Two food posts in one week. Wow.

Not planned.

But I just had to re-share this recipe. I know I’ve posted it before, but it’s summertime. And you need to know about it.

In my family, Estella Dru and I are the fruit lovers. Belle likes a few things… apples, sometimes strawberries. Ok that might be it. I keep telling her people who don’t like watermelon are messed up. She accepts it.

But my kids (even Belle) go crazy over this sauce on their fruit.

I like to pour it over blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries. Confession: I HATE blueberries. It’s just something about the gooey poppableness that I can’t handle.

But if you are a blueberry lover, I’m sure they would be great with this sauce, too.

I believe when I found it years ago, it was called Betsy Ross Custard Sauce. So that’s what we’ll go with.

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Tonight I tried something for dinner I have been wanting to try for a while.

I found it HERE.

A cornbread recipe that some say is the “best cornbread ever.”

Now let’s be honest.

Everyone likes their cornbread different.

Matt loves my Grandma’s cornbread recipe. I hate it.

She used flour, corn meal, salt, baking powder, water, milk. That’s it. But Matt, along with all my friends growing up, and a bunch of my family members think it’s amazing.

I, on the other hand, like sweet cornbread. Preferably with jalapeños. And corn. And sour cream. I like food I can really taste.

So when I saw this super easy recipe, I had to try it.

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My children were very upset that I did not have a birthday cake yesterday.

I tried to explain that big people don’t always need a cake, but it didn’t fly with them.

My only out, other than going to buy a cake for myself, was to promise them we would make me a cake the next day.

And so we did.

I have been wanting to try mini pineapple upside down cakes I found here. I thought the kids might think walking through that process was pretty cool, especially when they saw the final result.

I was right.

Instead of making my batter from scratch, we used a box mix. Nothing fancy for us today.

Also, since I don’t have a jumbo muffin pan as called for in the recipe in the link above, I used these Pyrex baking bowls Matt’s mom gave me a while back.

The kids always love watching my Kitchen Aid mixer in action. Clearly, we are easily entertained.

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I came up with a fun way to jazz up ordinary brownies.

Ok. I got the idea from Pinterest. Sort of.

I found this recipe but wanted to make it even easier.

Instead of making my  brownie batter from scratch, I used my favorite box brownie mix and followed the directions on the box. (I used a Betty Crocker dark chocolate brownie mix.)

I baked them in a round, 9 inch springform pan for the time specified on the box. (Use plenty of non-stick spray!)

I took them out of the oven and let cool about 10 minutes. Then I layered on sweetened condensed milk, mini chocolate chips (regular size will work, too), and pecans.

I’m a non-measurer. Sorry. But when I was done, I had used about half the can of sweetened condensed milk. It’s really your preference how much toppings to use.

Let sit for half an hour or until cooled and set.

Your result should look like this.

So so good and looks like I put way more time and effort into it than I did.

You really could use any toppings you want with the milk. M&M’s, Oreo’s, Heath brickle… lots of possibilities.

My philosophy is… everything is better with sweetened condensed milk.

And in this case, double true.

My kiddos are HOME for the summer!

I know. I’m that weird mom who actually likes them being home with me.

Don’t get me wrong. They drive me crazy sometimes a LOT. But for the most part, we have so much fun together, and I absolutely enjoy them to pieces.

The day started with some difficulty.

Jeb cried out this morning around 4 am. Matt went in, tucked him back in, prayed for him, and came back to bed. Then at 5:45 am, he cried out again. I went to check on him, and he had thrown up all in his bed.

Gag. (Confession: I’m not that mom who says, “Oh, once you’ve been thrown up on a couple times, it’s no big deal.” It’s a big deal to me. Vomit is gross and possibly gets grosser the more I deal with it.)

Because Jeb was sick, I couldn’t go to the girls’ award ceremony/last-day-of-school stuff. (Sniff. Sniff.) But they didn’t seem to mind.

By the time they got home around 11 or so, Jeb seemed to be feeling better. So we had lunch outside.

To celebrate the last day of school, I had planned on us making these cupcakes I found on Pinterest.

Don’t they look fun?

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Between cleaning my house and packing for a quick weekend trip, I made my kids a little Easter treat.

Of course, I didn’t come up with the idea myself. I found it HERE.

It probably took me an hour or so to complete, but the result is so adorable and worth the effort.

Little Easter Sheep

The only thing I did differently from the tutorial is I used Tootsie rolls for their feet and dots in their eyes. It just seemed to work a lot better.

I had some fake grass, so I arranged it in a little wooden tray I have and made a cute, edible centerpiece.

I did this alone, but I think it would be fun to do with my girls. Jeb wouldn’t be a good candidate to help because of the hot melted chocolate, but my girls would have enjoyed making their own little sheep.

P.S. My Grandpa will be having a little surgery tomorrow morning. Please say a prayer for him. The procedure is common, but the risks are increased because of his age. Please pray for his complete healing and a result that improves his quality of life.

This was such a fun Easter treat we did last year, I wanted to post it again. Click here.

Hopefully, I’ll have a new one to share tomorrow. (Please note the word, hopefully.)

I really really love Easter.

One of my favorite things to do is to have a surprise waiting for the kids when they get home from school.

Most days I just don’t have much time to spare.

But today, I made time.

I got the recipe here.

Can’t wait to see their faces.

I finally mustered up the initiative to do something productive today.

Estella Dru has been asking me to make cupcakes with her since Christmas when Matt’s Grandma got her a little cupcake making kit.

She opted for vanilla with strawberry icing and sprinkles while I decided on mini Reese’s cup cupcakes. The reason: Matt got several bags of mini Reese’s cups in his stocking, and I needed to do something creative with them. Cupcakes always seem to be the best option if you ask me.

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I made something delicious today.

And holiday-ish.

Triple chocolate chunk muffins with a hidden surprise.

I found the idea HERE and revised it just a little.

Instead of using a brownie mix, I decided to use my favorite chocolate muffin mix. (My college roommate and me probably went through a million boxes of those muffins. No, I’m not exaggerating. Ok, maybe just a little.)

Just follow the instructions on the box. Pour the batter into a mini muffin pan. Press the candy cane kisses into the center of each, but be careful not to let them touch the bottom of the pan. I used a spoon to carefully cover the kiss over the top with muffin batter.  Then bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. Let them thoroughly cool and remove from pan. I topped mine with whip cream and shaved candy cane kisses, but you could top yours with chocolate or powdered sugar or anything you like.

These are one of those desserts you can make in a pinch, and it looks like you’ve been slaving away in a hot kitchen for hours. Perfect for holiday parties. And they. are. delicious.

Plus, they’re just so darn cute on the inside.