April 11, 2012

New Site Design & GIVEAWAY!

Welcome to the new Shutterbean site design!

I did a little Spring cleaning around here with the help of my SPECTACULAR designer/friend Christine Castro-Hughes of Darling Studio Thank you, Christine!

So what’s new around here? A LOT!

There’s a new index! It’s on the right. I’ve settled on some fun categories for your browsing pleasure. Check out my RECIPES section. It’s all shiny & new!

For all of you who wanted to subscribe to Shutterbean by email, you can do so at the bottom right. Just add your email address. YAY!

So with the launch of this new design, I’d like to do a GIVEAWAY!

Since I’m always posting juice recipes, I’d love for YOU to get your juice on! I’m giving away one Omega BMJ330 Juicer & a copy of The Big Book of Juices to get you started.

What do you need to do?

Leave a comment below!

You can enter TWO more times if you:

1. Follow Shutterbean on Facebook!

2. Follow Shutterbean on Twitter!

Just leave a comment telling me that you did so.

A winner will be chosen at random a week from today, Wednesday April 18th.

Good luck and ENJOY the fresh design!

recipes, Uncategorized

April 9, 2012

Black & White Angel Food Cake

When I was a kid I always wanted to help my mom make cakes in the kitchen. She’d give me what I thought were useless jobs like measuring out the flour (I actually like doing that now) and cleaning up the dirty bowls in the sink. Although these are important tasks to complete, I always thought I got the short end of the stick. I wanted MORE. I wanted to crack the eggs, measure out the vanilla, use the beaters and eat off ALL the frosting that smothered them. I desperately wanted to take the cake out of the oven and frost it myself without any adult supervision. I know now that my mom was teaching me valuable lessons of baking all while secretly preventing a major mess in the kitchen (she was tapped into my klutzy nature from an early age).

I still make a mess in the kitchen…

We spent this Easter weekend at my parent’s house and while it was nice to get out of our routine and enjoy a slower pace of life, what I enjoyed most was making this cake by myself in my mom’s kitchen. That’s right. My mom gave me the responsibility of making this Black & White Angel Food Cake she picked out for dessert on Easter Sunday.

Melting the chocolate, sifting the flour and beating the egg whites in the same bowl I remember using as a kid was almost as good as eating the cake itself. That’s right! No supervision needed. I’m a grownup (ahhhhh!).

A fluffy puffy light chocolate cake smothered with a decadent ganache? Uh huh! I’m so glad my mom picked this cake out and had me make it because I most likely wouldn’t have tried it on my own. And man, would I have missed out.

my everyday life, Photography, Uncategorized

April 7, 2012

My Everyday Life: Week 14

Here’s what this week looked like:

I started this week off with my striped skirt & a parking ticket!

Uncategorized

April 6, 2012

I love lists, Friday!

This is exactly how I feel when I see Cooper & Casey together.
Do you know Lori? She’s a constant source of inspiration.
These lemon cornmeal pancakes would be perfect for Easter breakfast.
I’m gonna try this soft poached egg technique next!
From Basement to Boutique! Rachel is a machine.
A reminder of how nice it is to share what you love.
I feel like my mom could have sent me this one…
Trent Walton on blogs. Consider this space my breakfast table!
Look! A Fridge cleanout! Gosh I love those…
Fun with bleach. I can’t wait to try this. I have JUST the napkins to use.
I’ve been enjoying color month on Modern Kiddo this week. Especially this post!
How to marble Easter Eggs! I might do this this weekend.
At first this made me laugh…and this made me snort.
Beek Jeans. Oh Dawson, you’ve made me blush….

On this week’s Joy the Baker podcast, we discuss our FAQs, Joy’s book signing in Brooklyn, Tyler Florence & 30 Rock! More Woo than Woe!

Under the sink & over the fridge. The two dreaded cabinets get organized on this week’s High Straightenence!

Inspiration

April 5, 2012

Five Favorite Things:

On last week’s podcast, we gave homework to our listeners: Tell us 5 of your Favorite things right now!

HERE ARE MY FIVE FAVORITE THINGS RIGHT NOW (this is me doing my homework!) CONTINUE READING

recipes, Uncategorized

April 4, 2012

Angel Hair Pasta w/ Chile Lemon & Arugula

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is- How do you do it all? Oh man… THIS QUESTION. The answer is….I DON’T & can’t! Every week looks different in my life. Some weeks are super challenging (ahem, this one!) and I don’t usually share the bad because the internet is my happy place. My goal here is to inspire people and I don’t think I’d inspire anyone if I complained about how I spaced and forgot to make a credit card payment or how I can’t seem for the LIFE of me to clean up the inside of my car. Maybe you want to hear that. I dunno. That being said let’s talk a little bit about balance.

Balance is difficult to attain. I’m not very good at it. Ever since I had a Cooper I don’t think I have the ability to give 100% to anything in my life and it bugs me most of the time. Do you moms know what I’m saying? Raise your hand if you’re behind on laundry too!

I am good at balancing my food, though. I’m not talking about setting a pineapple on top of my head and walking to the other side of the room with it. Nope. I’m talking….like one day I eat coffee cake for breakfast lunch & dinner and then the next few days I eat salads & juice like a crazy woman. That’s how I excel at balancing.

This pasta is a good balance because it appeals to me- the ARUGULA lover and to Casey the PASTA lover. He, of course gets a plate that’s heavy on the pasta and I get a plate heavy on the arugula…depending how many cookies I ate that day. It was 6. OK. 7. Extra arugula for me. The only problem we found with this recipe is that it’s so light, you might find yourself eating 3 portions in one sitting. Maybe that’s just a sign that it’s GOOD.

around the home, Uncategorized

April 3, 2012

House Tour: The Living Room

I’ve been itching for a decorating project lately so I used this past rainy weekend to decorate the mantle in our living room. I figured that while I was taking pictures of the new mantle decor, I’d give you a little tour of our living room (we hang out here just as much as we do in the kitchen).