Cus we've been away for awhile. . .

it's a vlog!

The BEST job ever!!!

What's better than combining two things you love? Take a look!!

Frida's Here! from Deidre C. on Vimeo.

See more here.

Fall Family Frolic!!!

This is for Jamila!!

Hi there folks. Last weekend we celebrated Tio Alex's birthday. Yummy lunch was had at Lebanese Taverna followed by a stroll through the National Arboretum. It was such a beautiful day.

In addition to Alex, HD's brother from Cali, we were also fortunate to be celebrating with my father-in-law, who recently took a job in Chicago. Zealand, although she hadn't seen Alex in awhile nor her Abuelo, took to them like white on rice. When first got through the door of the house she couldn't stop hugging her Abuelito. She just knew the two of them were here just for her.

She LOVES holding hands. Now that she's getting older it's becoming easier to soother her with hand holding. Here she is with her entourage.


Those Abuelitos can't get enough of her.


Here's our official new Coutsoumpos family photo.


The fall foliage was something to behold!!!


Running away!



Getting love from the birthday Uncle!

I can't get enough of this amazing weather. I wish it would last forever.

family photo attempt

Hopefully we'll get something more official and/or professional next month :)

The Happy Homemakers Have a Ball

So what does one do with all those apples? Well the Happy Homemakers were on it.

If you told me five years ago that I would take pleasure in spending my Saturday night over steaming apples and getting sticky fingers, I would have thought you were out of your mind. But that's exactly what we did. And we were excited about it. There was even brainstorming about how this could become a cottage industry.











After washing and quartering about half the apples we set them to steam for a bit. Next, we put the through this glorious machine, a Victorio strainer and turned the crank. Almost like magic we had perfectly delicious hot applesauce!



This magnificent contraption separates the cores and skin of the apples leaving behind the yummiest substances yet to be purchased in a store.

Needless to say, I am very covetous and would LOVE one for my upcoming birthday. Not only does it make perfect applesauce but also, tomato sauce, peach sauce and baby food, among other things.

We also added other yummy things to our applesauce such as raspberries and peaches to make delicious blends.


When we were all done, clean up was a breeze with the help of Happy Homemaker Husband, Jason, who graciously replaced our broken dishwasher after living without one for two years.


We ended up with a ton of applesauce that I thought may just last forever.

Now, a mere four weeks later we've already downed more bags that I can count, it's just THAT good.

Apple Princesses!!!!

We had the pleasure of having the Musgrave family come for a visit a couple weeks back. We had a blast!! On the Thursday of their visit, while Sydney and her dad went on a date, the mommies took the babies to pick apples.



We also picked raspberries (berry field pictured above.)

Well, what do you get when a one year old and almost one year old go picking? Lot's of baby bites in apples. (Baby Bites, a possible name for our future business.)


They were expert apple tasters. And we enede up with more than a few apples that had little nibbles taken out of them. But these ladies were generous in their apple eating.

They enjoyed riding together, although it was short lived.

It ended when Zealand stood up and tipped the wheel barrow over and the two of them fell out. We ended up picking about 115 lbs of apples, I was just a little over enthusiastic about picking apples. Stay tuned to read about how the Happy Homemakers Had a Ball!

Crazy for Cupcakes!

Let me introduce you to the self-proclaimed "Cupcake Maven". Sometime in the last few weeks I've become a bit obsessed with cupcakes. It was almost like I woke up craving them. Perhaps it was finally finding a vegan cupcake recipe and making them for Zea's birthday. Whatever the case may be, I, the Cupcake Maven, am on a hunt for the best cupcakes in the Maryland/DC area. There are a few bakeries that exclusively sell cupcakes and that is where by search has begun. I will share my results of my quest with you, here on the blog!!

So here's my first review.

Georgetown Cupcake

My expert team of cupcake tasters!

Two sisters opened the shop in February 2008 and have made a name for themselves on the east coast. In the year and a half that it's been opened they have been featured in People magazine, the Washingtonian, the Today Show and even Martha Stewart!

Lovely selection of cupcakes

On Zealand's birthday, Adriana/Lalilo, my partner in crime, suggested that we start our cupcake adventure. What a better way to celebrate? So we chose this particular shop mostly because its location is one that we like very much. Between the three of us we purchased four cupcakes.
Red Velvet, Chocolate Hazelnut, Lemon Berry and Chocolate Banana.

Soooooo yummy!!!! The icing was light and flavorful, the cupcakes fluffy and deliciously flavored. The one that I thought I would hate the most was the chocolate banana. Usually products with a banana blend are overpowered by banana flavoring. Not this time. The banana was perfectly balanced in the icing and in the cupcake. The red velvet cupcake tasted fresh and was complemented perfectly with cream cheese icing. Chocolate Hazelnut nearly like a Ferrero Rocher in mini cake form. The lemon berry wasn't too heavy and beautifully decorated although the bright pink icing did stain Zealand's shirt.

The overall rating is, drum roll please, 5 out of 5 cherries on top!!!


drinking in the scent (red velvet)


Zea test. . .


. . . totally passed!!


Chocolate hazelnut (someone's trying to steal it. . . )



Chocolate Banana


Lemon Berry