Lemon Sandwich Cookies

Birthday cupcakes around my office are kind of a tradition; my friend Evan and I pump out cupcakes for almost every birthday. So naturally, when one of my closest friends (not only at the office, but in all of the Tampa Bay Area) turned 26, I'm sure my co-workers expected cupcakes. What they don't know is Vanessa has been bombarded with variations of Evan and my lemon cupcakes as of late, in preparation for her wedding. Two things I suppose I should clarify:

1. Evan and I are baking all of the cupcakes and the wedding cake for Vanessa's September wedding. 
2. Lemon desserts are Vanessa's favorite.

In an effort to keep Vanessa from hating lemon cupcakes before her wedding day, I turned to Google to switch things up. I searched the web for "easy lemon desserts" where I found this great cookie recipe for which I had all the ingredients--this was of paramount importance because, let's be real, I was (still am) coming down with the plague and did not want to go tote a toddler around Publix. Yes, last night I baked for my co-workers while sick, sanitary, I know.

After putting Mila to bed and scrubbing and sanitizing both my entire kitchen and myself, I went to work. Ingredient number one, cornmeal. Perfect, I am a cornmeal snob. My cornmeal is stone ground in Helen, Georgia, and delivered to me by my mommy. This is the cornmeal she uses to make her cornbread and the only kind to use, in my opinion. So to the cupboard I went, looking for my bag of cornmeal.Voilà! I took out the bag, so proud of its contents, opened it and EWWWWW!

Mealworms.

Ryan to the rescue! He removed the bag and disposed of it in the outside trash, leaving me heartbroken, ashamed of my pretentiousness, feeling like bugs were crawling all over my body and with the task of emptying out the whole cupboard, checking all the food and disinfecting. So I did. After re-scrubbing and re-sanitizing both my entire kitchen and myself, I went back to work.

No cornmeal, what to do? Pancake mix. Okay, not really the same thing but Evan swears by it in her cookies, it's bound to work here too, right? I measured out the pancake mix and added a teaspoon of salt then opened a different cupboard to retrieve the flour when I noticed a box of cornbread mix. Cornbread mix has cornmeal in it! I scrapped the pancake and salt mixture and started again.

Things went smoothly from that point. I finished making the dough, got the cookies in the oven and refocused on starting the filling. Remember these are sandwich cookies, they require filling! Ryan had been helping in the kitchen all night, since there was so much cleaning going on. In my delirious, foggy sickness I told Ryan I was done with the fresh squeezed lemon juice so he dumped it and washed the bowl. Crap. No lemon juice. I opened the refrigerator in desperation. BOOM. Lemon curd. Thank God.

Moral of the story? Cornbread mix and lemon curd saved these cookies and made them absolutely delicious. I will never make them without either of these ingredients.

Lemon Sandwich Cookies

By the way, "Cookie Man" stopped by our office today. He's a middle-aged, white-haired hippie with Harry Potter glasses who sells homemade cookies to our staff biweekly. Vanessa let him try one of these Frankenstein cookies--let's just say, I impressed someone who's nickname is "Cookie Man" with these babies!

My Lemon Sammies vs. Cookie Man's Death by Chocolate

♥A

Mila's 1st Birthday Party

As you know, I have been very excited about planning Mila's first birthday party. We decided on a mermaid theme and wanted to focus on using the colors mint, coral, silver and gold. I tried to be thoughtful about incorporating the theme, from the toothpicks with little shells attached to the tops, to the oyster macaroons, to the beach bucket party favors. Luckily for us, it's summer time and the colors we picked are trending right now, so everything seemed to fall into place nicely. After spending so much time planning, you can imagine how thrilled I was to be voted Best Decorations by PartyPail.com!

The first thing I picked out was Mila's outfit. I ordered that back in April. Shortly after (maybe even the same day) I found her invitations, which were like a sign that this was the perfect theme and color combination. Someone actually asked me if I planned the party around the invitations--I didn't, I just got lucky to find something that so appropriately complimented my vision!

