupcake tray over and it creates two-tiers within the one tier. SO cool. 

If you can tell, I turned over the cupcake tray on the top tier so that you could see the two-tiers. Such a cool feature. There are also finger divots for easy removal if you have the cupcake tray flipped over like this.  

 

Here's the top tier taken off--so easy to snap on and off!

I'm so excited about my new baking purchases--I want to bake some cupcakes using my new bowls, then drive around and hand cupcakes out (just because I can now!). Haha! Joe is out of town next week--and I'm absolutely going to get a LOT of baking in while he's gone! 

Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Chocolate Chips

Today really has me in a 'Fall' mood--mostly because its raining out and I'm able to have my back door open without having to turn my AC on. Its nice and dark outside and my candles are lit (don't worry--I don't think I'm going to pull out the Christmas movies--today at least). This weather always makes me feel warm and cozy inside.. and you know what complements that feeling perfectly? Pumpkin-anything. Pumpkin loaves, cookies, pies--something about pumpkin recipes just makes me SO excited. During the fall, my sister and I do a LOT of baking--and this is a recipe we made often last year. Its a pumpkin spice cookie with chocolate chips--it has a great fluffy texture and the perfect amount of pumpkin in it. I can't wait for Fall to get here so that I can start all of my holiday baking again (I might just end up starting early!). Here's what you'll need:

Ingredients:1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, softened
1 cup of white sugar
1 cup of light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 cup of canned pumpkin puree
3 cups of all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves
2 cups (12 ounce bag) of milk chocolate chips (NOT semi-sweet)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350* degrees. Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugar, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then mix in the vanilla and the pumpkin puree. 

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and cloves. Slowly mix the flour mixture into the batter using 1/3 at a time. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Scoop the cookie dough onto parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the edges are browned. Remove cookies from the oven and let cool for 2 minutes. Using a spatula, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to let them cool completely. Enjoy!

Egg and Cheese Breakfast Sandwich

I know how hectic mornings as a stay-at-home mom are, and I also know how crazy they are when you have to be at work early. Often times, a lot of people skip breakfast because they just don't think about it (I used to never eat breakfast until I became pregnant with Maverick--then I forced myself to eat because my body needed the nutrients). With all of us having busy mornings, sometimes its nice to have a pre-made breakfast ready to go--and this is the perfect one. I made this for breakfast this morning and it was SO good--tasted just like a McDonald's breakfast sandwich, but without all of the gross hidden ingredients (and only 225 calories!). The best part about these is that you can make a bunch of them at once, then store them individually in the freezer and pull them out as needed. From start to finish, these took about 20 minutes to make (and that's including preheating the oven). Let's get started:

First, preheat your oven to 350* degrees. 

Grab your muffin pan and either spray with cooking  spray or smear some butter around using a paper towel... then crack your eggs into the pan.  Place into preheated oven for 15 minutes.

While your eggs are cooking, toast your English muffins. Because I only made 3 of these today, I just used my toaster. If you plan on making a large amount so that you can freeze and eat later, I'd recommend using a griddle and laying all of the muffins on that so that they can all cook at once.

Once toasted, butter each muffin (if desired). I lightly buttered mine and they tasted amazing. 

Once the eggs are done cooking, this is what they'll look like :). Just grab a fork, scrape around the outside of the egg to loosen it up, then scoop it out! Very easy :)

Place on English muffin, add a slice of cheese, and viola! A tasty EASY breakfast for days on the go. 

Joe has to go on a business trip pretty soon, and his flight takes off around 9:00am, which means that we'll have to drop him off around 7:00am, which means packing up the kids and leaving the house at 6:00am. I will most definitely be heating some of these up and giving them to the kids in the car. If you love McDonald's breakfast sandwiches (I do--not ashamed to admit it), then you'll love these. I want to go to the store and buy some turkey sausages to put in these--I'm sure it would taste AMAZING! If you plan on making a bunch at one time, let them cool completely before freezing. If you stick them right into the freezer, they'll get a lot of moisture which'll cause the muffins to get soggy--and nobody likes soggy muffins :). To reheat, you have 2 options: microwave it for those busy mornings, or reheat in the oven at 350* for about 25 minutes (put it in the oven frozen).Enjoy!

Compliments Make the World Go Round!

