Smiley's Sweets and Creations: April 2010

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Project 365, week 16

Hello! This is a bit late in posting, but here is last week's batch of pictures. I have really been loving taking pictures every day. This week, I began with trying to snap a bit of my everyday life..things that are part of my routine, etc. I started off in that direction, but quickly veered from it. So you get a bit of everything, as usual :)

April 20: I drink one of the babies every single day. Well, sometimes it's a Diet Coke. I'm not a die hard either way, just as long as it's diet.

April 21: Our communal mailbox. Kinda wish I had one at my front door like the olden days. If there were any neighbors out to visit with when I get my mail, it would be different, but usually I go it alone...

April 22: Every day is coffee day. EVERY DAY! You don't really want to socialize with me if I haven't had my coffee yet. Or so some say :)

April 23: My sweet youngest. My mom got him this very cool working digital camera last year and he loves going around taking photos. Love that!

April 23 again: On a field trip with my youngest..on the bus...

April 23 again: My gym/running shoes. Love Saucony! They are incredibly comfy. I do my best to work out at least five days a week. Sometimes six. How else can I eat as many sweets as I do? I actually should work out more!!

April 23..My youngest with his best tetherball friend. They play a mean game of tetherball, I tell ya.

April 24: These butterfly shots are of the same butterfly taken out by the Sacramento River. We went on a picnic last Saturday and I chased this guy around. He actually looked black until I got him in the telephoto lens!

This little guy was from our picnic time, too. He was so cute trying to get through this Dorito Chip that someone had left in his little habitat.

Same trip: Wildflowers. Love them!

And a pretty bird..very lovely picnic!

April 25: These are all photos from our fun time watching the Harlem Globetrotters. A co-worker and friend of my hubby's generously invited us to their box in Arco to watch the Globetrotters. I had never seen them! We had a fun time and the kiddos thought they were hilarious!

...and they were!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Killer Cookies! Salted Toffee Chocolate Bars!!

Oh my goodness, sweet readers, these are TO DIE FOR!
Seriously, everything about them is delicious! They are sweet and salty, crunchy and creamy, and just plain heaven!

I saw the recipe on the last page of Martha Stewart's "Food" magazine and I had to make them. They are easy, too. You just get whole graham crackers and lay them on a rimmed baking sheet. Then you take the toffee bits and chopped almonds and spread them out evenly. Then, you take the, um, two sticks (yikes!) of melted butter and sugar and pour it over that. Bake it for a bit and sprinkle it with some salt and chocolate to melt. Oh my, so good. So, so good.

Hope I didn't tempt to you too much.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

I Heart Faces - Smiles!


The Smile That Melts My Heart Hello Sweet Readers! This week over at I Heart Faces, the photo challenge is "smiles". You know I take lots of pictures, and usually, when there is a person in it, they are smiling, so again, how do you choose? I love this photo and the joy it gives me when I see my son's sweet dimple and the cute forming teeth and young smile. Just melts my heart. I hope your weekend went well and you are off to a great start of your week! Be sure to head on over to I heart Faces (click the box below) to see more cute smiles that just keep coming and check out Kristen Kalp from Totally Rad Actions who is the guest judge this week.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Scrumptious Pie Cupcakes

Hello Sweet Readers!

Have you had a sweet week? I hope it's treating you well. It's been crazy around here weather-wise. Totally hot on Sunday -80 degrees - and then yesterday it was 46 degrees at noon and raining. Crazy!

Anyhoo, I wanted to share these fun "pie" cupcakes with you. I don't know if you could really tell, but they are meant to look like blueberry and cherry pies. I shot them very close up, so it's sorta defeating my purposed in the whole "look-a-like" game, but there you go. I got the idea from the authors of "Hello Cupcake". They have a new book called "What's New, Cupcake?" and these are from there. Fun, huh? I brought them to a church dessert potluck last Friday. Good Times.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Project 365, Week 15

April 12 : Impatiens in my front yard :)

April 13: My crape myrtle tree in my backyard

Also April 13: Remnants of a game in the backyard

April 14: Sunrise out the "library" window. Gorgeous.

April 14: In my neighbor's yard

April 14: Also in my neighbor's yard..with two visiting bees

April 14: My oldest. He is so good to pause from his outside play to smile for me :)

April 15: Scored a great find! French Macarons at Trader Joes! I will blog about it later, but just so you know, the vanilla ones in this pack are DELICIOUS! And for just 41 cents a cookie! Yum!

April 15: On my way home from TJ's, I was behind this "blue bertha". I learned to drive in one of these and it served my family well before the days of mini vans. My mom used to pile us all in to go to the beach nearly every day of the summer. Good times.

April 15: More flowers in another neighbor's yard

April 16: Freshly made vanilla cupcakes filled with ganache and vanilla buttercream and topped with coffee kahlua buttercream, Valhrona chocolate balls and toffee bits!

April 16: The calla lily in a beautiful and sweet bouquet given to me by my sweet cousin.

April 16: Yummy Mediterranean pizza for dinner. Seriously yum!

April 17: My beautiful neighbor and friend who asked me to take a few shots for her. She's a writer, so keep an eye out for these photos, people!

April 18: LOL - Yet another neighbor's yard. Check out these tulips! They line the fence all the way down. Too pretty not to shoot!

Monday, April 19, 2010

I Heart Faces "Collage" Entry

Hello Sweet Readers,
I hope you had a wonderful weekend. We were productive around the house and the yard, but still managed to work in some fun and games and even some sweets.

I wanted to share my entry into this week's challenge over at I heart Faces (http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/ ). I have shared some of these photos with you before, so I hope you like them :) These are my boys in Old Sacramento. Be sure to head on over and check out some of the other creative collages at the site. They are very inspiring!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

MSC: Jumbo Creme Filled Cupcakes

Hello Sweet Readers!

Here is the April installment of the Martha Stewart Cupcake Club. This month's cuppie was chosen by Jess from Cookbook Habit and in the book, they are called "Jumbo Creme Filled Cupcakes".

I started my improvisions by not making them jumbo, and I am glad I did. Honestly, I think as a whole, they tasted great, but the cupcakes individually were sub par, in my opinion. The cupcakes were a basic chocolate and they came out too crumbly for me. I was not a fan of the texture and the taste was somewhat bland for a chocolate cupcake. She has many more versions of chocolate cupcakes in her book, which I love. This was not one of them, so it was better to have them small and filled with the yummy marshmallow buttercream filling.

The recipe also calls for no frosting, except for a smidgen of the creme on top. No way. Even if the cupcake itself had been fabulous, you know I am not one to have a cupcake with such minimal frosting. So I added some ganache and, again, it helped.

Overall, the cupcake was good, but I will never make the chocolate base again. I also love the look of frosting swirled atop a cupcakes, so it's not one of my favorite looking cupcakes. It was fun to make and eat, though!

Be sure to check out my other fellow bloggers baking along with me this month at http://mscclub.blogspot.com/!