CUPCAKE SHIRT

I LOVE seeing kiddos in Just Jules outfits! This shirt looked adorable on baby P. Thanks so much to her mom for letting me put a picture of her on my blog! Looks like she had a good first birthday! Jules

NEW DESIGN

Have I ever mentioned how much I love doing birthday outfits? I made this outfit for a good friend of mine. Her baby girl turns one soon. This is a new design for me. I LOVE how it turned out. I really hope my friend likes it. Whatcha think?

Jules

I HEART FACES-"SMILES"

I finally had enough nerve to enter one of my photos in the I heart faces weekly photo challenge. This weeks theme is smiles. I entered one of my favorite photos of my 10 month old baby. I LOVE that you can see his two teeth. This photo was taken 2 months ago and he now has 6 teeth! I love that you can see the slobber on his chin and how this picture just really captures his essence. He is always so pleasant with a happy face on him. Go to http://www.iheartfaces.com/ to see all of the smiley photos. You can't help but grin while browsing through them. Here is my photo entry:

BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE TORTE

Iheartfaces.com is a website that I have recently discovered. It is a photography website where you can enter a photograph each week corresponding to the theme. This week is all about desserts. I have never really had enough nerve to enter any of my photos but this week is sort of a bye week if you will. They are not judging any photos this week-it is just for fun. I figured with my love of baking and my love of photography then this is a perfect week for me!

Anyone who knows me knows I am a chocoholic. There is a recipe I have been eyeing for a long time called bittersweet chocolate torte. Just by chance, I am bringing a dessert to an event tonight so I thought why not finally try this recipe and photograph it as well.

BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE TORTE: ingredients:

8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

3/4 C. unsalted butter, softened

3/4 C. sugar
7 eggs, separated, at room temp.

1 1/2 C. ground nuts, such as almonds, walnuts, toasted hazelnuts, or pecans (I used pecans)

2 C. Chocolate Ganache (recipe below)

GARNISH:

1 C. finely chopped nuts (optional)

1 1/2 C. powdered sugar

1 egg yolk

3-4 drops lemon juice

CHOCOLATE GANACHE:

1 C. whipping cream

10 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1-2 TBS. Grand Marnier ( I didn't use this)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 10 inch springform pan (with 3 inch sides). Line bottom of pan with parchment or waxed paper. Butter paper and dust with flour, tapping to cover, Discard excess flour.

In top of a double broiler, over simmering water, melt chocolate until smooth. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. I don't have a double broiler so I just used the good ol' micro. Heated it for 3 minutes and it was perfectly smooth chocolate. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add egg yolks, 1 at time, blending well after each addition. Beat in cooled chocolate and 1 1/2 C. ground nuts.

Hungry yet? In separate large bowl, beat egg whites until stiff and glossy but not dry.

Using a rubber spatula, gently, but thoroughly, fold egg whites into chocolate mixture. Pour into prepared pan and smooth top.

Bake until the tip puffs and crust forms, 40-50 minutes. Do not overbake. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Turn out onto wire rack and cool thoroughly. Peel off paper. Transfer to serving plate and spread warmed chocolate ganache over top and sides. Garnish with 1 C. finely chopped nuts, if desired, pressing into sides. In small bowl, combine powdered sugar, egg yolk, and lemon juice. Stir until smooth and transfer to pastry bag, fitted with a very narrow tip. I just used a plastic baggie and cut a hole in the corner. Pipe a spiral pattern on the top of torte. Using a thin bladed knife, drag 8 equidistant lines from center to outside edge. Repeat between each line, dragging the opposite direction.

Chocolate Ganache:

In saucepan, scald cream by heating to just below boiling . Remove from heat and gently stir in chopped chocolate.

Stir until smooth and chocolate is thoroughly melted. Cool to room temp.

Okay, okay.....I am REALLY disappointed with how this torte turned out (looks wise). My powdered sugar mixture was probably to thin and it spread too much while I was piping it on the cake. Let's just hope it tastes good!

IN LOVING MEMORY

Today's post is dedicated to my sweet Grandmother who passed away last night, March 18, 2010, just a few days after her 87th birthday.

She was a mother, daughter, aunt, sister, friend, Grandmother and Great grandmother. She wasn't your typical tea sipping, blanket crocheting Grandma. She was so full of life and ALWAYS the life of the party. Even well into her 80's. She was a true Italian beauty. Just look at her skin and dark hair. Even on her death bed she looked pretty. Barely any wrinkles! I always loved her widow's peak and luckily I inherited that from her as did my cousin, David.

Grandma.....I'll always remember your thrift store fashion shows, your birds nests, your Italian cooking, your zest for life, your driving skills (scary), your laughter, your always willingness to have a good time, the way you always had one slice of Italian toast for breakfast dipped in coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other, your obsession with Young and the Restless back in the day, on my wedding day when you told my new husband "that if he messed with your Granddaughter you were gonna give him one of these" while holding your fist up to his face. Haha this is making me laugh out loud right now!!! Most importantly I will remember the way you treated me. Out of 5 Grandchildren, I was your only Granddaughter and you always made me feel special. You would always introduce me as your "only Granddaughter". I will miss you terribly and your legacy will live on!

When a family member or a loved one dies it sort of throws you into reality and makes you think about what you want in this life and what you want to be remembered for. We are only given a short # of years on this earth and we need to make them count. It made me think about how unimportant money and "things" are. You can't take that stuff with you. I don't want to be remembered for my awesome designer jeans or how much money I had. I would like to be remembered for being a good, loving person who made a difference in people's lives. This, fortunately is how I remember my Gram. We need to remember to tell the people that we love how much we love them more often. We need to try to not sweat the small stuff because it isn't important in the grand scheme of things.

Here is to a life well lived. I love you so much. Thanks for all of the memories. Till we meet again someday....

Below is a picture of all 4 of her Grandsons who she was so proud of!
All 5 Grand kids all together for my wedding weekend.

SPRING BREAK

Wow! It is early. This is my FAVORITE time of day. It's not really early in my standards but in most people's standards it is. It is 5:58 am. and the house is so quiet that I could hear a pin drop. This is a really strange sound at my house......quietness. Soon all the kids will be up running around asking me to make breakfast and the baby will want his bottle and the day will have to begin.

It is Spring Break and I am desperately trying to find things for the kids to do to make spring break fun. It stinks that the weather is not very good. Taking them to the gym for an hour a day isn't cutting it!

I haven't been sewing or blogging much lately because I have been really busy. My cousin has been in town for the past week. It is always so great to see family members that you don't get to see very often. I only get to see him once every couple of years if that. We had a lot of fun catching up, eating good food and drinking to much wine! Here is a picture of the two of us that I really loved.

Here are the pictures of the last project that I just finished up. It is a first birthday shirt. I love doing birthday onesies. They are so much fun. The person who ordered this shirt from me hasn't seen this shirt yet, in fact, she just wanted me to do a shirt and she said she didn't care what I did with it! I really hope she likes it!

Jules

KANSAS CITY STAR!

This is the picture that was in the Kansas City Star this morning! I didn't even know it was in there until someone face booked me about it. Apparently someone took this picture at Addie Rose Boutique. This is just one of the several photos of children's clothing that was featured in the FYI section. To bad it didn't mention my blog site. Oh well-it's still exciting! You can go to www.kansascitystar.com and see all of the adorable kid's clothing.

Jules