Wordless Wednesday

Do you wanna be a Cupcake Hero?

Cupcakes. I love them like no other.

I found a contest called "Cupcake Hero". Basically there are themes each month; following said theme you create a cuppie and submit it for judgement. Last month was caramel. YUMMY!  This month is "Hello Cupcake" inspiration. I have this book so I'm giving it a shot.

Animals in Springtime

We have a dog named Vinegar. He's a miniature, black, Schnauzer. He's about 9 years old in people years.  We recently got a cat. We named him Piss. Just kidding - funny though huh? I'm not sure what his name is anymore. I think it started out as Zipper but I just call him Fatty.

The animals spent the majority of the last 3 months like this:

But then last week the sun started to shine and while Vinegar didn't move very far, my friend Fatty did. The minute I opened the window he appeared.

This is my "Grandma Chair". He loves it almost more than I do. Don't move it too far from the window. He will fall.

The reason he is called Fatty should be obvious here.

He sat here. And sat here. And sat here.

He cried for his kids to come home and to PLEASE let him out into the spring.

All day he sat. Mostly he just sat but sometimes he sat and cried. That was the most pitiful sound I'd heard in quite some time.

ALL OF A SUDDEN!

I think maybe the birds are out too.  It might be a long spring.

Madame R and her dad have made a cat shelf for Fatty. He prefers the chair. My camera batteries died however so pics of the FABULOUS shelf will have to wait.

By the time it got dark though...

OMG!

So I finally got brave and posted a recipe to Pioneer Womans Tasty Kitchen website and someone rated my recipe 5 mitts!!!  They didn't review it and it's possible it's someone I know being kind but I AM SO EXCITED!!!

I dream that maybe it was Pioneer Woman herself.

It is quite a tasty recipe.

*This is me being proud*

http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/desserts/dark-chocolate-cream-cheese-frosting/?nr

Cupcakes

I made the best most sinful cupcakes a couple of days ago.

Of course I used the Pioneer Woman's chocolate sheet cake recipe for my chocolate cupcakes. I used dark chocolate powder instead of regular and HOLY SHOT of CHOCOLATE Bat Man! Yum!

I used a recipe off of cakecentral.com for my white cuppies and that is equally as YUM!

But the best part is I made my very own frosting. Now before you poo-poo me, I know that frosting isn't hard to make. I'm a little proud though. I could eat a tub all by itself - no cake required. It's a dark chocolate cream cheese frosting. It crusts over nicely and I suspect, it might be what Heaven tastes like.

Madame R eats just the frosting off the top of the cake.

Princess G, who prefers JUST cake, even eats it.

Needless to say, 36 cupcakes didn't last long here.

Cupcakes are on the cover of several magazines currently. I've bought them all. :)

I'm not sure how long I'll love the Pioneer Woman

I love cookbooks. There was one this summer that caught my eye.

I have made LOTS of things from this book. Our favorite is:

This has got to be the BEST chocolate cake ever. Madame R & I ate it right out of the pan in our JAMMIES.

PW has not led me astray. I've made her chicken pot pie, her mexican chicken, and so many pies I can't even count them all.

Shall I tell you that when I got married 17 1/2 years ago that I couldn't even make mashed potatoes?

PW has been the answer to some of my prayers. And I love her. I dream about her ranch. I read her site SEVERAL times a day.

Am I a stalker you ask? Maybe. She's my dream woman. Don't tell my husband. I may pack up one day and head to the ranch.

I've been trying in vain to win a Kitchen Aid mixer. She gives them away regularly on the Tasty Kitchen website. In case you are unawares:

Isn't it beautiful? If I had my druthers I'd have yellow. She gives away a lot of red ones. Red is nice.

My friends think I'm nuts. They don't understand what would be so lovely about a stand mixer.

I think I'll keep loving the Pioneer Woman. For now. I think it depends how many contests I'm denied.

If you don't know who I'm talking about - her she is. Be careful though. She's addicting.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/

Brand new

I've had a few people tell me I should do this so here's my very first post ever.

Easier than I thought.

I spend the first hour of the morning reading my favorite blogs. There are plenty of them. My current obsession is baking. I am in love with The Pioneer Woman. I'm not sure she'd feel okay with that. So we won't tell her. I am also in awe of Bakerella, so much so that I do not even know her real name. I could spend all day on the CakeCentral website and sometimes have. I have NO idea what I want to be when I grow up. "That's ok.", you say? Well I'll say that I'm almost 38 and somehow most days it feels very wrong.

The 6 Pak you ask? 6 kids, 5 girls and 1 boy. They range in age from 17 down to 5 and there is 1 set of triplets in there too! Why 6 pak? Cuz it took a lot to get through the toddler years at one point. And because they normally run in a pack. It's unusual to see one of my children. Most of the time I love them. Some of the time I'd like to exchange them for gifts. It depends on the day, minute, second...

A little about me. I'll be back.