Easter is always a fun holiday--it’s relaxed, the weather always seems nice, and most importantly there is carrot cake!
The fact that I’m such a carrot cake fan is a little odd considering carrots are not one of my favorite veggies.
I’m a big fan of desserts with apples--if I’m at a restaurant and it has some sort of apple-licious dessert on the menu, you can put good money on the fact that it will soon be in my belly.
With winter in full swing, there have been a plethora of apple pie-inspired desserts at all my local spots and that means I have definitely been having my doctor-recommended apple-a-day.
As the weather warms up you can’t help but think about ice cream.
However, you also can’t help but think about the fact that soon you'll be wearing bikinis and tank tops…oh my!
I’m not a huge baker, so I have found an easy formula to create new recipes that are just plain delicious and highly addictive.
Here it is: take three things you love AND SMASH THEM TOGETHER!!
Today I am 36 weeks pregnant with Little Baby.
This is the point when most women excitedly think about their new baby coming home—and they stress over the imminent labor that is coming and plan for the upcoming months of blissful chaos.
I am doing many of these things; I feel electric with excitement, I am obsessed with this little lady—but I am also consumed with fear.
We lost our first daughter, Willa, at 40 weeks; she was big, strong, perfect. But she passed away. After a traumatic labor, we came home to a quiet house and were forced to drastically readjust our visions of the future.
Now, two years later, I am having an intense case of déjà vu.
I’ve been here before—36 weeks pregnant, waddling around, having everyone and their mother ask when I’m due—but our baby didn’t come home.
Slowly we put her things away; we repacked and stored diapers, carriers, and bottles. And now, here I am blowing the dust off these things and feeling hopeful, but also a little bit like a fool.
My baby is coming home, right?
You might say “of course,” but the only experience we’ve had is one that ended with pictures, a lock of her hair and remembrances of the softness of her cheeks—things that we cherish, but not the lifetime of memories we thought we were promised.
Being pregnant seems to mean two things for me--a love of any task that I can do while fully reclined, and a need for all things sweet.
As I am trying to keep my sugar intake in check, I made a deal with myself to only have sweets if I make them myself, and to try to dip into my candy drawer only occasionally.
The only problem is that suddenly I’ll bake up a couple dozen cookies and there is only one place for them to go--my belly!
So I came up with a cookie recipe that I can feel good about--no matter how many cookies I consume.
The 4th of July is just around the corner and that means fun, frolicking, and most importantly FOOD. Most years I find myself making sweet treats for my niece Lucy, as her birthday falls on the 4th. We all like to gather in Fire Island to celebrate as we sing happy birthday and watch the fire works.
To say Lucy loves dessert is an understatement, so I always try my best to put a smile on her sweet little sugar addicted face and make her some incredible treats. No matter what you are making this July 4th it should be easy, should make people smile and if it happens to also be red white and blue than even better. So here are some of my favorite July 4th recipes that will make your weekend that much more sweet.
Red, White + Blue Sangria by Crista at Peace.Love.Quinoa
Let’s start this 4th of July with fizzy and refreshing white wine sangria's! In this recipe she finishes her sangria off with sparkling water; I think I'm going to skip that part and finish it with some bubbly champagne! The best part about sangria is you can use whatever wine, fruit and juice you like.
“Where have you been?”
“What have you been doing?”
“Why haven't you posted a new recipe?”
These are frequent questions from my readers. And I’d love to tell you all that I've been busy filming my own show, or that I couldn't come to the computer because I was elbow deep in tomato sauce, but the truth is sadly something very different.
At 40 weeks and 1 day pregnant my husband and I lost our little girl. Her heart just stopped, and we don't know why. We never got to hear her voice, or see her smile, or know what she looks like when she first wakes up. We never got to have all those “firsts” that we had excitedly anticipated.
