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My brother in law Daniel doesn’t like salad dressing. Can you imagine? I’m not one to drench my salads in dressing, but I feel like I’m going to scrape my throat with bare greens! To each his own, I suppose.When Dan and my sister in law Kate joined us for dinner a few weeks ago, I picked this salad since a dressing was pretty non-existent. Instead, you use juicy oranges and grapefruits and just d
I go through phases when it comes to our snack foods on hand. You can always expect our pantry to have tortilla chips and Wheat Thins or Triscuits, but beyond that it’s usually something homemade, and preferably something on the healthier side. For awhile it was homemade granola bars, either banana nut with cranberries or mocha coconut. After several weeks of bars, I got stuck on my favorite banan
It’s now been over a month since my sister Renatta left St. Louis to go home for the summer. Thanks to constant communication via group text messages and a quick trip home a few weeks ago, not that much has changed, but I do miss having her over for dinner at least once a week. This polenta kale dish was the last meal I made her before her trek home. Her friend Jen came to pick Renatta up from sch
My dad doesn't spend a lot of time in the kitchen, unless he's eating, but the man does make a mean rack of ribs! It's a once every couple of years occasion, but it is always well worth the wait. I have no idea what his techniques are, other than that it is a multi-day process.I'm a little bummed to not be celebrating Father's Day with my dad this weekend, so I decided to do t
1. Last November, my bike was stolen from our garage. We stupidly left the garage open and unattended for a whopping five minutes and someone took the liberty to help themselves to a new set of wheels. To say I was disappointment was an understatement—I love biking around St. Louis and we use it for a form of transportation whenever we can in the summer. Last month I finally replaced m
It happens without fail. Every time I buy eggplant to use in a recipe at home I question why I don’t buy it more often! Though eggplant has only been on my vegetable radar for a few years now, it’s one of my favorites (especially in the form of baba ganoush, which I must make at home sometime soon!). I have several eggplant recipes pulled from magazines and I’m committed to finally making them th
These cookies couldn't be more aptly named. They truly taste exactly like a brownie, but in cookie form. When I served these at community group, we all marveled over the texture. They managed to be light and airy, but not cakey, with a deep, dense chocolate flavor to them. Because I used mostly dark chocolate, these were quite rich! Because I prefer my brownies just underbaked, I decided to pl
Did you know that jalapeños get spicier over time? I did not know this, and didn't think twice about the fact that the jalapeño I used in this recipe was a few weeks ago and starting to get wrinkled. All I knew was that I needed to use it before it's be completely worthless and I'd be throwing it in the trash!It wasn't until I had roasted the vegetables and pureed them in the blen
I get great joy out of making dessert for our community group that meets at our house every week. A large part of my love of food is in sharing it with others, and it never gets old to see my friends gobble up whatever I’ve concocted that week. Lucky for me, they aren’t picky, so I never worry about trying new recipes on them.The week I made this pie, we ended up heading over to our pastor’s new h
Much like the banana coffee cake from yesterday, I'm pulling out another remake from the archives. Even though 90% of the food I make it brand new, it's sometimes fun to have one of our favorites again. Most I don't repost, but the ones from three years ago deserve another chance in the spotlight, especially since only five or ten of you were reading back then!We love grilled salads i
This isn't the first time I made this coffee cake. I made it a few years ago, for Ryan's co-workers, but baked it in a round springform pan instead of a square one. I included pecans, whereas this time I kept things simple with the chocolate chips. I actually took pictures last time, but they are so atrocious that they don't deserve to be associated with such a delightful breakfast tre
1. 15 Cereal Combinations that Will Change the World. I don't eat cereal all that often anymore, but this list had me hankering for a big bowl of cereal. I've very intrigued by the golden grahams / cinnamon toast crunch combo mentioned...!2. St. Louisans, looking for something to do one of these weekends? Head out to West Tyson County Park. From here you can access a number of trails. On Memorial
I suppose it's safe to say if chicken and peanut sauce are involved, the recipe is bound to be a win in our house. There was the Indonesian chicken (crockpot meal!) with peanut sauce, the Thai chicken peanut panini, and then the peanut noodles with chicken and vegetables. We loved them all, so I couldn't resist bringing back the ingredient pair for yet another recipe.This dish includes coc
You guys almost missed out on this recipe. Lately I've been doing a ton of baking and cooking, but have been falling behind in the actual sitting down and posting part of this whole blogging thing. With the weather nicer, it's way more tempting to spend my evenings outside rather than sitting on my butt working on blog posts...especially when I've already been sitting at work all day!
