Casa Granolé

Not long ago I was invited to a friend's Holiday Gingerbread House Party.  I could hardly contain my excitement.  You see, my dad gave me this book years ago:

and I just couldn't wait to make a real gingerbread house out of it!

The "Pueblo House" was perfect since my family had just gone to visit Casa Grandé National Monument during the Thanksgiving holiday

But my excitement was tripled when my husband and son both put their architects' caps on and sketched me out this:

I made sure to pick up some extra materials I would need, and didn't think my friend would have thought of for the more "traditional" gingerbread house.  Assorted sizes of pretzels and a few graham crackers was basically all I needed but that didn't stop me from buying gourmet marshmallows, fruit bars, chocolate chips, coconut flakes, and granola!

When I arrived at my friend's house, she was still in the midst of setting up and I helped her in the kitchen.  We made a simple Royal Frosting/Icing out of:

2 egg whites

1 cup of powdered sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

All beat together-but found we needed to add 1/2 cup more powdered sugar to get the consistency right.

Then the other guests started to arrive and so I found myself a spot at the table and set up.

I mixed crushed up graham crackers into my icing to give it that "stucco" or "adobe" look.  Then I just spread out the mixture with a knife on the rough side of the modified IKEA kit walls.

I started with the typical four wall base, added a roof/entry from a piece of wall with a window.  Then built a smaller three wall box to fit over the roof top entry.

Next I added skinny pretzels to make a ladder (to climb the wall to the roof/entry of course!), half pretzels on the sides for the ends of adobe-style framing beams (I'm a practicing architectural engineer mind you), and a large pretzel door header (strictly architectural façade here, not doing much structurally for the opening ;-).

I tried my best to add some color by making a cactus out of large pretzels and green icing, but it looks pretty sad leaning against the house in the corner.  

Going back to my architects' plans:

A marshmellow "Peep" Snowman was provided by another guest to the party, so that took very little effort on my part.  (My husband DID think I made it myself though when he first saw it...he gives me far too much credit)

Red licorice and red gum drops came in pretty handy for a side yard fire pit.  And Mr. Frosty felt a bit lonely so he asked over his friend Giant Rambo Man to come frolic in the coconut snow!!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my fun holiday activity~Merry Christmas!

Red, White, & Blue

Strawberries dipped in white chips (what IS white chocolate?  is it really chocolate??) and then dipped in blue colored sugar.  Easy pezy.  I got the idea from here

We bought a huge crate of strawberries from a farmer's pickup right in front of our house!  We needed to bring some kind of food for tomorrows parade that we are watching from a friend's porch, so this is perfect.  I didn't know this, but you add 1 tbsp vegetable shortening to every cup of chips when dipping fruit (it's on the bag of chips).  I never use shortening but now I've got it in my baked goods cupboard!

Don't they look delicious?  Yummy!  I think I'm going to go raid the fridge and have one now!  ;-)

Did you make anything special (ie. Red, White, and Blue) for the holiday?

Happy Mother's Day

Grandma-ma, MVP, and myself

This dark and scratchy picture-taken by my phone during last christmas-captures what Mother's Day means to me.  As often as I give my mother a hard time, I very much love her and appreciate all she's done for me.  Now, as a new mother, I am finding out how much work it is to keep a healthy and happy baby, but also how rewarding being a mother truely is.  No amount of effort is too much.  I can give my baby 200% and there is still something left for myself.  Actually, I find the more effort I put in-the more get back.  My husband and son give me so much joy that I can't help but feel I'm truely blessed.  That is what Mother's Day means to me.

Easter Baskets

Easter Baskets! Colored coconut flakes, jelly bellys, and oatmeal cookie underneath (baked in mini muffin tin) :-)

p.s. as much as I am pretty embarrassed this to be my first post, I'll move forward and hopefully my blogging skills will improve.