Behind the Studio» Holidays

How we enjoyed a romantic evening dinner with Starbucks Caffe Verona and chocolate donuts

Jayna — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 16:41:20 +0000

How was your Valentine’s Day? We, like most couples with a small child spent ours at home with the entire family. It’s really hard to get out when you have a little one! Plus, I just didn’t feel like Valentine’s day was the best day of the year to have my three year old practice his table manners at a restaurant – just sayin!… So we decided to save ourself the stress and have dinner at home this year. That doesn’t mean it can’t still be romantic – we just opted to eat our dinner a little later, after JP ate his dinner and was settling down for the evening (and a little help from my iPad went a long way as well).

Earlier that day, JP and I went to Walmart to find the goodies I needed to make our favorite special occasion dish – Angel hair spaghetti with vodka sauce and chicken cutlet. Yum Yum!! Of course, no romantic dinner is complete without a delectable dessert planned. As I passed through the Bakery section, I gave it special thought as to what we would have after our dinner.

As I got closer in, I noticed signage for my favorite coffee in the whole world! Starbucks!!

We almost always enjoy a coffee or tea after dinner – it’s my favorite time of day for the whole family to unwind together and I get the little boost of energy I need to get me through the rest of the evening.

We like really strong coffee, straight up and black. This was perfect for us! Plus there was something romantic about Caffe Verona – from the star-crossed lovers printed on the package to the name itself. It just exudes romance and I can’t wait to take this home and try it – especially with chocolate!

..And yes – they are right, there’s nothing like having a nice cup of coffee with something sweet. I was really on the hunt for some Chocolate Curl cupcakes, but unfortunately my Walmart seemed to have been all sold out..

The in-store signage even convinced me too.. I also noticed how much they were selling their donuts (by the dozen) and I thought the Starbucks Caffe Verona and chocolate donuts would have been perfect together. I was sold – especially when I saw these beauties!

…and these…

For this price – you just can’t go wrong for a dozen donuts under 5$!

So later on when we got home, I could’t wait to brew a pot of my new Caffe Verona from Starbucks and see what it was like. I’m not usually the type that frequents Starbucks all that much because I enjoy brewing a big pot at home, for the amount of cups I like to drink. It was nice to enjoy an afternoon cup of jo and share a special treat with my little darling. All he kept talking about were those donuts we bought! Of course, he HAD to have the heart shaped donut…

The coffee had bold, delicious flavors and smelled incredible. I love how the sweet chocolate melted on my tongue with the warmth and aftertaste of the coffee still in my mouth. It was like having a mocha-choca mouthwatering experience – Dee-lish I tell you!

What kind of mother would I be if I didn’t give him my heart for Valentine’s Day?

After enjoying my afternoon coffee, I began to make dinner early so my little darling could have his Valentine’s Day dinner before we got started with ours.

It was important to me to have JP well fed and taken care of before my hubby and I sat down to enjoy our dinner together. For us, that’s the secret to having peace and quiet while we enjoy our dinner. I love having my whole family eating together – but sometimes its nice to have an adult dinner for two without having to scold JP for picking his nose at the dinner table every 5 minutes.

And when it was all ready to eat, I plated it nicely and served it up for me and my hubby to enjoy. For me, there’s nothing more romantic than Italian dishes! Plus, it’s kinda what I know how to cook really well.

I love simplistic dinners like these with my hubby! The best part of course was the coffee and donuts saved for last! The bold, dark flavor of the Caffe Verona from Starbucks went perfectly with the chocolately sweet donuts. The only thing I was sorry about was not buying more of these, because the flavors complimented each other so well. Even my husband loved how the dark bitter coffee contrasted against the sweet chocolate donut. #DeliciousPairings

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ #cbias #SocialFabric

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Jayna

Hi, I'm Jayna, a Wylie mom blogger living near Plano, Texas. I'm a Dessert love & recipe maker. Mom to a rowdy little boy. Coffee lover. Beloved wife and creator of Bellabyte Design Studio. Connect with me, I'd love to hear from you!