We were ready for her: diapers unpacked, tiny clothes in her dresser and a place for her to rest her head right next to mommy. It was supposed to be the week we brought her home, the week we stumbled our way through parenthood, laughing as we put diapers on backwards and figuring out the difference between a “boppy” and a “breast-friend”.
But that's just not what happened.
NYC can be a lonely place. You might be surrounded by people but it can be hard to make the city feel like home. In my 12+ years in the city I have carved out my own slice of home in the chaos.
Things like a favorite local restaurant, a bartender that knows your drink and a nail place that doesn’t rush you for taking a million hours to choose a shade are all things that help. But let's face it, there is nothing like family to make a place your home.
People tell you all the time that things are easy.
I usually don't believe these people.
It's like when someone tells you to take a class at the gym and they reassure you that it's easy...
But when you can't walk like a normal human being for a week and sitting down makes you grunt a little, you learn to be skeptical.
Today we are going to talk about cute things. Silly cute things. And no, I'm not referring to another YouTube video of a wet cat or a laughing baby...
And no, it's not a picture of two animals that don’t belong together and yet are best friends.
Oh! Like the one where the baby monkey is sleeping with the doggy and he's got his arm around him and you just know they will be BFF's till the end of time!
No!!
I’m talking about something cute…silly cute…that you can eat!
Something that says “hey, look at me” and when you do you think, “well hello, aren’t you beautiful, and precious, and...and...I MUST EAT YOU!!”
I'm talking about the crazy delicious idea of making an apple pie...
wait for it...
keep waiting...
IN AN APPLE!
As a society we like things on a stick, things that are fried and things that are STUFFED!
The idea of something stuffed inside of something else is a simple but exciting idea. It's a mystery and a surprise.
You have something already delicious, like a doughnut, a potato or a turkey and then you take these things to a whole new level. You stuff the doughnut with jelly, load up the potato and then of course there is the ingenious idea of stuffing a turkey with a chicken and a duck!
You have made something new! You have taken something and not just made it the best it can be, but even better. You have STUFFED IT!!
Now let's talk about cookies. We all like cookies and many times I judge my cookies like I do my books...by its cover of course.
I look at the outside, I see if it's thick or thin, smooth or bumpy. And far before I bite into it I have made a certain judgement about this cookie.
Desserts don’t have to be complicated...Desserts just have to be delicious!
I'm well aware that there is a proper way to make fudge. You bring the sugar to a very specific temperature and if you’re lucky you create this amazing silky, creamy, fudgy texture.
The problem? I’m so glad you asked! You see, I'm not always so lucky...
There has been a battle brewing for centuries...
!!!!!!!!!!!! Brownies vs. Blondies !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chocolate lovers everywhere have never truly accepted the Blondie. They look at this non-chocolate cousin of the brownie as the ugly step child of the dessert family.
How dare it walk around with not an ounce of chocolate to its name and think it can be called a real dessert.
Here though, is where I confess my dirty little secret...
I prefer Blondies over Brownies....
(((((((((((((( Audible GASP from the crowd )))))))))))
I'm sorry, so sorry to do this to you, and if you are a chocoholic and feel the need to stop reading this blog, un-subscribe to my youtube channel, un-like me on facebook and stop following my witty 140 character tweets than I understand. I only hope that one day we can be friends again.
Oh and you better stop following me on Instagram and Pinterest too (#I'mSocialMediaAddicted)
To continue to grow and learn in life you must be humble. You must accept that you are probably not an expert in…well…anything. And there is a very good chance that there will always be somebody that knows more than you do on any given subject.
When it comes to cooking I accept that there is more to learn, though I think I have plenty to teach on the subject myself ;)
But, when it comes to baking I will easily take a back seat and allow a real pastry chef to teach me a thing or two.
And so I'm not the least bit ashamed to say that my new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe...is not my own.
When someone comes up with the perfect ratio of sugar to flour, the optimal amount of chocolate chips and a simple but specific method to creating the best cookies you have ever had, well, you just do exactly what they do.
