Crunchy, chocolatey, and made with just FIVE ingredients. Even better: it’s no-bake a super easy to make. Winning! Golden Grahams Bars. Plain and simple. Like, as in, let’s get retro and go back to making bars from a box of cereal because HONESTLY IT’S JUST SO GOOD. Do you mind? I am going to go full throwback retro dessert bar on you today. I have had a MAJOR sweet tooth in the last few weeks as you might remember from this Mocha Peanut Butter Pie and these Raspberry Crumble Bars and last week’s Cookie Dough Energy Bites which are kind of dessert masquerading as health food balls. It’s the baby, I think, right? I can put this on her. Either …

Read more

This post is sponsored by Wholesome! In this recipe, their organic brown sugar and their organic powdered sugar totally shine. 👌 The Christmas tea ring returns! And oh my gosh, is she a beautiful lady or what?! I can’t even, you guys. I MADE THAT. 🏆 I baked that Christmas tea ring right in my very own kitchen. We are talking about a homemade brioche stuffed it with a cream cheese raspberry filling and drizzled with the simplest of powdered sugar glaze type of situation. HELLO. Those of you who have been around this blog since Christmas of 2013 might remember the beloved, disastrous, embarrassing daughter-in-law moments of years gone by. Exhibit A in case you need a refresher. So maybe I am …

Read more

This post is brought to you by Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner on behalf of the Beef Checkoff. All opinions are my own. Helloooooo, summer! This is it. This is summer living. We are in the thick of it – those hot days when the sun doesn’t set until 9pm, and those breezy, warm summer nights that make you feel like you’d be a fool to not just permanently live outside – and these rockin’ chimichurri steak tacos are showing up at exactly the right time. The charred tortilla around that juicy, flavorful beef would almost be enough in and of itself, but then we have the tangy kick from the chimichurri, the salty cotija and fresh cilantro on top, …

Read more

Sweet juicy mango sitting on my kitchen counter, I love you. Sadly, so do the neighborhood ants. But that won’t stop me from buying, bleaching (I’ll tell you about it later), slicing, slurping, eating, and loving you every single day that I live in Cebu. I can’t. get. enough. As much as this new place is growing on me, Cebu it is not the kind of place that screams “fresh produce”. Try more like “fried chicken” and “exhaust”. I take the word luscious pretty seriously. And yes, right smack dab in the middle of this urban chaos are what am I going to call the world’s most luscious mangos. I don’t know how that all works out, but I like …

Read more

I’ve been hot on the Nutella trail for a while now. Like, since high school. Like, since Bjork (my highschoolboyfriendnowhusband) casually mentioned this super good chocolate spread that he put on toast, and what, I hadn’t heard of it? And then one fateful day I went to his house and watched him spread that creamy chocolate love on toasted bread. Can you say love at first sight? He held the keys to my heart right then and there. In more recent memory…Nutella has entered my life in other ways. For example, by the heaping spoonful. In my oatmeal. With fruit. On pancakes. And as of last week, in my all-time favorite dessert bars: scotcheroos. So what was once a golden-peanut-butter-butterscotchy delicacy is now also… super-chocolatey. And hazelnutty. But …

Read more

Prepare to have your mouth hugged by this creamy, tangy, spicy jalapeño ranch. In addition to guiding the wonder that is homemade jalapeño ranch straight into your arms today, I am also telling you how much you will enjoy pouring jalapeño ranch (❤) over a garden treasure trove of vegetables arranged in a little Rainbow Veggie Bowl. Names are almost not even worth discussing since Rainbow Veggie Bowls is absolutely the cutest name for a bowl of vegetables ever, but just in case the Rainbow Veggie Bowls brings to mind things like unicorns and My Little Ponies and you’re one of those, like, sensible people who doesn’t like to think about rainbow things, alternative names for this nutrient-packed beautiful food …

Read more

Those little feet ‼️ For about three weeks in June (where did that month go?), Bjork and I had a house full of little friends, little hands, little feet. What?! I know. IT WAS A BIG DEAL. And I’m not even being sarcastic. I alluded to our new guests a few times in random recipe posts last month, because I can’t not write about personal stuff when I am supposed to be writing about food. 💅🏽 But I never really explained what that was or how it all went down. I intended to publish this story + reflections post right after the kids left at the end of the month, before we took off for New Orleans. But then life happened, including …

Read more

First things first: IT’S FRIDAY. Do you love Fridays or what?! Gee whiz gosh golly gee, I can’t get enough of them. I still work all weekend (bloggity blogga), but Friday nights are always my most favorite time of the whole week. I have always loved the feeling of working really hard all week and then Friday night knocking on my door and being released from the daily grind for two whole days. Better yet, there’s the anticipation of getting 8-200 hours of sleep. It’s not my best quality, but I have a little bit of a selfish time-hog mentality about Fridays – if we’re hanging out on Friday night or Saturday morning before 11am, you are probably my favorite …

Read more