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134/365, originally uploaded by britrosewhite.

Today is Memorial Day, but we still had a birthday party. My beloved aunt Mary Alice, and my wonderful Papa. Two people I love and cherish lots and much. They are beautiful people and two of the most inspiring that I know. If you like me at all, I give them some of the credit for making them this way. If you don't like me, don't blame them. It's all my fault. Or yours. Why don't you like me?


Papa has a great garden and he looks really cool in his hat. He has a tiny blueberry bush and I may have had the single best blueberry in the world today. He also has grapes growing wild and wants me to make them into jam. Yes, I will do that, sir!


One of the White Family Traditions is to eat. Today, we ate a lot of chocolate. Starting with this s'more.


And this cake that I made for Mary Alice. It's a love/hate cake. At first, everyone was looking at me with love in their eyes. By the second bite, I was getting death stares. It's that rich. That's what happens when the frosting is made up of 24 ounces of chocolate chips and 4 cups of whipping cream.

I had to close my eyes and pour. I'm telling you, I am the healthiest cook around on most days. But when it comes to chocolate, it's all or nothing.

Now this picture...

was taken BEFORE the chocolate cake death.

Gracey is not fond of water. It's sad, but it's to our amusement. We love to do crazy things to her, the least of which is giving her a Target bag diaper during her time of the month. We want her to have puppies again...don't judge.

But I thought maybe we could get her to enjoy this raft. She loves to lay down just about anywhere, so why not here?

She did pretty good for awhile...but then she tried to jump out and Lauren barely grabbed her hind legs, at which point she swam like a mad dog towards me and clawed my stomach, shoulders, and back trying to get out. I bled a little...but boy was that FUNNY! Strange dog.


Happy Summer, from our family to yours.

Just for kicks:

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133/365, originally uploaded by britrosewhite.

Oh, how the garden grows!

Today we picked our first vegetables.

That squash is as big as Lauren!


We're gonna be up to our ears in zucchini. Just the way I like it.


And while I'm not a tomato fan at all, I can't help but admire how these guys are growing. Salsa, pasta sauce, ketchup...we'll find something to do with them. If my mom doesn't eat them all.


Mom sauteed the squash and the zucchini with some peppers, onions, garlic, and olive oil. I'm all over this. It tasted amazing.

It's going to be a very delicious summer.

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132/365, originally uploaded by britrosewhite.

I'm making a cake Monday for a very special aunt's birthday. It will be my first Martha Stewart recipe. And this is the frosting. Four cups of heavy whipping cream and 24 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

I'm already in denial about what's going to go into my body. Good thing I've already made a pact with my sister that we're only going to eat one small slice......

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131/365, originally uploaded by britrosewhite.

Food food food I love food I love yeast I love how it smells I love what it does I want to make bread I want to eat bread I want to make bread I want to eat lots of iiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!!!!

I know you understand.

I also love basil. The smell drives me crazy, it is so good. The basil plant in our garden is insanely beautiful and every time I shake it I smell Brooklyn pizza.

So I could only take it so long. I found some recipes. Brick oven pizza dough, Brooklyn pizza sauce...yum. The dough had to sit in the fridge for 16 hours, but it was pretty easy besides that. The sauce had to simmer for an hour, but it was pretty easy besides that. The basil is from the garden, the fresh mozzarella is from the store and not as exciting, but tastes pretty great.

It cooked for five minutes at 550 on a preheated pizza stone. I burned the floor mat. A few weeks ago I burned the counter. I'm tearing up this kitchen because i'm dumb, but I make yummy stuff.

The taste of Brooklyn in my home in Texas is so, so good.

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130/365, originally uploaded by britrosewhite.

It's been awhile since I posted something sweet.

This cupcake is from the Cook Yourself Thin cookbook that I picked up from the library. I love any dessert-turned-healthy that still tastes-like-it's-not-healthy.

It's a vanilla cupcake with ground up almonds and shredded zucchini and it's pretty great....but the frosting is what makes it. Seven minute frosting is where it's at! My mom grew up eating this stuff. It's like marshmallow cream, basically.

(Note to Tricia Gilchrist: if you ever make this frosting, please use your KitchenAid to beat it for seven minutes and don't use your arm to beat it for seven minutes.)

And if you haven't heard...


The shop is stocked! Albiet briefly...you lovely people are snatching them up. Sure love you guys.

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129/365, originally uploaded by britrosewhite.

Look at the moon! It's so pretty! Can you see it? No....? Because it's
a last minute hasty iPhone photo since my camera battery died...?

Sorry. Really was pretty, though.

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128/365, originally uploaded by britrosewhite.

"Wish I were here." - LW

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127/365, originally uploaded by britrosewhite.

I took a lot of pictures today.

