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Homemade Caramel Sauce
I had one of those days in the kitchen. One recipe was a complete flop, and one of the layers of a cake I was making fell apart as I was taking it out of the pan. Another recipe tasted good, but it didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to (appearance-wise), so I’m going to have to make it again before I can share it with everyone. So. Frustrating. Things like this always happen when I’m rushing, though so I guess I’m not…
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Pumpkin Kisses Muffins
I’ve had an extra box of spice cake mix in my pantry since last winter. I used it to make pumpkin cake balls, and it’s just been staring at me, taking up space since then. I had a vague recollection of a Pinterest recipe floating around the inter-webs that claimed to be the best ever pumpkin muffins, using just cake mix and pumpkin puree. So, I thought today would be a great time to try it out! Of course, a two-ingredient recipe wouldn’t cut it…
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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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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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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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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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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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Castello Moments: A Roundup of Recipes
Last week I shared a recipe with you, for Cheesy Potato Gratin, made with Castello’s Hirten Cheese. Many of my fellow bloggers also participated in this recipe development program, which was sponsored by Honest Cooking Magazine and Castello Cheese. After browsing their submissions, I wanted to be sure to share them all with you as well, because these seriously talented cooks came up with some fabulous recipes. Take a few minutes and check them out. Hope you find yourself as inspired as I did –…
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Out and About: It’s Fair Time!
I’ve been attending our local county fair most of my life. My hometown hosts the fair, so watching the parade and spending a few nights with the whole town at the fairgrounds has become a bit of a tradition for me. I remember riding in the parade with my ball teams when I was a kid, marching in the parade with the cheerleaders in high school, and now we spend it on the sidelines, helping our kids collect candy and goodies from the floats. The…
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A Pantry Makeover Part 3: Glidden Paint
When we built our house just over five years ago, I was so overwhelmed with decisions that I just took the easy road when it came to our paint colors. With the exception of my daughter’s room, I went all-out subdivision beige. I just couldn’t make another decision. Floors, appliances, windows, furniture, lighting, faucets…I couldn’t do it. So, subdivision beige it was. Over the years, we’ve slowly been updating rooms to fit our taste and decor style. It’s been a slow, arduous process and I…
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A Pantry Makeover with Organized Living™ (Part 2: After)
(This is part two of a two-part series. To see part one, click {here}.) This post has been so long in the making that I really can’t believe I’m actually finally typing it. I’ve been working with the folks at Organized Living for a few months now, working out the details of this project, getting it installed and working out a giveaway for you guys, and now it’s all done – and I am in LOVE with my new pantry. In. Love. Over the past…
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A Pantry Makeover with Organized Living™ (Part 1: Before)
Ok. I feel like I need to make excuses and be defensive about my pantry for a minute. First of all, yes, the picture above is my pantry. This is what my pantry looked like the day after my daughter’s Rainbow Party just a few weeks ago. I’m not proud. I have an awesome pantry, which was a requirement when we built our house five years ago. In fact, we even made it bigger than the plans originally called for because it wasn’t quite big…
