Pumpkin and Spice

I'm pretty sure it's a scientific fact that a pina colada is the most summery drink ever created. Icy and frozen, creamy, coconutty with a hint of pineapple, it practically begs to be sipped with your toes in the sand and the sound of crashing waves and rustling palm trees in the background. It's so perfectly tropical, so fantasically summery that it would be next to impossible to beat a freshly blended pina colada...

... Unless you drank your pina colada while eating a pina colada cupcake. For my birthday party, I knew I wanted my birthday cupcakes to be a flavor that would perfectly sum up the Hawaiian Tiki theme- And I knew nothing would fit the bill better than a cupcake that encompassed all the deliciousness of my favorite tropical drink.

I don't know if I've suddenly become more popular, or if maybe summer's just a naturally busy time for everyone, but my calendar has been jam-packed lately. My birthday was June 1st, which was a Monday, so, of course, I got to celebrate the weekend before and the weekend after (which happens to be when my sister-in-law's birthday is, so we shared that weekend this year.) I've also  just started training at my new job, which means my schedule has been all over as I get trained for all possible positions. I'm going to be the "head" cake decorator, which is a nice 8:00-4:00 gig, but I need to know how to close and open as well, for when people are out on vacations, sick, &c. Nothing's terribly difficult, but I've had to train on the 5am shift, which (as I'm sure you're all aware by now) is not exactly in line with my natural sleep schedule, which tends to skew towards the night-owl side of things. Luckily, work is literally only a mile and a half away, so commute time is minimal and if I lay my clothes out and set the coffee maker up the night before, I can "sleep in" until 4:15am. That won't be my regular shift, but it's been kicking my butt in the meantime.

Anyway- Last weekend I had my birthday party. Now I love a good theme party, and I love the process of planning a party, so I kept myself pretty busy with the party preparations. I've been in a tropical mood lately, so I decided it would be a blast to have a Hawaiian Tiki Party! Our apartment complex has a cabana by the pool that's available to rent for parties, so we rented the cabana and decorated it with hibiscus flowers and colorful tropical decorations. The plan was for people to also be able to swim, but of course, it was raining and lightning, so that was nixed. The cabana was covered, though, so we didn't let the rain put a damper on our tiki spirit. (And honestly, after enough pina coladas, I don't think anyone cared about the weather!)

My hair has, at various points, been about every color known to Lady Clairol- red, auburn, strawberry blonde, light brown, dark brown, purple, black, and even platinum blonde. You'd think I'd be able to answer with some authority the age old question, "Do blondes have more fun?" Well, I don't know about that... but I do know that you'll have fun (blonde or not) baking and eating these blondies!

As you probably know, blondies are moist, butterscotch-flavored, cake-like bar cookies. As yummy as blondies are, they still tend to play second fiddle to their ooey-gooey chocolate cousin, the brownie. No more! My blondies are a cross between a traditional blondie and a chocolate chip cookie. Moist blondie, flavored with vanilla and plenty of dark brown sugar, and jam-packed with every sort of chocolate imaginable- dark, milk, white and semi-sweet! To keep the sweetness from being too overwhelming, I use the largest proportion of the dark chocolates, and add a "secret" ingredient- coarse sea salt. Since the salt is a little chunky, it doesn't fully dissolve into the batter, so as you eat the blondies, you occasionally get a little pop of salt! I don't know about you, but I love the contrast of a little salt to the sweetness of chocolate.

It has been a busy week! My mom was recently in Orlando for a conference, so she came a few days early and spent some time with Kyle and I doing fun touristy kinda things. Most notably, we went to the zoo, where we fed giraffes... (That's my mom feeding the giraffe. They ate a rye cracker- it looked an awful lot like a Wasa cracker.)

Personally, I'm a big fan of the turkey burger. Kyle and I don't eat much beef (we do eat it, on occasion, but we tend to eat a lot more seafood and poultry), plus turkey burgers tend to be much lower in fat and calories than their beef counterparts. The problem that turkey burgers sometimes run into is that they can be a little dry, and occasionally bland.

Well, I don't mean to brag, but I make a pretty wicked turkey burger- juicy, flavorful, and packed with yummy bits. Spinach, caramelized onions, herbs, parmesan cheese... these babies have it all! Oh, and they're totally kid-approved! We had a friend and her daughters over for dinner, and the 5 year-old ate a burger and a half!