Happy Thanksgiving! This will be my second attempt at a roasted turkey.

Jayna — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 06:01:19 +0000

Even though the first roasted turkey I made for Christmas two years ago didn’t turn out so well, it helped me learn what NOT to do instead. You know you screwed up the Christmas turkey when it shreds like parmasan cheese gratings when you cut through the breast meat.

Yikes.

This time, I called my mom (who consistently makes an incredible, juicy turkey every year) from the grocery store and asked her specifically what I should do to avoid another disaster.

“Chop up some root vegetables and an onion…”

“…Get your turkey on a roasting V rack in a big roasting pan…”

“…Put the veggies in the pan with a container of chicken stock. Add in the turkey…”

“…Slather it with lots of butter, cover it with foil and bake as directed. Take the foil off after awhile so it can brown..”

Oh,

“And make sure it’s a Butterball too.”

She absolutely insisted on only buying a Butterball and proceeded to list me all the reasons why over a long distance phone call to Canada.

“Ok! I’ll get a Butterball! Sheesh.”

So, following her guidelines – I took a shot in the dark to try again.

…And 3 and a half hours later…

While I let it rest for awhile, I used the drippings to make a gravy even though the turkey came packaged with some pre-made gravy. With a few extra things like white wine, flour and Bisto I was able to whip up my own. Bisto is a brand of gravy granules that help add flavor , tough product to find, but I managed to find some at World Market. Again, all of this under my mother’s advice on how to make the gravy.

It’s turkey time! I must say, I may still have alot to learn about turkey making, but atleast it’s safe to say it was as tasty and juicy as it could possibly be.

Hope you’re having a happy Thanksgiving!! I know we are by celebrating with our close family. What are you doing for this Thanksgiving?

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Jayna

Celebrating National Senior’s Day with TCBY Frozen Yogurt Cups #TCBYGrocery #CBias

Jayna — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 20:50:29 +0000

Mothers get to have a day every May, and in June fathers have the pleasure of celebrating too. One segment of our population that gets overlooked is our Seniors. They are our Grandmothers and Grandfathers – and they deserve to have a special day too! Upon hearing of the existence of national senior’s day, I thought it would be nice to surprise our local seniors at the retirement home a frosty treat in the middle of the afternoon. It was so nice to brighten up so many people’s day! I took JP out shopping the other evening to get what we needed to make these lovely cups.

Making them was a snap – All I did was use my mason jelly jar containers (they are a bargain at 9.99$ a dozen), filled them with a scoop of delicious TCBY frozen yogurt, tie some pretty baker’s twine around the lid and garnish with a chocolate baking chip. Voila! A perfect frosty treat that is as delicious as it is beautiful. #TCBYGrocery

Dosen’t baker’s twine make everything better?

Our local WalMart was carrying 2 different flavors – Classic Vanilla Bean and English Toffee Crunch. I snapped up both flavors because they both sounded delicious to me! I’m not very good at choosing one ~~ice cream~~ frozen yogurt flavor! ;P

Ack! I keep calling it ice cream! Believe me, you would never know the difference if it wasn’t printed on the side of the container!

JP was such a little ham while visiting the retirement home. He was shy at first, but he became quite the star among the old folks. They each proceeded to tell me about their respective grandsons and granddaughters while we passed out the treat containers.

Children bring so much joy to the elderly, which is why I thought it would be a great idea to bring JP along. While eating, most everyone else thought it was ice cream too – until they were told what it was! TCBY was a huge hit! JP had fun helping with passing out the treats.

Luckily, I had some extra TCBY treats – like these…

Turns out, I needed them! The mason cups were such a hit that I had to tap into these vanilla frozen yogurt sandwiches, so everybody could have a treat. The residents were so appreciative that we stopped by – I think that serving up some TCBY may have been one of the more exciting events for these people. It felt nice to be that for them!

