14th Annual Johnson Pig Roast

Every August for the last 14 years my aunt & uncle have hosted a pig roast for all their family and friends. We always eat tons of good, Minnesota summer food, swim in the pool, and catch up with people we haven't seen since the year before. The highlight of each get-together is when the karaoke machine is set up and my uncle belts out "Born to Be Wild" to kick off hours of crazy, mostly-out-of-tune classics. This year Pete was working so Ella and I made the journey down for the event. We had a great time, as we always do.

chatting in the pool with Grandma Scott

sitting with Grandpa Scott

mama attempting a solo tune

Where's Mama's String?

A Song by Uncle Jake

I caught this a couple weeks ago when my brother played open mic on a Friday night at the church. I always love catching his shows. I'm still trying to get him to record the song he wrote and played for us at our wedding. If I do get it from him, I'll post it. It was beau.ti.ful. Truly.

In the meantime, here's a snippet of a song he recently wrote. Sorry, I don't know the name of it.

Enjoy.

The Backyardigans

A year and a half ago, while working at a public high school, I shared my office with three young dads. Everyday we'd all eat lunch together with a few other teachers. Anyway, one day the guys started singing a very random song. One started, then the other two joined in. I had no idea where the song came from until the end of it when they all laughed and mentioned how much their girls loved The Backyardigans. "The Backyardigans?" I asked. They reassured me that I would be familiar with it soon since Ella was on the way.

Ladies & Gentlemen, I am proud to say that I am now quite familiar with the Nick Jr television show featuring five little animated creatures who travel to make-believe worlds in their backyards through the simple tool of their imaginations. It's adorable! Each 20-minute episode is filled with silly songs, catchy tunes, and adventure. The friends consist of Pablo the penguin, Tyrone the moose, Tasha the hippopotamus, Austin the kangaroo and Uniqua - who's truly unique. I'm not an advocate for little kids watching TV, but there are times when it is incredibly helpful to have something like this to keep Ella busy for a short period of time. As soon as she hears the theme music, she starts kicking her legs, "singing" and dancing. It's adorable.

Imagination. Silly songs. Catchy tunes. Colorful characters. I'm a fan.

Uncle Jake's Birthday

Jake is one of my very favorite people. He's seriously the best little brother a girl could have. I've loved watching him grow up and figure out where he's headed through the past few years. I was way happy when he decided to do his undergrad at UMD since I was still there when he started. He studied like crazy all while working a ton as the on-air evening personality on a pretty wide-ranging radio station based here in town. Jake graduated in May of 2009 with a double major in English and communications and, believe me, he's one smart cookie. His writing is insightful and creative and always makes me want to study whatever he has written about just so I can have a somewhat intelligent conversation about the topic. He's a poet and songwriter, musician and leader. He's one of those guys that creates a following without meaning to. And the coolest thing about him is that he is a pure, honest, sensitive soul chasing after Jesus.


Uncle Jake is currently in the middle of an internship at the Vineyard Church in town (the same one I worked at and did my 2-year Bible & leadership program). He started last September as a worship intern and is extending it through the coming year. It's way fun to walk into church on Sunday morning and see him leading on stage. Who knows what he'll be playing at any given time. Guitar, mandolin, harmonica, banjo, piano. Seriously, the list just goes on from there. (We're all quite sure that his musical talents were passed down the line from Grandpa J, from whom Jake also inherited a number of instruments including a pretty sweet accordion last winter.) Ella gets excited when she hears Jake up front and loves to dance while he's playing.

Yesterday was Jake's 24th birthday, so Becky & Malena and Ella & I went down to the lake to celebrate with him. The girls have gotten pretty good at the birthday cake thing and were happy to help with Jake's.

I was amazed to find a Cherry Chip cake mix at the grocery store a few weeks ago. Cherry Chip was what Jake used to request every single year in high school but they stopped making it for a good while and we couldn't find it anywhere. I bought a couple boxes, just in case we can't find it again.


Ella wanted to help with presents. She's pretty good at that.



Malena was in on the action, too.





I am so glad that Ella gets to grow up with such a cool uncle and role model. We love you, Uncle Jake. Happy birthday.

Recipe: Birthday Cupcakes

Last Sunday was Malena's first birthday party. Little Miss Malena was born just five weeks after Ella. What fun to have a cousin so close in age! The party was held at a park and the weather decided to cooperate quite nicely. All the kids played in the grass, ate lots of cake, and helped Malena open her mountain of gifts.

After singing Happy Birthday, Malena dug into her very own little cake!

Ella enjoyed a mini cupcake. She's a huge fan of frosting. (Remember this?)


