Okay, so I wouldn’t have believed this recipe would be anything great if I had not actually tried it myself last week. This is probably the simplest recipe to make food outside your standard PB&J and the perfect way to make corn on the cob, no matter how many ears you’re making.

If you don’t believe me on the ease and yummyness of this- just scope out the reviews of the source of the original recipe linked below.

OVEN-ROASTED CORN ON THE COB (via Tyler Florence/Food Network)

Ingredients

• Fresh ears of corn (we did 4) still in husks
• 2 tbsp of butter, melted
• dash of salt and dash of pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Place corn with husks in tact directly on the middle rack inside the oven.
3. Bake for 30 minutes or until corn is soft.
4. After baking, the husk should come off cleanly, strings and all, and can be cut off easily with sharp kitchen scissors.
5. Mix your butter, salt, and pepper in a ramekin and brush on your fresh corn with a pastry brush.

If you want to, you can get creative with the toppings (garlic powder, cayenne pepper, lime, parmesan.. just to name a few). One thing’s for sure- this totally beats the mess of boiling it or heating up the grill and the corn is tender and delicious. Happy easy baking!

You may remember awhile back, I offered a free tutorial on how to create a family portrait using cross-stitch. Today, I used the same technique with a new twist: a special handmade gift for a dear friend’s nursery.

My friend Marri is due to have her first baby, a little boy, this June. I’d been wanting to do something wonderful for Marri for months as she’s been such a great friend and given me incredible advice. Her simple ask was that I make something for the baby’s room.

So, given that Marri and her husband are super awesome and have a modern vibe to their home, I decided the perfect thing would be to create a cross-stitch of them as “Mom and Dad.”

My hope is that because this cross-stitch just features Marri and Bryan, it will become a well-loved family heirloom and something that can be passed down and enjoyed for a very long time.

As I make things for friends and clients, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about heirlooms and the things we take with us… and the things we leave for others. I think it’s important to stop and reflect on your life looking at what you’ve given to others. What things have you made or imparted that will live on, even if you weren’t here tomorrow. When I stop to think of these things, I feel good that I’ve created some things that stay with people and that brought joy into their lives.

I was just talking to my sweet friend Hilly who reminded me of a box I made for her years ago, decorated to look like her favorite candy – a snickers bar. I’d almost completely forgotten about it. But her bringing it up really hit home on this idea of making sure that you live a life that gives something of yourself, in both those small and big ways. It’s funny too how those things you nearly forget about can pop up and remind you of the good you’ve put into the world, almost like a message you cleverly sent yourself just when you really need to hear that what you do does matter.

If you’d like more info on how to create your own cross-stitch, here’s the tutorial link. 

So last week, I shared our epically great Gluten-Free Blueberry Cake Mix Muffins. Today I offer you their tropical cousins: Pineapple Rum Cake Mix Muffins.

The base recipe is just about the same to take your ordinary cake mix (Gluten-Free or Regular) and whip up a batch of easy peasy super yummo muffins. The version we created were pretty plain (just topped with pineapple bits and brown sugar) but read the directions for my post-baking suggestions to kick these up a notch.

Ingredients

• 1 pkg Yellow Cake Mix (we used Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Cake Mix)
• 1/2 cup of butter, softened
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup milk (or almond milk to be dairy free)
• 1/4 cup rum (optional, just use more milk if you want)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder (not baking soda)
• 1/2 cup of pureed pineapple (canned is fine)

For topping:

• Pictured: Pineapple tidbits and a dash of brown sugar (one version)
  
• Streusel & Whipped Cream:
  • 2 tbsp white sugar
  • 3 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup crushed walnuts (optional, can sub almonds or omit also)
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • Spray whipped cream

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 325F for a dark or nonstick muffin pan. For shiny metal, use 350F.
2. In a small bowl, combine the streusel ingredients and set aside.
3. Combine all ingredients above the streusel section.
4. Use a standard measure, like a tbsp, to fill your muffin cups about 2/3 of the way full.
5. Sprinkle streusel topping generously over the muffin tops or go as pictured with sliced pineapple pieces and a dusting of brown sugar.
6. Bake for about 20-25 minutes and remove when edges of the muffins are golden brown.
7. If you want to serve as dessert, top with whipped cream. Om nom nomity nom.

