Happy 4th of July!

Stars and stripes forever! Wishing you all a wonderful holiday and Happy Birthday America! 

Fresh Strawberry Pie

Strawberry season is here and we finally made our way down to the Strawberry patch near our house last week. Will and Kate were alllll about it and actually did a great job of finding the ripe red berries. Miss Kate was insistent on carrying her basket the entire time, no matter how heavy it got. 

         

As soon as we got in the car, Will told me that we needed to make a pie because it was his favorite. NEWS TO ME. I NEVER make pies but when he said that's what he wanted to make, we made a pit stop at Harris Teeter on the way home for a few ingredients that we didn't have. 

Starting the week off on a sweet note with this yumminess. This pie is one of my favorites and I pulled it out of the blog archives from our Illinois days. My mom always makes a blueberry version in the Summer and this Strawberry one is just as delicious. I posted this Fresh Berry Pie back in 2012 and all that's different is that this pie only uses strawberries and I used strawberry JELL-O instead of mixed berry for the glaze. The freshly picked berries make this pie extra delicious, but what I love most about this pie recipe is the flaky, slightly sweet crush. The berry glaze seeps into that bottom and is just so good- the most perfect Springtime dessert!

Fresh Strawberry Pie

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Crust:
1/2 cup canola oil
2 Tbsp. milk
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1.5 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt

Mix flour, sugar and salt together in a mixing bowl and set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together canola oil and milk. Slowly add the flour mixture to the oil mixture. Mix until it becomes thick and dough-like, then transfer to a 9" pie dish. Starting from the center of the dish, spread the crust until it is covering the entire dish in an even layer. Bake crust for 7-10 minutes, or until crust starts to brown. Let cool.

Wash and dry berries, then slice and place inside the crust. 

Filling:

2 quarts fresh strawberries, sliced
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
3.5 Tbsp. Strawberry JELL-O
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups water

Combine starch, JELL-O, water and sugar in a small bowl and set aside. In a small saucepan, bring water to a boil. Slowly add the JELL-O mixture stirring constantly with a whisk. Return to a boil and keep it there for one minute. Remove from the heat and let cool. 

Drizzle topping over berries and refrigerate for 4-5 hours to let the pie set before serving. 

Thursday Things

We have thawed out from our wonderful and unexpected Snowcation last week and back to our regularly scheduled programming. Charlotte is known for mis-forecasting these things so the amount of snow that we got was a true surprise! 

Local schools closed on Tuesday night in preparation of the storm and it snowed pretty much all day on Wednesday, giving us three consecutive snow days. We did all of the snow day things! Snow angels, snowmen, hot chocolate, Christmas music and lots of snuggling. 

Right before our snowy week, Mark and I spent the weekend in Asheville with friends and it was just what we needed. We stayed at the most spectacular house that used to operate as an inn/bed and breakfast. Everything was decorated so ornate and quirky and it was all sorts of magical. 

A perfectly relaxing weekend with lots of good food, wonderful friends, sparkly snowy skies and THE BEST AVOCADO TOAST OF LIFE. Seriously, if you find yourself in the Asheville area, please enjoy brunch at Sunny Point Cafe. The avocado toast and Bloody Mary will change you for the better.  

We aren't doing a true January Whole 30, but we are trying to stick to it as much as we can. I've found a few new recipes that have been hits with all of us!

- Smoky Chicken Burgers from No Crumbs Left
- Marinated Onions from No Crumbs Left
- Chicken Pesto Paleo Spaghetti Squash from Paleo Running Momma
- Steak with Mixed Olive Tapenade from Cooking Light

I purchased this CC Cream from it Cosmetics a few weeks ago and I am LOVING it. This product has a cult following and it definitely lives up to the hype. Perfect for everyday but still enough coverage if you want a "full face". It's better than a tinted moisturizer but less heavy than a traditional foundation. 

I'm still not giving up on the Golden Milk Latte. This recipe from Ambitious Kitchen is next on my list and I have high hopes. 

SHISHITO PEPPERS! Where have these been all my life. We had these in Asheville and I'm obsessed. Apparently these are hard to find in grocery stores but Trader Joe's almost always has them in stock. Blistered in olive oil and sprinkled with a little sea salt- SO GOOD. I'll be adding these to our regular rotation.

And lastly, a special thank you to Justin Timberlake for this new music!!! I pre-ordered the entire album and it's like a happy little treat the past few weeks as each new song is released. I'm a number one fan for life.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Cookies for Santa!

It's the most magical night of the year and the little ones in our house are patiently waiting for the big man in red to make his arrival. We are looking forward to a wonderful couple of days with family and soaking it all in together. 

It's not too late to make cookies for Santa! My baking assistants went a little sprinkle crazy, but I don't think that Santa will mind one bit! They also insisted that he get a dinosaur and a unicorn on his plate. 

This sugar cookie recipe from Everyday Annie is my go to and never fails. The lemon zest gives them a little something extra and is my favorite addition. I skipped the royal icing and just did a simple frosting with 1 cup of milk + 2-3 Tablespoons of milk. I separated frosting into a couple of bowls and then colored each one using this gel food coloring. 

Simple Sugar Cookie Icing

1 cup powdered sugar

2-3 Tbsp. whole milk

gel food coloring

In a bowl, combine powdered sugar and milk and stir until it reaches the right consistency- make sure it isn't too runny! Add more milk or sugar as needed. Divide into bowls and add food coloring- then you are ready to decorate! 

P.S. Sprinkles are necessary.

Wishing you all much joy, peace and love as you celebrate this Christmas! Merry Christmas Eve!!