A few weeks before the party, I offered to make cupcakes for the event. I haven't had much experience with cupcakes, so I thought it would be a great time to experiment. Pete was gone for a few days last week, so I took full advantage of the kitchen space and started baking. I pulled a couple ideas off websites, but they all turned out to be pretty cheesy. I wanted something good. I finally combined a few different ideas and came up with the final product - vanilla and chocolate raspberry cupcakes with raspberry frosting. Pink, pink, pink!

I also took the opportunity to try using fondant for the first time. I found a small package of ready-to-use white fondant at Michael's along with a few small flower and leaf fondant cutters (just like cookie cutters), and a small jars of pink icing color, much more potent than regular food coloring. I added the tiniest dab to the white fondant, kneaded it, and ended up with some very pink flowers.


I put a few of the bigger flowers in these little bowls and a few others in an egg carton to give them some shape while drying.


Then came the cupcakes. I used simple vanilla and chocolate cake recipes and mixed in about a cup of chocolate chips (only to the chocolate batter) and another cup of cut raspberries. By carefully folding in the raspberries after the cake batter is ready, the raspberries won't get too smooshed. That's especially important when mixing them into a light-colored batter like vanilla. I didn't want to end up with pink cupcakes. I wanted that for the frosting!


Finding the right frosting recipe was the hardest part of making these cupcakes. Each tasted too sugary or too buttery. I tried four different recipes before finding the perfect one.




Remember, I didn't have any previous experience with cupcakes, so I had no idea how I was going to get the right look with the frosting on top of the little cupcakes. I did some searching online and found a great tutorial on the Wilton website for getting a perfect swirl. You can check it out yourself here. All you'll need is a 1M decorating tip and disposable decorating bags. Both are available for only a few dollars at Michael's. (Simply drop the tip inside the decorating bag, trim about 1/2" to 3/4" off the bottom corner of the bag with a scissors, and adjust the tip so it is snug inside the bag. That way frosting won't ooze out while you're piping it.)

Here's what I ended up with. I did the same to the white cupcakes, but instead of using black raspberry jelly, I used red raspberry jelly. It gave them a slightly different color.


I was worried that the frosting might melt or settle while driving them to the party, but even after sitting in the sun at a construction stop for five minutes (yes, I timed it) the frosting kept it's shape.


After frosting them, I decorated each with the little fondant flowers I had made a few days before.


Display Note: An important trick in getting homemade baked treats to look more professional is to plan out how they will be displayed. I used foil cupcake papers, which cost only slightly more than regular papers. Then I used this plate stand from Target that was a gift from Becky at my wedding shower and carefully arranged the different types of cakes on each level. Around the bottom of the stand, I displayed mini versions of the same cupcakes. They were a perfect size for the wee ones at the party. See? Much better than leaving them in a cake pan or on a cookie sheet!


Of course, Malena had to have her very own cake on her first birthday. I used the same chocolate and vanilla batter from the cupcakes and made a two-layer cake using a couple of very little cake pans. Then I covered the entire thing in lots of red raspberry frosting and arranged the fondant flowers and leaves around the top, keeping in mind that I wanted one little candle in the center. Finally, I used a fine violet cake glitter (also available at Michael's) for the center of each flower. Malena had a lot to dig into with so much frosting on her cake!


I had a ton of fun making these cupcakes, and now I feel like I know what I'm doing! It won't take long at all to make these again in the future.

Let me know if you have any questions about the cakes or frosting and feel free to try them on your own!

Enjoy!

A Morning Conversation

I caught this conversation this morning between Ella and her friend, Bella. Ella & I made the drive down to Minneapolis yesterday to spend some time with Bella & Shauna and another very good friend, Jen. I was giddy the whole 2 1/2 hours in the car just thinking about hanging out with my girls. We had a delicious meal prepared by Shauna (Super healthy & tasty at the same time? That's talent.) Right after dinner, Shauna & I threw on our "we actually get to go out without the wee ones" dresses while Jen spent the evening with the girls. (A HUGE thank you for that, Jen!!) And off we went to The Guthrie!

I had not yet been to the new Guthrie location, so it was quite a treat. As soon as I walked in to the immense space of the theatre my heart began to pound. I miss theatre more than I even realized. Big theatre. Huge, elaborate sets with expensive, perfect costumes. Lights and movement and emotion. My heart beats faster just thinking about it. We had the good fortune of seeing the classic Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire. I've seen it on stage before, but can you really compare other productions to anything at The Guthrie? It is, without question, in a league of its own. I absolutely loved Stanley & Blanche & Stella in all their Southern...well, I wouldn't say charm. Everything about the show was incredible. What a way to spend a hot summer evening.

This morning Ella & I are going to do a little second-hand shopping (so good in Minneapolis) before meeting Shauna for coffee at our "regular" coffee shop near the University. It's so good to be in Minneapolis again. But just for the day.