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Out and About: Road Trip to Omaha
This past week was a fun one for my little family. We opted for a stay-cation this year, and spent the week pretty close to home. We took our girls to Worlds of Fun, our local amusement park one day, spent a day lounging around and doing not much of anything, and then spent a couple of days road-tripping it. Destination: Omaha. Omaha is just about a 3-hour drive from our home near Kansas City, so it really made an ideal, quick road trip. Since…
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Strawberries & Cream Cupcakes
If you’re like me, visiting the produce section of the grocery store in the middle of winter is a huge let-down. While I do love the changing of the seasons, living in the middle of the country really limits what we can easily purchase when it comes to fruits and vegetables- yes, you can buy strawberries in January, but they are usually smaller, less flavorful and always on the verge of spoiling by the time you get them home. Because we are always left scurrying…
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Peach Pie with Buttermilk Crust
I’ve eaten approximately 167 peaches this week. That’s because when I go shopping for produce, and I see big, fleshy, perfectly ripe, juicy peaches, I feel the need to buy three of four bags of them. I can’t say no. I’ve really tried. But then, as I’m walking away, this little voice inside my head reminds me that peaches are not a year-round thing. If I don’t eat them now, if I don’t stuff myself full of them, then it’s going to be a long,…
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Maraschino Cherry Cupcakes
Have I ever told you about my brother-in-law? His name is Jacob. He’s a few years younger than me, but I’ve known him since he was about nine years old. He used to field relentless phone calls from me back when I discovered I was hopelessly in love with his big brother, back in my middle-school years. Jacob left our small town in Kansas for college, and has never moved back. He lived in Minneapolis for awhile, then Seattle, and now lives in New York…
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Stuffed Crust Pizza
This has been an extremely busy month for my little family. Between my husband’s work schedule, birthdays, graduations, anniversary parties and my oldest daughter’s last days of Kindergarten (and all that comes with it), T-Ball, dance class and gymnastics, we’ve been running in a million different directions. Dinner has become almost an afterthought lately…let’s just say there have been a lot of turkey sandwiches and cereal for dinner this month. I know, I know. Bad food blogger. Today, I noticed we were on the same…
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Biscuits and Gravy Casserole
My dear brother-in-law has been staying with us over the last week. It’s awesome because of course I love it when he’s home, and I get excited every year because he’s someone new to cook for – another person to eat the holiday goodies that I’m inevitably churning out. But the truth of the matter is that he really doesn’t eat much. He’s not a breakfast person. I know these things. But I still, every single year, force new breakfast dishes upon him like he’s…
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Spicy Chicken Hoagie
I am a huge sandwich fan – a HUGE sandwich fan. So much so that I could totally relate to Joey and his sandwich obsession on “Friends.” Speaking of Friends, do you remember the episode where Ross freaked out because someone ate his sandwich? The Moistmaker?? I do. And come Thanksgiving, there will totally be a Moistmaker recipe on this blog. You think I’m joking…I’m not. So yes, I love sandwiches. I think it’s probably just that I love bread, and you can’t really have a…
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A Beach Birthday Party
Well, I survived. I survived my first party since I’ve gone back to work in an office environment, and it was a success. Now, I didn’t cook – it was catered, I just did the baking, and I had a little help from the candy aisle at the grocery store, but somehow I pulled off a cute little beach party in the middle of November and lived to talk about it. My Madeline turned eight years old this week, and as much work as it…
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Chocolate Buttercream Cake
I love chocolate cake. Good chocolate cake might be my very favorite thing, ever. So when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. The first thing I noticed was that there were a LOT of ingredients, far more than any chocolate cake recipe I’ve ever tried before. I would strongly suggest pre-measuring your ingredients so they’ll be ready to add as you go along, and take the time to buy or cut the parchment circles for your cake pans. You’ll thank…
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Cherry Chocolate Coconut Granola
Much to my kids’ dismay, we haven’t been down the cereal aisle at our grocery store for a long time. Last week, when I had to buy some cereal to make S’mores Rice Krispies Treats, their little eyes lit up and they got so excited at the thought that maybe I was going to cave and let them buy something. Nope. We do buy the occasional organic cereal at our local co-op, but it’s a rare treat. Mostly, the girls eat granola in lieu of…
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Snickers Cupcakes
Every time I see a Snickers candy bar, I’m reminded of a friend of mine who used to LOVE them. But that’s not why I think of her – it’s actually the memory of HOW she ate them that’s stuck with me. She used to nibble all of the chocolate off the entire bar, then eat the nut layer, then the caramel layer, and finally the nougat layer. It took her, like, 20 minutes to eat the candy bar. I’m wondering if she would like…
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Pumpkin Donuts with Maple Buttermilk Glaze
It seems like the minute the calendar turns from August to September I start craving fall flavors like pumpkin, apple, maple and sweet potato. And since before we know it there will be snow on the ground and pumpkin will be replaced with peppermint, I feel like it’s my duty to cram as many of these flavors into September and October as possible. About a year ago I found a recipe for pumpkin donuts but never got around to making them. I was not going…