We've all, at some point in our life, gotten bad service before--and I can guarantee that we have all put in a complaint about something before as well. Its human nature--if you're paying for a service and you aren't happy with the turnout, someone is going to hear about it.  We are all guilty of doing this, and its not necessarily always a bad thing. However, if you receive exemplary service, be sure to let them know.

Yesterday I had Orkin come out and spray my house for spiders. Joe has been killing spiders here daily, and we've been having a black widow problem (outside only, thank god). Having those around in the backyard scared me with the kids--especially with Madison not being scared of spiders. We'd had a different exterminator before and it was an awful experience. They came out and sprayed my house, then told me that they would be back every other month. A week after they sprayed my house, we started seeing lots of bugs again. I called the company and told them, and they said that "its a process" and that that's normal. That didn't seem right to me, but I let it go. Then the technician started showing up to my house every few weeks instead of every other month--which meant that I was paying a lot more. One of the times he showed up and I wasn't home (which shouldn't have been an issue; he was just supposed to spray the outside of my house). I got home and saw a bill stuck in my front door, then went and saw that my backyard gate hadn't been opened (its propped closed a certain way; there was no way that he had opened it, sprayed my backyard, then closed it again). I called the company and told them that I wouldn't be paying for that visit and that I would be cancelling my service. Too many things had gone wrong and I was done. It was an awful experience and we went almost a year without an exterminator. But then we started having this spider issue.

Orkin sent a technician out to my house yesterday and he was amazing. Without having to tell him anything, he told me he was going to spray everywhere I wanted him to--something the other company didn't do even when I asked them. He listened to all of my concerns about where we were seeing lots of spiders, then got started. He went through my entire backyard, front yard, and house and took down all of our cobwebs, then started spraying everything. Because we weren't having a huge problem inside the house, he only sprayed around our doors and windows--which I was perfectly okay with. However, outside the house he sprayed the perimeter of my yard, around the exterior of my house, and in my garage (usually they don't do that). When he was all finished with everything he told me the damage: he walked into my house and with a serious face said "you had a LOT of spiders." He then told me that he had killed between 50-60 spiders while he was outside, found 2 black widows, one brown widow, a friggin WOLF SPIDER (are you KIDDING me?! I don't care if they're harmless--those things look gnarly!), cellar spiders, and a few more that I cant remember (about 8 different types of spiders). He found a few egg sacs and got rid of those, and he even found a wasp nest near my front door that I didn't even know about and took it down. This guy was THOROUGH--and I was SO happy with him. I feel so much better sitting in my house knowing that I'm not going to be seeing any spiders crawling around--and I'm confident that I wont. 

After he spent an hour and a half working on my house (usually they only take about 30 minutes), he left and said he would do a follow-up call in a few days to make sure I'm still not seeing any more spiders. I called Joe and raved about this guy and we both agreed that we are so happy that we called them. I was so pleased with this company and this technician specifically, I knew I had to call the company and tell them.

Its kinda sad that companies are so used to getting complaint calls and never any compliments. If you have a good product, you should be praised for it. This employee specifically was amazing and he was very good at what he does--so he should get praise for it. I called the company and told them how happy I was with the visit and confident that I chose the right company--and they were THRILLED. The operator on the other line told me that they don't get many calls like this, so she was going to forward it to her branch manager. That's so sad to me--that people wont hesitate to call when something goes wrong, but when something is great, they don't even think about calling. I have no idea what this guy will get, if anything, for me calling in. Maybe he'll get a star on a chart, or maybe he'll get a $20 Starbucks card. Either way, he's going to know that I called in and was very pleased with his services, and I'm sure that'll make his day.

I'm not writing this so that you go out and hire this company--because honestly, its a technician-by-technician basis (unless you live near me--then absolutely call them up and hire them). My parents are the ones who referred me to the first exterminator that we had an awful experience with; my parents have been using them for over 10 years and love them, but because I live in a different city than them, it was a completely different experience. I'm writing this to urge you to hand out some compliments. If a barista at Starbucks is overly nice and helpful, tell their manager. I shop at Target a LOT and have had some great service--and I always go to the service desk and talk to the manager--and they are always thrilled (and I know for a fact that the employees get something when someone pays them a compliment). Make someones day. We have ALL worked in the service industry at one point or another--wouldn't you have been thrilled to have your boss happy with you because a customer paid you a compliment?

