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Samoa Sheet Cake
So, first – let me tell you about my weekend. Then we’ll get to this DELICIOUS Samoa Cake recipe. I took a couple of extra days off before the long Memorial Day weekend, mostly to prepare for my daughter’s birthday party and get the girls to and from dance recital and rehearsal, which this year fell on Thursday and Friday evening. NBD. Right? Yeah. So Thursday brought some (SCARY) severe weather to my part of the world, and of course that only happens when my…
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Double Chocolate Cupcakes
While I know Halloween is today and most everyone already has their holiday baking out of the way, I’m sure that there are still some parties coming up this weekend. So, those of you who are still looking for some last minute inspiration, I hope this post will help you out. The great thing about cupcakes is really how versatile they are. They can be elegant, fun and kid-friendly, boozy and adult-friendly, celebratory or just plain simple. By dressing up a simple chocolate cupcake with…
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Dipped Vanilla Sprinkle Cupcakes
When my husband and I finished college, we moved to the suburbs and built our first house together. We both grew up in a small town, out in the country, and I think we were ready to give “city living” a try. We built a great first house not far from the police station where my husband works and relatively close to my job. Then, my first daughter was born. She wasn’t even six months old when we realized that we wanted her to have…
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American Kitchen Stories
When I think back on my childhood, then to my college years, and now to my adult life (I use the term adult loosely), many of my happiest and most vivid memories took place in a kitchen. When I think of family gatherings, I’m always transported to a kitchen. When I was a teenager, we had a phone with a long white cord in our kitchen – and I spent many nights laying on my kitchen floor talking to my now husband. On Sundays, all…
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A Playroom Makeover: Part 1
I am so excited to be back with another Lemon Sugar remodel project, and especially excited to be working with my friends at Organized Living again! If you remember, we teamed up several months ago to tackle my pantry remodel, and it turned out SO good that we’ve decided to take on a bigger and more challenging space – a playroom for my girls! This project is a little bit bigger and more involved because we didn’t have an existing space to work with. Instead,…
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#MyHomeTownGuide – Five of My Favorite Eats in Kansas City
It’s that time of year in Kansas City. Winter is slipping away, and spring is just. about. here. Suddenly 45 degrees feels balmy, and we are looking for any reason we can think of to get out of the house. Fortunately for us, KC is full, and I mean full, of fantastic restaurants and foodie hot-spots to keep our mind off of Mother Nature’s indecisiveness. Kansas City is primarily known as a barbecue town, and there’s good reason for that. In fact, two of my…
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A Pantry Makeover Part 3: Glidden Paint
When we built our house just over five years ago, I was so overwhelmed with decisions that I just took the easy road when it came to our paint colors. With the exception of my daughter’s room, I went all-out subdivision beige. I just couldn’t make another decision. Floors, appliances, windows, furniture, lighting, faucets…I couldn’t do it. So, subdivision beige it was. Over the years, we’ve slowly been updating rooms to fit our taste and decor style. It’s been a slow, arduous process and I…
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Pink Velvet Cupcakes
This is my second attempt at pink velvet cupcakes. The first was bad, so very bad. I don’t understand, because that particular recipe gets rave reviews everywhere, but to me it tasted like a blueberry muffin, sans blueberries. It was just kind of blah. They were like little, pink, blueberry-less muffins. Kind of sad little things. So after going back to the drawing board and searching for an ingredient list with more flavors, I settled on this one from a Taste of Home cookbook. I…
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Reuben Sliders with Homemade Thousand Island
I’m pretty excited to share this recipe with you. It’s a good one. I love sandwiches, and I especially love warm, ooey-gooey slider sandwiches. And I really love a good Reuben. This is like, the nexus of the sandwich universe. Or something. My family isn’t doing our annual St. Patrick’s Day dinner until next week sometime, so I know that tomorrow (on the actual holiday) I will want something corn-beefy to tide me over until next week when we can celebrate. Since there is an…
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Tiramisu Macarons
While I was making these the other day, my Mom called me, and asked what I was doing. I told her I was making Macarons, and she said “Macaroons?” No…MacaRONS. Different. Then, I tried to explain to her what they were – kind of like a meringue sandwich cookie, though with an almond-flour base…but I’m still not sure if she knew what I was talking about. So, here you go Mom. MacaRONS. (Mack-uh-RONs). I’m very confident that I didn’t do a good job explaining them…
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S’mores Whoopie Pies
This, I realize, is not the prettiest dessert I’ve ever made. It’s kind of frumpy, even. But – oh my heavens, let me tell you – these are the best whoopie pies I’ve ever made. Ever. The cake was amazing. They were rich, soft, and had a deep dark chocolate flavor. The cream cheese buttercream was great on its own, but the addition of graham cracker crumbs took it up a notch. Pretty? No. But I didn’t even care because they were out of this world…
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Five Layer Celebration Cake
It’s my birthday! Yay me! I survived another year of this crazy life and I do believe we should celebrate. It really was a crazy year. I found myself working from home, which has really been a blessing and a period in my life that I will always cherish. I’ve spent more time with my kids, my husband and my family. It was a happy year for my family; my youngest brother got married, my closest cousin got married, and I welcomed a new niece…
