The best cake I've ever made - Salted Caramel Cake.

Total props goes to my cousin Megan for sharing this recipe with me and changing the way I view caramel cakes.

This cake's frosting surpasses any other icing I've tasted! It's time intensive but so worth it in the end.

To make this cake I used gluten free cake mix for the cake (enhancing it by adding an additional egg, using melted butter instead of oil, and using milk instead of water.)

Here is the recipe for the icing! from addapinch.com

Salted Buttercream Frosting Recipe

First Stage

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup buttermilk
• ½ cup Crisco vegetable shortening
• ½ cup butter
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Second Stage

• ½ cup butter
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Salted Caramel Buttercream Recipe

1. Add all ingredients from the first stage of the frosting recipe in a 3-4 quart pot. Stir ingredients with a wooden spoon as cooking over medium-low heat.
2. Cook to softball stage (235-245 degrees on a candy thermometer as well as using the cold water test).
3. Remove from heat and pour into a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Using a whip attachment, whip the caramel until it has cooled enough to touch lightly.
4. Add the butter and salt from the second stage of the frosting recipe to the mixing bowl and whip.
5. Add confectioner’s sugar in ½ cup increments, stopping after each to scrape sides of mixing bowl. Turn mixer onto high for about 10 seconds after each addition to incorporate air into the frosting.
6. Adjust the amount of confectioner’s sugar to result in a frosting that will hold it’s shape.
7. Frost cake and store on a cake plate covered with a dome or an airtight container.
8. Best served within 1-3 days.

call the midwife

my cousin megan and my auntie melinda introduced me to this fabulous show - call the midwife.

call the midwife is a bbc drama and a pbs masterpiece classic that follows midwife jenny lee and the work of midwives and the nuns of the nursing convent nonnatus house, which aids with the medical problems in a poor area of east london in the 1950s.


if you love downton abbey or babies or anything romantic, witty, timeless, and british, you will love this show!

...and the best part is, you can watch it online for free on pbs!

here's the link

i suggest starting with the first episode. there are only 6 so far, but i can't recommend it enough!

chicken enchilada soup

i made this soup the other day for two reasons:
1. we had a rotisserie chicken that needed to be used up.
2. it was a crisp fall day outside and it only seemed fitting to have soup for dinner.

 i love it because it's one of those throw-everything-in-together-and-let-it-simmer kinds of soup!

1 green bell pepper, diced
1 large onion, diced
2 tsp ground cumin
a sprinkle of paprika
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup heavy cream (or milk)
2 cups of chicken, cooked and chopped (or shredded...whatever your prefer)
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 (6 oz.) can of tomato paste
2 cups frozen or canned (drained) corn
1 can of del monte diced tomatoes (i used the diced tomatoes in lime juice with cilantro because that's what we had)
1 cup cheddar cheese

In a big pot on medium heat, toss in the pepper, onion, cumin, and paprika, and cook those for a couple of minutes until the veggies are nice and fragrant.
Then, turn up the heat to medium-high and mix in all of the remaining ingredients except for the cheese, stirring everything together thoroughly. Super easy!
Keep the heat up for a few minutes and then reduce it to medium-low, add in the cheese, and let it simmer for 20 minutes - or for however long your patience holds out :)

This soup is seriously SO delicious...it's now officially my favorite chicken-style soup! I had it for the following two meals afterwards. (plus- it's gluten free! woop woop!)

p.s. - if you want to do this in the crockpot, follow the same mixing instructions, cook it on high for half an hour, and then leave it on low for however long you need to!

i love being a girl.

i love being a girl.


i love having the desire to make things beautiful - tying a ribbon here, putting a vase of flowers there.

i love being able to understand, appreciate, and fawn over anything with the set of words including a sweetheart neck, lace cap-sleeved, a-line, basque waist, or a cushion solitaire with micro pavé.

i love having the rights to shamelessly eat creme brûlée and petit fours.

i love knowing the names of flowers or how long to knead bread dough.

i love being able to paint my nails a mint sorbet or a dark plum.

i love being the one in a relationship that doesn't have to do the pursuing, but gets to be pursued.

i love lighting candles and cleaning and putting things in order.

i love getting lost in antique malls, mind reeling with the endless decor possibilities.

i love being presented the challenge in 1 Peter 3:3-4

i love using the kitchen as my artistic canvas.

i love being able to climb a tree and go dress shopping in the same day.

and i love knowing that someday in the future, down the road and Lord willing, ill hold in my arms a precious baby that i carried for nine months.


i love being a girl.