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#MyHomeTownGuide – Five of My Favorite Eats in Kansas City
It’s that time of year in Kansas City. Winter is slipping away, and spring is just. about. here. Suddenly 45 degrees feels balmy, and we are looking for any reason we can think of to get out of the house. Fortunately for us, KC is full, and I mean full, of fantastic restaurants and foodie hot-spots to keep our mind off of Mother Nature’s indecisiveness. Kansas City is primarily known as a barbecue town, and there’s good reason for that. In fact, two of my…
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Chocolate Lava Cupcakes
These cupcakes were the result of a little color coordination. My little sister is expecting a baby boy so I needed a favor for her baby shower. Our color scheme was brown and blue, so of course I needed brown and blue cupcakes! These were good cupcakes, but next time I might switch the cake out to a firmer, taller cake so it will stand up to the filling a little better. These were actually better after they sat overnight in the refrigerator, so if…
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Peppermint Bark Cheesecake
Let’s talk about pet peeves, shall we? Specifically, let’s talk about MY pet peeves. The list is short. Okay, the list is kind of short.
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Summer Sauvignon Blanc White Wine Party
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine. I am fortunate to have a small, tight-knit circle of girlfriends. Our friendship has grown over the past 15 years, starting as co-workers and continuing even after everyone has gone their separate ways to new jobs. They’re the kind of friends that get your inside jokes, but we can also go a few weeks without talking and pick up just where we left off. Good,…
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Pink Velvet Cupcakes
This is my second attempt at pink velvet cupcakes. The first was bad, so very bad. I don’t understand, because that particular recipe gets rave reviews everywhere, but to me it tasted like a blueberry muffin, sans blueberries. It was just kind of blah. They were like little, pink, blueberry-less muffins. Kind of sad little things. So after going back to the drawing board and searching for an ingredient list with more flavors, I settled on this one from a Taste of Home cookbook. I…
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Honey Dijon Grilled Chicken
I make my weekly grocery store runs on Saturday or Sunday mornings, and every week, without fail I call my husband at work (he works funky hours) and ask if he has any special requests. The answer I get is usually something like, “Um…maybe some Salmon, Cod if they have it, um…chicken breasts…club soda, bananas…salad stuff…you know…whatever…the usual.” I’m not really sure what’s more frustrating, the fact that I get the same (unprepared) answer every single week, or the fact that I continue to call…
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The Ultimate Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake
So, yeah. This might be a bit over the top. It’s also messy, frumpy, and haphazard. But really, who cares? When it comes to chocolate and peanut butter, you just can’t go wrong. You just can’t. And honestly, I love a cake that looks homemade. I love soft, fluffy frosting, irregular and imperfect frosting techniques and drizzles, garnishes and sprinkles… Do NOT offer me a cake covered in fondant and shaped like some cartoon character. It reminds me of the “bleedin’ armadillo groom’s cake” from…
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Chocolate Chip Graham Cracker Bars
You can actually SEE how delicious these are. You can see the powdery sugar stuck to the gooey, chocolaty graham cracker cookie. You can SEE it, can’t you? And yup – they taste just as good as they look. Maybe better. I broke all of the July-in-Kansas rules today and turned my oven on. Yes, I turned my oven on even though it was exactly 900 degrees outside today. And with the heat-index, it felt like 950 degrees. But I just had to make these…
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Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake
It’s officially fall! It’s chilly in the mornings and the sun goes down noticeably earlier, I’m wearing socks and sweatshirts and went to a football game on Friday night. Yes, fall is definitely here. And I love it. Now that fall is here I have a free pass to break out all of my saved pumpkin recipes without feeling the need to justify myself to everyone. I can burn my pumpkin-spice scented candles, buy apples and cinnamon in bulk and keep pumpkin-spice lattes on tap.…
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Coffee Cake
I don’t have a lot of experience with coffee cake. It’s not a dessert that my family made when I was growing up, and with the exception of the school cafeteria version, I don’t believe I’d ever had it until my mother-in-law sent it home with my husband when we were in college. I’m not really sure why we never made it, it seems like something my Mom would be all over – white cake, sugar, butter…seems right up her alley! My husband absolutely loves a…
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Red Velvet Poke Cake
Yep. Kinda obsessed with the ol’ poke cake. I actually have yet another one coming soon. But since I’m 100% convinced that you can’t have too many poke-cake recipes, I’m not going to worry about it one little bit. The world cannot have too many poke cakes. And it’s possible that I say this about EVERY poke cake I make, but this one is my favorite. There’s actually no contest. This is the best. Until the next one, I know, but still. So far –…
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A look back at 2013
Wait, can anyone else believe that 2013 is over? Where did it go? I feel like I spent a good portion of it in the kitchen, and that’s just fine by me. I hope you’ve enjoyed the goodies I’ve shared with you over the past twelve months. I know I have. I love to look back at the end of the year and see what you guys liked the best. I have to say, your favorites this year are some of mine, too. Take…
