Brownies and Bars

Apple cinnamon bars are part apple blondie and part gooey cinnamon coffee cake. This no fuss recipe yields a dessert with crispy cinnamon brown sugar edges that enfold a gooey apple pecan center. Top it with ice cream for an over the top end to your favorite meal.   I should be embarrassed to tell you what these apple bars are called in my house. My boys have lovingly dubbed this recipe, “apple crap.” And because it has apples and…

Fresh cherries are baked into these cherry revel bars for a decadent and dark fudgy cherry chocolate cookie bar that makes a batch big enough for a crowd!  Fresh cherries are a weakness of mine. My grandmother used to have several cherry trees and I can remember eating them right off the tree. I love to bake with fresh cherries, but they are expensive! I like finding ways to enjoy fresh cherries that don’t call for a ton. These cherry…

Rich and delicious. This Chocolate Brownie Trifle is layered brownie, chocolate mousse, and whipped cream perfection. I usually try and have some kind of cohesive story that goes with my blog posts, a snippet of personal history to accompany my recipe, a silly story to recount, sometimes even something just a little bit meaningful. Well, not today, this week I’ve got a mishmash of random stuff to tell you guys. 1.) I read Amy Poehler’s biography last week and was…

Part pie, part coffee cake. Elegant, easy, and incredibly versatile. These bold and bright flavored Lemon Poppy Seed Blueberry Squares are a great new flavor variation of my popular Cherry Almond Squares. Sometimes I feel like my entire life would be better, could be better, if I spent more time in books. Now, since I work at a library I don’t mean just spend more time in books, because I am literally eye high in rooms full of books every…

  Sweet raspberry filling is surrounded by moist and dense cake and topped with cream cheese glaze. These Raspberry Cream Cheese Squares are a breeze to make and make a big batch to boot. Next time you’re looking for a crowd pleasing dessert, you’ll know just what to bake. I’ve officially been a working woman for a month now. It’s weird. I feel like I can finally cash in my responsible adult card. Like when I go to my next…

What’s a chocolate revel bar? Crispy, chewy, creamy, fudgy, chocolaty, oatmeal and everything good bars! These chocolate cookie bars go by the name of Chocolate Revel Bars, but in my house we call them something different…rebel bars. Once you hear the story, I’m sure you’ll agree that chocolate rebel bars totally wins out. I made these for an after school snack for my kids not too long ago. As my oldest son was devouring one, he said, “I can’t remember…

Part cherry pie, part coffee cake. Elegant and easy.  A time saver for when you have to feed a crowd, that’s the best way to describe these Cherry Almond Squares. Well there’s no denying that we are heading into the holiday swing. For many of us, that means lots of family gatherings, carry in dinners, holiday programs and open houses. You know, along with all your other responsibilities. It’s a busy, busy time. Now more than ever, the kitchen is…

Okay, I’m just going to be real with you guys. Today I had a ginormous reminder of one of the main reasons I wanted to start a recipe blog… Imperfection. Say, what? How could imperfection be a motivator for starting a blog? Well for a while I told myself that I was not smart enough to learn how to run a website, that I was too old, that I wasn’t pretty enough to run a recipe blog or put my…