Just call me Martha…

only I’m not an ex-con. yet. 

The mama-in-law-to-be has agreed that I will bring dessert for next week’s Thanksgiving festivities. I have been racking my brain for a treat sure to impress the Babbs clan. I have arrived at:

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake (from Family Circle 11/29/2008) ***I am so domestic***

2 1/4 cups cake flour

2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 cup solid-packed pumpkin puree

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup milk 

1 cup dried cranberries, chopped

1. Heat oven to 350. Butter and flour 12-cup bundt pan. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, pumpkin spice, baking powder, soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. beat butter until smooth. Add sugar; beat until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add pumpkin and vanilla. Beat until combined. 

4. On low speed, beat flour mixture in three additions, alternating with milk. Beat 2 minutes on medium high. Fold in cranberries. Spoon into pan.

5. Bake at 350 for 55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan 20 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan; turn out. 

Though the recipe has a lemon glaze (which has a TON of sugar), I think a cream cheese icing would do nicely. 

Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz. cream cheese (plain) softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1. In large bowl beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in powdered sugar to reach spreading consistency. 

yum…

Three Words…

that describe our wedding style:

Simple. Beautiful. Holy.

 

Moments of Zen…

Jacqueline Bouvier and John F. Kennedy, 1953

 

 

Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco, 1956

Audrey Hepburn.

National Poetry Month

November is National Poetry Month, so I am going to post a portion of Wendell Berry’s wonderful poem The Country of Marriage.

“Our bond is no little economy based on the exchange
of my love and work for yours, so much for so much
of an expendable fund. We don’t know what its limits are–
that puts us in the dark. We are more together
than we know, how else could we keep on discovering
we are more together than we thought?
You are the known way leading always to the unknown,
and you are the known place to which the unknown is always
leading me back. More blessed in you than I know,
I possess nothing worthy to give you, nothing
not belittled by my saying that I possess it.
Even an hour of love is a moral predicament, a blessing
a man may be hard up to be worthy of. He can only
accept it, as a plant accepts from all the bounty of the light
enough to live, and then accepts the dark,
passing unencumbered back to the earth, as I
have fallen tine and again from the great strength
of my desire, helpless, into your arms…

“I give you what is unbounded, passing from dark to dark,
containing darkness: a night of rain, an early morning.
I give you the life I have let live for the love of you:
a clump of orange-blooming weeds beside the road,
the young orchard waiting in the snow, our own life
that we have planted in the ground, as I 
have planted mine in you. I give you my love for all
beautiful and honest women that you gather to yourself
again and again, and satisfy–and this poem,
no more mine than any man’s who has loved a woman.”

 

 

Mantillas and Pearl Combs and Shawls, oh my!

 I’m a silly, silly woman and I have a strapless dress in January. Now I’m trying to find a cover-up that won’t clash with my super-pretty, super-feminine mantilla veil. Any suggestions? 

Marriage-prep in my diocese is less than ideal. Well, I’m sure the diocese program is just fine, but the parish led pre-cana I attended was, not so much. Basically my fiance and I paid 180 dollars to spend a whole Saturday learning that we’ll probably fight about money and we need to know how to talk to each other. Shockingly enough, those two things I managed to pluck out for myself after dating him for over a year and being engaged for nine months. Anyway…

Tonight a good friend, who is doing my hair for the wedding, is coming over to practice. 🙂 The basic style will be something like this:

 

To clarify, that is not me. It’s an image of how I’d like my hair to look. The below image is, shocker, not of me either, but is of my very veil. 

 

from David

 

So, the question now is, what kind of wrap, shawl, bolero, shrug, etc. can I wear that won’t make this veil look absurd? It’s mostly for during the ceremony, as I am not going to wear the veil at the reception. I was thinking of getting a comb with some pearls or something like that to put in my hair for the reception. 

 

So, any ideas?

By Way of Introduction…

I am writing this blog as a place to gush, rant, celebrate and complain about all of the joys and challenges that go into planning (and pulling off!) a wedding. Also topics of marriage prep in general, the sacrament of marriage, natural family planning, and family life in general will be posted on. 

‘m 24. I live in Chicago. I go to grad school. I work for the Catholic Church. I’m getting married on January 3, 2009 to a man I love with all my heart. 

I’m having a small-ish wedding, with around 80 guests. We’re getting married at the Cathedral in Scranton, PA, which is my home-town (for real!). No, it’s not an Office themed wedding. 

My best friend since middle school is my maid of honor, and my cousin is a jr. bridesmaid, and my fiance’s dad is the best man. That’s it. Small wedding party. My dress doesn’t have a train.

Any and all wisdom is greatly appreciated.