Wedding Shower Recipes

Here are the recipes for the treats I made for Kelley's shower this weekend.

Petit Cheesecakes from the “Colorado Cache” cookbook
18-22 servings

3 8-ounce packages cream cheese
1 cup sugar
5 eggs
1 t vanilla
2 cups sour cream
1/3 cup sugar
1/2  t vanilla

Cream until fluffy the cream cheese and 1 cup sugar. Add eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Bake at 300 degrees for 40 minutes in paper line muffin tins (2/3 full). Remove from oven and allow to “sink in.” Frost with sour cream mixed with 1/3 cup sugar and 1/2  t vanilla. Return to the oven for 5 minutes. Cool and freeze, muffin tin and all. When ready to serve, thaw at room temperature for 30 minutes. Top with fruit.

Devil’s Food Mini Cupcakes from “Cupcakes” cookbook
18 cupcakes

3 1/2  T soft margarine
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper (need 18 regular-sized cupcakes, can be mini). Put the margarine, sugar, eggs, flour, baking soda, and cocoa in a large bowl and using an electric hand whisk, beat together until just smooth. Using a metal spoon, fold in sour cream. Spoon batter into cups. Bake for 20 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool. Frost with cream cheese or chocolate frosting

Lemon Cupcakes (recipe turned into mini cupcakes, not a loaf cake. Frost with favorite cream cheese frosting.)
White Sangria

A Book-Themed Bridal Shower

So, our little Shelby kept us rather busy last night, so I didn't get to post about the shower I had for my friend Kelley this weekend. I imagine my blog "schedule" will be off for a while as we work into our routine with her. And focus on potty training. She is a pretty smart dog though—last night she mastered going down the stairs and today she was playing fetch. She really likes her fabric turtle and chewing on her bed, so I think we need to get her some other fabricy toys, like a rope. She also had her first treat, and she is really picky about them. She only likes the soft treats, it seems. We might make a visit to PetSmart today, depending on how tired she is later.

So, anyway: the book-themed bridal shower. Kelley and I were both journalism English majors (from Colorado at UNL), so it seemed fitting that we asked guests to bring her books for her bridal shower gift. I made up the invitations in yellow and wrote a poem for the occassion: "Cathy had Heathcliff, Elizabeth had Darcy, Kelley has Shawn, So let's have a party." Then I instructed people to bring a book: a cookbook, a favorite book, or just whatever they thought she'd like. I had planned on doing custom bookplates for Kelley to put in the books later, but I wasn't sure if she'd want to return them if she got an accidental repeat, so I didn't. But she didn't get repeats, which was exciting. Kelley also wanted to have recipes from people, so I included two library cards with each invite for people to write on.

We didn't really have a shower game, but had people explain why they brought her the books. It was very laidback and we just drank sangria and ate desserts. I made food that corresponded with her wedding colors, which were black, white, and yellow. I made devil's food cupcakes and lemon cupcakes, both with cream cheese frosting, and mini cheesecakes. I intended to make a jello mousse, but it did not turn out, so Nathan and I just ate it. It was stilly pretty good. Decorations were super simple—I just pulled a book vase out from our wedding and bought daisies to put in it. Then I had black and white plates and napkins. I'll try and post the recipes I used later tonight while watching Glee!

It was a really fun shower, and it was fun to get book recommendations, as well. I might try and make an adapted "book shower kit" to sell in my etsy store.

So We Got A Puppy . . .

We had a big weekend. Friday I threw a book themed shower for my friend Kelley, then we had her wedding on Saturday. And on Sunday we got a puppy! We had been thinking about getting one for a while, but we wanted to wait until after the wedding and our honeymoon. We had thought about waiting until after New Year's or next spring, but then started looking and got attached to the idea. I found some shelties at an animal shelter that I thought were cute, and showed them to my friend Leah. She told us that her boyfriend's brother's dog had just had sheltie puppies, so we made a date to go look at the girl puppy, Dakota.

When we got out to the farm, Dakota was very cute and really took to Nathan. She loved sitting in his lap and playing with him. So we took her home with us. She had never been on a leash before, and she did not like it. Jess also warned us that she might get car sick but should be OK. Not so much. She threw up all over Nathan's pant leg as we pulled into PetCo's parking lot. It was probably the funniest thing I've ever seen. We picked out lots of toys for her and got her a bed, a crate, some treats (that she doesn't like), a collar, and a leash. When we took her home, she was very confused and kept turning her head and looking at us. We put her bed out and she went over to sniff it, but wouldn't get in it. Eventually, she got in it and slept for the rest of the day. We're trying to get her into a routine and get her housebroken, but she seemed very overwhelmed yesterday, so we're trying to find a balance in "establishing dominance" and also giving her a break because she's still scared and homesick. She is also really good at sitting, but it's only when you want her to do something she doesn't want to (go potty, come outside, go for a walk on the leash). We don't want to tell her no so she'll never sit again, but we also need to get her to do what we are commanding.

