the adventures in baking continue

At our housewarming we received a lovely + very thoughtful gift from my friend Krista + her new husband Matt. A fun kitchen towel and these little lovelies:

In addition there was a recipe for Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes on the back of the package. I had an extra package of brownie mix, so instead of getting fully in to the swing of things after burning myself out on baking, I used a box mix for the cupcakes themselves. I also happened to have an extra package of cream cheese that I didn't need for the pumpkin rolls so I made the filling to go on top of the brownie cupcakes. Yay for an experiment!

I rarely do things by the book in the kitchen, mostly because I'm making due with what I have. It usually turns out well. In this case, I had the ingredients to make the cupcakes from scratch, but I wanted to have brownies and I wanted it to be easier + faster. 

I wanted to get started right away, but the recipe called for softened cream cheese...so I improvised.

I didn't find any better advice beyond "wait 15 minutes or more" to softening it quickly. So I popped it in the preheating oven while I gathered ingredients, which took about 5 minutes, and it was perfectly soft but not runny. 

I mixed the box of brownie mix with oil, water, + eggs. Boring, easy, and kind of cheating. Then I poured the batter into these adorable little silicone cupcake liners. There's even a shaded line to guide you in how much to fill them. awesome.

Then I whipped up the easy cream cheese filling:


1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/2 C. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 C. chocolate chips (I didn't add these)
24 strawberreis ( I didn't do this either)


Beat together cream cheese, egg, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy. Drop a heaping teaspoonful of the cream cheese mix into each cupcake. Bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool. 


I had to bake them for longer to get them to bake through since it was brownies instead of cake, maybe 35 minutes. I also had a bit of an overflow mishap with one of them. Last, but certainly not the least of my problems was that I didn't realize you have to "season" silicone by using oil on them the first couple of times. All my brownies were stuck and unfortunately I made them to bring to dinner with some friends of ours. So we just ate them with utensils right out of the liner. It was worth it. So yummy!

{mmmmmm}

P.S. don't forget to check out my new About Us page and my husband's new blog. 

some reviews...

I've been on a bit of a break from posting reviews and giveaways, but have some past due reviews for CSN to share with you. The wonderful team at CSN stores gave me the great opportunity to choose some items for review recently.

 I chose the Hoover Wet/Dry Hand Vacuum back in August. This little thing has been a lifesaver. I must say that my primary reason for choosing this product was to clean up after Malakai's meals. His highchair has a way of collecting crumbs and I didn't want to remove the cover to shake it out after every meal. The wet/dry feature was important for obvious reasons. I also wanted cordless and something with a wall mount. This was the only choice in a small handheld vacuum with all of those options.

It holds a charge for a long time. I don't always put it on the charging base and it has yet to die on me. It's also super easy to empty + clean out. My only complaint is that it's SUPER loud and makes a bit of a high pitched sound. I'm assuming all hand vacs are about the same in this, I just make sure Malakai isn't near it when it's running.

Earlier this month we received the North States Supergate III for review. We were in need of a gate that would work for our hallway to keep Malakai out of the other side of the house so we could get things done without constantly having to find out where he ran off to. With the layout of our house, this also enables us to have our bedroom + bathroom doors open more often which keeps the whole house at an even temperature. We also move the gate into the kitchen when I'm working with the oven or Ben is loading/unloading the dishwasher to keep Kai away from hot, sharp + breakable objects. We only do this when the other one is home to watch him since we only have the one gate and he could wander out of sight to the other side of the house.

This gate has worked really well for us so far. We've only been using it for about 3 weeks. I only have 2 minor complaints. One was that when we received it there was styrofoam literally inside the gate between the two pieces that slide and it was nearly impossible to remove them to use the gate. Second, it's really difficult to get the lock into place. I'm guessing this is probably pretty standard with tension gates in order to get them to stay, but it's really difficult!

Being short, this gate is a bit too tall for me. I've already fallen once (go ahead and giggle) because I caught my toe. Not the first time something like this has happened to me...all 5'2" of me tried hurdles in High School...bad idea.  Anyway, I just have to be really careful when going over it.

