Wedding Prep 06.20.15

Finally!!

Let's look at some wedding photos, shall we?

The day was Saturday, June 20, 2015 and I woke up excited and ready to get married. 

My bridesmaids and flower girls all came over to finish getting ready together and my photographer came over to document the entire thing (and our 2nd photographer went to be with the boys while they got ready).

I have wanted to wear my mom's wedding dress since I was a little girl, and I could not have been happier that I was able to make that dream come true and we were able to alter it so that it was perfect and everything I could have wanted!

Something Saturdays (8/29/15)

I am a lucky lucky lady! I got sent some fantastic, all natural, beauty products from Maple Holistics! I'm already in love with the shampoo and the dead sea mask was amazing (hehe mud masks are fun!)-I can't wait to try the clay mask! (I was not required to post a review and all opinions are mu own!)

This week has just been full of work and getting things done! Pretty dull stuff, but good :)

Something Saturdays (8/22/15)

Well this is probably the most boring Something Saturday post ever. Nothing really happened...I've just been working and running around getting stuff done. And dealing with wedding photos. That I will be sharing with all of you very soon!! In the meantime...enjoy the one thing I instagrammed this week: :P And some movies/tv talk.

Oh! And we found out my brother's job assignment and day that he leaves for Airforce basic training--he's going to be a fusion analyst (so it's intelligence and was one of his top 2 picks-since he eventually wants to maybe go FBI) and he leaves December 29. So he'll be here for Christmas :)

Movies/TV Talk (assume there'll be spoilers)
Ant-Man: I saw this with Michael and my brother, Josh and we actually really liked it! Luis (Michael Pena) was hilarious, I loved Antony, and Paul Rudd was great, as always.

Wet Hot American Summer-First Day of Camp: More Paul Rudd! Lol it was very silly and very funny. And they made some jokes/references to the fact that like all the actors are much older than teens. I adored Chris Pine in it and a lot of the twists they made were very clever. But...man...it was hard to ignore how much heavier Coop (Michael Showalter) is....I'll just assume he became ill and lost a bunch of weight before the end of camp...

Outlander: I've been reading the books for awhile and omg I LOVED the show. Jamie is so perfect. They cast the perfect guy to play him. And...now I want season 2!

Instagram Lately (a few highlights from this week on Instagram)

Something Saturdays on a Monday (8/17/15)

I....forgot to post this on Saturday. #oops

Yes yes. Truth!

Monday and Tuesday Michael took off work and they were awesome! Monday we ran some errands (and bought a new dryer because our current one...stopped drying) and Tuesday-WE WENT TO THE CLEVELAND ZOO!! the last time we went we had only been dating for about a month so it was so fun to go back. They have an amazing new "African Elephant Crossing" --it's a large area for elephants where they can walk between different parts of their habitat and you are SO close to them! There are 5 of them and they're all adorable and in the their 30's--4 girls (Kallie, Moshi, Matika, and Shega) and a boy (Willie). I LOVED 'EM! They're my favorite animal so it was super exciting. The whole zoo was great and the weather was beautiful and Michael and I had a lovely day :) Then we had to work and stuffs...blechy. Friday night, though, we went out with Michael's friends. Saturday our new dryer was delivered and installed and later on we went to Michael's class reunion (which only had like 5 people show up but we all had a lot of fun!). And Sunday we spent a super fun day with my family at my grandma's pool! :)

We also got the rest of our wedding photos! I'll share them at some point :)

Something Saturdays (8/8/15)

I am not falling for this, Muppets. I know that this is a storyline on your new TV show so I will not freak out about it. Because I'm sure them getting back together will be a storyline. And I will wait patiently.

Sunday was my mom's family reunion and it was super fun-as always. Then we had a nice couple hours at Michael's brother's farewell barbecue. We got a little extra time with him and his wife on Monday at Michael's mom's and they left for North Carolina this week--Michael is pretty sad about it. But I'm sure they'll be back in 3 years, once Emily is done with her master's program! Then I spent the rest of this week working the PGA event in Akron, and am still doing that today annnnd tomorrow. Blech.