Kate's Magical Unicorn Sprinkle Cake

I'm not sure how it happened, but our little Princess Kate turned TWO a few weeks ago! Wasn't she just born!? She is just the best little girl in the world and we love her more everyday. I'm in denial that she's less and less baby and more of a toddler. She is sassy, sweet and hilarious. The princess of the family, for sure! We celebrated with family and it was such a special day! Little miss was eating up all of the birthday attention.

Any birthday in this house isn't quite complete without our favorite sprinkle cake. Will has now asked for a sprinkle cake two years in a row and it's looking like this is a Moore family birthday tradition. I took it to the next level and created this unicorn edition for Kate's birthday and I AM IN LOVE. 

A little back story on the unicorn obsession...as trendy as they may be, it was a little bit of an accident how they became Kate's "animal". Before she was born, my dear friend went to England and brought our baby girl back a souvenir. It was a piece of the official china comemorating the birth of Princess Charlotte. The design is a gorgeous gold lion and unicorn- and so the unicorn love started and here we are. 

This cake was not only magical, but delicious, too! I think I've finally found the very best birthday cake recipe. I added sprinkles to the batter making it funfetti, but I used this same cake recipe for my sister's birthday in September and everyone LOVED it. The consistency is perfect- it really is a classic white birthday cake. I'm convinced that Greek yogurt in the batter, plus folding the whipped egg whites in separately at the end makes ALLLLL of the difference here. 

To make the unicorn cake topper, I went back to the clay animal making days of my craft loving childhood. I found a tutorial online and spent a naptime one afternoon molding away. I purchased pre-made white fondant (found HERE) as well as gel food coloring (found HERE). For the sparkly horn and hooves, I used Wilton Gold Lustre Dust (found HERE) and simply painted it onto the fondant. This was my first time ever using fondant and I had so much fun! Any excuse to get crafty is always good for my soul.                                                            

             

  

Kate asked for "puhhhhple " frosting and how could I say no!? I mixed a tiny bit of pink and a tiny bit of purple to get this gorgeous light lavender and I think the color came out perfect. 

The BEST Funfetti Birthday Cake Recipe
recipe adapted from Craftsy

FOR THE CAKE-
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 large eggs, separated
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract 
1 cup full fat Greek yogurt 
1/2 cup sprinkles (jimmies are the best!)

FOR THE BUTTERCREAM-
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
6-8 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Food coloring

Adjust oven rack to the middle position in the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease, flour and line the bottom of two 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper. 

In a large bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer with whisk attachment, whisk egg whites until soft peaks start to form. This will take several minutes. Transfer them to another bowl. 

Switch out the whisk attachment for the paddle attachment on your mixer and in a large bowl (just use the same one that you whisked the egg whites in), cream the butter until fluffy and light, about 2-3 minutes on medium-high speed. Scrape down the bowl as necessary. Add the granulated and brown sugars and mix on medium high speed until combined and smooth, another 2-3 minutes. Add the egg yolks one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each one. Add the vanilla and mix until just combined.

While on medium speed, add the yogurt and flour mixture alternately, in 2-3 additions each. Mix the batter until it is smooth and free of any lumps. The batter will be super thick. By hand, fold in the egg whites gently until no streaks of white remain. 

Lastly, add sprinkles to the batter and mix those in by hand as well.

Divide batter into the two prepared cake pans. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. Every oven is SO different, but I found that 33 minutes was the perfect amount of time for this cake! 

Once cakes are done, remove from the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes before flipping the pans over and removing the cakes. Wait until the cakes have cooled completely before frosting. 

To make the buttercream, in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, beat butter for 2-3 minutes until very smooth. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and the salt and beat until smooth. Keep adding powdered sugar in 1 cup increments, until it has reached your desired frosting consistency. If you find that the sugar is too thick, add milk or cream, 1 tsp. at a time, to thin it out. Add desired color and mix until done. 

Summer Stuff

I have always been a Summer lover, but it's especially sweet with my little sidekicks. It's hard to believe that August is just around the corner!! Thankfully, we still have a good chunk of Summer left. 

We have spent tons of time at the pool, seen lots of friends and have been hitting all of our favorite Charlotte spots. Will and Kate are at such great ages right now and truly so much fun.

Will got some caterpillars for his birthday and we had fun watching them turn into butterflies! The entire process was about 20 days and well worth the wait. We let them go free on July 4, which was fitting since it was Independence Day. I ordered this Insect Lore kit from Amazon and it couldn't have been easier. The kit comes with a voucher to order your caterpillars once you are ready for them. Will is already asking when we can order more caterpillars and we will definitely be doing it again in the near future!

Another fun find of the Summer has been this Ice Cream Ball. I swear, this thing is genius. This was another birthday present that Will got from some friends and it has been a huge hit. You fill one side of the ball with ice, and the other side of the ball with the ice cream ingredients, then roll it around for 20 minutes. Making kids work for their ice cream- this is an idea I am totally behind! 

Mark and I even got to sneak away to Asheville for a dear friend's wedding and it was wonderful! Any excuse for some quality time together and a weekend away with friends. Shortly after that, we spent another weekend in the mountains with some more good friends. Mark played in a golf tournament and Will, Kate and I enjoyed a little escape with friends in the crisp mountain air. There is nothing like the mountains in the Summer! 

I think that my favorite part of the Summer has been watching Will and Kate become best friends. They have always loved each other, but their little relationship has grown so much over the past few months and it brings me so much joy to be a part of it. Their conversations are pretty hilarious and they ADORE each other. 

I want to remember these sweet Summer days forever. Hope you all are enjoying them, too!