the goose loves key lime pie cupcakes

I know things have seemed very quiet over here in Gooseville, but I promise you it's anything but quiet! I just have been superly slacking on the blog posting. I'm gearing up for a couple of good ones, but you'll just have to wait.

Here's an old one that should have gone up weeks ago. But that's life, I guess.

My dear friend Jackie went to Florida last month to visit her aunt, and brought us back a package of Key Lime Cupcake mix! Yum - thanks, Jackie!

She came over a few days after she returned and we made them together.

My favorite part? The cream cheese frosting, of course.

I almost baked them for too long. Nice and golden.

But what I love about limes and key lime pie is the color - gorgeous green. Lime green, actually - that's how the color got its name. From the all-natural source. So why have regular colored cupcakes and white frosting? Where's the green?

Here it is!

Voila. It's like celebrating St. Patrick's Day in October. Or November, if you're behind in blog posts.

I'd eat another one of these right now, if I could.

Thanks, Jackie, for bringing us the treat! And for enjoying it with us too. Best souvenir ever.

the goose loves pumpkin coffee cake

 So if you can't tell, we're officially giving up on summer (what summer? yeah. there wasn't any.) and moving full-on into fall. I'm doing my best to embrace the cold days that let me wear my peacoat and bake with pumpkin. This pumpkin adventure really hit the spot on the weekend - it was easy to pull together but so. amazingly. delicious. No joke here. This is SO worth it.

This recipe was really meant to be. It was Saturday morning, and I was hunting online for a tasty treat. I looked up one of my fave food blogs, How Sweet It Is, and bam - there it was. Pumpkin Coffee Cake. Oh yeah. With brown sugar glaze. We didn't even make the glaze, but wow this was tasty.

The recipe was on Tasty Kitchen, but I'm sharing it for you here, with all credits to Jessica at How Sweet Eats, Heather, and Tasty Kitchen.

Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze

Ingredients

• ⅓ cups Water
• 1 can Pureed Pumpkin (15 Oz)
• 2 whole Eggs
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
• 2 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 1 box Yellow Cake Mix (18 Ounce Box)
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 cup Brown Sugar, Divided
• ½ cups Flour
• ⅓ cups Walnuts, Chopped
• 4 Tablespoons Butter, Melted
• ¼ cups Granulated Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• ¼ cups Heavy Whipping Cream

Preparation Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F.

1. In a large bowl mix together the water, pumpkin, eggs, 1 Tablespoon of vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice until well combined. Add the cake mix and baking soda and mix until just combined.
2. Grease a 9×13 pan with butter and pour batter into pan.
3. In a small bowl mix together 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup flour, walnuts, and melted butter. Use fingers to sprinkle over the top of the cake. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
4. For the glaze, combine the other 1/2 cup brown sugar, granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and heavy cream in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir until all sugar is dissolved.
5. When cake is finished baking, poke holes in the top with a toothpick. Pour glaze over the cake, making sure to cover all surfaces. Serve cake warm or at room temperature.

Mix wet ingredients.

Add in dry ingredients.

This recipe is made super easy by using a box cake mix. And yeah, having the butter recipe yellow cake mix didn't hurt one bit.

 We used a 9 x 13 pan to get the classic coffee cake effect. However, this would be equally wonderful in a bundt pan or even in round cake pans. Yum.

 Here's the best part of this dish - the brown sugar topping.

Ready for the oven!

 And wonderfully hot out of the oven. (Sorry about the funky white balance.)

Let's zoom in on that brown sugar goodness.

 So the recipe suggests a brown sugar glaze, which I don't doubt would be a-mazing. But that's a lot of sweetness. And it's only breakfast. Oh and we already have leftover cream cheese frosting from my carrot cake cupcakes. So I stick a bit in the microwave to get it glaze-y and drizzle it thickly on top.

.

 Haha this picture looks funny. Green half-moon for breakfast, anyone? I made a pesto-feta fritatta as a protein-filled side for our breakfast dessert. Which Billy LOVED.

 Overall, this coffee cake was meant to be. I enjoyed it the next week for some delicious breakfasts. It's so easy, and the results will wow anyone who eats it. So go make it.

Lastly, let me leave you a photo of our little angel. Isn't he so adorable? If only he always was like this.

the goose loves puppy parties

I know that all y'all are just waiting for the big anniversary gift reveal. You've probably been checking back into the blog every 5 or 10 minutes to see if I've posted photos of the most lovely anniversary gift on the planet.

So sorry to dissapoint.

The photos have not yet been taken, since we've been quite busy with other things. Plus, the present is rather tricky to photograph. So I'm also working on the technical aspect of that.

In the meantime, though, I have a wonderful post to share!

On July 10th, our dear darling devil - I mean puppy - turned 1 year old! That's right - 365 days on this earth. Not quite 365 days with us, though - only about 305 days with us since he was a little two-month-old when we picked out his cute little face.

Anyway, July 10th came and went and on the evening of July 11th, Billy says to me "When's Bentley's birthday again?" And I said "OOOOOOOOHHHHH. Horrors of Horrors! We MISSED HIS BIRTHDAY!" And yes, I said it in all caps. In our defense, Bentley forgot to remind us.

So while Bentley was busy turning one, we were busy doing other things. And in our guilt, we decided to make it up to him with a party! Lucky for us, another good puppy friend of ours also had something to celebrate. On July 10th, Dakota celebrated her second anniversary of being with her lovely owner and one of our best friends, Jackie! And it was decided. We'd celebrate the birthday and anniversary all at once, and July 19th was chosen as the perfect party day.

