Strawberry Cupcakes

Back in April, we had the opportunity to participate in a Little Pink Houses of Hope retreat in Carolina Beach, NC.  Are you familiar with Little Pink?  No?  You should be!  They are a fantastic organization that supports people and their families who have experienced breast cancer.  We spent a week at the beach with other families and a group of wonderful volunteers.  It was a carefree time after going through a marathon of treatments and appointments.  Little Pink thought of everything--from activities, to meals, to beach towels, to pictures.  Weeks later, my son is still talking about the people he met, about playing in the sand, and about how he went on a stand up paddle board with Daddy.  We were able to focus on connecting--as a family and with other people whose lives now share the common thread of breast cancer--instead of on the act of getting through the day.
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Sour Cream Medivnyk (Ukrainian Honey Cake)

 

Thank you for all of the nice things you said after my last post!  I have been meaning to share this with you since the beginning of the year, but things kind of got in the way.  Back in January, we attended the most highly-anticipated party of the post-party season:  The Third Annual Ukrainian Christmas/Pierogi night.  One of the things that makes this party perfect is that it is all about eating (and drinking and having fun). 
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Soft Ginger Cookies

 

I’ve gone back and forth over the past few months about whether or not I should share with you that I was in treatment for triple negative breast cancer.  I was diagnosed last September, and it was a bit of a shock.  I weaned my son for it, and we have to put having another baby on hold because of it, and that has been hard.  Cancer, of course, sucks no matter who you are, where you have it, or how old you are.  It is a game changer.  Something that happens to nice people and to mean people and to everyone in between.  You can easily go down the rabbit hole of asking why.  Was it that trip to X or Y?  Too much of Z?  Not enough exercise?  Holding on to things instead of letting go? 
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Sour Cherry Crisp

Hello!  It has been ages!  I hope that your kitchen has seen a lot of baking action over the past few months.  I’ve been thinking a lot about baking, but I haven’t been able to translate many of those thoughts into action until this weekend, when Aunt Katie and my new cherry pitter arrived.  They didn’t come together (the cherry pitter arrived first, if you must know), but it was serendipitous that they both arrived on the same day, because they are two very important parts of this recipe.  If you don’t have a Katie in your life, then you really should go out there and find one.  I’ll be frank, we are not willing to share our Katie because she really tops the charts.  Who else would look the other way when I ate my kid’s ice cream cone because he wasn’t licking it fast enough (yes, having a toddler is the perfect excuse for eating not one, but two ice cream cones on a hot afternoon!)?  Who else would arrive with a talking puppy that can learn my kid’s name?  Who else would patiently pit all of these cherries?
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Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Hi there!  Happy New Year!  Has it really been over a year since I’ve shared something with you?  Time has flown by!  Our little guy is walking now, and we love every minute with him!  I haven’t really baked many things since he was born aside from some special celebratory cakes, a few random batches of cookies, and these muffins.  I whipped these up the night before his birthday so he had a special treat to share at daycare and so that we had a tasty baked good to put a candle in when we sang to him.  We’ve been making his food since he started solids, but this was the first time he tried my baking, so his first bite was a special moment for me!  These muffins come together really quickly and have a tiny halo of health since they are made with whole wheat and oatmeal flours and bananas.  That being said, I didn’t let him eat too much since we’re really striving for him to have a healthy diet!  If you want a nice muffin that uses up the cache of ripe bananas that is taking over your freezer, give these a try!
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Gingery Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chunks

I hope you are enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday and had a nice lineup of pies to round out your meal.  I managed to get out of baking this year!  Can you guess what would keep me from baking for this holiday?  I’m sure you’ve noticed that my baking and blogging has slowed down a bit over the past few months.  It isn’t that I haven’t wanted to bake or share recipes with you, it’s just that I’ve been busy with other things.  My current focus has ten fingers and ten toes and he arrived just over three weeks ago.  Yes, Scott and I just had a baby!  He is so cuddly and cute and I’m totally over the moon for him.

