• Zucchini Walnut Bread

    I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned our vegetable garden here before – we’ve lived in our house for just over three years now, and we had zero luck with our garden until this year.  We decided, finally, to try raised beds and we’ve had some fantastic results this time around!  I think raising the beds provides better drainage, and allowed us to start our beds earlier because the ground wasn’t as wet.  We have six raised beds right now, but I have big plans to double…

  • Carrot Cake

    This is the second time this carrot cake has appeared on Lemon Sugar, for two reasons.  One, it’s fan-freaking-tasticly the best carrot cake ever known to mankind.  It just is. Everyone who tries it says so.  And I’m not bragging, because it’s not my recipe, but holy cow is it delicious. The second reason it’s making another appearance is because my first photos were horrendous.  Bad lighting, bad frosting job, bad everything.  I was determined to make this humble looking cake look photo-worthy, and I’m…

  • Lemon Pudding Cake

     Now that St. Patrick’s Day is behind us, I feel like spring is in full swing.  The warmer-than-normal winter has our yard turning green, our daffodils blooming and our trees budding a few weeks ahead of schedule.  This time of year I want to be outside with my hands in the dirt – planing, pruning and trying my best to remove all signs of winter.  And while I spent a good part of my weekend outside, I think you all know me well enough by…

  • Blueberry Muffins with Maple Butter

    Isn’t it funny how food can take you back in time?  My freshman year in college, my husband and I still lived at home with our parents and traveled back and forth to the neighboring town to attend classes together every morning.  (Yes, we were super cool.)  On our way to class, we frequently stopped at our local convenience store/gas station and grabbed something to eat and drink for breakfast.  I used to get a blueberry muffin and chocolate milk, warming the muffin up in the microwave and trying…

  • Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

    Have you ever played the “If I won the lottery, I would…” game?  We don’t really buy lottery tickets, but sometimes, when the payout gets really, really high, we buy a ticket for fun.  I think the most fun thing about it is dreaming about how we’d spend our windfall, where we’d travel, who we’d help…it’s good for a little bit of practically-free entertainment and good conversation. I do the same thing when it comes to bakeries.  Sometimes I like to scope out quaint buildings…

  • Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake & A Giveaway!

    I have to say, nine months ago I had to idea what my little family blog would turn into.  I started it as a quick and easy way to share recipes within my rather large extended family, but my has it grown!  Last month, I had readers from Germany, Australia, Spain, Brazil and India – just to name a few…I hope you are all enjoying what you find here at Lemon-Sugar.com and I hope you’ll continue to come back for a long time.  I’m humbled by your…

  • White Chocolate & Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

    I just looked over the top of my laptop at my husband, who’s sitting on the couch next to me, and said “I don’t have any wittiness for my blog post.”  He just looked at me funny. You guys don’t care about wittiness, do you?  You care about cupcakes.  I knew it.  You’re just using me. See?  No wittiness.  I’m not even sure I’m spelling that right.  Wittiness?  Witty-ness?  Wittyness?  My spell checker likes wittiness, so we’ll go with it. Have you ever said a…

  • Peanut Butter Sheet Cake

    When I worked at my previous job, I would occasionally ‘treat’ myself to a trip to a little bakery down the road from my office.  They have a MAGNIFICENT, seasonal cranberry chicken salad on cranberry nut bread. Oh my goodness, it is the best thing ever, in fact it’s so good that I must find a recipe and replicate it.  Soon.  And then I’ll post it. But, even better, they also have a wonderful assortment of desserts to choose from.  My favorite is a peanut…

  • Nutella Crescent Cookies

    Hold the freaking phone. Nutella?  Crescent rolls?  Easy-peasy cookies in no-time? I’m so in. I’m not sure if you remember my post from last week, the Easy Cherry Turnovers?  I told you that I stockpiled crescent rolls at the grocery store over the holiday to fulfill all of my Pinterest Crescent Roll obsessions.  Seven recipes later, I finally used my last can of crescent rolls tonight.  I have this whole processed-food guilt thing happening,  but after tasting these I’m kind of OK with that.

  • No-fail Homemade Hamburger Buns

    On Mother’s Day, back in May, we also celebrated my Dad’s birthday at the same time.  My family all gathered at my parent’s house, and we had a lovely cookout, complete with hamburgers, hot dogs, brats and lots of yummy sides (which is my favorite part).  My brother stopped and bought hamburger and hot dog buns (that was his “job”) and we enjoyed the day. Now, fast-forward almost a month.  Last week, we found ourselves rushed for dinner so my husband just threw some hamburgers…

  • Sweet Cherry Salsa

    There are some things on this planet that were just meant to be together.   Peanut butter and jelly.  Wasabi and soy sauce.  Mashed potatoes and gravy.  Sweet cherry salsa and salty tortilla chips. Sweet.  Cherry.  Salsa. It’s sweet.  It makes me happy.  And with salty, crispy tortilla chips?  Holy cow you guys. This recipe came my way via my lovely sister-in-law.  She’s like, the queen of dips.  And parties.  She throws the best family parties and she makes the best dips. AND, she actually…

  • 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…