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Celebrations

Whether you’re looking for Holiday DIY projects or recipes for your kids, family or Christmas party, you’ll be able to find something for your celebrations right here. This category features all of our holiday ideas, rolled up into one, easy location. We cover Halloween to Christmas and New Year’s to Super Bowl. Our ideas are budget, family, and living-on-your-own friendly, and easy to follow. We’ve made every craft project and recipe featured here and our posts will let you know how much we liked it. Let’s be honest, we’ve loved pretty much everything. Leave a comment if you have one. If you’re looking for something more specific use our search bar or check out one of our niche categories. Thanks for stopping by, hope to have you back soon!

All Recipes/ Birthday/ Dad Bakes Cookies/ Dessert/ Family Fun/ Parenting

Spider-Man Sugar Cookies

June 21, 2022
Spider-Man Sugar Cookies

For Liam’s fourth birthday, he wanted to dress up as Spider-Man (aka Miles Morales). So our party theme was…Spider-Man! In addition to the cake, I made these Spider-Man sugar cookies. I had grand plans for more colors and shapes, but they ultimately boiled down to Spider-Men Peter and Miles, and the number four. I couldn’t find time to make these farther in advance, so I made them the night before. I…

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Birthday/ DIY/ Family Fun/ Parenting/ Side Dishes

Spider-Man Cake Toppers

June 18, 2022
Spider-Man Cake Toppers

For Liam’s fourth birthday, he wanted to be Spider-Man. Specifically calling out he wanted to be ‘Spin’ (aka Miles Morales) and that “daddy would be Spidey (aka Peter Parker). I told him that was a great idea, so we went all out. To theme the cake, I made these Spider-Man cake toppers. For his cake, I kept it basic. Liam wanted a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting. Boxed cake mix…

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All Recipes/ Comfort Food/ Lunch and Dinner/ Snacks/ Super Bowl

Buffalo Chicken Pockets

March 4, 2022
Buffalo Chicken Pockets

A previous version of this post for buffalo chicken pockets and buffalo chicken rolls was published in January 2013. We took new photos, updated some of the content in the post, and combined the rolls and pockets. Additionally, we removed our buffalo chicken pizza post. Instead, check this recipe out for fried buffalo chicken pizza! I’ve been wanting to redo photos for these buffalo chicken pockets for some time. It…

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All Recipes/ Breakfast and Brunch/ Celebrations/ Christmas/ Valentine's Day

Red Velvet Waffles

February 14, 2022
Red Velvet Waffles

A previous version of this post for red velvet waffles was published in November 2012. We overhauled the post with new photos, formatting, and text. If you don’t eat something red velvet on Valentine’s Day, is it even Valentine’s Day? We love our red velvet desserts (truffles, whoopie pies, icebox cake), and the perfect thing to wake up to on February 14th, besides cinnamon rolls, is red velvet waffles. This…

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All Recipes/ Celebrations/ Dad Bakes Cookies/ Dessert/ Valentine's Day

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

February 1, 2022
Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

A previous version of this post was published in February 2013, in which we attempted to make two different red velvet whoopie pies. One was not good and the other was delicious. We wanted to share our experience making both, bad and good. Since the photos (circa 2013) were equally atrocious, we removed our old posts, updated the photos on recipe we liked the most, and consolidated it all right…

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Celebrations/ Christmas

Christmas Card 2021

December 24, 2021
Christmas Card

Christmas Eve is upon us. I still have a handful of gifts to wrap, sugar cookies to make with Liam for Santa, a gingerbread icebox cake to make, and a bunch of things to prep ahead of Christmas breakfast tomorrow. I always remembered Christmas Eve to be relaxing ahead of a night of fun with family. For this year’s Christmas card, we wanted something chill and relaxing. We captured exactly…

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All Recipes/ Celebrations/ Christmas

Cozy Hot Chocolate Bombs

December 13, 2021
Hot chocolate bomb

With Fatima’s due date around the corner, we’re celebrating Christmas closer to home. One of the things I loved about last year’s Christmas, was the hot chocolate bombs I brought up to my parents’ house. This year I decided to try to make them from scratch so I could gift them to everyone in our family. Our first cup of hot chocolate this season was the Friday right after Thanksgiving.…

