Coffee Break

Let’s catch up again today!

How was your Easter? We had a low key weekend. Family came over yesterday for an Easter egg hunt and we had a potluck style Easter supper including some favorites like scalloped potatoes, glazed ham, maple glazed carrots, roasted asparagus, and coconut cream pie. We’ve been so busy lately that we ended up purchasing the glazed ham to make the day a little easier. And, to be honest, it tasted better than any we’ve made before. Give yourself a break when you can, right?!

Last Easter, Noelle was only 6 months old and couldn’t really participate in Easter egg hunts. This year, she was ALL about it and found 6 eggs! We’ve been practicing for weeks. I hid eggs around the house and she squealed with excitement when she found one. The sparkle in her eyes is absolutely priceless. Best part about Easter this year!!

I also made easy cinnamon rolls for breakfast and served mega large soft chocolate chip cookies, too. I added an extra 1/4 cup of chocolate chips and used 1/2 cup of cookie dough per cookie. Bake time is about 20 minutes. Recipe yielded about 7.

They were huge and they were awesome.

Grief and guilt. They’re both a natural part of life and, unfortunately, we all experience them at some point. We’re mourning the loss of my grandmother, my dad’s mom who passed away last week. I’m lucky to have had two wonderfully loving and inspiring grandmothers. But losing both as an adult doesn’t make loss any easier. In fact, it’s harder because guilt and complicated emotions can take over. Should I have visited more? Called more? Sent more cards? And then you don’t only think about your own loss, but the fact that my father lost his mother and how it felt to say goodbye to her for the last time. It’s been a difficult few weeks for my family.

Noelle Update

Can you believe my girl is 19 months old? This bright-eyed girl is a ball of energy. To say she’s fun is an understatement. We’re constantly in a state of playing! In fact, I always joke that Noelle only knows 2 speeds: running and sleeping. This stage came at the perfect time of year because now we can burn up our energy outside. The weather is warming up and Noelle loves to discover everything in our backyard. Noelle’s Official Outdoor Activities: bringing mom and dad small rocks, collecting sticks, blowing bubbles, picking dandelions, “throwing” the tennis ball to the dogs, and riding in her wagon. It’s so nice to play outdoors, especially after a long and cold winter. I’ve never appreciated the start of spring more!!

She’s very chatty– wonder where she gets that from– and her favorite words include: pizza (pronounced pee-ZAAAA), yeah, and ball. She loves to snuggle on the couch, sit in your lap when you read books, and hide her stuffed animals in the cupboards. Oh, is that a frog in my mixing bowl?

We love to get out and do classes! We’ve done swim class and gym class. Now we’re in music class and I’m thinking of something new for the fall season when she turns 2. Do you have any suggestions? Might just stick with swim class and music class!

Monthly Newsletter

We’re bringing back the newsletter! We launched a weekly newsletter a couple years ago and when work began piling up, I put a temporary pause on it. I’m ready to ramp it back up and I’m switching it to monthly. (I have a lot of content ideas for it and weekly would be too much.) We’ll send it out at the end of each month beginning next week!

Some things we’re including:

• Latest behind the scenes happenings


• Photos of readers’ recipe creations


• Reader recipe reviews


• Sally’s Baking Challenge updates


• Current favorite baking tools


• Upcoming recipes!!

If you’re currently on my email list, you’ll automatically receive the monthly newsletter. If you’re not and want to sign up, use the form below. I’ll send you new recipes and recipe updates as I publish them on my blog. If you prefer, you can select to receive my new recipes weekly in a round-up instead of daily. This is a new feature we added! (If you’re currently on the list and want to switch to weekly, there is a link at the bottom of each email that says “get a weekly round-up.”) 🙂

Sign Up Using this Form

New headshots courtesy of my dear friend Megan Brodie Photography.

This is my favorite apron and I got it from Anthropologie. I also have the matching oven mitts. They’re even more gorgeous in real life! Cake stand is also Anthropologie, but I can’t find it online anymore. Can you tell I like their kitchenware?!

Sally’s Baking Challenge

Can you believe we are almost at our 30th Sally’s Baking Challenge? Expect big things this July! A monthly tradition I launched in 2017, the monthly baking challenge has become an enormous piece of my blog and business. There’s only a few days left to join the April Baking Challenge (dinner rolls). The purpose of the baking challenges is to have fun and try new recipes. No competition, just a fun group effort to try new recipes each month.

May Baking Challenge is coming next week, stay tuned!

Joining is really easy:

How to Join Sally's Baking Challenge

1. Recipe: On or around the 1st of each month, I publish a new challenge recipe. Sign up for instant email updates so you’re alerted as soon as a new challenge recipe is published!


2. Bake & Comment: Bake the recipe during that month, then come back and comment on the recipe and tell me how it went.


3. Share: Share your photos using #sallysbakingchallenge on Instagram or email me, tweet me, or upload a photo of your recipe to my Facebook page or Facebook group. By sharing your photo, you are automatically entered in that month’s giveaway, which is usually an Amazon $250 gift card. For a bonus entry, leave a review on the challenge recipe. There is always an alternate challenge recipe just in case you’re not into the recipe published. Here is a landing page dedicated to all things Sally’s Baking Challenge.

Some of your dinner rolls this month:

Sprinkle Discount

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you know I love Sweetapolita sprinkles. Rosie is graciously offering Sally’s Baking Addiction readers a special discount on them. Use code SALLYSBAKING15 for 15% off your Sweetapolita sprinkles purchase.

This sprinkle medley is called “birthday party.”

Pupdate!

The dogs are doing well, as always! Franklin turned 3 in February and Jude turned 11 in March. Remember when we got Franklin? What a little guy! The Quinn family birthday tradition is to enjoy birthday dessert on a special birthday plate. This, of course, must include the dogs too. I spread a peanut butter number on the plate and they lick it off. And as I type that, I realize how strange it is. Do you want to hear the sweetest thing? Whenever we go into Noelle’s room to get her up in the morning, Franklin comes barreling in at full speed and sticks his little nose through the crib slates waiting for her to get up. Noelle ALWAYS starts giggling. Makes my morning! I hope it never stops!

Updated Recipe Photos

One of my 2019 goals is to update old blog posts with better photos, new recipe videos, and/or added success tips. I love working on new recipes, but I also enjoy giving old posts a little facelift. Here are 4 posts I recently updated:

1. Chocolate Chip Muffins – Big bakery-style goodness. I added butter and sour cream for extra moisture and noted that in the recipe.


2. No-Bake Peanut Butter Bars – I made a slight recipe change here too. The peanut butter bars are thicker now!


3. Banana Scones – Banana bread in scone form! I slightly reduced the yogurt/sour cream. As a result, the scones are a little flakier.


4. Champagne Frosting – This is actually a recipe I’ve been using for awhile and finally created a separate post for it. Cheers!

I’ll let you know when I update more!

Baby Shower Desserts!

Our dear friends welcomed a baby boy in March and I was thrilled to help organize the baby shower a few weeks prior. I made a handful of desserts including animal cracker cookies, homemade brownies, and lemon bars. I’m also preparing the desserts for another friend’s baby shower in June. She’s requested confetti cupcakes and a fruity dessert. Thinking I’ll stick with the lemon bars since they’re usually a hit at showers! Have you ever hosted a baby or bridal shower? What are your favorite desserts to serve?

I think that’s about it. Thanks for reading and have a great week!

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