strawberry dutch baby

i've spent the last five days and nights alone with the baby while jason and winn were out of town, visiting grandma. like most parents, i had visions of all the things i would get done with only one child under my feet - and one that cannot yet talk! or run! or break things! visions of clothes shopping. visions of painting the now guest room in our house as a surprise to my husband when he comes home today (surprise! i didn't do it). visions of putting a sizable dent in my stack of magazines, some of which date back to 2013. visions of cooking - oh the cooking! you don't even want to see my wish list for the last two days. and i was going to do all of this plus get back on track with my half marathon training by running for an hour or so each day.

secret recipe club: breakfast pizza two ways

i can't believe that my little butterball's first birthday is about six weeks away. after planning two parties for his older brother, i've learned a few things about kids' parties - first birthday parties are really for parents & older siblings to get together and play, no one will blink an eye or miss a beat if you don't have a theme, as long as there's good food & things to keep kids busy, people will be happy. oh and most importantly, schedule around nap time. both for your kids and theirs. otherwise, either no one will come, they'll come late, or you'll be stuck with a bunch of grumpy children, including your own.

which brings me to this year's great idea: a saturday morning birthday party. parents and kids can come, eat some brunch, let their kids run around until they're tired enough for nap, and have the rest of the day to do whatever it is they need to get done. and really, is there anything better than brunch food?!

secret recipe club: old fashioned sour cream donuts

a couple months ago - november 22, to be exact - i was craving a good donut so badly that the next morning, we packed up the kids and headed to downtown rochester for a half dozen. we foolishly thought we would have leftovers. needless to say, my favorite was the old fashioned sour cream donut. like most great foods, i wanted to make them myself at home and immediately tucked the idea in the back of my mind.

whole wheat banana bread scones

last august we packed up the kids and drove a few hours to pennsylvania where we met up with my side of the family for a good old fashioned camping trip. while the weather was awful - coats & long pants were required wear, like a typical camping trip when i was a child, and it poured rain for a day or two - we had a great time. the kids laughed and played and we adults snuck sips of our "juice", hoping not to get kicked out for drinking adult beverages. it was perfect.

i made a double batch of these scones for the occasion. they came in handy on the car ride down, especially with a two year old scone lover in tow. i didn't mind him eating them multiple times a day since they are full of whole wheat flour, yogurt, and bananas.

bacon cheddar waffles with apples

for the last couple weeks, i've been in a dinner making rut. the time crunch between the time we get home from work & the time the kids need to be in bed seems to be getting smaller and smaller, meaning the time we have to actually cook dinner is also getting smaller. while some may disagree, one of our newest favorites has been waffles for dinner. they're easy to make, infinitely adaptable, and toddlers love them - ours now asks for them a couple nights a week. not to mention jason was head over heels with this combo - bacon + cheddar always wins in our house.

apple butter crumb muffins

last month we took the boys apple picking. an hour and a couple meltdowns later, we left with about 30 pounds of apples. while a few were destined for other things, the overwhelming majority were processed into one of a few perfect foods - unsweetened apple sauce. i canned somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 pints, hopefully enough to last until next year. it's hard to keep this house in applesauce, with a toddler gobbling it up and his almost seven month old brother finally onto solid foods. 

midway through my applesauce making foray, i decided to sacrifice a few cups and turn it into apple butter. in our house, we enjoy jams and fruit butters a couple ways: slathered onto homemade scones, a top crackers spread with peanut butter, and mixed into muffins.

secret recipe club: double chocolate zucchini muffins with chocolate butter

this year's garden is puny compared to years' past. a couple tomato plants, started from seed by my grandfather, a couple cucumber plants that aren't doing so well, and a big pot of basil. that's it. no peas, no green beans, no corn, no zucchinis. while i was digging through our deep freezer i noticed one last bag of shredded zucchini leftover from last year's bumper crop and quickly decided i'd try to healthify (is that a word?!) my next baked good with zucchini. once these were warm out of the oven, the only thing they need - besides a cup of hot coffee - is a slather of butter. and if we're going to have butter, why not make it chocolate flavored?!

glazed donut muffins

we've been pretty lucky with winn. while the first couple months were rough - he was and still is most days, as a friend of ours has coined the term for her son, an 'ultimate sleep fighter' - once we got past them, he sleeps a solid 12 hours every night and very rarely wakes up. which is why it almost killed the two of us a couple weeks ago when he decided, for a reason we still don't know, to wake up and be generally miserable every two hours. all. night. long. and then be up for the day around 5:00. a full two and a half hours earlier than usual.

