Asheville

This past weekend, we headed up to Asheville to see our friends Reiss & Jane get married. Will & Reiss have been friends since they were really little & Will was honored to be a groomsmen. We had a blast celebrating the two of them and exploring the quirky town of Asheville. Unfortunately its a haul from Wilmington (6 ish hour drive) so we didn't get to spend as much time exploring as we would have liked. We'll be back for ya, Asheville.

I'm still learning more about photography and using the Canon 5D Mark II. Here are a few shots I took this weekend (with a few of Will's shots mixed in).

Naturally we found a wonderful, local coffee shop called High Five Coffee. I had a wonderful cup of peppermint tea & we sat outside, enjoying the mountain air.

iphone picture from the wedding-- really regretting not bringing the Canon for the wedding & reception! Everything was beautiful!

I loved all the musicians on every corner in downtown Asheville!

While waiting for brunch at Mayfels (highly recommended), I snapped this picture of Will. It's so fun traveling with him & being his date to weddings! Can't wait to come back to Asheville.

Trip to Charlotte

We had such a wonderful, busy weekend in Charlotte! As always, it was so much fun to spend time with family and friends. We packed a lot into one weekend and we definitely felt it yesterday, but wouldn't trade all the fun we had.

After I finished work on Friday (Will was off), we hit the road. The drive to Charlotte is always one we dread because you go through little towns and the speed limit goes from 70 to 45 to 35 over and over again. This time, though, we just enjoyed driving together and catching up on the weeks events. The sunset was beautiful and made the ride even more enjoyable.

Saturday, we started off the day with coffee and delicious baked goods at the 7th Street Market. If you live in Charlotte, you should check it out. Either way you should read about it here. Will had heard of a great coffee place called Not Just Coffee and they have pour over; he'd been dying to try it so we invited my brother and sister-in-law to join us. I was so impressed with the market and ever since have been talking about how I wish we had one here in Wilmington. The market also had bakeries, a variety of cheeses, wines, fresh seafood and a little shop that sold tea and spices! 

We got food from Local Loaf which was delicious. Adam & Will had this southern chicken biscuit with a cheerwine & honey sauce. It.was.so.good. I (as always) chose to go for a sweet bread option and got the cranberry scone, which was also yummy!

We hurried back to my parent's house to get ready for the wedding of a long time family friend, Allie. Growing up Allie's younger brother, Jimmy, was my best friend in the neighborhood so naturally I spent a lot of time with her as well. The wedding was so beautiful and there was so much joy and happiness. I'm such a sucker for weddings. The story about Jimmy is a long one, but lets just say that he is a living miracle and when I saw him escort his mom down that aisle, I was fighting back tears. We love their family & are so thrilled for Allie & Joe!

I may be a little bias, but pretty sure my date was the best looking man there. It is truly an honor to be his forever date. 

My sassy Grannie looking beautiful! As we were loading her oxygen tanks into the car my mom said something about how she {Grannie} would probably leave early & my Grannie responded, "who says?! I might stay the whole time!" She insisted that we take enough oxygen just in case and let me tell you, that lady partied til almost the very end! She was dancing and everything. Also, as someone walked into the wedding they introduced Grannie as "Grannie" and said "she's everyone's grandmother," so so true. Love this sweet lady.

Somehow my dad missed all the pictures. Pretty sure he was going to get the car to pick up Grannie, such a good man!

There was a pretty long break between the wedding and the reception so Will and I explored downtown for an hour or two. There just happened to be a bbq and blues festival going on down the street so we stopped in to sample some bbq. We were definitely way over dressed for the occasion but we had so much fun! The mac n' cheese was delicious and the perfect pre-course to the reception meal (go big or go home, right?). 

 The reception was gorgeous and we enjoyed time outside for cocktails. It was cool and crisp, the perfect weather for a fall wedding!

Beautiful Carolina sunset.

 y'all, this boy loves sparklers. and dancing.

We had a blast at the wedding and catching up with family and friends! Its hard living away from my family, but I'm thankful its short enough that we can make weekend trips to visit. Already looking forward to the next trip!

Chocolate cupcakes with coffee buttercream icing

I've never really gotten into the cupcake craze; I've always preferred to bake cakes or pies, but yesterday I gave a go at it. 

We had a 50th birthday celebration at work today for one of our nurses & I was assigned dessert. Since my coworker loves coffee, I decided to incorporate that into the cupcakes. 
Since I don't like chocolate or coffee, I had no clue if these tasted good. I called in my trusty quality control and he confirmed that they were in fact edible and, moreover, "delicious!"

So y'all should give cupcakes a chance too. Its my personal opinion that cupcake bakeries are a fad, just like the fro-yo places, but hey, they taste pretty good so I'll won't object too much.

Chocolate cupcakes (adapted from joyofbaking.com)

1/2 c. cocoa powder
1 c. boiling water
1 1/3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick unsalted butter
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Once the water comes to a boil, mix the water and the cocoa powder stirring until dissolved. Set aside. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt. Cream together the butter and sugar in your mixer making sure that it becomes fluffy. Then, add the eggs one at a time. Once those have been incorporated, add the vanilla extract. Mix in the dry ingredients until blended. Finally, stir in (by hand) the cocoa concoction, which has hopefully cooled by now. Pour into 16 lined muffin tins filling them about halfway or so. Bake at 375 for 16-20 min. I always set my timer for well below and then continue to check it so that they do not over brown. 

Once the cupcakes have come out of the oven, set to the side and let them cool.

Coffee Buttercream Icing
1/2 c. butter, room temp
1 1/2 c. confectioners sugar (powder sugar), sifted
1-2 T. coffee (ground very finely) or just instant coffee
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Cream the butter and sugar together. Adding the coffee, followed by the vanilla extract. Taste to make sure its not too strong of a coffee flavor. I used more like 2 T. of coffee but no one thought it was too strong and it pairs nicely with the chocolate.

** Joyofbaking.com had suggested using dutch cocoa, but I adapted the recipe to use just regular cocoa. Her recipe called for 1/2 c. dutch cocoa and 2 tsp. baking powder. I did some research and when you want to swap these two, you have to change around baking powder with baking soda. Use the same amount of cocoa, but if using regular cocoa use baking soda and only half the amount, therefore 1 tsp.

*Photo cred: my incredibly talented husband

Hello, 2013!

So I've been really slack about posting. You know why? Will has been OFF!! Its seriously been the best thing ever and clearly I have chosen time with my favorite person over blogging.

We had a wonderful Christmas & a friend-filled New Years. Our first Christmas together was a blast & my favorite part was cooking and hosting for family and friends.

Here's a very brief recap via pictures:

we made a quick trip through chapel hill & visited all of our favorite spots, including Cafe Driade for coffee/tea

we cooked (and cleaned) our first turkey- it was successful!

hello yummy peanut-butter apple pie:

we had family and friends over for brunch:

even patty had a good Christmas:

cast iron skillets can give 2nd degree burns, as i learned on Christmas Eve

a visit to Charlotte to see my family & continue the poppers tradition (she's just the cutest):

reunited with sweet friends:

bowling with my family where my dad whipped out his old bowling team skills:

gingerbread tradition lives on again, cottage style this year :

will enjoyed time off & scaring me with this duck:

ringing in the new year with my love:

and lots of wonderful friends:

and Will continues his outdoor adventures:

We were blessed with a wonderful Christmas and so enjoyed quality time with all of the people we love the most. Looking forward to 2013 and all that it brings!