Baking with Blondie

  You see, I love Spring. To me, this beautiful season feels like more of a beginning-to-the-year than January. It brings all kinds of reasons to celebrate, and enjoy the gorgeous surroundings with loved ones. I feel like whenever Spring hits, the baby & bridal showers start popping up all over the place like daisies. And what's more fun to celebrate than brand new mini humans or two lovers tying the knot? For me, these times of celebration mean one thing: lovely desserts.  In this case, cupcakes.  Some pretty over-the-top cupcakes, I must say. These moist and fluffy cupcakes were created with fresh banana puree. Inside each cup-of-heaven is adorned so decadently with creamy banana custard.  Next is a layer of the most sinfully smooth vanilla buttercream frosting you've ever encountered, only to be dunked in chocolate ganache that's so blissful, it could make you blush. Spin that layer around with a playful coating of sprinkles, then...

With all the business of this past weekend, and a little partying to do this weekend, I've decided to keep things very simple this week. The Manchild's birthday is at our door, and I can't wait to celebrate UP style :) A great majority of his decorations will be balloons. Surprised? So with that, I bring you something Ryan and I have been loving for lunch, dinner, or both: wraps. They're something anyone can make, and probably everyone has made, so I'm not claiming to have something extremely unique to share here. But wraps are something we love to have, and a great way to clean out some leftover ingredients and need-to-eat-right-now produce in the fridge. Plus, I've learned a few tricks of the trade... Normally, I have whole grain tortillas for my wraps (Ryan refuses to even touch them), but we were out, and with a pile of flour tortillas in the fridge, I couldn't justify making a special trip to the store for myself. The turkey is pretty pl...

My darling sister-in-law had a birthday last weekend, and my cute little brother asked me if we could make a cake to surprise her with. I couldn't wait to get started on that thing! I love making cakes! No, really I do. We decided to go with a rosette cake like this one , but using my cocoa buttercream frosting for the swirls, and white pearls instead of ivory. It looked so elegant, and I smelled like heaven (that frosting is such a blessed thing, I tell you). And on the inside, we did 4 triple chocolate layers, and between each layer we used this caramel frosting. Another blessed thing, that frosting is. I wished I would have taken a picture of the dang thing! Oh well, I think the smile on my brother's face as he was about to head into his apartment (where she was) with the cake-in-hand was worth a thousand pictures. It was adorable. Well... apparently this batch of caramel frosting goes a long way, so with the extras, I made a few little cupcakes. With this recipe, ...

  Was on TV again yesterday. It was really fun, but I still get as nervous as the very first time I stepped in front of the camera. Last night we ate the leftovers, and I had forgotten just how much I love that avocado cream sauce .  If you missed the video, or live outside of my dear beehive state, it's here. These little chicken salad puffs are divine. I made them on Sunday when I stayed home from church to take care of our little guy. His nasty cough completely broke my heart, and I felt so helpless. These puffs were a fine distraction during his nap, and was such a fun excuse to make a hollow pastry. The puffs were pretty simple to mix together, and then I piped the dough onto balls on a cookie sheet. In the oven, they puffed up beautifully. They had such a soft, egg-like taste, and went perfectly with the chicken salad that filled each inside inch. I think we've all had chicken salad before - most of the settings would have been either a wedding reception, ba...

  I seriously thought I was going to break off all my fingers making these cookies. And my fingers kind of play an important role in playing my music. That's how much I needed to try out these cookies. I risked my very life to make them.  Monday this week is a little heavy on the theatrics.  But the core of the aforementioned is true. These cookies were so light, and had such a dainty tea-party-with-your-pinkie-sky-high touch to them. They tasted divine (spritzer cookies taste just like vanilla shortbread cookies, but with a tad more depth in flavor and texture). I first saw these on i am baker and knew I needed to put them on my list somewhere (Ryan claims I have waaay too many lists). But somehow they came to the surface this week, and in the late hours of the evening, I tried my hand at making the dang rosette cookies. Literally.  Instead of splitting the dough into three different flavors (Neapolitan style, as she did), I focused on a flavor...

