Since moving to Ohio, almost nothing has gone according to my plan.

It’s been frustrating. It’s been humbling. It’s been worth celebrating.

This has been my constant prayer: Dear God, I’ve tried my best, but if today I lose my hope, please tell me that Your plans are bigger than my dreams.

One year ago, my dreams were to publish a cookbook. To work from home. To be a freelance writer…and to never be a teacher again.

But, God had other plans for me.

(I think this the best transition to ever exist…even though it hardly ever seems so right in the moment.)

And I can’t wait to see what comes next. Because right now is so, so good. Because I’m so, so blessed.

But the (hard) truth is this: I don’t know if it involves food or recipes or this place. I’ve been floundering here lately. I want to be here with my full heart…and I just haven’t been.

Writing this feels a little like a break-up…and I don’t want it to be that. I just want to tell you, I don’t know where this place is going. But I’m praying about it, and fighting hard to live a life where that’s always enough.

I hope you understand. I hope you’ll peek in from time to time. I don’t know what will be here, but I hope it will make you smile and bake and believe.

xoxo, Sarah

PS: Thank you all for your prayers and love. I think my awkward disappointment over feeling less inspired here lately overshadowed everything else. I’m confident and so happy that my purpose is in education, and love the job I’m working outside of this place!

Living in Ohio again has made me appreciate the sunshine so much more.

It’s also made me consider opening a window when it’s alllllmost forty degrees outside. I can’t decide if I should be proud of this or not.

I wish I could learn how to drink iced coffee in the cold now, and run somewhere other than the treadmill when it’s below…65 degrees. I could call these goals for next winter…but all my brain wants to think about right now is sangria and sundresses.

Some things change. Some things don’t.

Last year, I put jelly beans in popcorn. There were skeptics. And there can be again. It just means more chocolate for me anyways.

The only (right) way to deal with jelly beans is get the black ones out of the way.

Another jelly bean weirdness I have is I really only like the extra large jelly beans. It meant they needed chopped in half for this project.

Cutting jelly beans is sort of a sticky mess…in case you didn’t know.

But, everything else that’s happening here is simple. White chocolate is melted, spread thin and topped with jelly beans and peanuts (for just a hint of saltiness.)

Bonus. The bright jelly beans on the white chocolate makes this one of the prettiest foods in my fridge right now. (I know. That might not be saying much.)

I like the thought of serving this bark on a pretty plate this Easter. But! I also have plans for its leftovers. Just you wait.

PS: Happy Easter! I hope the risen Jesus is in your heart and home…and that you have hope always.

xoxo.

White Chocolate Jelly Bean Bark

1/2 pound white chocolate, melted
1 bag jelly beans (I used a 9 oz bag of Brach’s, and cut each in half)
heaping 1/4 cup peanuts

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. (You really only want to cover about half the surface of the baking sheet with foil.) Melt chocolate and spread over the foil. Immediately, drop chopped jelly beans and peanuts onto melted chocolate. Refrigerate until chocolate has hardened, ideally overnight. The chocolate should then pull easily up from the foil, and be broken into smaller pieces. Store in the refrigerator, in an airtight container.

In high school, I wore sandals…with nylons…in Cleveland February…on purpose.

It was the 90′s. (For six months.) It was also Valentine’s Day, and I had bought a pink, spring skirt from Express that only.looked.right.with.sandals. (I still hate these problems.)

I think there were clumps of ice stuck to my shoes/feet by the time I made it to my car in the far student parking lot.

Sometimes I’m just glad I’m a grown-up with more sense than this. There are taxes to pay and dishes to wash…but at least I can do this in snow boots.

I only tell you all this because I think my Easter outfit might involve a near sandals and snow situation, and it’s taking up a good portion of my worry brain.

This is really the only excuse I have for what happened here.

Things start with a pound of milk chocolate. I’m confident only good things can come from this sort of a start.

It’s melted, spread thin and covered with a generous heap of Easter candy. This looks like…the mix bag of candy bars (Twix, Milky Way, Snickers and Three Musketeers) plus pastel colored m&m’s plus salty peanuts…and a drizzle of white chocolate, for good measure.

I know…this is a lot of chocolate.

