• Bars,  Cake,  Cookies,  Dessert,  Weeknight

    Samoa Sheet Cake

    So, first – let me tell you about my weekend.  Then we’ll get to this DELICIOUS Samoa Cake recipe. I took a couple of extra days off before the long Memorial Day weekend, mostly to prepare for my daughter’s birthday party and get the girls to and from dance recital and rehearsal, which this year fell on Thursday and Friday evening.  NBD.  Right? Yeah. So Thursday brought some (SCARY) severe weather to my part of the world, and of course that only happens when my…

  • Bars,  Featured Center,  Lemon

    Easy Lemon Bars

    I wish I would have snapped a picture of the sky today so I could show you, but take my word for it – it was gray.  Not like pretty-hazy-snowy-gray, it was cold-damp-dreary-icky-gray.  I’m so over winter, guys.  I just want it to be February already, so I can say that “at least it’s February so that means it’s almost March which means it’s almost April and then things will finally warm up.”  Sigh.

  • Bars,  Cinnamon,  Dessert,  Featured Center,  Garden,  Nuts,  Pastry,  Pie

    Peach Streusel Slab Pie

    Last week was just one of those weeks.  We were coming off the first week of school, which is always a bit earth-shattering as we settle back into our normal routines, but we also started our weekend with a funeral.  My husband’s grandfather passed away, which was sad and complicated and full of all the feels you would expect, and my niece was already five days old and I’d barely even held her yet because I’d been so busy.  And then, I threw my back…

  • Bars,  chocolate,  Cookies,  Dessert,  Nuts

    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…

  • Bars,  Dessert,  Front Page,  Lemon,  Other Desserts

    Lemon Tart with Blackberry Syrup

    I just about had a breakdown yesterday.  After a stressful day, I began my nightly ritual of opening the girls backpacks, sorting their papers, reading notes from their teachers and repacking for the next morning.  It’s during this attempt at organization that I take note of important dates and update my calendar. Between field trips, field day, music programs, extra dance classes before recital, birthday parties and softball practice (because you know, we coach both girls’ teams in our “free” time) my calendar was suddenly very,…

  • Bars,  Breakfast,  Dessert,  Header,  Quick

    Blueberry Breakfast Cake

    This blueberry breakfast cake is reminiscent of a shortcake, slightly sweet and bursting with fresh blueberries and undertones of crisp lemon.  The crunch from the turbinado sugar lends a satisfying crackle, and reminds you that breakfast is meant to be delicious. Hi everyone!  I’m back!  Not that I was really gone, but I took a bit of a self-prescribed break from the blog last week.  My kids were sick, I was sick, my kids were sick again – it was just a really crummy week.…

  • Bars,  Cake,  Dessert,  Nuts,  Quick

    Do Nothing Cake

    Sometimes I don’t know what gets into me.  During my usual Sunday morning, post-waffle and coffee stupor, I typically find myself browsing recipes on my “to-make” list.  I flip through cookbooks, peruse Pinterest, and catch up on my favorite food blogs – all while watching the Food Network, of course.  I have my editorial calendar for the blog planned out for months, but it never fails that I run across something on Sunday morning that I just have to make, right now. For some reason…

  • Bars,  Dessert,  Pie

    Salted Caramel Apple Slab Pie

      You guys, I’m coming up on my four-year blogging anniversary.  It was four years ago that I was planning my daughter’s fifth birthday party and had only just discovered food blogs myself.  Pinterest wasn’t really even a thing then.  Neither was Instagram.  In fact, it wasn’t until I was a year in to this whole blogging thing that I even had a Facebook page for Lemon Sugar, and now we’re going strong with over 28,000 friends. Love. It. To commemorate the big day, I’ve…

  • Bars,  Cake,  Dessert,  Pumpkin,  Thanksiving

    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…

  • Bars,  Brownies,  Cake,  chocolate,  Cookies,  Dessert

    Three Layer Oreo Bars

    So my life goes like this:  yesterday my husband was out with his buddies, so I had an evening to myself.  The girls went to bed at 8pm, and I marched right now the stairs, made a big glass of iced tea, bought the girliest-chick-flick ever, and pulled out my big stack of neglected magazines.  It was awesome…for about three minutes. Precisely three minutes into my chick-flick, my youngest daughter was calling from the top of the stairs.  It was “fundering” and she was scared.…

  • Bars,  Brownies,  Dessert

    Kitchen Sink Blondies

    Have you ever witnessed something really, really mean?  Like, something that you can’t even believe that you just witnessed?  I overheard a conversation the other day that just left me flabbergasted.  Obviously I wasn’t meant to overhear the conversation because they were mostly whispering, but I did. It bothered me.  And here I am, way after the fact, and it’s still bothering me.  They were whispering, laughing, plotting and making fun. It was like watching a bunch of bullies in action.  Adult bullies.  It was…

  • Bars,  Brownies,  chocolate,  Dessert,  Valentine's Day

    Red Velvet Truffle Brownies

    So, it’s almost time to start thinking about Thanksgiving dinner, right?  Almost time to start planning our meals, which stretchy pants we’re going to wear, and how to make it from point A to point B in under an hour and eat a full meal at both places without offending either party. Right?  Yes. But first, before I can even go THERE, I have an eight year old’s birthday party to plan and execute. A Teen Beach Movie birthday party, at that.  Because you know, it’s…