• Biscoff Truffle Brownies

    Three awesome things happened yesterday.  One, I got up at 7:30am (which is like sleeping in around here) and made some cinnamon rolls.  Then, I took A NAP.  Like, a NAP.  On the couch.  In the middle of the morning. And my husband took care of the girls and I slept, and it was FAN-tastic.  I felt well-rested for the first time in months.  Or years.  Nearly eight years, to be precise. Secondly, I bought a new cake stand and I’m kind of in love…

  • Baked Tex-Mex Cheese Dip

    This is my new favorite casual party appetizer.  I’ve been on a roasted red pepper kick lately, so when I saw this recipe last month I knew I had to have it.  I brought it to my nephew’s first birthday party last weekend and it was a hit – I was actually kind of sad that I had to share it with everyone.  I was even more sad when there were no leftovers to take home with me. My sister makes a delicious spinach dip, and…

  • 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…

  • Charleston Cheese Dip

    Yay, dip!  I LOVE me a good dip.  Like the guacamole homer I am, I get WAY excited when I see a good seven-layer dip at a party (my sister-in-law makes a GREAT one, I’ll have to share it soon) but I’m all about trying new dip concoctions, too. Except, never put shrimp in my dip.  Just don’t, k?  I’m weird about shrimp. And now dip looks and sounds funny, ’cause I’ve written it way too many times. Dip, dip, dip. This dip, though –…

  • 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.

  • Lemon Pudding Cake

     Now that St. Patrick’s Day is behind us, I feel like spring is in full swing.  The warmer-than-normal winter has our yard turning green, our daffodils blooming and our trees budding a few weeks ahead of schedule.  This time of year I want to be outside with my hands in the dirt – planing, pruning and trying my best to remove all signs of winter.  And while I spent a good part of my weekend outside, I think you all know me well enough by…

  • Homemade Vanilla Extract

    If you’ve spent much time at all in the kitchen, you understand how essential good-quality vanilla is to the outcome of your desserts.  The problem is, REALLY good vanilla is also REALLY expensive.  Even the grocery-store options are relatively expensive, and they don’t even compare to the good stuff.  To buy a bottle of top-quality vanilla, you’re going to spend nearly $20, and if you do a lot of baking, that’s quite an investment! So, as you can imagine, I was overjoyed to find this…

  • Cherry Cordial Cupcakes

    I think this might be the last Valentine’s Day treat on the blog this year.  I think I’m ready for the next holiday. Okay.  Actually, I’m really just saying that to convince myself that I’m over the treats because I’m starting my second juice fast in a couple of days.

  • “Homemade” Honey

    Ok, ok.  This is the second blog post in a row that isn’t a real recipe.  But I just had to share our newest kitchen creation – our very first honey harvest!   Those of you that know me well have probably been subject to one of my beekeeping rants in the past year or so.  From the swarms to the missing queens to the urgent need for more honey supers, I now know way more that I ever thought any one person should know about bees.…

  • Pumpkin Crumb Cake: A Throwback

    Hi everyone!  Starting today (!) I am going to use Thursdays to bring back some of my favorites from the archives from Lemon Sugar.  This Pumpkin Crumb Cake is still a favorite of ours, and I haven’t tweaked the recipe a bit.  Do yourself a favor and make this, STAT!  Enjoy! ♥   So yeah, this is another pumpkin cake.  And yeah, I thought I had sworn off pumpkin recipes for at least a week or two, but as it turns out I was pretty…

  • Banana Dream Cake

    When it’s named the Banana Dream Cake, it better be good.  I’m just going to cut the suspense here and tell you that it is, in fact, a dream cake.  It’s dreamy, it’s banana-y, and it’s all covered in tangy-sweet-creamy-omgoshsogood cream cheese frosting. Dream Cake, for sure.  The brilliant Jessica over at The Novice Chef has done it again. I made this cake for our normal Sunday dinner a couple of weeks ago, and my brother is already requesting an encore for his birthday dinner…

  • Dark Chocolate Shortbread Tart

    Is it me, or does this just scream Valentine’s Day?  It’s decadent and indulgent, a dark chocolate custard atop a buttery, shortbread crust.  Oh, and if that wasn’t enough – how about the heaping mound of sweet whipped cream right on top? I’m pretty sure this is why we have Valentine’s Day.  So we can eat things like this. Let’s just have another look, shall we?  I’m a big fan of a standard graham cracker crust, and even a good chocolate wafer crust – but…