This Thanksgiving, Kipper is Thankful I Didn't Burn Down Our House

You might laugh about the title of this post but sadly when I told Kipper I was baking for our family Thanksgiving meal I know he stopped and prayed we still had a home come Thanksgiving morning. Well before we even get started I happy to announce our home is fully intact. While we did ALMOST have a repeat of Thanksgiving 2004 (Short Version: I caught something on fire in the oven I was making for the Fire Department potluck, house was full of smoke and it took me forever to get the flames out. Kipper didn't answer his phone and I knew he was with the fire chief so I had to call the fire chief to have him get Kipper to bring the big fan from the station home to clear the smoke) we noticed the smoke and fixed the issue before any real flames started and the food ignited! :)  

Okay on to the awesomeness that was my baking! 

As you all know I am addicted to Pinterest and because of Pinterest I all of a sudden have decided I want to start cooking. And what better time to test out this plan other than Thanksgiving with my family, right??? Whitley apparently had the same idea to test out her cooking skills on our family so we decided we would  bake together at our house. (I think this plan made Kipper even more nervous! lol!)

After lots of hunting I decided on a recipe for Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes from Your Cup of Cake. (I highly recommend this blog! Everything on it looks amazing and the recipes are really easy to follow!)  After a trip to the grocery store to get all the needed ingredients we were ready to get started! Well actually after I got the speech from Kipper about cleaning up any mess we made and to please be careful...THEN we were ready to get started. 

First we made the cheesecake filling and place it in the freezer until we are almost ready to start baking the cupcakes. Oh and we had to preheat the oven!





Next we mixed together the oil, applesauce, sugar, brown sugar and eggs  into a small bowl.  In a separate bowl, we combined the flour, pumpkin pie spice, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

Over the course of the next few steps we began to combine the oil and dray mixture, as well as adding in the remaining dry ingredients, milk and the pumpkin.

 After everything was completely mixed together it was time to fill the cupcake liners with the batter. We had to make sure to leave enough space for the cheesecake filling that we added on top and lightly swirled in with the batter.


Then we said a prayer and popped them in the oven for 20 minutes.At first glace I was really rather nervous because they were not looking near as pretty as the photo on Your Cup of Cake. 



At this point we were working on 3 other dishes so we just let them cool, then in the morning I would make the frosting and ice them. Several more hours of cooking craziness took place, but at that point we were more concerned with burning cookies or mixing the wrong this, so the play by play photos didn't happen as planned!

Fast forward to Thanksgiving morning:  I got up and made the cream cheese frosting and iced the cupcakes. I was a little concerned as they still looked nothing like I thought they would. I was also a little nervous about what they tasted like since Kipper sampled one right after it came out of the oven and was a little unsure. BUT after tasting one with the frosting one it I was very pleased at how they turned out..They were really good!

What we HOPED they would look like:

Photo from Your Cup Of Cake

How they actually turned out: 

As you can see I am FAR from landing a show on Food TV, but I was still proud of them and they were a hit with everyone at dinner too!  Plus I have a new found respect for all the bloggers who post step by step photos when they are cooking! Just getting the ingredients combined and baked/cooked is enough for me for now. lol.

Want to tryout the recipe for yourself? 

Here you go - Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes

Joy of Life 2011

Every nonprofit has their "signature" event and for Cancer Care Services that is Joy of Life gala. In the past Joy of Life has been held on a Thursday evening, had a guest speaker and focused around good food/wine. When I was hired one of the things I was tasked with was taking Joy of Life to the next level. My goal is to build Joy of Life into a great party that everyone cannot wait to go to each year verse just another charity gala. So while the basics of the event remind the same, it saw LOTS of changes. Plus we were working with a venue that most in Fort Worth had been to a million times, so I had to get creative to give it a fun and festive vibe so they didn't feel like just another event at the country club. (all this on a VERY tight...and I mean TIGHT budget!)  

So began my creative research for ideas...and then figure out if we could afford to make them happen! All the event materials have had a purple feel to play up the wine emphasis and we just rebranded making our logo purple and teal. I decided that was the perfect direction to go in to help people really start to identify Cancer Care with the purple and teal, while remaining true to our pre-event marketing materials.   

After a lot of research I figured out it would be much cheaper for me to purchase everything for the centerpieces, rather than go through a florist. The best price I was able to get from all the florist bids was $75 a centerpiece. I was able to do them for $38 each and Cancer Care Services owns everything to use for future events! Granted my office did look like a mess for quite a while because of this plan! :)

Color palate of the feathers and the vase filler with the led lights! To get the lighter colored feathers we died white ones....this is NOT something I would recommend. Dying them, combing them out, drying them and getting them to fluff is a lot of work. If we wouldn't have already owned the white feathers we would have NEVER gone this route! 

