let’s talk about baked buttermilk donuts with raspberry glaze
let’s talk about baked buttermilk donuts with raspberry glaze

It may come as a shock to you that I am, in fact, still alive. It may be an even greater shock that I am still using my kitchen for its intended function. I promise to tell you why I’ve gone off the reservation at some point, but for now, I think we should stick to the donuts.

I had a lovely plan this morning to surprise my littles with homemade Mini Strawberry Donuts. Who wouldn’t love to wake up to that? Excellent plan until I realized that the recipe called for “dried strawberry bits”, which after further investigation, I concluded must mean freeze-dried strawberries. You guessed it. I was fresh out of freeze-dried strawberries this morning. Moving on, I decided to try Baked Buttermilk Donuts with Fresh Strawberry Glaze. Fresh out of fresh strawberries too. I also really couldn’t get past the fact that this recipe called for yeast.

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let’s talk about white beans
let’s talk about white beans

When I was a little girl, my grandmother had a woman who helped her out at home with cooking and cleaning. Mrs. Morvant made the best lima beans in the world. Her smothered corn was pretty damn good too. Anyway, I remember helping Mrs. Morvant shell the fresh beans that she would cook down forever. Her beans had just the right consistency, tasted a bit of whatever pig product she used to flavor them, and were seasoned to perfection. Like anything, I’m sure that these beans are better in my memory than they were in fact, but no matter, Mrs. Morvant’s limas left me with a thing for a nice big pot of beans. (Side note: If you have kids and have not read A Bad Case of the Stripes by David Shannon, you are missing out. It is about a little girl and some lima beans. You should definitely pick it up at the library.)

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reviewsadrienne robideauxbeans, family supper, kid friendlyComment
let’s talk about stitch fix (round 2)
let’s talk about stitch fix (round 2)

As I sit here typing this review, I am wearing the sweater that I kept from my first Stitch Fix installment. It is the perfect substitute for a t-shirt – soft, warm, but still looks like I bothered to get dressed. The tags are still on my other keeper, but in its defense, our temps are still in the 30’s and I’ve not yet begun wearing tank tops.

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lagniappe, explore, off topicadrienne robideauxstitch fix, explore, closetComment
let’s talk about gemelli with asparagus and mozzarella
let’s talk about gemelli with asparagus and mozzarella

I’ve previously mentioned my obsession with magazines. I’ve also previously mentioned my admiration of Martha Stewart. So it goes without saying that I have a backlog of Martha recipes that I pull out in a pinch. Except when I can’t find them. Anywhere.

This may have happened to me recently when I found myself at the grocery store completely uninspired and staring at the produce section. I had decided on swordfish for supper and could not for the life of me think of a side. Can we interrupt this blog post for a minute so that I can point out that there was no meal plan? None. I believe this was day three or four in a row that I found myself in the grocery with absolutely no plan for supper. Isn’t that why you started this darn blog in the first place? To be more organized and spend less time in the grocery store and less time thinking about dinner? Why, yes. Yes it is. This would be what we call a complete fail.

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kids, reviewsadrienne robideauxpasta, fish, asparagus, simple, kid friendlyComment
let's talk about stitch fix (round 1)
let's talk about stitch fix (round 1)

I’ll admit to being in a bit of a wardrobe hole. I want to dress like a grown-up, really, I do. Can we talk about how hard that is to do when you are either doing dishes or at the grocery or shuttling kids to lessons or cooking? You know what I’m talking about. I know you own more than one pair of yoga pants. And when was the last time you actually did yoga? You see what I’m getting at?

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explore, lagniappe, reviewsadrienne robideauxcloset, stitch fix, exploreComment
menu plan: weeks of january 25 to february 13
menu plan: weeks of january 25 to february 13

Guess what? I totally said I wasn’t going to include menu plans on the blog anymore and now here I am posting about a menu plan. And I'm not even posting it in the menu section! Aren’t you confused? To be fair, I’m not really writing a menu plan. I just wanted to give you a little head’s up about what we will be eating because I might be reviewing some of these recipes the coming weeks.

