All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel
Cider Glazed Apple Cake Mix Cookies – The simple cookie that puts you in the mood for fall. They have a yummy double dose of apple in the cookie and glaze.
Sunday night… oh, what a doozy!
In a span of 30 minutes, I dropped a bottle of hot sauce out of our fridge. Then spilled a salt shaker all over too.
…
Lila is a tough critic. But she approved of these biscuits.
Lila is one of my friend’s daughters. She is just about a year and a half old and in the year that I’ve known her I’ve gotten stink eye from this adorable little girl more times than I can count. She is the queen at mean muggin’.
But I think I finally broke through to her!!!!
All thanks to these biscuits!!!!!
Autumn and I made them the day before for our family. She is a fantastic little helper and baker. She helped me measure everything into the bowls. We count out the ingredients as we pour them into the bowls. And we she even learning how to propely scoop the floor into the measuring cup too!
That’s why Kid Chef Bakes: The Kids Cookbook for Aspiring Bakers by Lisa Huff is fantastic new cookbook. It has so many recipes that are kid friendly so they will love what you make with them in it. Kids of all ages will love everything from the cookies to the cupcakes to the bars.
The book is full of clear instructions and lots of beautiful pictures. I love how informative it is for the kids learning the different processes and techniques used in baking. The book starts with different lessons in learning baking skills. It starts with basics likes measuring and moves on to folding ingredients in, and how to work with dough. All really important, interesting, and fun things for kids to try as they develop their kitchen skills.
(To note: Autumn said she would help me with the biscuits, then decided making biscuits at her sandbox/water-table on our lanai was more fun. We co-baked things. ha!)
Well, back to little miss Lila!
I was helping out my friend by picking Lila and her bigger sister, who is awesome friends with Autumn, up from daycare and giving them dinner while she hustled back from a meeting from work. I managed to get a smile from her while at daycare as I picked her up from her classroom, but the real moment when she let her guard with me when the kids were eating. She saw some leftover biscuits in a container on our counter and she eagerly pointed to them. While it wasn’t what I had planned on feeding her, I figured an extra biscuit wouldn’t hurt!
She gobbled that biscuit right up!!! I got the cutest smile when she was done and the rest of the night as smooth sailing.
I guess you just can’t resist a really great biscuit. I know I can’t.
This foolproof biscuit recipe is from Lisa Huff’s
To note: I didn’t have a 2″ round cookie or biscuit cutter and my cast iron pan was too small. But I made due with what I ha. And guess what… delicious biscuits.
The moral of the story is to adapt to use the size cutter that you have, or use the pan that you have, or even both! Square biscuits? Cool! 2 Smaller pans? Cool! Do the best that you can and just make it work otherwise.
Just don’t let anything come between you and these awesome biscuits. They are a going to be an instant family favorite!
Makes 12 biscuits
Ingredients
Process
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Leave a comment telling me what you like to make with your kids or what you liked to make with your parents while growing up.
Ends 11/9/17. Open to US residents only
Let’s talk The Handmaid’s Tale!!!
I am addicted. Seriously addicted. I have watched and re-watched the available 5 episodes. And I am counting down until the new episode is released on Wednesday.
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It’s Babymoon time!!!!
We are going away for a quick Babymoon this weekend. I am so excited!!
Last time, we took a trip to the Florida to visit The Keys for a long weekend but since we are here in Florida now, we are just staying local. I’d love to take another trip to The Keys but I didn’t feel like flying, err spending money on flights, really.
Price found a local resort and spa for us to visit. The idea of a prenatal massage and bumming it by the pool without a toddler asking you to go in and out and in and out again is pure bliss.
Generally, I feel good at 32 weeks but I am so blah and sore all over so I just need my slightly ever present charlie horses to be worked out. (Seriously, they are the worst things ever to wake up to in the middle of the night!!!) Thankfully, Price snagged the last one available for the day and I picked up the required doctor’s note so I am just counting down the minutes until the appointment.
The worst part is that I keep reading things included in our package and it just makes me want to stay forever. Well, more specifically, go back AFTER the baby is born for the unlimited drinks. Hello, unlimited mimosas at brunch!
If you aren’t going away this weekend, I insist you make this Sticky Bun Monkey Bread. It’s stupid good. And goes great with mimosas too. (Truth be told, everything goes with mimosas. It’s a fact!)
But seriously, this Sticky Bun Monkey Bread is a real crowd pleaser. It tastes just like a sticky bun with the sticky caramel syrup that you drizzle all over the cinnamon and sugar coated biscuit pieces.
I used refrigerated canned biscuits to make this process easier, but you can follow my recipe for Homemade Monkey Bread for the dough, and then add the nuts and caramel sauce to it.
