To be honest, I didn’t love any of the doormats To be honest, I didn’t love any of the doormats at Hobby Lobby, but it was hard to resist the 75% off price tag. You can’t beat it for five bucks, and it turned out to be just the bit of extra sunshine I needed. Sometimes you don’t know what you need and it finds you anyway. 💛
Having Leo is like the newborn stage all over agai Having Leo is like the newborn stage all over again. He falls asleep on top of me and then I feel bad waking him up if I have to get up. 😂
My oldest is working today at a food truck festiva My oldest is working today at a food truck festival that a friend runs so we popped in for a quick visit to support both of them, and of course we can’t leave without the amazing Crab Poutine Fries from @angry_archies! The @justjerseyfest is on Main Street in Chester until 7 pm - stop by and strap a feed bag on! Bring a blanket and listen to the live music while you’re there - it’s perfect festival weather. ☀️
Happy Friday, friends, cheers to the weekend! See Happy Friday, friends, cheers to the weekend! See also: I was influenced by an IG ad and I’m ok with that. ✨
This is 14-1/2. I love that her half birthday come This is 14-1/2. I love that her half birthday comes as we wrap up family summer birthdays so she is included too. 🥰 She loves lululemon, fountain Coke, and long hugs. She is a fiercely loyal friend, is the best debater I know, and sleeps later than I ever did when I was a teenager. 😂 She is quiet and loud all at once and is forever the biggest cheerleader her brother and I could ever have. My rainbow baby is growing up before my eyes and I love it and hate it all at once. Love you to the moon and back kiddo. 💛
“Everything good, everything magical happens bet “Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August." Jenny Han
The disco ball was hung there temporarily for a ho The disco ball was hung there temporarily for a hot minute but when it starts showing off at sunset, how could I move it anywhere else? ✨
Did the lyrics to “Sitting on the Dock of the Ba Did the lyrics to “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” just run through your head or are you young? 😂 I despise Parkway traffic in the summer but love that our kids get to have a Jersey shore summer just like we did when we were their age. 💛
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Sweetnicks

Food and Life

Recipe: Chocolate S’mores Cookies

February 20, 2012 · Narrative

Hearts
When we were over my sister’s today to celebrate her birthday, her mother-in-law and I started talking about Pinterest.  Oh how I love Pinterest, let me count the ways.  And even better to converse with a fellow pinning addict.  Over the past week, a lot of my inspiration (and output from my kitchen) came from Pinterest.  The Jell-O recipe, Valentine’s Day cards, and a new painting project all started from Pinterest.  And tonight’s cookie recipe?  Pinterest.

When I first saw the cookie recipe a few weeks back, I made a mental note that it would be perfect for our Bloggers Valentine’s Feast this past weekend.  Since Joanne was coming early on Saturday, and has a way with a piping bag that I have no interest (or time or motivation) in having, I convinced her to pipe hearts on the top of the cookies, instead of just frosting the whole top.  We She did half the batch with the hearts and half the batch with the full frosting top.

Sous Chef at work

And then the extra frosting got hidden in the freezer.

Well, halfway during dinner, we dug out the frosting to put more on the cookies.

I’m ridiculously picky about frosting.  To the point that I may or may not have expressed my distaste for the canned stuff in the baking aisle at the grocery store.  And I may or may not have said how easy and better it was to make your own homemade frosting.  And I may or may not have handed my business card to the stranger I was talking to, directing her to the best buttercream frosting ever.

Ok, I totally did all that.  And I have no shame about it.

…

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Recipe: Pumpkin Bread

December 15, 2010 · Narrative

Pumpkin BreadAs I made this recipe again tonight, I realized that I hadn’t shared it with you.  Even though Thanksgiving and pumpkins are long gone, that’s no excuse not to make it.  Canned pumpkin is still readily available, and in this season of giving and gifting, this is the perfect recipe to make.  It makes two loaves: one for you, one to wrap up for a neighbor.

I’m usually not a big fan of sweet bread recipes, but this one is the surest way to make anyone a convert.  Toast up a slice in the morning and spread on the thinnest layer of butter … mmm, delish.  Nick likes to take a warm slice with him on the way to the bus stop in the morning, so a loaf doesn’t last long.

Plated Pumpkin Bread

Project 365
December 15, 2010, Photo #275-279

Snack Time at CostcoSnack time at Costco. Babybel cheese, Gouda cheese and Stacy’s Naked Pita Chips.  I just read something recently about all the different things that you can taste at Costco, and for some of the warehouses that had more to-try booths, the calorie count, if you tried everything, was like 1800 – ouch!

After Dinner Art ProjectAfter dinner art time with Jamie.

Nick's Art

The Letter IMadeline’s class is working on the letter I this week, so I made a batch of cupcakes with buttercream frosting (her color choice) featuring a few “I” words.

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Recipe: The Best Buttercream Frosting Ever

March 11, 2010 · Narrative

The best buttercream frosting ever can be made from a few simple ingredients that you already have in your kitchen. You’ll find yourself making this one again and again.

