Coffee and Cannolis

One bummer about Valentine's Day being on a weekday is that it's not always easy to plan a fun meal at home (if that's what you prefer, like me!).  Especially a spectacular dessert to relax with after dinner, or after the kid(s) are in bed.  But it's V-Day, and of course you want something special. If you're wanting to make something for tomorrow and just don't have a lot of time, I suggest trying out this Nutella Gooey Butter Cake.  It's rich and decadant, like a good Valentine's Day dessert should be, but it's easy peasy!  The use of a store bought cake mix helps with that.  It does take awhile to bake and cool, but it's pretty hands off.  Let it cool while eating dinner and bathing the little ones! Nutella Gooey Butter Cake Ingredients: For the Cake- 1 18-1/4 oz. box Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix 1 large egg 1 stick butter, melted For the Filling -  8 oz. cream cheese, softened 2 large eggs, beaten 1 cup Nutella 1 teaspoon v

Happy Birthday to me!!  One thing you may not know about me based on my blog history is that I am a sucker for ice cream.  It's one dessert that is really hard for me to turn down.  Especially good quality ice cream, or even more so homemade ice cream!  Homemade ice cream really might be one of the best things in the world.  At least my world! Recently I had a strong desire to make some ice cream.  I asked Rob what kind he wanted and he asked for Snickers .  Well, I wanted something I haven't made before, but I didn't want to disappoint him, so while at the grocery store picking up some cream I stood in the candy aisle for a solid 5 minutes debating what to get.  I knew I wanted a combination of candy bars, and I'm pretty certain I discovered the best candy ice cream combination.  Ever!  Snickers.  Butterfinger.  Twix.  Boom.  That. Just. Happened. The ice cream uses a simple, though always delicious, vanilla base, and it's as easy as adding in chopped cand

Some things are so easy to DIY that you end up asking yourself, "Why am I just now doing this?"  Well, one reason is that some things seem like they'd be hard to make yourself, and other things you just have no idea it's even possible.  Vanilla extract was one of the things I had no idea you could even DIY. For a few years now I've been seeing more and more people making their own vanilla extract.  This winter I officially asked myself "Why am I just now doing this?"  Mainly it's because I kept forgetting to make my own.  Finally a few months ago I ran out of vanilla and needed to buy some. Upon seeing the price tag I immediately thought "Damn, I really need to make my own".  So, I promptly wrote Vodka on the shopping list I had with me (in the correct spot according to store layout , might I add) and bought some vanilla beans online while waiting in line to check-out.  Gotta love Amazon !  I couldn't forget about it this time, esp