-
Chicken & Avocado Enchiladas
I don’t know about you, but we tend to get into a food rut during the summertime. We grill a lot, eat a lot of sandwiches, fruits and vegetables, and other generally “quick and easy” meals. It’s rare that we want to turn on the oven or heat up the kitchen, and the thought of eating anything hot is pretty unappealing. Because this dish not only requires me to turn on my oven, but also to actually eat something hot and mildly spicy in the…
-
Coconut Streusel Muffins
If you follow my Facebook page, you know that I had a pretty rough week last week. Among other things, my husband and I have been planning a trip to Mexico for ages to celebrate several events…his birthday, our five year wedding anniversary (18 months late, but who’s counting?) and most importantly, 20 years together. We’ve been together since we were in junior high, so this is really quite the milestone for us. Well, a VERY long story short, we were turned away at the check-in…
-
Snickers Cupcakes
Every time I see a Snickers candy bar, I’m reminded of a friend of mine who used to LOVE them. But that’s not why I think of her – it’s actually the memory of HOW she ate them that’s stuck with me. She used to nibble all of the chocolate off the entire bar, then eat the nut layer, then the caramel layer, and finally the nougat layer. It took her, like, 20 minutes to eat the candy bar. I’m wondering if she would like…
-
Dark Chocolate Dipped Energy Bites
It happens occasionally, that I’m going about my day, maybe enjoying a little energy bite out of my refrigerator when I’m like, WAIT! Why haven’t I shared these with you guys yet? I guess I get tunnel vision sometimes, always dreaming up the latest and greatest dessert idea that I guess I just overlook my everyday favorites. This is totally an everyday favorite. I’ve been making these energy bites for a couple of years now. I’ve adapted the original recipe just a teensy-bit, but recently decided…
-
Apple Pie Cookies
Seriously. What is not to love here? I had some leftover pie crust from my {Spinach & Gruyere Quiche} and lots of apples in my fruit bowl, so these happened. I am so, so glad that these happened. They happened at the end of a yucky, stressful day and made the world all sunshine-y and apple pie-y again. Perfect.
-
Brown Sugar Crumb Cake
I’m not sure that there’s anything better than waking up to the smell of this cake. On a lazy Saturday morning, the smell of cinnamon and brown sugar heavy in the air and a pot of coffee percolating on my counter top are sure to get my family moving. It works, every single time. We have to talk about those crumbs though – those ENORMOUS, brown-sugar and butter crumbs. I could eat them, I have eaten them, right off the top of the cake.…
-
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,…
-
Maddie’s 6th Birthday Party
My oldest daughter turned six this past week. It’s been a big year for us – she’s started playing T-ball, she started Kindergarten, we’ve lost three teeth so far and we’ve gone from reading her bedtime stories to her reading us bedtime stories. She’s changed so much in the past few months – most noticeably she’s turned into quite the social butterfly. Her world now revolves around her friends – so much so that she invited everyone in her class to her birthday party. And…
-
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Have you ever played the “If I won the lottery, I would…” game? We don’t really buy lottery tickets, but sometimes, when the payout gets really, really high, we buy a ticket for fun. I think the most fun thing about it is dreaming about how we’d spend our windfall, where we’d travel, who we’d help…it’s good for a little bit of practically-free entertainment and good conversation. I do the same thing when it comes to bakeries. Sometimes I like to scope out quaint buildings…
-
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…
-
Tropical Kahlua & Cream
It’s hot outside. And not just summer-in-the-Midwest-is-always-hot-and-humid-so-deal-with-it-hot, it’s REALLY hot. It’s so hot that just walking outside will take your breath away, getting in a car with leather seats will literally burn your legs, and swimming pool water feels like bath water. Blech. Needless to say, I have no desire to turn my oven on lately. In fact, we don’t want to do much of anything lately. I feel bad for those folks who have to work outside in this – it seems like cruel and unusual punishment. Since I…
-
Boo-tiful Ghost Cake
I’m a scaredy-cat, generally speaking. Well, not generally speaking, specifically speaking. I can fake my way through a lot of scary situations, but deep down, I’m a bona-fide scaredy-cat. I could list all of the things that I’m scared of, but that would be the longest blog post ever. Unfortunately, and against my best intentions, I’m afraid I’ve passed some of my tendencies toward irrational fears along to my girls. My youngest is afraid of “creepy things.” And with Halloween right around the corner, everything…
