"Reunited and it feels so good..."

This past weekend was our 10 year high school reunion. (Most of you already know that Justin and I graduated high school together, and actually met way back in 5th grade!) It was so fun to see some of our old friends again and take a little trip back in time. I've been working hard for a while, with help from my friend Kristin, on planning the reunion and getting everything together for it. I was so happy to see everything go smoothly and everyone have a nice time.

The events began Saturday with a family picnic at Planet Playground in Meridian. This was a chance for everyone to bring their kids and show them off. We were the only couple there with no kids...which was slightly awkward, but we survived! Saturday night was dinner and drinks at Weidmann's in Downtown Meridian and I made the cupcakes for the event! (recipes coming right up!)We ate and mingled and drank and laughed and listened to corny old music (think "Ghetto Cowboy" and Destiny's Child)until midnight. It was a blast. The best part of the night (or morning, I should say) was our bonfire after the reunion! Our closest buddies from high school came out to our land to sit around like old times and catch up. We stayed out there until 4 AM! The next day was ROUGH...but totally worth every minute!

Good Times!

I made three different mini cupcakes for the dinner event. I wanted them to reflect our school colors (yes, I'm that dorky) so, I chose red velvet, dark chocolate, and raspberry sour cream. If you were at the reunion, you are probably thinking, "I didn't see any raspberries!". Well, turns out, the only berries to be found in Meridian were a few (sad looking) pints of strawberries at Piggly Wiggly. So, improvise I did! Here is a link to the recipes I used (cupcakes 4, 5, and 25):Mingmakescupcakes.com I made a few modifications, like: 1. I used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder for a darker color and flavor in the red velvet and chocolate cupcakes. 2. I subbed in strawberries for the raspberries in the Raspberry Sour Cream cupcakes. 3. I thickened each icing recipe a bit with additional powdered sugar to get to the consistency I needed to ice them as shown. 4. I omitted the chocolate shavings on the chocolate cupcakes.
I forgot (!) to take a picture of my cupcakes displayed at the reunion, so the only photo I have is of the trial run I did last week (for which I was in Jackson...where they have raspberries...) So, here they are!:

They were a hit, especially the strawberry! Go figure! Haha.


What else have I been baking, you may ask....

How about a 12 layer chocolate cake?
Fun!




It was so good, but so time consuming!! Here is the recipe if you have some time on your hands! 12 layer Cake


I'm getting excited to start planning my Christmas baking soon! Hope everyone has a great day!

Homemade gnocchi!!

I'm super excited to tell you all about this gnocchi, but I guess I'd better start at the beginning of the week, so you'll know WHY I made the gnocchi.

Sunday is one of my work days. Usually I am so tired after 10 hours of helping folks out of bed and moving heavy arms and legs that I don't want to do much cooking...especially if I don't have anything planned and prepped already. So, Sunday, I called Justin on my way home from work with my usual "What do you want to eat?" (hoping he would suggest ordering a pizza). He said "Oh, just whatever we have..." Ugh, I really didn't want to cook and we were low on groceries, so I said "Well,I will just fix a salad or something." I drove home trying to scrounge up the energy to throw together some sort of dinner salad.

Well, to my surprise, I walk in the door to find THIS going on:



Yep, that's my husband and a rack of lamb. Probably the sexiest thing I have ever seen. Just saying.

He got the recipe from his Men's Journal magazine. He went to the grocery store (The Fresh Market!!) and got all the ingredients himself. Then, he cooked this fabulous dinner for me. So sweet, right?

I know.

Here are the recipes for my amazing dinner:


Herb-Crusted Rack of Lamb

Asparagus with red pepper dressing
Both from Men's Journal


Strawberry Mint Smoothie
From The Fresh Market

He picked up the recipe for the dessert smoothie while he was at the grocery store. It was all delicious. I love you baby!!

As I was cleaning up after dinner, I saw a pound of potatoes, a huge bunch of basil, and some cherry tomatoes on the counter. I know I didn't buy this stuff, so I asked Justin what they were for. If you read further into the asparagus recipe, you already know the answer. He said he bought all the ingredients, but just didn't have time to make all that gnocchi by hand.

My next thought was, "What kind of MEN'S magazine has recipes for rack of lamb and gnocchi, anyway?" Justin said these were part of an article titled, "Five recipes every man should be able to cook"

EVERY man? Not that I disagree, (I mean, wouldn't that be awesome?) but that's a bit excessive, right?

WELL....I have always wanted to try making gnocchi. Giada makes it look so easy on the Food Network! All the ingredients were there and Jacob and Jessy were coming over for dinner, so why not now?!

After looking at the recipe, I quickly realized that this would be an all day event. So, I got started early.

You can find the recipe for the gnocchi in the asparagus link above from Men's Journal...

Here is how you do it, adapted from Men's Journal:
1. Bake 1 pound of potatoes (any kind, really. I used Yukon Golds) for an hour.
2. Cut them in half and scoop out the insides.
3. Put the hot potatoes through a potato ricer.
4. Mound the hot potatoes on a clean countertop and make a well in the center.
5. Put 1/2 cup flour then 2 egg yolks then another 1/2 cup flour into the well.
6. With a bench scraper, chop everything together quickly until a dough forms.
7. Shape dough into a ball and roll in flour.
8. Pull off a section of dough and roll it into a snake.
9. Cut the snake into 1/2 inch pieces.

10. Roll each piece into a ball in your hand

11. Place the ball on your floured counter top and roll it with a fork or gnocchi paddle into an oval shape with indentations. (I don't have a gnocchi paddle, so i used a fork)




12. Once all the gnocchi are shaped, drop them into boiling, salted water. Scoop them out when they float to the top and dunk them in an ice bath to cool.
13. Take them out of the ice bath and drain on paper towels.
14. Refiridgerate or freeze until ready to use.

All of the above took about 2 and a half hours. Making the actual gnocchi dish was quick and simple. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of our dinner.

I made Steak Diane, Gnocchi with tomatoes and basil, and Strawberry goat cheese salad.

The salad is my creation (and one of Jessy's favorites). Here is what goes in it:

Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad

4-5 cups fresh mixed baby greens
1 pint strawberries, halved
1/2 pint blueberries
1 small package goat cheese, crumbled
3 Tbsp. toasted pecans
4 Tbsp Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette (I use Ken's)

Toss together and serve!

The gnocchi was delicious. Much better texture and taste than the store-bought kind...but a lot of work!