POOL

I'm so excited!!! What am I excited about you ask??? Let me tell you friends, I am excited about POOL. Don't know what that is? Let me tell you...

"Pool is a collaborative new market in Mesa that will bring together specialty purveyors,small businesses, artisans, and privately owned merchants."

This is in the old Mervyns building over on Stapley and Main. I wasn't sure if it was open but it sounds like it is. I'm so excited I can't wait to go check it out. I'm thinking I will run by in the morning and try a coffee, sounds like there is a good coffee bar inside.

This really makes me want to rent a space, but I honestly have no idea what I would sell, plus I have no time. So I guess I will just enjoy shopping there. I love Mesa and I'm so excited to see signs of it coming to life!

Read more...

Margherita Pizza and Strawberry Mint Mojitos.

I love fresh herbs. The smell, the taste, oh my goodness I love pretty much all fresh herbs! This is always a weakness for me at the farmers market. I always buy more than I will use because they call my name and practically jump into my basket.
I had some fresh basil and mint on hand and wanted to use it before it lost its freshness. So tonight I whipped up a margherita pizza and a pitcher of virgin strawberry mint mojitios. My kids love mojitos. I usually just make the traditional mint and lime, but tonight I remembered Cadence's friend Mikah telling me she made them with strawberry's in culinary. So I gave it a try.

Result=delicious!

Start with 2 limes quartered, 6-7 strawberries, or more if they are small like mine, and a handful of mint leaves. Place them all in a pitcher and muddle them together. Next make simple syrup by mixing 3/4 cup water and 3/4 cup sugar in saucepan. Heat until the sugar has dissolved stiring constantly. Set aside. ( I put mine in the freezer for about 5 minutes) Pour simple syrup and 3 cups of San Pellegrino into the pitcher.

Let me take this moment to pause and say I LOVE Pellegrino all by its self but it is good mixed with fruit or juice as well. My kids love it too. It's the hubby that thinks it is repulsive. To each his own.

Walla....yumminess!

Now for the Pizza. I had two ripe tomatoes on my plant and I was so excited to use them that I decided to couple the basil and tomatoes and make a fresh margherita pizza, one of my favs.

Aren't the colors so pretty? I cheated a little, I used fresh and easy pizza dough. It is actually pretty good. I did top it though with my homemade pizza sauce. Once I finished pretending like I knew how to toss pizza dough, I stretched it out on to the pizza pan, topped it with my sauce, some shredded mozzarella, as well as fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil. Oh yes, a little slice of heaven.

As you can see I left a little area plain for Jakers, he isn't into tomatoes and basil on his pizza. :)
One good thing about the weather heating up is all the delicious summer produce coming our way! I think I'm going to go slice up some watermelon before bed. Nah, I will wait for morning, I think I'm just thirsty.

Read more...

Party... Part 2!!!

I'm back, last night I got really tired and couldn't keep my peepers open a second longer. So I will pick up where I left off. We kept the decorations pretty simple. We made the 3 banners ( Happy Birthday, Soda Shop and BINGO) I also used some "puff balls",unofficial term that came from a hilarious encounter with a snobby clerk at Anthropologie,that I made for a Christmas event at our church. We hung them from the trees and the porch. I put battery back twinkle lights in them so the lit up in the evening.

This picture doesn't really do them justice. They are really cute. Maybe I will add a tutorial on how to make them sometime. They were time consuming but the cool thing is you can use them over and over and change the tissue paper for different color schemes.

BINGO!!!!

We set up a BINGO station in the back yard. My mother-in-law had these cute little desk chairs that worked perfectly.We found some cute vintage looking bingo cards at FOUND by Domestic Bliss Right after we left Found we went to the antique store downtown and found some actual vintage BINGO cards with slider windows. They are so cute! I decided to keep both sets of cards.

I picked up some tulips for the party. I just adore tulips, they are so pretty and they make me smile.
With the hustle and bustle of things we didn't take the time to take food pictures before the party, so I had Cadence take a few the next day. I'm thinking my mom may have gotten a few and if she did I will post more later. For now here are a few pictures of some of the food from the party. We went with the all American 1950's back yard BBQ menu. Grilled hot dogs, sloppy joes, deviled eggs, fruit kabobs, veggies, chips and onion dip,and a cheese ball served with Ritz crackers. For dessert we had homemade retro desserts;Oreos, snowballs, ding-dongs, rice crispy treats and whoopie pies. Thanks to my Mom, mother-in-law, and friends, Rebecca and Sue, for all the help. I could not have done it with out you!
Good friends, Good food, Good times!

Photos taken by Cadence Meeks Photography

Read more...

The Party!!!

Planing ,shopping, baking and decorating.....so much work goes into a party then poof, it comes and it goes. We have been talking about Cadence's Sweet 16 for months. Yesterday was the big day and it was a blast! It was a great turn out and the weather cooperated for the most part. The first couple hours were a little warm and the flies were a little intense, but when the sun started to set it was just beautiful.



These are the invitations Cadence designed for her party. She took the picture of her best model ( her sister Emma) and her friend Rudy. They dressed up in their 1950's best and sipped soda while Cadence snapped photo's. Everyone asked why Cadence's photo wasn't on the invite. She replied " I'm the one behind the camera not in front". Never the less they turned out darling don't you agree?


