The best day ever (at least pretty close)

Have you ever had one of those days when you just want to be a kid again, you want to let your hair down and say to heck with the cares of the world ? That was me today. Reagan was invited to a Birthday party at the local roller skating rink, to say that I was less than thrilled to take her is an understatement, 3 hrs at a roller rink with a kid that doesn't skate can we say "WooHoo" ? Off we went I did the mommy thing, and then watched as my kid precariously took off on these big clonking shoes with wheels, to say she looked uneasy is an understatement, imagine a baby duckling on ice. As I watched her tackle the rink, listened to the pounding music and watched other skaters gliding past her I started to feel a little sorry for her (They won't let you on the rink without skates), my feet were itching to put a pair of skates on, though I've only ever ice skated or roller bladed ( eons ago) and the only available skates were the 2 in front and 2 behind kind which to me were a little intimidating. Then Reagan's words resonated through my head, when asked if she was sure she wanted to go she said "I would really like to at least try", then I thought how tickled I would have been at her age if my Mom would have made a complete fool of herself and joined me on the rink and that's when my mind was made up, I went and bought my ticket and rented my first pair of 'traditional' roller skates ever. When Reagan saw me her face was priceless, I may not have had a camera to capture the smile but I think that look will be engrained into my brain forever. My first time around I told her I needed to go alone and she needed to stay far far away from me while I got my 'Skate legs' It took a while for me to feel comfortable with not being able to slide my foot to the side, and not stop by doing a side slide but before long I got the hang of it and though I say so myself I rocked *WINK* I took Reagan's hand and edged her away from the wall, she fell once, cried, sniffed "I hate this" and wanted to go home, With a few encouraging words and a hug she ventured out again, before long she was only holding my hand and not doing a death grip to the side ledge, a couple of times she wanted to leave the rink, she'd had enough but I couldn't keep off of it, she'd watch and smile and I could see the look on her face, I'm thinking it was the same one I had earlier in the afternoon, the wanting but being unsure, I got her out again and told her to copy my feet, she did, she rocked, she laughed, giggled, fell and started laughing so hard I couldn't get her back up again, before I could say "Roller skates" she said "Do you think we could go out into the center ?" Yes my child that was death gripping the wall 2hrs previous was wanting to go out into the very middle of the rink where there was nothing but a Mommy's had for stabiliy, I took her out to the very middle circle and told her to look around, she was really in the middle of the rink and was standing unaided, her look was again one of those priceless ones and then before we knew it the DJ was announcing that he was playing the last somg of the session and guess what ? We were the last ones out there.
This afternoon started out with being one of those obligatory Mommy duties and ended up being an afternoon of fun and more importantly an afternoon when I became more child like in my thinking and let the stresses of everyday life take a back seat and made some pretty fun life long memories with my favorite 7 year old.
We're already talking about when we should go next :)

Etsy Black Friday shop

Many, many stores over at Etsy are having Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, many are having sales all weekend. Go on over and check out the fabulous stores that are participating and pick up something that's a tad more unique than what you'll find w/ all the commercial door busters at the mall.

From now until midnight Monday I am having my own sale, 10% off all items plus free shipping anywhere in the U.S just use this code at checkout TGT2567.
Hope to see you there.

Music to my ears

Reagan is not a big vege eater at all and I find it very frustrating but that may have all come to a screeching halt, I just introduced her to Lays French Onion Dip. She was starving and needed a little something to tide her over before dinner, I suggested dip and tortilla chips, she was a little leery she's never eaten French Onion Dip before. I put a dollop on a chip, her eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, "Hmmm, this is AWESOME, you know what would be really good with this ? Vegetables"  No way Jose, she's now sitting with a plate of raw veges, a little bowl of dip, happily munching away and watching an episode of " Good Luck Charlie"  (Love that show.) It really is the little things huh ?

Chocolate and Pumpkin cupcakes

If you are looking for a Fall cupcake then this is the one, so yummy and you can adjust the spices to your liking. I used pumpkin pie spice, but cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger would be awesome too.

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes
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 Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

1/2 C butter
1 1/2 C packed brown sugar
3 Large eggs 1 1/2 C sifted cake flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 Tbs Pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 cup Buttermilk*
1 can Pumpkin puree
2 tsp Vanilla

1.Cream together butter and sugar
2.Beat in eggs one at a time
3. Blend all of the dry ingredients together 
4.Stir together Pumpkin puree, buttermilk and vanilla
5. Alternately add dry ingredients and Pumpkin mix to the creamed butter, sugar and eggs

Pour batter into cupcake holders and bake for 25 mins.

These are delicious frosted with the frosting from this post .

 * If you don't have buttermilk you can substitute for 1 cup of your preferred milk mixed together with 1Tbs of apple cider vinegar

When bad things turn into good

Saturday I got busy making cupcakes for a Halloween party we went to last night, I'd decided on Chocolate and Pumpkin cupcakes covered in Ganache, then I was going to frost on a spiders web and stick a plastic spider in the middle, cute huh ?
I baked the cupcakes, they turned out great, went on to make the Ganache, the same Ganache I've made a million times before and FAIL, it turned out NASTY !! Started off using Bittersweet chocolate (that'll teach me not to read the box) then I heated it up too quickly and it got all grainy and separated on me, I wondered if I could salvage it, I dipped my finger in to see how it tasted and oh, my face squished into a thousand directions, the only place it was good enough for was the garbage.
So then it was onto Plan B, I no longer had time for the Ganache to be made, cooled and set in time for frosting, I didn't have a can of frosting on hand so I surfed the net and came up with an awesome recipe, I'd link you to it but I can't find it now, I will however share it with you all. Never again will I buy canned frosting, this is delish. I added some extra pumpkin spice to mine to give it an extra Fall type taste. The consistency was more in tune to that of mousse and despite the amount of sugar it wasn't overly sugary at all.

Chocolate Frosting (To die for)
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2 3/4 c Confectioners Sugar
6 Tbs Unsweetened Cocoa powder
6 Tbs Softened butter
5 Tbs Evaporated milk
1 tsp Vanilla

1. Sift together sugar and cocoa
2. Cream butter until smooth
3. Alternately add Sugar mix and milk
4. Blend in Vanilla
5. Adjust as needed

ENJOY !!