Just Baking

This morning my six-year-old woke up and was moping around before school, claiming “my tummy hurts.” He wasn’t running a fever, he ate a good breakfast, and was feeling good enough to torment his sisters. We walked up to school, I kissed him good-bye, and all was well. All was well except for the small […]

When I think about tarts, I think about a crazy aunt who often jet-sets off to Paris and brings everyone back exotic gifts that cannot be found anywhere in your hometown. She is always traveling on glamorous adventures, leading a life of glitz, yet always keeps an element of mystery to her life. Her life […]

We lost a friend to cancer yesterday afternoon. Crissy was the wife of one of my husband’s high school best friends. She had a daughter, Gracie, six years ago and then found out just shortly after that she had cancer. Cancer has been a part of her life since then. Crissy fought a very valiant […]

Pie Crusts . . . some cooks swear that lard is the secret key ingredient. Others swear that the secret ingredient that makes their pie crust outstanding is vodka. Me? I just swear . . . not just a little swearing. A big bunch of drunken-sailor swear words come out of my mouth each and […]

One of the most popular recipes on my personal blog, Dine and Dish, is a recipe I posted “way back when”. Back when I was a newbie blogger, I posted a recipe for Oooey Gooey Monkey Bread. In that post, I encouraged people to get messy with their kids. Allow them to use their hands […]

I am a person bounded to my life by circumstances. I was born and raised in a small Kansas town. Altamont, KS was a town of 1,000 people and it really was a great place to grow up. It is the kind of place where, as a kid, we could walk the streets past […]

I am in a major funk. I have no idea what is wrong with me lately, but I just feel like getting back into bed each morning and pulling the covers over my head until winter passes. I’m sick of the snow. I’m sick of the frigid temperatures. I’m sick of the gray and gloomy […]

Flipping through the January 2008 issue of Gourmet magazine (which I LOVED, by the way) I came across a section called “Belles of the Ball” featuring true southern desserts. This section featured a Fresh Coconut Layer Cake, Citrus Pound Cake, Pecan Fig Boubon Cake, Mile-High Chocolate Cake and Dried-Apple Stack Cakes. Every single one of […]

There are some times that I am a little embarrassed to admit that one of my hobbies is food photography. I am not as in to the hobby as some people. I only take a small handful of photos of each of the things that I make and I have yet to really get into […]

I love traditions. My husband cracks up at me because if we do something once, and enjoy it, then I make it a tradition to do that same thing every year! It seems like this time of year we have my made up traditions coming out of the woodwork. One tradition that got its start […]