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Spiced Cranberry Apple Butter
Who still has cranberries left from the holidays? Anyone besides me? I always stock up and freeze what I’m not going to use, because I firmly believe that cranberries aren’t just a winter fruit. It drives me crazy that you can’t find them year round, so when I see ’em, I buy ’em. Our CSA has been overly generous with our apple deliveries lately too – so much so that we haven’t been able to eat them all quickly enough. We eat them like crazy…
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Double Chocolate Cupcakes
This year, Halloween snuck up on me. One minute it was my birthday and mid-September, the next minute I realized I had less than a week to come up with costumes for the girls. I had the best intentions this year, too – I was going to make them both really cute tulle-ghost costumes, order white leotards and buy white tights – it was going to be adorable. Instead, I recycled a bumblebee costume for my youngest and bought my oldest a tacky, chintzy mermaid-princess…
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A Spa Party & Funfetti Cupcakes
Welcome to the most disorganized party I’ve ever, ever put together. Good news is, it worked. The girls had a great time and they don’t know that I threw it all together in just a few hours. Bad news is, I knew. I could’ve done so much more with this awesome concept, but I just didn’t have the time. You may have seen my daughter’s 8th birthday party here last week, and this week, we followed up with her “friend” party. My Lindsey friend owns an…
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Butterfly Cupcakes
This past weekend we celebrated my baby girl’s second birthday with two family parties. For me, it was a busy weekend of cleaning, cooking and keeping the girls entertained but it was all worth it. I loved just watching how happy my girls were to be surrounded by everyone who loves them. It wasn’t about the presents, the food or the decorations. Especially in the wake of the tornado destruction in Joplin, MO and Reading, KS, I found myself counting my blessings. It was a…
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Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Cake
Helloooooo! Happy fall! Ok, I know it’s not “technically” fall yet, but it was so beautifully autumn-like today that I think it’s time to take the leap. It’s time to close up the pool, plant mums and start buying cans of pumpkin by the case. I usually try to wait until after my birthday (in mid-September) before I whip out the pumpkin recipes, but the chill in the air this morning just put me in the mood! This felt like a perfect transition recipe…
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Cherry Sweet Rolls
Ok, let me break this down for you. One-hour sweet roll dough. Sweet cherry filling. Easy-peasy powdered sugar glaze. Start to finish, cherry sweet rolls, in about an hour. Boom. This is what Sunday afternoons are made for. Know why? Because tomorrow I get to have a cherry sweet roll with my morning coffee. It’s funny because every single time I make this recipe, I think, “Why in the world did I not halve the recipe? Why do I need 30 sweet rolls?” Let me…
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Restaurant Style Salsa
You know when you go to a Mexican restaurant and they give you one of those little bottles FULL of extra salsa? You know, so you can refill your own salsa dish? Those are my favorites. Because seriously, a little tiny bowl of salsa for a table full of people is just never going to be enough, it’s just not. And then, you know when you’re at a Mexican restaurant, and your food comes out and you immediately have to ask for a box because…
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French Vanilla Cupcakes
How adorable are these? I made these for a baby shower and just loved the way they came out. My new jumbo cupcake pan has just opened up a whole new world of cupcakes for me and I have to say I am loving it. I love the look of the ribbon tied around the base of the cake – and it’s much easier to do on a jumbo cake than a standard cake. I found a coordinating pink sugar for garnish and think that these…
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Instant Party with Bacardi Mixers pt 1
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of BACARDI® Mixers for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine. You know by now that I love to entertain and host parties so I’m always looking for a reason to celebrate. Like the old adage “It’s five o’clock somewhere,” there is always something to celebrate – and it’s not terribly difficult to find it if you just look. For instance, last week my husband and I were celebrating the last week of softball.…
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Out and About: Eureka Springs
Last weekend, my husband and I made the quick drive down to the Eureka Springs/Little Rock Arkansas area for a long weekend. We originally had grandiose plans to recreate our honeymoon for our ten year wedding anniversary, but it didn’t work out with our kids’ schedules and childcare and all of those other grown-up responsibilities that we have these days. So – Arkansas it was. I’m actually kind of glad that things worked out the way they did. A week on the beach in Mexico…
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Spiced White Wine Bundt Cake
Yup. Another bundt cake. I have to confess, I’m a little bit obsessed with the bundt cake lately. I think it’s because they’re way easy. There are no layers, no lug-out-the-KitchenAid frostings, no fuss. And right now, I’m all about no-fuss. What is it about this time of year? It’s SOOOOO busy. The end of the school year, dance recitals, Easter, birthdays, graduations, weddings, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. ETC. SO busy. And truth be told, all I want to do right now is be…
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Cinnamon Rolls
Ahhh…cinnamon rolls. I’m not sure that there’s anything better than a really good cinnamon roll, but in my opinion a good one is really hard to find, and a good recipe is even harder to find. My biggest problem with most cinnamon roll recipes is that the bread part of the roll is usually bland, and the only cinnamon flavor you get comes from the filling itself. This recipe, however, has cinnamon in the dough itself, so the bread is flavorful too. But, if I’m…
