Hello! I’m back. Things got a little crazy over the winter. Mike and I bought a fabulous house, moved, painted, unpacked, and now are thawing out from the winter and planning our wedding (!!!). Things are good!

The best coffee cake comes from NY and tastes like this one. I’ve been feeling coffee cake, and whipped this one up quick last night and we can’t stop eating it. This is the best one I’ve ever made. The topping is perfect, and the cake is light and fluffy and almond-y, which is our favorite flavor over here. I brought a big piece of this to work for breakfast and as soon as it was gone I immediately wished I had brought more.

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Making pies is my thing. I love pies, I love making pies, I love eating pies! This year (like most years) I volunteered to make pies. I whipped out four during nap time/before work this week The menu is: pumpkin, coconut lime custard, maple, and pecan.

Sometimes  I buy my crusts, but we’re trying to buy a house so we’re trying to be good about frivolously spending money we might not have to. This year I made all the crusts! The recipe I used is super simple, just dump everything in the food processor in order and chill, then roll out/pat into your pan and you’re done!  Continue reading →

This is the most boring blog ever. Muffins, muffins, muffins! I can’t stop making last week’s cinnamon roll muffins, so today I forced myself to make something else. Blueberries have been on sale this week and Baby P has been eating them, so we had plenty. I mixed up the cinnamon roll muffin batter with some more sugar, tossed in a half pint of blueberries, sprinkled the top with fancy sugar, and voila! Tasty blueberry muffins. These are quick, have a nice little dome on top, and could be done with any berry, probably!  Continue reading →

Guys, I’m obsessed with cinnamon buns. So obsessed. But I’m also so lazy.

I got to thinking – how can I have cinnamon buns but without having to roll them out? That’s so messy and I’m so lazy. What if cinnamon buns were muffins!? So I Googled, and found this recipe. Genius!!!! Baby P slept until 9:20 this morning (!) so I whipped these up before he got up. They were a hit!  Continue reading →

Sometimes you just need cookies. Or at least I do. Sometimes you also have a toddler who is hungry and dinner to cook but all you can think about is cookies.

Sound familiar? No? Who cares. Whip up some cookies. Your partner/sister/mom/neighbor/boss will thank you, unless they are allergic to peanuts.

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We had a lot of trouble explaining Halloween to Baby P. I took him to look at costumes a few times, and the one he liked best was a butterfly, but when we went back to buy it his size was gone.

We settled on a monkey, because he loves Curious George. His favorite movie is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and there is also a monkey in that.

There were a bunch of tears when I put Baby P in the costume, but once I showed him he had a tail he was happy! He kept the costume on all day and Mike took him to the library to trick or treat at the desks and play in the kids area. He had a blast! Then they came home and handed out candy to kids in the driveway.

Have you ever seen such a sweet monkey?

It’s tomato soup and grilled cheese season. I’m working through the end of my summer tomatoes, which have been ripening in the kitchen after I pulled them all, green, with the first threat of frost. I’ve been roasting them off with a few little heads of garlic from my garden, then pureeing the whole mess. This gets strained, a little stock gets stirred in, and then you should eat this with grilled cheeses.  Continue reading →

Hi! I love coffee cake. I love crumb toppings. I love cream cheese fillings! This cake has all of these things. Don’t make it if you’re not feeding an army though, because it’s huge. I took the cake part from this recipe, and the crumb topping from my all time favorite coffee cake, recipe here.  Continue reading →

I first read about this recipe in the NY Times. That can’t be good I thought to myself as I read the recipe. A cut of meat, dry gravy mix, ranch dressing, butter and pepperocini cooked in the crockpot for a number of hours? Sounds like a joke recipe. I couldn’t get it out of my head, so I tried it. And the internet was right! This is a delicious, hilarious recipe.  Continue reading →

When I’m in charge of dinner, I want to do something I can whip up and will cook, hands-off, so I can play with my kid. Chickens were on sale last week, so I grabbed one and a few bags of frozen veggies.  Continue reading →