I’ve got an easy little hack for dressing up a box of brownie mix to make a festive holiday treat! I start with my favorite boxed brownie mix (ghiradelli dark chocolate!) and make the batter as directed on the box. Then I bake the brownies about 3/4 of the way, and then take them out to add my own festive toppings like candy eyes, Reese’s Pieces, halloween sprinkles and candy corn. Then I place them back in the oven for the rest of the cooking time to set the toppings but not fully melt them. It’s one additional quick step to the brownie making process and the result is a fun and spooky dessert for your Halloween celebrations!  read more

If there is one dessert that is essential in our house, it’s a classic Rice Krispy treat! We make them all year round and I’m always thinking of creative ways to dress them up with seasonal flair for the holidays. With Easter coming up, I thought I’d make a batch with my classic recipe and top them some wow-factor — crushed Cadbury mini eggs and cute little carrot sprinkles. They look so colorful and festive, and the chocolate addition on top is a winner for the taste buds. Get the full recipe below! read more

A few months ago I got a real craving for chocolate mousse. I dug around for a recipe, made it for no occasion at all, and whipped up a decadent dark chocolate batch. In the process I realized two things: 1) it’s actually quite simple to make, and 2) it’s SO DARN DELICIOUS. I am in a season of mousse right now and have made it a few more times since, each time better than the next. I thought I’d try my hand at a St. Patrick’s Day inspired version and incorporated Guinness beer into the recipe! I served them in wide champagne coupes for easiest spoon-ability, but consider putting them in beer glasses with extra whipped cream to mimic the look of a that classic Guinness beer with a white foamy top!  Get the festive recipe below:  read more

We are in a stage of toddler-hood where everything and anything must be tied to a seasonal theme. We need decorations on all of our windows that feature the nearest holiday, our Sunday morning pancakes must be in the shape of a holiday icon (bunnies! shamrocks! hearts!), and even our after dinner treats require some seasonal touches. Jane requested St. Patrick’s Day cookies and we made this green M&M cookie recipe together on a recent snowy day. read more

We have a few summer traditions that are absolute essentials for our family and one is particularly tasty: making my Grandma’s homemade blueberry cobbler recipe. The family recipe is in my cookbook’s summer berry chapter, but I still love pulling out the original flour and butter stained index card that my Grandmother wrote the recipe on years ago. To me, each bite tastes like a burst of summer. I was craving it recently and looked in the fridge to see I only had a few blueberries left — not enough to make the recipe. What I did have was some leftover peaches and strawberries from a rosè sangria I had mixed up earlier. So, I did a little experiment and used my base cobbler recipe to mix up a strawberry and peach cobbler. read more

Please note: This post was created in collaboration with Chase Freedom Unlimited. All opinions, images and content are my own.

I have been working on my “be a better baker challenge” in collaboration with my friends at Chase Freedom Unlimited for several months now, and I’m winding down the official challenge but still baking away! This month I decided to tackle an apple pie, for a few reasons. First, I used my cash back credit card to stock up on the most beautiful, seasonal farm stand apples and I needed to make something with them! And second, apple pie is one of the few baked goods that I always felt really comfortable baking. It felt like the perfect time to come full circle, back to the basics, and see how far I’ve come over the past few months with a dish that’s tried and true. read more

Last week Jane and I drove by a cute little local blueberry patch and even though we had a bunch of errands ahead of us, I made an impromptu decision to abandon the to do list and turn in for some blueberry picking. Berry picking is a fixture on my summer bucket list, and such a fun activity to do with toddlers. I love hearing that plunk!plunk! of the blueberries dropping into the metal coffee tin the farm hands out for picking. Jane’s favorite part was darting in between the bushes and yelling “oh mom! I found some!” and my favorite part was soaking up the sunshine and sneaking a few fresh bites from our pail. read more

Please note: This post was created in collaboration with Chase Freedom Unlimited. All opinions, images and content are my own.

I’m checking in today on my “be a better baker challenge” in collaboration with my friends at Chase Freedom Unlimited, and this week I tackled summer desserts: mini angel food cakes with berries and whipped cream. I find one of the issues I’m facing with this baking challenge is finding the motivation to take on complicated recipes. In cooking, I’m always looking for smart shortcuts to save time, cut down on dishes, and get delicious healthy food on the table fast. Shortcuts in baking are a big no-no, so I struggle to take on those harder recipes – the joy of baking is a daunting one! read more

It’s the season of summer barbecues, al fresco family get-togethers, and asking “what can I bring?” when you’re invited to summer soirees. I have a patriotic (and delicious) dessert idea that will hopefully be the answer to that question for all of your warm-weather gatherings: a no-bake cheesecake tart topped with a bounty of fresh, seasonal mixed berries. Here is why this tasty treat is such a winner — no turning on the oven! The whole thing gets made in a few short steps, starting with a crumbly graham cracker crumb crust. A few quick pulses in the food processor and pressing it into the tart pan is all you need to do to get the base of this dessert ready. Then get your electric mixer to do the heavy-lifting on the next step — whip heavy cream with sugar, vanilla, cream cheese and mascarpone for a fluffy and sweet filling that gets poured into the tart crust. Then you chill the whole thing until you’re ready to serve it, and garnish it with colorful sweet berries. Easy, tasty, and it looks like a million bucks! Get the full recipe below:  read more

Please note: This post was created in collaboration with Chase Freedom Unlimited. All opinions, images and content are my own.

It’s been a few weeks since I kicked off my “be a better baker challenge” in collaboration with my friends at Chase Freedom Unlimited, and I’m due for a check-in on my progress! When starting any new goal, I always find the hardest part is just that: getting started! I tend to get caught up in planning and researching and prepping, but kickstarting a goal always works best with action, which means I have to get in the kitchen and get baking! read more