Cherry Pie

My husband's favorite pie is cherry. I love to cook and bake, but I've never made one before. I think the crust intimidates me. So instead of being intimidated...I cheated and bought a premade dough. Who cares right!? I suprised Zac and he LOVED it. He ate the whole pie in two days.

Here are some fun photos I snapped. I was proud of my "homemade" pie.

Here is the recipe I used courtesy of Food Network.

Ingredients

4 cups fresh or frozen tart cherries

1 to 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 tablespoons cornstarch

1/8 tablespoon almond extract (optional)

Your favorite pie crust or pie dough recipe for 2 crust pie

1 1/2 tablespoons butter, to dot

1 tablespoon granulated sugar, to sprinkle

Directions

Place cherries in medium saucepan and place over heat. Cover. After the cherries lose considerable juice, which may take a few minutes, remove from heat. In a small bowl, mix the sugar and cornstarch together. Pour this mixture into the hot cherries and mix well. Add the almond extract, if desired, and mix. Return the mixture to the stove and cook over low heat until thickened, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and let cool. If the filling is too thick, add a little water, too thin, add a little more cornstarch. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Use your favorite pie dough recipe. Prepare your crust. Divide in half. Roll out each piece large enough to fit into an 8 to 9-inch pan. Pour cooled cherry mixture into the crust. Dot with butter. Moisten edge of bottom crust. Place top crust on and flute the edge of the pie. Make a slit in the middle of the crust for steam to escape. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake for about 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and place on a rack to cool.

22 Weeks

I know I don't post a weekly bump picture, but I am taking them- trust me. It will be fun someday to look back at how my bump (among other things) grew throughout the pregnancy. Ha!
Usually Zac takes my photo in front of the chalkboard, but this week we went to a Cardinals game so we thought it would be fun to take the 22 week photo at the ball park. The game went into 19 innings and the Cardinals lost, but we left around the 12 inning or so. The baby kicked a lot during the game. I wonder if that means he's going to root for the Cards or not? Probably not if his Dad has anything to say about it.

VitaTop Knock Offs

I'm not sure if you're familiar with this product or not but let me tell you, they are delish. One major pro are the nutrition stats. One major con is the price. I think they are around $6 at Whole Foods for only FOUR muffin tops. YUCK! I found a copycat recipe on Pinterest last week. They were really easy to make and delicious. I brought them into work to share with my friends and I ate one for breakfast everyday for a week. They are really filling.


This recipe is courtesy of dashingdish.


Ingredients
1 3/4 C oats
3 egg whites
3/4 unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 C unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C plain greek yogurt
1/2 t cream of tartar OR 1-1/2 T of vinegar
1 1/2 t baking powder
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/4 C plus 2 T of Truvia natural sugar substitute
1 C hot water
1/2 C semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350
Put all ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth
You can use two muffin tins and make mini muffin tops or just make one full pan of 12 muffins
Evenly fill the muffin tins and then sprinkle with a few of the chocolate chips into each batter
Bake for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and top each muffin with remaining chocolate chips. Put back into the oven and bake for another 2-5 minutes.

Shellac

It lasts around two weeks. The result is the look of fake nails without the fake nails. Totally worth it. Pricing varies between $25 and $35 depending on where you go and where you live. I paid $25 and chose a light pink color.

Homemade Tomato Basil Hummus

I highly recommend making your own hummus. It's fast and easy. Tonight I made a tomato basil version.

Here is the recipe

1 can of garbanzo beans drained and rinsed

1 cup of tomatoes chopped

1 small bunch of basil

1/2 C shredded mozzarella

1 t salt

1 t pepper

1 t garlic salt

1 C to 1 and 1/4 C olive oil

1 or 2 T balsamic vinegar

Process all ingredients together, but wait until the end to add the olive oil. While the hummus is processing, slowly stream in olive oil. Use as much as you want depending on the consistency you are looking for. I used about a 3/4 of a cup because I like mine a little thicker. I also added some balsamic vinegar. This is optional, but I think it adds a little something extra.

Baby Deets is a BOY!

A little over a week ago Zac snapped this shot of me. I've been taking weekly bump photos so we can look back and see how much I changed through the pregnancy. This shot was extra exciting because we knew that very soon it wouldn't be a mystery much longer.

We wanted to do something extra special for the gender reveal so we decided to keep it a secret at the doctor's office. We had the ultra sound technician seal the gender in an envelope.



We took the envelope directly to our local bakery. They were asked to prepare cupcakes and fill the middle with pink or blue frosting. Props to Heaven Scent bakery because they busted the cupcakes out in one hour!



We drove 4 1/2 hours to our hometown to do the big reveal with our parents and siblings. It was such an incredible way to reveal the gender of Baby Deets! Zac and I took a bite with everyone watching and Ta Da!!! baby Deets is a BOY! We couldn't be happier. Most important, he is HEALTHY. We feel extremely blessed.