As her guests walked through the picked fence they were greeted by Cadence in her vintage 1950's dress with petticoat, and a bright and cheery birthday banner hand made by yours truly along with some help from the girls. I've seen a lot of these banners in boutiques and in etsy shops and I just knew I could do my own...so I did. I made one for Emma's birthday back in December but it wasn't as detailed.This was my first time experimenting with making a crepe paper ruffle.

Cadence with a few of her guests! Don't they look great?

We found Cadence's dress at a great vintage clothing store in Phoenix. I think it was called Hollywood Regency.

Here is my little Jakers sporting his Buddy Holly-ish glasses from Urban Outfitters. Is he not the cutest thing? I know I'm bias but oh my goodness...


This is pretty funny, Jake and his friend had this idea for a photo. It looks pretty realistic. The funny think is, just last summer these boys were going at it for real. They were not each others favorite people. After a little sit down chat, they are great friends. Life is funny that way isn't it? Sometimes the people you think you like the least become some of your greatest friends.

Here is Emma putting up the soda shop sign that Cadence and I made. I will post some better pictures of her once I get them from my Mom. I was too busy to be snapping pictures. Running around like a crazy lady as usual!

... To be continued... Good night world!

Read more...

OREOS!

As I mentioned in a previous entry, I am planning my daughters sweet 16 party for this Saturday. She actually is officially 16 as of 39 minutes ago! Wow, so strange to say. I let her drive on the freeway for the first time tonight. She did really good! I am so proud of her I must say she is the most amazing & responsible 16 year old I know. OK enough I'm sorry...



Anywho I started making retro desserts for her 1950's themed part. I made these "Oreos" the other day and someone was asking for the recipe so I thought I'd post a picture and the recipe for all who feel like whippin up a batch or homemade vs store bought.




They turned out really good. The fam wasnt really happy when I put them in the freezer for the party. I caught hubby going out to the garage fridge to sneak one and I busted him!

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (recommended: Dutch-processed)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 large egg
Vanilla-cream filling, recipe follows
Vanilla-Cream Filling:
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions
Set 2 racks in the middle and upper third of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees. In a food processor or the bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar. While pulsing or on low speed, add the butter, then the egg. Process or beat until the dough is thoroughly blended and massed together. Drop rounded teaspoons of batter onto nonstick or parchment-lined cookie sheets at 2-inch intervals. With moistened fingers, round out the cookies and flatten them a little. Bake for 9 minutes, turning the pans once for even baking, until the cookies are set. Set the cookie sheets on a rack to cool.

Vanilla-Cream Filling: Put the butter and shortening in a mixing bowl and, at low speed, gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar and vanilla, until blended. Turn the mixer up to high and beat for 2 or 3 minutes more, until fluffy.

With a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch tip, pipe teaspoon size blobs of filling onto the tops of half the cookies. Keeping the smooth bottoms of the cookies facing up, flip the remaining cookies on top of the filling and lightly press to form sandwiches.

Wayne Harley Brachman, Retro Desserts

I pretty much stuck to the recipe only I went easy on the vanilla for the cream filling. I think I used 1 1/2 tsp vs 2. Also I did not use rounded spoonfuls. I was much more precise. I used a tsp and I scraped the top then rounded the dough into a ball in my hand then flattened on the cookie sheet. This helped to ensure they would fit together and that they would be the actual size of an Oreo. The first time I made them way to BIG! So I had to adjust.

Well tomorrow I am going to work on Cadence's b-day banner and hopefully get some more baking done. More pictures tomorrow. That big fluffy bed is calling my name.

Read more...

16 Candles

The countdown has begun....my oldest child turns 16 in two days!!! I can not believe it. Sounds so cliche I know, but time really does fly. It seems like just yesterday it was all about "bubba's and mommy shirts" (she called her pacifier bubba and she would drag around my tshirts that I had worn and smell it and cuddle with it and she called them mommy shirts) Insert awwwwe here.



She has grown up into a beautiful young lady and it really is hard to believe she is so close to adulthood.



This isn't even a current picture, this is from her bday last year. I can not find any current pictures of her because she is always the one behind the camera and apparently not getting any time in front of it. This needs to change! I have tons of pictures of my other daughter because she always models for Cadence!

We are having a sweet 16 for her this Saturday. This means I have less than a week to get it together! Its going to be really fun. We are doing things 1950's back yard BBQ style. We will have swing dancing and we are playing Bingo. I am making a retro dessert table with homemade versions of old favorites; Oreos, Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Snow Balls. I've already made some "Oreos", they are good! I am pretty sure most of my blog entries this week will have to do with party preparation and I will put up recipes as I go.

She has all but ban people from coming in poodle skirts She wants 1950's style summer, party dresses etc. examples...





We found her dress at a really cute vintage clothing store in Phoenix and we ordered my other daughters from etsy. Hopefully it will be here tomorrow. I will wait to post pictures of them in their dresses until after the party...keep you in suspense! :)Here is the photo Cadence took of her sister and her friend Rudy for her invite.

Well I just got really tired so I am off to bed. More to come tomorrow.

Read more...

The Great Outdoors

The great outdoors wiped me out. It has been a long day of mostly outdoor activities and I am exhausted! It was a beautiful day, sunny with a cool breeze!

I started my morning off by taking Jake to his football game. His team played really well, they tied the game 18/18. He loves football and he seems to have natural talent. He is begging to play tackle. However,this mom is thinking,"Why rush concussions and broken bones?"



This afternoon I tackled a gardening prodject in the front yard. It got pretty messy but it was a lot of fun! I will let the pictures do the talking. Enjoy & Goodnight!

Read more...