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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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Ten Amazing Labor Day Recipes
Follow my blog with Bloglovin My family is celebrating Labor Day this year with a pot-luck, swimming and lots of good food and drink. The weather is expected to be sunny and hot, perfect for swimming, firing up the grill and enjoying the company of our enormous family. Over the years, my family has perfected the pot-luck – most everyone brings the recipe that they’re famous for – with names like “Mary Ann’s potato stuff,” or “Cathy’s cookies” or “Amanda’s cake balls,” “Holly’s pasta salad.”…
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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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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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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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Out and About: Wine and Sunflowers
I am fortunate to live with a quick drive of two local gems: Holy-Field Winery & Vineyard and Grinter’s Sunflower Farm. Since we have the first week of school behind us now, and since the sunflowers are in their prime this week, a visit to our local winery and sunflower field were definitely in order. Holy-Field Winery & Vineyard is an award-winning Kansas winery. They grow about ten different varieties of grapes, and offer about 18 different wines – from semi-sweet to dry. It’s a…
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Mini Chocolate Chip Pancake Muffins
Well, today I have a second grader. And today, I am torn between being sad and being proud, wanting time to slow down and the eagerness to watch my baby girl grow up. Last night we took her supplies up to the school and met her teacher, and I let her show me around “her” school, introduce me to the librarian, show me her music classroom, her computer lab, the nurse’s office – I waited patiently as she stopped to visit with friends in the…
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Honey Mustard Salad Dressing
I feel like we are a couple of weeks behind everyone else, but it’s finally back-to-school week at my house. We’re getting back into the swing of things, painfully shedding our summertime schedules and trying to remember what it’s like to set alarm clocks and adhere to bedtime routines. Since I’m totally a creature of habit, I look forward to this time of year. I love having my daughter home with me all summer long, but I thrive on schedules and routines. Plus, do…
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A Pantry Makeover Part 4: Glidden Paint
Several weeks ago, we took on the daunting task of updating and renovating our walk-in pantry. When we built our house five years ago, pantry functionality and design was, unfortunately, not high on our priority list. Given how frequently we use that little room, it’s really a shame we put it off so long. My friends over at Glidden® paint made the process so much easier. After submitting a few of my inspiration photos to their online My Image Inspiration tool , I was actually able…
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Old Fashioned Chocolate Sheet Cake
You know that feeling when you’ve just come home from a whirlwind road trip to Omaha, Nebraska and then you wake up and watch a travel show where they’re diving off the coast of Thailand and you’re like, “Hrmph. Nebraska was almost as cool as that…”? Yep, I’m there. Don’t get me wrong, our “stay-cation with a mini-roadtrip” vacation was nice, relaxing and easy, but I’m a total beach-vacation kind of girl. We had a great time in Omaha, but I need that sand, surf,…
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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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White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
My family and I took a quick little road-trip this week. It’s the week before my oldest daughter starts school, so we took advantage of the gorgeous and unseasonably mild weather and hit the road. I’ll post more about our trip this weekend in my Out and About Series, but we had a really, really good time. And even better – we were only in the car for about three hours at a time! Rather than relying on fast-food or gas station snacks along…
