Carrie – Page 15 – thosecoolkims

Christmas Goodies

I’ve been VERY busy in the kitchen lately, and doing a lot of posting over at my food+crafts blog, Four-Eyed Girlie. In case you haven’t seen it, here’s what I’ve been making this Christmas!

“Elements of the Holidays” Gingerbread and Pumpkin Bread Mini-Loaves

My little side project, Four-Eyed Girlie, was started in hopes that one day I could market and sell the treats I like to make. My 1st experiment with this was offering the Gingerbread and Pumpkin Bread mini-loaves I made a few years back to my Four-Eyed Girlie Facebook Followers. I received my very 1st order and sold 20 to a friend so she could gift her co-workers in the office! I like calling them “elements of the holidays” because gingerbread and other spice breads are such a warm association with this time of year. Even better, a friend insisted I borrow her fancy-schmancy Kitchen Aid Mixer, so I felt like a real pro. Bonus points for the mixer being my favorite color – RED!

Triple Decker Maple Peanut Butter Pretzel Fudge

After finding this recipe on one of my favorite blogs, Sprinkle Bakes — I knew I wanted to make this fudge for my mommy friends as a special treat. It turned out beautifully and I decided I needed packaging that was just as beautiful as the product. I came up with gifting individually-sized bricks of fudge (so you could still see the pretzel stick detail) in a clear treat bag with a custom label I designed.

You can read more about it in this post on the Four-Eyed Girlie blog.

Old-Fashioned Milk Chocolate/White Chocolate Peppermint/Chocolate Walnut Holiday Fudge

I got together with my mom as usual to do our annual holiday treat-making day. We decided on fudge this year and I wanted to make three different varieties. It was really fun to do and I especially liked the way my Milk Chocolate Fudge w/Holly Sprinkles turned out. I used a fondant cutter to make the fudge pieces round, and I used tweezers to get the holly sprinkles just perfect!

Chocolate Covered Oreos in Poinsettia Flower Molds

Also on the day mom + I got together, we dipped double stuff oreos in red chocolate using a poinsettia mold she’d purchased last year. The oreos really came out stunning — and they were so easy to do! First, we melted yellow chocolate and painted it into the center of each mold with a paintbrush. Once the yellow chocolate had cooled, we poured in red chocolate and submerged the oreo. I think they look great, and would definitely love to try more of these molds in the future!

Buckeye Candy

My mom really wanted to make Buckeye Candy, and how could I argue? Buckeyes pay homage to our home state of Ohio, and they’re basically like Peanut Butter Cups in ball form. They are DELICIOUS. Good thing she left those at her house. Yum!

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
I hosted a little cookie party for our little mom group, since we hardly ever get to just hang out and chat without having to stop mid sentence and chase the kiddos or break up some sort of incidient where toddlers aren’t sharing! I make these cookies of Martha’s almost every year — they’re just the perfect Christmas cookie! They’re chewy and chocolate-y, but have a crunch thanks to crushed peppermint candies inside. I love-love-love them!

The Kims rock the 2012 L.A. Auto Show

This was the second year that both Ed and I attended media days at the L.A. Auto Show. We had a great time, and enjoyed many perks!

It’s a busy day …

But we get the inside scoop at all the press conferences.

We decided we want to be a Fiat family after the unveil of the 500L!

All the hard work calls for refreshment. Audi always has the best food — traditional weisswurst sausage and bavarian pretzels. With beer, of course.

The biggest surprise of all was that Tenacious D played a very small show at the Hyundai After Party! Carrie got to high five Jack Black, and Kyle gave her the setlist and his guitar pick. It was incredible to be standing right in front of them!

If you’d like to see the actual work Carrie did, you can read my stories on the Fiat 500L, Family Crossovers and the Ford Transit Wagon Connect!

Bonus: a short video clip of Jack Black on the Saxaboom!

Yo Gabba Gabba LIVE! at the Nokia Theatre

Ruby had no idea what was coming the day after Thanksgiving; We surprised her with tickets to the Yo Gabba Gabba Live show and she almost lost her mind! After seeing her face during the 60 minutes of that performance, we now know it’s the best money weve ever spent. She had a blast … and admittedly, so did we.

Pardon the crappy pics, but some things just can’t be documented, I suppose. It is a fun memory we’ll have forever. Apparently, just like at past shows where celebs like Gwen Stefani and Jessica Alba brought their kids, Alyssa Milano and Johnny Knoxville took their littles to the show we were at, too.

Here’s a short clip of Ruby rockin’ out:

Ruby turns TWO

We seriously can’t believe that Ruby is TWO! She had a very busy day to bring on her brand-new year. To start things off, she awoke that morning to find she had her very own kitchen — in red, of course!

Then, we headed off to the park for a playdate with the regular crew. I couldn’t resist making some cupcakes for the gang in honor of her birthday.

Then we came home and prepared to celebrate with our families that evening. After last year’s shindig (which rivaled the size of our wedding reception!), we decided to scale back a little and enjoy an old school party with finger foods and a great big birthday cake. I really wanted to make it this year, and with the help of my mom, I did it!

I knew that I wanted to make a cookie for the top of the cake, so I purchased a special cookie cutter. And, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for my dad to teach me how to do royal icing. He and my mom made 150 bride cookies and 150 groom cookies for my wedding, so I consider my dad a pro! I had fun working on them with him.

All in all, I think the birthday girl enjoyed her day! We love our girl more than words could ever say.

The Halloween Crew

Mason, Violet, Ruby, Berlin, Harper + Drew

This year, everybody came over to our house to trick-or-treat down our street and to hit up the free carnival at the park at the end of our block. We managed to get a pic of all the kiddos before the madness began. So hard to believe how much they’ve all grown in just a year.