Watermelon Basil Lemonade

Watermelon Basil Lemonade

This watermelon basil lemonade was one of my favorite recipes I made this summer! Watermelon and lemonade are both refreshing on their own, but combine them together!? It is a whole new level of refreshing to say the least. To spice things up, I added some homemade basil simple syrup for added flavor. Not only is this recipe easy to make, but it also takes minimal time to make as well! 

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Spiked Strawberry Ice Cream Soda

Spiked Strawberry Ice Cream Soda

These colorful drinks are perfect for a summer afternoon by the pool or even as a dessert on a warm night. The drink is made up of strawberry ice cream, club soda, orange juice, and rum. The strawberry and orange flavors burst of summer, and the club soda adds the perfect amount of fizz. If you wish to have a non-adult ice cream soda, you can of course leave out the rum! These drinks are incredibly easy to make…

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No Bake Key Lime Pie

No Bake Key Lime Pie

This No Bake Key Lime Pie is the perfect recipe for those hot summer days! The base is a buttery graham cracker crust. The filling is made by beating mascarpone and sweetened condensed milk, adding lime juice, and folding in whipped cream. Once transferring the filling into the crust, freeze the pie for a few hours or overnight, and then it’s ready to eat! The recipe really is that simple to make, and the best part is that you don’t have to turn on the oven in the summer heat! 

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Homemade Cronuts with Lemon Glaze

Homemade Cronuts with Lemon Glaze

Like croissants, these cronuts consist of buttery, flakey layers. (I enjoyed eating these cronuts layer by layer!) Deep fried, these cronuts have a crisp exterior, while the inside remains soft and delicate. The donuts are rolled in sugar and topped with a lemon glaze. Each donut is rather tall as you can visibly see from the exterior the endless number of layers within. And of course, don’t forget about the donut holes! In reality they look nothing like traditional donut holes because the numerous layers expand as they cook, creating a caterpillar like shape. But they are just as delicious as the cronut.

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Peach Raspberry Galette

Peach Raspberry Galette

Back to school time also corresponds to nearing the end of peach season. But before that season passed, I squeezed in this Peach Raspberry Galette. A galette, or crostata, is a freeform pastry, or as I like to describe it, it is a flat pie. They are easy to make, and have a beautiful presentation. Making the dough can be the difficult component to the recipe, but if you have a food processor, it is significantly easier. If you don’t though, don’t worry, I don’t either (because girl doesn’t have any more space in her tiny kitchen) and I was still able to make it by hand without issues. After rolling out the dough into a large circle, you will top the middle with the fruit, fold up the sides, and then toss it in the oven. And that's it! The galette crust is flaky, while the inside is filled with sweetness from ripe peaches and raspberries. To balance out some of the sweetness, the fruit is tossed in a dash of cardamom, which adds a level of richness and depth to the dessert. This summer dessert pairs perfectly with vanilla ice cream, or you can keep it simple with a dusting of powdered sugar!

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Tuscan Kale Salad

Tuscan Kale Salad

Thank goodness it’s summer! But probably not for the reason that you are thinking. Last week our car started malfunctioning in that it wouldn’t go above 20 mph, sometimes even 10 mph. Obviously this makes it near impossible to drive in a city. But thankfully because it is summer and not snow-covered winter, we have been able to get around via our bikes. And we are even more thankful that we live close enough to our places of work that riding our bikes is easy. We carefully drove our car to a nearby Autozone to have the “check engine” code read. Unfortunately, while there were codes that they could pull, none of the codes would transfer to the computer to be read. We tried a different car shop, and the same issue occurred. Our only other option was to…

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Lazy Girl Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Lazy Girl Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Last Thursday was the official start of summer, and to kick off the season our sweet friends hosted a “retro-BBQ” for our small group. We spent the evening in their backyard, under café lighting, eating burgers and tots from old fashioned burger baskets, and enjoying some root beer floats. It is times like these when I am really excited for the day when Alex and I can buy a house, with a backyard of our own to enjoy. But in the meantime we will be enjoying lots of BBQing in our apartment complex’s beautiful courtyard. In addition to summer BBQs, these are the things that I am most excited for during…

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Mint Ice Cream and Brownie Layer Cake

Mint Ice Cream and Brownie Layer Cake

I’ve got another summer dessert for you all today! Well technically I would gladly eat “summer desserts” all year round (thanks to my giant sweet tooth), but the frozen aspect of this cake reallyyyyy makes it perfect for summer. This cake is very special to me. The recipe entered my life during…

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Strawberry Shortcake with Lemon Angel Food Cake

Strawberry Shortcake with Lemon Angel Food Cake

We recently had some very important visitors stay with us – Alex’s parents. The last time they were here they were helping Alex move in and we all went to his white coat ceremony, so it was fun to show them what our home looks like now and show off some of our favorite places around the twin cities. For anyone the comes to visit us, we always take them to…

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Roasted Strawberry Honey Ice Cream

Roasted Strawberry Honey Ice Cream

26. How do I feel about turning 26? To be honest, I’m not sure because most of the year I didn’t know how old I was…lol. I wonder at what point we stop keeping close track of our age. When I was little I ALWAYS knew my age, even down to the number of months I was. Maybe it’s once we are older than any law-restricting age? 16 for your driver’s license, 18 for voting, 21 for buying alcohol, 25 for renting cars without an “adult”. The word “adult” still baffles me. Technically I am considered an adult, but…

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Peach Almond Scones

Peach Almond Scones

We have a lot of adventures planned for the upcoming months, and I couldn’t be happier! Tomorrow I’ll head out to California to meet up with my husband, who was fortunate enough to spend the past couple days there and get some much desired rest and family time. We’ll be in southern California, where Alex’s family is located, catching up with friends, family, and attending a wedding. But the travel that has been the most anticipated is…

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Blueberry Honey Ice Cream

Well it’s Monday once again, and like most Mondays, it leaves us a slight longing for reliving the weekend that just passed. Lately I have been picking up extra shifts at the hospital to help save up for our big trip at the end of summer, which leaves little time off to rest. But this past weekend I had 3 whole days off in a row! Woohoo! I finished rereading the Harry Potter series, and now I really want to watch the movies again – but my husband says that the HP series is good just being watched once a year. Someone please talk some sense into him. I went to a Mary Kay launch party – and while I felt like an old adult, because my mom and her friends always went to Mary Kay parties, I did greatly enjoy the free facial and winning some prizes. But wow...

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