Candy, Dessert, Fall, Holidays, Snacks, Sweet

creepy chocolate spiderweb treats!

Oh, glorious Halloween. I have such fond memories of you from when I was a kid!

When I was in elementary school, everyone would dress up. Probably even the bus drivers, if memory serves me right. As if trick-or-treating candy wasn’t enough, we’d also get treat bags at school. I know there must have been candy in them, but I can only vaguely remember Saf-T Pops, info on trick-or-treating safety, and (for some reason) packets of chocolate Malt-O-Meal cereal that kids would just eat plain from the packet. Gross. I guess it was meant to be breakfast for the day after Halloween, so we could get a somewhat nourishing meal after gorging ourselves on candy the night before.

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AmandaOctober 12, 2013September 13, 20151 Comment

Breads, Dinner, Lunch, Main Dish, Savory, Sides, Snacks, Vegetables

olive focaccia with tomatoes + onion

If there’s one thing I haven’t truly mastered in the kitchen, it’s homemade bread. I just haven’t made all that much of it. I can hold my own with pizza dough and no-knead bread, and I did make some damn good challah once, but that’s sort of the extent of my bread-making experience.

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AmandaOctober 5, 2013September 13, 20152 Comments

Tips and Tricks, Uncategorized

pinned!

Isn’t Pinterest awesome? It’s not uncommon for me to get sucked in to the Food and Drink section, scrolling through page after page of Mason jar-filled salads, pink and girly vodka punch, crock pot chicken creations, and cupcakes galore. I’ve uploaded all my recipes to Pinterest, and I add new pins every time I write a new post! I post my recipes to the “oven&apron” board, … Continue reading pinned!

AmandaOctober 2, 2013May 4, 2014Leave a comment

Breads, Breakfast, Fall, Fruit, Sweet

carrot cake scones

Once the first day of fall arrives, we’re finally allowed to celebrate all things pumpkin without risking a punch in the mouth. We’ll get our fill of pumpkin bread, pumpkin cinnamon rolls, and of course the ever-present pumpkin spice latte. With all this pumpkin overload, there’s another autumn-appropriate flavor that always gets upstaged by pumpkin, and that’s the humble carrot cake.

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AmandaSeptember 28, 2013September 13, 20156 Comments

Food Events, Reviews

power to the (pizza) people!

Downtown Phoenix has an interesting phenomenon happening. Some really great food trucks are branching out and opening their own brick-and-mortar restaurants! You may remember Short Leash Hot Dogs’ Sit…Stay which opened earlier this summer. Well, there’s another food truck to add to that list: Pizza People!

The Pizza People truck has been slinging pies all across the Phoenix metro area for about 2 years now. I tried their pizza at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market in May before they closed the food truck for the season (it’s waaaaaay too hot during a Phoenix summer to be cooking pizzas on a stone deck oven inside a truck), and I was pleasantly surprised at the high quality of their pizza. They most definitely have skill. When I heard that they were going to open an actual restaurant, I was excited to try them again, as it had been a long Pizza People-less summer!

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AmandaSeptember 26, 2013May 4, 2014Leave a comment

Dessert, Fall, Snacks, Sweet

golden grahams s’mores bars!

I love s’mores. Man oh man, do I love s’mores. Graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows! Mmmm.

Growing up, I never went camping (sad!), so I’ve never known the joys of making s’mores over a fire in the middle of nowhere. At our house when I was a kid, we had to make due with a lit burner of the gas stove, or make cheater’s s’mores in the microwave. They were still good, and they’re still one of my favorite messy treats for when the weather cools down.

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AmandaSeptember 21, 2013September 13, 2015Leave a comment

Dinner, Lunch, Salads, Savory, Sides, Vegetables

potato salad with chives + crispy bacon

For the past 10,866 days of my life, there was one thing I’d never done. It’s something that lots of other people have done, and I can’t believe it took me so long to discover the joys of this particular activity.

Are you ready?

I ate a potato salad that didn’t include mayonnaise.

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AmandaSeptember 14, 2013September 13, 20152 Comments

Dessert, Fall, Frozen Treats, Fruit, Summer, Sweet

peach pie ice cream

Well, it’s September now.

Summer as we know it is officially over and everyone’s back to school and back to work. If Pinterest is any indication, one would think that Fall has already begun. Pumpkin fudge! Pumpkin brownies! Drill holes in a pumpkin to make it look like a lantern! And let’s not forget, the sacred and holy pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks. God help us, it’s already in stores!

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AmandaSeptember 11, 2013September 13, 2015Leave a comment

Cakes, Dessert, How-To, Sweet, Tips and Tricks

an owl cake for randi

Recently, my roommate Ben (whose birthday cake I made back in March) asked if I would make a cake for his girlfriend Randi’s birthday. I agreed, and asked what sort of stuff she liked so I could have something to base the design off of. He replied “Owls and hedgehogs!”. Cute! I figured owls would be easier than hedgehogs when it came to fondant modeling, so an owl-themed cake it would be!

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AmandaSeptember 1, 2013September 13, 20154 Comments

Breads, Breakfast, Drinks, Fruit, Holidays, Savory, Summer, Sweet

rise and shine!

I love a good three day weekend. Aside from the obvious (not going to work on a Monday!), there’s the bonus of having more time to get things done, or more time to be lazy if you choose.