I imagine there’s a lot of other ways to kick these up a bit. I’d even consider putting walnut pieces in the batter itself to give it more texture, like a hummingbird cake. These were great plain or with all this jazz, no matter how you slice it. 

As part of my shop, I’ve really been enjoying doing design work the past few months and have had lots of great opportunities to do some awesome custom projects. Today, I’m sharing two of those projects that involve hand-lettering:  two very special custom designed gifts.

The first is this Wood Family Sign constructed within a shadow box frame for my cousin Lauren in honor of her birthday this week. I really wanted to give her something meaningful beyond the traditional Target gift card and I wanted it to be something she’d love and keep for a long time.

Knowing the style of her home, I created this Pottery Barn-esque project after being inspired by a Wedding table number sign from Pinterest that leveraged a wood plaque and white writing. The work is all hand-done but the lettering is an experiment in transferring fonts.

I used chalk to transfer a design I created in Adobe Illustrator to the wood itself, then traced using a white paint pen. I love the look of the white on wood and am looking for more great ways to use white instead of black in typography to make things really stand out.

The second project today is another hand lettering experiment. My friend Laura asked me to design something for her based on a prayer that her Bible Study leader had given to her. She wanted to be able to gift her a copy of the prayer in a frame.

With those simple instructions, I took the prayer and hand-lettered the entire thing on a white sheet of paper. I then scanned my writing into the computer and edited it with Adobe Illustrator. The program allowed me to smooth out a few letters, erase any smudges, and easily resize letters or the entire prayer as needed.

It also allowed me the opportunity to turn it into two different styles of an 8.5 x 11″ Art Print – easily interchanging the backgrounds between a brilliant pink orange watercolor and a more neutral stripe.

Laura printed both versions, one for herself and one for her Bible Study Leader. She even took extra copies of the print to her larger prayer group. It was a great opportunity to be part of a very meaningful gift.

Doing custom work and creating meaningful gifts are two things that truly fire me up. Feel free to contact me if you’re interested in a custom design project.

In addition what’s currently listed  in my shop, I always love a new creative challenge and making something that will really matter to someone else- something that will touch their heart and that they will keep with them forever. That’s just… the jam.

Oh man – I totally know the title of my post is really long but it’s the best way to describe the above deliciousness: CAKE MIX BLUEBERRY MUFFINS WITH STREUSEL TOPPING!

I’ve had a crazy hankering for blueberry muffins and Gus and I have been trying to be smart about how much we’re eating out. This perfect storm created a Sunday brunch by us with the clever invention of these Cake Mix Blueberry Muffins.

So we both could enjoy them, I whipped up this recipe using the Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Yellow Cake Mix and I gotta tell you- these muffins were about as tasty as any blueberry muffin I’ve ever had. It’s just triple bonus level that they’re easily made from a cake mix and gluten-free-able to boot. Ours are even dairy-free cause almond milk happened to be in our fridge. Take that allergies! You’ve been served… muffins.

Make these. Now. For dessert, breakfast, linner – whatever mealtime you’re reading this in. No, seriously- here you go.

CAKE MIX BLUEBERRY MUFFINS WITH STREUSEL TOPPING

(Makes approximately 16 muffins)

Ingredients

• 1 pkg Yellow Cake Mix (we used Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Cake Mix)
• 1/2 cup of butter, softened
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2/3 cup milk (or almond milk to be dairy free)
• 1/4 tsp fresh lemon zest (optional)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder (not baking soda)
• 3/4 cup of fresh blueberries

(For Streusel Topping / Optional)

• 2 tbsp white sugar
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 cup crushed walnuts (optional, can sub almonds or omit also)
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 325F for a dark or nonstick muffin pan. For shiny metal, use 350F.
2. Set aside 2 tbsp of your pre-packaged muffin mix and coat blueberries with it (this will keep the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of muffin).
3. In a small bowl, combine the streusel ingredients and set aside.
4. Combine all ingredients about the streusel section except your blueberries.
5. Use a spatula to gently fold your blueberries into the batter.
6. Use a standard measure, like a tbsp, to fill your muffin cups about 2/3 of the way full.
7. Sprinkle streusel topping generously over the muffin tops.
8. Bake for about 20-25 minutes and remove when edges of the muffins are golden brown.

Then bask in the awesome revelation that muffins are really just cake in breakfast-clothing. It’s okay- there’s no shame in that.

I’ve often said that our wedding was so much about telling our story and not having a theme (like our invitations for example). If there was a theme though.. I’d say the Muppets play a pretty prominent role.

