Ode to the DEEP South (New Zealand)

It has been a productive week in the kitchen! Geez Louise, we are going to gain weight with all this deliciousness! Yesterday marked 3 years for J & I, so I made him one of his favorite things in the wide world:

NZ Meat and Cheese Pie!

It was really good, although I don't think I did the real Kiwi version justice. I used this recipe, but it was too ketchupy. Next time I'll probably make a similar version with a tiny bit of tomato paste in place of the ketchup and maybe less soy sauce.

It was funny because I realized as I was cooking that I was wearing a New Zealand shirt from my dear friend Vee. And Justin arrived wearing an All Blacks jersey. Clearly we are smitten with this country! It's not hard to see why:

This is a collage I had printed on a canvas and gave to J for taking me with him to New Zealand in April. It's of pictures we both took on the trip. (By the way, I used a Groupon for this company. It turned out really great, but I had to wait about 5 weeks to get it.) It was an incredible trip, not just for the beauty, but mainly all the new friends I made! Love you guys!

You Know You Are Loved When...

... I make this cake for you...

J's brother & his fiance were in town this weekend, so we threw them a bridal shower. When my newlywed cousin (who is also J's brother's wife, think about it,) suggested we make the same cake I made for her shower, I took a deep breath and nodded my head, warning her that it would be quite a project. We did take some shortcuts this time - like using cake mix. Good decision!! If you are dying to spend a whole day in the kitchen, I made you a list of what is in it. I won't bore you with all of the steps, I'm sure you can figure out most of them.


2 Boxes Duncan Hines Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Pudding mixed in, of course!
Simple Syrup with Lemon juice to coat the layers right after they come out of the oven
Homemade Buttercream Icing
Lemon-Raspberry Curd for the filling between the bottom two layers and the topping. I used the lemon curd from this recipe, and just added raspberries after it cooled.

I saw the rose thing here first. It's super-easy, but slightly time consuming. She explains the technique really well, but I used a different tip than she did. I don't even know what it is called, but it looks like a 5-point star.

My cousin and I worked long and hard on this, so it was great to see that it was a huge hit at the shower. Even for "non-cake people." It looked great, but tasted even better!