We're thinking of getting another one to create a bit of a smaller space that keeps Malakai on one side of the house AND out of the kitchen at certain times. Just an FYI we don't use the gate all the time or keep Malakai only on the one side of the house. We feel it's important for him to be exposed to all the parts of our home for the purpose of exploration and to learn boundaries.

As always, feel free to ask me for additional information or tips in the comment section or via email (link to the left). 

colors + rain

This weekend the heavy rains that the Willamette Valley is known for finally came. Ben + I both love going to bed or snuggling up on the couch when the rain is pounding outside. It's a comforting sound and the cool temperatures make cuddling under a fuzzy blanket much more enjoyable than the 70-80 degree weather we've been having for the last month.

The cool weather + heavy rain also makes it easier to get stuff done inside, like cleaning out the garage. Our goal is to get the boxes cleared out and the car inside the garage before the first freeze. We got a lot done yesterday and plan to keep working through the rest of this week.

There are a lot of boxes and we found a lot of stuff we forgot we had. Like thank you notes...from our wedding, literally 2 days after I bought some new ones to send out. Figures. We also discovered a box that we didn't recognize. It had my name on it in my mom's handwriting. I assumed Ben had something to do with it, but he didn't recognize it either. Later that evening when we visited my parents we brought it up to my mom and she got a coy smile on her face. Get this, she had my brother sneak that box into our garage (she's constantly trying to clear my stuff out of their storage) back in MAY and we just now found it. Sadly, it was in plain sight the whole time. That's how bad our garage is. I'll have to share before + after photos when we get more done.

I've loved watching the seasons change in our new neighborhood. In the spring it was like watching a mystery unravel when new things would bloom in our yard.

I took a lot of great photos of our magnificently yellow maple tree out front. It is a very large tree and it is so beautiful right now (despite the hundreds of leaves it has shed all over our yard for us to rake up later).  All the wind + rain on Saturday night had made so many leaves fall that they covered the ground. It was so bright it reminded me of walking outside after the first snow, everything is lit up.

Here are some photos I took of Malakai out back on Saturday, our front yard on Sunday, and our drive out to my parents' place in the country.

{the view from our front door}

{the view from our street}

{leaves, leaves, everywhere!}

As soon as Malakai stepped out the front door (with some help of course) we thought he'd love kicking through the leaves...

Instead he went straight for the street. He + daddy check the mail together every day and he was headed for the mailbox. Even when I tried to bring him back into the yard, he screeched at me and ran back into the cul-de-sac. 

After getting the mail and running around for a bit we piled in the car to head to G'Pa + Mema's house. We were glad Malakai got some time to run around outside because it started to rain again a few minutes later. 

I had the camera in my lap so I decided to take some photos along the way. 

{hello.}

{railroad tracks, bluesky patch + windmill, biking in the rain}

{this leaf hung on for the whole 20 mile drive}

{Malakai loved watching the rain hit the windows}

{cows, pumpkin patch + colorful orchard, sheepies}

We played for a few hours at my parents' place and had dinner. On our way home there were some flashes of lightning. Then when we were getting ready for bed there was the longest roll of thunder we've ever heard. It rumbled everything like a mini-earthquake but stopped in time for us to curl up in bed under lots of cozy layers. 

What did you do this weekend?

new page

After blogger ate my first draft, I've finally published an "about us" page for anyone who wants to know a bit more about our little family's background.

Happy Weekend!






P.S. don't forget to check out Ben's new blog if you haven't already. Click on follow + keep up with his unique stories each weekday!

fridays

Friday is usually everyone's favorite day. Lately, Fridays have been more challenging for me than any other day.

It's an early morning because we drop Ben off at work by 7am before heading over to watch Henry. This means waking up before 6am (ew) and having all 3 of us ready and out the door by 6:40am at the latest. Some mornings it's quite the difficult task.

Then we're away from the house all day. So Thursday nights are spent preparing breakfasts, snacks, + lunches for all of us. Sadly, this morning I ended up leaving Malakai's sandwich + crackers on the counter. So he got to eat my lunch instead.

The hardest part is getting Malakai to nap away from home. He's just so social that when we're away or there are visitors at our place he has a really hard time going to sleep.

Thankfully at this moment he is snoozing away (after 45 minutes of coaxing). I'm taking the opportunity to sit for a little bit and relax, there's no telling how long this quiet moment will last.