The epic cakes (and cupcakes) you see above were whipped up by the awesome culinary genius – Cinda – of Cinda’s Creative Cakes in North Carolina. Though they may seem a bit random, we loved the idea of these cakes for a few reasons- all of which had to do with being uniquely us. And though we love all kinds of desserts (and we served an assortment of other great choices at our wedding), we jumped at the chance to have a wedding cake that really spoke to who we are.

No matter what you choose for a wedding dessert or how you decorate it, like anything else, I believe your wedding is one of those great opportunities in life to tell your own unique story. Here’s how these cakes relate to ours…

Firstly – check this sweetness out:

The resemblance is staggering right? I mean, kind of photo real. The photo above was self-taken on the way to our Rehearsal Dinner, one of the most Muppet-y moments of our lives.

On top of this -

• You may notice a silver Batman symbol pin on Muppet Gus’s shirt. This is no accident. Gus is a die-hard fan of the Bat but I knew he was hooked when he told me he loved me more than Batman. 
• On the Batman theme, you’ll also notice that there are cupcakes on the table in the big photo that have the Batman symbol. So there are Kermit, Miss Piggy, and Batman cupcake. Warner Brothers and Disney might not be happy we were mixing brands (and I wasn’t either at first), but they are the perfect visual representation of two of our most beloved franchises and they were all tasty. In fact, another way to tell Gus’s story – the gluten-free cupcakes were the Batman ones.
• On the gluten-free note – Gus’s cake was gluten-free (vanilla with lemon raspberry buttercream) and mine was regular (chocolate oreo, nom).
• Lastly, though all the elegant wedding cakes in the world are inspiring, neither one of us could turn down the once in a lifetime opportunity to see ourselves made into Muppets. I think the only thing more awesome was realizing that we already resemble them in real life.

And on that note, I’ll leave you and just say embrace your inner Muppet (or whatever amazing things you love and identify with) and find ways to incorporate them into life’s celebrations. The world doesn’t need another vanilla sheet cake – it needs your personality plus frosting.

Thanks to Brett & Jessica Photography for the ever-amazing imagery. Double thanks and Muppet-bow to Cinda of Cinda’s Creative Cakes for her delicious culinary masterpieces. At our wedding, we barely got to eat our cakes (Gus didn’t even get a slice of his! Bummer!) but their epicness lives on in our hearts – if not in our tummies.

Oh man, today’s a great day on the blog. It’s a day where I get to talk about three awesome things: brown butter, chocolate chip cookies, and pretzels.

Last week, I talked about my mom, and today – I honor my dad with this recipe using his favorite ingredient ever that’s not Diet Coke – the pretzel. And, if you’ve never made brown butter before- wowee, you are in for a treat. If you thought butter was good… you are going to love this take on it. It’s basically like infusing your cookies with a deep, caramel richness. Yes.

This recipe is also an original twist on a great base recipe my dear friend Jessica passed on to me. I’ve also used it as the base for the awesomely chewy and soft Disney World Sugar Cookies. And these aren’t gluten-free but they could be if you used GF flour, xantham gum, and gluten-free pretzels.

BROWN BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP PRETZEL COOKIES

(Makes about 2 dozen 2in cookies)

Ingredients

• 1 cup of butter (we used Kerrygold)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar (or a little less than 1 cup)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup crushed pretzel thins (or 3/4 cup crushed pretzel sticks)

Directions

1. To make brown butter, the process is fairly simple and the results are utterly delicious. Place your 1 cup of butter (generally 2 sticks) in a saucepan over to medium-low heat and allow it to melt. Then move the butter around, swirling slowly on low heat for about 10-15 minutes or until butter visually turns brown and you begin to smell a strong caramel flavor (the goodness!). Turn off heat and place brown butter in your mixing bowl and allow it to cool off to room temperature before adding other ingredients.
2. While the butter cools, go ahead and mix your dry ingredients – the flour, the baking soda, and salt – in a mixing bowl and set aside.
3. When the butter is ready to go, use a mixer to start combining your wet ingredients starting first with the two sugars, then the eggs, then the vanilla.
4. At this point, work your flour mixture in using 1/4-1/2 cup intervals to make sure it’s carefully incorporated.
5. Once all the flour’s been incorporated, add your chocolate chips and pretzel bits by gently folding them in with a spatula.
6. Refrigerate your dough for an hour.
7. Just before you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 375F.
8. Spoon your dough out with a rounded teaspoon measure to make cookies that are about 2″ in diameter. If you want larger cookies, you can use a rounded tablespoon instead (which for the measurements above will yield 12 cookies instead of 24). For both sizes, you can fit about 6 per sheet.
9. Bake for 8-12 minutes depending on your oven and pull out once the cookies have puffed down just a bit and the edges look golden.
10. Lastly, serve to pretzel and chocolate lovers alike!