Jackie brought her two-year old lab Dakota (who is Bentley's best friend and girlfriend), Carolyn brought some bratwursts, and we all convened at our house for some BBQing-Bachelorette Watching-cupcake eating fun. Billy and I picked up a dozen mini people cupcakes and two mini puppy cupcakes from Cupcake Jones. Here are some of the people ones: Top left is lemon coconut (Carolyn's choice), top right is vanilla (Jackie's choice), bottom left is red velvet (everyone's choice!), and bottom right is chocolate strawberry, which three of us enjoyed.

And then the puppy treats!! Dakota and Bentley each got their own plate of a puppy-friendly cupcake (apples and carrots or something, with yogurt frosting?), a half-scoup of low-fat vanilla frozen yogurt (yes, puppy safe!), and some donut-shaped doggie treats. Sorry for the blurry photos - the real camera has found legs and walked away... for now... And here we are trying to keep Bentley from engulfing all of the treats all at once. He would SO do that if given the chance. And a better angle. Mom - I'm wearing a skirt with shorts underneath - I'm not naked on bottom - sorry about so much leg! :) Bentley is focusing on his food, making sure it doesn't run away. And looking at me, asking "Can I eat it now? What about now? I'm ready!!"

After we felt that Billy had probably gotten enough "before" photos, we let Bentley "dig in." Which means that I started feeding him frozen yogurt on a spoon. But then frozen yogurt started dripping on my leg, so we had played enough of that game. I put a spoonful on his plate instead, which he engulfed in one little puppy breath.

I'm not sure if there is a such thing as a puppy brain freeze, but if there are, Bentley definitely got one!

Once he polished off the froyo about five or six seconds later, we moved on to the cupcake.

Wanting the moment to last for at least a minute or two, I cut the cupcake in half and gave him a portion at a time.

He inhaled that half in no time at all. I hope he sort of tasted it as it went down!

He finished off the second half in one swoop, no problem, licking up the dog treat border too.

Meanwhile, his girlfriend was calmly and politely enjoying her anniversary treat. She daintily licked her frozen yogurt, even though it was sliding off her place (yay for sticky floors, which Billy cleaned up later!). She also enjoyed her cupcake in several bites, savoring the flavors of apple, carrot, and yogurt. Mmm.

If only my puppy was so patient.

Overall it was a great party with great friends. And the puppies had fun too. I think we'll have to do it again next year!

the goose loves july fourth

So here is the official AND officially late 4th of July post. After spending all of Saturday and Sunday working on unpacking and organizing the house, Billy and I (and the dog!) enjoyed a fun and relaxing Independence Day.

We started with pancakes, per Billy's request, and made them festive with sprinkles. Yum!

Billy had gotten up earlier that morning to bake bread... what a homemaker! He had brewed beer the day before, so instead of wasting the spent grain, he used it in bread. It turned out quite tasty!

Then we packed up the dog and put on our Keens and headed to Sauvie's Island for some adventuring. We went for a hike, which you will read about soon.

Then we went strawberry picking on the island! We were able to bring Bentley, as long as he was on a leash. And he LOVED it!

He would just stick his head in the bushes, which were right at his level, and would grab a strawberry off the vine and chomp it down. He probably had about 20. Then he would wander over to our box of picked strawberries and check those out, as we firmly pointed him in the other direction. Lazy little dog - just wanted to eat the ones we picked! We told him to go find his own.

Here I am, decked out in my HOT 4th of July attire. That's right, displaying my country's colors all at once. Not the most attractive look, but patriotic, right? Also note my white-as-heck legs. Thank you, cloudy Portland.

And our loot, early on.

Another glamour shot, with Bentley carefully eyeing the other pickers out in the field. Or maybe he saw a bug flying in the air? Or a UFO? Who knows.

For dinner, we whipped up some easy and delicious summery foods. I made an orzo pasta salad, but instead of traditional orzo, I used "stelline" (translates to little stars, in case your italian is outdated or in case the picture below didn't help). Fitting for the holiday, right?

I mixed in sundried tomatoes, chopped artichoke hearts, olive oil, and some fresh chopped parsley. I would have added parmesan cheese, but I forgot. Oops! I then refridgerated it so it was more pasta-salad like.

Meanwhile, Billy grilled up some cow meat for us - mmm steak!
He also grilled romaine hearts and some slices of his homemade bread! Delicious. By the way, that's an artichoke heart in the pasta salad, not a large pat of butter. That'd be gross.

For dessert, we figured we should use some of those freshly picked strawberries, and what better dessert than strawberry shortcakes? Except there's no reason to use white cake when it's the 4th of July! Feeling patriotic, I throw some blue food coloring into my cake batter. BUT I made the mistake of starting with a yellow cake mix, so I couldn't get to blue. San-Jose-Shark-Teal was the best I could get. Note for next year - start with WHITE cake.

I used my new cake pan from Sur La Table, bought for $2.99 at their big sale! Here's what the bottoms look like...

...Because here's what the tops look like!

They're cup shaped so you can fill them with delicious things. Like strawberries. Or ice cream. Or hot fudge sauce. Or chocolate chips. Or whipped cream. Or all of the above?

We of course filled with strawberries, and topped with whipped cream. YUM. (Sorry about the poor lighting).

And my sweet friends Jackie and Carolyn graciously came over the next day to help us get rid of more strawberry shortcakes. How nice of them, right? :)