a little pick-me-up

over the weekend, my mom and dad sent me these photos of the daffodils blooming in their yard.  it has been overcast and cloudy for the past few days, so these cheery yellow daffodils certainly help to brighten things up a bit!  i can't wait for the daffodils to start blooming in our yard too!

{photos by my mom}

happy wednesday!
love, laurie

a sunday morning bike ride

{music: sunday morning by maroon 5}

sundate [suhn-deyt]

noun

1. a day-long date with someone on a sunday.

i've decided to add a new word to the dictionary.  cute, right?  while i'm at it, i think i'll add "saturdate" too. 

sunday was the first day (in a long time) that we were both free.  there was absolutely nothing on our schedules.  it was exactly how a sunday should be.  so, we decided to take advantage of it and to have a little sundate.  we kicked off our morning by taking our bikes out for the first time this season.  even though it was overcast and chilly all morning, we really enjoyed being outside.  after a nearly six-mile bike ride along the river trail, we had lunch at our favorite indian restaurant and then we came home and enjoyed a three-mile walk around our neighborhood.  we finished up the evening by curling up to watch a few of our favorite tv shows (which have been backing up on the dvr for several weeks).  it was a really great sundate!

love, laurie

saturday mornings are for pancakes

you can't go wrong with pancakes, especially on a saturday morning.  it doesn't matter if they are plain pancakes or if they have apples, bananas, poppy seeds, cinnamon, pumpkin, or even carrots and walnuts in them.  we like them all.  they can be in the form of thin dainty crepes rolled up with strawberries, or baked in the oven all puffed up with apples.  sometimes we like to spread a little nutella or peanut butter on top of them too.

that's exactly how we started our saturday morning.  plain old-fashioned pancakes with a little bit of nutella and peanut butter on top, and with a glass of oj (for me) and a cup of coffee (for ryan) on the side.  there's just something about eating pancakes on a saturday morning in your pajamas that sets the weekend off to a great start!

happy monday!

love, laurie

snapshots of life lately, according to my iphone pictures

{iphone pictures via the instagram app}

spring, is that you?

i was super happy to see this cute little crocus pop up in our yard this week.  the weather is finally starting to warm up a bit around these parts, and it is finally starting to look and feel like spring now!  i sure hope it stays like this!

love, laurie

behind the scenes of our baking marathon

we spent two days making the cake and the cupcakes for our friends' baseball themed baby shower this weekend.  we did all of the baking on thursday, and then we did all of the decorating on friday.  in total, we made 3 1/2 batches of vanilla cake batter, 1 batch of chocolate frosting (for the cake filling), and 3 batches of vanilla frosting.  i felt like we were part of a baking marathon.  somewhere along the line i lost count of how many sticks of butter we went through.

it took many hours to complete, but we're crazy proud about the way the cake and the cupcakes turned out.  (you can see the finished cake and cupcakes here.)

here are just a few snapshots we took along the way while we were baking and assembling the desserts for the baby shower . . .

love, laurie

a baseball themed baby shower

on saturday, our friends had their baby shower.  they are expecting a boy, and they really love baseball, so they decided to have a baseball themed baby shower.  there was a score board to guess the baby's stats, a popcorn machine, tons of baseball decorations, and a few games too.

our friends asked us to make a cake and cupcakes for their shower, so of course we incorporated the baseball theme into the desserts.  it was a lot of fun celebrating with them this weekend.  here are a few snapshots from their baseball themed baby shower . . .

^decorate-your-own-onesie craft activity^

^the mama-to-be with (most of) her bridesmaids from her wedding^

^the parents-to-be with our cake and cupcakes^

love, laurie

oh, the weekend.

image source

this picture pretty much sums up exactly how i feel this morning.  it's really rare that i say this, but thank goodness it's monday.  on friday i mentioned that this weekend was going to be far from calm and relaxing, and boy was i ever right about that.  this weekend turned out to be absolutely crazy with little time for sleep and non-stop running from one event to another, all topped off with a three-hour visit on saturday night to the emergency room for yours truly.  needless to say, we are totally exhausted and we are happy that this crazy weekend is finally behind us.  hopefully things will start to calm down soon!  hello, monday!

love, laurie

fun links

this past week sure was a busy one, and unfortunately it looks like this weekend is going to be far from calm and relaxing.  lately, there have been way too many things crammed into our schedules.  (we have a serious problem saying "no" to anyone.)  hopefully things will start to calm down within a few weeks . . . fingers crossed!  

since it's friday, here are a few fun links that i found around the internet recently:

i'm drooling over these vegetarian tacos.

a super simple recipe for a milk and cookies smoothie.

how to turn just about anything into a chocolate mold using brown sugar.

a clever way to make your own wooden pedestal bowls.

hands down, the craziest used car ad that i have ever seen.

19 of the worst eyebrows ever.

can you pass the twitter spelling test?

have a great weekend!

love, laurie

lemon clementine tart with macadamia nut shortbread crust

over easter weekend we made two desserts for easter sunday.

in addition to our carrot cake cupcakes, we also made a lemon clementine tart with macadamia nut shortbread crust.

i always find citrus desserts to be so refreshing, and this dessert certainly did not disappoint.

this tart incorporates both lemons and clementines for a bright citrus flavor.  it is delicate, light, and creamy all at the same time.

the macadamia nut shortbread crust is the perfect base for this tart.  the shortbread-style crust is buttery and rich, and the macadamia nuts give the crust a complex nutty flavor which really compliments the citrus filling.

it is the perfect spring time dessert!

lemon clementine tart with macadamia nut shortbread crust
prep time: 15 minutes
cooking time: 5 minutes
baking time: 25-30 minutes
yields: one 9-inch round tart
adapted from love and olive oil

crust ingredients:
3/4 cup unsalted macadamia nuts
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar
8 tablespoons salted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon cold water

filling ingredients:
7 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
1 large lemon
2 cuties clementines
1 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons salted butter, room temperature
3 tablespoons heavy cream

directions:
preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.  to make the crust, place the nuts in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until they are finely ground.  add the flour and powdered sugar, and pulse until combined.  cut the butter into small cubes and evenly distribute it on top of the mixture, then pulse until the butter is incorporated.  while the food processor is running, drizzle the water into the mixture.  remove the dough from the bowl of the food processor.

firmly press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch round tart pan with a removable bottom.  bake for 12-14 minutes or until the edges are lightly golden brown.  remove the crust from the oven and allow it to cool slightly on a wire cooling rack.

to make the filling, in a medium sauce pan, whisk together the egg yolks and eggs.  set aside.  zest and juice the lemon and the clementines.  you should have approximately 1/2 cup of citrus zest and 2/3 cup of citrus juice.  finely chop the citrus zest and combine it in a separate bowl with the granulated sugar.  rub the citrus zest and the sugar together to release the oils in the zest.  add the sugar, zest, and juice to the sauce pan with the eggs.  whisk well until combined.  add the butter and cook the filling over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until the filling thickens slightly and reaches 170 degrees F (about 5 minutes).  remove the filling from the heat and pour it through a fine-mesh strainer into a glass bowl.  stir in the heavy cream.

pour the filling into the tart shell.  place the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake until the filling is shiny and opaque (about 10-15 minutes).  the center will jiggle slightly when shaken.  remove the tart from the oven and allow it to cool completely on a wire cooling rack.  once the tart has cooled completely, refrigerate it until ready to serve.

enjoy!

love, laurie