Finally, I just want to say THANK YOU for all of your support about me taking a break from the blog. It really was hard for me to do and I appreciate you so much!

A break

It is so hard to write this right now. I feel like a failure and I feel frustrated. But...I am floundering right now. I am having the hardest time keeping up with life and catching up on things post-wedding and I know I just took a little time off for the honeymoon and I haven't really been as on top of this blog as I should be since all that wedding stuff so...I'm just going to take a little break to catch up. And then, hopefully, I can come back refreshed and with plenty of awesome and delicious things to share with you guys!

How long will this break be?
I don't know. Not long, I hope. I'd say almost definitely no more than a month? Just enough time for me to catch up a bit! If we're lucky, maybe only a couple weeks will be needed.

Will you still post sometimes?
Yes. There will be Something Saturdays posts at the very least.

But I need my fix of The Cooking Actress! Whatever will I do until you're back and ready for action?
Follow me on Instagram! I'll post lots of stuffs on there!

Any more questions? Ask away! I really hope you can all understand and know how very sorry I am. I can't wait to be able to get back into the swing of all of this very very soon!

Chocolate Covered Potato Chips with Salted Caramel Drizzle

STOP IT!

Stop right now! You stop your thoughts of "Ew...chocolate covered potato chips??!" I am here to tell you that no...they are NOT gross. They are absolutely delicious (when done right). Let me tell you a little tale.

There have been a couple occasions are chocolate covered potato chips were presented to me. They were chips that were very thickly covered in a hunk of milk chocolate. And they were...meh. But I knew they had a greater potential. I knew they just weren't being executed correctly. I LOVE sweet + salty...and that's all this potato chip business is. So I knew that I would make my own chocolate covered potato chips...but I would use a thin layer of DARK chocolate (it gives a much nicer contrast and just tastes better) and add a salted caramel drizzle and sea salt...because...I mean...that just sounded great.

And so I waited.

I waited for the wedding to be over so I could make something sinful and decadent. I waited to make salted caramel sauce. And that day finally came last week. And so I made them. And they were GOOD.

Honestly...you barely taste the potato chip. It's just a little crunchy salty something underneath the rich dark chocolate and heavenly salted caramel. It may sound weird but...try them. You won't regret it. You'll just thank me as you shovel chip after chip into your face. Or fight with your husband over whether or not you or they should eat anymore because WHAT IF YOU EAT THEM ALL AND THEN THEY'RE GONE??!

Oh...maybe that's just at my house...

Something Saturdays (8/1/15)

Week recap: Saturday we had our "friendception" and it was fun but mildly disappointing. The turn out wasn't as big as expected (I had a total of 1 friend show up, the rest were Michael's) and people weren't really mingling or dancing or anything. But it was still a nice time and it was good to see everyone who came! Sunday morning we had to take Christian to the airport and we missed him immediately-we had such a nice visit! Then Michael and I spent some time with my family. Tuesday was Michael's mom's birthday so we spent some time with her and Michael's siblings (and, earlier that day, I officially changed my name to Kayle Crofford! Woo! Kayle Blogna is still being used for all professional avenues but legally, I'm Mrs. Crofford :P) Wednesday I went to Amish country with Michael's best friend-we had fun shopping and walking around and eating! Thursday Michael hung up our amazing new painting in the living room...and I worked. Friday I worked. And today? WORK. Tomorrow, though, is my family reunion with my mom's side, which is always fun! And after that is a farewell barbecue for Michael's brother and sister-in-law, who are moving to North Carolina. Busy busy busyyy.

In other news--we got a preview of our wedding photos! I cannot wait until we get to see all our pictures, but if you want to see the sneak peek then click here to view them!

