Mini Burger Cupcakes

I made some mini burger cupcakes for a 4th of July party that ended up being a hit. They're just mini cupcakes sliced in half with a small brownie in the middle.

In other news, we got two ratties this week! They're both really sweet and seem pretty attached to us already, too. Look how sweet Gigi is:

I'm off for Louisiana to visit my brother but I'll post when I'm back in town.

wedding signs

Two of my favorite people got married May ----- Tana (my cousin) and Jess (best friend/college roomie). I got to make some wedding signs for both of them.

Here's a couple shots of me and Tana from her day:

*the high quality photos in this post were taken by jordan burch.

Babka

I tried babka for the first time a few years ago. How had I never had this before?  When a Bon Appetit issue from last year included it, I saved it and promised I'd make it.

A year later, I finally did, and it was so good and fairly easy to make. Bon Appetit's Chocolate-Cinnamon Babkallah recipe here.

I forgot to snap a photo when it was finished and only remembered when half of it was left! Cheers to anything you make that needs braided!

DIY Bridesmaid Dress

photo by Jordan Burch

So what do you do when you're asked to find a mustard yellow bridesmaid dress and you procrastinate? You have a really hard time finding one...even on the internet. Well, I did find one that was very unflattering and overpriced. It would have worked.

I was determined to find another dress, searching at the mall, every boutique in Austin, and all the thrift stores around. No luck. Then one day it struck me - wait, could I dye my own dress?

Yes!

And it was really easy. I used Rit yellow (full package) and a couple tablespoons of tan. I dyed it in the washer and it was foolproof. As long as you follow the directions carefully about dissolving the dye first in hot water and aggitating the water before adding the garment, I don't think you can mess this up.

I had to take the dress in at the waist and all the darts, which was the most challenging part. Silk is a pain to sew (at least for me).

The dress looked pretty good, but it was definitely missing something. I decided some shoulder beading would make it look a little more polished.

Here's the dress before. An off-white silk Ann Taylor dress found at a thrift store for $7.99:

2nd Wedding Anniversary Tiramisu

Eric and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary yesterday. We ate lunch at Odd Duck. The meal was incredibly delicious and I left hardly able to walk after all the food and drinks we had. Poor Eric had to go back to work and I came home and took a nap!

We decided our anniversary traditions should include drinking limoncello and making tiramisu. We opened a bottle of limoncello that we brought back from the bed & breakfast we stayed at during our honeymoon in Italy. The bed & breakfast was set in the mountain above Positano and had a farm on the land. The family made limoncello out of the huge, sweet lemons that grew on their property.

Papa making the limoncello on the patio of the b&b in Montepertuso, Italy.

The tiramisu turned out amazing. I used the recipe from Del Posto. No store bought lady fingers - the sponge cake is made from scratch! I accidentally poured too much of the espresso on the first layer of sponge cake and had to make more. I probably used one & half times the amount of espresso the recipe called for and we loved it. (Note in the recipe it says "Don’t be stingy with the espresso, okay?". No stinginess here!).

More posts this week! I have lots to share from the month of May.

Some old posts that have pictures from our wedding: here, here, & here.

Key Lime Pie

Key Lime Pie for Eric's grandma's 90th (!!!) birthday last month. It was my first time making a key lime pie and it was so-freaking-good. I'm not even a huge key lime pie fan.

I should be back to posting regularly again soon.