Happy 5th Birthday Clover!

Mount Rainier

Wow, it's been awhile! A few weeks ago we went on a day trip to Rainier and I FINALLY edited the pictures this evening. Check em out if you've got a thing for huge mountains, pretty parks or like really REALLY cute dogs ;)

Pike Place Market

It's been a fun extended weekend so far. We welcomed a couple friends in from ATL yesterday and took them to Snoqualmie Falls, Fremont and Pike Place Market since they arrived. I mainly focused on the market. Check out my Flickr page if you'd like to see more.

Melody's Cookie Cupcakes

Last night I decided to make some treats intended for my co-workers and some friends coming to visit from Atlanta this weekend. Luckily an adorable Facebook acquaintance of mine happens to be quite the culinary queen and shared this recipe with me. They taste a bit like a chocolate chip cookie and a cinnamon bun spawned a cupcake. The work buddies LOVED them and of course the boyfriend isn't shy about devouring them either.

Here's the recipe if you're interested:

"wet ingredients:

-3/4 cup sugar... See More
-3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 cup (236 grams) butter, softened
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon natural almond extract

dry ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup brown all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon

other ingredients:
- at least 2 cups of chocolate chips (dark or milk up to preference)

mix wet ingredients with hand mixer until very smooth. combine dry ingredients in separate bowl. then combine wet and dry ingredients with hand mixer until very well blended/sort of stiff. once dough is mixed, fold in chocolate chips and whatever other fun stuff you may decide to add to your cookie cupcakes. i like to chill the dough for an hour or 2 before i bakethese, but not everyone does, and this recipe does not require chilling the dough before use.

drop the dough in to greased muffin tins (i prefer butter) and bake 10-12 minutes in a pre-heated oven @ 375. allow to cool for an hour or so before decorating.

buttercream icing is just a stick of room temperature softened butter, a ton of confectioner's sugar (i used the entire box), and a touch of cream (milk will also work well) blended with a hand mixer for about 3 minutes and piped out all ghetto style with the tip cut off of a plastic sandwich bag stuffed with frosting.

i should add that these keep longer and taste better if they're refrigerated. they tend to melt in the summer heat otherwise."