Springtime Sweets | Italian Lemon Pound Cake

Spring, where'd ya go? 

It was beautiful last week--warm and sunny almost every day. Yesterday we saw temps in the upper 40's with a steady drizzle. Probably the perfect daylight savings time kind of weather, which allowed for like, three naps throughout the cloudy afternoon. 

This week is going to be busy with all of the St. Patrick's festivities coming up, but I'm looking forward to it, especially after a really great first week at my new job. But of course last Sunday, I had a few little butterflies in my tummy with those "night before nerves."

Baking is quite a good stress reliever for me, and is something I really haven't done a lot of in the last year or so, as I didn't consistently have people who would help me eat the creations! But last Sunday we were heading to a small dinner party, and CJM was working all afternoon, so I browsed through Pinterest for a springy dessert to bake that would compliment an Italian/seafood meal.

This Italian Lemon Pound Cake was a breeze to mix up, baked perfectly, and tasted delicious. It was definitely one of those things that gets better as the days go on, so I'd recommend this as a "make ahead" recipe! Its a dense yet moist cake, with the most amazing tart and tangy icing. Also, the pinch of ginger added in really takes the cake! I may be whipping this one up again for Easter...try it, and let me know what you think.

January Recipe Review

How is it already the end of January?!

I really didn't set any New Year Resolutions this year because I knew we'd have a lot going on the first few months of 2017. And while I didn't succeed in keeping up my goal of trying new Pinterest recipes every month of my newlywed year, I have had a few wins and added some new favorites to my recipe box.

Follow me on Pinterest!

January saw us trying out two new healthy recipes that I found on Pinterest: Shrimp Fried Cauliflower Rice and One Pan Healthy Sausage and Veggies. 

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Cauliflower rice has become such a "thing" lately, but making it at home always seemed like such a mess. Now there are tons of flavors and varieties of it at the grocery store in the freezer aisle. I used this recipe, but made it easier by using the frozen cauliflower rice {unflavored} and a frozen bag of mixed vegetables. To add a little kick {you know we like it spicy in our house} I cooked the thawed, deveined shrimp in olive oil, garlic salt, and red pepper flakes. This was a super yummy, super quick meal that made a lot!

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I made this deliciousness in my wok one night, and let me tell you, it almost smelled like pizza. Not sure why, maybe it was the Italian seasonings, but it was so good. I left out the potatoes to make it lower in carbs, and just added whatever similar seasonings I had in my pantry {red pepper flakes for the win, again!}. I'm really not a fan of turkey anything, but this turkey sausage was really delicious! I'd definitely add more broccoli the next time around; it soaked up all the flavors and were the best bites of the bunch. This dish packs well for lunches throughout the week, and is so perfect with a sprinkle of parmesan on top! 

Hurricane Essentials

Such long, unexplained blog silence hasn't happened around these parts in quite a while. I unfortunately, just wasn't feeling it this week, and have had  a "minor" weather disturbance to focus my attention on. 

I've been on a search for rain boots. I have had three or four pairs, but they usually end up discolored and in the trash. So I've been searching for the perfect darker colored boot, that has less of a rain boot look, and more of an equestrian or fashionable feel. I'm loving these three pairs that I pinned to my "fall-tastic" Pinterest fashion board! 

Target Quilted Rubber Boot, $27.99

Target Equestrian Style Boot, $27.99

Joules Crockington Boot, $84.95

Last night I stocked up on bottles of water for myself and the dogs, plenty of pop tarts, and lots of lemon Oreo's! Looks like we'll have a lot of rain and wind here, but nothing too terrible. I'm hoping to spend some quality time curled up with a good book--any recommendations before my bookstore run this afternoon? I just finished The Husband's Secret and LOVED it!

{Flashback Friday} Top Pins

After switching to my new domain this week {www.piperellice.com | yay!}, I had a lot of updating to do. Instagram profile, Facebook profile, Pinterest profile...oh, wait. All of those pins from the old URL won't forward to the new site. Unacceptable! But I also don't have time right now to update every. single. pin. 

So I pulled up every Pinterest pin from the old startingsouthern.blogspot.com {be sure to update your bookmarks with the new URL, or follow by email/Google+!} and looked for the most popular pins to edit and update with the new links. It was pretty easy to spot the top pins from my blog, but also really interesting! It seems there's definitely a theme of popular Christmas pins, followed by home decor and fashion. 

Here are the top pins from my blog over the last three years: 

 

15 Pins Grinch Cookies. Just peanut butter sandwiched between Ritz crackers, dipped in green candy melts, topped with sprinkles, but oh so delicious! I love the sweet and salty combo of this Christmas treat. I also am addicted to candy melts. If they're in the house, I will eat them. Weird, I know. Obviously, these don't have to be dipped in green, that's just all I had on hand at the time and it seemed fun. This year, I just used white almond bark. 

16 Pins Still one of my most popular posts, these earrings from my Christmas list two years ago were pretty popular. I still want them! The classic pearl circled by delicate diamonds is a truly timeless piece of jewelry. 

54 Pins My shabby chic dining room in my first apartment! I'm no longer using that table in my dining room, but have moved it out to my sun room now that I have more space. I recently purchased a beautiful hand painted dining room table that I'm using with those same chairs. The chest behind the table still serves as my wet bar/china hutch until I get my china cabinet down here from South Carolina. And the wall art: once a ceiling fan medallion, painted and hung, is something I still use! It's now in the living room. 

381 Pins Fabulous work wear inspiration from a post about thrifting for Pinterest inspired outfits. I'm glad that so many others found this picture to be as stylish as I did! This reminds me that I need some tweed...

Do you follow me on Pinterest? Follow me, so I can follow you back! I'm always looking for new inspiration!

Second Annual Pie Day

In honor of National Pie Day, which is tomorrow by the way...January 23...I made a delicious peanut butter pie with a chocolate ganache to share with my work friends! It was delicious. Super creamy and smooth, and the semi-sweet ganache was an excellent compliment to the rich peanut butter filling.

I found this recipe one day from Pinterest; you can check out the pin and the recipe here. Originally posted in 2012, there was a 2016 update about the ganache being too thick. I didn't have that issue, but I also was more liberal on the heavy cream and used semi-sweet chocolate chips that I had on hand. I added a some extra peanut butter in the filling, too!

You can read about last year's Pie Day at the Chamber here which features my super spicy Chicken Bog recipe which is great for a cold/wet/winter-y day like today. Don't forget to follow me on Pinterest by searching "Piper Ellice" which will also find me on Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter!

Happy Weekend!