aka Four Thieves Gone cake
Patterned cake rolls are fun any time of year, but are especially welcome at the holiday table. This one is filled with creamy chocolate peanut butter frosting. Gluten-free and vegan.
These blueberry bliss bars are soft and sweet and nutty. In the classic lazy baker method, they come together in a single bowl. GF, vegan, (paleo, I think) but no one has to know. Shhhh. Don’t think. Just bake.
A few months ago, y’all might recall I post a recipe for Simon Snow’s Sour Cherry Scones. These blueberry bliss bars are the pastry genesis of that recipe.
Allow me to explain.
(or simply scroll past the explanation to the recipe. I don’t blame ya)
Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl is one of my favorite comfort books. I read it all the time, even if it’s just a bit here and a chapter there. Rowell’s Carry On, Simon came out of Fangirl (sort of). The fangirl in Fangirl snacked on blueberry bliss bars while writing Simon Snow fanfiction. Fanfiction Simon snacked on sour cherry scones. So blueberry bliss bars churned out the writing that churned out the scones.
Are you still with me?
Good. That explanation was complicated, but these bars are simple. One bowl kinda simple. Fewer dishes kinda simple. Your nana-made-it-with-a-lot-of-love kinda simple.
The bars are soft and sweet and nutty and melt magically in your mouth. If you adore a good blueberry muffin, you’ll love these.
They are made with almond flour. Almond flour is an occasional ingredient for me, as opposed to a regular ingredient. I love the taste (my mom says that almond flour makes everything fantastic), but it’s too pricey and rich for everyday use.
Books, however, are always cause for celebration.
Like warmer weather, and rain, and wildflowers and hot sweaty summers and almost being DONE with school. I still I have to take my Boards this summer, but for now, I’m ignoring my overpriced test prep texts in favor of other literature. Clearly.
Speaking of little bits of bliss, I still can’t get over Chewbacca lady. 💗
What small joys do you celebrate?
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This gingerbread almost didn’t happen. I made it so many times and it kept failing on me, and I was about to give up. Aw heck. But this final result made it all worth it — moist and spicy and sweet. Soft, toothsome. It’s a gingerbread dream.
I’d found a little bag of mini cookie cutters at the flea market and I bought them on a whim with no real plans for them. There was a gingerdude somewhere in there too, but I lost him. I’m sure he’ll turn up when I’m looking for something else. Still — Apatosaurus cookie cutter. 🐪
yes, i realize that is a camel emoji, but i’m pretty sure there’s no dino emoji. so squint and pretend the camel is a dinosaur.
This gingerbread is so very easy. It starts with a basic homemade apple sauce, and then you just throw in some molasses and ginger and other sweet things. I realized after I put it in the oven that I hadn’t put any oil in (which the other recipes did have). So no extra oil, yay! But it does have quite a bit of added sugar. Legal addictive substances, yay!
Speaking of substances, this was also supposed to have rum in it, but I went through all of the rum on the trial runs of this. Part of the rum went into the apple gingerbread, and part of the rum went me. Rum can soothe many a kitchen disaster, but it can also cause them.
While I’m on the topic of booze, I just realized it’s legal to sell diluted spirits here. Whhhhattt! That’s no fun. If I’m spending the money on it, I want whatever percentage it left the distillery at. I’m already a cheap date (two drinks and I’m done) so I don’t think it’s a lot of ask for, right? Now I have to be a label hawk on my booze too. Who’s idea was this? Probably some tax driven thing or what not.
I guess this cake is like a good spiced rum, even though it ended up not having any rum in it. It’s full flavored, deep and dark and satisfying. It’s just the thing to bring to your ugly sweater party.
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Although I mention two brand names in this recipe, this is not sponsored content. I did receive a free box of Rodelle goodies as part of a giveaway.
It’s been so long since I’ve made sugar cookies. I’m not talking about since last Christmas or the Christmas before that. The last time I made sugar cookies, I was in college and took a historic costume class, and I was giving a presentation on Marie Antoinette’s personal style. I made cookies in the shape of the Dauphine’s hair to hand out during my talk. I don’t know why I chose her hair, but then again, I don’t know why I chose to be a history major. I don’t know why it’s been so long since I’ve made sugar cookies!
Luckily, these sugar cookies really make up for that lapse. How good were they? Baked at 2 pm and gone by 6. I brought them to dinner at Jason’s parents’ house, even though the supply was already pretty decimated by the time we got there (not my doing, btw).
