Greetings Chic Little House Followers,

My name is Summer and I am a friend of Katrina's. I have some news to share about Katrina and her family. On Saturday, July 7, 2012 Katrina's home was involved in a fire that has left her home inhabitable. Katrina and I have been friends for quite some time, I know she has mentioned that before, and to hear the pain in her voice when she called to tell me, still saddens my heart. At this time, I am hoping followers of Katrina's blog would offer support and words of encouragement to the family. There are many tough days ahead, as a good portion of Katrina's home must be rebuilt and many items are total losses due to smoke damage.

Katrina and her husband have worked so hard on making their house a home as you all know...

each step of the way, a little more love went into their home

Katrina and Hasani inspired us all with hard work and diligence to see a task completed

And while its hard to think about what they have lost, my heart rejoices in what remains..

They are all still together... safe

I am most grateful for that!

If you would be so kind, please extend your thoughts and prayers to my dear friend and her family. Post a little bit of strength, a scripture for comfort or whatever your heart leads you to say. While homes can be rebuilt, replacing family is impossible.

God truly spared a few angels to give us all more time to know and love them and to demonstrate our own kindness by helping them now that they need us.

If you have any questions, or would like to help in other ways, please contact me at my blog theshadesofsummer.blogspot.com or Brandi from Don't Distrub This Groove at bet1975.blogspot.com

I appreciate you all, and pray God's blessing upon your families as well.

Best,

Summer

I hope everyone had a fun-filled 4th of July Celebration! Wasn't it kin-of awkward that is was right in the middle of a working week? I prefer Holidays almost at weeks end, hello more time off, lol. But we made the most of it and crammed as much in as possible: Shopping, Parade Watching, Movies our yummy BBQ and of course Fireworks. As you know my man likes to grill, and we shared one of our favorite grilling adventures just the other day {BBQ Carnitas Nachos} I found a gingham paper table cloth while grocery shopping for $ 1.99 knowing it mode make the perfect table runner for a future outdoor dinner, I'm glad I bought it! It look so cute hanging out with our all white dinner ware. We kept our BBQ Menu Simple, but tasty. We served up Corn on the Cob with butter & Cotija Cheese, Bake Beans, Red Skin Potato Salad, BBQ ribs and Burgers. We also had fresh fruit, Watermelon and Plums. The Plums are actually from our tree in our backyard! This is the first year they where ripe, and we have a ton. We plan on giving a bunch away to friends and family and I'll be using some in baking recipes :)

I also picked up a few citronella candles to place on our table, to help keep the bugs away.

For the past couple of months my favorite cook book is Martha Stewart's Cupcakes, filled with amazing recipes. So far I've made Banana Split Cupcakes, Vanilla Confetti Cupcakes and Strawberry cupcakes. I planned to make cupcakes for 4th of July, but wasn't sure which ones I wanted to bake. I came across a One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcake recipe that looked tasty and easy, a winning combination.

Over the past few weeks, I've starting falling in love with cute cupcake wrappers, when I saw these gingham at Wal-Mart for $1.75 for 75, I couldn't resist. Plus, they matched the gingham table cloth I bought and used as a runner for our table. My new favorite background for taking food pictures is quickly becoming our new counters.

One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients

1 1/2 All Purpose Flour

3/4 Cup unsweetened Cocoa Powder

1 1/2 Cups of Sugar

1 1/2 Teaspoons of Baking Soda

3/4 Teaspoon of Baking Powder

3/4 Teaspoon of Salt

2 Large Eggs (room temperature)

3/4 Cup of Buttermilk (I had no Buttermilk on Hand, so I used this substitute)

3 Tablespoon of Vegetable Oil

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

3/4 Cup of Water

Bake It

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees, line your cupcake pans with liners. I double lined mine, I wanted to be sure the gingham pattern on the liners would be seen since I was baking chocolate. Shift together flour, cocoa powder, salt, sugar, baking soda, baking powder together in a large bowl. Next add in the eggs one at a time, warm water and buttermilk, oil and vanilla until smooth. I mixed after adding each ingredient one at a time. Pour batter into each liner, filling 2/3 full. Next bake the cupcakes for 20 minutes, insert toothpick to check when they are done. Cool on wire rack.

Frosting

I found an amazing butter cream frosting recipe from Savory Sweet life. It was simple, just using 6 simple ingredients. Click here for the recipe. I attempted to frost the cupcakes old school Magnolia style {not as cute, but I'll get there, I think!} I topped each cupcake with a M&M and called it a day :)

Hasani said they were amazing, and he couldn't stop eating them an asked me not to make them again since he couldn't resist. To bad his birthday is this month, because I'm making these again, lol.

How was your 4th of July? Did you BBQ and making any yummy treats for your family and friends?