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Orange-Yogurt Muffins with Marmalade Glaze & Brunch
Recently, I was chosen by Foodbuzz and Dannon to review and blog about a new product: Dannon Activia Harvest Picks Yogurt. I hosted a small, light brunch for my sisters and we really enjoyed ourselves, and the food! Since spring has made an early arrival this year, I put together a little table outside so we could soak in the fabulous weather. The great thing about yogurt is that it is extremely versatile. You can eat it alone, of course, or add a topping, use it as…
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Honey & Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
Whoa. Hello there, ginormous picture! I’m trying something a bit different. I had this thought occur to me a few days ago that maybe my photos were too small for the design of my blog. And then, I became a bit obsessive about it, and couldn’t stop thinking about it. So I made them bigger. Quite a lot bigger, actually. And now they look enormous and I don’t know if I like it. So, I’m going to live with it for a few days and…
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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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Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies
I have to say that I had very low expectations for this recipe. It just didn’t really appeal to me at all for some reason. It wasn’t until my brother requested these for this birthday dessert that I finally broke down and made them. They are actually quite delicious. The chocolate chip cookie is firm but soft, and even the Oreo cookie softens up a little bit in the middle of the cookie. I will now humbly admit that I should’ve tried these years ago.…
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Black & White Monster Cookies
So, tonight we all got home really late because our lives are insane right now. I was all set to pull the “rotisserie chicken and vegetables” thing for dinner when my pitifully hayfevered-up seven year old begged me for mashed potatoes and gravy to eat with her chicken. She sounds so itchy and miserable that I couldn’t possibly say no to her, so there I was at 730pm whipping up a batch of mashed potatoes, all in the name of motherhood guilt or something. Yes,…
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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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Maple Pecan Muffins
In my never-ending quest for simplicity in my weekday mornings, I always turn to easy, make-ahead meals. Because, really – who has time to do all of the dressing, teeth-brushing, hair-brushing, backpack-packing and grumpy-kid quelling IN ADDITION TO whipping up a fancy breakfast? Not me. It doesn’t even matter if we wake up earlier. It’s like my five-year-old knows precisely how long she needs to brush her teeth to make it take up exactly 99% of my morning. She’s all, “Oh, we have 45 minutes before…
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Caramel Cupcakes
Can I just tell you how hard it is to find a recipe for caramel cake? Not yellow cake with caramel frosting, a CARAMEL flavored CAKE? It’s difficult. Very, very difficult. So difficult that I spent 90 minutes sitting on my heiney saying mean things to my laptop when I couldn’t find what I wanted…90 minutes that should’ve been spent baking because my girls were in bed asleep and the house was quiet. Grrrr. The wasted 90 minutes eventually led to a midnight trip to the…
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Spiced Apple Coffee Cake
SERIOUSLY, what is with the ridiculous winter this year? If I hear the term “Polar Vortex” one more time, I just might lose it. Listen, I get that I live in the Midwest, and normally I am all about the changing seasons, but this winter has been particularly brutal and un-lovely. If it’s going to be minus umpteen million degrees, could we at least have a bit of snow? And maybe ease up on the wind? Please, Mother Nature? {Speaking of winter, I took…
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Mousse Caboose
My five year old is responsible for the name of this dessert. For some reason, she wouldn’t eat whipped cream OR pudding until about three months ago. (I know what you’re thinking…but yes, she IS my child.) The first time I made this for my family, I was careful to call it chocolate and vanilla mousse, because heaven forbid she believed it to be anything otherwise. She thought “mousse” was a funny name, so she quickly found a rhyming word and it became, forever, Mousse Caboose. When…
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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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A Fairy Party
Ready for a photo-heavy post? ‘Cause that’s what you’re gonna get. It’s Fairy Party time! Last weekend, my daughter Mia turned six years old. For those of you who have been Lemon Sugar readers for a while, you know that my daughter and my niece were born just 17 hours apart, so my sister and I always combine their family party. I look forward to planning this party every year, and we’ve had some fun themes in years past. This year we went with a fairy-inspired…
