It's my big boy's birthday!!

So my oldest is offically a teenager and I offically feel like an old lady haha!! I love him to pieces and I'm so proud of the little adult he is becoming. He has a great head on his shoulders is super smart and just an all around good kid for the most part (he is a teen so he knows everything). I know I know we all think our kid's are the best and the smartest but mine really is ;=)

AND of course mama had to make a cake that was oh so YUMMY!!

My happy new teen!!

and all in all today was another great day of the 3 F's.

The 3 D's and ME!!

So I'm quite a fan of Diners, Drive-in's, and Dives and so hubby and I decided when we travel we will go to the ones that we really liked and try it out ourselves.

So our first one is *drum roll*......Bob's Taco Station in TX.

It was pretty exciting seeing Guy's picture and going to our first 3 D's.

I had the enchilada's and two steak corn taco's.

I also had a Sno cone not the one I wanted, the dreamsicle was all out =( I had one close to it. I had a mom's homeade and it was pretty good.

All in all a very good experience, clean and fun atmosphere and yummy food. It was different than what I'm used too, the enchiladas were a little spicy and hotter than I'm used too but still not bad.

All in all I rate them a 8.5 out of 10 and will have to visit again to try that darn dreamsicle!!

Oreo Cookie White Chocolate cupcakes w/ cocoa cream cheese icing

Yes it's a mouth full but it was oh so yummy!!
I made these for my God Mother when she came to visit. I enjoy baking, I'm not as good as I like to be but my wonderful family lets me use them as my guinea pigs haha and lets me practice. Practice makes perfect!!

I also got first place on my online moms site for them too, not to shabby ;=)

Recipe:

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature, separated
• Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows, or about 2 cups frosting of your choice
• Colorful sprinkles
• Equipment: A twelve 1/2-cup muffin pan
• Half cup of crushed up oreo cookies that I added to the mix at the end

Directions

Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F. Line the muffin pan with paper cupcake liners.

In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugar and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Raise the speed to high and mix until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes. (Occasionally turn the mixer off, and scrape the sides of the bowl down with a rubber spatula.)
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and vanilla, and also set aside.
Add the egg yolks to the creamed butter one at time, waiting for each one to be fully incorporated before adding the next.
Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Alternately, add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions, waiting for each to be fully incorporated before adding the next (scrape the bowl down occasionally). Raise the speed to medium and mix briefly until a smooth batter is formed. Transfer the batter to a large bowl.
Thoroughly clean the bowl of the mixer and put the egg whites inside. Whip the egg whites on high speed, using the whisk attachment, until stiff peaks are formed.
Working in 3 batches, using a rubber spatula, fold the egg whites into the batter, until just incorporated. Divide the batter evenly among the cups in the muffin pan. Bake, rotating the pan once, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes.
Remove the cakes from the oven and cool completely.

Then I made a Cocoa cream cheese icing:
Icing:

• 8 ozs cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 C unsalted butter, room temperature
• 4 C sifted powdered sugar (You can decrease this amount if you don't care about it being as stiff for piping)
• 1/2 C cocoa powder

1. Mix cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy.
2. Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time.
3. Mix in cocoa powder.

and I added an Oreo Cookie and crumbs on each for garnish.
Yum yum yum!!

Let's Bake!!

Today is the first day of my online's moms group Bake Wars, I'm the host and wanted to challenge myself so what better way then making a yummy dessert that I have never made and posting pictures of it to be judge. I think it will be fun. It will run about 4 weeks with every week being a different dessert and a main thing that has to be in it (chocolate this week) so now all I need to know is what I'm going to make. Details coming soon=)

Say it isnt so...

I tried not to follow but some how got sucked in the sad Caylee Story and her "Mom's" (I use that loosely) Trial. Well yesterday the mother was found not guilty of murdering her daughter and while I can see them not having enough evidence give her life I'm disgusted that they didnt charge her with neglect or manslaughter. I mean to not report your child missing for 31 days is not neglect/abuse? and by the admission of HER OWN atttorney the child died in the pool in the home and the mother was fully aware of it so doesnt that make her responsible? and shouldnt she be held accountable for something? Oh yeah she got 4 charges of lying to the police which hold 1 year min charge each, sigh. Well she got almost three years thankfully due to our court system that takes forever and a day to do anything and that sadly may be the only times she gets. As with so many kids we will never know what happend to this poor sweet little girl, if she suffered, was so scared, died instantly, the list goes on and that is really the saddest things of this all. May she rest in peace as with so many other angels that are taken too soon. Life today makes no sense=(