Bubble Cakes

No, it's not a new nickname...

Cupcake Central

Holidaze

From Thanksgiving to Christmas has been a blur, a massive candle-burning-at-both-ends blur. With all of the parties to attend and prep for: school, work, shopping and reunions, I'm just plain exhausted. But I will sleep when I am dead because my mom is in town... and I am determined to finish the year with a slower, more fun pace to set the tone for next year.

I have the best pajamas ever! 

For NYE, my mom and I will be making lumpia (of course) and some cute champagne cupcakes. The plan is to use the frosting and decorations featured in this recipe and make the actual cupcakes and pastry cream from this recipe.  #fingerscrossed

Food

Here are some things I'd like to cook this winter:

Kicked up Fondue (oh yeah!)

Teriyaki Tuna Cakes 

Aglio e Olio with a Fried Egg (a fried egg just takes a dish to a new level of wonderfulness) 

Sushi (This is something I promised my kids we'd learn to do in 2016)

Kicked up Grilled Cheese 

Pineapple Basil Aqua Fresca 

French Hot Chocolate
One Pan Chicken Rice 

#enjoying

A few weeks ago I listened to Mindy Kaling reading her book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? and one of the others readers mentioned “puffy stickers”.  That mention took me way back to elementary school, maybe middle school to when I collected puffy stickers! Rainbows and unicorns and scratch n' sniff stickers too.

I really enjoyed listening to her read her book; she is definitely someone I would have enjoyed hanging out with... she's so funny and down to earth.

She talks about an an "Irish exit" out of parties and that is something I totally do - I prefer to slip out of a party unnoticed rather than make a big display but that is harder to do when kids are involved as the exits may turn to the theatrical.

I also listened to Reese Witherspoon read Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman.  I wasn't sure what to expect with this book but I thoroughly enjoyed it being read to me by Reese. I thought she did a great job reading the story.

Also, enjoying canned smoke trout. I know, random. Actually it's not so random. When I was in Napa a few months ago, we visited a tapas place and one of the small plates we ordered was the smoke trout. It was served in the tin (like my picture below) with a side a toasted baguette. So simple and so yum. Since I have been back home I have searched every grocery store I visit for canned smoked trout. Recently I got lucky in a new Walmart Neighborhood Market which carried TWO brands of the yummy savory snack.

Not quite the same, but delicious!

I tested them both out, once with melba toast for lunch and once with the family, served on toast with scrambled eggs. Both were very delectable.

Looking forward to more yumminess and reading in my near future.

Cookie Crawl

Aubri's troop had a Christmas cookie exchange recently.