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Out and About: It’s Fair Time!
I’ve been attending our local county fair most of my life. My hometown hosts the fair, so watching the parade and spending a few nights with the whole town at the fairgrounds has become a bit of a tradition for me. I remember riding in the parade with my ball teams when I was a kid, marching in the parade with the cheerleaders in high school, and now we spend it on the sidelines, helping our kids collect candy and goodies from the floats. The…
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Share-It Saturday: Week 7
How is it already Saturday again? Last week flew by…we had an extra event every single day of the week, so today we’re just going to relax. Well, by relax I mean catch up on laundry, try to get my house back in order and mow the lawn. Incidentally, I’ve forgotten how often you have to mow when it’s not 105 degrees and actually raining a couple of times a week. If you haven’t yet, don’t forget to enter to win a KitchenAid Artisan Mixer in the…
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White Sandwich Bread
Yesterday evening, I realized that I didn’t have enough potatoes to make the mashed potatoes I was planning for dinner. At that point, most people probably would’ve nixed the mashed potatoes (which would be a very, very sad thing…) and found another side dish. But I’m lucky enough to live a couple of minutes away from my parent’s house, which means I am just a couple of minutes away from my Dad’s garden. So, after a quick trip down the road and armed with…
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No-fail Homemade Hamburger Buns
On Mother’s Day, back in May, we also celebrated my Dad’s birthday at the same time. My family all gathered at my parent’s house, and we had a lovely cookout, complete with hamburgers, hot dogs, brats and lots of yummy sides (which is my favorite part). My brother stopped and bought hamburger and hot dog buns (that was his “job”) and we enjoyed the day. Now, fast-forward almost a month. Last week, we found ourselves rushed for dinner so my husband just threw some hamburgers…
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Mushroom Marsala
I’ve talked about my obsession with pasta before…I don’t think I’ve ever met a pasta I didn’t like. When I make it at home though, we usually stick to the Mac & Cheese or Spaghetti variety so I thought it was time to branch out. Giada made this Mushroom Marsala with Artichokes on one of her cooking shows last week and for some reason, it called out to me. Strange, because I usually don’t care for mushrooms at all. Nonetheless, I bought all of the…
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“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.…
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Nutella Cupcakes
I’ve had one of those weeks. Well, actually, I’ve had one of those months. You know, when you can’t get ahead, everything is a crazy mess, your to-do list is twice as long as usual, your kids are sick and on fall break, AND your husband has to travel for work? Yes, I’ve had that kind of month. I haven’t had a lot of time for baking this month, I haven’t really even had much time to go to the grocery store. As a result,…
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Funfetti Scotcharoos
I honestly can’t remember the first time I had scotcharoos. I know it was at least a decade ago. My mother-in-law sent them home with my husband and I’m pretty sure I ate the entire box of them before my husband even realized what was going on. They’re yumzos. Scotcharoos seem to be a pretty common Midwestern potluck/picnic/party food. I’ve had them prepared a gazillion different ways, cut into different shapes, sizes, some with too much chocolate, some with not enough, etc. etc. Of course, everyone’s…
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No Bake Peanut Butter Cheesecake
As the minutes start to dwindle on my four-day holiday weekend, I have to admit that I’m not ready quite yet to get back into the swing of things. Tomorrow it’s back to work, the girls start two-nights-a-week dance class, and suddenly the first signs of fall are all around us. Now, don’t get me wrong – I love fall, but I don’t love winter. Fall is a bit of a double-edged sword. Love it, but dread it because cold weather is right around the…
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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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Double Chocolate Cupcakes
This year, Halloween snuck up on me. One minute it was my birthday and mid-September, the next minute I realized I had less than a week to come up with costumes for the girls. I had the best intentions this year, too – I was going to make them both really cute tulle-ghost costumes, order white leotards and buy white tights – it was going to be adorable. Instead, I recycled a bumblebee costume for my youngest and bought my oldest a tacky, chintzy mermaid-princess…
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Vanilla Coconut Banana Cream Pie
I’m pretty sure that you aren’t supposed to make cream pies when it’s 100 degrees outside…I’m pretty sure that could probably get you in big trouble in some parts of the world. But when you catch a summer cold, are stuck inside in the air conditioning with a sore throat and a fever and really need to update your blog, that’s exactly what you do. You make a cream pie. You also dip extra bananas into the filling and eat them like a fruity-creamy fun…
