Birthday Recipe Recap and Our Registry!

I am so excited to write a post about my birthday weekend. That's right folks, as of now I am officially the big 2-6. I love birthdays because, honestly, when you spend a lot of time dealing with stress at work or the constant battle of keeping your house clean, it's so nice to have one day a year where you can say "I don't care, it's my birthday" and everyone just agrees. So, of course you can lay in your pajamas all day or eat a larger piece of cake than you should - it's your birthday!

I knew that I would be pigging out pretty hardcore with all the food we were preparing so my day started off with a lovely couples trip to the YMCA. Dwayne went to lift in the basement of the Dowd Y while I hit the treadmill for 4 miles of hills. Of course though, not until after we had our protein shakes for breakfast!

After the gym, we ran to the grocery store to stock up on food and to start cooking before everyone arrived at 2. We had quite the load of food!

I started cooking asparagus, homemade macaroni and cheese and always a favorite, Beer Bread. Beer bread is so easy and it tastes so amazingly good! Although I was disappointed because I think I overcooked mine, it was still delicious.



2.5 cups of all purpose flour
2 tsps baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 - 12 oz beer of your choice
Melt 1/2 cup butter and pour over top of the mixture in a bread pan
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean at 375 degrees.

I also decided to make my own birthday cake since I stumbled upon a delicious white cake recipe a few weeks ago and still had all the ingredients.

 I found it on Allrecipes.com - I love this site!!

1 cup white sugar 1/2 cup butter 2 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 cup milk

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2.	In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
3.	Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

While I was cooking inside, Dwayne was firing up the grill outside for chicken, pork and hamburgers.



The boys certainly enjoyed it!

A huge thank you to my friends who got me some of the most wonderful gifts! Many brought me wine or champagne (for after the 30 day little/no alcohol challenge) and my friend Kat got me a cookbook that I cannot wait to break into! My friend Nicole brought me two cupcakes from Gigi's Cupcakes and oh my goodness! They were piled so high with icing, what a treat!!

Needless to say, I had my butt back at the gym on Sunday for 60 minutes of cardio to try and work off the day before but it was so worth it!

We also spent Sunday morning working on stuff for the wedding. We have our program almost all written, discussed possibly honeymoon ideas and started getting at least one aspect of our registry together. One place that we both agreed upon with our registry was Target. Having people from all over the country invited to the wedding, it's important that we have a place that everyone has access to. It's amazing how much stuff you realize that you want when the whole website is in front of you!

We have sent in our Save the Dates to the printer and I can't wait to see a proof of what they will look like. I am so excited!