Gerber Sandwiches

Not many people outside of St. Louis have heard of these delicious sandwiches. They are a family favorite and are so simple to make. They are cheesy and yummy, and so so good!

Ingredients::

1 loaf French Bread

1/4 cup garlic butter, you can also substitute for butter and garlic salt

3/4 lb deli ham

1/2 lb provolone cheese

paprika

Directions::

1. Slice the loaf of bread lengthwise

2. Place on cookie sheet

3. Spread butter on both pieces of bread

4. Put a layer of ham on both pieces of bread

5. Top it with a healthy layer of cheese

6. Sprinkle with a dash of paprika

7. Put it in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly

8. Enjoy its tasty goodness!!

Another One of My Loves

My three loves in life::

Photography, Graphic Design, and Baking of course!

In this post I’m going to highlight a project I am working on at the moment.

First of all, my wonderful, beautiful friend Lauren is getting married in August! You can follow Lauren on her blog as she goes through her wedding planning process. I was so excited when she came to me to ask for my skills in designing her wedding stationery. Lauren has so many great ideas, so designing her stationery has been a great process.

Lauren is getting a lot of her inspiration from MASON JARS!! Thats right! Which right there makes me super happy. The first part of the stationery is the Save the Date. Lauren came up with a great idea to make them business card size and print them on magnet paper. This is a great idea for a lot of brides for a number of reasons. 1. It is DIY friendly, which for a lot of brides these days is the only way to go! 2. You can stick the Save the Date on your fridge, which is a lot better than ending up in the trash. The colors for Lauren’s wedding are gray and yellow, which I love!! So here is the finished product. Granted, this picture is not of the actual magnets, but just imagine it stuck on your fridge 🙂

French Vanilla Strawberry Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

1 French Vanilla Cake Mix

1 Cups frozen sliced strawberries-keep frozen

Icing:

1 Cup Shortening

4 Cups Confectioners Sugar

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

1 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

3 ounces heavy cream.

1 cup frozen sliced strawberries-thawed

Directions:

Cake:

Mix cake mix according to the directions on the box. Prepare muffin pan-makes two twelve cup pans. Spoon a small amount of cake mix into the bottom of the cups-just enough to coat the bottom. Then place on strawberry slice in the cups. Top cups with remaining cake mix. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. A good way to check they are done is to use a fork or toothpick- if it comes out clean they are done.

Icing:

1. Cream shortening until fluffy. Add confectioner’s sugar and continue creaming until well blended.
2. Add salt, vanilla, and whipping cream blend on low speed until moistened. Add additional whipping cream if necessary (up to 2 ounces). Beat at high speed until frosting is fluffy.
3. Mash strawberries into a slush like state. The lightly fold into icing.

Wait until cupcakes are completely cooled before icing!

Baking is Love

I never go a week with out baking. Literally. You can ask my husband, who has a love/hate relationship with my baking skills. On an almost daily basis he is welcomed home from work with the smell of something delicious in the oven. Take today for example-I made a pumpkin pie and banana bread. For no special reason. Just because I had an itch to bake. But my obsession does not stop there. It trickles off into the world of cooking as well. And yes there is a difference between cooking and baking. Baking often uses the products: milk, eggs, flour, sugar, baking powder, and butter. I believe when baking you never use the stove. Cooking on the other hand does involve the stove. When baking I almost always use a recipe, be it from a book, website or magazine.  But when I cook I wing it 90% of the time. I rely on the basics of a recipe I recreated long ago but change it up every time with what I have on hand. My husband is amazed when I have the entire pantry spread out on the counter, and when he asks “whatcha makin?” I respond with “I’ll know when I’m done.” Every experience at the stove/oven has its own outcome. I will be honest, not every attempt I have made has been successful. Anytime the words “potato” and “pancake” are put together my husband reminds me of the “one time I ever made anything he absolutely could not bear to eat.” So here I am, to put those experiences up here (good and bad) so that maybe you can be inspired to not go a week with out baking.