-
“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.…
-
Peanut Butter Sheet Cake
When I worked at my previous job, I would occasionally ‘treat’ myself to a trip to a little bakery down the road from my office. They have a MAGNIFICENT, seasonal cranberry chicken salad on cranberry nut bread. Oh my goodness, it is the best thing ever, in fact it’s so good that I must find a recipe and replicate it. Soon. And then I’ll post it. But, even better, they also have a wonderful assortment of desserts to choose from. My favorite is a peanut…
-
One Hour Maple Pecan Cinnamon Rolls
This is officially the third time I’ve used my One Hour Cinnamon Roll Dough on the blog. There was the original, the Cherry Sweet Rolls, and now these. I think these win. These are Maple Pecan Cinnamon Rolls, and they’re fabulous. Oh yeah- and they can be made start to finish in an hour. No big whoop. YES. ONE HOUR. CINNAMON ROLLS IN ONE HOUR, FOLKS! So today, we changed it up a bit – I added some sticky-sweet pecans to the filling, and doused…
-
Marshmallow Filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Cloud Frosting
Look at the frosting on these cupcakes. Look at it. See how smooth and creamy it looks? I’m here to tell you that it tastes about ten times smoother and creamier. Rosie over at Sweetapolita aptly named this frosting Nutella Cloud Frosting, and I’m not sure there has been a more fitting name in the history of the universe. If you were to eat a chocolate cloud, I’m pretty positive this is exactly what it would taste like. Maybe better. It’s been a while since…
-
White Chocolate & Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
I just looked over the top of my laptop at my husband, who’s sitting on the couch next to me, and said “I don’t have any wittiness for my blog post.” He just looked at me funny. You guys don’t care about wittiness, do you? You care about cupcakes. I knew it. You’re just using me. See? No wittiness. I’m not even sure I’m spelling that right. Wittiness? Witty-ness? Wittyness? My spell checker likes wittiness, so we’ll go with it. Have you ever said a…
-
Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcakes
Last weekend, a friend of mine asked me to make cupcakes for her son’s 2nd birthday party. The party was a nautical theme, and she did a fantastic job with her dessert table! It was the perfect theme for a hot summer day, and what two-year-old wouldn’t want to dive into all of this yumminess? I loved her use of bold colors and patterns paired with the whimsical decorations that pulled it all together. Her kids are going to have such fun memories of their…
-
Grandma’s Dinner Rolls
The other day I was cleaning one of the storage rooms in our basement and I came upon a basket of items I kept when we cleaned out my Grandma G’s house for the final time. I found a rosary, a couple of candy dishes, an old soapstone jewelry box she always kept on her dresser, and a blue apron that read “RUTHIE,” her first name. It immediately brought a smile to my face, and best of all, it still (9 years later) smells like her…
-
Deep Dish Pizza
When I was growing up, my Mom owned a newspaper and publishing company. This was an awesome job for her because it gave her the flexibility to be home with the kids when she needed to. However, it also meant that once or twice a week she had to work later in the evening to cover city council meetings or hang out until the paper was ready to go to press. This meant that my Dad was responsible for dinner for 5 kids once or…
-
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…
-
Cherry Sweet Rolls
Ok, let me break this down for you. One-hour sweet roll dough. Sweet cherry filling. Easy-peasy powdered sugar glaze. Start to finish, cherry sweet rolls, in about an hour. Boom. This is what Sunday afternoons are made for. Know why? Because tomorrow I get to have a cherry sweet roll with my morning coffee. It’s funny because every single time I make this recipe, I think, “Why in the world did I not halve the recipe? Why do I need 30 sweet rolls?” Let me…
-
Hi-Hat Cupcakes
I don’t know if I even have words for this one. I think this is hands-down my favorite cupcake I’ve ever made. It’s beyond amazing. For me, it’s the perfect combination of moist chocolate cake and fluffy, gooey marshmallow frosting. They are definitely best served cold, and I’m finding that they are practically irresistible when they come right out of the freezer. My willpower around desserts is usually very, very high – especially considering the number of deserts that come out of my kitchen. But these? …
-
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.…