The caramel is everything. Whatever you do, don’t just dip a finger in there to try it. Nor is it a good idea to immediately grab a piece of monkey bread right after you flip it out on to the serving platter. No, I def didn’t try that and burn the crap out of my fingers and then my mouth as the quickest thing I could think of was ‘ahh my fingers!’ so shoving it in my mouth was the next logical thing to do. Nope…
Let’s fast-forward to the weekend, shall we?
I’ll be ready for my prenatal massage and you will be ready to enjoy this Sticky Bun Monkey Bread. And a few mimosas in my honor.
Sticky Bun Monkey Bread
Makes 16 servings
Ingredients
Process
Damn, toddlers are difficult.
Under statement of the year, right?
Besides stating all the obvious things like them freaking the eff out over dumb stuff like what shoes they want to wear (I swear we can NEVER find the pair she wants to wear right that very minute!) or the Minnie/Dora/Disney Princess of the cup she wants, we have entered a whole new realm of ‘fun’.
We have now entered the fun bed time fights that involve me moving things because they scare her. Last night I had to move a stack of framed pictures and canvases sitting on her dresser to get hung up since they “look like an alligator” Say what?!?
Then a little while later I had to move a bag in the hallway since it, again, looked like animals trying to eat her.
Can’t wait to see what tonight brings!
Also, I was asking her what I should put into the monkey bread. We settled on adding in chocolate chips (duh!) to the bananas and nuts. She was too into watching Shimmer and Shine on my phone (our cable isn’t hooked up yet… ugh!) to help me make it so understand what I was doing because…
as soon as it was ready and we offered her some “monkey Bread” she refused “EWWWWWW NO MONKEY’S BREAD.” Well then…
It’s like a
I almost called this Chunky Monkey Monkey Bread but I was afraid the double ‘monkey’ in the name would be confusing. Maybe?
And that’s all my silly stories for today!
Makes 10-12 servings
Ingredients
Process
I am loving winter in Florida.
It’s a joke to call it winter. It’s been amazing out. We had one cold weekend so far and you would have thought the end of the world was coming. People reacted to at the grocery store the same way that people in Boston reacted to snow storms. Everyone at the grocery store was all bundled up and talking about how cold it was. I was standing there in a sweat shirt like “yo, you have no idea…” It was like 45 out. ha!
…
We got a big update on our house and its schedule today! So exciting!
I’ve been meaning to do a big house update but it keeps getting pushed aside in the busy holiday hustle and bustle. Plus, we had some drama related to some framing in our house and I didn’t think it was appropriate to write about it we figured it out.
That being said, the drywall is up in our house and the stucco will be getting applied this week. Ultimately all of this will work out that our house will be move in ready for the end of January/ start of February. I just can’t wait to move in!
We have already purchased our fridge, washer, dryer, our bed frame, and dining room set. Other things have been picked out like Autumn’s bed and some artwork for some walls but we have lots of shopping to do! I’m currently obsessed with curtains so I’m trying to figure them out in all the different rooms. So far, we only have the curtains for the bonus room and I am in love with them. Plus, I got them for a steal as they were sale and I have a designer discount too!
I’m looking forward to getting it all set up and feel like home. It is going to be so incredible!
In other news, I’m addicted to this cake.
It’s the perfect balance of chocolate and spice. The spice being the cinnamon, so it’s not spicy, but it adds an extra perfect something that is killer in this cake. The way that salt brings out flavors, the cinnamon really amps up the flavors of the chocolate.
Plus, it has an incredible frosting on top that seals the deal. Bliss.
The cake and frosting are both really easy to make so I hope you’ll whip it up asap so you can enjoy a big slice, just like me!
Makes
Ingredients
For the Cake
For the Frosting
Process
I had such an epic weekend so I figured I’d share some epic brownies.
But first, let’s discuss the weekend!
…
You’ve Got Mail.
If it was 1998 my phone would be SCREAMING at me right now.
You see, I tried to really disconnect this July 4th vacation. We went up to Price’s mom’s house in Maine on Wednesday night and just got back tonight (Monday night, as I write this while watching The Bachelorette). In that time I finished a book and read another, worked on my tan, drank some refreshing wine, and ate way to much food. Hello food baby. So bad, but so good, no?
Aside from some IG and a bit of FB checking I was really disconnected. I didn’t turn on either laptop I brought. I didn’t check Twitter. There is no TV in the the house. Well, there is but there is no antennae so you can’t actually watch it. ha! But, I mainly took an email break. And it felt so good. I’m dreading check it again, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. At least it was a nice break.
I think we should all unsubscribe from all out junkie email alerts. Who’s with me! Let’s do it! I’ll start… ready go.
Anyway, this cake is something you need to subscribe to. What? Ugh, I’m tired and I am making no sense. Just make and enjoy this cake. For real.
I love zucchini bread so I knew I would love this Double Chocolate Zucchini Bundt. Yes! And then I trashed it up with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. And then sprinkles. Sprinkles make it so pretty. And the zucchini makes it healthy. Totes.