Custom Mermaid Outfit for Mila

Mint Maxi Dress for Mom

Mermaid Invitations and Printables

Because I love to bake, the dessert table was a huge focus the entire planning process. I knew I wanted to have it inside on the bar so that it would greet people as they walked in, but this meant limited space. the top of my bar has two built in ice buckets that take up about a quarter of the surface, so I had to pick a few desserts that would make a big impact.

Four layer butter cake with vanilla buttercream frosting

studded with chocolate pearls

Chocolate cupcakes with mint-colored vanilla buttercream frosting 

and printable toppers

Vanilla "oyster" macaroons by Cassis American Brasserie

Peanut butter "Sand Dollar" cookies

I wanted to keep food simple since the dessert table was quite labor intensive, so I went with some of my favorite crowd pleasers: pulled pork, dry-rub ribs, quiche, potato salad and fruit salad.

You may not know this about me, but I hate tacky party games. Unless Mila comes crying to me about wanting to play Pin the Tail on the Donkey at her birthday party, it's not going to happen. Naturally, I had zero games planned for Mila's first birthday. However, with the help of Charlie Coco's I did set up a headband and clip making station so that Mila's guests could make her a headband or clip. It ended up being a huge success. I couldn't be more happy with the outcome; not to mention, Charlie Coco's owner, Amber, is an absolute delight to work with!

We kept the decorations to a minimum but used them to help carry the theme and make the party cohesive. 

Paper Straws

I was thrilled with how everything turned out for Mila's party and by how the day went. Everyone was happy and really seemed to enjoy themselves, especially Mila. She was particularly excited about her sugar free chocolate smash cake with whipped cream.

Birthday Crown

"One" Onesie (I would not recommend buying this product or purchasing from this store, ever)

Oh, and swinging, she loves swinging.

Now, to start planning next year's party. I'll give you a hint about the theme, her second birthday will be her "golden" birthday since she was born on the second. Gold. Everything.

Happy 1st Birthday again, Mila Joan. I love you more than I ever knew to be possible.

♥A

Mila's 1st Birthday: Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Mila woke as usual, around 7:30AM. Normally I walk into her bedroom singing the "Good Morning" song but, appropriately, switched it to "Happy Birthday" followed by lots of clapping.

We got Mila ready for the day and dropped her off at Miss Emily's house (our in-home day care facility) by 8:30AM. I made sugar-free chocolate cupcakes with a strawberry filling and whipped cream to send for Mila and her friends at day-care. They also enjoyed a field trip to Great Explorations Children's Museum in honor of Mila's birthday.

Ryan worked from home on Mila's birthday so he was there when we arrived home from work and day-care. Ryan and I shared a beer and played in the backyard with Mila and Jonah.

As it got later, we decided to try to make it to the beach for the sunset. Unfortunately, it was much to cloudy for that, but the beach was vacant and beautiful--perfect for letting Mila run around.

We got home to Shepard's Pie and more cupcakes. We sang to Mila and helped her blow out her candle before letting her tear into it.

Such a quiet, simple day, but it was perfect for us. It was nice to spend an intimate evening together as a family of three (four if you include Jonah); although, I'm kicking myself for not taking the day off from work. I know Mila won't remember, but I promised her I will never work again on her birthday. As a child with a birthday smack in the middle of summer vacation, she'll never have balloons or flowers sent to her class in the middle of the school day as my parents had done for me. I'll have to find my own ways of making her feel special on her birthday, and taking the day off will certainly be a step in the right direction.

♥A

Mila's 12 Month Pictures

We haven't done professional pictures with Mila since she was born--and those were half-assed and partly unwanted (I don't mean to sound ungrateful, read the whole story here). Mila's first birthday marked a very special occasion and we really wanted to get it on film, so the Sunday before Mila's first birthday we met with Kate from Katogenic Photography at our house for pictures. We finished off the session by heading to our favorite beach approach, it was the perfect morning for pictures. We are so grateful to have had the chance to work with Kate, we assure you, it won't be the last time. Here are just a few of the fabulous pictures she took:

♥A