For as long as I can remember, my dad has loved all things pecan. I remember hitting up our favorite custard shop in Wisconsin whenever butter pecan was the flavor of the day. I remember when we gave him 40 gifts for his 40th birthday, and one of them was chocolate covered turtles. The birthday cake my mom makes him every year, without fail, is Italian Cream Cake, heavily studded with diced peca
After our trip to Austin, Texas, I couldn't stop thinking about the sandwich I had at Sandra Bullock's shop, Walton's Fancy and Staple. The ingredients were simple, but the execution was spot-on, and I was amazed by how much better it was than your standard turkey sandwich.I'm pretty sure my recreated version turned out even better than the original! The apples kind of disappeared
A few weeks ago, Julia and I were sitting in the Orlando Airport, waiting for our flight back to St. Louis. I pulled out a piece of scrap paper and started meal-planning for the week. I glanced next to me to find my sister was doing the same thing! I immediately started quizzing her, desperately trying to glean inspiration from her. I'd gone more than a week without cooking, thanks to my trip
A few weeks ago I mentioned that my sister Julia and I were heading to Orlando, FL for a girl's weekend with my cousin Ashlyn who moved there a year and a half ago. It was our first time visiting Ashlyn in Florida, but not the first time we'd all been there together and we had an absolute blast remembering the memories we created more than 15 years ago while also making new ones. The trip wa
1. Local readers might be interested in checking out this list from Missouri.com of St. Louis bloggers. It's not all-encompassing, as I know there are many other STL food bloggers out there besides myself and the other listed, but it did introduce me to some new blogs in other categories like fashion and healthy living! 2. Coupon alert! Alexia is giving fans $1 off any of their products!
Thanks to these sweet and salty brownies as well as the salty chocolate chunk cookies, I have an insatiable desire to cook any dessert that includes fleur de sel. In our house we actually call it "flurry de soul", thanks to my friend Colleen who renamed the salt to something much easier to remember, and pronounce for that matter!These peanut butter chocolate chip cookies would be good o
When Musselman's sent me some of their apple butter in preparation for grilling season, my first instinct was to use it in a marinade or some BBQ sauce. I even went so far as to select a sauce from Musselman's extensive list of recipes, when I decided to change gears a bit and use it on my favorite grilled flatbreads.Much like the white bean flatbreads with prosciutto, we started off by gr
Pound cake sometimes evokes thoughts of a dense, heavy dessert, laden with butter and sugar and eggs. Cooking Light manages to turn pound cake into something that still includes butter and sugar and eggs, but considerably less than most traditional pound cakes. Better yet, slices of it aren't going to weigh you down. The cake has a tight crumb but an overall lightness that is accentuated by t
In case you couldn’t tell, we love fruit in our green salads! Mango, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, apples, oranges, grapefruit, peaches…I thought I’d done it all! And then I was flipping through the pages of my Always Superb cookbook and realized that raspberries were one fruit I had yet to feature in a salad.Aside from the raspberries, the ingredients were things I almost always have on han
When I asked you guys on The Sweets Life Facebook page what kind of cookies you would like to *hypothetically* receive in the mail, I got all sorts of good answers. Everyone seemed to have a different thought but one thing was clear—you guys have good taste in cookies!The question wasn’t all that hypothetical, as I wanted to send my brother Quinn some cookies. He’s the only sibling on our group te
I had a couple of restaurant ideas in mind for our May "Finding Time in 2013" challenge, but the fact that Olio had a patio sold me. After an endlessly long winter, we have finally had a few weeks of spring weather and I am determined to take advantage of as much al fresco dining as possible until the heat and humidity sets in and Ryan refuses to step foot outside ;)Olio's only been open sin
1. I've been reading ALL about Cafe Rio from Hungry Runner Girl for a few years now, but haven't ever been around one. When traveling to San Diego for work a few weeks ago, I had a layover in Salt Lake City and couldn't resist picking up Cafe Rio for lunch. [Side Note: The SLC airport has awesome food options!] After much debating, I ordered the pork salad and I totally get the obsession
