Mocha Truffles

Yum. Yum. Yum. Time consuming, but easy. And yum. Bonus - they freeze well. Bummer - they end up being expensive because with truffles, the quality of the chocolate matters. But, they are great for gifts and the recipe is a keeper.

I got the recipe off of Pinterest.

Chocolate Pretzel Peanut Butter Balls

I pinned this recipe onto Pinterest. And then immediately went to make them. Here's what I love:

* it was a super easy recipe with things you have in your pantry (except maybe the pretzels, but I have kids so we had them)
* it was a great recipe for kids to help with
* pretzels, chocolate, and peanut butter - can those ever go wrong?
* pretty - they were actually very pretty once made

Here's what I didn't love:

Baklava

I love baklava. Really, I love anything Greek. Kalalmata olives, feta cheese, hummus, spanakopita. I've never made baklava before....it scares me. Not the actual baklava...the phyllo dough. It's crazy stuff.  And since I stay away from things that scare me, making baklava has always been off the table (catch the pun?!?). Well, I faced my fear and made it. It turned out perfect. This recipe is very lemony, which as my husband pointed out, it great to cut the super sweetness of the honey.

And while it's a great recipe, I won't be putting it in my book. Because phyllo dough is still scary.

Here's the recipe I used. 

Pumpkin Scones with Double Icing

Pumpkin. Double Icing. Can those things be bad? No, they cannot. Goodbye Starbucks, hello homemade. This recipe is a keeper for sure. My only tip in making these: they are sharable. Be sure to have someone near you to enjoy them with. And have some coffee.

Marshmallow Brownies

Marshmallows. Nuts. Brownies. Should be a great recipe, right? Not so much. I don't really like nuts in my brownies, so that was my first mistake. I should have followed my gut and left them out.

Second mistake: pan size. It called for a 9 by 9 pan. I have an 8 by 8. I figured it'd be close enough. Wrong. I baked the brownies according to the directions. Then I added the marshmallows and baked it a little more. It looked beautiful. Then I cut into it and the brownies were still pretty much raw. So, I had to bake it more, but then the marshmallows burned.

I know what you're thinking: "It's not the recipe's fault that you screwed it up." No, it's not. But I was so mad that I still threw away the recipe.

Chocolate Cake in a Mug

My girls asked for some quality "mommy-daughter" time today. Just me, Morgan, and Ava. The babies are supposed to be sleeping.

I asked if they wanted to bake something. As soon as I asked, I regretted it. Because sugar junkies that they are, they will say yes. And as little as they are, my kitchen will get trashed.

So, I tried a recipe that contains the mess to a tablespoon and a mug. Here are the reviews:

Morgan: It's ok. Not sweet enough. (she didn't mix up her white chocolate chips well enough, so the top of the cake didn't have any.)

Ava: Good. (Ava doesn't have such a refined palate - stuff is either good or bad.)

Me: Spongy, yet dense. One dimensional taste. Not great cake. Not even good cake. BUT it contained the mess in my kitchen to one mug, the kids did it all by themselves, and I got to spend precious time with my chocolate addicted girls. Overall, I'm keeping this recipe. Not because it was great cake (I'll never make it for me). But because it contains the mess and makes memories.

Looks good though. Too bad it wasn't.

Chocolate Kahlua Cake

I had a special birthday party to go to today. And so I wanted to make a special cake. For those who know me, nothing says "special" to me like coffee and chocolate. So I perused through my recipe notebook to find something good.

One look at this:

And I went weak in the knees.So, I made it.

This cake was way too time consuming. It took all afternoon to make it. And I cut corners like crazy. It said to let the cake cool completely before cutting it in half. Yeah, I didn't do that. I just didn't have the time. I didn't use cake flour, just regular all purpose. And even if the cake tasted better than it did, it's just not worth taking all day to make.


Here's how it turned out:

Yes, it looks very different from the picture above. And not just I-made-my-own-chocolate-covered-coffee-beans-because-i'm-too-cheap-to-spend-all-that-money kind of different. The frosting looked different. The cake wasn't as pretty. And I'm pretty sure mine didn't taste as good as the other one either.

The verdict: I'm tossing the recipe.

Blueberry Streusal Coffee Cake

My favorite part about this recipe is the guy holding a knife and onion.

Yum. Yum. Yum. When a recipe calls for almost 2 cups of sugar and 2 sticks of butter...can it ever be a bad recipe?!

I got this years ago from a magazine. Whenever I've gone to make a new dessert, it's almost always chocolate. So this one has been getting the shaft for a while now. However, July is National Blueberry Month and as a part of home school curriculum, we made this to celebrate.

Here's how it looked after baking:

And yes, we couldn't even wait to take a picture before we cut into it.

And up close yummyness:

The recipe is a keeper.

Blueberry Crisp

This past week, my family and I went blueberry picking. We had a delightful time and brought back 2 gallons of blueberries. We've made blueberry jam, eaten blueberries every day, frozen tons, and made this crisp. It's a new recipe (obviously, or it wouldn't be on this blog!) and it's one that will get tossed in the trash.

Now, to be fair - I used whole wheat instead of white flour. I cut the sugar in half and cut the butter in half. But even with the flour change and 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 stick of butter, this should have been better. The recipe called for corn meal mixed in the topping...which I thought sounded good, but in reality was gritty and not good.

Good thing I have a lot more blueberries to make a better one.