gingerbread deep dish apple pancake

a couple saturday mornings ago i woke up wanting to bake something other than scones. while perusing the refrigerator i remembered a couple lonely apples sitting in the crisper and decided to spice up one of my standbys: deep dish apple pancake.

peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal scones

yes, scones, again. for the second time in just as many weeks, we're baking up a pan of scones. mostly because winn keeps asking for them. mostly because nothing goes better with a hot cup of coffee than a freshly baked scone. and mostly because homemade scones are the best kind.

egg & brie sandwich

my favorite kind of meals are those that are good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner; can be made with about five ingredients, and can be on the table in less than 30 minutes. for me, it was a delicious sunday brunch, when i just happened to have leftover bread, lettuce and tomatoes from a salad earlier in the week, and a small hunk of brie. delicious.

carrot cake scones with honey pecan butter

for the four mornings after i made these scones, the first words out of my 18 month old son's mouth in the morning were "eat scone". not "morning" or "mama" or even "hi". eat scone. needless to say he was not happy on the fifth morning when i told them they were gone and he'd have to have eggs instead.

pasta with roasted tomatoes and fried eggs

last weekend i had a handful of roasted tomatoes, baby spinach, and a small piece of brie leftover from sandwiches i made for new years eve. i cooked up the remnants of a box of fusilli, tossed the hot pasta with the brie, spinach, and tomatoes, and topped the whole mess with two runny fried eggs. it was the best lunch i've had in a long time.

leek and mushroom frittata

i love love love frittatas. they're easy to make, you can use whatever combination of meat, cheese, and vegetables that you like, there are always leftovers that reheat beautifully, and they can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner. this version uses two of my favorites - sauteed leeks and mushrooms - paired with fontina cheese. if you absolutely have to have meat, top the frittata with chopped crispy bacon before it goes into the oven. the salty bacon goes great with the creamy vegetables and cheese.

lemon glazed blueberry scones

ugh. that's how i feel about the last month. first i was sick for a weekend. then, later that week, the baby got sick. which meant i soon got sick and so did jason. it was the sickest we've been in a very long time and spent the whole next week eating saltines for dinner. it was rough.

whole wheat vanilla scones

last thursday morning i woke up craving a scone. more specifically, i craved a scone that i could slather with homemade peach butter i completely forgot about until i stumbled on a few jars in the basement while getting jarred apples for the baby the night before. i was so dead set on scones that after i got us up and ready for the day, i plunked him and a few toys in his high chair in the kitchen next to me. much to my surprise, in the 15 minutes or so it took me to whip these and coffee together, he never touched a single toy. instead, his eyes moved from me, to whatever ingredient i had in my hand, to the cupboard i opened. he was fascinated. and it made my scones a heck of a lot easier.

cook's illustrated's blueberry muffins

as soon as my mom mentioned going blueberry picking last week, i knew one of the first things i'd make is blueberry muffins, as they're jason's absolute favorite. sure enough, first thing the very next morning i was googling the best blueberry muffin recipe. i have been pleased with cook's illustrated's baked goods in the past, so i knew they were a good place to start. and after how relatively quickly and simply these came together and how delicious they were, they're my - and jason's - new favorite muffin.

strawberry vanilla scones

i've professed my love of scones many times before, so i'll keep this one short and sweet. these scones combine two of my favorites - strawberry and vanilla. and just like tuesday's strawberry cupcakes were a great way to use up super ripe berries, so are these scones. they bake up perfectly sweet, moist, and full of vanilla flavor.

coconut banana bread

it's no surprise that i've been eating a heck of a lot of coconut for the last few months. and that my preferred form of coconut is found in baked sweets - dredged donuts, nanaimo bars, coconut lime scones, homemade samoa cookies i devoured last week and haven't gotten to post yet - and this banana bread, made even sweeter and a bit more tropical with the addition of shredded sweetened coconut.

mexican corn cake with egg & beans

we demolished the pork with our mexican corn cakes, leaving two lonely cakes left. the morning after we had them for dinner, i took a few other leftovers - spicy black beans, half an avocado, and queso fresco - piled them high on top of a corn cake and topped it with a runny over easy egg. it was one of the best breakfasts i've had in a long time. the only think that could have made it better? bacon.