Brunch

It was close to 10:00 when we woke up (which was wonderful considering I was wide awake at 5 am yesterday morning- on a SATURDAY!!!). Anyway, Jevon cooked breakfast out on the patio this morning. Yum!!! He and David cooked on it last weekend--Hibachi style. I would have loved to have gotten a picture of that!

Banana Crumb Muffins

I had plans to run home and watch Part 2 of The Real Housewives of New Jersey Reunion (I'll text you soon Paige so we can discuss!!). And then I saw these:

So I made these:

Banana Crumb Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

They are soooo good! I'm on my second one as I type this.

My Mom ROCKS!

There is a bakery back home called Halepaska's. They make like my favorite cookie ever. When I was talking to my Mom the other day I hinted that it would be so awesome if she could MAIL me some. Well, she did! They were on my porch when I got home today and I've already had 4. Ahhhh...what a way to end the week!

Fredericksburg- Day 1

My Mom was also having a Girl's Weekend with her friend Janet, my Grandma, and my Aunt. I got to hang out with them for a couple of hours until my girls arrived. I always like seeing my Mom, even though she gets a little silly on just a little bit of wine :)

Aunt Karen, Meemaw, Mom, Moi

Meemaw

Geese at the park where we had a picnic (cheese, wine, sushi-yum!)

After everyone got there, we settled into our hotel and then went for drinks at Bejas Grill & Cantina. Best.Peach.Margarita I have ever had. Oh and the pomegranate one was good, too.

We did a little window shopping while walking to Lincoln Street Wine Market. I really liked this place. It was nice and cozy and I got to try the best Moscato I think I've ever had.

Crystal got in the wine vault for a bit.

Crystal & Natalie

Crystal with the MIA Girls

MIA Girls all tucked in.

We spent the rest of the night laughing and looking at old pictures. We always had something to talk about and there was never a dull moment. Definitely a great day!

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I had Sweet Sugarbelle make me some cookies to take tomorrow. How cute are these?!?!

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I made cookies for my Honey since I will be gone this coming weekend. Here is the recipe if you are interested.

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After my FET I asked Jevon if he would rather stop and get me a cupcake from Cake or a concrete from Sheridan's. We wound up getting concretes. I didn't care, I just knew that one of the two would make me feel better :)

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Steph came to visit us this weekend. We had such a great time! She had a few requests:

1. See Couples Retreat at the movies

2. Have a home-cooked meal

3. Make red velvet cupcakes

4. Wash clothes

5. Swim

And I am happy to say we accomplished all those things except the swimming part (it was way too cold) and I'm not sure I got the home-cooked meal down, but I tried!

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OH Mylanta! Lubbock has a cupcake shop! It's called Cake and I went there today after my date with the vag-cam. I absolutely love cupcakes. They are my weakness, well...that and Jevon, ice cream, purses, sleeping late, my doggies, chick flicks, amaretto sours, tivo....

Anyway, I had heard about it and finally decided to stop in there. These babies are better than Sprinkles (tried during trip to Phoenix) and Kate's Frosting (tried during trip to San Antonio). The one I had for breakfast was "S'mores." Imagine this if you can--chocolate cake filled with marshmallow gooeyness, chocolate buttercream on top sprinkled with pieces of graham crackers and mini marshmallows and then drizzled with another chocolate! Ahhhh, it was heavenly! I got a few others to take to work and share the love. Cupcakes are much better when shared with friends.

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Gone are my days of eating Jello shots with a fork out of a mini muffin pan! Jevon ordered me 60 Twist-N-Shots! How cool are these!? You fill 'em up, put a lid on top, stick 'em in the freezer, twist to loosen them up and then just shoot it..errr...chew it! Whatever you do with it, these will just make it that much easier!

UTSA

I was unable to get a picture myself of the cookies for Steph, so this is from Sugar Belle's blog. Aren't they awesome?

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I drug everything out and then realized that I didn't have what I needed in order to make my tried and true Chocolate Chip cookies. So, I decided to try and make White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies. I have never made these before, but they turned out really yummy. I will definitely be making these again. Here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter 3/4 cup white sugar 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 8 ounces white chocolate, chopped 1 (6.5 ounce) jar macadamia nuts, chopped

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2.	In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Stir in the egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, stir in the white chocolate and nuts. Drop cookies by heaping teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart.
3.	Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until lightly browned. Cool on wire racks. When cool, store in an airtight container.

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We made a Psychedelic Cake! Mom, Stephanie, Allison, and Meagan are shown mixing up the colored batter:

Cakes ready to be put in the oven:

Just out of the oven:

Ready to be eaten!

Here is the recipe and pictures if you are interested. It was reallllly good and fun to make! So good, in fact, the whole cake was eaten that night!

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I bought these cookies for the pool party. Can you believe a lady here in town made these? I think they turned out so cute (and they tasted good, too)! Here is her blog and her Flickr site.

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Natalie introduced me to the White Chocolate Mocha. I think I am in love.

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Be jealous, Crit. By the way, it was $34.99 for the largest bottle...ANNNNND it also comes in raspberry, lemon, and mint flavors.