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Category Archives: cookies

Hello Spring.

baking, cake, cookies, crafts, decorations, details, Florida, flowers, holiday, recipes, spring, st. patrick's day March 17, 2017 1 Comment

So how do you survive your first winter back in the Midwest after living in Florida?
Don’t blog about it and it’s like it didn’t even happen.

Not sure whether there is a joke or an excuse in there, but I needed a transition so take it for what it is.

Truth is our first winter back has been pretty mild. And only in terms of temperature.

But if you’re gauging it on social engagements and work schedules, it’s been red hot. Most likely from a combination of living closer to friends and family, low housing inventory and increased demand for local athletic training services.

I’ll save you the apologies for my absence in this particular corner of the internet and instead bring you up to speed with photo montages and random things our dog has eaten (and had surgically removed) since we last talked (spoiler alert: it’s my favorite cashmere scarf).

superbowl cookies, football cookies, superbowl, dessert, sugar cookies, royal icing

Super Bowl Sunday

valentine's day dessert, yogurt covered strawberries, ombre strawberries, dessert,

Galentine’s Day Brunch

First St. Louis Blues Game

spring, tulips, whole foods, st. louis, flowers

Visiting Flowers at Whole Foods

gender neutral tassel garland, gender reveal, tissue banner, tassel garland

Saeger Gender Reveal Tassel Garland

valentine's day cookies, m&m cookies, baking, cookies, holiday

A Valentine’s M&M cookie recipe not worth sharing

Finn, greater swiss mountain dog, finnegan, swissy, gsmd

Watching my favorite show on T.V.

Showing off my new belly scar

And since I’ve had this draft for several weeks now, it seems like as good a time as any to do a St. Patrick’s Day recap of recipes I used to make when I was fun.

St. Patrick’s Day Oreos

shamrock cookies, iced sugar cookies, st. patrick's day cookies, sugar cookies, st. patrick's day sugar cookies, clover,

Shamrock sugar cookies

Mint Chocolate Trifle

st. patricks day layer cake, ombre layer cake, white birthday cake, buttercream icing, colored layer cake, st. patrick's day, holiday, baking,

St. Patrick’s Day Ombre Layer Cake

Christmas Cookies: New Additions to the Family

baking, christmas, cookies, decorations, design, dessert, family, holiday, observations, photography December 31, 2016 Leave a comment

If you follow me on social media and/or are a co-worker or family member (which let’s face it is about 99.9% of my readers), then you know I recently finished up a batch of sugar cookies.

I know what you’re thinking.

We get it Sarah. You bake. Blah. Blah. Blah.

If that’s what you’re saying in your head right now, you’ll be happy to know I was ‘over them’ about a week ago. Truth is, if I don’t post about them today, we’ll be into the New Year and my sugar cookie-filled jolliness will be overwhelmed by resolutions and complaining about all the new people at the gym.

So in an effort to not repeat myself from year’s past posts about similarly shaped cookies, I’ll simply focus today’s post on the new additions to the ~~Murphy~~ Zalewski Christmas Cookie Family.

Fun fact: Did you know that Matt doesn’t even like these sugar cookies? Each year I end up making alternative batches of cookies and treats each year for him because he prefers a soft cookie to a hard one.

#peoplepleaser

This year’s bunch featured some old favorites (see presents and trees) and a few newbies.

It’s amazing what opportunities open up when you decide to add two new colors to the mix. The trees got trunks, Frosty got a hat and nose and Frosty’s faceless friend Gingerbread George made an appearance.

In other news I finally discovered that the squiggly portion of the ornament was actually the metal part so they joined the fam again after a few years of being shunned for their awkwardness around the holiday.

And let’s not forget everyone’s favorite Santa, who got a spray tan and his brows done for the 2016 holiday season.

In an effort to always improve, I thought this year might be a good time to share how far we’ve come with this particular Christmas cookie family.

And just like the holiday season, some years your tree is pretty and some years Santa threw back one too many before the annual family photo. The important thing is that you all spent time together.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m off to make a long and unrealistic list of fitness and organizational goals for the coming year. Here’s to giving it the old college try!