Anyways, everyone ate them up. Even my brother in law, who told me that he “wouldn’t have tried them before hand if he’d known they were gluten free and vegan, and that he couldn’t even tell.” That reminded me of this Onion article, so I tried to avoid eye contact when he said that. Please read the article, it’s hilarious.
I think the best part about them was when my little nephew’s face lit up after having a bite. Making people happy with food is a pretty wonderful feeling, don’t you think?
Speaking of making people happy, my mom was peering over my shoulder the whole time I was making these, and may have mentioned one or two or three times that she doesn’t like the new blog name. I thought that I might as well explain it to y’all.
It comes from a case of intentionally misunderstood lyrics. As in “we know they’re singing this, but it sounds like they’re singing this, and it’s funnier this way.” Lonely Starbucks Lovers.
The opening lines to the Avett Brothers song Laundry Room are “don’t push me out.” If you don’t know them, Google the live version, not the studio version, please. Avett fans know that the boys absolutely adore cats, which is why don’t push meow is an amusing alternate lyric. Sometimes we all need an amusing alternate version to life, so I thought this was a pretty good blog name. *shrugs
Of course, you don’t need an alternate version to anything when you have a sugar cookie in your hand. These are nutty and a tiny bit under-sweet. I made them under-sweet on purpose because I don’t like a super sweet cookie and then super sweet frosting on top…and I knew I wanted the frosting to be really sweet. The sticky finger kind of sweet, the sugar coma on a Sunday morning syrup kind of sweet. This frosting tastes exactly like the kind of goo that comes on cinnamon rolls. Which is kind of making me wish they weren’t all gone. Oh well, guess I’ll just have to make more of them. Darn.
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adapted from Ethel’s Sugar Cookies in the classic Betty Crocker Cooky Book
this is not sponsored content, I just like Bob’s 1 to 1 mix.
Lately Jason has been asking me to “blog him up some chili.” When you ask like that, babe, how can I say no? eye roll. Making people happy with food is one of my weak spots and he knows it.
What he doesn’t know (what he didn’t know as he gobbled it up and asked for seconds) is how many good things are in this chili. Little grape tomatoes, and big earthy carrots, acorn squash, corn, tomatillos and avocado and jalapeno; purple potatoes. You practically have the entire spectrum here. Sorry blue.
My mom used to say that the more color you have on your plate, the healthier it is. I’m sure this rule is too simple to be totally true, but it’s also too simple to be false. It just plain common sense. Which means that this chili is full of stuff you want to put in your body.
The base is tomatillos, so you get that amazing green chili/salsa verde flavor. Talk about craveable. I like chili that I can chew, so I cut my carrots in big chunks. It probably makes the cooking time just a little longer, but when it comes to chili, you kind of want a longer cooking time (still under an hour). It gives all the flavors time to melt into one another and get snug. Deep. Rich. Spicy.
I might of had a few corn chips on the side. It’s a chili rule, right? You have chili, you must have chips. And I don’t feel bad about it, one little bit. I’m not one to justify I-had-something-healthy-so-I-can-have-something-naughty. I had the corn chips because I plain old felt like it. Because, like I said, I like to make people happy with food. And one of those people is me. 
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It’s apple time!
I’m sure you’ve been seeing lots of apple donut recipes lately. There’ s a reason for that, you know. Apple donuts are classic. One of the things defines a classic (recipe, song, outfit, story et al) is that you can spin it many different ways and yet it remains timeless.
These are made with oat flour and fresh apple sauce and dates. I’m in love with the apple glaze here — sweet and sticky, a perfect compliment to the gentle walnut crunch.
I’m including the apple sauce recipe, not because I think you’re a moron who doesn’t know how to make apple sauce. I know you can make sauce. But everyone’s ideal apple sauce is different – I normally like mine spicy and chunky, eaten cold with yogurt – so I’m just sharing what works best for this particular donut.
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I had a pretty wonderful weekend. It was rather busy, but a lot of wedding things that are finished, so I felt rather relaxed. I worked a lot and ran a lot and didn’t think about the wedding at all. I’m mad for March Madness, so while BGE and I were living it up watching basketball, I made these pies. I have hard time just sitting and watching sports, but I enjoy watching sports while doing other things.
Let me tell you about these little guys. First, they’re vegan and gluten free. Second, they have booze in them – hurray! And best of all, they’re double crusted, which delights me. I’m such a chocolate girl, but I have to say that the real star here is the bottom peanut butter crust. It’s salty and crunchy and I could eat just this crust and still be happy. In fact, after I made these, a made a few crusts so I could eat them bare.
