Modern House Minimalist Design

This is a wonderful truffle recipe just in time for Easter! Having owned and run my own chocolate business, I have many truffle recipes that would be suitable for Easter...chocolate peanut butter being at the top of the list. I am an avid Pinterest user though, and it seems like every other recipe for Easter is something chocolate peanut butter. I will admit, chocolate and peanut butter is a genius combination, but there is so much more to Easter flavor! So I am putting my Lavender Lemonade recipe into action! This is a good one folks. One of my top flavors at Zest Chocolat (my chocolate business) was dark chocolate lavender. This recipe plays off of that top flavor. One would think that white chocolate may be a better carrier for lavender and lemon, but I have chosen a dark chocolate. Yes, dark chocolate is my favorite, but it also goes really well with these flavors. It turns the truffle into something far more mature and exciting. This isn't your average Easter candy, it is on...

Everyone has their own traditions, but brunch is one that I think carries across the board. Who doesn't love to sleep in and then sit for a leisurely mid morning meal comprised of your favorite breakfast foods and bottomless coffee? I for one, am a HUGE fan of brunch! Andy and I have made brunch our unspoken tradition. It just morphed into being and is now a weekly tradition. When I say brunch, I mean homemade brunch. The kind where you sleep in, then the first person wakes up (Andy) and gets the coffee started while the other person slowly crawls out of bed (Me) to help with the grand production of cooking food. Yes, that would be our weekend tradition. Sometimes however, we opt to eat out out for brunch, but usually it is made at home. In our household, Andy is the brunch cook. I cook dinner a lot of evenings, so he takes over where brunch is concerned. He likes to play loud (sometimes techno) music and the kitchen becomes his canvas. He makes everything from fluffy pancakes, to...

  About a month or so ago Lillie and Lola had their first whoopie pie. I will eat one if it's offered to me but I am not an enormous fan of them so I was surprised at how much they LOVED them! The ones they first had were from Fresh Market so I thought it would be fun to make some homemade ones with them later that week. Over the last few weeks we have tried a few different recipes and here is what they've liked best (it's a mix of two different recipes with some minor alterations to each). For the cookie part we used a recipe from Cookies and Cups and very slightly altered it. She has a recipe for cake batter filling and cookie dough filling both of which I cannot wait to try! 1 2/3 cup all purpose flour 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 tsp salt 5 Tbsp butter – room temp 3 Tbsp vegetable shortening 1 1/4 cup light brown sugar 1 egg 2 tsp vanilla 1 cup buttermilk For directions on mixing them up and baking them up you can click here . ...

Back in my days living in South Korea I had a roomate who introduced me to baba ghanoush. She made it once a week and the three of us roomates enjoyed it together. It was a lovely time of hanging out and gorging ourselves on the Middle Eastern eggplant dip. She'd roast the eggplant in our little toaster oven and later while it was blending together with spices, she would heat up some french bread. We'd hover over our little kitchen table taking turns dipping the hot crusty french bread into the baba ghanoush. Those were good times! Now, as a quick healthy meal at home Andy and I often resort to making baba ghanoush. Aside from the time it takes the eggplant to roast, everything else is really quick and simple. We like to chop a bunch of vegetables for dipping along with bread or whole grain crackers. The leftovers make for a wonderful snack too. Ellie's Baba Ghanoush Recipe -1 eggplant (poked all over with a fork) -1/4 cup tahini (sesame paste) -juice of 1 lemon -1 Tablespo...

Last week I posted about these macarons that I made. Here is the follow up with a picture how-to. Enjoy!

Hi there and happy Tuesday night to you. Well, we are still digging out of the incredible amounts of snow we got over the weekend but a day of rain has washed some away and left the pristine white snow a muddy dirty color, not so attractive The storm gave me a lot of time (unexpected since we were supposed to be in Boston) on the computer, at home and just catching up. I watched the Grammys Sunday, because I love music for all its  many different genres and have to say it was a great one. I felt like everyone went the extra mile to look sophisticated and polished, and everyone seemed to be on their best behavior, for anyone that might have watched, did you feel the same? A lot of random thoughts to share today,  mostly girly girl things.....let's begin shall we! I can't help but think about spring and spring dressing. Being able to throw open the windows, spring flowers budding all over the place, dead grass giving way to newly sprouting greenery, that intoxicating spring air....