• Cherry pie

    Anyone who has ever met me — and probably many who haven’t — know that I was not a fan of Jacksonville, N.C. One of the main problems I had with J-actionville was the lack of decent grocery stores. I once drove to four different stores to get enough cherries to bake Toby a cherry […]

  • Fear the (chocolate) goat

    Tomorrow, (more than) a boatload of midshipmen will graduate from the Naval Academy and sail off into the sunset… or at least into the Navy and Marine Corps. That clearly calls for cookies. The Naval Academy’s mascot is Bill the Goat, so I’ve been looking for a goat cookie cutter for ages. I finally found […]

  • Scones

    Between reading “Brideshead Revisited” (which is lovely, by the way) and watching (kinda) the royal wedding… I have been craving scones for quite a while. But most store- and coffee-shop-bought scones are better for hammering nails or throwing at people you don’t like than for eating, so I wanted to make my own. I am […]

  • Spaghetti alla Bon Appetit

    As you might imagine, I was all about Bon Appetit’s May “Italy” issue. Especially the pasta al pomodoro on the cover and the “How to Make Perfect Pasta” tutorial. Now, I am pretty sure this is what the cover says is “the simplest, silkiest sauce you’ll ever make.” I disagree. It isn’t difficult, and it […]

  • Penguin encounter!

    We recently went to Northern Kentucky to visit Toby’s mom and see his grandmother be named one of the 2010 Cincinnati Women of the Year. It also happened to be Easter, so my parents came down from Detroit. We all decided to go to the Newport Aquarium (just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati). And […]

  • Motocakes (chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting)

    If you read my post about the parties last week at our house, I’m sure you were wondering what I made for dessert. Because there is ALWAYS dessert. Well, I made these: And yes, those are EGAs on top. That is Eagle, Globe and Anchor. As in, the emblem of the Marine Corps. I called […]

  • Cinco de Mayo

    I know it’s only Tres de Mayo, but I wanted to talk about Cinco de Mayo food. I had a minor (OK, major) freak out this weekend when I learned that 20 midshipmen were coming to our house for dinner Monday, and another 15 are coming tomorrow night. But I realized that the easiest (and […]

  • Tropical carrot cake cupcakes

    Sorry I haven’t posted in a while; I was out of town. But I wanted to share what I baked for Easter/my dad’s birthday. We usually have coconut cake for Easter, but this year I wanted to something a little more bunnylicious. Carrot cake was a no-brainer. You may notice these photos were taken in […]

  • Wondershadow

    I’ve been doing a whole lot more eating than shopping and swimming lately. But I did want to share some awesome eyeshadow sets I picked up a while back. As anyone who read my Watchmen review knows, I am not exactly a big comic book person. (Although I do have a Batman pillowcase… but that’s […]

  • Peepcake!

    I love Peeps. I’m sure that isn’t surprising, given that I love marshmallows, candy corn and Red Vines. My friend Aaren thinks Peeps are disgusting (I await her comments below) and gave me a super-cute Peep-bunny Easter basket one year because she said I was the only person on Earth who likes them. But she’s […]