• Rigatoni with Creamy Marsala Sauce

    I know, it’s surprising.  Another pasta dish!  This is a new one for us, but it sounded good tonight and we had all of the ingredients so we decided to try it out.  This pasta is actually called “Rigatoni di Gregorio” but since I changed it a little, I’m not sure that it really qualifies as such anymore. We grilled the chicken instead of pan-frying it, and I added green olives in lieu of parsley, mostly because my girls won’t eat “green stuff” on their…

  • Baked Cinnamon French Toast

    Welp, the Christmas Tree is packed away, decorations are down, the Christmas music is over until next year, and the girls go back to school tomorrow. The days of staying up too late and sleeping in are in the past, and the countdown to summer has started. Seriously, is it summer yet?  I’m over the cold.  It’s all fun and games until the Christmas decorations come down, and then it’s just cold.  And cold without Christmas is no fun AT. ALL. But – bright side…

  • 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…

  • Restaurant Style Salsa

    You know when you go to a Mexican restaurant and they give you one of those little bottles FULL of extra salsa?  You know, so you can refill your own salsa dish?  Those are my favorites.  Because seriously, a little tiny bowl of salsa for a table full of people is just never going to be enough, it’s just not.  And then, you know when you’re at a Mexican restaurant, and your food comes out and you immediately have to ask for a box because…

  • 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…

  • Fudge Cupcakes with White Chocolate Filling

    If you know me at all, you know that I am absolutely terrified of severe weather.  Growing up in the heart of tornado alley is not a good place to be when you have such a phobia, trust me.  I have many (traumatic) memories of my childhood, crying on the ball field while a storm approached, hiding in a laundry basket in the basement because there was a tornado watch, hailstones breaking through double-pane glass in our living room…and the list goes on. Yesterday, we…

  • Cream Puffs (Pâte à Choux)

    This is one of those recipes that I stumbled upon and automatically thought would be incredibly difficult and way out of my realm.  But, once I really took time to read the recipe I found it was really very simple.  Choux pastry is used to make cream puffs, eclairs and profiteroles.  It’s a very light, dry pastry and usually offset by some sort of decadent cream-type filling.  I used the traditional pastry cream to fill these and topped them with a liberal dollop of dark…

  • Share-It Saturday: Week 4

    Hi everyone!  Welcome back for another Share-It Saturday on Lemon Sugar!  Before we get started, make sure you like Lemon Sugar on Facebook, and don’t miss my latest post – you can enter to win a Better Zester.  You’ve got to try one to see what all the fuss is about.  You’ll be zesting just for fun. Or is that just me? Don’t answer that.  Let’s move on to the party. Welcome, welcome!  That was my best Hunger Games voice.  Geez, I’m just oozing coolness…

  • Snowball Cupcakes

    We have had some FANTASTIC weather around here for the first part of December – 70 degree temperature-sunshiny-beautiful weather, and I love it.  The girls are still playing outside, we were able to decorate the outside of our house for Christmas without getting frostbite, and I’ve yet to really break out my winter coat.  In December.  Unreal.

  • Pumpkin Pound Cake

    So, let me preface this by saying that I miss ya’ll!  Life has been insane around here lately, and I haven’t had time to be in the kitchen, or even much time at all to chat with everyone on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and via e-mail.  My work schedule has changed, so getting the family into a new routine has been taking its toll on me this week.  Thank you all for asking about me and for all of the notes looking for new recipes!…

  • Creamy Skillet Mac & Cheese

    My oldest daughter is learning a hard lesson this week.  She’s found her independence a bit, and has used her new-found “power” to voice her opinions rather loudly and forcefully to her Dad and me. In other words, she’s a back-talking fool. We’ve noticed it more lately, the back-talking with a twinge of sassy-attitude, and it’s just gotten worse.  She’s particularly offended by chores it seems, and when her Dad told her to go “pick up the office a little bit before lunch,” she did…

  • Pumpkin BTS Cake

    So, I don’t really care what you call this cake.  Anytime you combine pumpkin, homemade whipped cream and caramel sauce?  Uh-MAZE-balls.  My last BTS cake has driven almost 120,000 visitors to Lemon Sugar, and is among one of my most requested desserts in my inner circle. Inner circle?  That means my family.  I don’t know why I called them my inner circle.  I’m clearly not Miley Cyrus.  I don’t have an “inner circle.” But if I did, I would totally feed them BTS cake. If…