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Chocolate Coconut Pecan Cookies

I’ve been meaning to post these for a few weeks now, but other activities have gotten in the way of me sitting down at the computer.  I made these cookies both as a thank you gift and for Scott to share with a group of people that he was training.  I’m glad that everyone liked them because I was a bit late picking up Scott from the metro the night that I made them.  He was staying in town for dinner and that meant that I could read a book while I ate my dinner.  I don’t remember exactly what I was reading since that was a few books ago, but let’s just say it was Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival since I know that I read that book around the time I made these cookies and it is the kind of book that could get between me and baking since it is so captivating.  Regardless, I started baking later than I intended and still had two trays of cookies to put in the oven when Scott called to say he was going into the station to catch the train.  When it came to leave to get him, I had a difficult decision to make: pick him up on time and have two trays of half-baked cookies, or finish baking the cookies and pick him up late.  This time, the cookies won.  The good news is that I ended up being only 10 minutes late, and Scott was very understanding, especially once he tried one of the cookies.  If you like dense chocolaty cookies, then these are for you!

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Lemon-Blueberry Muffins

Scott and I recently spent a very relaxing week in Maine with some friends.  We were on a small island on Penobscot Bay within walking distance of a little shack that sold lobster and crab rolls, ice cream, and huge slices of wild blueberry pie.  It was such a perfect, peaceful setting that we barely left the island.  Mostly we just sat around reading books and playing board games, went for an occasional walk, and took naps in the afternoons.  After a rough morning of reading, who doesn’t need a nap?  Pin It

Anise Thumbprints with Chocolate Ganache

Hi there!  I know it has been a while since I've posted.  We have been alternating between crazy busy and just busy this summer, and I've fallen out of the habit of writing up what little baking I've accomplished.  I do have a little backup of recipes to share with you and this recipe is one of my favorites.  Just looking at the photos for these made me wish I had tucked a few away in the freezer.  I made these for a surprise birthday party for my parents back in June, and everyone enjoy them.  I’m sure you will too!
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Slightly Salted Soft Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oops!  Where did May go?  I’ve only baked about three to four times since the middle of April and most of it was recipes that I’ve either shared before or didn’t have time to photograph or write up.  These cookies, however, are the exception.  I was incredibly pleased with the way they came out, especially since I made the recipe up in my head while I was lounging in the corner nook of the couch in the basement and pretending to watch tv.  I think they will be my standard soft chocolate cookie from here on out, much in the way the Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (with Rye Flour!) recipe has become my go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies.  What I love about these cookies is that they taste exactly the way their name sounds.  There is a hint of saltiness, an abundance of chocolate, and the texture is perfect.  I made them to bring to a meeting at work, and everyone who tried them liked them.  If you’ve been daydreaming about soft chocolate cookies, look no further than this recipe!

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

There is a little bunny that lives between our house and our neighbor’s house.  Well, technically, it lives in the neighbor’s woodpile, but it seems to spend most of its free time in our yard.  Luckily it is only eating weeds and plants I’m not really particular about.  Whenever somethings scares it, it dives into the woodpile through the chain-link fence.  I don’t know what it is going to do once it is too big to fit through the fence.  Maybe it will wait at one of the gates looking up at us until we come out and open both of them so it can pass through and get to the woodpile?  Regardless, it is quite cute.  Sometimes it will just sit contentedly next to the tree and the hole into the woodpile; other times it hops all over the place.  We’re quite fascinated by it, and when we haven’t seen it for a while, I start to worry that the neighborhood fox has gotten it, but then it magically appears again.  Ahh, the wildlife dramas of suburbia.

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Nutmeg Tea Cakes

 

I’m so glad that it is finally warming up here!  I’ve already made iced tea twice and spent a large portion of this weekend outside in the yard taking care of things that should have been done ages ago.  Like finally cutting back the dead mums, (carefully) yanking out the dead iris leaves from last year, and planting a few (albeit small) bushes.  Would you believe that this year’s irises are already a few inches tall?  I should have cleaned those dead leaves up earlier.  I’m really excited about those bushes though.  Now our house/yard doesn’t look as naked.  I also found a little volunteer cilantro plant in the garden so my vegetable garden is already off to a good start!
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Strawberry Sandwich Cookies

