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Five Layer Celebration Cake
It’s my birthday! Yay me! I survived another year of this crazy life and I do believe we should celebrate. It really was a crazy year. I found myself working from home, which has really been a blessing and a period in my life that I will always cherish. I’ve spent more time with my kids, my husband and my family. It was a happy year for my family; my youngest brother got married, my closest cousin got married, and I welcomed a new niece…
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Tortilla Pinwheels
Oh, Tuesday after Labor Day. I have a serious love-hate thing going with you right now. Our summer was magnificent. The weather was just about perfect ALL summer. Our grass never did turn that icky late-summer brown color, it’s still a gorgeous bright green. We sat on the porch almost every evening and just enjoyed the weather while the kids played. I was fortunate to be able to work from home this summer, so I got a lot of quality time with my kids. The…
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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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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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Tomato & Basil Bruschetta
Two quick things today. One is related to the picture above, and one is a story that you must endure to get to the yumminess. So, first of all, my four year old says the cutest-ever things right now. She’s right between that baby-talk and big-kid speak…and she makes up words and misuses words all of the time and it’s so stinkin’ adorable that I can’t even stand it. For instance, instead of “accident,” she says “ax-ca-dent.” Like, “Sorry, Mommy, but it was just an…
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Sweet Cherry Salsa
There are some things on this planet that were just meant to be together. Peanut butter and jelly. Wasabi and soy sauce. Mashed potatoes and gravy. Sweet cherry salsa and salty tortilla chips. Sweet. Cherry. Salsa. It’s sweet. It makes me happy. And with salty, crispy tortilla chips? Holy cow you guys. This recipe came my way via my lovely sister-in-law. She’s like, the queen of dips. And parties. She throws the best family parties and she makes the best dips. AND, she actually…
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Loaded Baked Potato Dip
I am so happy that life has settled down a little bit, and that I finally have more time to spend in the kitchen. April, May and June this year were just insane. My niece was born, my brother got married, May was a blur of holidays, birthdays, graduations and my blog redesign, and June found me camped out at the ballfields and gymnastics studio almost every night of the week. I had some serious blogging and baking withdrawal happening! Since we were on the…
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A Rainbow Party
Last weekend we celebrated my daughter’s and niece’s 4th birthday with a Rainbow party. They’ve been talking about it forever, pretty much since the day after their Princess Party last year. We were a bit hurried, especially after we ate dinner because the weather was supposed to get bad, and everyone kind of left in a mad rush to beat the storms. As usual, I focused the decoration for the party around my dessert table. A simple white table cloth allowed the rainbow colors to…
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Cookies & Cream Popcorn
So, I made this popcorn today, mostly to use up a half-empty package of Oreo cookies from some cupcakes I made last week. I brought a little bag of them for my daughter to snack on during the drive to gymnastics practice after school. Do you know what she said to me? And. I . Quote: “Momma, ohmygosh, this popcorn is the BOMB DOT COM.” I just stared at her. Ok you guys, she’s seven years old. SEVEN. She just used a phrase on me…
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Fried Pickles with Spicy Ranch
You know when you get a craving and it just won’t go away? Yep, you guessed it. I’ve been craving fried pickles for about six months now. I’m not really sure why. I don’t really crave fried foods, ever…but something about warm, battered pickles dipped in cool ranch dressing just does it for me, I guess. I’m just exuding classiness, aren’t I?
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Make-Ahead Game Day Recipes
March Madness is here! It’s my favorite holiday. Yes. Basketball tournament time is a holiday around here. Everyone fills out brackets, skips work (or takes reaaallly long lunch-breaks) on Thursday and Friday during the first two weeks, and you can’t go far without spotting someone sporting their team colors. There’s nothing worse than the disappointment when your team gets bumped, and there isn’t much better than rooting for your team as they make it deeper into the tourney. My team won a few years ago,…
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Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes & A Bridal Shower
Last weekend my sisters and I hosted a bridal shower for my soon-to-be sister-in-law, Abbey. Since it was a late afternoon, Sunday shower with impending bad weather, we kept the menu light and desserts simple. The theme was “From Miss to Mrs” and it turned out to be an adorable celebration!
