Blueberries and Lemon

I'm sure the few people that actually look at this blog lost interest long ago. Spring came and I abandoned a lot of crafting and baking and blog updating for adventures outside. But here is an attempt at returning.

I made some desserts for a baby shower a few weeks ago that turned out really yummy.

I saw these cobblers baked in jars at Not Martha and thought they would be really fun to try. I pretty much followed her directions, but I couldn't find the wide mouth jars. Mine were the same size, just skinnier and taller and they seemed to work just fine. I made my own labels to fit in with a girl baby shower.

Here they are right out of the oven. They smelled so good:


There is something really cute and satisfying about individual little jars of desserts:



(They are extra good with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream dropped inside when you're ready to eat.)

The directions for making the cobbler in jars can be found here.

(Next up...I'm going to make cupcakes in a jar.)

I thought not everyone would like blueberries so I also made some lemon cupcakes. I was really happy with this recipe that I found through Stephmodo. The combination of the cupcake and the frosting was perfect. Definitely try this recipe if you like lemon. I didn't attempt the candied lemon peel, but maybe next time. A simple raspberry on top did the trick.

Spring is Here!

It's not quite spring, but close enough. Spring in D.C. is one of my favorite things. A few of our favorite activities are coming up.

The Smithsonian Kite Festival is happening on Saturday, March 27 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Washington Monument. The atmosphere here is always so carefree and fun...how can you not be happy while flying a kite? There is an actual competition, but many people just show up to fly their own kites for fun. Click here for more information.

And of course, the Cherry Blossom Festival. For a complete list of all of the events, click here. Last year, we really enjoyed attending the fireworks at the end of the festival. This year, they are at the beginning of the festival on Saturday, April 3 at the Southwest Waterfront. We watched them from Hains Point and there were hardly any people there. It's a great display.

Another great place to see blossoms is the National Arboretum.

Printing with handmade stamps

A little while back, I got a wonderful surprise in the mail from a fabulously crafty friend of mine. It was this book:



I love trying out various printing methods and this book has some fantastic ideas. I recently attempted some handmade rubber stamps. I'm having fun experimenting with the whole process and I'm excited to try some other printing projects soon. I have a plan to screen print a new duvet cover for our bed, although I'm a bit intimidated by the prospects of printing on something so large.

Here are the results of my attempts with the rubber stamps. I carved two different stamps and printed a few bags and some stationery:

Valentine Cupcake Pops

Okay. This will be the last Valentine-related post. Due to our snow week, Valentine's Day festivities have really been extended. School parties aren't even being held until this week. So we spent the end of our snow week making Valentines for Amelia's teachers.





We already had supplies laying around that were left over from our Christmas cake pops, and luckily Valentine's Day uses red and white too. We added a little pink and some heart sprinkles. We looked around the house for something to put them in and found these flower pots, which inspired our flower card and message.

Molten Chocolate Cake

I wanted a chocolate dessert for Valentine's Day but wanted to keep it really simple. I went with these delicious molten chocolate cakes which are very easy to make. Love that chocolate center.





Bittersweet Molten Chocolate Cakes
from Bon Appetit

Ingredients

12 teaspoons plus 5 tablespoons sugar
8 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon all purpose flour

Preparation

Generously butter eight 3/4-cup soufflé dishes or custard cups. Sprinkle inside of each dish with 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar. (I used cooking spray and cocoa powder and it worked wonderfully. The cakes didn't stick at all.)

Stir chocolate and butter in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until smooth. Remove from heat. Using electric mixer, beat eggs, egg yolks, and remaining 5 tablespoons sugar in large bowl until thick and pale yellow, about 8 minutes. Fold 1/3 of warm chocolate mixture into egg mixture, then fold in remaining chocolate. Fold in flour. Divide batter among soufflé dishes. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with plastic; chill. Bring to room temperature before continuing.)

Preheat oven to 425°F. Place soufflé dishes on baking sheet. Bake cakes uncovered until edges are puffed and slightly cracked but center 1 inch of each moves slightly when dishes are shaken gently, about 13 minutes.

Invert cakes onto a serving dish or eat right out of the soufflé dish. If desired, serve with ice cream.

I heart you.

My Favorite Sugar Cookies

2 c. flour
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
½ c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp milk
½ tsp vanilla
½ tsp almond extract

Whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar; add dry ingredients, and mix until incorporated. With mixer running, add egg, milk, vanilla, and almond extract; mix until incorporated.

Transfer dough to a work surface. Shape into a disc, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°. Line baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut into desired shapes, and transfer to prepared baking sheets, leaving an inch in between. Bake until lightly golden, about 10 minutes; do not allow to brown. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Valentines: Part 2

We're on Day 6 of being snowed in. Yesterday we finished up our cards.

There is a free printable card to use with the heart crayons at The Long Thread which you can download here. But we wanted to do our own thing and Amelia wanted to use a colorful peacock so I made this card:


I thought it would be fun to include a picture that the kids could color with their new crayon so I used Photoshop to remove all the color from the peacock and included a black and white version on the back of the card.

Then we attached the hearts to the front using foam dots:


Instead of using envelopes, I found some clear bags and we packaged them up:


Inspired by some fun owl pencils found at the dollar section in Target, we also made some owl cards for friends:




You can find a template for the owls, along with many others, at Family Fun.