JAMSquared

Category Archives: Family & Friends

Kristy’s Birthday Dinner

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Saturday night, we went out for dinner to celebrate my friend Kristy’s birthday (see the card I made here here). We tried out new-to-us  Bella Sera Italian Restaurant. The bread dusted with Parmesan cheese they served was delicious. I tried out a stromboli and James had ziti alfredo. We both liked our meals and I think we’ll have to go there again.

Aric and Kristy

Stephanie and Nick

Kristy and Jennifer

Look at my silly girl with a mouth full of bread. She loves her carbs like her mama.

Jessica

Jennifer and James

Our waitress was nice enough to take a photo of the group of us.

Group Photo

Jessica’s 1 Year Portraits

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On Monday, September 27th, we took Jessica to have her portrait taken at the JC Penney Studio. I had planned to include copies in her birthday invitations, but alas I should have done portraits earlier, because I didn’t get them until this past Wednesday. For the most part, she did really well. Near the end, she got a little fussy and decided that was enough. I was pretty happy with JC Penney. I ended up spending more than I wanted to, but if I had really stuck to my guns, it could have been pretty inexpensive.  I had brought the red balloons and they were a perfect prop. Thanks Jillan for the suggestion. Let me know which pictures you like best (I’ve used the JC Penney short label so it will be easy for you to say).

E3

E4

E7

P1

P3

P9

P10

We had a few family shots as well. I really like me in P14, but we ordered a few of P20 since we liked it better overall. Jessica had her thumb in her mouth for all the family shots. She was getting kind of tired.

P14

P20

P24


Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy

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The last time our play group met at our house, Christian totally loved the exersaucer. He is a big fan of bouncing. Jessica thought it was the neatest thing and now she is bouncing too. Watch her in action in this 19 second clip.

Monday’s playdate was at Stacie’s house. Jessica loved the little shopping cart that William and Alex have. It was actually the first time she started walking while pushing a moving object. Since then, she now loves to walk behind her push toy that we have. In fact, Thursday we spent half an hour walking up and down the hallway. I think it’s a sign that she will be walking soon. Here’s a longer video clip of her walking behind the toy.


Surprise Cupcakes

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It’s been a while since I posted anything food related. That’s not saying I haven’t baked or cooked anything worth blogging about, just that other things are higher on my list of blogging priorities.

My friend Stephanie’s birthday was back in August. We went and celebrated with dinner at BJ’s. Stephanie is lactose intolerant and as such, most places don’t have dessert that is edible for her. So I made cupcakes to bring to dinner. I spent quite a while perusing recipes to find one that was just right. Did you realize that most cake mixes contain dairy? This eliminated a lot of doctored cake mix recipes. Finally, I came across one that sounded perfect. It has a jam center and Stephanie really likes linzer cookies, so how perfect is that.

I started getting out the ingredients and realized that the recipe called for milk. Oh jeez, how did I overlook that? I had hoped not to have to go to the store to make something for Stephanie, but alas that was not meant to be. I thought about looking for a different recipe, but I had my mind set on these jam-filled cupcakes. We went out for another reason and on the way home stopped at the grocery store where I ran in and picked up soy milk.

Stephanie with a Cupcake

Surprise Cupcakes

Source: Quick Cooking March/April 2002

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup shortening
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 5 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1-1/2 cups milk
  • 3/4 cup strawberry or grape jelly (I used strawberry)

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Fill 36 greased or paper-lined muffin cups half full. Spoon 1 teaspoon jelly in the center of each.

Bake at 375°F for 16-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 1 in. from the edge comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Decorate as desired.

Yield: 3 dozen

Surprise Cupcakes with Creamy White Icing

To decorate, I whipped up my MIL’s Creamy White Icing. This stuff is to die for. I tinted it blue since Stephanie likes blue and added some sprinkles.

Creamy White Icing

Source: Olivia Moore

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening
  • 2-1/2 teaspoons flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3 cups confectioner’s sugar

Directions:

In a saucepan over low heat, melt shortening; add flour and salt. Slowly stir in milk. While stirring continuously, bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat; add vanilla and confectioner’s sugar. Set pan in ice water to thicken while stirring to spreading consistency.

Yield: enough for 3 dozen cupcakes

Surprise Cupcakes with Creamy White Icing