What is Weekend Wrap-Up? It’s a way for me to capture/document my weekends (Friday’s from 4PM EST until I go to sleep Sunday Night) by taking random pictures from my cell phone or Nikon D5000 and posting them here every Monday morning.

Why? It gives you guys a peek into my life, and even sneak peeks into projects I’m currently working on. It’s also so I can look back and see what I did on certain weekends and I just think it would be fun to have.

We had an awesome Memorial Day Weekend. We went camping near Adamstown, Pennsylvania in Lancaster County (Amish Country) and it was also Travis’ 21st birthday on Saturday. I took over 260 pictures over the weekend, but most of them are not appropriate for this blog, ha. Blame the keg of Rolling Rock. But I did manage to pull some pictures together from the weekend.

I had off of work Friday, so I spent most of the day at home with Coco and all she did was sleep, of course. Travis managed to get off of work by 2pm that day so we managed to leave four hours ahead of schedule.

It was really hot out, around 90 degrees,
so we hit up McDonalds for some nice refreshing drinks
Frozen Strawberry Lemonade!

We love getting out of the city and driving thru the countryside.

Over the weekend we stopped at Weavers,
which we call the Amish Walmart,
Travis tried on a bunch of cowboy boots while we were there,
and he actually bought a pair.

At Weavers, they make homemade donuts, yum!

& their ice cream is fantastic.

We were all really active over the weekend.
We played lacrosse, wiffle ball, kickball, cornhole and washers.

Here is my brother Shawn, the boyfriend Travis and my Uncle Jr.

I also had a push-up competition with my brother…

& I won. :)

Here is everyone gather up for some wiffle ball.

& since it was Travis’ 21st, we went out to a bar on Saturday night,
which he doesn’t even remember…

Weekend Wrap-Up Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

How was your weekend? Tell me about it in the comments section!

Posted on May 21, 2013 - 8 comments
 Filed Under: My Life, Weekend Wrap-Up

We are having a picnic on Saturday afternoon while we are at the campground for Memorial Day, it’s also Travis’ birthday. So I decided to bring along pickles (who doesn’t love pickles?) and some Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Whoopie Pies since Travis loves Cookie Dough. (Don’t worry, there is no raw egg in them) My mom always makes regular Whoopie Pies, so this was pretty intimidating for me since hers always come out fantastic and delicious.

Of course, I have the recipe for you guys. The recipe I used made 11 whoopie pie “sandwiches”. (Well, I have 22 whoopie pie’s because I did the recipe twice, I have a lot of people to feed.)

To Make the Cakes:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg

Before you begin you’ll want to preheat oven to 350°F. Then whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

In a separate bowl stir together the buttermilk and vanilla.

In a large bowl beat together the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until the mixture comes out fluffy. Then add 1 egg, beating until combined well.

So, you should end up with three bowls that are looking like this:

You then want to slowly mix in the dry mixture and the buttermilk mixture into the large bowl. You’ll want to alternate them, a little flour, then a little buttermilk, and then a little bit more flour, etc. Mix until they are combined and smooth. It should come out looking like this:

Then just spoon them onto a buttered baking sheet, just like you’re making cookies. You’ll want to bake them for about 8 – 12 minutes. Just check them by sticking a toothpick in the center, and waiting until it comes out clean. Once you take them out of the oven, transfer them to a cooling rack so they can cool completely. When they are cool, you can start the filling.

To Make the Filling I used the recipe over at Cookies and Cups (She’s amazing – go check her out) I’m not going to go into a tutorial on how to make the filling, because she did an excellent job. I’ll just say that you need the following: Milk, Granulated Sugars, Flour, Vanilla, Chocolate Chips, Butter & Brown Sugar.

Once you make the filling, you’ll want to grab your whoopie pies.

Then just make some whoopie pie sandwiches. Just like this:

Yum! & Here is all of my whoopie pies, some of them came out HUGE but that’s okay.

Have a fantastic Memorial Day Weekend!

P.S. The stats from the survey are in! & I need your suggestions on what kind of post I can do so you guys can learn more about Travis and I. So just click here to check out the post and leave a suggestion for an “about us” post. Thanks!

Posted on May 21, 2013 - 12 comments
 Filed Under: Food & Drink

The results of the survey are now in and I’m going to get all pie-charty on you guys. But before I do that, I just want to say thank you to everyone that took the time out of their day to vote, it means a lot. Thank you!

There was five topics for everyone to choose from, which included: More DIY Projects, More about Travis’ Beer Brewing, More About You (Melanie & Travis), More Mixed Drinks & More Coco! The votes were pretty well spread out but there was two clear winners as you can see below:

So, let’s break it down into # of votes:
14 of you voted for more DIY projects
10 of you voted for more about us
5 of you voted for more about Travis’ beer brewing
4 of you voted for more Coco
3 of you voted for more Mixed Drinks

So, what does all of this mean?
It means I have a lot of projects to get working on, and I have to figure out what to post about so you guys can find out more about us. (Suggestions Welcome!) It also means that I’m going to get Travis to do at least 1 post about his beer brewing which will probably consist of a list of everything you need to brew, why, and where he bought everything that he uses. (Travis, if you’re reading this, get to work)

I’ll also make sure that Coco photo-bombs more pictures for you four people that want some more Coco in your lives! That leaves mixed drinks at the bottom of the list, darn. I actually voted for this and only this, ha! But you guys are in luck because there is only one camping trip in the month of June, which means there will be only one mixed drink post for the entire month.

So except more DIY projects and more about us in the month of June, along with a little sprinkle of beer brewing and Coco in the mix, and just one little lonely mixed drink – I’ll have to make it a good one.

The survey was pretty fun, I love learning what you guys love and don’t love so much on the blog. I might just do it again sometime. Were you guys surprised by any of the results? Do you have any suggestions on posts I could do so you guys learn more about Travis and I? I’m kind of stumped on that one at the moment.

Posted on May 21, 2013 - 4 comments
 Filed Under: Goals & Dreams