All in all I am extremely pleased how everything turned out and we had a lot of fun putting together the centerpieces and candle holders! Plus I received a ton of compliments on how elegant but still really fun everything looked! (mission accomplished!)

The addition of a live band and dramatic lighting really helped set the mood of the evening! It was great seeing people having such a wonderful time enjoying good food and wine, with wonderful friends, while raising money for a great cause!

The Live and Silent Auctions were both a HUGE success! We had over 120 lots in the silent auction and it was the first time we have every had a live auction, which raised over $33,000 with the 6 items!  

And to top all of that off we DOUBLED what the event raised in 2010!! That means more money to help those in our community who are dealing with cancer! But the best part of it all was I got so this with some of my dearest friends by my side helping me out each step of the way!

Now I am sure Mel is going to shoot me for ending with this picture, but the randomness of this shot makes me crack up every time I look at it. (Kipper did good capturing this one!) But I guess I love it because it sums us all up so well!

Cheers to all the joys in your life! :) 

Lala's 21st Birthday!

Earlier this summer I wrote a short recap blog about Lauren aka Lala. Needless to say it has been a long, hard journey filled with more tears and visits to the hospital that one should ever have to endure. But with all the pain, Lala touched lives all over the world.

Just several months before a girl who said she would rather DIE than lose her hair had found a new confidence in her bald head. She refused to let cancer keep her down and she lived her life according to HER rules. But most of all she showed the world just how powerful love and prayer can be.  And she sure as heck wasn't going to let cancer get in the way of her 21st birthday celebration!

Then it happened, the words came that everyone was waiting for, "Lauren, you are done!"   The chemo worked and she beat her nasty cancer! She had done what the doctors never thought she could do! Birthdays are about celebrating life and with those words, Lauren's 21st birthday celebration took on even greater meaning!

INCREDIBLE photo of Lauren's before and after CT scans:

 The scan on the right was taken in April (the huge white blob was her "grapefruit" tumor). The scan on the left was taken a week ago. Notice a big white blob? NO!!!!!!!! It's gone!!!!!! The scan on the left is the scan of normal lungs

Kipper and I were extremely honored to be invited to be a part of Lauren's 21st Birthday Celebration! And what was more fitting than a good old fashion costume party for the Queen of Halloween! (it is her favorite holiday!)


The love, emotion and celebration that filled the party that night made it like no other party I had ever been to. But the best part was seeing Lala bounce though her back yard in her Hello Kitty costume with the biggest smile on her face, surrounded by friends and loved ones. Here are a few of my favorite photos for that evening!

Toga! Toga! Toga!

 One of our all time favorite mixers in college was the annual Toga Party with SOS. I remember all of us trying to come up with creative ways to make our togas far more than just a bed sheet. Everything from sequins, to matching jewelry, hair accessories right down to customizing flip flops! Each year we always were more excited about our outfit over the year before. Yet looking back it is sort of funny because my creations were no where near as fabulous as I remember!

Fast forward several years. Who would have ever thought that I would ever need the toga making skills I learned in college again? Well, good thing I sort of retained some of them since this year's JWC informal party was none other than a toga party!  (which I should have known since the theme is "Going for the Gold")

I had been swamped getting ready for Joy of Life and a few other things, so I didn't put NEAR as much time into my outfit as I did in college. Basically I bought some fabric on clearance because I liked the color and then the night of went "Oh Crap! What Am I Wearing??" To make matters worse....I never bought any fabric for Kipper's toga so he was left to fend for himself.

I was actually sort of pleased with how my last minute look turned out. I would also like to remind everyone before you see the photos: Kipper came up with this look ALL on his own...out of things he found in his closet!  He was super proud of his crazy, creative look and to feed his ego even more, every guy there kept telling how awesome it was. (at least Daddy would be proud! lol!) 

Even though we are a "little" bit older and no longer have them time to spend hours planning for the perfect toga, one thing hasn't changed from our days in AXiD and SOS. No matter where we go or what we are wearing, as long as Kipper and I are together we always have a great time! (As sweet as that sounds..cause it is...don't think for a minute that I didn't tease him about the hunting socks with his dress sandals! haha!)

AXiD and SOS Toga Mixer 2002

JWC Toga Informal Party 2011