Wisconsin Trip 2014

Wow! It has been a busy few weeks! I've been completely M.I.A. with all the trip planning and traveling!

First off, our baby girl turned one! It was a day spent riding in the car, and she did relatively well.  It was a great kick-off to our week long trip getting to spend her birthday having dinner with family.  We did a cake smash session the week before since we knew we wouldn't be able to fit it in. The pictures were absolutely adorable. She loved everything about the chocolate and her favorite part was definitely bouncing her tiny toes in the frosting.  I can't believe it's been a whole year since she came into this world (screaming her little head off)!

Adam's entire family met in Wisconsin for a week-long Behrend bash.  We went to a Milwaukee Brewers game, spent some time at a local pool and saw the beautiful fireworks over the tiny town of Weyauwega.  I ate way too many cheese curds and beef sticks.  The kids got to spend time with their cousins and Haley finally got to meet her aunts and uncles.

I hope to share a yummy recipe for beer battered cheese curds! It's definitely a Wisconsin speciality! 

Donut Holes

I know what you're thinking, those don't look anything like the perfectly round and sweet donut holes you get from Dunkin' Donuts.  I should have named these disaster donuts because that's exactly what they look like.  Let me assure you that even though they were hard to fry up in a round ball, they tasted excellent. Dipped in a sweet vanilla glaze, these little donuts were the perfect dessert.  Haley and her grumpy, teething self enjoyed them and I gladly took that moment of silence.

When my husband came home from work I'm sure he chuckled seeing the donuts sitting on the counter. The night before we watched the newest episode of MasterChef and these delectable treats were the elimination challenge.  Of course, they were re-creating something far more complex but I was intrigued.  I loved watching the different contestants and their ways of innovating something that most American's would consider a simple snack.  I think I may just try to make a fluffy yeast donut one of these days (and pretend Gordon Ramsey is eating it).

Ingredients:
(adapted from Just A Taste)

oil for frying

dough:
1 cup warm milk
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 stick butter, melted

glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
5-6 tbsp milk (or more if it's too thick, this is not an exact science)
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a deep pot, heat the oil.  Meanwhile, whisk together the milk and egg.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and sugar.  Stir in the milk mixture.  Slowly add the melted butter until a soft dough forms, set aside.  Combine the glaze ingredients.

Once the oil is heated, drop in tsp size "balls".  Cook on each side until golden brown (3-5 minutes).  Let cool on paper towels.  Once they have cooled, drop them into the glaze.  Shake off any excess and set on a drying rack.  Repeat until all the dough is gone! You may need to make more glaze depending on the size of your balls.  Enjoy!

Smash Cake!

What a crazy year it has been! We moved from Alaska to Kentucky, Adam began a new job in the Army, and our baby girl turned one.  We left for Wisconsin early that morning so we did her smash cake session a little early.  When Adam and I set out to make a fake studio flooring for our house it was created for this session!

Haley treated this cake like it had to remain picture perfect.  After a few minutes Adam finally broke her off a piece so she realized that it was cake! It was so fun watching her tap her foot in the frosting and making silly faces at the camera. She has quite the personality and I'm sure she got most of that from me. Once Adam decided to go run her bath, she took off on me! Baths are her favorite thing to do!