• White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

    My family and I took a quick little road-trip this week.  It’s the week before my oldest daughter starts school, so we took advantage of the gorgeous and unseasonably mild weather and hit the road.  I’ll post more about our trip this weekend in my Out and About Series, but we had a really, really good time.   And even better – we were only in the car for about three hours at a time!  Rather than relying on fast-food or gas station snacks along…

  • Lemon Tart with Blackberry Syrup

    I just about had a breakdown yesterday.  After a stressful day, I began my nightly ritual of opening the girls backpacks, sorting their papers, reading notes from their teachers and repacking for the next morning.  It’s during this attempt at organization that I take note of important dates and update my calendar. Between field trips, field day, music programs, extra dance classes before recital, birthday parties and softball practice (because you know, we coach both girls’ teams in our “free” time) my calendar was suddenly very,…

  • Chocolate Chip Scones

    Many years ago, my husband (then boyfriend) went to London with his family.  I stayed home in Kansas and sulked for ten days…not just because I missed him, but also because he was going to London, without me.

  • Red Velvet Poke Cake

    Yep.  Kinda obsessed with the ol’ poke cake. I actually have yet another one coming soon.  But since I’m 100% convinced that you can’t have too many poke-cake recipes, I’m not going to worry about it one little bit.  The world cannot have too many poke cakes. And it’s possible that I say this about EVERY poke cake I make, but this one is my favorite.  There’s actually no contest.  This is the best.  Until the next one, I know, but still.  So far –…

  • Chocolate Dipped Holiday Cookies

     This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #NestleHolidayBaking #CollectiveBias My daughter had a couple of friends over last weekend to play for a few hours for a “BFF Gift Exchange,” and because she’s just like her mother, she wanted to decorate for her party and create a dessert table to display our cookie creations.  The girls had pizza for lunch and we made some chocolate covered cookies with fun decorations for dessert.  It’s a quick and…

  • Cheesy Garlic Biscuits

    So, I have a confession to make.  I don’t care for seafood.  Admittedly, I have had a bite or two off my husband’s plates over the years that didn’t make me gag, but generally speaking, I can’t do fish – cooked or raw, shell or not – it’s not happening.  For this reason, growing up in the Midwest has proven to be to my advantage – I have a lot of other protein options and a good steak is far more prevalent than any seafood…

  • Sandwich Rolls

    I know I just posted hamburger buns a few weeks ago, but I had to post these too.  These are completely different than the hamburger buns.  They’re slightly sweet and not as dense, and would even make a really good dinner roll.  The overwhelming consensus when I served these was that the rolls were the star of the meal.  My five year old ate one plain, and my two year old kept asking for more.  I made BBQ beef sandwiches, and when I asked my husband if…

  • 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…

  • Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcakes

    I’m grumpy today.  I don’t really have a good reason to be, we’re leaving for a family vacation in exactly 22 hours.  It’s a much-needed vacation, especially after the past several whirlwind weeks – it will be nice to just relax for a few days. Oh, did I mention that we’re road-tripping it?  With two little girls?  Maybe relax isn’t the right word.  Today, I started making lists of all of the things I needed to do, remember and pack before we leave.  The lists…

  • 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…

  • Homemade Pop Tarts

    Yep, I went there.  I’m not sure what it was about this recipe that appealed to me so much, but I think it was probably the nostalgia of it all – I’ve been eating Pop-Tarts since I was in elementary school, mostly I think because my Dad loves them.  My favorites were always the chocolate, brown sugar and other candy-bar varieties, but Dad likes the cherry and strawberry, so Dad – these are for you. If you’ve ever looked at the nutritional information on the…

  • Key Largo: Onion Crusted Yellowtail & Key Lime Pie

    This is a contributed post as a special feature to Lemon-Sugar.com.  It includes a contributed recipe from Chef Bobby Stoky, but also a Lemon Sugar original: Key Lime Pie!   Enjoy!  The Florida Keys is home to five districts, each with their own personality and attractions that make visitors feel like they are a world away. Growing up around fish, Chef Bobby Stoky quickly learned how to do it all, from catching to cleaning and even cooking them. In the summers he would dive for lobster and in…