It hardens, and is easy to break into crazy shaped pieces. It’s really this simple…which is totally trouble.

I made a similar bark after Halloween, with all the candy that was leftover when it hurricaned during trick-or-treat. I really tell you this so you know…you could definitely just steal candy out of your kids’ baskets to make this after Easter morning.

You could also make it for the Easter baskets. Or for your face/sanity, which isn’t exactly in the play nice with others Easter rule book…but probably still somehow acceptable. Because you’re a grown-up. With outfit anxiety. Whatever.

PS: There’s enough to share anyway.

Easter Candy Bark

1 pound milk chocolate, melted
1 cup chopped assorted candy bars
1 cup m&m’s
1/2 cup peanuts
2 ounces white chocolate, melted

Melt milk chocolate. (I do this in the microwave, on 50% power, stirring every 30 seconds.) Pour chocolate onto a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, and spread chocolate thin, across the entire baking sheet. Immediately, drop candy bars, m&m’s and peanuts onto wet chocolate. Refrigerate until the chocolate has begun to harden, about 30 minutes. In a clean bowl, melt white chocolate. Drizzle over bark and return to refrigerator. Let sit to harden, ideally overnight. The chocolate should then pull easily up from the foil, and be broken into smaller pieces. Store in the refrigerator, in an airtight container.

Playing fetch in the sunshine…proved just how out of shape Hunter has gotten this winter. He limped around all day after this with a soft tissue sprain. I tried (miserably) not to freak out and realized just how attached I am to him. PS: I think he’s all but back to (crazy) normal now!

Apple slices + peanut butter + cookie dough. Best afternoon snack yet.

I dropped an egg on the floor this week. That was a mess.

A lot of you asked what the finished product of the map matted frames project looked like. This is it!

Coffee and puppy snuggles. I love this part of the morning.

Coconut banana bread with a streusel topping…might just get turned into french toast tomorrow morning.

There’s a Bible verse in my egg carton!

Also…not pictured: I ate a grilled cheese with butternut squash and caramelized onions at Tremont Tap House this week. (I probably want to eat fancy grilled cheeses for the rest of my life now.) Fudge brownie batter frozen yogurt also happened. I bought white corn tortillas at Costco and cant.stop.eating.them. I got so lost thinking about Easter desserts that I never shared anything with you beyond these cinnamon rolls. The good news? There’s good things to come!

(I mostly just told you all that to prolong folding laundry. Real life.)

I think I discovered the acceptable secret to outsmarting Monday mornings…or Tuesday through Thursday for that matter.

It’s cinnamon rolls.

Kneading the dough and waiting for it to rise is a Sunday afternoon dream. And the thought of a cinnamon roll and coffee breakfast is enough to wake up for even when there is freezing rain on the roof and a serious to-do list at the office come Monday.

I can deal with grown up life when cinnamon sugar is involved.

Another thing…I may have also discovered the secrets to the omgbestcinnamonrollever. (Sorry…sort of.)

Cardamom and nutmeg are combined with the traditional brown sugar and cinnamon filling in these rolls. It’s a simple addition that brings a lot of extra flavor. It tastes a little like fall..when we’re wishing for spring. Whatever.

These cinnamon rolls sit on thinly sliced apple rounds as they bake, infusing the dough with apples and creating a baked apple/cinnamon roll hybrid. I don’t like waking up for much on Monday mornings…but this is definitely worth it.

You should know. I wanted (a lot) to fold these apple rings into the cinnamon roll. It was a disaster. And after the cinnamon rolls baked I realized, it would have added a lot of apple juice to the roll, making it soggy. Some successes are totally accidental. Okay…most.

Example two. I only mixed the icing ingredients in the pot with the (cooled) browned butter because I wanted to eliminate an extra dish to wash. (The fact that I’m (finally) thinking this way is all sorts of impressive.) I know now that this is the only way to do it. All of the little bits of browned butter that otherwise get stuck at the bottom of the pan folded perfectly into the icing. Sometimes…I can’t even deal.

Do you have time for cinnamon rolls in your week?

Please say yes.