Untitled

A friend asked me the other day if I thought about writing a cookbook.  No, I haven’t.  Truth be told, I have a nice cache of recipes I’ve created on my own, but my problem is writing them down.  I cook a lot like traditional grandmothers … a little bit of this, a little bit of that, wait, more of that.  I create the recipes based on feeling, intuition, how they look, tasting along the way.  That’s hard to put down in writing.  This buttercream frosting recipe is the perfect example.  To me, the frosting on the cupcakes from Billy’s Bakery in New York City was the one to beat.  I tinkered.  I played.  I improvised.  I created.  Four ingredients.  That’s all it needs.  Yet the finished result for me was always based on how it looked.  Its consistency.  And then, of course, followed by the taste.  But the measurements were what failed me.  I never measured.  I just did.  But a few months ago, a friend asked me to share my recipe, after having it one too many times here, and I decided it was time to figure it out.  There are some recipes I’d like to be able to pass down to my kids, and I can’t do that if I don’t find some way of getting them written down.  Another food goal for me this year.  Commit more of them to writing.

The ingredients are simple.  Butter.  Milk. Confectioner’s sugar.  Vanilla.  That’s it.  I tend to like my buttercream frosting a little on the stiffer side.  If you prefer yours a little thinner, just add a touch more milk until it’s where you want it.  Buttercream is my go-to frosting.  Whether it’s on a batch of homemade cupcakes, or atop a birthday cake or Rainbow Cake or smooshed between two Cinnamon Nut Spice Cookies (for that one, I make a maple buttercream version), I’m all about the buttercream. Forget Billy’s.  This one is now the one to beat.  And it saves me a trip into the city to boot.

Project 365
March 11, 2010, Photo #62

Crazy Dog

Eli never fails to get a laugh when he does this. He’d much rather walk himself than have someone else hold the leash, thankyouverymuch.

…

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To be honest, I didn’t love any of the doormats To be honest, I didn’t love any of the doormats at Hobby Lobby, but it was hard to resist the 75% off price tag. You can’t beat it for five bucks, and it turned out to be just the bit of extra sunshine I needed. Sometimes you don’t know what you need and it finds you anyway. 💛
Having Leo is like the newborn stage all over agai Having Leo is like the newborn stage all over again. He falls asleep on top of me and then I feel bad waking him up if I have to get up. 😂
My oldest is working today at a food truck festiva My oldest is working today at a food truck festival that a friend runs so we popped in for a quick visit to support both of them, and of course we can’t leave without the amazing Crab Poutine Fries from @angry_archies! The @justjerseyfest is on Main Street in Chester until 7 pm - stop by and strap a feed bag on! Bring a blanket and listen to the live music while you’re there - it’s perfect festival weather. ☀️
Happy Friday, friends, cheers to the weekend! See Happy Friday, friends, cheers to the weekend! See also: I was influenced by an IG ad and I’m ok with that. ✨

Pinterest

To be honest, I didn’t love any of the doormats To be honest, I didn’t love any of the doormats at Hobby Lobby, but it was hard to resist the 75% off price tag. You can’t beat it for five bucks, and it turned out to be just the bit of extra sunshine I needed. Sometimes you don’t know what you need and it finds you anyway. 💛
Having Leo is like the newborn stage all over agai Having Leo is like the newborn stage all over again. He falls asleep on top of me and then I feel bad waking him up if I have to get up. 😂
My oldest is working today at a food truck festiva My oldest is working today at a food truck festival that a friend runs so we popped in for a quick visit to support both of them, and of course we can’t leave without the amazing Crab Poutine Fries from @angry_archies! The @justjerseyfest is on Main Street in Chester until 7 pm - stop by and strap a feed bag on! Bring a blanket and listen to the live music while you’re there - it’s perfect festival weather. ☀️
Happy Friday, friends, cheers to the weekend! See Happy Friday, friends, cheers to the weekend! See also: I was influenced by an IG ad and I’m ok with that. ✨
This is 14-1/2. I love that her half birthday come This is 14-1/2. I love that her half birthday comes as we wrap up family summer birthdays so she is included too. 🥰 She loves lululemon, fountain Coke, and long hugs. She is a fiercely loyal friend, is the best debater I know, and sleeps later than I ever did when I was a teenager. 😂 She is quiet and loud all at once and is forever the biggest cheerleader her brother and I could ever have. My rainbow baby is growing up before my eyes and I love it and hate it all at once. Love you to the moon and back kiddo. 💛
“Everything good, everything magical happens bet “Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August." Jenny Han
The disco ball was hung there temporarily for a ho The disco ball was hung there temporarily for a hot minute but when it starts showing off at sunset, how could I move it anywhere else? ✨
Did the lyrics to “Sitting on the Dock of the Ba Did the lyrics to “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” just run through your head or are you young? 😂 I despise Parkway traffic in the summer but love that our kids get to have a Jersey shore summer just like we did when we were their age. 💛

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