Peanut Butter Swirled Chocolate Cookies

First of all: I'd like to publicly thank my amazing cousin and bridesmaid Emily for the little cutting board and plate you see featured here: for my wedding gift (Michael got his own, mainly Batman-related, gifts from her) she got me a ton of food photography props from Fishs Eddy and it was pretty much the sweetest thing ever. So we can all thank her for how cute these pics turned out.

Now, back to the food that is being featured on aforementioned food props. 

Michael needed me to bake cookies for him to bring to work again. And they wanted cookies that involved chocolate and peanut butter. And thus, these lovelies were made!

These are some seriously chocolatey cookies. And they're perfect for gifting or shipping since they're sturdy BUT they're also delightfully soft and chewy when warm. And then...the beautiful surprise...peanut butter swirled throughout. And I may have used chocolate peanut butter for mine because...I mean...why not? Right?

They went over super well with Michael's coworkers but the recipe makes a lot of cookies...so they also went over well with Michael's family a week later at Conneaut. And yesterday when Michael ate the last 2 in his lunch. So...they age well. But I still recommend eating them fresher. Freeze them if you must-they freeze great! 

Now, go forth and eat cookies!

Raw Sugar Salted Caramel Sauce-Guest Post at Golden Barrel

By now we should all be aware of how enamored I am with salted caramel. So when it came time for me to have some more fun with Golden Barrel products for another blog post, I decided to use their raw sugar for an unprocessed, delicious twist on my fave caramel sauce recipe.

You might be wondering--oh, is caramel sauce hard to make? The answer is: NO! It's actually pretty quick and easy, so long as you use a deep enough pot to cook it so it doesn't spatter and burn you. And you may also be wondering--does raw sugar make the caramel sauce difficult, because of the larger sugar crystals? Answer: NOPE again! Still easy!

Really I mean...just look at that amber caramel perfection. It is so delicious. And makes your house smell fantastic. And makes you want to eat it with a spoon or maybe develop some recipes with it...? Hmmm...I suppose we'll have to wait and see :P

Now, enough jibber jabber, do you want to make this caramel sauce??

Head to the Golden Barrel blog to get the caramelicious recipe!

Something Saturdays (7/25/15)

Well I have been B-U-S-Y! Last Saturday, Michael's uncle & aunt's wedding, was super fun and sweet. And then we spent the next few days at Conneaut having lots of fun. Especially since, while there, Michael's cousin Chelsea got engaged! Here we go again :P I actually got super excited and had so much fun helping her out and giving her advice/info (girl is moving fast, she booked the church one day after they got engaged!) Otherwise we mostly just had fun family time.

On Wednesday Michael and I had to come home. First we stopped at this ADORABLE place called Campbell's Pottery (we had a wedding gift to exchange and they have only the one location-which was only half an hour from where we were but is a few hours from home). Later that night Michael's and my friend from NY, Christian, flew in and then we spent the next couple days eating and having fun! On Thursday we had breakfast at Flury's Cafe and then explored downtown Cuyahoga Falls before walking to JC Comics & Cards (He loves comic book stores!). We then ran a couple errands and had Swenson's (and Akron, OH area MUST) for lunch. We then just relaxed at the house for a little bit before heading to Hudson and checking out the shops there and then having dinner at FlipSide (yay burgers!). Yesterday we went to the Akron Zoo and then to Burntwood Tavern for lunch. Then I worked while the boys went to the free concert series they have downtown (yesterday's was a Billy Idol tribute band).

And today? Today is our "friendception"-a party that's just for fun and to celebrate our marriage with our friends (since the majority of them weren't invited to the wedding due to our massive families). I'm super excited and hope everyone has fun!

National Ice Cream Day!

Hi all!

I'm currently on vacation with Michael's family and I'm internet-less soooo...I know I'm still slacking since the whole wedding thing but I hope you can bear with my lack of posts this week!

But I'm not going to TOTALLY leave you guys hanging!

