Allergy dilemma causes a great wake-up

Recently, I have encountered a new allergy in my life. Corn Syrup. Yes, corn syrup is in EVERYTHING which has now given me an unfortunate hobby of looking at all labels of packaged foods. I don't eat everything packaged but who doesn't enjoy just a bowl of cereal or the simplicity of one of the best desserts, Smores once in awhile? The good thing is it's not life threatening at this point but in highly concentrated amounts (ohhh my weakness, skittles, sour patch, etc) it makes me break out in a rash as well as makes my gums and lip swell....yes very very simliar to Will Smith in Hitch. (Please laugh because friends who have seen me in this condition awkwardly laugh thinking its bad but it's not. I get it. I look pretty funny-- I have even laughed at myself!!)

I found out after going to several doctors and finally tested out the last resort theory. It came to me while making homemade marshmallows

Disaster. What's the MAIN ingredient in marshmallows?? Corn Syrup. Annnnndd queue more laughter as you can imagine what happened when I tried some.......

Anyways, it has turned out to be ok so far and this morning I was craving something sweet, preferably a Krispy Kreme doughnut but of course I couldn't go that route and almost every cereal, granola bar, etc has corn syrup in it. So I decided to make an Apple dip that one of my best friend's mom gave to me at a shower a few months ago.

It has cream cheese, brown sugar, vanilla and toffee bits.

Yep, fit the bill for the craving.

Thank you Mrs. Rives!!! Happy Saturday!!

I  can't forget to mention Todd and I are taking care of The Frost's dog, Oscar, and I know they will have a happy Saturday!

Yep, perfect Saturday and a perfect match right there! = )

Happy Independence Day with Key Lime filled cupcakes!

What better way to celebrate the 4th of July than a mixture of Key Lime Pie and CUPCAKES?!

Yum.
This second cupcake was done on a work evening...ehhh bad decision. Work 8-4 Yoga 4-6. Dinner 6-7. Cupcakes 7-10. I basically went straight to bed when we finished.

Anyways, Todd put the KEY ingredients together for the delicious Key Lime filling.

(I have posted the ingredients and measurements below in case you wanna give this a whirl) My only suggestion- try not to do a back-to-back everything schedule as I did above unless you want the best night of sleep in your life = )

In addition to zesting lime, Todd added one can of sweetened condensed milk and 1/4 cup Key Lime Juice. As he was working hard on this, I used the stand mixer to put together the cupcake batter for White Cake - 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup shortening, 2 cups sugar, 2 3/4 flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, and 1 1/2 tsp almond extract. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes

I found out that using my new ice cream scoop did wonders for moving the batter into the cupcake pan -- much easier than using my typical spoon trick = /

Once you bake the cupcakes you can use a wooden spoon to make a hole in the center of the cupcake and fill it with the key lime filling. Top it off with fresh, homemade whipped cream and graham cracker crumbs and TA-DA (as Todd says). Once again, pure happiness.

Cake + Key Lime + Whip Cream = Happy.

Happy 4th of July and thank you so much soldiers for everything to do for our country! God bless you.