It’s hard to believe but as of last week, it’s been 10 years since my mom passed away. Ten years. In 2003, I was 17 and in my junior year of high school. So much has happened since then.

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel on that day, knowing it would be the ten year mark of such a major event in my life. I wasn’t really sure how to even talk about it. But then I was blessed by my husband- who always completes my thoughts and speaks my heart back to me when I’m at a loss. Gus didn’t bring it up to me during the day. Instead, he was a few minutes late getting home and presented me with this beautiful bouquet of lillies.

Flowers. They can be a sad gift – but this was the perfect one. What it said to me in such a simple gesture was that life is going on – it’s blooming in a sense – and that my mom is still here with me. She’s in the goodness of life that brought Gus to me in the first place. She’s in the crazy things I’ve survived and an in all the things I’ve accomplished in the past decade.

I never would have thought that now I’d be designing wedding invitations and doing calligraphy – following so unexpectedly in her footsteps. And I am so grateful to still feel so connected to her in what I’m doing and what I dream of for the next chapter.

I keep looking at the lillies that have bloomed for days on end now and they are the most apt reminder that life is a celebration of love  and those that leave us are still with us. My mom is with me when I am most “myself” and when I embrace those gifts that she gave me. She is with me as I build a family of my own, and she is with me as I look in my heart for the right direction to go.

So, though I miss her, I realize this anniversary does not need to be a sad milestone. It’s a moment to think of the gift I was given by having a wonderful mother and getting to spend 17 years with her. And it’s the reminder to stay true to the daughter she was guiding me to be and to hold close to all those things that make life so precious – like an incredibly thoughtful husband…

As with last week’s Crab and Artichoke Dip – Gus and I love a good, versatile recipe that can also serve as a quick and easy dinner. Such is the case with our go-to recipe for Tuna Salad. This is a standby during lent and we find ways to spice it up as we like. This past week, we welcomed the addition of lettuce cups to turn our favorite tuna salad into something super trendy – a wrap! Dun dun dunnn.

Here’s the rundown. Write it down and keep it handy if you too need a go-to tuna salad. This one’s less mayo-y, more pickle happy but if you like that sort of thing – here’s your way to yummytown:

Ingredients (4 servings):

• 2 cans of cooked tuna
• 2 tbsp mayo (light or regular, doesn’t matter)
• 1/4 cup of yellow mustard
• 4 dill pickle spears, chopped into small bits
• dash of salt and pepper
• other mix-ins: italian dressing, chopped tomato, bruschetta sauce from trader joe’s, garlic powder.. your choice!
• 4 baby romaine lettuce leaves (or a tortilla wrap, or bread, whatever your canvas of choice)

Directions

1. In a medium-size bowl, flake the tuna out of both cans using a fork and the edge of the can itself.
2. Combine the tuna with all the above listed ingredients (except the lettuce). If the salad is too dry, we usually add more mustard but you can add more mayo, italian dressing, or whatever you like.
3. Spoon into lettuce leaves and serve for a low-carb, gluten-free quick weeknight dinner – and be sure to refrigerate the leftovers.

Today, I am thrilled to announce a very special collaboration a few months in the making: I’m now a DIY Contributor to the truly amazing wedding blog, Ruffled!

Ruffled featured our wedding a few months ago and I’m so excited to link you to today’s first Ruffled post as a designer: The Aisle File: A DIY Engagement Gift!

Leveraging an ordinary magazine file to create something extraordinary – this is the perfectly practical and fun way to congratulate your bestie on her engagement by bestowing on her the latest wedding magazines and inspiration. Please click here to head to Ruffled today for supply list and the free downloadable template to create your own.

Major thanks to Amanda at Ruffled for the opportunity and of course, thanks again to Brett and Jessica Donar of Brett and Jessica Photography, for yet another fabulous photo of theirs that made it into this project.