You’d think after my cheesecake extravaganza, I’d be over making cream cheese laden desserts! Not the case, however, not at all! It turns out there are so many things you can do with cheesecake (turn it into cake pops, mix it with M&Ms, makeparfaits, stuff strawberries…don’t even get me started…!) that I likely won’t ever quit making new cheesecake desserts.These citrus cheesecake bars remind
A few weeks ago I received Melissa Lanz’s book The Fresh 20 in the mail. The book features a series of weeknight meal plans, by season, each with 20 ingredients total. I love the idea of seasonal menus and her guacamole tostadas caught my eye, especially since these roasted vegetable tostadas are one of our favorite meals!When I looked at the ingredient list I knew I had some of what I needed and
Even though I’ve already found the turkey burger to beat all turkey burgers, I feel compelled to keep trying new ones. I honestly don’t think I’ll find one I like more, but I’m sure you’d get sick of me talking about the same one again and again, plus I figure there are some of you who aren’t about to trash up your turkey burger with bacon (a travesty, really). As a result of having a favorite o
According to Ryan, this dessert could win contests. Now, he’s not by any means a contest judge, but living in our house, the boy has tasted a lot of different desserts so I tend to trust his opinion! He claims it’s beautiful enough to be behind the glass case at some bakery or dessert shop. I can’t disagree—it’s definitely one of the most beautiful desserts I’ve made (although my sister-in-law Ka
I have to say, this broccoli really did smell like pizza when I pulled it out of the oven! This is a feat in and of itself because it’s no secret that broccoli is one of the stinkier vegetables! If you’re playing the game of trying to convince your kids, or your husband, to eat vegetables, this is one sleeve you might want to have up your sleeve. In that case, I recommend going heavy on the cheese
A few weeks ago I spent four days in San Diego for a work conference. Like most work trips, the majority of my time is spent tucked away in conference rooms, and the only time I escape is in the evenings for dinner. This trip was no different, although I did get in early enough on Monday to go for a long walk all around the Gaslamp district and along the water when the weather. It brought back gre
1. Remember how I went to Austin and had a few green smoothies, one of which included broccoli? I'm no stranger to green smoothies, starting my weekend mornings off with one stuffed with spinach, but broccoli was new to me. I decided to add some extra green to my smoothies lately, though, and have been adding frozen broccoli and peas in addition to spinach and whatever other fruits, yogurt, f
This might be the weirdest sandwich recipe I’ve ever posted on The Sweets Life. Perhaps you thought the portobello pineapple sandwiches with teriyaki ketchup were a little different or that the lentil burgers with tzatziki were a little strange, but cauliflower? On a sandwich? Have I lost my mind?Trust me on this one. I was a little skeptical too, but Daphne Oz’s convincing description in her book
Sometimes I just have to laugh when I think about how far I’ve come in terms of cooking and baking. The fact that I do things like make my own bread—from scratch—astounds me. Six or seven years ago I was grabbing bread off of the grocery store shelf, probably not even realizing that it was possible to make bread in my own kitchen! I definitely don’t have time to make yeasted sandwich bread on a w
Cooking Light’s May issue featured several different taco recipes and I ripped out at least four of them to try over the coming weeks, including some really new and unique types. I intended to make their recipe for steak and pepper tacos with lime mayo but by the time I was finished, there was little resemblance between the magazine version and what I made. Still, Cooking Light should be credited
I’ve fallen in love with Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, Georgia, despite never visiting the bakery or the city. My only interaction with the bakery is via their cookbook, which I regularly page through and lust over their homey baked goods and the pictures of their quaint shop. My sister Julia’s in-laws actually live in Savannah and on Julia’s most recent visit there, she paid a visit to the
Because I’m an insane multi-tasker n the kitchen and I do a lot of cooking on the weekends, I’ve started to bake and shred chicken breasts on Saturday or Sundays. I let them cool and then shred and refrigerate them. It’s become increasingly easy to then throw the chicken into paninis, enchiladas, or salads.Such was the case with this Everyday Food salad recipe. [Side note: Can I just mention how