I have a serious issue with avocados. A huge problem. Why?  Well, I just can't get enough of them.  Just this past weekend, I even sliced and seeded an avocado, grabbed a handful of tortilla chips, and just plowed right through the dang thing right then and there.  And guess what I did the next day? The same thing. So you can imagine when avocados were priced-matched at 4/$1.00 at the supermarket, I came home with a pile of 'em. Most of them have been used in egg wraps , eaten in our favorite tacos , and some savored during the aforementioned "chip attack" method. This dip, however, was by far the most amazing. There's something so sneaky about greek yogurt - it's so multifaceted, and with that trait, can be used equally in savory dishes, as well as in our favorite sweet treats. With this beautiful creamy dip, it tastes just like sour cream. You could easily slather this stuff on anything of the Mexican food genre and be satisfied. The chips...

  Breakfast.  or Lunch.  or Dinner.  Man, whatever it is. We're purists when it comes to what we can eat for breakfast. We don't have food that's usually designated for lunch/dinner for breakfast. But for some reason, we let our typical breakfast choices bleed into lunch meals, or on our dinner plate. It's strange, really, but happens more than occasionally.  I'm sure there's a special law in the universe deeming what you can/should eat for these meals. But we completely ignore it when lunch and dinner come around. Why? I think one of our rules is better: Eat what you have in your house. Seems pretty straight forward to me. Why make an entirely new meal, if I have ingredients that need to be used up in the fridge, on my counter, or in my cupboards? I think it's kind of fun, actually. I love watching Chopped on the Food Network, and I think it's really fun pretending I'm on the show when I'm in the kitchen. The in...

Hello my amazing readers, Apparently this little blog of mine has been selected as a finalist in the "Top 10 Food Bloggers of 2013" contest, and they're going purely on votes as to who will come out on top. I'm absolutely honored and grateful - If you have a second, and I promise I rarely ask my readers for anything, it would be amazing if you could click on the link below, and give my blog a thumbs up for a vote! I'm competing against people who have amazing and beautiful blogs, but their following is a bit intimidating. A huge thank-you to those who have already voted for me. You are amazing. Here's the link to the website, and THANK YOU for your vote! ~ Blondie

  It was a lazy and very snowy Saturday afternoon. Ryan had just come home from playing a couple basketball games. The Manchild and I were cuddled up in sweatpants, hoodies, and blankets in front of one of his favorite movies. We had nowhere we needed to be, and nothing we really needed to do. I love days like this. Sometimes I feel like we get to relax more on our Saturday afternoons versus our Sundays. (seems a little backwards, if you ask me). Our Sundays usually end up pretty jam packed with meetings, visits, and everything else. So these days, we try to relax and soak in our uninterrupted family time together, while we can. We also had a pile of tomatoes in our fridge calling our names. I put the little Manchild down for his nap, and started chopping up those juicy rounds. Bruschetta seems more like a mid-to-late summer appetizer to serve on our table, but I didn't mind. The vine-on tomatoes were wonderfully ripe, and I was so excited to use our multi-grain baguette (ve...

Ever feel like you have to get your "fix" of something? Usually this refers to a devilishly sweet treat or something wonderfully salty. I think it's possible to need your "fix" for something healthy. For me, though, when the weekend rolls around, I crave nothing else but that sweet and juice pork barbacoa from Cafe Rio.    It's divine. And could probably fill you up for a couple days in one sitting.  It calls to me, and I'd willingly go towards that call every weekend if I could, but the sound of our bank account screams louder with reason. So I do what I've done in many times past: I make the dang thing in my own kitchen.  The beauty of Pinterest, and the food blogging community, is that there are already a bunch of copycat recipe out there to chose from - especially with Cafe Rio-inspired dishes. So all it took during "grocery-list-making-day" (Thursday of each week) was a quick search - and immediately I was staring at a t...