Yesterday (or today? Depends on who you ask) was/is National Ice Cream Day! To celebrate let's re-visit my roundup of no churn ice cream recipes:

Ice Cream Round Up (Easy, No Ice Cream Maker, 2+ Ingredient Method!)

Something Saturdays (7/18/15)

This week was pretty full. Sunday I worked, went to my grandma's, and then to Michael's mom's. Monday we attended the grand opening for Savor (which I discussed on Wednesday's post). BUT-the big focus of the week was this: my brother, Josh, has decided to enlist in the airforce. He's been wanting to end up working in the FBI (he has a criminal justice degree--and apparently there are programs within the service for him to prepare for that) and he wants to travel and...I don't know-he has reasons. He's also not just like starting out at the bottom, due to his experience and education. So...he's excited. My family is divided on how they feel-but everyone is pretty much supportive. I was (and am...but I'm working on it) very upset. I'm going to miss him a lot and I'm very worried about him. But anyway, all of that business took up a lot of this week's mental and emotional allowance. And I'm just going to soak up all the time I have left with my brother.

Today is Michael's uncle's wedding (him and his soon-to-be wife Kimmy have been together for like...20 years or something and are finally tying the knot)-I'm so excited to sit back and enjoy a wedding, stress-free! :P And tomorrow we're heading to Conneaut Lake (where Michael's family spends a week every summer) to hang out with the Croffords and enjoy some family time :)

Savor Restaurant Review {Fresh - Organic - Local} in Canton, Ohio

There's a brand new restaurant in Canton, OH (where I went to high school and I still live near), it's called Savor, and it was opened by my cousin's husband. But let me just start off this review by saying: my opinions are not colored by that fact. All of my opinions are genuine and true (and I received nothing for writing this review-I just want to share my love of Savor!)

Now, let me give you the lowdown on Savor: it is all about whole, natural foods (oftentimes organic). And this little paragraph from their website explains it best:

"You deserve to taste the food the way nature intended it to be, free from hormones, chemicals and additives - foods in their purest of forms and homemade dishes with the simplest of ingredients.  We source ingredients from local farms and farmers markets with local, organic meats and produce.  This not only insures you with the freshest, healthiest options but also helps our local economy.  We are a community driven, and look forward to serving delicious food curated in alignment with the farm-to-table movement."

Uh yeah, even if this wasn't family I would have been obsessed with Savor, it's everything that I love and want! Real, natural, GOOD food!

THE Levain Chocolate Chip Cookie Copycat Recipe

I've already posted a Levain copy cat recipe, years ago, before I'd even been to Levain (a NYC bakery that is famous for their GIANT and delicious cookies). And those cookies were good...great even. But Levain? They were not. Now I've been to Levain more than a few times (and miss it desperately). And I'm older. And wiser. And married (as if that has any impact on this but stay with me). And I can tell you that THESE COOKIES....are practically a perfect match to the originals (the recipe itself could be very different in all actuality but the end result-these cookies....they taste just like Levain in my opinion!)

A few notes: You pretty much NEED a stand mixer with a paddle attachment...I don't think you can properly cream the cold butter otherwise (trust me...in my pre-KA stand mixer days I tried and failed). You're also going to want decent quality chocolate chips (I'm a fan of Ghirardelli, personally). I let the cookie dough balls rest overnight--which might not be necessary but I'm guessing that for the best results it probably is. Also, walnuts: you could leave them out or not toast them if you so desire but again...might not be exactly the same. Still good, just not the same. Finally: a kitchen scale helps to ensure that you measure out 5.5-6 oz. dough balls but if you evenly divide the dough into 10 you should have about the correct amount. And yes, I know that 6 oz. is pretty giant for a cookie but that's what makes them Levain cookies! And entirely irresistible.

When you bake the cookies they will turn golden brown on the outside and still be somewhat underbaked on the inside-this is also how it should be! It's one of the things that makes the cookies great--but absolutely adjust the baking time to try to find the perfect amount of cooked in the middle for your liking. I felt like 16-17 minutes was usually the perfect amount.