It’s interesting to me that as I get older, I need my mom more, not less. Never mind the fact that I am 100% an adult who completely supports myself and has been married now for almost five years. I think mothers and daughters have relationships that go through phases. Babies and children are obviously dependent on their mom to take care of their basic needs. As girls get older, they stre
1. While on vacation in Texas, I started and finished Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn in one day. I couldn't put Gone Girl down and Sharp Objects proved to be the same way. It's another addicting and suspenseful story that really makes you wonder what the author is like in real life. Still, I love a book I can't put down!2. Reader Brianne recently made my Banana Mascarpone Muffins and had
It's Friday and I'm coming to the end of a four day week, thanks to my trip to Orlando last weekend. Am I the only one who feels like the shorter weeks sometimes have a tendency to drag on extra-long? Point is, I'm tired and counting down the minutes to the weekend!Chances are, you're tired too. Weekdays have a way of wearying the best of us and I know I'm not the only one who
I was first introduced to chicken salad in college when I headed home with my best friend turned roommate turned maid of honor Kacey. We could always count on a few things when we made the trip from Kirksville to St. Louis: no-bake chocolate oatmeal cookies (I have yet to taste any as good as Mama Burk's!), at least a dozen new and hilarious stories, and chicken salad from Dierbergs. Kacey an
A few years ago, I was introduced to the world of bed and breakfasts when we stayed at one during our trip to Asheville, North Carolina. I enjoyed all aspects of it, but especially the oatmeal raisin cookie bar recipe I walked away with!At my second jaunt in a BnB, I once again walked away with a killer recipe! These were in the cookie jar the day we arrived and Ryan and I couldn't keep our ha
Party hosts like recipes like this because they take all of five minutes to prepare. No sweating in the kitchen over complicated recipes. Party guests like recipes like this because they take all of two bites to consume. No worrying about balancing the plate with the fork and the cocktail, all whilst having a conversation.In other words, these are the perfect party appetizer. You'll love maki
Remember when we went to Napa and had the most amazing panfried chickpeas, and I insisted on going home and recreating them? I haven't forgotten about them, and it was that memory that drew me to Cooking Light's recipe for these Fried Chickpea Sandwiches with Arugula and Mint Tzatziki.This recipe wisely has you "fry" the chickpeas on the stovetop in oil before tossing them with the spices in
Last weekend I told you about our time in Austin and this time I'm back to chat all things San Antonio. We were really only here for about a day and a half and because we stayed in a Bed and Breakfast, we did less eating out here. Still, I wanted to share the places we did get to enjoy!Where We Stayed:Oge House--Inn on the Riverwalk: Ryan scored two nights at this place courtesy of a Living Social
1. I know it's not quite summer, but with it just around the corner, I thought Cooking Light's 75 Tips to Start Your Summer Off Light was fitting. My favorites? Grill your veggies (check!) and Eat to Hydrate (my watermelon obsession works out nicely here!). (source)2. I'm sure you've heard of America's Test Kitchen, but did you know they have a radio show? I've been downloading it e
I am really loving lentils lately. I think it's to the point that Ryan is starting to groan when he hears that lentils are on the menu again, although I have to say they're quite versatile. I've used them in hot pockets, in panfried 'cakes', and in quesadillas...and that's just the short list! This is a more traditional use for the lentils, but it's no less boring or en
I'm definitely not above dipping my spoon into the peanut butter jar for a quick snack, but you only take a bite or two before you're dying for a glass of milk and you're stuffed to the brim. When you eat peanut butter pudding, the milk is already in the peanut butter, eliminating the need for extra dishes!This pudding is heavier than your typical snack pack chocolate pudding, in part
My mom is kind of an entertainer extraordinaire. She's the woman who manages to beautifully decorate the (spotless) house, complete with an exquisitely designed table. It's never enough to serve you one appetizer and one dessert...she's always there with multiple options so that if you don't like chocolate there's something sweet for you to end your meal with. And to top it all
