Happy 16th Birthday Remy!

Happy 16th birthday in Heaven sweet boy. I hope you and Jack are eating blueberries, tomatoes and catching lots of squirrels.

We miss you so, so much.

By the way, your tomatoes are doing great! Thanks for the sign.

Happy Birthday Nasjoon!!!

Happy 24th birthday, Naseemjoon! We love you so much!!!! 

Happy Golden Birthday Nasjoon!!!

 

Happy 23rd birthday Nasjoon!

We love you so much!!!

 

Happy 21st Birthday MattyBoo!

 

Happy, happy 21st birthday Mattyboo!!!!!

 

We LOVE you SO MUCH!!!!

December to Remember

December 2016 flew by! Here's what we were up to:

On December 3, we attended the Physical Plant Christmas Celebration. My coworker Sandy and I had been planning the party for months. It was wonderful and our most successful party so far!

 

 

On December 4th, Omid and I headed up to Seattle for a Seahawks game!

We got to sit in a field box!
We saw Marshawn Lynch outside of Century Link Field right before we went in.
He was wearing flip flops.

It was a very cold day and evening.
Also....the Seahawks beat the Carolina Panthers!

Sea-Hawk

I had a birthday on December 11th!

#frangipaneflowerlei #turquoisebirthdaycake

 

 

On December 19th, I attended the UP Christmas luncheon and took selfies with friends!

 

Christmas day was spent in Olympia with family.

Cousins!

#sisters

#Christmasselfie

Happy 12th Birthday Remy!!!

 

 

Happy 12th birthday to our favorite pooch!!

 

Remy started his birthday off with his traditional birthday breakfast: a bowl of freshly picked blueberries from Meadowglenn Farms and a dollop of whipped cream.

 

Happy birthday Remyjoon! We love you oh so much!!!

Omid's Birthday Weekend!

Last week, Naseem surprised Omid with a visit for his birthday!
We packed as much celebrating in as we could for her short visit.

First stop: Amnesia Brewing for birthday beer!

 

Matty had the next day off, so we went to our favorite biscuit joint for breakfast: Pine State Biscuits!

The final stop was for Pip's Original Donuts! Tourists visit VooDoo Donuts, locals go to Pips!!!

Pure donut bliss!!!!

Pip's to go!

Thanks Naseemjoon for the birthday visit for Dad! The best present ever!!! ♥

Happy 21st Birthday Naseemjoon!!!

Look who is 21 today!!

 

Happy Birthday Remy!!!!!

 

 

 

Remy is TEN today!!!

 

 

 

Happy birthday Remy!!! We love you LOTS!!!! ♥♥♥

Make This!!!

  

Banana Cake with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting!

It's no secret that we love banana flavored desserts in our house: banana bread, banana cream pie, banana tarts, monkey bars. These desserts are all on a regular rotation here.

While looking for a new way to incorporate bananas in our dessert line up, I came upon this yummy sounding cake on Pinterest. It was everything I hoped it would be and more!

We are not big fans of buttercream frosting. We either scrape it off or eat the cake around it, leaving a frosting shell on the plate. The cinnamon buttercream intrigued me enough that I was willing to sacrifice a cup of butter for the cause. The result: GOOD STUFF!

Make this cake! It's delicious and everyone will be oohing and ahhing over how delicious it is; and also wonder why didn't they think to bake banana bread in cake pans and frost it with cinnamon buttercream!?

Note: The cake batter is very dense, even more so than banana bread batter as there is no milk in it. I used cake flour instead of all purpose flour to give it more of a cake-like consistency.

Banana Cake with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting by Shugary Sweets

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

3 bananas

1 3/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Frosting:

1 cup butter, softened

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

2-3 T milk

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease two 9 inch cake pans.

Blend butter and sugar until creamy. Add egg and vanilla, beat until combined. Blend in bananas. Add in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Divide batter in half and pour into cake pans. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. Remove and cool. Let cake cool in pans 10 minutes, then flip onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

For the frosting, beat butter until fluffy. Add in powdered sugar and cinnamon. Add milk. Beat for 5 minutes until desired consistency.

Frost, eat & enjoy!

Happy Birthday Remy!!

Happy 9th birthday Remy!!!

We love you lots!!!♥

Happy Birthday Naseem!!!

 

 

HAPPY 19TH BIRTHDAY

NASEEMJOON!!!!

 

 

 WE LOVE YOU LOTS!!!

 

Happy Birthday Matty!!!

 

HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY MATTYBOO!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

 

The days are long, but the years are short. - Gretchen Rubin

 

How true is that quote!

I would give anything to turn back time & revisit the kids' early years.

 

Intrigued by large foliage!

Dog lover!

An all around great kid!

Surprise!

Our friend Kristi organized a surprise party for her husband Trevor last night. We all met at Lin's & walked across the stree to Kristi & Trevor's house. Kristi left the door unlocked & we barged right in singing 'happy birthday' at the top of our lungs. Trevor was so surprised!  

 

Omid, Ward & Jeff did all the cooking. Omid & Ward put the Persian touch to the meal and made koobideh, jujeh kabob, grilled tomatoes, Persian rice, mast-o-khiar and salad Shirazi. Jeff smoked a pecan pie and baked a buttermilk pie. The food was 'out of this world' amazing!

Kristi & Trevor
Happy birthday Trevor!

Kristi, Ward & Trevor

Omid's homemade hibachi for kabobs.

Yummo!

Matt, Matty & Austin

Lia , Amy & Austin

The Three Amigos!

Omid, Sparky & Trevor
Fun fact: Sparky watches tv. So cute!!

Friends

Happy birthday Remy!!!!

Remy is 8 today!

Happy birthday to our favorite pooch!!

We love you!!!

Make This!!

I made Matty a delicious chocolate cake for his bday. The icing on the cake (literally!) was the dark chocolate ganache. Super yummy! Tired of being stuck in a cake decorating rut, I copied the Farm Chicks idea of adding cake flags instead of the usual sprinkles.

Here is the recipe for dark chocolate ganache frosting. Make it!!! Click on this link if you want the dark chocolate cake recipe too (I just used a cake mix). :)

10 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
¾ cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

Place the chopped chocolate in a large mixing bowl. In a small saucepan, warm the cream over medium heat until it boils. Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate. Let it stand for 1 minute, then stir together well using a rubber spatula, whisk, or immersion blender until very smooth. Add the vanilla extract and mix in completely.

Cover the ganache mixture tightly with plastic wrap and cool to room temperature. Chill in the refrigerator until the mixture is firm but pliable. A good test is to press a finger into the mixture. If it takes the indentation of your finger easily, it’s at the right point. If the ganache is too soft, it will feel runny; if it is too firm, it will be hard to press your finger in it. If the ganache is too firm, let it stand at room temperature until it is soft enough to use.
Place the butter in the bowl of an electric stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl. Using the flat beater attachment or a hand-held mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until it is fluffy. Add the ganache in two or three stages and beat until the mixture holds soft peaks, 1 to 2 minutes. As the ganache beats, it becomes lighter in color. Don’t beat the ganache too long or it may separate and curdle.
Use a small offset spatula, a rubber spatula, or a spoon to spread the top of each cupcake with ganache frosting.

Sweet 16!

Happy 16th birthday Naseemjoon!!!

We love you!!

Happy Birthday Matty!

Can't believe this boy is 14! Happy birthday Matty! We love you!