Happy New Year!

Cookies and Catch Up

baking, beach, bridal shower, cookies, dessert, family, Florida, friends, halloween, holiday, observations, pumpkin, weddings November 13, 2015 Leave a comment

Great news, guys. The Murphalewski Bed and Breakfast just wrapped four straight weeks of out-of-town guests. That means 7 midwesterners are entering the winter season a little bronzer than usual and many local restaurant staffers here in Sarasota are actually starting to think I have friends. It’s a win-win!

Now you may be asking if I’m glad the four-week rush is over. Truth is, I loved having our friends and family stay with us. Each visit came with a reminder of how blessed we are to have friends and family that love us enough to leave crappy weather behind and sit on the beach all day. We realize our location may benefit us this time of year but regardless, we appreciate the time and effort (and flight delays) spent coming to visit.

So what have I been doing with all my free time since the last houseguest left on Sunday? Baking cookies of course.

It seems like the only thing I have to show for the last 4 weeks, aside from the slightly increased body fat percentage, are pictures of cookies long ago eaten by co-workers.

It’s not like me to leave you hanging over a holiday weekend without some sort of ode to a sweet treat on the blog, but I’ve been sidetracked. You see, I’ve been trying to come to grips with the fact that our entire shopping district has been lit up like Rockafeller Center on Christmas Eve since October 24th. I’ve been wrecking my brain trying to figure out in what world this is acceptable but then I remembered a saying my dad always says this time of year.

You know, this might be the last nice day we have to put the Christmas lights up so we better get to it.

Wait. I’m sorry. He usually waits until an ice storm is in the vicinity around December 20th to say that. And they still live in Illinois so…

So in spite of the extremely prematurely lit palm trees and unseasonably hot temperatures, I thought I’d share a few photos from the last four weeks to catch you up.

but how about that sweet lady in the background?

And now you know what my photostream looks like. I’ve got two weeks until Thanksgiving and our next visitors so if you need me I’ll be either running or napping in preparation. Happy Friday!

Wedding Snapshots: the details

cookies, decorations, design, dessert, family, invitations, parties, photography, reception decor, spring, themes, weddings August 4, 2015 Comments: 2

When it comes to wedding and party photos, I’m a sucker for detail shots. And if you’re a sucker for detail shots then we should be best friends. Which is pretty much what our photographer and I became as soon as I looked at her work and saw that she appreciated the little details just as much as I do.

There’s just something in the details. Don’t get me wrong, you may not get the same emotion with a detail shot as you do with a candid, but I love the way that the details give you a feel for the entire day. As if the theme (if there is one) is all wrapped up into a pretty little detailed package.

So without further ado, here are some details from our wedding day taken by the talented Wright Photographs out of Champaign.

April Showers

baby, bridal shower, brunch, cookies, crafts, decorations, details, Easter, family, flowers, friends, holiday, parties, photography, spring, themes, weddings April 8, 2015 Leave a comment

It’s wedding season! Doesn’t it seem like just yesterday we were all getting together for bridal showers and bachelorette parties every other weekend?

Truth is it’s been a while since we all got together to celebrate a wedding. That’s why Matt and I decided to be the last. You know, to build the suspense and excitement.

And to give our friends a chance to go out for a night and leave their kids with grandma and grandpa.

We ventured home last weekend for a weekend full of wedding festivities and Easter celebrations. After a brief pilot strike, new flight schedules and a detour in Chicago, we made it to Springfield around 1 a.m. Saturday morning. This was our third trip home that we arrived after midnight so we’re hopeful that by the time the wedding comes, the travel gods smile down on us instead of pouring their flight delays and traffic jams all over us.

Travel woes behind us, we spent Saturday amidst family and friends and if you ask me, there’s no better way to spend a weekend day. It meant so much to us for both sides of friends and family come into town, something I appreciate so much more living thousands of miles away from them.

My mom and sister handled all of the planning and execution of the shower so while I can’t take credit for any of the details, I did manage to snap a few photos to share with you. I think we both know I’m good for little more than photo posts at this point so here’s a mash-up of the weekend.

