S'mores Cupcakes

 Ok, you'll have to excuse the excess of cupcake pictures.  This may be one of the best cupcake recipes I've tried!  It is a S'mores cupcake; graham cracker crust, chocolate cake, chocolate ganache, all topped off with a meringue.  Umm hello, how awesome does that sound?!

 Just look at that fluffy cupcake and lovely graham crust!

 The recipe calls for torching the meringue but I don't have a kitchen torch so I tossed some graham crumbs on top

 I think it looks lovely

Is that not a beautiful cupcake?  I can assure you it tastes just as good as it looks!

In case you're wondering, this is the recipe I used

Back splash project

You may remember from a few posts back, my back splash project

A few pictures to refresh your memory

Here is our bright, new, modern back splash!

We just finished grouting it tonight

Next up is some caulking, the under-cabinet lighting (woohoo!) and paint touch ups.  So far I'm really happy with the tile!

The holidays are upon us!

And that only means one thing:  I will go crazy with the baking!  So be prepared for a whole slew of updates in the coming weeks as I have many holiday parties to attend and will obviously be baking some ridiculously awesome stuff!  In the meantime, I've been terrible about updating so here's some stuff:

 We smoked a turkey for Thanksgiving and it was pretty awesome!

 We also helped my parents remove their old hot tub in preparation for the new one.  We are serious about relaxing on holidays ;-)

 The chef and our turkey!

 I made a pumpkin pecan praline pie that was pretty awesome

Moving on...

 When we got our counter tops replaced, the installers accidentally broke our backsplash.  We weren't too heartbroken as we planned on replacing it at some point anyway.  Well, I finally decided to tackle the grimy backsplash

 I removed the massive spice-rack and found even grimier tile...gross

 And the underside of the cabinet had a thick layer of goo on it...

 Most of the tile came off relatively easily except for the spot where the drywall is currently missing.  The tile took the drywall with it so I had to patch the wall.

I have the wall all patched, mudded, and primed.  It's ready for tile!  Alex has swapped out all the old, grimy, discolored outlets for me.  We hope to tile this weekend!

and a cute picture of Strauss for good measure ;-)

So check back soon for baking updates...the baking will begin in a few days

Pengwhee!

My very talented older brother and some of his buds created this cool smartphone game called Pengwhee!  It is available for Android and just yesterday became available for iOS devices.  Give it a shot and let me know what you think!

For your iPad or iPhone!

For your Android device

Late bloomer

 My dahlias were incredibly late to bloom!  They didn't begin to open up until mid-late October and they are still blooming!

 They are absolutely gorgeous

 I had some friends over a week or so ago and my favorite cupcake lady did it again!  Her company is called Shugar Shugar and her cupcakes are absolutely phenomenal.  Definitely the best cupcakes I've had

 I got vanilla crunch, dulce de leche, Heath bar, and pumpkin spice

Don't they look just perfect?!

Teaser

  Just a couple teaser pictures from a shoot I did this weekend with this little heart-breaker!

Alex and his beautiful mom

Such a cute little dinosaur!

Rome, Italy

 Last but not least was our stop-off in Rome.  We were in Rome for 4 days.

 As you will, no doubt, notice, I was clearly very interested in the ceilings and architecture of the buildings

 These were all taken in the Vatican Museum

 The ceilings are incredible!

 Leaving the Vatican Museum

 Overlooking Rome

 Lovely sunset from Borghese Park

 The Colosseum, of course

 Again, happy to no longer be bundled up, like in Belgium and France

It's hard to see but that's a kitty sleeping in the Colosseum

 Really cool old fountain from the Palentine Hill area

 More Palentine Hill

 This little guy was stalking a lizard!  And he got it!

 Trevi Fountain, of course

Pretty awesome!

So there are all my photos unedited.  I plan on going through and re-posting them once I've had some time to touch them up.