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Creamy Chocolate Cherry Bars

After the first day of the bar exam, my brain is mush and I’m bone-tired from being up since 5am, but…my stomach and tastebuds are happy. Very happy. These luscious, creamy chocolate cherry bars were meant to be a post-exam present to myself (bars to celebrate the end of the bar…heh heh heh), but I dipped in early. I couldn’t help it! But it was so worth it — these bars are amazingly delicious, decadent, and so packed with chocolate-y goodness that I’m actually vibrating from the intense sugar/endorphin rush. Or maybe it’s the caffeine + lack of sleep. Whatever. One day of the bar exam down, one more to go. Here’s to almost being done with the worst two days of summer ever. Good luck, everyone!

When you think about “America,” what comes to mind? Freedom? The Star Spangled Banner? Mel Gibson in the Patriot? I think of pie. Apple pie, to be exact. Nothing is more American to me than apple pie. I mean, the saying “as American as apple pie” exists for a reason… The last time I made apple pie was, coincidentally, on a 4th of July…5-ish years ago. I really want pie when I got up that morning, so I rolled out some dough and made a fresh pie brimming with tangy-sweet apples and topped with a pretty lattice crust. It didn’t occur to me that this was the perfect Independence Day dessert until we went over to a friend’s place for a BBQ, and...

We bought the strangest bunch of bananas last week. They were green when we got them, which is fine, but what’s unusual is that they stayed green. We kept waiting for them to ripen and turn yellow so we could eat them, but…they just kept on being green until suddenly there were 7 very brown and very mushy bananas hanging out on top of the fridge. Ugh. I hate eating mushy bananas, but I refuse to let this tricky bunch go to waste. Lucky for me, overripe bananas are delicious when mixed into batters and cooked. The riper the better, actually, because it’s the really mushy ones that impart the strongest banana flavor. Mmm mmm mmm. My friend Karen was visiting from California this weekend,...

So, you may have noticed that I’ve been M.I.A. from this blog lately. Sorry about that! Things have been kind of hectic around here, and between all the traveling we’ve been doing, my bar exam review classes, and work, I just haven’t had the time or energy to cook and blog. It doesn’t help that I’ve sort of lost my cooking/photography mojo recently. This week alone, I overcooked a big pot of BBQ chicken one day, under-cooked a pizza the next, and mixed up a batch of blueberry lemonade that tasted great but looked exactly like dirty dishwater. I don’t even want to talk about what those pictures looked like. Ugh. In order to regain my mojo, I decided to go back to basics...

What happens when you buy a ton of strawberries and blueberries because you’re trying to get more fruit into your diet, but then forget about them because you have a busy week and don’t have time to pack lunch? You get a fridge full of sad, mushy berries, that’s what. Sad, mushy berries that need to be turned into something delicious ASAP before they get really gross. I had a really delicious raspberry crumb bar at a firm lunch last week. It was one of those generic, slightly-processed tasting desserts filled with jam instead of real fruit, but it was tasty and reminded me how much I enjoy fruity crumb bars. So, when I woke up this morning and discovered all those berries languishing...

So, it’s my birthday tomorrow. Usually I’m one of those really annoying 20-somethings that complains about birthdays being nothing more than reminders of my slow and interminable march toward the grave, but I’m feeling pretty zen this year. Life is good, no complaints here. So, instead of being filled with gloomy thoughts of mortality, I’ve been thinking about what dessert I want to eat on my birthday. If I had actually gotten lemon and lime trees last year like I had planned to, I would have a wealth of citrus fruits right now that I could turn into delicious citrus-y desserts. I didn’t, of course, so I don’t, and can’t. But Dan’s parents, who are awesome, heard me talking about wanting to cultivate fruit trees and bought us...

Dan in the Kitchen — Chocolate Chip Cocoa Brownies

OK, so two things about this post should blow your mind: (1) this is the only brownie recipe on my blog so far (how is this possible when I love chocolate as much as I do?!) and (2) Dan is back in the kitchen…baking…from scratch. Actually, if you know Dan at all, that second thing probably blows your mind three times over. It’s not that Dan doesn’t bake — he has, on occasion, been known to bake things. For example, there was the chocolate chip cookie cake he made me for my birthday when we started dating. (It was heart shaped and frosted, and super delicious.) And he sometimes made brownies for himself when he was living alone. But this is his first time baking without...

As a general rule, I don’t love cupcakes unless they’re in carrot cake or chocolate-form. Vanilla, especially, is a very “blah” flavor for me. I would never eat a vanilla cupcake voluntarily. They’re boring, and I’ve been forced to eat far too many over-frosted, over-sugared vanilla treats at birthday parties over the years. But these cupcakes…I would eat them again, and do it happily. They’re dense but soft, extremely moist, perfectly sweet, and packed with — dare I say it — wonderful vanilla flavor. So, why are these called “Strawberry Crepe Cupcakes”? Because that’s what I had in mind when I was making them, and that’s what they taste like. Sweet vanilla crepes filled with fresh strawberries and Nutella. Mmm, mmm, mmm. Purists might say that these don’t really taste like strawberry crepes, but that’s...

No, dear readers…your eyes do not deceive you. Those are, in fact, Oatmeal Cream Pies. Yup. Little Debbie is back, and she’s better than ever. These cakes are as delicious as they were when we were kids, but not nearly as sweet and processed — a fact for which your grown up taste buds and metabolism will thank you. I mean, you’re still going to want to inhale half a dozen cookies in one sitting, but at least you’ll feel slightly better about doing it. For more pictures and the full recipe, check out my guest post over at the new Mor.sl blog. And while you’re at it, check out the new Mor.sl website for great dinner ideas!

It’s hard to believe, but the three dozen Chewy Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies I made on Friday are almost gone. I wish I were kidding, but…there are maybe 10 cookies left in the jar. Yeah. Dan and I are gross. In a last ditch effort to exercise self restraint, I have packed away the remaining cookies and will be taking them to work tomorrow. (You’re welcome, Will.) If I can’t be skinny anymore, no one else can either! Just kidding, calm down. No one is going to get fat from those cookies. They’re “healthy,” remember? Ha…ha…haha…ha. Anyway, packing away the oatmeal cookies meant that Dan and I would be snack-less during the Oscars. That would be tragic! So, in a totally logical and reasonable move, I...

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Kid-Friendly

Creamy Chocolate Cherry Bars

Good Old Fashioned Apple Pie

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Dan in the Kitchen — Chocolate Chip Cocoa Brownies

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Oatmeal Cream Pies

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

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