We had a great Easter celebration and are continuing the party this week with the boys visiting Florida for their spring break. You’ll have to excuse my delay in posting as a certain spunky younger brother is turning 5 tomorrow and I’ve got some decorating to do but I’ll leave you with a few shots from Easter Sunday.

Can you tell they’re brothers?

springing into summer

baking, bridal shower, cookies, dessert, Florida, holiday, observations, sports, spring, st. patrick's day March 22, 2015 1 Comment

Hey guys. Sarah here.

I figured since I’m paying to rent space here on the interwebs, I should make a concerted effort to chat with you guys a little more often. So here I am. Let’s chat.

Matt and I attended our last marriage prep workshop yesterday. Thanks be to God. Because what are sunny 80 degree Saturdays made for if not to spend the whole day in a church hall talking about conflict resolution and love styles with 16 other couples and facilitators who have never facilitated a class before. Don’t get me wrong. We learned a lot in both of our workshops, but being together for 5.5 years before you get married gives you a head start on the whole conflict resolution thing. As for love styles, a simple survey reminded us of another thing we’ve learned over the years. One of us will continue to give gifts and write out thoughtful birthday/valentine/just because cards for the partner who would rather spend quiet time together and the other one will meticulously clean the house and complete projects for the partner who would like it even more if they wrote a post-it with a simple smiley face on it.

You get the gist.

Truth is this whole marriage prep work has actually made us realize that we might actually have a good thing going here. Of course we’re in for the long run of hardships and rough patches like any marriage, but we’ve been pleasantly surprised how common our core values and goals are. And I suppose that’s better than the alternative sitting 60 days out from your wedding.

Moving on.

So I actually baked something this year for St. Patrick’s Day. I know it’s hard to believe but last weekend I started thinking about the responsibility that comes with having Murphy as your last name. You know like getting caught not wearing green on the 17th of March (never happens btw), not knowing how to properly cook corned beef or having a distaste for whiskey. Ok so that last one I really tried to get on board with post-college and I liked whiskey but it didn’t like me. The good news is the Polish are more fans of Vodka and that’s something I’m already on board with.

source

In all honesty I should probably start building up my tolerance for upcoming wedding festivities. I couldn’t tell you the last time I had hard liquor.

Same old sugar cookies and royal icing that I’ve made in the past. You can find my sugar cookie recipe here.

I forgot to mention that Matt finally returned from three weeks in Honduras so I let him open a few of our shower gifts.

We’ve skipped right into summer weather down in these parts and I’m completely ok with it.

Nearly forgot we ordered a new couch back in January.

And Finn isn’t too thrilled that he’s not allowed on it just yet.

We made up for all the time spent inside on Saturday by spending the day at Ed Smith Stadium watching the Cardinals play the Orioles. Beautiful stadium. Great game. Decent company.

If only every Sunday could be spent watching the Cardinals in the sunshine.

Have a great week!

Love Languages and Christmas Cookies

baking, christmas, cookies, crafts, dessert, family, holiday, observations December 24, 2014 1 Comment

It’s hard to believe another Christmas is already upon us. A chance to look back on the past year and celebrate your accomplishments. A chance to look forward and make resolutions for the coming year. And a chance to visit that familiar self-induced hell of cookie decorating.

Just kidding. Kind of.

They say people fit into one of five different love languages. That emotionally, they need things like acts of service or words of affirmation to feel loved. And that receiving love is incredibly important to your relationship with others.

What does this have to do with cookie decorating you might ask?

Well they also say that you should tailor your love showing to the specific language of those you with which you have a relationship.

But because I think assuming you like physical touch would be the wrong choice in this scenario, I decided to settle for another year of holiday cookies.

I’ll admit I was a little disappointed when I over-thinned my white icing just in time for Santa’s beard. The result? Santa Dog. Coming soon to a dog park near you.

I was a little disappointed until the boys and I had our annual Christmas cookie decorating party and the two of them showed me artistic skills I can’t even begin to compete with.