*sigh of happiness* it's good to bake delightfully decadent desserts (especially cookies) again!

The cookies are big and sturdy on the outside and gooey and flavorful on the inside! They're full of delicious and gooey chocolate with little bites of toasted walnuts for texture and I definitely would say they are worthy of having a line out the door ;)

I'm so excited about this recipe...these cookies were everything I wanted them to be!

Something Saturdays (7/11/15)

Hiya guys!

Let's catch up:

Last weekend I had a super fun 4th of July with my family-but poor Michael wasn't feeling well so he stayed home :( But Sunday he was feeling better so we hung out at his mom's house with some of his siblings. And on Monday I got to have lunch with my brother and dad, which was nice. Tuesday night Michael and I had dinner at a really delicious Mexican place with his dad and stepmom. And Wednesday Michael got a flat tire and we learned his tire tread was abysmal (no surprise) so we just replaced all the tires. But then things got good again on Thursday-we had dinner and some hang out time with Michael's best friend. Yesterday, Michael and I finally got to explore the downtown area of Cuyahoga Falls (where we live) which is so pretty and cute and it was super fun! We even discovered this FANTASTIC little diner/cafe called Flury's Cafe that we CANNOT wait to go back to! We, unfortunately, weren't terribly hungry but we did split a peanut butter milkshake (which ohemgee was literally 2 full glasses even when split) and I had some tasty mac and cheese and Michael had the best sausage gravy + biscuits everrr (plus hashbrowns and eggs)--needless to say...there were leftovers.

This weekend I'm mostly just working! So...yepp!

Caramelized Onion Dip

Pretty much the only time I'll allow myself to try out a new dip recipe is when I'm going to a party. Because I know that, otherwise, I'll end up eating the whole dang thing myself. And then I'll be like "whyyyy do I do this to myself??!" so really it's just best for everyone if I share the appetizer love. And that is exactly what happened with this recipe for caramelized onion dip!

There are 2 main things that drew me into this recipe: caramelized onions (one of man's greatest creations :P) and the fact that it is slightly healthified thanks to Greek yogurt and reduced fat cream cheese. So, when I was told to bring an app/snack to the 4th of July with my family, I knew that this dip was getting made!

Now, unfortunately my uncle also brought chip dips so I had a bit of competition, but that's ok because everyone could tell that this was the superior dip. My brother said he had a difficult time eating it because, even though he knew it wasn't super bad for him, he said it tasted deliciously unhealthy so he was having an argument between his brain and his taste buds. My teen cousins also enjoyed digging in (even though my cousin Ethan was aghast at the fact that I hadn't made a dessert).

This dip is tangy, creamy, super flavorful, and full of onions that are soft and slightly sweet.

It's one of those things where once you have one bite...you're hooked!

Honeymoon Recap {at Secrets Capri Riviera Cancun in Riviera Maya}

Some photos from paradise...

Michael and I spent 7 nights at the all-inclusive, adults-only, Secrets Capri Riviera Cancun resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico. It was a small, mostly calm (but with plenty of activities and events) place and 100% perfect for what we wanted for our honeymoon! The staff were all exceptionally helpful and nice and...um...unlimited food guys. We ate a lot. And relaxed. And had fun.

Something Saturdays (7/4/15)

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

HI GUYS!

It feels like forever since we talked. SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED! And I'm super sorry that I only posted once this week, I meant to share honeymoon photos and turns out that took more effort than post vacation me could handle. So that will be coming at you on Monday!

Now...who wants to hear a short summary of my wedding?

