Here's To America.

Counting down to the big day.

Strawberry Lemonade + Russian Tea Cakes

Its summertime! Which means LEMONADE season. I had some left over strawberries so I decided to make some homemade lemonade! And what do you know, lemonade taste horrible without some cookies to go with it. Russian tea cakes are one of my favorite family cookies that usually only get baked around Christmas but I decided they would pair nicely with the lemonade. Here's the recipes:

Lemonade:

Heat 2 cups of sugar + 2 cups of water until sugar is dissolved completely, let cool. In a blender mix 1 pint of strawberries, 1/4 cup of water and 3 squeezed lemons (I put some of the zest in there as well). Combine syrup and blender mixture in a jug and add a couple cups of water to your liking.

Cookies:

Cream together 1 cup of butter (light) and 1/2 cup of powder sugar, then add in 1 tsp. of vanilla, 1/4 tsp. of salt, 2 1/4 cups of flour (whole wheat) and 3/4 cups of nuts (optional). Roll into balls and bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 until light brown. Roll into powder sugar while warm and once again while cooled.

Bon Appétit!

Strawberry Picking

This morning I went strawberry picking with a couple of my close friends. It was my first time and it will definitely not be my last.

The strawberries were so luscious, juicy, large and bright red. We had a lot of fun and perhaps went overboard. I see some strawberry jam in the near future...

 

Pineapple Pizza Bread.

Pizza dough + pizza sauce + mozzarella cheese + pineapple chunks = fantastic dinner. 

Fruit Pizza + Sweet Little Girl

One of my closest friends, Chynna, graduated from college and invited me to her family get-together. I didn't want to show up empty handed so I made a yummie (healthy?) snack. I bought a pack of sugar cookie dough from the store and an assortment of fruit. I cooked the dough in a pizza pan as directions called for and let it cool. I used an 8 oz. container of cream cheese, 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla for frosting and topped it off with the fruit.

It looked so delicious I didn't want to cut into it!

And to top it all off Chynna's niece decided to sing a beautiful song for us. This will make anyone's bad day better.

(Incase you were wondering, that is a chicken finger in her hand!) Congratulations Chynna!

DIY Save The Dates

My best friend is getting married in August and I wanted to do something sweet (no pun intended) for her Save The Dates since she wasn't planning on doing any. I order some address labels from Pinhole Press and bought chocolate bars and wrapped them up in craft paper, added a little twine - and presto! Edible Save The Dates (which I guess you don't save?).