Whoa!

Since my last post was in September, let me update you on what's been going on in my life.

1: I had a baby! Holy moly, I still can't believe it myself! Her name is Matilda (or Millie as we like to call her) and is just about the cutest little thing I've ever seen. Here she is:

She was born December 28th which means that she is almost a month old.  Tomorrow actually marks four weeks since she was born.  These past four weeks have been the fastest of my life.  In a way, it feels like Millie was just born while at the same time, feels like we've found our rhythm and have been going at this whole "we have a baby" thing for a long time.  While I miss having my freedom to run a few errends, stay up until 3am watching Netflix, or sleep in uninterrupted until 11am, I wouldn't change having this sweet little girl in my life for anything.  I am sure there will be many more posts about our little one in the future!

2: We bought a house!  We moved into our house in the middle of October.  The house is older, built in 1950 and in great shape for it's age.  It even includes an authentic (and totally creepy) fallout shelter in the basement!  Since moving in, we have slowly been hard at work changing things and making them our own.  I hope to post pictures and updates on some of the work we've been doing.

3: I made some pretty awesome (if I may say so!) Dr Seuss cake pops in November for our nephew's first birthday party.  I'll post about them soon!

4: Speaking of baking, I've made three batches of cookies since Millie's been born.  That's almost as much baking as I did the entire time I was pregnant.  Pathetic.  That being said, I felt like superwoman having the energy to bake while caring for a newborn.  Hopefully, more baking will follow soon.  I have a lot of recipes I've been wanting to try. 

5: I think I need a new blog name as I know this blog will now include ramblings about being a new mom, babies, our house updates, as well as whatever baking I am able to do.  So, does anybody have any suggestions?!

A Few Random Tidbits

I've obviously have been slacking on this blog.  Honestly, I have mostly forgotten about it, except for the occasional feeling of guilt for being such a slacker and never updating it.  So, here are a few of my thoughts on life, baking and creating. 

1) Since my last post was about our bun in the oven, I should tell you that bun is a girl!  I am now 23 weeks and thankfully feeling much better than I was early in the pregnancy.  Not a day goes by that I'm not very aware that I am growing a very tiny person inside of me, which is both awesome and totally weird.  I am getting very excited to meet this tiny person in several months.

Baby Girl at 19 Weeks

2) I honestly haven't baked a single thing since April.  It's crazy, I know!  For a while it was because I was feeling so horrible with the pregnancy.  But now, it's more because of a lack of motivation.  Part of that is because I don't have my own kitchen.  We are still living with my husband's family and though I am extremely grateful for the rent free living situation, things are just different for me when I don't have my own space.  I love baking but it's just not as much fun in a kitchen that's not my own.  My lack of baking will change soon as my husband has asked for key lime cake for his birthday in a couple of weeks!

3) With all that being said, the reason we are still living with my husband's family is because we have been saving and hoping to buy a house.  The good news is that we found a house we like and are now under contract on that house!  Hopefully all goes as planned and we will be in our own house mid-October which means there is still time to do some fall baking in my own kitchen!!  I can't tell you how excited I am!

4) I always like having a creative outlet in my life.  Baking has been that outlet but since I haven't been baking I've been feeling the need to create.  So instead I've been knitting a lot.  In the past few years, the only thing that I've knitted are dishcloths here and there to keep my mom and I supplied with the kind we like.  With the baby coming, I thought it might be fun to try to knit a little hat.  I found an awesome book with patterns at Michaels and have been knitting up a storm.  So far I've made two hats and have slowed down a little with the third (mostly because I have now had to start over twice!). 

Baby Beanie #1

Baby Beanie #2

And those are my thoughts at the moment.  Maybe next time I won't wait months before the next post... but don't hold your breath.

I'm 'Baking' Something Special!

I've been a very bad blogger lately.  I swear I have a good reason.  Here it is:

Ultrasound taken at 8 weeks

Yep, it's a baby!  Or a gummy bear.  Or an alien.  I can't quite tell.  Right now, we calling it our 'Gremlin'.  You might find that offensive or odd, we find it rather fitting. 

I've been feeling pretty crappy the past few months.  And the last thing I've wanted to do is be around food because either 1) I feel nauseous and nothing sounds good when I'm nauseous and therefore the last thing I want to do is bake/cook.  Or 2) I'm actually feeling ok for a few minutes or hours and therefore I absolutely have to get stuff done that's been neglected because I feel nauseous most of the time.