I normally wake up with plenty of plans for the day and then find myself in completely different situations. I haven't allowed myself to do much but sew the last few weeks, but today I did get in the pool for ten minutes (seriously) and bake some bagels this morning. And I did go to three different snocone stands after dinner.


A much more sufficient puff than last time! The flavor was just like a plain bagel. Not as tasty as the others, but texture was perfect.


There are swirlies in our garden!


It's fascinating.


I bought flowers and key limes and Central Market a few days ago.


Something in me has awakened and I love plants. Growing them, looking at them, and eating them. Of course, the eating part isn't new.


It was another beautiful sky tonight. I can't get over it!

Our mission was to try the three different local snocone stands and determine the best based on taste, atmosphere and friendliness of staff.


First up was Granny's. Good for tiny ice, bad for atmosphere.


Next, Bud's. The one I grew up going to.


I love that yellow snocone light! That's Audra, Lauren's friend. She enjoys banana snocones and maybe bubble gum, too.


Bud's wins for having free doggy snocones!!


And finally, Bedford Snoball. Pretty much the local favorite. Gracey looks eager, but she didn't get anything this time.


Lauren loved the fifty cent tiny cups! We were pretty full on snocones by this point.


I think we all agreed on Bedford as the best in all categories. Tough call since I liked Granny's ice best and the nostalgia at Bud's, but something just feels good about Bedford.


It just looks like summer.

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126/365, originally uploaded by britrosewhite.

Yep. I posted that.

In all honesty, how could I NOT?

Grover woke up this morning ready for his first swim.


It wasn't so bad, but the diaper got in the way.

So...


Freestyle, baby!

He splashed around a bit but the reflection on the water was pretty bright.


This is when I noticed something very important and had to get a closer look.


That is some cottage cheese!


And that is one crooked creek!


And that is one squooshy toosh!


What a couple.

I am so proud that Grover took his first swim in our pool and that Claire made the inaugural swim - besides my dad's "cleaning the pool" swim yesterday. It's summer, y'all!

Now some quick updates:


Garden: growing.


Baby birdies: growing.

And to finish...


Babies getting some couch sleep.

But REALLY to finish, let's just go ahead and do this one more time:

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125/365, originally uploaded by britrosewhite.

5K! 5K! 5K!

Pancakes! Pancakes! Pancakes!

That was my morning.

Rachel couldn't run because she had to work and she's been sick, but the four of us kicked some asphalt at 8:30 this morning.

My time was 29:10 which is at least 4 minutes faster than any other official recorded times in the history of me. I got 12th place out of 30 or so. Better than half! Better than half.

Dad was close behind, then Lauren, then mom. Mom! She did so good. I ran back to meet her and boy, she started sprinting at the end. I could barely keep up with her.


I'm so proud of us.


I think I'm addicted.

I've been very adverse to running ever since the half marathon I ran senior year of college.

No friends. No music. No place to go to the bathroom. Okay, that's a lie. But it's better than the real story. And no lungs to breathe with. That's a lie, too. They were there, just faulty.


My parents are so strong and healthy! And they're getting stronger and healthier!

And guess who ELSE is strong and healthy?


Keane is! His daddy ran with us. He beat us all. Settin' the pace for his son.

I went out in public like that. And I was sweaty in interesting areas. I'm sorry, everyone.


Some people think dad and Keane look alike. If I have a son, I hope he looks like my dad. Dad was a cute kid!

Oh and guess WHO ELSE is strong and healthy??

Grover! And he's asleep down the hall with his parents. I haven't seen him yet, but tomorrow...I'm getting my hands all over those chunky legs.

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124/365, originally uploaded by britrosewhite.

I KNOW how boring I've been lately. On my blog, at least. And I know how late I've been updating. And how bad the pictures are. I know all that. Just so you know that I know.

But I've been busy. Every moment that I'm not doing something essential, I'm sewing. I'm working really hard. This is the first week that I've been home that I haven't gotten a full amount of sleep most nights of the week. It really does seem like I'm working full time again. Basically, I am! All the babysitting, cooking, and sewing...I'm the house wife without the house or the family.

It's all sort of awesome, though. I love kids, I love cooking, I love being creative - which is why sewing these aprons is great! Each one is different, so I'm not getting bored. Just highly frustrated when I mess up and have to re-do things. Keeps me on my toes.



This morning I made some bagels, though. It was fun but only the first batch puffed up sufficiently. I'm going to try another more intense recipe soon. I have to find a master bagel recipe. It just occurred to me two days ago that I needed to, so I'm going with it. That happens to me sometimes.

Tomorrow morning I'm running a 5K with my family, babysitting for two families back to back, and then rushing home to see the Gillens who are passing through on their epic road trip from New York to Austin. For good.

This blog is not for apologies. I get tired of blogging excuses. So all I'm gonna say is I didn't promise it'd be interesting, but I did promise it'd be consistent! So far, so good.