My wedding was beautiful and I loved it. Did it run smoothly and go flawlessly? Erm...no. Lol. It all started out great-I was excited and was hanging out with all my girls at my mom's house. And then...my hair and makeup team were an hour and a half late (through a series of unfortunate events and no real fault of their own). Due to this we were crazy rushed and weren't able to get 99% of the photos I wanted to get during that time and we ended up rushing to get me to the church on time (oh and when we rushed outside it was raining...ugh). This sort of set a bit of a frazzled tone for me for the rest of the day. Except...as soon as I hit the aisle and saw Michael, it was surreal. And I was so happy. And he was so happy and crying and seriously just the sweetest thing. The entire ceremony was beautiful and Michael just kept telling me how beautiful I looked and how much he loved me and just completely making me feel good about my decision to marry him :P (I must note that dealing with a train with all that sitting and standing is awfully complicated-I kept trying to adjust myself lol! Leave it to me to be awkward at my own wedding). The homily was really cute and involved the priest (our high school principal) reading from our transcripts and pointing out the similarities (good grades + drama/choir). After our triumphant walk back down the aisle...it was still raining. So we weren't able to have everyone throw the dried rose petals (which I've saved from our entire relationship-every rose Michael ever gave me) at us as we left the church. It's ok though because we did it at the end of the reception with everyone who was left there! So then we took a bunch of photos before getting back into the limo to go to the reception hall for photos outside--the continuous rain started to make me upset, but Michael's adorableness + our bridal party's general happiness lifted my spirits. And then the rain stopped when we got to Occasions, which felt like a mini miracle! We took lots of photos (which now I keep thinking of pictures I wish I'd thought to take but...obviously too late lol) and then we got to go to the reception. And that was pretty perfect. The dance floor was always full and the music was perfect! The food was delicious (and we're still hearing compliments), the cake was gorgeous and also delicious (of course we barely ate anything due to wedding bellies), the whole place was decorated beautifully....seriously I loved it. And everyone else seemed to like it too! I think it may have been the best wedding ever...though I'm a smidge biased :) I was so so happy, it was the most fun day with almost all of my favorite people in one place. My bridal party were all fantastic and they all got along so well! My brother insists that the wedding was the best day of his life and suggested we all get together to look at photos/the video and every year for our anniversary....which would actually be awesome if we could. After all the festivities we were driven to our hotel which is right on the airport and we slept for about 2 hours thanks to our super early flight and...well...that's another story that you'll hear more about on Monday ;) And I'll share wedding pictures once we have them!!

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies with Toasted Coconut-Zainab of Blahnik Baker's Baby Shower!

In my years of blogging I have never had a close friendship develop so quickly as my friendship with Zainab of Blahnik Baker has. She is literally one of the sweetest people I've ever known. She is endlessly supportive, giving, funny, smart, and kind. I am so lucky to have "met" her (someday it will be in real life and no longer needing quotation marks for "met"!) And I am SO excited for her because SHE'S HAVING A BABY!!! And Zainab is going to be such an incredible mom, and just some of the reasons why are the ones I just listed (her hubby is going to be a great dad too, btw). Zainab supported me with guest posts when I moved and when I was busy wedding planning so of COURSE I had to be a part of her SURPRISE VIRTUAL BABY SHOWER!

I'm so excited that my first official recipe that I'm sharing post wedding is for Zainab and the celebration of her becoming the sweetest momma ever! And-since Zainab loves all things coconut-we decided to only share coconutty treats for this "party"! Up until semi-recently I wasn't a huge fan of coconut (with the exception of Samoas). But I have learned that, especially when toasted, I loooooove coconut. And it pairs so deliciously with chocolate. And...I love cookies. And cookies are my go-to when I'm bringing a treat to a party, like..oh say a baby shower! Which is why I threw together these lovelies!

These cookies are sturdy (so they're perfect to ship to loved ones or to bring to a paaaarty) and super chocolatey (and-when warm-deliciously gooey). They're made a smidge healthier thanks to the fact that we're using coconut oil instead of butter (mo' coconut=mo'betta!) and the toasted coconut flakes REALLY make them special! There's all kinds of delicious textures and they were a big hit with Michael's friends...Michael...and me!

I know Zainab would like them too and so will you!