Meyer Lemon Pudding Cake

I’ve been gone awhile. Sorry! School started again, I got more hours at work and my mom has been around cooking so I don’t have to. Life: it doesn’t always allow time for things like lemon pudding cake. Today though… I have all the time in the world. Okay. Not really. But time enough to make this fantastic lemony breakfast dessert.

I woke up this morning fully intending to make lemon ginger meringues…. and then I was lazy and made a Lemon Pudding Cake instead. It’s delicious. I ate half the pan. So much for dieting.

I love lemons. Lemon water, lemon flavored vodka, limoncello, lemon sponge pie (which is not what I made, but my mom made some the other day), lemon icing, lemon poppyseed muffins, lemon, lemons lemons. Even the word lemons is delicious. Leeeehhh-mons. This cake though? It’s heaven.

It’s spongy and pudding-y and would go excellent with vanilla ice cream if I had some. It glows; in that bright cheerful sunshiney way that all things with lemon do. It definitely makes my wintery day a little less wintery feeling. It’s awesome. You should make it.

I’m sweet and tart! Just like this mostly empty bag of lemons!

Whoopie Pies Are Love

Whoopie Pies* are kind of like a holy grail in my family. We talk about them with reverence and respect. We used to reminisce about vacations in Pennsylvania where they were a staple at the local grocery store. My mom tells me that my grandma made them for every school function she had growing up. I firmly believe that other than home made apple pie, whoopie pies are the food equivalent of telling someone you love them. With chocolate. And marshmallows.

It used to be that we’d take them to a potluck and no one would know what they were. “Whoopie Pie? What’s that?” Nowadays I guess they’re kind of in. And by in, I mean: they’ve been corrupted by Starbucks and Food Network. Don’t get me wrong, I love creativity and changing things up but whoopie pies were already perfect and you just don’t go messing with perfection.

If you’re one of those people who makes cute little mini whoopie pies with red velvet cake or someone who makes them “skinny”… you might want to proceed with caution. This recipe is the original, handed down from generation to generation of Pennsylvania Dutch women. It has butter. It has shortening. It has plain old Hersey’s Cocoa. It has real marshmallow fluff and bleached flour. It has bleached confectioners sugar and regular old C&H sugar. It’s indulgent. It’s gooey. It’s got ten thousand calories, I’m sure. But most importantly, it’s got love. And it is with love I pass this recipe on to you.

Granola Bars À GoGo

Let me tell you about granola bars in my house….

In my house, granola bars are eaten almost daily. We take them camping. We take them hiking. We store them in our cars. We eat them on the go and as snacks at 2 in the morning. I keep three or four in my backpack. Currently there are four Costco sized boxes of granola bars in my house. We buy Chewy Bars, Cliff Bars, Nature Valley Bars, Naked Bars, Fiber One Bars… if it’s a food item and it’s in granola bar form: we’ve had it.