Apple Chai Spiced Cinnamon Rolls with Brown Butter Icing
adapted from Cooking Light

Rolls:
1 cup warm (100°-110° F) low fat milk
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/3 cup sugar, divided
1 packed (2 1/4 teaspoons) yeast
3 3/4 cup flour, divided
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
nonstick cooking spray

Filling:
3 tablespoons melted butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

2 apples, peeled, cored and sliced

Browned Butter Icing:
3 tablespoons butter, browned
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

To make the rolls, stir warm milk, melted butter, 1 tablespoon granulated sugar and yeast in the bottom of a large mixing bowl; let stand five minutes. Add egg and granulated sugar to the bowl. Stir in 1 cup flour. Let stand 10 minutes. Add in remaining 2 3/4 cups flour and salt, and knead using the dough hook of a stand mixer, for about 5 minutes. Place dough in a separate bowl coated with cooking spray, turning the top to coat. Cover and let rise in a warm area for 35 minutes. Punch dough down, cover and let rise another 35 minutes.

Roll dough out into an 18×11″ rectangle. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and spices. Brush dough with melted butter and sprinkle generously with brown sugar and spices. Starting at a short side, roll dough. Cut into 12 equal sized pieces.

Peel and core apples. Slice into thin rounds and place in the bottom of a greased 9×13″ pan, in 12 stacks. (You should get a few slices in each stack.) Set a cinnamon roll atop each stack of apples. Cover the pan and let it sit in a warm area, allowing the rolls to rise for an additional 35 minutes.

Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 25-28 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the icing by browning butter, and removing from heat to cool entirely. Whisk in heavy cream and vanilla extract, then powdered sugar. Drizzle generously over rolls immediately upon removing from oven. Serve warm, or store overnight in the refrigerator and reheat the next morning.

Pretzel bacon grilled cheese. (It’s as good as it sounds.) Also…I love days at work that are short enough for a late lunch at home.

New theory: Any day with sunshine is fair game for frozen yogurt. Wind chills aside.

Serious questions.

Still not acclimated to winter. This is how he sleeps when he’s cold.

Clean out the fridge pizzas end up with less pepperoni. There’s also shredded chicken and veggies hiding under the cheese.

Using Phoenix maps to matte pictures of my life there. These are hanging all over the hallway in my house. I love it.

I tried really hard to take a picture of the corned beef sandwich I ate for dinner tonight. I just couldn’t make it look attractive. You win some you lose some, I decided. I also made cinnamon rolls this afternoon…it was the winning part. I’ll tell you about them this week!

Fact: This could definitely be considered dinner. Just add a glass of red wine. Maybe a bottle? It’s almost the weekend. These are acceptable things.

It could also compliment a pasta meal. At a grown up dinner party…or a date night.

I like this sort of simple versatility.

Here’s another thing. Last summer, I made a galette with fresh strawberries and blueberries in my cast iron skillet. It was a back patio dessert on a warm night. I think I was waiting for this exact perfect summer moment to make a galette again.

And I realized…life isn’t all about waiting for summer. It’s for making snowmen and fires in the fireplace and savory galettes. (Even if it is March.) It’s short, but it’s ours everyday.

The dough base of this galette is puff pastry. (Because it’s delicious. And we’re working with simplicity here.)

It’s filled with a generous amount of garlic, ricotta and parmesan cheese.

The edges fold up, are brushed with egg white and the entire pastry is covered in mozzarella cheese.

Anything with this much cheese can only be good. (It’s a definite fact.)

Garlic Bread Galette

1 puff pastry rectangle
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
2-3 teaspoons garlic powder
2-3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1 egg white
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Unfold one (thawed) puff pastry rectangle onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and set aside. In a small bowl, combine ricotta, garlic and parmesan cheese. Spread evenly across puff pastry, leaving about a 1″ border around all edges. Fold the empty border of dough over, onto the ricotta mixture. This doesn’t have to be perfect or exact; you’re just creating a crust. Brush the edges of the dough with egg white, and top the ricotta with shredded mozzarella cheese. (Leave most of the crust cheese-less). Bake in a preheated 375° oven for 25-30 minutes, or until dough is golden brown. Let cool slightly before cutting and serving.

I got ridiculously excited about finishing this chevron necklace board over the weekend and sharing it with you…and sort of forgot about the rest of my week. Oops.

This animal loves being lazy and also sunshine. (But not having his picture taken.)

