missing michigan

it has been one week since collin and i have been home from out trip to michigan. it has been a crazy week. i began my new job! trying to get back into the swing of things after not working for 6 weeks. i love everyone that i work with and i am excited for this new beginning, but each night i find myself pouring over the pictures from our trip and missing pentwater. here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip. 

 our first sunset in pentwater :)

home sweet home

xoxo

one of the most stunning views from our roadtrip the last day

very american

manistee beach

collin saying good bye to lake michigan

can't wait for next summer!!!!!

xoxo cbe

6 things that make me smile

i wish!!

first stop once we got to michigan

there is a place in my neighborhood that makes amazing popsicles! 

i love mochi ice cream! i also like mochi on my froyo!

nothing says summer to me then making s'mores!

i love love love sharpies!!!!

images from weheartit

pure michigan

tomorrow is our last day in michigan. i can not believe that our trip is almost over. it has been so amazing and i know we will never forget this vacation. it's so nice to spend time with family, turn off the cell phone, lay at the beach, read and not worry about a thing. 

i have so many fun adventures to share but here are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip so far. 

i love michigan!

xoxo cbe

we're going on an adventure

tomorrow morning collin and i are heading to michigan. our wonderful friend allison is taking us to the airport in the morning and we can't thank her enough! thank you!!

i haven't been back to michigan in the summertime in over 2 years and collin has never ever been. i can not wait to share all of my favorite things with him! i can't wait to show him lake michigan, my old college campus and have him meet all my amazing extended family. 

image: weheartit.com

cheers to our big adventure! 

xoxo cbe

happy birthday chelsea!!

little miss chelsea had her 22nd birthday the other day and we all got to celebrate with her. her mom, dad and brother drove in from kansas, it was great to finally meet them. we ate dinner at brother's bar and then came back to our house for a little cake and celebration. 

awhile ago i had asked chelsea what her favorite dessert was and she said she loved strawberries and white chocolate. i thought and thought about what to make and finally settled on strawberry cake with white chocolate frosting. i had never made strawberry cake before and the boxed kinds always seem to taste so artificial. so once again smitten kitchen saved me with her pink lady cake. it was soooooooo wonderful!!! for the frosting i used my favorite chocolate recipe and used white instead of milk. i think the end result was great!! so pretty and pink and perfectly chelsea. 

happy birthday chelsea!!!

xoxo cbe

homemade sprinkles

i found a fun new food blog, brave tart. one of the post that i read had a recipe for homemade sprinkles, i fell in love. this little project couldn't have been easier, but it didn't make as many sprinkles as i had expected. the taste is very similar to the retro candy buttons. i think i'll make those next! 

xoxo cbe

waking up slow......

yesterday was lovely. collin worked the late shift so we got to spend the morning together. we drank coffee and talked about our upcoming michigan trip. we are both so excited! 9 days!!!

xoxo cbe

happy father's day

happy father's day to the best dad in the whole world. thank you for always being an amazing example of strength, love and family. thank you for always answering my calls, even when you're in a meeting, and always giving great advice even when you think i don't want to hear it (i do and always will). 

i am so lucky to have you as my daddy and my friend. thank you for all of your love and support.

i love you!

xoxo me 

three bean pasta salad with tuna and feta cheese

i have always loved pasta salad but me, having the taste buds of a 5 year old, usually hates most of the main ingredients. so today i decided to make my own. i finally got around to cleaning out the cupboard and found the perfect items for my pasta salad. 

i used kidney beans, white beans and garbanzo beans. i also found a can of tuna and a box of whole grain penne. i looked up some recipes online to find a dressing but ended up winging it. i used olive oil, balsamic, vinegar, salt and pepper, rosemary and oregano. oh and a little sugar. i cooked the pasta and let it cool. i drained the beans and the tuna and set them to chill. once everything had cooled i mixed it all up and added the dressing. i topped it off with a little feta and it was ready.

i loved my little pasta salad creation and am pretty sure i will make it many times over the summer with whatever i have laying around. 

it is so nice to have my kitchen clean and organized and i can't wait to make my next creation.....i'm thinking some sort of pie.....

xoxo cbe

cake pops.....balls.......

yesterday my friend chelsea came over to help me make something fun. i have been seeing adorable little cake pops everywhere and wanted to see what all the hype is about by making my own. since i have never made them before i decided to skip doing everything from scratch and use store bought cake mix and frosting. we used funfetti cake, my fav, and a classic yellow. we started by baking the cake according to the directions on the box. 

while the cakes were still slightly warm we took them out of the pan and crumbled them up in large mixing bowls. 

once the cake was all crumbled we added a container of frosting, funfetti for the funfetti and milk chocolate for the yellow, to each bowl. this is where we made the first mistake, we used to much frosting. next time we will only use about half of the frosting. using too much frosting, i think, caused the mixture to become to doughy and take away from its cakey texture.  after we mixed everything we began to roll the mixture in to small balls and place them onto parchment lined cookie sheets. 

we placed sticks in the center of each ball and then put them in the fridge to chill. 

we left them in the fridge while we painted our nails and watched a movie. once the pops were chilled all the way be took them out and set them aside. we melted chocolate, i used candy chips found at hobby lobby, with a double boiler. we began to dip the pops in the melted chocolate. while we were doing this some of the sticks began to pull out. another lesson learned, next time i think we would put a little frosting on the sticks to make them stick firmer in the cake mixture. 

i also think that this chocolate was a little too think and i would probably use almond bark next time. once we lost about half of the sticks and found out that the chocolate was to think we removed all of the remaining sticks and switched to drizzling the chocolate over the balls. 

all in all i was a little disappointed with the end results but i think i learned how to make them better the next time we try them. making mistakes are the only way to learn in baking. 

xoxo cbe 

cleaning out the fridge

today i began to tackle the task of organizing and cleaning the kitchen. i have been meaning to do this for a while now and i finally have more free time then i know what to do with. i thought that cleaning out the fridge would be the best place to start. i am so embarrassed by the contents that i found, many of which had grown new forms of mold that i am pretty sure i should have sent of to nasa or something.........

after i cleaned out the remains of the nuclear food war that was my fridge i began to think about what to make for dinner. i settled on quiche even though i have never made it before. 

i had a bunch of random cheeses but only small amounts, fresh broccoli and left over grilled red peppers and potatoes from last nights dinner. i also had pre-made pie crust, eggs and evaporated milk. 

i am so happy with the end result and i am now going to be making quiche whenever i need to use up my leftovers. 

tomorrow i plan on finishing up operation kitchen clean up by going through the pantry. i also plan on baking something really fun that i can't wait to share!

xoxo cbe 

nature

on tuesday i went on my first hike of the summer. i went with a wonderful group of friends and could not have asked for a more perfect day. we went up to my parents home in the mountains on monday night to cut down on the driving time. it was great to get the fresh air and cool weather. 

tuesday morning we got up, grabbed a starbucks and hit the road to hanging lake. 

we arrived at the trailhead a little after nine and began our adventure. 

it was breathtaking. 

melissa, me, chelsea and shannon

can't wait for our next adventure in nature. 

xoxo cbe