Remember When Wednesdays

Welcome to a new feature here at KT's Refinishing School called Remember When Wednesdays!  What is Remember When Wednesdays you ask?

Well, it is where I will share a vintage photo of either myself, J or members of our family as well as a little story or memory behind the photo.  With Thanksgiving tomorrow, I thought it would be the perfect time to introduce this feature and take a trip down memory lane.  Now, without further ado...

While this isn't exactly a Thanksgiving picture, it is at the very least a fall picture, as indicated by the color of the tree and the abundance of jackets, mittens and scarves.  I am in the light blue jacket and that's my Grandma and Papa behind me, who we will be spending Thanksgiving with this year!  My mom is holding my youngest brother Alec and I am standing next to my brother Dan and sister Madi.  My dad was there too, probably taking the picture for us.

This was one of the many Notre Dame games I attended as a child.  My grandpa went there for his bachelor's as well as his law degree.  My great-uncles and their father, my great-grandfather also attended Notre Dame.  My sister (in red, waving at the camera) now carries on the tradition as a sophomore at Notre Dame.

I don't know who we were playing that day or if we won this game or not, but I do know that this is one of many pictures we have in front of Touchdown Jesus.

Can we talk about my powder blue coat and white jeans?  What was I thinking?  It was certainly after Labor Day! Ah, childhood.


So, what do you think of the new feature?  Do you have any vintage photographs to share? 

Shamrock Carrot Cake Cupcakes

This weekend I made carrot cake cupcakes to bring to my cousin's house for the Notre Dame-Boston College came on Saturday night.

Notre Dame finally won a game, but sadly it was not on TV.  No matter, we had a great night with my cousin and her husband eating chili, cornbread and carrot cake cupcakes and talking and laughing together.  I wanted to share the recipe because it was delicious and because I had a such a fun time decorating the cupcakes!

Shamrock Carrot Cake Cupcakes, modified from Joy of Baking's Carrot Cupcake

Ingredients:
For the Batter:
2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups grated carrots, approximately 3-4 carrots depending on their size
1 cup grated apple, approximately 1 large apple
1/2 cup walnuts--you can also use pecans or omit for nut allergies
1 cup raisins--I used golden raisins because of the color they add to the cupcakes


For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/2 cup of butter, room temperature
8 ounces (1 package) of cream cheese, room temperature
3 cups confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar), sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Kitchen Supplies:
20 paper or foil muffin cups
1 toothpick for testing doneness of the batter
2 pipe bags and tips for frosting cupcakes and creating shamrocks
Green food coloring
2 24-cup muffin tins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fill muffin tins with 20 muffin cups.   In a small bowl, whisk together sifted flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  In a larger, separate bowl combine 4 eggs, sugar and oil until slightly thickened.  Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients until incorporated.  Fold in shredded carrots, apples, raisins and walnuts.  Spoon into muffin cups, dividing evenly between the 20 cups.  Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.  Cool on wire racks.

Once cool, combine butter and cream cheese in a small bowl with a hand or stand mixer.  Beat until smooth.  Gradually add sifted powdered sugar until smooth and creamy.  Beat in vanilla extract.  Spoon approximately three-fourths of the frosting into a pipe bag and pipe onto cupcakes.  Add two to three drops of green food coloring and mix well.  Add remaining green food coloring to other pipe bag.  Pipe three connected circles and a stem to make shamrocks.  Unwrap and enjoy!

Weekend's Here!

The weekend, and October, are finally here!

This weekend is shaping up to be a little bit busy but mostly relaxing.  I am hoping to get a lot of reading done and finally tackle my closet!  With the change in weather around here lately, I need to put summer clothes away in preparation for warmer clothes and cooler temperatures. 

Tomorrow night I am making these carrot cake cupcakes for a Notre Dame football party at my cousin's house.

Sunday we are attending our neighbors' wedding, which will be very fun and exciting!  The wedding is at the Jewel Box in Forest Park, which is a beautiful place to have a wedding.  We can't wait to celebrate with them!

What are your weekend plans?

A picture of my parents at our wedding


Also, a very special shout out to my dad today on his birthday.  I hope you have a fantastic day Dad and wish I was there to celebrate with you!!

