recipe: valentine's Day sugar cookies & royal icing

yum! sugar cookies and icing, there is nothing better to eat for valentines day :) after a long week of bronchitis i was finally starting to feel better and wanted to make my co-workers valentines cookies. i also have been wanting to try royal icing. i haven't used a royal icing recipe before; therefore, this was going to be a new experiment for me. 

i used my mother-in-law's sugar cookie recipe and just like my aunt carri's, this is another great sugar cookie recipe. for the royal icing, i watched a few videos and read some information online about how to use royal icing and how to apply different techniques. i found that royal icing is actually tough to use and work with. because of the "secret" ingredient (meringue powder), this allows the icing to become tough and thick to work with. see the recipe below to see how to make royal icing and also for the sugar cookie recipe!

royal icing ingredients:

-3 level tablespoons of meringue powder

-4 cups of confectioners sugar 

-6 tablespoons of water 

details:

-mix all of the ingredients together for 7-12 minutes until icing forms in peaks (this will make about 3 cups)

-i mixed this by hand but you can also mix in your mixer as well

-add food coloring for the color of your choice and mix well

-to make the icing smoother just add more water to get it to the consistency that you want

sugar cookie ingredients:

-1 cup of butter (2 sticks)

-1 cup of sugar

-1 large egg

-1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

-2 teaspoons of baking powder 

-2 3/4 cups of all purpose flour

details:

-preheat your oven to 350 degrees 

-in a large bowl with mixer at medium speed beat the butter and sugar until smooth

-beat in the egg and vanilla

-next, add baking powder and mix well

-then, add your flour and mix well

-the dough will be very stiff and be sure to not chill the dough

-divide the dough into two balls

-on a floured surface, with a rolling pin, roll each ball approximately 1/4 inch thick

-dip your cookie cutters in flour before each use

-bake the cookies on the top rack of the oven and bake them for exactly 8 minutes on a timer 

-cool before decorating the cookies with your royal icing 

-this recipe will make about 3 dozen cookies

-decorate and serve with a smile :)

i hope you all have a wonderful valentines day and enjoy your time with your special loved ones. have a great week!

thank you for stopping by :)

travel: new york city trip

my goodness, it has been awhile since i have posted and i hate that! don't worry, this was my last work trip for awhile and i am back to my regular posting. this new york trip was another long one (7 days). the first part of the trip was great and i really enjoyed myself with my co-worker allie as we made the best of the trip and did some sightseeing and touristy activities. the last part of the trip however; was not fun at all. i think a combination of traveling a ton in the month of january plus millions of people and their germs got to me and it resulted in bronchitis and a fever that has lasted almost 6 days now.  but enough about that and hopefully it will go away soon!

if you followed along on social media, you could see that we definitely ate very well while in new york. between the famous new york pizza and bagels that was enough for us. here is a list of some of the fun things allie and i did while in new york:

food:

-best bagel and coffee (this is actually the name, i promise ha)

-john's pizza (i visit every time while I'm in nyc)

-gelso & grand (in little italy)

-carlos bakery (for cannoli's)

-the bread company

entertainment:

-finding neverland broadway show

-times square

-shopping at macy's 34th st

these are just a few of the exciting things we did while visiting. even though we were there for work, we really did as much as we could to enjoy the city for the week. i wanted to share our fun week with you and tell you that i am finally home and i will be back to my regular posting. i am so excited to share some new posts with you this week as we prepare for the fun month of february. i am hoping to feel my normal self soon and i hope you all have a wonderful week. :) as always, thank you for visiting my lovely dots & details.

family feature: barbara's brisket

next up on my family feature list is my lovely mother-in-law barbara draffin! since i married into a true southern family, i knew i had better step up my cooking game and learn some good southern dishes. brisket is on the menu everywhere in tennessee or the south in general and barbara's brisket recipe is a wonderful dish. after being snowed in all weekend here at home, you already know cooking and baking was at the top of my list. on saturday evening we all decided to make dinner and go see a movie since we hadn't left the house since thursday. 

the dinner menu consisted of barbara's brisket, potatoes, pineapple casserole, and salad. we had a great dinner and movie, not to mention a wonderful weekend snowed in at home. it was a much needed weekend for me to relax since traveling so much lately. 

here is barbara's brisket recipe:

ingredients:

-4 to 5 lb beef brisket 

-1/2 cup of ketchup

-1/2 cup of chopped onion

-1 1/2 teaspoon of liquid smoke (found in the condiment section)

-1/4 teaspoon of pepper

-1 1/2 teaspoon of salt (for rubbing the brisket)

-1/4 cup of vinegar

-1 tablespoon of worcestershire sauce

-1 bay leaf

details:

-first, start by rubbing the meat with salt

-combine other ingredients and pour over the meat

-wrap all of this in tin foil

-place in a baking dish or pan

-bake at 325 for 4 hours until tender

-cut in thin diagonal slices, across grain at slanting angles. 

you will love this recipe and i hope you all enjoy it :) see you soon! thanks for stopping by.

below is a picture of my mother-in-law barbara :)

our home: navy bedroom

happy monday! i am finally able to get back to my regular posting as i have been non-stop traveling for work. i just got back from atlanta and now i am heading off to dallas today for the week. 

