recipe: hummingbird easter cupcakes

yum! Easter cupcakes! my friend beth introduced me to hummingbird cake and i was interested in what it tasted like. when you see some of the ingredients (pineapple & banana) you wonder what it will actually taste like.  i decided to try myself and use this recipe as my Easter treat for my family this weekend in Indiana. not only are they delicious, i found the cutest Easter decor at william sonoma this past weekend and definitely wanted to use this recipe with the cupcake details. www.williamsonoma.com

this recipe tastes very similar to a banana bread with a spice to it. they are so delicious!! i found this recipe on food network and i absolutely love it. here is the recipe for you to try as well!

ingredients for cake: 

1/4 cup of crushed pineapple packed in juice

-2 large ripe bananas, mashed

-1 cup of all-purpose flour

-1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

-1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon 

-1/4 teaspoon of salt

-1 stick of unsalted butter at room temp.

1/2 cup of sugar

-2 large eggs

-1 teaspoon of vanilla

-1/2 cup of chopped pecans if you desire (i didn't use them in this recipe)

ingredients for frosting:

-8 oz of cream cheese, at room temp.

-4 tablespoons of butter, at room temp.

-3 cups of powdered sugar

-2 teaspoons of vanilla

details:

-preheat your oven to 350

-line your cupcake tin with cupcake liners

(obviously cute ones :))

-add the pineapples and bananas in a medium bowl

-mash both of these together with the back of a fork and set aside

-whisk together your flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a separate bowl

-add the butter and sugar to a large bowl 

-beat with your mixer until light and fluffy

-beat in the eggs one at a time

-then add your vanilla to this mixture

-next, add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients by scoopfuls until thoroughly combined

-add in the pineapple and bananas being careful not to over-mix

-fold in the pecans if you want them

-use an ice cream scoop or spoon to fill the cupcake liners three quarters way full 

-bake until the tops of the cupcakes turn golden brown and then with a toothpick check the centers of the cupcakes

-when the toothpick comes out clean, then they are ready to be taken out

-i baked these for around 18-20 minutes

-remove the cupcakes from the oven and transfer to a wire rack for cooling

-frost your cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting after they are cool

-garnish with a cute Easter detail or sprinkles :)

     Happy Easter everyone! while all of the cute Easter treats, bunnies, and cupcakes are cute and fun its important to not forget the real meaning of Easter. I hope you enjoy every bit of this beautiful day! Thank you for stopping by.

craft: confetti eggs

a new craft for Easter! easy & fun confetti eggs. i love crafts and using tissue paper is especially fun. i wanted to create a colorful basket of eggs for the kitchen and these turned out great! to make them you will start by dying your own eggs with homemade dye or a pre-packaged dye kit. you can also purchase these colorful egg shells now to, whichever you prefer. then, you would pick several colors of tissue paper and cut into squares to make larger pieces of confetti.

next, for making the circle confetti the only thing you need is tissue paper and a tiny hole punch. you can create confetti with all sizes depending on which hole punch you have. making fun shapes of confetti is also a great idea. 

i hope you enjoy this craft and make your own confetti eggs at home for Easter. this is a great craft for kids as well! i hope you all had a wonderful weekend. it was a little chilly here in nashville but we had a great weekend. my family was in town and we did a lot of exploring, shopping, eating, and relaxing :) we loved spending time with them.

i hope you enjoy this post and i hope you all have a great week. see you real soon for more Easter treats. 

recipe: avocado salsa

a new recipe! and this is a great one. if you like avocados this is a great salsa recipe for you. it tastes so fresh and light but full of flavor. this is so easy to make as well. you can pair it with eggs, grilled chicken, chips, or any mexican dish. 

here is the recipe:

ingredients:

-3 avocados

-1/2 c of fresh cilantro

-1 clove of garlic

-1 large or 2 small jalapeños 

-1 c of red onion

-3 roma tomatoes

-3 tbsp fresh lime juice

-1/4 tsp black pepper

-1/2 tsp salt

-3 1/2 tbsp of olive oil 

details:

-first, start by placing your red onion in a strainer and rinse under cool water to remove the harsh bite

-dice the onion and add the specific measurement to a medium size mixing bowl

-also dice tomatoes, jalapeños, and avocados

-add all of these ingredients to your bowl

-in a separate small mixing bowl whisk together olive oil, lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper until mixture is well blended

-lastly, pour this over your avocado mixture and gently toss the cilantro into the mixture

you will love this! like i said, it is very fresh and full of flavor. we poured the salsa on several pieces of grilled chicken for dinner and it was delicious. i hope you enjoy this recipe and have a great week :)

enjoy!