Weekend Plans

This weekend promises to be a busy but fun one. First, I am heading to the second to the last weekend of the Farmer's Market we love to visit for some fresh fruit and vegetables. I can't believe summer is over!

Then, Ashlee and I are heading to see our friend Lauren over at Clever Betty's booth at Strange Folk Festival. It is the first show of Lauren's we have gotten to go to, so we are both very excited!

I also plan on visiting a fabric store to buy new fabric so I can recover our dining room chairs. While I am there, I will look into buying some fabric to cover the back of our dining room hutch. You see, ever since I got a new circular rug at Target, our chairs just haven't matched like I was hoping they would. Since it's a fast and cheap change, I am going to recover them again. And, like last year, I will probably do it while watching the Notre Dame game!

Sunday plans include making some more fresh bread, reading my new book on Haitian history, and perhaps a bike ride or walk in the park.

What are your plans, friends? Whatever they are, have a happy weekend everyone!

Visitors

We have had a few visitors around here lately, including the best man from our wedding last weekend, and my aunt will be visiting us this weekend. We have a lot planned: cocktails tonight at the restaurant my cousin works at, dinner at another cousin's house tomorrow night, farmer's market Saturday morning before the Nebraska and Notre Dame games, the later of which will include a large viewing party again at my cousin's home. I usually have to watch Notre Dame games alone or at least with not very enthusiastic fans, J and Woods. J is too much of a Big Red fan to ever truly root for Notre Dame. Woods just gets confused when I yell and cheer loudly at the TV. No matter this weekend, as I will be surrounded by fans, family and love.

Visitors can be tricky around here. We have a pull-out couch, but it is the living room which has three major drawbacks:

1) Noise. Our apartment is right off of a fairly busy street and while we cannot hear traffic (except for the occasional fire truck) from our bedroom, the noise is quite a bit louder in the living room.

2) Light. We do not have curtains in the living room currently and while we have blinds, the light from street lamps makes for a less than ideal sleeping room.

3) Woods. Woods is very territorial over what he deems as his couch, and has been known to bite over this perceived invasion of his property, as has been documented earlier on this blog. We have never tried an overnight guest on that couch, but can only imagine what he might do in the middle of the night if the mood strikes. I fear that it may be somewhat like his torture of J and I the first few months we had him, in which we got little sleep and were covered in scratches and bites on a daily basis.

Woods attacking his tail.
You would not want this terror turned on you, trust me!

Now we do have a second bedroom, but as this houses two desks, we do not currently have a guest bed. As I have said before, I hope in the future is to get a new bed (a girl can dream) and move the current bed into the guest room. Luckily, our friends Justin and Ashlee came to our rescue and not only let us borrow their queen size air mattress, but also lent us their lovely sheets and comforter. Our guests over the last two weekends have stayed with us in style.
This week, I decided to spiff up our guest room space a bit with a small folding table and a few personal touches. I placed a small Tiffany-style lamp that normally is housed on my desk, a few new magazines including the newest Vanity Fair and New Yorker for some light and interesting reading, a glass for water, some hand lotion, and a small dish for her rings, watch and other accessories.
I also wrote up a little note (on the backside of some left over Thank You notes from our wedding) for her. The finishing touch, a frame, (which my aunt gifted us) with a picture of the two of us from our wedding a few months ago. Along the lines of YHL, I would like to swap out the current photo for others of us with our future guests when they come to visit us.
I finished it off with a few pillows from our room (which compliment Justin and Ashlee's bedding perfectly) and some fresh towels. Our office is now guestroom ready! What do you think? What are your weekend plans, friends?

Life is Good

Dinner has been made (and consumed): Asian lemon chicken, a recipe from my childhood. Cookies have been made (with the new stand mixer) for dessert tonight and lunches this week. Laundry from this weekend has been cleaned, folded and put away. J and I were able to take a long walk after dinner.

We have a dear friend (and best man at our wedding) coming to visit this weekend, which also coincides with the start of college football season. I have my new "The Shirt" from Notre Dame ready and waiting.

Life. is. good.

How was your weekend?