Make it a goal; tell yourself that you're going to compliment someone once a day or once a week or whatever you're comfortable with. It'll change the way you think about things; you'll feel great knowing that you're making someone's day, and you'll also be focusing more on the positive things in life :) Some companies even give you free products if you call in and tell them how much you love their product (I've gotten a few different free things just from calling in and raving about them) ...go out and see what a difference it makes!

Wine Tasting

My little sister turned 23 this past week, and to celebrate her birthday, a group of her friends took her wine tasting yesterday. She invited Joe and I, who in turn invited our friends Tim and Kailey. This was our first kid-free day in months, and we were more than excited. Joe, Tim, Kailey and I started the day off with a little lunch at the Yard House (you can't drink on an empty stomach, right?!), then headed over to the wineries to meet up with my sister and her friends. We started off at South Coast Winery (which happens to be an expensive place to taste wine; usually they're around $12 for wine tasting at the other wineries; this one was $20!), however a friend of hers was working so we got free drinks the entire time we were there :). After spending an hour or two there, we headed over to the winery next to South Coast--Ponte Winery to be exact. I wasn't impressed with the selection of wines they had to choose from, but the winery itself was gorgeous and gave great backdrops for our pictures :) Overall we had a great time and were able to try some delicious wines--I love that my house is a 15-minute drive away from all of these wineries! Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our fun day:

Our friends Tim and Kailey at South Coast Winery

Joe and I at South Coast Winery

The group :)

My sister Brianna and I

Kailey and I

Joe and I at Ponte Winery

Gorgeous background, right?!

Tim, Kailey, Joe and I

Brianna and her friend Clarissa

Brianna, her friends and I

...can Joe and I have a 3rd wedding and get married again here?!

<3

How To: Make a Thoughtful Gift (Part 2)

If you read my blog yesterday, you probably already know that my pretty cousin Chara is pregnant with her first baby--a boy that they're going to name Jackson. I am so thrilled about this pregnancy--I've always thought that she would make a great mom: she is such a fun and loving person to be around that I know her kids are just going to be awesome. Yesterday my mom, sister and I took her out to lunch to celebrate her upcoming bundle of joy--and if there's a few things I know about pregnant women, its that they: love cake and love receiving anything with their baby's name on it. During my pregnancies with both Maverick and Madison, if anyone gave me anything with my kid's names on it, I was over the moon. Something about seeing it written down--permanently--on something just makes it so real. 

Typically gifts are given in bags (I'm no exception to that--those are usually my go-to for wrapping).. but if you happen to buy one of those baskets that have the cloth lining inside them and display all of the gifts in that, it seems like you put WAY more effort into the gift (and I have no idea why; it takes the same amount of time as putting everything into a bag). Spend a few extra bucks ans personalize it with their baby's name: you'll be the hit of the party. Are you not crafty and have no idea where to start? Fret not--I'm here to save you ;)

Here's what you'll need (or variations of this):

Find out: baby's name, room color, and room theme--that way you'll be able to customize your gift as best as you can. My cousin happens to be decorating the baby's room in a burnt orange color and a Calvin and Hobbs theme--which is extremely hard to find. SO, orange box it is ;) Find a box you like, pick out your paint, and buy wooden letters to spell out the baby's name. The scrapbook paper pictured here was mod podged to the bottom of the box :)

Paint the box, mod podge the scrapbook paper onto the bottom inside of the box, then  glue the name onto the box. (The glue and mod podge were still wet when I took this picture, which is why you can see it. That all dried clear) ;)

Once everything is dried, put in all of the stuff you bought for them.  I bought diapers, wipes, pacifiers, a pacifier clip, shampoo, receiving blankets, onesies, a cool spoon-feeder thing, and those mesh feeders for teething babies. 

See how much more personal this looks rather than just giving it in a bag?  Pregnant women love getting stuff with their kid's name on it, and who doesn't need extra boxes for storage?! Win/win.

I love the way these kind of gifts turn out, and the recipient is usually pretty excited too. The presentation alone just looks great. This doesn't take long to make--the longest part of it is waiting for the paint to dry--and its fun to do. Go make one and see the reaction you get--it doesn't get much more personalized than this!