Baking with Blondie

When I started blogging a while ago, I had a recipe that took off like wildfire. It was the ever-decadent, always-deliciously satisfying F resh Strawberry Yogurt Cake . Whenever strawberries are in season, I can't help but toss a good heaping pile of those ruby gems into a strawberry cake. It's one of my favorite ways to eat strawberries, and I never pass up an opportunity to make & devour it. The fact that it uses fresh lemon juice and greek yogurt doesn't hurt either :) The texture would blow your mind. 

If you were to ask my husband what my favorite food on the planet is, without batting an eye he would immediately respond: that woman sure loves her tacos.  It's true. I found a Taco Bell gift card in my Christmas stocking this year and I just about had a heart attack, I was so happy! I crave tacos all the time.  It's more than an addiction at this point, it's just a constant craving that never ever goes away. I could eat a plate of tacos, and crave them just the same the next day.  Thankfully, for you dear friends, this means I've been around the block before with the dear Mexican masterpiece known as the taco. So I know if a recipe is worth trying, and repeating over and over again... and this one, my friends, is the new kind of taco-jackpot. 

I feel like for the past few weeks, (even months!) have had something planned almost every night. And it's not like these activities are necessarily bad things, they just weren't things that involved all three of us together. This isn't a "brag because I'm so busy" party - trust me.  My husband comes home in the early evening, we eat a quick dinner (usually whatever I've photographed at lunch), and then one of us flies out the door to do something. Neither of us really got a break. I was getting agitated over really small things, and it was beginning to affect that once-peaceful feeling in our home.  This week, we decided to try something completely different. We noticed it was our first free-evening week (miracle!). We had zero plans. Instead of taking advantage of that rare opportunity to schedule all kinds of extra things in our lives, we made the conscious decision to not plan anything . Something amazing happened in the process... 

Sometimes you fall in love with a specific flavor combination, and it's hard to no think of using it in just about anything. Ever since I tried these amazing brown butter salted caramel snickerdoodles , I've been dreaming of the day I could try that beautiful brown butter and salted caramel in a cinnamon roll. Unfortunately, I could never find quite the right recipe to try it with. I've botched my fair share of cinnamon roll batches, and felt like I was almost destined to fail in the rising-the-rolls department. But as you can see... I struck gold. And I struck it hard core! 

So, I made these a long time ago, and never posted them. The SHAME, people. It was rude of me, and hopefully these mouthwatering pictures and sure-fire recipe will help you forgive me.  I've used this recipe from Bakers Royale  several times using the lovely raspberries in season. However, raspberries around here aren't exactly the cheapest right now, so I found myself scouring my pantry and fridge for whatever berries I could find. Nothing. Well, except for the small jar of maraschinos I had left over from a previous dessert the week before. Those count as berries, right? ;) 

I remember the time Ryan and I were married for about 4 years, and always dreamed of the day we could live away from Utah for a while. We loved our families so much, but we desperately felt like we needed our own little lives. So when the law school applications went out, we sent them everywhere.  Long story short, we ended up being accepted here in Utah and somewhere else. We were a little disappointed at first, but slowly realized everything was going to be just fine if we stayed here. After his first year of law school, he was chosen for a clerkship in Washington DC. We were so excited to have our own little adventure for 4 months outside of Utah, we also had a 2 month old at the time. Poor Ryan worked long and crazy hours when we lived over there, but I had the time of my life that summer! We lived in Maryland, and I took the metro into DC 2-3 times a week with that little baby of ours. I saw everything. I made sure of it. I had amazing adventures, and didn't care hot ...

Happy Monday, everyone! As you may have noticed, the blog got a little unplanned face-lift. I say "unplanned" because well, it was just that. I woke up Saturday morning, and all my photos and blog header, and sidebar everything were gone. My heart completely sank. Apparently my bandwidth was too much for my image-hosting site. I do all my own blog designing, so I didn't have anyone to really call and find a fix. Plus, my image header code was completely gone, so I knew right then I'd need to redesign the dang thing again. So my entire Saturday morning and afternoon were spent redesigning everything, learning more HTML coding, trying to keep it together, and seriously contemplating hiring a web designer. However, paying down law-school student loans and new-home-down-payment savings are where any of our extra money is flying in, so hiring anyone was completely out of the question. I was stuck sitting there in front of my computer, trying not to pull all my blondie...

For a while, starting back in November, our little gym in our apartment complex was on the fritz. I would wake up early before the boys were even out of bed, get dressed, drag my feet to the "gym room" across the parking lot, turn on the light, step on the treadmill, only to find...  that the DANG THING WAS BROKEN AGAIN.  Step on the other treadmill - broken, too. Fine, whatever.  I could step on the elliptical instead, I thought.  BROKEN!  Are you kidding me, people?   I wanted to light the thing on fire.  Apparently when a treadmill malfunctions, my first resort is arson. 

Sometimes after a long meat-filled Sunday dinner, I like to keep the menu on Monday pretty simple. We usually use up the leftover meat from Sunday's dinner in our lunches or tie it into Monday's dinner somehow. I've learned that one of the easiest ways to serve up leftovers is to roll them up in a tortilla. However, sometimes I just want something simple, light, and healthy for dinner after the weekend. Mondays are the perfect time to start afresh with our "eating lifestyles." So for us, it's usually the day we end up eating the healthiest. I've heard of families celebrating M eatless Monday , and I think it's a wonderful idea! (and we are super-meat lovers, let me tell you). But for economical reasons, it's also a great way to have a meal or two during the week that's much less expensive without the meat included. And with a dish like these enchiladas, you won't miss the meat for one second!

Well, it's Friday, my friends. We made it! This week has sure been a crazy one, but one thing happened that makes me feel like spring can finally start whenever it wants to: Our entire house is freaking clean.  I wanted to enjoy conference weekend at our home without thinking about how much my carpets could use a thorough cleaning, how high my dishes have piled, how unorganized my pantry is, how scary those leftovers in my fridge are getting, and generally how much clutter surrounded me. I just wanted to focus and enjoy. I always find this time of year to start anew. 

With a brand new month starting today, I thought it would be fun to get a head start on all the cute little Easter treats we love to enjoy in the lovely month of April.  When I was growing up, Easter was like a dreamland. My Mom or Grandma Molly would make my sister and I matching Easter dresses (sometimes with matching lace gloves and hand purses). We always dyed boiled eggs. The kids in our household always woke up to a line of little candy & toy-filled Easter baskets in the living room. Going to church was something we did/do year-round, but I was always excited to go to church on Easter Sunday because we always focused all the meetings around the  Resurrection of our Savior.  We came home to a delicious Easter honey ham, a huge pile of funeral potatoes, a pan of fluffy rolls, and sometimes my grandma's green marshmallow salad. It was just magic for me, really.