Although I just entered the 2nd trimester, I'm still not feeling great.  Sadly, food in general rarely sounds good (but at the moment, I really want a doughnut).  Hopefully, that will change soon and I can get back to baking.  In the meantime, I will continue 'baking' the Gremlin.

Rainbow Chip Cake Pops

Sometimes, I need a change of scenery.  So a month or two ago, a good friend that lives in the Seattle area and I decided we needed to go on an adventure.  This past week, we met up in Charleston, SC where we stayed for about four days.  Neither of us had much money to spend, so we planned our trip as cheaply as possible.  We stayed at Charleston's Notso Hostel and bought all our meals either on Groupon.com or Restaurant.com.  We brought a lot of snacks with us, ate the free breakfast at the Hostel each morning, and did all our sightseeing by walking around the city.  Most days, we only spent about $10.  It was very nice to get away and enjoy just be with a friend. 

My friend's birthday was yesterday, the day after we got back from our trip, so I decided I wanted to make her some birthday cake pops for our trip.  She decided she wanted rainbow chip cake--which I had been wanting to try as a cake pop for a while.  Have you had rainbow chip cake?  It's amazing.  It's not that funfetti stuff--it's much better.  Rainbow chip was always the cake I wanted my mom to make for my birthday growing up!  So if you've never had it, go buy some and make it with rainbow chip frosting! Turns out, rainbow chip cake pops are pretty good, too!

Louisiana Chicken Pasta

I'm always looking for my next good recipe.  I got this recipe off of Annie's Eats, one of my go-to blogs for recipes and ideas.  I'm really into spicy things lately--I'm loving anything with some spice and heat in it--though not too much spice because I am a little bit of a wimp.  So this recipe sounded like a winner when I read it and saw pictures.  And I'm happy to say that it's a keeper!

Louisiana Chicken Pasta
Source: adapted from Annie's Eats
Print Recipe Here

Ingredients:
For the Chicken:
1 pound large boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
Salt and pepper
Cajun seasoning

For the Pasta:
16 ounces bowtie pasta (I used penne)
salt

For the Sauce:
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup yellow onion, chopped
3/4 teaspoon salt
black pepper, to taste
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 cup half and half
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water

Directions:
To cook the chicken, heat a small amount of butter or olive oil and in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Season the chicken with salt and pepper, and a generous sprinkle of Cajun seasoning.  Add to the skillet and cook until lightly browned and cooked through.  Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Bring a pot of salted water to boil.  Cook the pasta according to package directions.  Drain the cooked pasta and set aside.
Meanwhile, return the skillet to medium heat and heat butter and olive oil until butter has melted.  Add the bell peppers and onion to the pan.  Mix in the salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning and cayenne pepper.  Cook until the vegetables are tender, about 6-8 minutes.  Add the half-and-half and heavy cream to the pan and bring to a simmer.  In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and water, and add to the skillet once the cream mixture has started to bubble.  Allow to cook until thickened, about 5 minutes.
When the sauce has thickened, add the cooked pasta and chicken pieces to the pan.  Stir well to combine and cook at medium-low heat just until the chicken is warmed through.  Adjust the amount of Cajun seasoning if necessary to suit your taste.  Top with additional Cajun seasoning if desired.

Amy's Notes:
I made this over two weeks ago.  But now as I am writing this, I really want some again.  This pasta is really good.  It is spicy but not too spicy.  It is great warm but could also be made ahead, chilled and served as a salad.  You could also make it without the chicken for a pasta side dish. I will be making this recipe again soon!

St. Patty's Cake Pops

Remember these green velvet cupcakes I posted yesterday?  They were mini cupcakes and I made 24 of them.  The other half of the cake I made as a nine inch round cake so I could use it for cake pops.  The recipe I used makes more than a normal batch so my round cake was huge!  I ended up making about 40 cake pops from it.  With the cake part of the cake pop being green, I had to go with the theme and make St. Patty's cake pops!

Green Velvet Cupcakes

What better way to celebrate St Patrick's Day than with green cake?!!  How do you make green cake, you ask?  Easy. Make red velvet cake, but add green food coloring instead of red food coloring. Or if you are not a red velvet fan, you might be able to make white cake and add green frosting, but I've never tried it. 
Hope you all have a great St. Patty's Day tomorrow.  And don't forget to wear green!