-
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…
-
Bacon, Egg & Pepper Jack on Toasted Ciabatta
Uncharacteristic trait of a food blogger number 982: I don’t really like eggs. Clearly, I eat my fair share of them in baked goods, and I even enjoy quiche. Plain old eggs, though, I can’t really get behind. Runny yolks? Don’t get me started. (But why? Why would you eat runny yolks? Help me understand!)
-
A Beach Birthday Party
Well, I survived. I survived my first party since I’ve gone back to work in an office environment, and it was a success. Now, I didn’t cook – it was catered, I just did the baking, and I had a little help from the candy aisle at the grocery store, but somehow I pulled off a cute little beach party in the middle of November and lived to talk about it. My Madeline turned eight years old this week, and as much work as it…
-
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…
-
Just Cherry Pie
It’s just really been a strange week. We were supposed to be in Mexico, celebrating not only our anniversary but my husband’s birthday as well. Because we were planning to lay on the beach and drink fruity drinks to celebrate, I didn’t plan the usual birthday celebration with dinner, guests, dessert and gifts. I feel bad that my hubs kind of got the short end of the birthday stick this year, but promised him that we’ll celebrate his birthday on our rescheduled trip. So, in…
-
Fauxstess Cupcakes
Since I’m in the midst of the lovely Weight Watchers lifestyle, I haven’t been baking as much as I would like lately. Even though I have a pretty strong willpower when it comes to avoiding and ignoring the sweets and treats in my house, I find it better to not even tempt myself. I’m going to save my baking for special occasions, and especially those that I can bring treats and leave them at someone else’s house. Today I am baking for my brother’s 27th…
-
Tiny Chocolate Tortes
Ok, so I have a confession to make. While cleaning up after hosting brunch this morning for Mother’s Day, I may have picked up one of these babies with my bare hands, plopped a big helping of fresh whipped cream on top and shoved almost the whole thing in my mouth. It took less than ten seconds, but it was undoubtedly ten of the best seconds of my life. These are fantastic. You should probably drop everything you’re doing and go make these, right now.…
-
Dark Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie
During the winter months, I turn into a pantry-hoarder. I tend to over-stock my pantry on trips to the grocery store, buying one or two of every possible pantry staple, so I always have everything I need for all of my baking whims. Then, when I use something, I just replace it and I can make it through the entire winter without having to run out for ingredients when I decide to bake. It’s great, for a while. But then, I end up with way…
-
Snickerdoodle Muffins
So, I woke up this morning and completely forgot that it was my anniversary. I called my husband after I dropped the princess diva-queen off at school, and I didn’t even say Happy Anniversary or anything. But, neither did he…so clearly he forgot too, right? Then, I’m at work and my phone notification pings and I see that he posted some really nice words about me on Facebook. Whoops. So, of course I did what any loving wife would do – I immediately reciprocated and…
-
Orange Sweet Rolls
My to-do list today looked something like this: clean the pantry for an upcoming photo-shoot. Organize the mess on top of my desk. Finish the laundry. Go to the grocery store. Decorate for Easter. Put away the 2T clothes still in Mia’s closet *sniff*. See how productive I am in my head? Know what I actually did? Yup. I made Orange Sweet Rolls.
-
A Spa Party & Funfetti Cupcakes
Welcome to the most disorganized party I’ve ever, ever put together. Good news is, it worked. The girls had a great time and they don’t know that I threw it all together in just a few hours. Bad news is, I knew. I could’ve done so much more with this awesome concept, but I just didn’t have the time. You may have seen my daughter’s 8th birthday party here last week, and this week, we followed up with her “friend” party. My Lindsey friend owns an…
-
Sweet Dinner Rolls & A Giveaway!
*note: this giveaway is now closed. Over the last several months, we’ve drastically reduced the amount of bread that we buy at the grocery store. Now that I’ve become comfortable making yeast breads, there just isn’t a reason to buy it anymore. Working with yeast used to intimidate me. I have very vivid memories of my Grandma making rolls for Sunday dinner – not only was her dough the smoothest, most supple* bread dough I’ve ever seen, but the rolls themselves were fantastically amazing. And…