(i found this recipe on pinterest by another blogger http://www.cookingclassy.com):)

travel: lake tahoe

the last stop on our trip was lake tahoe! wow, i almost want to say we "saved the best for last." our entire trip was absolutely incredible. each  place that we went was so different in their own way. we talked about not exactly having a favorite place because we loved it all. we enjoyed every bit of it. if i had to move to any of the places it would be lake tahoe. oh my goodness, the views were breathtaking.

we spent a full day in tahoe city and on friday we spent a half day there before we drove to reno. during our full day we started early and drove around the entire lake of tahoe which was about 75 miles and worth every inch. we were told to make sure to drive the whole lake and we were so glad that we did because there was obviously so much to see. i loved seeing so much snow!! i was so happy :) (ps i love snow)

some of the trails and areas to walk around were actually closed because of the snow but we were able to walk on a small trail along the sunny side area of lake tahoe. we stayed at a cute lodge called "the sunny side ski resort." it was a great location and we had an awesome view out our window. we ate dinner at the sunny side restaurant and it was very good with wine and dessert of course. we also really enjoyed "rosie's cafe" for breakfast on friday and moe's barbecue for lunch. gee i think we ate okay on vacation huh!? :)

we had the best first anniversary trip and we look forward to many more! is it bad we are already planning our next vacation? we love to travel! thank you so much for stopping by to take a look at our travel posts. i thought this would be a nice change to the blog from my recipes and diy projects. i hope you enjoyed it!

have a great week everyone :) 

travel: exploring yosemite

as you can see from the pictures, yosemite was absolutely beautiful! we had such a great time in mariposa and the yosemite national park. there is so much to do while you visit and we loved every bit of it. we spent two days in yosemite and explored the national park and enjoyed the downtown area of mariposa. 

this part of the trip was unique because we stayed at a couple's horse ranch right outside of yosemite. we absolutely loved the ranch. it was very quiet and quaint and the couple was very nice and helpful. the owner told us about all of the hidden gems and must do's of yosemite and of course we did all of them. 

one on the list was a hike to and through mirror lake. the views were absolutely amazing. we took so many pictures and videos of just this area. although the hike was frightening at times (i am talking about myself not reed of course) because the signs for mountain lions were everywhere (no big deal) besides that we had a great time! oh, and reed did encounter a new friend while sitting on a park bench. his name was mr. bobcat! reed jumped a little but didn't pay any attention as he thought it was a regular cat, but it definitely wasn't ha! we couldn't believe how calm the bobcat was and how he posed for a great picture!

i put together a little list of things we did in yosemite:

-lunch at the yosemite majestic hotel

-yosemite falls 

-hiked mirror lake 

-walked in yosemite valley

-walked and took pictures of the half dome & scenic views

-met a friend named "bobcat"

-ate dinner at the miners roadhouse

-shopped and walked downtown mariposa

-got souvenoirs

-ate dinner at the pizza factory

-stayed two nights at the round hat ranch 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/VacationRentalReview-g61000-d6396041-Yosemite_Area_Horse_Ranch_Country_Cottage-Yosemite_National_Park_California.html

i hope you enjoy our pictures and have a great weekend. thank you for stopping by!

happy saturday!

travel: our trip to napa & sonoma

our second travel post of our vacation is all about napa & sonoma. what a beautiful place to travel to! we stayed on Sunday evening at the arbor guest house in napa valley. this was a quiet and quaint bed and breakfast only a few blocks from downtown napa. the blue and white details throughout the house were adorable with a "happy anniversary" sign when we walked in the door. we absolutely loved this and definitely recommend this to others traveling there. 

we actually enjoyed sonoma just as much as we did napa. sonoma had beautiful vineyards and rolling green hills. we loved the scenic views driving in from san francisco. i wanted to give you some details on places that we visited in case you ever make a trip to these areas and need recommendations :)

below are a few places we visited:

-black stallion winery www.blackstallionwinery.com

-hagafen winery (known for sweet white wines)www.hagafen.com

-boon fly cafe (lunch)

www.boonflycafe.com

-fremont diner (milkshakes)

www.thefremontdiner.com

-ristorante allegria (italian)

www.ristoranteallegria.com

-arbor guest house (bed & breakfast)

www.arborguesthouse.com

-downtown napa valley (shops & restaurants)

we loved every moment spent in napa & sonoma and we know we are going to visit again someday. i hope you enjoy our pictures and recommendations. thank you so much for stopping by and stay tuned this weekend for our yosemite and lake tahoe trips.

have a great night :)