I can remember the first time my mother ever added chocolate chips to pancake batter. It was basically the best thing that ever happened to Sunday morning breakfast, as far as I was concerned! In the intervening years, I have eaten more than my fair share of chocolate chip pancakes, and my conclusion is that […]
It’s almost Easter! For several months now, Jake’s favorite “book” has been a Wilton cupcake decorating magazine. He found it on the cookbook shelf and immediately started asking me to “read” it to him, naming and describing all of the cupcakes from bubble-gum machines to bouncing babies to Christmas penguins. Now the poor cupcake magazine […]
Can you believe it has been FOUR YEARS since Smells Like Brownies was born? Four years of delicious treats and meals (and some disasters), four years of learning to take food photos and learning new tricks in the kitchen. Time flies. Now, as many of you may know, I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of […]
I am so excited about Spring, aren’t you? Spring flowers and warm weather and kicking a soccer ball around with my son in our backyard… But sometimes I just have a hard time saying goodbye to Winter. Especially this year, when I basically avoided my kitchen all Winter unless company came over or I had […]
It’s almost St. Patrick’s Day! So I made you colcannon. Normally, I am not a huge fan of potatoes, but I definitely must make an exception for colcannon. This was incredibly easy to make, and with the addition of leafy greens I actually felt like I was giving my body something nutritious along with all […]
It’s Pi Day again! But this year, I thought I would do something a little unusual and make a savory pie. (Let’s face it: I do not need another reason to eat dessert at this stage in my pregnancy.) Shepherd’s pie is a classic ground meat dish. It’s as meat and potatoes as you can […]
This past weekend, my nephew came to stay with us. He is just 3 weeks younger than Jake, so they have been lifelong buddies! Actually, they are about as different as can be: Jake loves animals and M is crazy about vehicles; M is a quiet daredevil and Jake is cautious but loquacious. And my […]
For the last several weeks, we have been scraping by in our house with random odds and ends and leftovers. I have taken to looking into my fridge around 6:00 and hurriedly cobbling together something for dinner…or else calling Dominos. As I am now well into my third trimester with a toddler who seems to […]
I have a grand tradition of making a deeply chocolatey dessert each year for Valentine’s Day. Because Valentine’s Day really is all about chocolate. Chocolate and more chocolate. Which is exactly what you get if you make a chocolate lava cake! A tender, dark chocolate cake surrounding a gooey, fudgy center that flows out and […]
I was well into my 20s before I ever heard of shrimp and grits. In fact, I was a senior in college before I ever even tasted grits (why eat something gritty on purpose when creamy is so much better?). Clearly I had been missing out in a huge way. Shrimp and grits is a […]