Confession: So do I. (Coffee on the front stoop at my parents’ house.)

I’ve been making cookies with melted (not softened) butter and an extra egg yolk. It makes for a cookie with a softer inside…which is probably the best thing ever.

In addition to losing an hour of sleep on Saturday night, we had friends over, and somehow got involved in drinking red wine out of pilsner glasses. Not classy. Also…not smart.

I’m (surprisingly?) not big on repeating recipes, but this tater tot breakfast casserole is worth it. PS: It involves a lot of eggs.

I (not so secretly) love that Hunter follows.us.everywhere. Even when he ends up on the painting drop cloth.

One more thing on my heart this week is this: You reveal who you are by what you do with what you have. {Be more than kind.}

Pinterest and my new house have been inspiring me to get out of the kitchen and get creative lately.

This is equal parts excitement and trouble…because while I’ve mostly mastered butter and sugar, I probably shouldn’t be trusted anywhere near a saw (yet). Instead, I’ve learned to enlist the help of my husband, and solve problems like a ball full of tangled necklaces DIY style.

I’m still making pancakes (a lot). But I’ve realized there’s time for other projects too. Also…I might be obsessed with this chevron design. No bigs.

This is the story of one piece of wood (okay…and a few other materials too) turned necklace hanger.

It involves sawing and drilling and painting. I knew the basics of this. My husband used the power tools and measured the angles. (It turns out Geometry is still a nightmare.) Also…he helped with the step-by-step directions below. Together, we tried to make this project simple for you. Because even if there’s not actually sugar involved, I like to think I’m inspiring you to make something pretty…that you can actually make.

My latest Target list includes things like sprinkles and rubber cement…which means I’m not over this projecting business yet. I can’t wait to show you what’s up next!

Chevron Necklace Board

Materials:

1×6″ hardwood board, 24 inches in length (The actual size of this wood is 3/4″x5 1/2″, but commonly referred to as a 1×6″.)
6 cabinet knobs (screws are typically included; double check the packaging)
paint: two colors (a sample paint size of each is plenty)
sawtooth picture hangers (3)

Tools:

saw (optional)
sandpaper (150 grit)
ruler
drill
combination square
pencil
paint brushes
painter’s tape (1″)
hammer
level (ideally, for hanging)

Directions:

If necessary, cut your board down to 24 inches. (You can do this at home with a saw, or a home improvement store can do it for you.) Sand the board to smooth out any rough edges. (Remember, any flaws you see after sanding will NOT be hidden by paint.) Using a ruler, measure the location of each knob and mark each in pencil. For six knobs, starting two inches in from the end of the board, make your first mark. From that mark, make another mark every four inches. This will leave you with two inches at either end of the board, and four inches between each knob. Be careful to center each mark top to bottom.

Drill a hole at each mark. The drill bit size will be determined by the hardware you’ve purchased. You’ll want to drill a hole all the way through the board, the same thickness as the screw included.

Then, to countersink the head of the screw (so that it’s flush with the wood), use a drill bit that is the same diameter as the head of the screw. Carefully drill about 1/8″ into the back of the wood at each hole.

Paint the board. Cover all sides, but use multiple coats on what will become the front and sides of your board. Once all coats have dried, measure and tape off the chevron design. To do so, make a dot that is 1/2″ down and 3/4″ in from the top left corner. From there, make a dot every three inches across the board at the same 1/2″ down. This will leave you with one straight line of dots across the board. Make a second row of dots that is 1 1/2″ below the first, which will be 2″ from the top of the board. Repeat this pattern with additional rows, until you’re off the board. These dots will serve as a guide for the points of your chevrons. Using the 45° angle of the combination square, draw the chevron lines. They will be 1″ thick lines, which is often the thickness of the combination square’s ruler. (PS: I recommend practicing this on paper first.)

To prepare to continue painting, tape off every other line. Firmly press down the tape to insure the paint doesn’t bleed through, and paint a thin first coat. Repeat with two heavier coats of paint. Let dry completely before removing painter’s tape. If necessary, touch up any edges.

Run the screws through the back of the board and attach the knobs, tightening them down by hand. Affix three sawtooth picture hangers, evenly spaced across the top of the back of the board. Hang using small nails.