I’ve always had an issue with banana-based ice cream, because I feel that no matter what you do to it, it still tastes like bananas. That’s not a problem in this dessert, because it’s supposed to taste like bananas. Slightly boozy bananas. And yes, I checked to make sure the rum I used was vegan.
The only hard part was, I made these on Saturday night, and it rained all day Sunday, so I couldn’t eat the pies because I wasn’t able to photograph them until today. I work weekends, so I usually have Mondays off (yes, that’s as good as it sounds). It was so nice and sunny for pictures, I only wish I could have done these pies justice. I’m still working on making food look as good as it tastes.
Life is good.
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For best taste and texture, let these warm up a little bit after you take them out of the freezer. What's five more minutes?
If there’s one thing that I’m infamously bad at, it’s time management. I have a huge calendar right by the apartment door and I have to write stuff in big letters or else I’ll forget about it. And don’t get me started on my poor, abused daily planner.
The wedding is less than three months away and there’s still so much to do. My aunt, who is pretty much a wedding expert, has this huge list for us and we’re trying to make sure everything gets done on time. We have all the big stuff taken care of, but we’re trying to nail down the details. Honey, I really don’t care what your dad wears. No, mom, I still haven’t found comfortable shoes yet.
Aaaaand the lady who sold me my dress assured me that there would be cloth leftover from hemming to make me some sleeves and there isn’t. So I might not have sleeves, which I had my heart set on. Plus, I’m going back to school and classes start two days after the wedding. So I have to get everything all set for that too.
All this wouldn’t be a problem if I weren’t so terrible at planning. (Why am I still writing, there are other things I should be doing right now.)
Luckily, this pie comes together lickety-split.
Mix, bake, mix, pour, refrigerate. DONE.
Now excuse me while I go find a mini pizza box to put the rings in. We’re having the ring bearer carry that instead of a pillow, as an ode to BGE’s pizza worship. Thanks to Jocelyn over at Inside Bru Crew Life for the idea!
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There is so much about this salad that makes me happy.
It has beets. Awesome, awesome beets, which have been proven to improve athletic performance and recovery.
It as a creamy, sliced-just-as-it-was-ripe avocado.
Ok, the grapefruit I threw in because the two blood oranges I brought home from the store were kinda disappointing.
But best of all, it has my favorite salad dressing of all time. You probably can’t even call it a dressing. There’s no prep work. It’s just lemon, chili, and salt. It’s a super classic combination that goes well on just about ever fruit or veggie or root that you could ever pick.
I wanted some jicama for this too, but I’m kind of glad I couldn’t find any because this turned out so good just the way it is. I’m even glad that the blood oranges were bad because this grapefruit was bursting with flavor….you know how sometimes you can get the bland, disappointing ones? Not this. What’s even better is that I usually get bad photo luck on my day off and get stuck with a cloud cover. But the sky was bright and waiting for spring.
It’s probably kind of silly to get this happy about a salad, where would be be without the everyday little things that bring us joy?
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A few years ago, I was at a diner having brunch with my family. My aunt offered me her leftover hash browns, and I shrugged. Ok. As she passed the plate over, she gave me a sheepish look. “I only ordered them because I like the crispy crust,” she explained.
I looked down at the potatoes. All the crust had definitely been picked off, showing the pasty tubers below. They were pale. There might have been an onion in there somewhere. But they definitely didn’t look or sound good anymore.
And I realized my aunt was right. She was the kind of person who was right about pretty much everything, and hash browns were no exception.
The best part of the hash brown is the crust. So we need a hash brown that is all crust, and these potatoes are nothing but crust. Well, there’s a little kale in there too, but what you won’t find are sad, slimy, undercooked hash brown middles. (Oh, dear please don’t let me have offended the people who like hash brown middles. We’re still pals, right?)
Serve these hot, with a side of sunny side up eggs and a big glass of freshly squeezed juice. We had them as breakfast-for-dinner. There was some leftover sauce and I had it the next morning, mashed up with a hard-boiled egg before work. I’m pretty sure this sauce would be a perfect sandwich spread, or a pasta sauce, or, even a dip. That means you’d be dipping veggies in more veggies, which is a super healthy way to kick off the weekend. And earns you lots of chocolate.
Not that you need an excuse to eat chocolate. ♥
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