Category Archives: Recipes

April so far…

5:40am: First alarm, groan and dig deeper under the covers. Hope Mark gets up first and makes it stop. He does.

5:50am: Second alarm, sleep right through – bless that man.

6:00am: Mark is up, radio is on… dig deeper under the covers and hope it all goes away.

6:10am: It doesn’t. I’m already running 10 minutes late. Debate whether to wash hair, grease vs. 10 more minutes in bed. Bless that dry shampoo.

6:20am: Turn circles in the shower to distribute warmth.

6:40am: Agonize over what to wear… what’s comfortable is unfortunately not what’s professional…

6:50am: Try to strike a balance somewhere in between, end up looking like I hang out in Spicoli’s van at lunch.

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I’m terrible at winning contests. Can a person be terrible at winning contests? Put my name in a hat and 999 times of 1000 you won’t see it again.

Such is my sad story every Easter. I’m a sucker for the White House Easter Egg Roll… it’s just the cutest thing. And especially when Austin was small I just knew it would make his day if I could get us in. At 9, I’m fairly certain he’d kick the First Lady in the shins and challenge one of the poor secret service agents guarding the fence to a karate chop duel… but still I try.

… and every time, I’m unceremoniously rejected, forcing me to speculate that maybe it’s because I live in Maryland, or they just don’t like the letter H. There must be a conspiracy somewhere, right?

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Now, I have to admit… I do like tart. You’ll never offend me with a tart apple or a lemony lemonade. So a case might be made that I’m not the one to talk to about tart desserts.

And slicing up a whole lemon and throwing it in a pie might sound a little crazy, but bear with me here, because this unassuming little dessert might surprise you.

When Meyer lemons are used in place of their more lip puckering companions, I find it hard to believe that anyone could turn up their nose at this tasty Shaker pie.

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This week you guys — we can barely keep up! But we do have a fun treat over on Relish Decor’s blog: warm gooey, cinnamon buns with bacon, peanut butter, and banana.

Perfect for those super busy weeks when it snows on your spring. (You know, nbd.)

Head over for the recipe and to check out our good friends at Relish!

And if you find yourself in Frederick — do be sure to stop by. Their shop is the best.

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My two truths and a lie trump card is that as a junior in high school, I spent a full year traveling to rodeos across Oregon as the Coos County Fair & Rodeo Queen.

… I’ll wait while you compose yourself.

I know it sounds silly now, but it was a huge honor. I grew up a 4-H kid, and had been riding competitively since I was eight. In my small circle of horsey friends, the rodeo queen was practically a goddess. I dreamed of the moment I could compete for that crown, and never thought for a moment I’d win.

The competition includes a speech, an interview, and multiple riding tests… so it’s not easy. And my horse was never exactly a winner. A stout little reining pony built for driving cattle, we’d been together since she was two… and I was so proud of her. But she never quite fit in with the more polished and calm, and more-common-in-4-H, western pleasure winners. She was quick and scrappy… and despite her desperate hatred of parades (I understood) I think she was always meant to carry the queen.

She swept me through the competition with grace, and I managed to do her justice in the only way I knew how, by standing up in front of a whole lot of people and blathering on.

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Great love can open your eyes and make the world seem new… and pasta and I, I’m not afraid to say it, we’re one of the greats.

Our love affair began at a young age… first with buttered noodles and mac & cheese, then gnocchi and lasagna. To this day, I can’t for the life of me understand why my father has never taken a liking to lasagna.

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We all have our little pleasures. Manicures, lunches out, fancy espresso… they’re the things that make the day to day just that much better (or more bearable). And it’s for exactly that reason that we’re willing to spend a good chunk of our hard-earned money on them.

For Mark and I, hands down, our little pleasure is food. When we’re able (and probably even when we’re not) the answer to where our money goes first is almost always food. Things like paper towels and cleaning supplies will drive me up a wall every time I have to replenish, but a nice bottle of wine, a creamy chunk of cheese, fresh herbs and spices… those, I can always justify.

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Much to Jack White’s apparent dismay, the details of his tour rider leaked out last week — but since we love a man who loves good guac, we thought they were sort of charming.

After hearing the story on NPR, we mixed up a batch — a little skeptical about the lack of garlic, but excited nonetheless. And we almost ate the whole thing standing over the bowl. All the while musing over whether the crew treats it like a contest at each stop, keeping track of who can make it best.

(As it turns out, they do.)

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