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Dipped Vanilla Sprinkle Cupcakes
When my husband and I finished college, we moved to the suburbs and built our first house together. We both grew up in a small town, out in the country, and I think we were ready to give “city living” a try. We built a great first house not far from the police station where my husband works and relatively close to my job. Then, my first daughter was born. She wasn’t even six months old when we realized that we wanted her to have…
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Easy Entertaining for Last-Minute Guests
We do a lot of last-minute entertaining at our house. While I am always one to go overboard when it comes to birthday parties and other celebrations, over the years I’ve figured out how to entertain guests on a much smaller scale. My kitchen is right in the middle of my house, and it’s open to EVERYTHING. This is good, because my intention was to make the kitchen the heart of our home, and it really is. On the flip side, however – it’s open…
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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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Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my readers – wishing you a joyful, safe and peaceful day with friends and family. From the bottom of my heart, thanks for making my 2012 a great one. ♥erin
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Mini Peach Cobblers
While we were out and about yesterday, my husband and I both noticed that things are finally starting to turn green – the pastures are now more green than brown, the trees all have little buds on them, and daffodils and hyacinths are starting to poke out of the ground. SPRING! Spring is finally, finally, finally here. {I should note that I checked the weather earlier, and we actually have a slight chance of snow tomorrow morning, but I’m just going to pretend like that’s…
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Yellow Cake with Fudge Frosting
I almost titled this post something like, “Back to Basics: Yellow Cake with Fudge Frosting,” but then I thought that it’s not really back to basics here. Good yellow cake is not an easy thing to accomplish, so while it is a bit of a basic cake, it’s definitely not an easy one. I’ve made a hundred different recipes and varieties of yellow cake over the years, some great, some not so much. It’s been a good lesson in the science behind baking for me,…
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Penne with Broccoli
Ok, so by now you know how much I love pasta. I could go the rest of my life without eating meat again, as long as I have pasta. And this recipe is one my favorites. I saw it on the Food Network ages ago and my husband was the first one to make it, and I fell in love. It’s good hot or cold, but I think I prefer it warm. I’ve adjusted the recipe depending on what we have and I’ve never been…
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Caramel Pecan Brownies
Chocolate. Caramel. Pecans. Oh, yes. See how they look all gooey and fudgy? That’s because they ARE gooey and fudgy. Don’t make these unless you have a large glass of cold milk nearby…you’ll need it. These are one of those treats that make you talk with your mouth full – you know, when you take a bite of something amazing and you automatically forget all about manners and mumble a garbled, “oh my gawd,” or “oh, wow…” Or is that just me? It’s probably just…
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Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Bundt Cake
Can someone please make summer stick around for a few more months? While you’re at it, let’s just go ahead and do two months of spring, seven months of summer, two months of fall and one month of winter with lots of snow. Kthanks. I’m having weather feelings because today we bought school shoes and backpacks for the girls – they go back to school in less than two weeks. That. Is. Not. OK. Even though I love me some fall weather, I am so not…
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Spinach & Gruyere Quiche
Every time I think of quiche, I am reminded of weekend shopping trips with my mom and sisters. We’d leave early on a Saturday morning and head to the mall or shopping centers so we could be there when they’d open, and we’d shop until after lunchtime. I can’t even imagine how much money we spent, but we hit every store in the shopping center, sometimes twice, until we were done. After our marathon trip, we’d head out to eat a late lunch at the…
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Tiramisu Macarons
While I was making these the other day, my Mom called me, and asked what I was doing. I told her I was making Macarons, and she said “Macaroons?” No…MacaRONS. Different. Then, I tried to explain to her what they were – kind of like a meringue sandwich cookie, though with an almond-flour base…but I’m still not sure if she knew what I was talking about. So, here you go Mom. MacaRONS. (Mack-uh-RONs). I’m very confident that I didn’t do a good job explaining them…
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Cookie Dough Brownies
Right now, I’m sitting in the lobby of my daughter’s gymnastics studio, waiting for her to finish up. In my flurry to get her fed, dressed and out the door after school, I didn’t have time to eat dinner myself. On top of that, I’m writing a blog post about cookie dough brownies. This is pure torture. I’m really wishing I would have packed myself a little brownie goodie bag. I feel like I’ve been making a lot of cakes (and cupcakes) lately,…
