cakes

cakes

Brown Butter Spice Cake with Whipped Icing

Brown Butter Spice Cake with Whipped Icing
Brown Butter Spice Cake with Whipped Icing

I’ve partnered with ALDI to try out their grocery stores and develop holiday recipes for you! ALDI’s has compensated me for my time and recipe development, but all my opinions are my own.

Mike’s been trying to whittle down our spending since we’re in a lean financial period. The cars and the dog keep falling apart at random intervals and requiring numerous visits to the mechanic and vet, respectively (we don’t take our dog to the mechanic, although perhaps that’s a thought. I wonder if they take Care Credit.)

He had been suggesting we eat out less, much to my dismay, but he finally analyzed our spending a few weeks ago and realized that that’s not the problem. It’s not even the dog, though we just found out she has allergies. Good grief.

IT’S GROCERIES.

(more…)

by | 23 Comments
cakes

No-Bake Pumpkin Spice Icebox Cake

No-Bake Pumpkin Spice Icebox Cake
No-Bake Pumpkin Spice Icebox Cake

I mouthed the words to worship songs instead of singing until I was about 15 years old. I wasn’t being disrespectful. I’d simply learned at an early age that my singing voice was terrible (dashing my baby hopes of being a pop star like Jem) and it seemed jerky to subject God to that. I mean, He’s GOD and He’s listening to a choir of who knows how many angels, the worship of people who can sing all over the world . . . and then there’s me. Lip-syncing was the only reasonable decision.

(more…)

by | 8 Comments
cakes

Drunken Pumpkin Gingerbread Snack Cake

Drunken Pumpkin Gingerbread Snack Cake
Drunken Pumpkin Gingerbread Snack Cake

Mike and I sometimes play a game where we list all the places we’d love to live. We both gravitate towards big cities with great public transportation (or walkability), great food, and lots of things to do. Topping my list are San Diego, San Francisco (in its cheaper days, please), and Florence! Wouldn’t it be nuts to live in Florence?

One thing that baffles us during these discussions is how people live where it’s cold. A huge chunk of our nation’s population lives where it’s cold for, like, half the year! Where they have to dig their cars out of snow to go to work starting in October! Where things like ice fishing and snowshoeing exist! You might be sitting somewhere right now where it’s already started snowing. I need to understand.

(more…)

by | 22 Comments
cakes

Drenched Lemon Cream Cake

Drenched Lemon Cream Cake
Drenched Lemon Cream Cake

Y’all, let’s get real. There’s nothing wrong with taking nude photos. Nothing.

I’m a middle school teacher, so let me qualify that: there may be moral and practical implications with sending those photos to people, posting them online, or Snapchatting them to someone (good grief, DON’T DO IT). In any of those scenarios, you’re voluntarily giving the photos to someone else you may or may not be able to trust. In the case of Snapchat, you guys know nothing is ever really deleted for good on the internet, right? So trust me, some of those things are not wise.

But acting like Jennifer Lawrence and other violated celebrities somehow “should’ve known better” than to take nude photos in the first place is so odd to me. Why? What’s wrong with that?

(more…)

by | 54 Comments
cakes

No-Bake Coconut Icebox Cake

No-Bake Coconut Icebox Cake
No-Bake Coconut Icebox Cake

Since I started my teaching career at a low-income, inner city school, I’ve been on a journey to understand my own privilege. I’m a white, middle-class Christian in a place and time when that identity confers benefits on me that I didn’t need to work for. It’s not my fault, per se, but then again this isn’t about blame: it’s about educating myself, making the inequities transparent, and being purposeful about correcting them. It’s not my fault the system is flawed, but if I ignore it and continue to profit from it, I’m complicit. That doesn’t sit well with me.

(more…)

by | 67 Comments

1 … 11 12 13 14 15 … 30