Happy Monday! Lemon Olive Oil Honey Muffins

This weekend was relaxing.  It was all about the little things; the things that can make life simple.

It was full of bike rides and morning runs...

Paying with Baked Goods...plus Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Toffee

I can not tell you how excited I am about my new logo!  I mean I'm biased, but I think it is pretty freaking awesome.  I have to say a huge THANK YOU to Todd and Brian!!!  Brian the logo is perfect!  You guys are the best and there are definitely baked goods coming your way Brian as the gift basket above was delivered to Todd already.  

This basket was filled with Milky Way cookies, mini crumble apple pies, brown sugar bacon biscuits, seven layer bars, carrot cake cupcakes and dark chocolate salted caramel toffee (see below).  I had fun baking all of these goodies in one weekend...okay well that statement is kind of a lie...lets get real, washing dishes gets old.

Chocolate Raspberry Shortcake with Chocolate Buttercream

It has been kind of a crazy week, and am I super excited for my dad to visit this weekend.  Yes, somehow my dad is coming to visit Mother's day weekend...it happens...he has business in Pennsylvania and is stopping back through on his way back to North Carolina.  It should be a fun weekend, because my dad and I are the same in a lot of ways...

...we both LOVE food...the question that is always on our mind is "What are we going to have for our next meal?"...even if we just got done eating...seriously, no jokes

...we can also both be strangely OCD about cleaning...For instance, it drives me bonkers sometimes when I am done baking, and have a huge mess to clean up.

...we are both semi-outdoorsy as in we will go kayaking and biking, but have never really been all that inclined to go camping in the middle of the woods for more than a weekend...my backyard growing up as a kid sure...woods hmmm....

But this weekend should be fun and I always love when my parents come to visit!

Hey Thursday morning what's up?

This year in DC...May showers bring May flowers...

A pie fit for the races...Kentucky Derby Pecan Pie

Saturday was definitely one of my favorite days of the year to be living in DC...well the DC area because Gold Cup was this past Saturday in The Plains, VA.  Basically this meant that Krista and I hopped on a bus mimosas in hand and headed to the middle of nowhere for an afternoon relaxing, drinking and watching horses. 

Everyone was in their brightest colors, and girls tended have be wearing their sunhat of choice...and even though we had a few hiccups along the day it was definitely worth the ride.  

A day at the races...Virginia style

Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake...a great start to the day

Sometimes it can be the smallest thing that makes you think about something way in the past... 

Blueberries make me think of a blueberry pie and working at Lopaus Point Market during college...I may or may not have stuffed myself with delicious food all the time while working there...

Cinnamon rolls always make me think of Sunday mornings at my moms house growing up...

Belgian waffles make me think of when I was a kid and eating them with strawberries and Cool Whip...this goes all the way back to when my parents were together...somewhere around 4 or 5 years old...

(Can you tell a lot of memories focus on breakfast?  Have I ever mentioned its my favorite meal?  Growing up it was a special day when my mom made breakfast for dinner.)

Chocolate White Chocolate Chunk Hazelnut Cookies

This past week was a little nutty, a bit mixed up, a little bitter, but mostly sweet...kind of like these cookies.  Remember that flourless chocolate cake...well I had hazelnuts leftover and decided to make cookies.  Chocolate, white chocolate chunk, hazelnut cookies with a handful of semisweet chocolate chips thrown in for good measure.  They are chewy in the middle and crunchy around the outside and for once came out exactly they way I wanted them to.  They taste like a Ferrero Rocher Ball in cookie form.  Yummy and delicious, they were the perfect cookie to take to California.

A quick pit stop in Houston...then on to Orange County.