The Best Date You Will Ever Have: Peanut Butter Larabars

Let’s talk dates for a moment here.

Peanut Butter 'Cookie' Lovers' Larabars 14--030214

First thing first: dates. Yes, I’m talking about the edible kind–although the strange, single-as-a-one-digit-number part of me is convinced that dating would be a lot more interesting if my dates really were edible. As in, “Have you met my date, Mister Hot Chocolate? Word on the street is that he can get pretty steamy.

Chances are, you have stumbled across copycat larabar recipes before now. I’m not introducing you to them because they’re new. I’m introducing you to them because they are awesomeand if you are like Me One Month … Read more

My Favorite Puffy, Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

You know what’s crazy?

My Favorite Puffy, Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie 12--022114

This week has been. Absolutely. Nuts. <3 Kind of in an awesome way though.

Oh, and these cookies are pretty cuh-raay-zee as well, so let me start with these because I know that’s what really you came here for  (and okay, can I just say that I honestly love the photos you’re about to see: these are such puffy, tall, photogenic cookiesTry and tell me you’re not drooling/pinning/sharing right now as you ogle!).

My Favorite Puffy, Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie 2--022114

My very best friends are also my very best taste-testers. I am particularly lucky in … Read more

Cookie Butter Pancakes–And, the Big News……

I can’t believe I’ve waited 8 months to type this.

Adorable Pop-'Em Cookie Butter Pancakes 2--021514

I have a Master’s degree in English Literature.

And I passed my qualifying exams.

And while I’m standing here writing “me, me, me,” what I really mean is: thank you, you, you.

Adorable Pop-'Em Cookie Butter Pancakes 18--021514

To all who have been a part of my life for the past 8 months: English may be my specialty, but right now words cannot express how absolutely indebted I am to each and every one of you for your support, your encouragement, and your faith in me through this incredibly intense time. Up until 3 … Read more

My Favorite Thick & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

I am so sorry to do this to you. Really, I am.

Favorite Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies 23--021014

If you are reading this post in a public place where licking your computer screen or sprinting out of the room while making inarticulate animal noises of ravenous taste-bud activation are frowned upon, I am so, so sorry. Maybe you should wait until your boss has stepped out of the room or your meeting has ended before you read this.

Or, you know. Don’t.

Favorite Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies 21--021014

These cookies are really, really good. Did the title give it away? I realize as I’m typing this out that all I really … Read more

Buttery Moist Lemony Glazed Strawberry Swirl Pound Cake

These past few months, I have spent a lot (I mean, a lot–like, I-am-sorry-but-I-feel-preternaturally-compelled-to-word-vomit-to-you-guys a lot) of time talking about my upcoming examsSo today, let’s talk friends and the best pound cake you’ve never met instead.

Buttery Moist Lemony Glazed Strawberry Swirl Pound Cake 2--020514

To begin with my friends: As the weeks wear on and THE date creeps closer, I have noticed an exponential amount of tiptoeing from my friends and family. In my book, there have only ever been four reasons you would have to tiptoe around someone: 

1. The Guilt: You are not supposed to be wherever you are at the moment … Read more

Scrumdiddlyumptious (Caramelized Banana & Toasted Coconut) Banana Bread

This recipe is brought to you by INSOMNIAbecause when you’re single and have the biggest exam of your life scheduled for Valentine’s Day 2014, this is as wild as the nights around here are gonna get.

Scrumdiddlyumptious Caramelized Banana and Toasted Coconut Banana Bread 11--013014

Thank goodness I stumbled across a simply scrumdiddlyumptious banana bread recipe that can make even 4 AM sleeplessness taste amazing. More about this bread in a second. (FUN FACT: The appellation ‘scrumdiddlyumptious’ was inspired by a friend who tasted some of this insanely moist and flavor-packed banana bread, but it’s also a nod to my first attempt to join the Read more

Idiot-Proof Healthy Chocolate Chip Oat Bars

How do I know these one-bowl, hassle-free chocolate chip oat bars are idiot-proof? Please refer to the visual aid below…

Idiot-Proof Healthy Chocolate Chip Oat Bars 7--012214

I made them. Me. In my current mental and emotional state of nervous wretchedness. And I’ve even started referring to myself in the plural first-person. And writing in fragments. Like Yoda, I is. But I still managed to make these without starting a local apocalypse. So. That’s how I know.

Some days I almost wish that was a joke.

Idiot-Proof Healthy Chocolate Chip Oat Bars 2--012214

On the morning I baked these, I was not looking forward to baking. I had been in my brand spankin’ … Read more

The Best Bananas Foster Toffee Coffee Crunch Cake

The Best Bananas Foster Toffee Cake 2--011514

One of the things I love most about blogging is licking the bowl afterwards having the chance to sit down and tell a story. Food blogging in particular trains us to write good content: it gives you brain fuel (i.e. cake), patience (actually waiting for your cake to cool completely before frosting it), creativity (transforming your 5th over-crumbly cake into gorgeous cake balls), and really good storytelling skills (explaining to your parents the philosophical implications of writing your baking blog when you really should be reading Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter).

The Best Bananas Foster Toffee Cake 5--011514

As I slipped … Read more

Crunchy Cookie Butter Espresso Granola

Crunchy Cookie Butter Espresso Granola 5--010614

If life milestones were potluck dishes, moving would be a crusty dry loaf of fruitcake. I’m sure somebody out there appreciates fruitcake, and likewise I’m sure somebody loves the nonstop hubbub of moving residences. That person is not me. Especially not Studying Me, which tolerates everything at a 50% lower threshold than Normal, Socialized Me.

Crunchy Cookie Butter Espresso Granola 2--010614

In case you missed it previously, here’s the rundown: Studying Me is extremely grateful to her parents, who basically magicked her entire store of belongings into her new apartment this weekend while she guiltily (I mean, really guiltily) shuffled her feet and finished … Read more

Top Wallflour Picks of 2013

No pansy dandy flower picking this New Year’s Eve–it’s all (wall)flour picking here! As the clocks count down (or have counted down already, as the case might be–we’re still a few hours away from midnight!), I’m sure your online readers are simply drowning in “2013 in review” posts…but you won’t find a better bunch of addicting, crowd-pleasing, most-requested “Top 13 Wallflour Picks of 2013” anywhere else! And if you’re looking for a way to ring in the new year right, you might want to try your hand at these friend-family-and-stranger-tested goodies first.

Before you do, though, I … Read more