Birthday Baking

Happy Birthday to me!  I sort of forgot that it was my birthday this week until my dear coworkers brought in a German Chocolate Cake and a Carrot Cake to celebrate.  Yum!  I am so thankful for my department and for my amazing colleagues who bring joy, humor, fresh perspectives, and constant support to my workplace.  Last night I again forgot that it was almost my birthday until I went to the mailbox and was pleasantly surprised to find a handful of colorful envelopes addressed to me.  Being a mother, my own birthday seems less important.  It almost makes me feel frivolous or even selfish to celebrate my own day when my world revolves around our child now, but thankfully my wonderful family and friends have reminded me to spoil myself and celebrate my day.  I am spending the day with Ady and Kua, planning to go for a walk and read some books at the park (all my favorite things!), followed by dinner with the hubby tonight.

Birthday Love

This morning I tried a new recipe for homemade Pop Tarts!  I admit to enjoying Pop Tarts a little too much for an otherwise healthy 32-year-old, but I convinced myself that homemade is better because the ingredients are fresh and there are no preservatives or trans fat.  I used to love Pop Tarts as a kid.  I remember this thing we had in my family where my mom and I would eat the cinnamon Pop Tarts (with brown icing because we had brown eyes) and my sister and dad would eat the blueberry ones (because they have blue eyes)!  Lol!  (My brother obviously didn't have teeth yet, or he would be in the blue club.) I love when foods bring back memories from childhood.  

 Here's the recipe from my favorite blogger, the Brown Eyed Baker: Homemade Strawberry and Cinnamon Pop Tarts

 I made the strawberry ones.  They were a little more time-consuming than expected, and unfortunately because of dough-rolling issues I only had enough pastry dough to make 6 1/2 Pop Tarts instead of 9, but they were delicious and worth the effort!

Strawberry filling


Assembling the pastries


Not winning any beauty contests...  Ooops!


Birthday Breakfast

And because it's perfectly acceptable to buy yourself a birthday gift when you're 32, my gift to myself was this beautiful and hilariously true original drawing from one of my favorite artists, Brian Andreas of StoryPeople.  

"Not Unwilling to Tip the Scales in Her Favor with as Much Wine as She Can Carry", balanced against "Stack of Things That'll Be There Even if YouWork for 2 Years After You're Dead".... I can relate

 Cheers to 32!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Pacific Northwest Bachelorette Party

Image
I just returned home from a memorable weekend in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, celebrating my sister, Katie, who is getting married in just a few short weeks.  Four years ago she, as my Maid of Honor, planned the most unforgettable and fun-filled bachelorette weekend for me:  San Francisco and Sonoma Bachelorette , and now it was my turn to do the same for her!  We gathered together a group of twelve women from Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, Salt Lake City, Manchester, Santa Fe, Denver, and Seattle to celebrate the Bride to Be.  I wanted to have some organized, pre-planned group activities, but also plenty of down time for games, lounging, and drinking wine.  While we wanted most of the weekend to be spent at a cozy cabin overlooking the serene water of Puget Sound, we wanted one exciting night out on the town, and I think we achieved that balance.  Here's the breakdown of our weekend events: 1)  Night Out in Capitol Hill We arrived...
Read more

High Altitude Baking: Coffee Cake

Image
Happy January!  I have two weeks left of my maternity leave and I'm trying to make the most of it by spending lots of quality time with Baby Ady before she starts daycare.  It's going by so fast!  While I'm home I've been using my crock pot a lot, working on some yarn projects, taking long walks with Ady and Kua, reading, and doing some baking.  I have struggled with high altitude baking since moving to Santa Fe 5 1/2 years ago.  Cookies turn out okay, but I usually have to make some adjustments with cakes, and my breads are often mushy in the middle and crispy on the ends.  I can get by okay with a few of my favorite recipes that I have practiced multiple times, but it's often hit or miss.  For Christmas, my secret santa got me this amazing cook book, Pie in the Sky: Successful Baking at High Altitudes, that explains the chemistry behind high altitude baking and gives suggestions for adjustments to make at various altitudes.  Ingenious!  ...
Read more

My Bachelorette Party: San Francisco and Sonoma

Image
I have the best Maid of Honor in the world!   Between grad school, work, and preparing to move into a new apartment, she miraculously found time to plan THE BEST bachelorette party ever (and 3 time zones away, I might add).  I had such a fabulous time being surrounded by (and loved and adored by!) all my best friends for four days. The weekend started at 4:30 a.m. Thursday when my Santa Fe friends and I drove to Albuquerque (a 50 mile trip made possible by Panera breakfast) to catch our early flight to the Bay Area.  After a 2 1/2 trip (complete with Bloody Maries, Tequilla Sunrises, Coffees with Baileys, gossip and a few bridal magazines) we landed in Oakland!  One of my dear bridesmaids from Chicago who had arrived a few days earlier picked us up and we headed into San Francisco.  We met up with the other gals, checked in early to our hotel (Parc 55 Wyndahm in Union Square) and set out to explore the city by foot.  Som...
Read more