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lagniappe, exploreadrienne robideauxmenu, cookbooks, skilletComment
the review: monster cookies
the review: monster cookies

I spent a good portion of my formative years in Eugene, Oregon, or as I like to call it, Granolaville. It’s cool, though, because I have some good memories of eating tiger stripe ice cream at Prince Puckler’s (even the President ate here but he definitely could have made better choices in the flavor department), pizza and Mrs. Pacman at Mazzi’s, and of course, cookies at the Cookie Monster Company. So when I saw this post by I Am Baker on Instagram a week or so ago, I was smitten. (P.S. You really should follow Amanda. Good looking photos and a sense of humor. Kind of a girl crush going over here.)

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kids, lagniappe, reviewsadrienne robideauxbaking, cooking with kids, cookiesComment
the review: broccoli pesto potato skins
the review: broccoli pesto potato skins

When I was a little girl, let’s go with eight or nine or twelve, my grandmother used to take me into the city for lunch and a day of shopping every summer. I am now going to admit something downright disturbing. One of my favorite places to go was (wait for it) TGI Friday’s for potato skins. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when we stopped there. For real. Did I mention “the city” was New Orleans? That’s right. In the city of gumbo and red beans and Mother’s drip beef po-boys with debris and shrimp po-boys and fried catfish, I was excited about potato skins at TGI Friday’s. I know now that I am an adult that my grandmother either loved me more than life or hated food to suffer through that culinary disaster not once but mulitple times. I loved me some potato skins.

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kids, reviews, snacksadrienne robideauxpotatoes, vegetablesComment
on goals, expectations, and exploration

I’ve spent the last week, ok actually several weeks, telling myself that it is time to get organized. It’s time to make a blog plan. It’s time to make a human plan. And a meal plan. It’s time to write down my personal goals for the year. And my parenting goals. And the list doesn’t stop. 

You know how this goes. January 1 hits and everyone is talking about goals and personal growth and organization and words of the year. It is invigorating. Except when you are exhausted. When you are exhausted, the thought of making a plan is more than daunting. All the things just swirl around in your head. I’ll say it. I am exhausted. I am down right overwhelmed. I don’t even begin to know where to start.

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the menu: 2015
the menu: 2015

Happy New Year! I’ve been thinking about this blog quite a bit over the holiday “break”, and it turns out that I am still quite bored with menu planning. Yep. Total shocker.

I’ll continue to post our weekly menu plan on Pinterest if you are needing a little planning fix but I’ve decided not to continue to post the recipe links here on the blog. To the extent that we make something from a recipe that is not already online (which we will), I’ll try to post a review that includes where the recipe came from. Does that work for you? Excellent. It works a heck of a lot better for me.

Now, what am I going to write about? If you’ve met me, or read me, or been anywhere in a room near me, you’ll know that my energy and focus and attention span are all over the map. There are so many things that I want to do and to learn and to experience. I want to be all the places and see all the things. I want to paint all the colors. I want to cook all the foods. I want to bake bread. I want to make crafts. I want to speak another language. I want to open a beignet bus at the base of Bald Mountain. I want to get my kids to stop whining.

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the menu: Christmas Day
the menu: Christmas Day

We are skipping the weekly menu this week and heading straight for the main event. I mean, is anyone actually cooking meals this week other than one ridiculously big meal? Leftovers, kids. Or if that doesn’t suit you, let me point you in the direction of the cereal.

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the review: cinnamon bread
the review: cinnamon bread

I’m not a baker. I pretend for the sake of this blog that I am the best baker ever, but let’s get real. I’m not very good at it.

Despite this fact, I’ve been baking a lot lately. Sugar cookies for two hockey tournaments and a Nutcracker performance, gingerbread cookies and muffins for post-church coffee hour, and of course the twelve (!!) gingerbread houses that aren’t going to make themselves while I write this post. That may not sound like a lot, but I’ll bet I’ve made 10 dozen cookies and 4-5 dozen muffins in the last month. Oh. And I also made this bread.

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the menu: week of december 14

I’m beginning to think that it’s time to invest in a quality crock pot cookbook the way the schedule is going lately. Any suggestions? Honestly. Extra-curriculars every single day over the last few weeks. This week is no exception. We’ve had to move some things in the advent schedule around to accommodate for sports, etc. Oh! and because I am a crazy person (direct quote from my neighbor), we are having a party on Friday afternoon. Two parties, actually. The first is a gingerbread house decorating party for the little twins’ classmates. We are expecting at least eight kids, possibly 10. Because the house is already going to be a mess after that extravaganza, we figured we might as well invite the parents to stay for cocktails and snacks. And of course we added a few extra invites here and there for good measure.

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