dessert

Homemade Cardamom Cajeta with Vanilla Ice Cream and Pistachios

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homemade cardamom cajeta with vanilla ice cream and pistachios 2

I am seriously distracted these days.

No, more like preoccupied really.

Lots of changes are in the works here in our small corner of the Pacific Northwest.

In little more than a month now, my husband and I will be picking up our little life and moving it 1,259 miles south to a place called San Diego.

Turning to a new chapter in Christopher and I’s book and starting the very first paragraph of it.

Small Kitchen Chronicles will likely find a new home in an equally small square-footed kitchen (albeit in a much sunnier place). Continue reading →

Super Duper Chocolate Toffee Crunch + Holiday Bake Along Giveaway

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Happy Early Wednesday, everyone!  Is anyone else getting super excited for the holidays?

I know it’s actually Tuesday, but I’m posting a day early this week to coincide with my participation in the 3rd Annual Holiday Bake, Craft & Sew Along.

It’s a November blogging bake, craft and sew-fest-athon put together by three lovely ladies to inspire us to make the holidays a rockin’ homemade one this year.

30 jam-packed days full of great gift ideas by — count ’em — 30 separate guest bloggers (and that’s just counting the Bake Along bunch).

It was such a cool idea — so full of ridiculously creative people sharing their best — that I just had to say, “Sign me up, yes!”

Now I know what you’re thinking. Continue reading →

Gingersnap Pumpkin Cheesecake Shake

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These days, I am consistently amazed by the kindness of so-called strangers.

Particularly, strangers of the food blogging-kind.

United together over the commonality of whirring food processors, natural light, clicking keyboards and all things food, we solitarily create away, often unawares that there’s a whole brother and sisterhood of people out there just like us.

The word “community” gets tossed around a lot in the blog and foodie-spheres and as much as I consider myself an eternal realistic optimist, I’ve also managed to rub up against some cynicism that’s stuck to me like a barnacle on the tail of a whale. Continue reading →

Best-Ever Baked Doughnuts

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Life’s little successes.

Life is all about celebrating them — the little yet huge milestones in life that most often pass unnoticed without a single “woot!”

We often think that successes are all massive ones, like when we:

  • Find “The One”
  • Get That Promotion
  • Buy That Dream House

But it’s the little successes that add up to a whole tanker-full and that often matter the most.

Let me elaborate. Continue reading →

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie (or Mom and Dad Pie)

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Today is my parent’s 43rd wedding anniversary.

They are the most wonderful peas-in-a-pod, and yes, I know, I’m biased.

Forty-three years ago today they were getting married.  Mom, walking down the aisle to meet my dad, in a gown she made all by herself.  My dad calling her his “Julietta”.  And just like it is in Rhode Island this time of year, it was hot.  It was sweaty.  It was perfect.

They’ve had forty-three years of memories made together, my mom and dad.  Forty-three years filled with making wonderful memories for my brother, Niko, and I.  Forty-three years of good times and bad, and yet just as much — if not more — silliness, laughter, and love. Continue reading →