You may follow TCBY on Facebook, Twitter and now Pinterest

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and TCBY #CBias #SocialFabric #TCBYGrocery”

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Jayna

Have you thought about christmas cards yet?

Jayna — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 17:45:33 +0000

Some are bad about being last minute christmas shoppers. For me, I am the absolute worst at putting off christmas cards till it’s a mad dash!

This Christmas, i promised myself that I would do it right this time.

Of course, you can’t forget Santa!!

This is a letter to santa set from my shop. You get two 5×7 size cards with two matching self-addressed envelopes to Santa. It’s still not too late to send him your list!!

And because I am feeling jolly this season, I have decided to mark these down 20%! Use coupon code JOLLY at checkout.

Reindeer Cards set of 6 – $18.99

Santa Cards – Set of 6 – $18.99

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Jayna

Unhappy Halloween

Jayna — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 05:14:49 +0000

Could it be that my son hates halloween?

When I first became a mom back in April 2009, somehow I was under the delusion that my child would love everything that I thought was fun for him.

I was wrong.

Let’s take a step back in time, shall we?

September 2009 – JP at 6 months old & extremely unhappy about his photo-op. At the time, I shrugged it off as tired or hungry. He couldn’t possibly care what he was wearing, could he? The thought of that seemed positively absurd to me.

October 2009 – JP at 7 months old at the annual halloween street fair. I broke down and bought another costume because, well… I could never get him to wear the bee costume without a screaming / crying fit. Maybe he didn’t like the bee costume?… So we went with superman instead and moments after this photo was taken JP burst into tears, complete with the curled out pouty-lip.

Really? Seriously?

There’s no way an infant cares, or even understands the whole costume thing! Again, I brushed it off because, after all it was going on 6pm at the time this photo was taken and he was getting tired…

October 2010 – JP at 18 months old in his charlie brown costume looking positively thrilled. By now I was beginning to see a trend with halloween costumes, but I was still in denial.

And last but not least, October 31st 2011 – JP at 2.5 years old, dressed as a little devil (ha ha – no pun there).

And so the tantrum begins…

“Nooooo Mommy…”

“Don’t like it, Mommy…”

So yeah. I really wanted to post cute, bright & smiling halloween photos of JP rocking his costume, but he had other plans for me. Needless to say, we didn’t go with the devil costume. Instead, he wore his skeleton pajamas from carter’s, and that was fine with him because he thought they were just his pajamas.

Once we got passed our wardrobe malfunction, halloween was pretty fun! I still dressed up as a devil (Heavy black eye makeup, bright red lips, horn hair clips, black shirt and black skinny jeans with tall boots.. Sorry no pic!) JP enjoyed going door to door and receiving candy in his bag. He even said “Trick or Treat” and “Thank you” a couple of times!

Better luck next year!

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Jayna

The most spectacular haunted dollhouse

Jayna — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:10:44 +0000

Yes, you read right – a haunted dollhose! I found this amazing haunted dollhouse from Jenny Lawson aka The Bloggess at kirtsy and I thought I would share. Lately, I’ve been following the I’m a Giant challenge by several of my favorite bloggers and it’s all about making and decorating a dollhouse, from scratch. Step aside barbie, they are making your dream house look like a garden shed!

So since I love halloween so much, I thought I would share this incredibly detailed and equally spooky looking dollhouse.

Yes.. Unbelievably, this is a dollhouse!

Check out the tarot cards!

View the entire slideshow here

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Jayna

Father’s Day Gifts Roundup

Jayna — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 07:10:32 +0000

Here is a collection of some great father’s day presents! Enjoy!

Source: thinkgeek.com via Jayna on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Jayna on Pinterest

Source: cb2.com via Jayna on Pinterest

Source: gifts.redenvelope.com via Jayna on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Jayna on Pinterest

Source: amazon.com via Jayna on Pinterest

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Jayna