"Homemade" Cupcakes

This past Saturday we celebrated the 4th of July early with a few friends from college.  I decided to make "Homemade" red, white & blue cupcakes for the occasion.  I was super excited to use several items from our wedding registry that I hadn't put to use yet.

Thank you Pillsbury...

Finally used my Kitchen Aid Hand Mixer...  LOVE it.

Hand Mixer in Action...

Slowly but Surely...

Morgan bought me this owl oven 

mitt for Mother's Day...

Red, White & Blue Sprinkles...

The Double Decker Cupcake Carrier!

Ready to go...

The cupcakes were super yummy!  I must say the cupcake carrier is awesome!  I actually forgot that I had it and I made several attempts to fit the cupcakes into a tray.  Mike reminded me of the carrier LOL.  The 4th of July weekend was great.  We saw family and friends and had wonderful food.  Happy Birthday America.

Home Slice...

Tonight we made a fantastic homemade pizza...  ingredients courtesy of Trader Joes.  Flour, dough, pizza sauce, salami, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, lots of cheese and green olives were the toppings of choice.  Mike and I actually divide our homemade pizzas in half (his side/my side).

Side Note:  Today is day number three that I've been a vegetarian.  This is a new adventure and I'm curious to see where it takes me.  I've never been one to crave meat so I figured I could attempt to give it up.  With that said, the salami was on "his side."

We baked our pizza for approximately 20 minutes at 450 degrees.  We like our pizza and cheese crispy.  It was delicious and we have leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

The pizza pan and pizza slicer were wedding gifts from our Crate & Barrel registry :)

Mmmm... BBQ!

We finally used our new BBQ! Michael put it together a few weeks ago but one of the parts was missing [the axle to connect the wheels]. We called Crate & Barrel and they sent us the missing part.

While I was at a meeting with our wedding florist, Michael was working hard at the BBQ! He picked up steaks, corn, coals and propane [it uses both] and he prepared a FANTASTIC BBQ dinner :)

Muffin Me Please...

 After Bonnie bought us some new kitchen gadgets I just had to try out my baking skills. Blueberry muffins sounded yummy so here they are!  YES, they're from the box!  But oh well, they still tasted great!  

I've never used silicone baking cups [I've always used paper].  The silicone baking cups are amazing and I totally recommend them.  The muffins just fell right out of the cups and didn't break.  I love them.

Michael was happy with them AND he shared them with his boss (can you believe he shared...jk)

So we have tacos and blueberry muffins...  what's next?  

Mama Always Said: "If you can read, you can cook"...

So I've never been one to cook but that doesn't necessarily mean I can't cook.  Much to my own surprise, I'm doing okay in the kitchen.  Michael and I are huge fans of my beef tacos... the must have ingredient is the Tapatio sauce!  I've posted a picture as proof that I CAN cook!

My Mom Always Said:

"If you can read, you can cook!"