I was in Korea for a week last month. Fall in Seoul was just so beautiful and perfect!

so much yumminess 

too adorable to eat

went on a 3 hour hike

on the way home

For A's birthday I took her (plus her cousin and a close family friend) to get their nails done.

My living room is always covered in either Lego's or puzzles.

I made chocolate chocolate chip cookies for A's teachers and aides for the first day of school.

This was SO good.

My neighbor gave me a bag of tart peaches.  I turned them into peach bars.

summer part 1

A has a summer birthday and she is now 11. Where did the time go?!

It was plum season and I made a batch of plum jam. Unfortunately, the plums did not have that much flavor.

 tide pools

donuts & waffles

I've been trying to improve my donut recipe. I took a break and tried a recipe from Baked Explorations.
I was a bit disappointed with the recipe because the donuts turned out too cakey and not buttermilk cakey like dense cakey.

I also made Joy the Baker's lemon poppyseed waffles. They were pretty good so I made them twice in one week.

carrot raisin cookies

I found 2 recipe on the web (can't remember the sites) and decided to try them. The banana chocolate chip cookies were gross. The blogger raved how good they were...I threw mine out. Blech!

banana chocolate chip cookies

The carrot raisin cookies were good. They weren't that good the day after. If you make them, try to consume them all on the day they are baked.

Summer has been busy.  A has been taking swim lessons to learn how to breathe. It's been 3 weeks progress is slow but good.

Carrot Raisin cookies 

2 cups of flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups of oat

3/4 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 350.

1. Sift all the dry ingredients (including the oats) in a bowl and set aside.
2. In the kitchen aid, cream the butter and the 2 sugars. Add the eggs and the vanilla. Mix well. Then add the dry ingredients until just mixed. Then add the carrots and raisins.
3. Bake for 8-11 minutes depending on the sizes of the cookies. The edges should be golden brown.

Weekend Fun

Have you tried Mendocino Farms? It was pretty tasty. I split the ham and mac grilled cheese. It was good. I wish they had fries though. Why don't sandwich places have fries or even better onion rings?!

mine is on the left.

Then we went to Handsome Coffee. It's pretty serious in there. No pastries. Luckily, I had donuts in my bag. Yes, I carry donuts in my purse when I can. 

Michael Phillips was there that day. Did you know he was the first US barista to win the World Barista Championship in 2010?

There is Michael Phillips brewing coffee. He was very nice and explained the 2 different blends for the day.

Then at church on Sunday Martin Smith was there to lead praise.  A pretty great way to end the weekend!

4th of July

We had a nice bbq at my friend L's house. 

I made blueberry lemon cheesecake squares a Tyler Florence recipe. These are the changes I made. I used one large lemon instead of 2, I doubled the amount of crust, I only used 1 cup of blueberries, and I added 1 teaspoon of vanilla. 

After a nice day of eating and lounging we went out to watch fireworks!
A loved it!