Wedding in Pittsburg

A few weeks ago I traveled to Pittsburg KS for my friend Erin's wedding. I was looking forward to this for weeks, even months b/c I would be seeing some OD friends and of course I knew it would be a blast.

My friend Ellen made the trek with me. As soon as we got into town we ate at a Mexican place. It was good but not as good as El Magueys, Rio Loco or La Fiesta :)
Jill (lives in CO now) & me

Sara (lives in CO) and Connie (lives in IL)

And the bride joined us after rehearsal :)

Then we headed to a bar... It was a Friday night and it was empty. Clearly Pitt State students don't know how to party :)

Love these girls!I did Erin's makeup the day of the wedding. This is her and her sister Stacy

Erin and her brother Chris

Saying their vowels. The church was amazing!

Mr. and Mrs. Mills!

There was a few hours to kill btw the wedding and reception (that was at our hotel, awesome!) so we decided to celebrate Erin & Jeff's marriage with some champagne. We ran out of cups so Sara had to make do :)

The doctors in their dresses :)

Tangee getting giggly :) (she is in AL now)

Jason, Tangee & Connie - best of friends :)

Sara, me & Ellen

Jeff & Erin walking in for the first time! Her dress was so beautiful.

Me & the bride. She is glowing... literally!

Tangee & Erin

Sara & Me... I think we are both in food comas after going thru the line... twice. :)

They did the dollar dance and I did not have a dollar... so I wrote a check :)

Cutting the cake... which I remember now I did not get any of b/c I was too busy busting out some amazing moves on the dance floor

Congrats Erin & Jeff on a beautiful wedding. Best wishes in the many years to come. I can not wait to enjoy more of your life celebrations as a husband and wife :) Love you guys!!

Tasty Tuesday - more pumpkin!

This weekend my mom's family celebrated Thanksgiving early. I was enlisted to bring a salad but of course I could not stop there... I had to do something sweet. I had gotten this recipe from my friend Kendra about a month ago but had not tried it yet. You would think I would learn my lesson about trying new recipes when I am on a time crunch... But then again I always work best under pressure, post melt down :)

These were delish but a bit tedious to make. If you are an amateur baker I would not recommend it. I think at one point I had 5 bowls going and 4 muffin tins...

PUMPKIN CREAM CHEESE MUFFINS

Ingredients
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons brown sugar
+++++
4 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons white sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons chopped pecans
+++++
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups canned pumpkin
1/3 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour 18 muffin cups, or use paper liners. (I actually got about 24 muffins out of this)
• To make the filling: In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until soft. Add egg, vanilla and brown sugar. Beat until smooth, then set aside.
• For the streusel topping: In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, cinnamon and pecans. Add butter and cut it in with a fork until crumbly. Set aside.
• For the muffin batter: In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the center of flour mixture and add eggs, pumpkin, olive oil and vanilla. Beat together until smooth.
• Place pumpkin mixture in muffin cups about 1/2 full. Then add one tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture right in the middle of the batter. Try to keep cream cheese from touching the paper cup. Sprinkle on the streusel topping.
• Bake at 375 degrees F (195 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

_____________________________

The best part of baking was having my family at my house enjoying Saturday football and my sous chef helping me :)

Oh Christmas Tree :)

I know, I know... The rule is no Christmas stuff up until after Thanksgiving... Well, that may work for people who have regular schedules, but that is NOT me... I could not resist. Especially when it was snowing the other day. I really got the itch to put it up. I bought this tree last year after Christmas when it was 50% off at Target. At that time I was in a rental house that had VERY high ceilings, and my new house does not, so I was a little worried it may be too tall but as you can tell it is perfect! I love the glow of a Christmas tree. So pretty and so warm. I am excited for this holiday season and to get to spend time with my family and friends.

Get EXCITED!!!

Tasty Tuesday

osh, where does the time go. Here is the recipe for Pumpkin Bars from my cousin Stephanie. They are SO GOOD!!!

STEPHKINS PUMPKIN BARS

4 Eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
15 oz pumpkin (appox 2 cups)

Mix together and then add:
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon (more if you like)
Mix all the above ingredients together until smooth.

Bake in an UNGREASED jelly roll pan (I place a sheet of parchment paper down on the bottom for easy removal) at 350 for 20-25 minutes

Icing:
8 oz cream cheese (room temp, do not heat)
3/4 stick of margarine (room temp)
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp milk

Mix all the above ingredients together and when the bars are completely cooled, ice with icing

Lost photos

Not really lost but I got this from my friend Laura. The picture is awesome b/c she has an amazing camera that she uses professionally. :)

This was after the KSU/OSU game and a small nap (for Audra). We were headed to Little Apple Brewery for dinner and then Aggieville. One of my favorite times of year is not officially Aggieville at Halloween time... What an experience. I love to people watch and it was certainly a feast for the eyes!!! Can't wait for next year.

Wildcat WIN!!

This past weekend was the last home game of the season. The K-State Wildcats beat Texas easily. It was a great night game. And this was the first game of the season that I actually had to wear my heavy coats, gloves & hat!

This is how the day began.... You can imagine how it ended...
Me and my girl Ellen.

Me, Ellen & Aaron

Me & Nate at our seats.

Coach Snyder & Daniel Thomas. It was Senior Day. Look at The EyeDoctor logo!!

Having a good time!

I went to a basketball game today... So as one (home game) season ends another one begins! GO CATS!!

Pumpkins!

When Erin was here we carved pumpkins. Something I have not done it years! I remember my least favorite thing about it, the cold guts! This year it was pretty warm so the inside of the pumpkin was not cold at all, I much prefer this.

Here is Erin digging in :)
Nice!

Ellen getting her pumpkin prepped.

My design - The EyeDoctors logo

GOOEY!!

Deep in thought...

My "midnight cat" pumpkin

Erin's finished pumpkin

All the pumpkins lined up

Up close on my masterpiece :)