I’ll be honest – I hardly ever make a cake from scratch. While I love to bake and I often make lots other things from scratch (like bread, cookies and pancakes), for some reason when it comes to cake I usually reach for a box mix. I’m not sure why that is. Perhaps it was […]

Have you ever looked at the shape of a pretzel and thought “this looks just like a heart”? I never had until one day when it hit me, and I knew what I had to do – get out the chocolate! In just a few minutes, I had transformed ordinary pretzels into a heart shaped […]

When we visited Disney California Adventure last year, there was a special show at the time where Alice from the show “Alice’s Wonderland Bakery” led a cupcake decorating party. My daughter loved the party so much that she decided that’s what she wanted to do for her party – decorate cupcakes. Her birthday was months […]

For the past few years, I’ve decorated the same way every year. I have the same ornaments that go on the tree. I have the same tablecloth that I use. It’s the same. It’s tradition. I hadn’t planned on changing anything. This past year was different. This past year, my Christmas decorations were inspired by […]

My son is obsessed with LEGOs. We got him his first LEGO set when he was 3, and there was no looking back. Since then, that’s pretty much all he wants. While the types of LEGOs he wants change over time, his desire for new LEGOs does not. He’s even putting together 18+ sets now, […]

  Have you ever looked at the shape of a pretzel and thought “this looks just like a heart”? I never had until today, and when it hit me, I knew what I had to do – get out the chocolate! Here’s how I made Valentine’s Day chocolate heart pretzels: I put 1/4 cup of […]

    Need a last minute Easter treat or something to do with all those Peeps? Make these Peeps Treats! It’s a fun and easy twist on the classic Rice Krispie Treats but with a decidedly Easter vibe.   My son loves marshmallows and Rice Krispie treats, so for Easter, I just knew I’d have […]

It’s Christmas! Merry Christmas, everyone! I wanted to make a fun breakfast for my family out of cresent rolls. I had several ideas of what to do, but there’s only me, my husband and our 1 year old, so I didn’t want to make too much food. What did I do? I used 1 can […]

(This post was originally written in 2015. See update at the bottom. We are still loving it 8 years after we originally ate here.) My husband and I love the beach, and thankfully, so does our 1-year old son. A typical beach day for us used to mean stopping at Trader Joe’s to fill our […]

  Yesterday was my mom’s birthday. I gave her several suggestions about things we could do to celebrate, but she just wanted pizza. Originally, she wanted Pizza Hut, but when I told her about Masa, the Chicago-style pizza place in Echo Park that I heard about, she wanted to go there instead. I’m so glad […]