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Homemade Peanut Butter
My husband and I have a bit of a problem with grocery stores, and an even bigger problem with markets like Dean & Deluca or our community mercantile. Oh, and you can’t forget Trader Joe’s. Or Whole Foods. Or farmer’s markets. By problem, I mean that we can’t be trusted to go in alone. We might spend a month’s pay without even blinking. So, we have to go together, and even then it isn’t pretty. Food shopping is fun for us. Practically entertainment. We really…
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Homemade Ding Dongs
Me and my big ideas, right? Sometimes, there’s a reason that desserts are mass-produced in huge factories with their fancy ding-dong shaping machines and magical ding-dong dipping pools full of chocolate. They probably even have their own version of Oompa-Loompas, perfectly injecting each one with just the right amount of marshmallow cream. I just have little old me. And a three-year-old helper – who happens to love marshmallow cream – and ALWAYS, ALWAYS manages to drop a spoon, beater or spatula dipped in the stuff…
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Summer Sauvignon Blanc White Wine Party
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine. I am fortunate to have a small, tight-knit circle of girlfriends. Our friendship has grown over the past 15 years, starting as co-workers and continuing even after everyone has gone their separate ways to new jobs. They’re the kind of friends that get your inside jokes, but we can also go a few weeks without talking and pick up just where we left off. Good,…
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Pumpkin BTS Cake
So, I don’t really care what you call this cake. Anytime you combine pumpkin, homemade whipped cream and caramel sauce? Uh-MAZE-balls. My last BTS cake has driven almost 120,000 visitors to Lemon Sugar, and is among one of my most requested desserts in my inner circle. Inner circle? That means my family. I don’t know why I called them my inner circle. I’m clearly not Miley Cyrus. I don’t have an “inner circle.” But if I did, I would totally feed them BTS cake. If…
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Chocolate Macarons with Espresso Ganache Filling
Welcome to my most intimidating moment in the kitchen, the macaron. I’ve been reading about these little puppies forever in foodie-land, and was SO discouraged by the directions that I put it off. But, you know what? They aren’t that hard. In fact, I’d go so far as to say they’re pretty darn easy – you just have to follow the directions. I would recommend a digital scale for these to measure the ingredients, although I just saw someone make them on the Food Network that…
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Snowball Cupcakes
We have had some FANTASTIC weather around here for the first part of December – 70 degree temperature-sunshiny-beautiful weather, and I love it. The girls are still playing outside, we were able to decorate the outside of our house for Christmas without getting frostbite, and I’ve yet to really break out my winter coat. In December. Unreal.
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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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American Kitchen Stories
When I think back on my childhood, then to my college years, and now to my adult life (I use the term adult loosely), many of my happiest and most vivid memories took place in a kitchen. When I think of family gatherings, I’m always transported to a kitchen. When I was a teenager, we had a phone with a long white cord in our kitchen – and I spent many nights laying on my kitchen floor talking to my now husband. On Sundays, all…
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Chocolate Sundae Cupcakes
I made these cupcakes for my daughter’s 5th birthday party. It was one of those family gatherings in the middle of the afternoon, not knowing how many were coming and how hungry my guests would be…and of course I over-did it. I did try a number of new recipes for the event and had some good success, so I will post them as I can! These are chocolate cupcakes with vanilla swiss buttercream frosting. I’d never had swiss buttercream before, but I’m so glad I tried…
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Pink Velvet Cupcakes
This is my second attempt at pink velvet cupcakes. The first was bad, so very bad. I don’t understand, because that particular recipe gets rave reviews everywhere, but to me it tasted like a blueberry muffin, sans blueberries. It was just kind of blah. They were like little, pink, blueberry-less muffins. Kind of sad little things. So after going back to the drawing board and searching for an ingredient list with more flavors, I settled on this one from a Taste of Home cookbook. I…
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Summer Corn & Bacon Chowder
I’m a soup person. I love it, and I can eat it year ’round – yes, even when it’s 103 degrees outside. (Which is good because it was PRECISELY 103 degrees outside when I made this yesterday!) There’s something about this particular recipe thought that really doesn’t feel like a soup – or a chowder – but feels lighter and screams summertime. The combo of the fresh sweet corn with potatoes and bacon is a marriage made in heaven, so I was particularly excited to team…
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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,…