How has it been two weeks since I last posted?  I’m slacking off here and I know it.  The past few weeks haven’t resulted in much baking, although I do have a small handful of nice recipes to share with you once I finally get around to writing them up!  These cookies are delicious.  I made them to bring to my cousin’s high school musical, All Shook Up.  Maybe you remember me mentioning seeing him last year when I posted the Chocolate Orange Chunk Cookie recipe?  Anyway, this year he was absolutely phenomenal!  I wish you could have come too because I think you really would have enjoyed it.  I was singing the songs to myself for at least a week afterwards.  I won’t say these cookies are better than the play, because they’re not.  They won’t make you laugh so hard you cry or give you an earworm, but they will make you glad that strawberry season is right around the corner.  Happy baking!
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The Very Best Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies

And we’re back!  Sorry for that little break there.  I’ve been doing a hodge-podge of things over the past few weeks like spending an awesome weekend on the outskirts of Shenandoah National Park in an old farmhouse, eating Peking duck, seeing friends from college, and curling up on the couch with a book that was totally not worth it.  In between, I had a few mediocre baking moments.  The baking ideas were good, but the recipes just need some more work before they are worth sharing.  The recipe for these cookies, however, did not require any tweaking.  They are vanilla cookies at their finest. 
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Cardamom Pistachio Brownies

I’ve been meaning to share this recipe with you for at least a week now, but things got busy.  We went to Portland, OR for the long weekend and I decided it would be more fun if I avoided the computer for a few days.  We got to see some friends, eat maple-bacon waffles and donuts, complete a 12-mile in and out hike to a waterfall, and visit Cannon Beach.  I was particularly excited to go to the beach since we used to pile into the car, put on the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack, and drive there for long weekends when I was a kid.  It was on those drives that I perfected the art of sleeping in the car. 
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Buttery Orange Shortbread

All week I’ve been thinking about what I was going to share with you in this post.  Of course, now that I am sitting here, I am drawing a complete blank.  We did a bunch of different things in the past 7 days.  We saw the boys (not once, but twice!), took a quick midweek trip to Pennsylvania to see my Dad get an award (congrats Dad!), went bowling (next time the girls will win every game!), and even went for a hike (yes!).  In between all of that, we squeezed in a few episodes of Battlestar Galactica.   Now, before you think I am crazy for falling into the sci-fi drama trap, I should tell you that we are only watching it because of a skit in Season 2 of Portlandia. 
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Raspberry Almond Thumbprints

I will be quick about this because there are still things I’d like to get done this evening before the next episode of Downton Abbey starts.  Yes, I am planning my evening around a TV show.  I’d bet a batch of these cookies that I’m not alone in my evening plans.  Of the cookies that I made for the holidays, these were my favorite.  I’m a real sucker for almond and raspberry combinations, and these cookies definitely hit the mark.  As an added bonus, they are light, fluffy, and beautiful.  You won’t be disappointed if you make them!  So, now that you have the details on these awesome cookies, I am going to return to my exciting task of cleaning out my closet.  Enjoy (the cookies and Downton Abbey)!
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Chocolate Caramel Cake

I should be finishing tidying up the house right now because we have friends coming for the weekend in just an hour or so, but I wanted to share this recipe with you.  After all, I’m sure one of you needs to bake a cake this weekend and still hasn’t found the perfect recipe.  If so, look no further than this little blog post, especially if you are a sweet frosting kind of person! 
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Peanut Butter Crunch Bars

The hardest part about making these bars is waiting for the chocolate to set.  I put together a batch yesterday morning while I was still half asleep.  The chocolate didn’t have time to fully set by the time we left for my brother’s house for brunch, but luckily he and my sister-in-law never seem to mind if I need to borrow their knife and cutting board, especially when peanut butter and chocolate are involved. 
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Vanilla Pretzels

Happy 2013!  I hope this year started off well for you!  For the past few years I’ve made something pretzel-related to celebrate the New Year.  According to one of my grandmothers, pretzels bring good luck.  Who wouldn’t want more luck, especially if it is channeled through something tasty? 
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