Happy Father's Day!

I hope that each of you had a wonderful day celebrating the dads in your life. We got together with Mr. Jansson's family to celebrate both his uncle's birthday and Father's Day.

The weather was beautiful and we were able to eat al fresco. Mr. Jansson grilled some AMAZING ribs. Along with baked beans, salad, cornbread and potato salad - we were stuffed!

After opening up gifts, we had dessert (cause there's always room for dessert). I chose to try something new and fix hummingbird cake. I'd never made it before but I think it turned out pretty good.

All the festivities made me miss my own daddy! I was able to talk to him both yesterday and today but am really looking forward to seeing him in person (along with my momma and brother) in a few months. Can't wait!

Happy Father's Day all!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Wishing a very happy birthday to my wonderful Daddy! I am so blessed that you are in my life. I appreciate all the lessons you've taught me, hugs you've given me and laughs we've shared.

I love you and can't wait until our family vacation later this year. I hope you have a wonderful day and an amazing Father's Day tomorrow.

National Iced Tea Day

It was definitely a Monday. In fact, it was the kind of Monday where everyone was on my nerves and I was clearly the only sane, reasonable one with common sense. (Ever have one of those?) I couldn't have been more happy to come home and soak up a few moments of sunshine on the deck.

To celebrate national iced tea day, my loving hubby fixed me a peach John Daly and dang does it taste good! Thanks Mr. Jansson! Hope y'all had a good day. (Just another 4 days to go til the weekend. We can make it!) 

Dessert is coming!

Have you been watching the HBO series Game of Thrones? Mr. Jansson has read all the books and got me hooked on the show. Tomorrow night is the season finale. We've invited over a few of Mr. Jansson's friends (and their families) who've also read the books so that we can watch the show together.

For the occasion, Mr. Jansson is smoking a pork butt (yum!) and our guests are bringing their favorite side and/or six pack. I wanted to fix a new dessert and turned to Pinterest for some inspiration. I found this recipe for cheesecake cupcakes and knew I just had to fix these!

They turned out pretty good (and cute too)! I chose to top mine with an organic raspberry sauce. Cheesecake is Mr. Jansson's favorite and I consider him to be quite the cheesecake expert. He acted as my official taste tester this afternoon and liked them! (I always get a little nervous using our friends as guinea pigs with new recipes.) Here's to hoping they'll enjoy these cheesecake cupcakes as much as Mr. Jansson did.

Just in case the cupcakes aren't a hit (or our friends would rather have something chocolaty), I decided to fix one of my trusty stand by desserts, peanut butter pie. (I still haven't met anyone who doesn't like this pie and it's soooo easy to prepare.)

Hope all of you are having a great weekend and for those of you coming over tomorrow, I hope you come hungry!

Friday: Food with Friends

Late last week my department at work held a wedding shower for one of our coworkers who's getting hitched in a couple of weeks. As a sweet gesture of thanks, my coworker fixed a few batches of chewy lemon white chocolate cookies and brought them in for all of us. They were just delicious!

I'd never had anything quite like them. The chocolate and citrus made a really nice (and unexpected) combination. I might have had a couple before I asked for the recipe. She pointed me to The Baker Chick blog. What a find! Below is the recipe for chewy lemon white chocolate cookies that she used. Be sure to check out The Baker Chick blog for other wonderful looking treats!
Ingredients
1.5 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cups butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 TBS lemon juice
2 cups white chocolate chips
zest from 1 lemon
Directions
Preheat your oven to 375. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Beat butter and both sugars with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in egg and lemon juice. Gradually beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips and the lemon zest. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets for 3 minutes before moving to wire racks  to cool completely.

A big thank you to my coworker for bringing in these amazing cookies and for the heartfelt, handwritten thank you note. Best wishes to you and your hubby to be! Can't wait to see the photos from your big day.

New Twist on an Old Favorite

Bananas have been on sale lately and I've been buying bunches of them. Problem is, they ripen so quickly! When they begin to get overly ripe, I pop them into the freezer. I noticed over the weekend that my frozen, over ripe bananas were starting to pile up. So I decided to make some banana bread!

Y'all have seen my standard lightened up banana bread recipe before here. I wanted to expand on that and add in a fun twist or two. On the first loaf, I used my standard recipe with the addition of LOTS of chopped walnuts. I'm thinking it'll be delish for breakfast with a little butter and/or honey.

The second loaf was a touch sweeter. I added in some almond butter and dark chocolate chips to my standard batter. We've never had this combination before but it was pretty good. I packed up several slices for Mr. Jansson to take to work this week. I hope his coworkers enjoy! I know a couple of you have tried making this bread on your own. Did it turn out? Did you include any yummy additions? Let me know!