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All Recipes/ Autumn/ Celebrations/ Christmas/ Dessert/ Thanksgiving

Sweet Potato Pie

November 25, 2021
sweet potato pie

Reintroducing Fatima’s sweet potato pie. This post was first published December 11, 2012. Reposted with updated photos. Sweet potato pie is like music to my ears. Brian never had sweet potato pie so I needed to make him one. He’s had sweet potato fries, mashed sweet potatoes, but never a pie! Like much of my family dinner menu, this pie is a family tradition in my house. In the time…

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All Recipes/ Autumn/ Comfort Food/ Dad Bakes Cookies/ Dessert/ Thanksgiving

Apple Cider Doughnut Loaf Cake

November 22, 2021
Apple Cider Doughnut Loaf Cake

This apple cider doughnut loaf cake hits all the right notes. It’s not too difficult to make, it’s warm and spicy, has just the right amount of sweetness, and every bite screams ‘HELLO AUTUMN!’ Liam helped me bake this one. When I asked him what he wanted to bake, he said, “Let’s make pumpkin pie.” So proud that pumpkin pie was his first choice. When I said we were going to…

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All Recipes/ Celebrations/ Lunch and Dinner/ Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving Menu

November 19, 2021

Ready, set, cook! If you’re gathering with family next week and making a bunch of food, or cooking all your favorites for yourself, you’ve come to the right place. Fatima loves cooking for others and finds cleaning therapeutic, which makes the time off around Thanksgiving one of her favorite times of the year. If your family is like ours, you have carnivores, vegetarians, pescatarians, and/or vegans who might join us…

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All Recipes/ Healthy Living/ Lunch and Dinner/ Thanksgiving/ Vegetarian

Roasted Salmon and Vegetables

November 15, 2021
roasted salmon and vegetables

Every once in a while, we just get sucked into one channel for a few weeks. A little over a year ago, we were watching Food Network all the time. The last time we did that was during my entire parental leave with Liam. One day, I was watching GZ make a really delicious-looking meal on the Food Network. GZ was making a one-pan roasted salmon and vegetable dinner. The…

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All Recipes/ Autumn/ Dad Bakes Cookies/ Side Dishes

Holiday Baking Essentials

November 3, 2021
baking essentials

The most wonderful time of the year is here: Fall baking season. Pumpkin bread, apple pie, muffins, banana loaves, sweet potato pies, and all sorts of holiday treats to come. These are some of my favorite holiday baking essentials to get you through all the holidays from fall to New Years. Gadgets and Gizmos Pie dish – What is fall without a pie? Pumpkin, Apple, and Sweet Potato are our go-to…

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All Recipes/ Celebrations/ DIY/ Family Fun/ Halloween/ Parenting/ Side Dishes

Halloween 2021

October 31, 2021
halloween

I blinked and now it’s Halloween. This year’s Halloween costume goes underwater and focused on something that’s both mystical and haunting. The leaves are a little underwhelming this year, but there have been some great pockets of color in and around the city and the Hudson Valley. Last weekend, we hiked upstate to a farm we visted last year, DuBois Farms. They have THE BEST apple cider donuts. Yes, more…

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All Recipes/ Autumn/ Comfort Food/ Dad Bakes Cookies/ Dessert

Apple Butter Bars

October 13, 2021
Apple Butter Bars

It took me a whole year, but I’m finally writing about these apple butter bars. Finally getting around to this involved me being able to make them again. They are delicious. Unfortunately, I followed the directions and greased the pan. However, the entire sheet of apple butter bars glued itself to the pan. I should have used  parchment paper like the first time. Hence the floppy mound instead of cute…

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All Recipes/ Autumn/ DIY/ Family Fun/ Parenting/ Side Dishes

DIY Pumpkin Pillows

October 6, 2021
halloween pillows

It would not be a proper fall on the blog unless there were two new posts: a fall dessert and a DIY project. The fall dessert is on the way, but here’s the DIY project. These DIY pumpkin pillows are inspired by Pottery Barn’s Halloween 2021 collection. Over the summer, Pottery Barn released their Halloween collection. Two pillows caught my eye: a ghost pillow and a jack-o-lantern pillow. I wavered…

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