July and more...

This was how I was supposed to spend the fourth of July:

Coleman Vacationer 2-Room 10-Person 15' x 10' Cabin Tent

My tent stake bag that I mentioned in my previous post was to protect our new tent from the stakes and it got put to use! And I LOVE our new tent. I'm totally in love with it. I was so excited that I even made a new pillowcase to take with me camping:

Erin McMorris Wildwood Checked Floral in Green

We did end up here:

Unfortunately, the day we got there fire restrictions went into effect... so there was no campfire.  I brought huge Giant Roaster Marshmallows for my S'mores so I was incredibly disappointed.  I had no S'mores.  This depressed me.  Then I got sunburn on the first day (accidentally), then I managed to jam a super long splinter from the picnic table into my pinky finger (my husband: "It was stuck completely in her finger and when I pulled it out it was at least a 1/2" LONG!"), then ravens that ravaged our collapsible water jug, then an incident with some sickness that caused me not to be able to use my precious pillowcase on the first night, and a morning of using the laundry facilities (I just happened to be at the only campground I know that has laundry facilities?!).  So we left a bit early, but we swore to return to make up for this trip. :)

In the spirit of the fourth of July... here is our "Freedom Cupcakes" that I made a well over month earlier:

My friend is having a baby... so I'm squeezing that into my long list of to-do quilts before the end of the year.  This is the new super cute Alphabet Soup line by Zoe Pearn for Riley Blake:

I'm still working on my Kona Challenge Quilt!  I've had the top pieced for like a month now.. I just need to sandwich, quilt, and bind it.  I plan on finding some time in the next week!  So exciting to almost be done with another!

What eight hours of baking looks like...

My friend Nacole and I thought it would be 'fun' to send out valentine's cookies.  I made 4 batches of dough (using my only go-to recipe for sugar cookies - The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies) the night before hoping I made enough.

This is 2 batches of dough:

Hours and hours of baking later we had these.  But then we still had 2 entire bags of powdered sugar to go to frost all of them.  There's approximately 260 cookies here.

Our spirits gave up the last couple hours.  There's nothing 'perfect' about these cookies other than they taste freaking amazing.

They dripped all over the place.  I still suck at frosting.

I think Nacole tried every design she could think of:

But everyone loved them! :)

The recipe I use for frosting is here: Sugar Cookie Icing

Blueberry Cake Bars

Little Birdie Secrets recently posted a recipe for Blueberry Cake Bars that just looked amazing! I still had some Michigan blueberries sitting in my freezer that would be perfect for it. So far all they have been used for are lots of blueberry muffins... so I gave it a shot.

And this is what came out:


They taste just as good as they look!



You can find the recipe on her site here: Blueberry Cake Bar Recipe

My Bad Frosting Techniques

I needed an excuse to make cookies with bright pink frosting in heart shapes.  Oh thank you Valentines Day!  I obviously have a very precise technique of putting frosting on the cookie.

The recipe I use is here: The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies

Whatever... Chicken Enchiladas

We decided to try the chicken enchilada recipe over at Whatever... and it was awesome! I followed the directions almost exactly... I obviously added more cheese and we marinated the chicken for about 30 minutes before grilling it and chopping it up. My simple marinade: Put chicken in a gallon sized bag, dump some pepper, soy sauce, garlic, lime juice and vegetable oil in a bag.

Thank you for the recipe!

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies You Will Ever Eat

A while back I started trying out a bunch of chocolate chip cookie recipes to find the perfect one.  The winner for me is the Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe over at allrecipes.com.  I could never get the chips to poke out on the top, or they would spread and look weird -- but these do AND have that amazing gooey center and crisp edge and stay soft the next day!  They are amazing and now my ONLY chocolate chip cookie recipe to use.  I follow the recipe exactly.

Save some for later!: I make a full batch of these and scoop little balls (2 Tablespoon size) onto a jelly roll pan lined with wax paper.  I freeze them and dump them into a freezer bag to make as needed.