i have been wanting to share our navy bedroom with you and i was finally able to spend time working on my blog a little bit this past weekend. when, reed and i moved into our home i knew i wanted a navy room somewhere in the house i just couldn't decide where. after purchasing a lot of white details for our bedroom, i thought the navy and white would be a perfect mix. our goal this summer is to make our own bed frame/headboard and paint it white to pop against our hardwood floors. i am excited about that project!

our navy bedroom is filled with some of our favorite pictures together. our honeymoon, when we first met, our wedding, and our engagement pictures to name a few. we also enjoy our furniture in this room because each of these pieces has a story. 

we purchased the vintage dresser and side table at our first estate sale in memphis. it was our first big purchase together when we were engaged. i absolutely love the look of these pieces, especially the marble look on top. our white night stands were from reeds apartment that we painted white in an earlier post on the blog (that was a fun project).

the bed frame/headboard was mine from my first apartment in nashville when i moved south. the dark brown ottoman that we have in our room was my first birthday present from reed when we were dating. it is one of my favorite gifts from him. he knows my obsession with paper and gift wrapping and he filled the ottoman with my own gift wrapping station filled with paper and supplies. it was so exciting! ha

lastly, paw's cute little bed was purchased at another estate sale in memphis. i instantly fell in love with it and my mother in law made a polka dot cushion to go on top. yes, paw has his own bed at the edge of ours. yes, i have a problem haha! 

thank you for visiting today and i hope you have a wonderful monday! i can't wait to share another part of our house with you soon!

recipe: peanut butter energy balls

this is a little healthier snack than the carmel chocolate squares i posted earlier in the week ha!

reed says weekly," i think you should maybe make some of those peanut butter things." i think thats a hint that he likes them. i have been making these for awhile now and just recently started making them a lot for a healthier snack during the week. these are great for a quick pick me or for a quick breakfast. they are so easy to whip up and make very quickly. i made this recipe up on my own; therefore, you can really add anything to it and they will be delicious.

here is my recipe:

ingredients:

-2 to 3 cups of peanut butter (add more or less depending on how many you would like to make)

-1 cup of oats

-1 tablespoon of flax seed

-1/2 cup of dark chocolate or milk chocolate chips

-3 graham crackers 

details:

-start with a medium size bowl and add your peanut butter, oats, flax seed, and chocolate chips

-fold your ingredients in your bowl 

-after those are mixed, form into small sized balls

-this recipe will make 12-15 or you can make them larger if desired

-next, place your graham crackers in a plastic baggie and use a rolling pin to crush them into small pieces

-lastly, take each one and coat it with graham crackers

-after those are coated, place them in the fridge for 30 minutes until firm

enjoy :)

again, they are very easy and quick to make. this is perfect for someone on the go and needing a quick and healthy snack.

i hope you all have a great week!

family feature: aunt amy's carmel chocolate squares

happy new year! what a wonderful year it was!! 2015 was filled with wonderful memories that i will cherish for a lifetime. i am setting a lot of goals for myself for 2016 and yes it does involve eating less and better, however; my family has way too many great recipes not to share and what a great way to start off the year with a family recipe.

gee my first post of 2016, and what does it involve? sweets!! haha no, not a new salad recipe but my aunt amy's carmel brownies!

for Christmas, one of the gifts my mother gave me was a recipe book filled with recipes from all of my family members. i have new recipes from all different generations. this was one of my favorite gifts! i cherish family memories and this was the perfect gift for me. i wanted to start this year with a family feature and i chose one of my many wonderful aunt's (Amy). 

i know i didn't make these as good as my aunt Amy does but i did my best. 

here is the recipe!

ingredients:

-1 box of german chocolate cake mix 

-1/3 cup of evaporated milk (you will use this twice is in this recipe)

-1/3 cup of evaporated milk 

-1/2 cup of margarine

-14 oz bag of carmels (i used carmel chips and this is the reason for the darker carmel color, for a lighter color use actual carmels)

-12 oz package of chocolate chips

details:

-cook your carmels and milk on the stovetop on low heat 

-stir until melted, and then set these aside

-mix your cake mix, milk, and margarine 

-stir this until it forms a ball
-set a small amount of batter to the side to use this later for the top

-use your hands to press this mixture into a greased pan

-bake this at 350 for 6-7 minutes 

-remove this from the over and pour your chocolate chips over the batter

-next,pour your carmel mixture over the chocolate chips
-lastly, use the extra batter to form small balls and place this on top of the carmel 

-return to the over to bake for 15 minutes 

-let these cool and then cut for serving

delish!! 

i made these for reed's grandparents yesterday and they loved them! i hope you all enjoy them as well. 

the time off over the new year holiday was a wonderful time of catching up around the house and getting our Christmas decorations taken down. i have been under the weather since last Wednesday but luckily i was able to rest a lot as well. reed and i went on a few date nights and enjoyed several movies. we had a great weekend together! i hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

thank you to all of my family members for participating in my family feature addition to my blog and for sending my mother your recipes :) 

here is a picture of my aunt Amy!

 :)