I struggle with getting bundts out of their pans. It kills me when I mess it up. But I was actually successful this time. But then I covered it all up with frosting. Go figure! But if you mess up your bundt just remember that you can cover up any mess with the yummy frosting. No one has to know! shh!!
Wish me luck tomorrow when I really 100% connect to real life again and check my oodles and oodles of email. Ugh!
Makes 1 10″ bundt cake
Ingredients
For the cake
For the frosting
Sprinkles
Process
Cake adapted from Parsley, Sage & Sweet, Frosting by I am a Honey Bee
I am so thankful that Autumn is addicted to fruits and vegetables. I know there will be a day when she turns her nose up to them and will only eat white foods, but I’m enjoying this now.
Autumn’s daycare teacher says that she needs to give her the protein and carbs first at lunch before pulling out the veggies and fruit because if she sees them she will only eat them. I think that is just adorable. I’ll have to remind her that when she is protesting them for plain buttered pasta in a few years.
Or maybe something magical will happen and she’ll skip that terrible phase?!?!? HAHAHA that’s doubtful, but I will take all the good vibes that I can get!
And when that happens I’ll have to start to sneak fruit and veggies in other food.
Just like what I did here.
JUST KIDDING!!!
I just had a massive package of strawberries that was staring at me every damn time I opened up the fridge and as much as we all love fruit I was doubting that we could finish it off before it went bad. That’s just the worst.
So I was daydreaming about what to do with them on my way home one day. I started to think about brownies and was thinking of tossing strawberries in the batter to make them extra sweet and delicious.
I mean you pile on fresh strawberries or strawberry sauce on sundaes so I was thinking that putting the strawberries in the brownie would just help you make your sundae that much faster. Plus, even better. Just add some ice cream and hot fudge sauce and boom!!
Because these bad boys are so fudgey, dense, and moist – yeah, I said it- they are ‘fork brownies’. At least that is what Price called them. Hope that makes sense! xoxo
Makes an 8×8 tray of brownies
Ingredients
Process
Adapted from Jessica in the Kitchen
Oh, what a weekend! Such a good weekend!!!
My sister came up from Connecticut on Saturday so we could go wedding dress shopping. We went to David’s Bridal in Danvers to start our shopping adventure. I had done some previous browsing on-line but nothing had jumped out to me so when we got there we just started grabbing dresses based upon the vision I had in mind. Plus, a few more that I wouldn’t have originally considered, like a short dress and a mermaid dress. Some looked surprisingly good but didn’t make the cut.
Ultimately, I the dress that I did pick was the first dress that I tried on. We both really liked it early on but I didn’t like a shadow from where the tulle was added to the lower portion of the dress. I tried it on again to see who annoying that shadow was – it was annoying. I jokingly mentioned that I would love to hack it off and the great women helping me there said it could be done. They suggested that I get a petticoat to replace the fullness from the tulle we would be removing. Plus, we added a grey band around the waist and it all fell into place. Woohoo!!
Plus, my sister picked out her Matron of Honor Dress. Getting things done!!
I had a busy Saturday so my Sunday was a bit more relaxed with some baking in the morning, and new laptop shopping in the afternoon. Ugh, that’s the worst. But the cake I made was delightful!!
I had grabbed some Meyer Lemons at Trader Joe’s on a whim the last time I was there. They were taunting me every time I went into the kitchen as I had no plan for them. I had to figure something out fast before they went bad. I turned to Pinterest to find a recipe to use up those Meyer lemons.
Side note- is Pinterest the new Google? It is for me! I need a recipe. Pinterest! Home design inspiriation. Pinterest! Wedding hair styles. Pinterest!
So I found a few great recipes and Price narrowed it down to this Meyer Lemon Pudding Cake from Kelsey, aka The Naptime Chef. It looked and sounded great. I love pudding cookies so I was intregued and then even more intrugided as there is no pudding in the cake! What?!?
The texture is what gives the cake it’s name. It’s dense, but airy. It’s creamy, but fuffly. It’s just plain interesting! We loved it, as did autumn’s daycare teachers. They are saints with all those kids running around. They deserve a slice of cake with a cup of tea while the kiddos nap. (Also, last week Autumn woke up early during naptime and then yelled to wake the rest of the kids up so they could all play again. Naughty!)
Kelsey does note that you get a different consistancy when you use a glass pan, it’s a little less dense on the bottom, than when you use a metal pan. I thought the results I had, with the metal pan, were enjoyable, but I would like to try it with a glass pan to check out the difference.
Makes a 8″ square or 9″ round cake*
Ingredients
Process
*There is some flexibility in the shape of the cake pan you use, as long as you have the same volume capacity. For expample, the recipe called for a 8″ x 8″x 2″ square pan, but I didn’t have it so I used a round 9″ x 2″ (deep), as it has the same 8 cup capacity. I refered to this chart for help.
Sourced from The Naptime Chef
