Beyond the Box: Baking from Scratch

Good afternoon, citizens of the Internet! It has been a while since I have shared any tasty treats with you and for my excuses, please look out the nearest window where you will certainly see excessive amounts of sunshine.  Step outside and notice that the excessive sunshine brings with it copious amounts of heat, intensified by the microscopic water particles suspended in the air.  In short:  it's hot.  And this is why it has taken me so long to bring you a new and delightful from-scratch recipe.  I couldn't take the heat, so I got out of the kitchen.  But I'm back! And at the request of my cousin Jenny, I present homemade granola bars! Guaranteed not to heat up your kitchen too  much, and also to fill you up with plenty of protein and fiber and all that stuff that's good for you, but also taste good enough that you want to eat it. 

I'm back to baking treats for people today! But this one is healthy , because it's chock full o' veggies! Okay, so healthy might be a stretch, but there are lots of veggies in this one.  Don't let that scare you,  though, because this Spiced Carrot Cake is moist, sweet, dense, and just a little bit spicy.  Cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg give a little bit of a kick and the tangy cream cheese frosting smoothes it all back down.  And you can decorate it with cute little frosting carrots!

Buckle up, everybody, I'm mixing things up today. I had a dream the other night that I gained so much weight I was hardly recognizable.  It was terrible. I was so mad at myself. So today I baked up something that I won't eat any  of. I could, if I wanted to, but I tried one, and I don't need any more.  They're (drumroll, please)..... homemade dog treats! Make these for your four legged friends and they will love you even more (if that's even possible).

There are so many things I love about summertime.  All the green, the heat, swimming pools, fishing, baseball games, and bountiful, fresh produce!  I love getting fruits and vegetables from farmers' markets, and this year I'm even trying my hand at growing some of my own.  I have tomatoes forming and a bell pepper plant and plans for a zucchini plant (I'd better get on that....).  One thing I haven't been brave enough to try growing myself, but undoubtedly will before too many summers pass by, is strawberries.  

This is perfection. It is refreshingly cool on a hot afternoon, bright and cheerful on a rainy day, and you already know how much I love cream cheese. Introducing the Key Lime Cheesecake!  Guaranteed to make your day a little bit better. (I can't actually back that guarantee with anything except maybe a befuddled apology, but I'm pretty confident that this can't make your day worse.) 

Summer is here! And that means camping! And campfires! And campfires mean s'mores!   I'm so excited about honest-to-goodness s'mores!  I know that for just about everything I share here, I gush how much I love it, but it's true.  Why would I share recipes with you that I don't love?  I can't trick you like that, it's just too mean!  And I know you don't need a recipe for s'mores, but my love of s'mores has led me to develop and sample several s'mores spinoffs that can be made sans campfire.  Of course, the original is the best, with the marshmallow toasted over glowing coals of an outdoor fire slowly burning out in the night.  But I crave gooey marshmallow and chocolatey goodness far more often than I have time to find a fire pit, gather wood, start a fire, and let it burn down to prime 'mallow roasting temps.   This is a fancy alternative nearly as delicious as the real thing, and you can serve it to guests without them feeling like they...

Ah, Banana Bread...  It's one of those recipes that everyone seems to have, and yet they're all just a little different.  One thing they seem to have in common is, thankfully, bananas.  (If your banana bread recipe has no bananas, throw it out.  But first show it to me, because I don't believe you.)  This recipe has bananas and is lovely.  Try it!