The boyfriend and I went on the Parade of Homes last week and it was wonderful. If you don’t have a homes parade in your area it is a showing of designer custom houses and builder/ model homes. You purchase a ticket and drive around visiting the houses that look the most interesting to you or all of them if you have a lot of time to spare. We usually make a day of it and pack a lunch in our travel cooler for the drive. Once you get to a house on the tour you go on a self guided tour of the house (fully finished and decorated) and property before the owner moves in or the house goes on the market. I love it! We can see what all the new builders are doing in their houses, what’s trendy, and just  see some amazing places!

This year one builder went all out and decided to recreate the house from the Disney movie UP for their show home. They built this thing to exact replica of the one in the film (right down to the photographs on the walls and the bright blue retro kitchen appliances). We talked to one of the guys from Bangerter Homes the company that built this adorable house, and he said Disney didn’t even charge them for rites to the house. All they wanted was a copy of the blueprints so they could build it too if they wanted. How awesome is that?! Yet again Disney makes me love them more and more. I am absolutely in love with this house. It was so novel and cute that I just had to continue the happy vibe with some extra happy cupcakes. So, Psychedelic Rainbow Cupcakes must be shared! These are extra cute and super bright! Make them in the colors of the rainbow or in your favorite colors for a personalized treat.

These cupcakes are easy to make, but to get the best colors use gel coloring it doesn’t thin the batter and the colors are way more vibrant!

What you need…

Food coloring (3- 5 colors)

Alright now separate your batter in to separate bowls (one for each of your colors). You can use your kitchen scale or just eyeball it… that’s what I did. Now in your lined cupcake tin start blobbing spoonfuls of color one at a time. Thanks to the cream cheese (or sour cream) the batter is nice and thick and won’t run together when you put one color on top of the other. Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way full with the different batters and then put them in the oven. Then let them bake for about

I had made a coconut cream cheese frosting for these, but they looked so good I couldn’t wait to frost them and we ended up eating them immediately without any frosting at all haha. The cake is a simple white cake and most frostings will taste good with it. So, pick your favorite flavor and frost them up or eat them without like us!

They were so moist and delicious just looking at my silly pictures makes me want to make them all over again, but we must be constantly moving forward… so to my next culinary adventure: Cinnamon Burst Bread. Yum!

 I love my dogs so much I can barely express it. Everyday I look at those little monsters and just want to snuggle them all over! When I’m sad they make me happy and when I’m happy, well they make me even happier! Ok so having dogs means lots of cleaning, tons of pawprints on sparkling floors, and unintentionally eating dog hairs, but they’re well worth the extra work and the added seasoning.

I don’t know if everyone’s pups are like this, but mine LOVE it when I cook. They attach themselves to my heels and sit expectantly under foot as I try to put something together. My dogs know me really well and they know that if I’m cooking something then I will eventually drop something on the floor that they can immediately snatch up.

Vacuum # 1

and

Vacuum # 2

Don’t you just love their expectant little faces.

What exactly are they expecting? Dog treats of course! Some delicious home made dog treats. I love to bake treats for my dogs, especially because they almost always love everything I make them. One way to make sure they definitely like whatever I whip up is to include peanut butter in the mix. Much like every other creature in the universe my dogs

L

O

V

E

peanut butter. Coat rocks in the stuff and they’d down them in seconds… hey even I might for the right PB. Enough about me and back to the pups. These cookies are probably their favorites and if your dogs are anything like mine soon they’ll be their favorites too!

What you need…

2 cups Whole wheat flour
1 TBSP Baking powder
1 cup Smooth peanut butter
1 cup Milk
1/2 cup Oatmeal
Banana chips or Bacon bits (optional)

Start by preheating your oven to 375 F and prepping your cookie sheet (ie silpat, parchment paper, light grease whatever you like). Next mix your dry ingredients together in a bowl. Slowly stir in peanut butter and milk until a dough forms. Turn the dough out on a flowered surface roll it flat and cut in to desired shapes. I love to use a heart or dog bone shaped cookie cutter, but circles or squares are cool too. If you want to add something extra to your dog cookies then press a few banana chips or bacon bits on top of them before baking. Transfer the shapes to your prepared pan and just pop them in the oven! Bake until golden (about 20 minutes), cool, and serve. Your dogs will thank you!