She is very cute--I invite everyone over to meet her whenever because we need to socialize her while she's still little.

I'll be back later today with the details on the book-themed bridal shower!

Book Review: Sarah Strohmeyer

So, today is the first day of book reviews for my blog, and I had a really hard time deciding what book to choose for the inagurual post. Which is part of the reason why this post is up so late in the day, compared to my earlier attempts this week. I thought about writing about the first book that made me love reading (Little House In The Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder) or my go-to book when asked for recommendations (God-Shaped Hole, Tiffanie deBartolo, thanks to Lisa Petak) or my favorite book that makes me look like an English nerd (The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway). But instead, I want to (maybe) introduce you to the author that I've been talking about lately and whose books I've been devouring—Sarah Strohmeyer—and also talk about why I like reading chick lit. Because honestly, at this point in my life, it's what I read a LOT.

I'm not actually sure how I came across Sarah Strohmeyer's books initally, but I know they were recommended on Facebook by one of my favorite authors—Emily Giffin—so I requested them from the library. I started with The Sleeping Beauty Proposal and found that in addition to being funny and intelligent, it had some interesting thoughts on the role of marriage in a woman's life, especially fitting for me as a newlywed. Then I read The Cinderella Pact, which dealt with weight, body image issues, dieting, and friendship in addition to appearances. The Secret Lives Of Fortunate Wives was a little less serious in terms of "issues" but it was interesting to read about the roles that women (and men) played in this more upperclass society and how everyday things such as marriage and working fit in. And the one I just finished, Sweet Love, addressed divorce single parenthood, old loves, and breast cancer. Also, in some way, most of them had a character that was some kind of writer, mostly journalists, which I'm guessing comes from Sarah Strohmeyer's personal experience.

I think there is this a stigma that goes with reading, or even writing, chick lit that it's silly and stupid and full of fluff. And some of the really good stuff is silly and full of fluff. But what I liked about all of these books is that they tackled serious issues in a way that was relateable in some way, if not directly. And yes, they generally have happy endings, and yes, a lot of these women do spend a lot of their time chasing men, and sometimes, the situations they end up in can be kind of silly. But aren't these aspects of real life? In these books, no on is saying you need a man to be happy, or you need to be model skinny to be happy; instead, they tackle these, in my opinion, everyday issues, in a way that makes them relateable and enjoyable to read, no matter how big they are, without presenting negative stereotypes of women.

And that's why I like chick lit, aside from having some fluff to read after a day at work. Because if you look hard enough, you can find the big issues and think about them and how they relate to you, or how they don't relate to you, and take away more than just a fluff story.

My To-Read Pile

Nathan got me started on having  a "To-Read" pile, which consists of books that you have that you haven't read yet. He puts his in a particular order and used to start reading the one next in line when he finished. I think I've messed that up a bit by giving him new books to read that he kind of sneaks ahead. And that's how my "To-Read" pile goes.

Except I'm working on it. Last night, I ended up reading/finishing the book I got at the library yesterday rather than cleaning my house for the bridal shower I'm having Friday (oops), and so I had to pull something from my "To-Read" pile. It's the book that Nathan got me for Valentine's Day (a tradition we've started) called "The Believers" by Zoe Heller.

Other books in my "To-Read" pile include:
The Cutters, Bess Streeter Aldrich
Tuesdays With Morrie, Mitch Alboom
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time, Mark Haddon
Anthropology Of An American Girl, Hilary Thayer Hamann
Free Land, Rose Wilder Lane

Library Visit

Today during lunch I made my weekly trip to the library to pick up a book I had requested. It’s the closest we have had to “fall” weather, and it made for a nice outing. My favorite part about the Lincoln Library System is that you can pick stuff online and pick it up at whatever library you want. That, and you can return books to wherever you want. I have three near my everyday life that I can pick from, and so this is very convenient.

I spent some time looking at the sewing books before grabbing my book, but I didn’t find anything that really fit with what I was looking for. I’ll probably have to go request one as soon as I find the right one at Barnes & Noble. Or maybe that’s something I should consider buying.

Returned:
The Sleeping Beauty Proposal, Sarah Strohmeyer
The Cinderella Pact, Sarah Strohmeyer
The Secret Lives Of Fortunate Wives, Sarah Strohmeyer
My Name Is Memory, Ann Brashares

Checked Out:The Handmade Marketplace, Kari Chapin
Sweet Love, Sarah Strohmeyer

What Do We Read?

Last week, Nathan sent me this survey that shows what people like to read and also determined that Stephen King is the most popular author. Most people read fiction, mostly mysteries. I have actually never read any Stephen King, so I will have to add that to the “to-read” pile.

My reading life probably most consists of fiction. To pull from their categories, I would say I mostly read literature and chick lit and also add historical fiction. I am currently loving Sarah Strohmeyer, if anyone is looking for a light read with still substantial messages.

What about you? What do you mostly read?