Liam is nosy. If it moves, makes noise, stands still, is colorful, lacking color, or not visible to the naked eye, he stares at it. He even has conversations with things around the house, like our shiny doorknobs and the corners of any room. Once his sight began to expand and his focus developed, we knew we needed to give him a mobile to focus his attention. However, every mobile…
Breakfast in bed. Airports. Extended vacations at the lake house. Snow days. Christmas morning. These are some of the things that come to mind when I think about cinnamon rolls. They are the comfort food of all comfort food. A Cinnabon cinnamon roll is the greatest indulgence when you’re waiting at the airport. You can’t just walk by the store, smell the warm cinnamon and sweet icing, and not buy…
Cheesecake and I have a love-hate relationship. It’s not that I don’t like to eat cheesecake, I love it, but I fail at baking it. Towards the end of Fatima’s pregnancy, she started to crave cheesecake. A few Magnolia Red Velvet Cheesecakes later, she still had her cravings. Even after our son was born, the cheesecake cravings remained. She was looking for a true New York Style Cheesecake. Fatima says the best…
My favorite part about baking cookies is eating some of the cookie dough. Our friend, Stephanie, took us to a place called DŌ. It’s a shop dedicated to edible cookie dough. I fell in love. Since that visit, I haven’t had a chance to go back. Instead, I made my own edible cookie dough. Surfing Facebook one late night of trying to soothe Liam, I stumbled upon an edible cookie…
My mom’s favorite cake is carrot cake. With her birthday coming up, I thought I’d find a delicious recipe to try. Spoiler alert, it’s delicious. I was so hesitant to dive into a carrot cake recipe because it’s very easy to ruin. They can be too dense, too dry, too much carrots (ironic), and full of unwanted fruit. The worst one I had was filled with giant, juicy raisins. Yuck!…
I’ve never been able to make rings, until now. Every attempt leads to failure. While looking for something to make for our cook-in dinner, I consulted our Cravings cookbook and I landed on these onion rings. Lilies and Loafers has affiliate relationships, so we may get a small share of revenue from your purchases. Items are sold by the retailer, not by Lilies and Loafers. Since we were staying in for Fourth…
Since The Chew was cancelled and is currently living off repeats, our new favorite show is The Kitchen on Food Network. About a month ago, Jeff Mauro showed off his No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie. As the segment went on, we found ourselves drooling over it. We had to make it. When it’s hot out, it’s annoying to turn on the oven. Even with the air conditioning on, when the…
Happy Birthday Harry Potter (and J.K. Rowling)! We recreated the birthday cake Hagrid gave Harry on his eleventh birthday in first feature film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. This cake makes the perfect addition to any Harry Potter party you’re throwing today. So how did we make this Harry Potter Birthday Cake? Fatima and I love Harry Potter. When the books first came out, I remember going to Barnes and Noble…
This Cookie Monster Cheesecake was originally published on June 7, 2013. We updated the photos and made a few edits to the story below. “C” is for cookie! Cookie Monster is my favorite Sesame Street character. Maybe it’s my love for the color blue or the addiction to chocolate chip cookies, but we were destined to be best friends. I couldn’t tell you how many Cookie Monster stuffed animals I…
The last meal Fatima ate as a pregnant woman was a plate of eggs, home fries, and a cinnamon roll. It was Mother’s Day and I wanted to make her a Mother-to-be’s Day breakfast. She had a craving for home fries, so I whipped some up. I can’t eat at a diner without a side of home fries. Neither can Fatima. She loves anything you can make with potatoes: french fries,…
This post on Iced Coffee Cubes was originally published on July 30, 2012. It has since been updated with new photos. Do you hate when your iced coffee gets watered down the ice cubes? Why not make some iced coffee cubes so that your coffee will never get watered down again! Sometimes you just want iced coffee. I’m usually drinking iced coffee all year long. And sometimes your coffee just…
When a heat wave strikes, you must do anything you can to cool off. Being stuck inside with air conditioning gets old. So head outside with these watermelon basil margaritas to keep you cool. The last time we made watermelon margaritas was in the heat of late July in 2012. We were vacationing at my parents’ lake house and we could not cool off. Swimming in Lake Winnipesaukee worked, but…
This Hummingbird Cake post was originally published on May 14, 2012. It’s been updated and refreshed with new photo. This weekend, I attempted to make a Hummingbird Cake. It has pineapple, bananas, walnuts, and lots of sugar! I first had hummingbird cake from Magnolia at work. I fell in love. Since then, I’ve wanted to try to make one. So what better time to try, than for Mother’s Day! After making a fabulous…
Happy almost Mother’s Day to all moms, mother figures, and soon-to-be moms! Knowing the baby could come this month is surreal. As we get closer to our due date, the word, parent, is starting to set in. But before my wife brings our little one into this world, I organized a maternity shoot for her. A few weeks ago, Fatima said that she never got to enjoy looking pregnant. Besides her bumpies…
The next Marquisrita is here and ready for you to try. This Elderflower Margarita has a bright taste of spring. While St. Germain is the obvious choice, I used elderflower cordial. We had a bottle from the lemon elderflower cake, and I wanted to experiment with cocktails. Lilies and Loafers has affiliate relationships, so we may get a small share of revenue from your purchases. Items are sold by the…
Over the last two years, we talked about wanting to order an ancestry kit. As our pregnancy progressed, we thought more about our ancestry, health, genetics and how all of this will affect our kids. We reached out to 23 and Me and they sent us two complimentary Health + Ancestry kits. In my senior year of high school, we had to compile a life story (well the first 17…