I’ve recovered from my holiday sugar-coma just in time to share a delicious muffin recipe for your Galentine’s Brunch, Valentine’s Day breakfast, or for any brunch all year round.

Nutella swirl donut muffins. And oh, did I mention that they’re also STUFFED with Nutella?

Quick disclaimer: I baked these for the brunch and forgot to take real pictures of just the muffins, so you get to see my iPhone picture taken at 2am and then some silly pictures of me posing with a muffin because who doesn’t pose with them?

My cousin hosted the most beautiful Galentine’s Day brunch this past weekend, complete with mini red velvet pancakes, ham and egg cups, scrambled eggs, heart shaped bacon, kale salad with pomegranate seeds, grapefruit mimosas (!!!!), and sangria. Oh! And my Nutella swirled muffins, of course.

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I have returned from my (unintentional) winter hibernation with a very important question – is it fudgesicle or fudgsicle? I almost just called these Fudge Pops so I didn’t have to worry about the spelling, but they feel so much more like fudgsicles aka my favorite kind of popsicle there is.

Speaking of popsicles, it is currently POPSICLE WEEK! Every year I see all my favorite bloggers blog about delicious popsicles and every year I have popsicle envy. I want to make them and I want to be a part of it. Well, this year I am! I finally bit the bullet and bought a popsicle mold which I am SUPER excited about. I can only imagine the kinds of popsicle coming our way – raspberry and rosé, raspberry and champagne, moscow mule, berry pops, cake popsicles (with like a fudge swirl and sprinkles through it) and… I have a list. I’ve had one every day so far this week and it’s the perfect way to have something sweet while it’s too hot in my 4th floor apartment in NYC to put the oven on. Not to say that I don’t still bake, but it’s a nice change not to be sweating while cooking something.

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Date completed: April 9, 2015
Parks visited: Grand Canyon National Park & Zion National Park

When I was coming up with my 30 before 30 list, I had to add “Visit Grand Canyon” to it. I had never been and it seemed like one of those places you HAVE to visit. Plus, at the time of writing the list, I lived in Los Angeles which is way too close to the Grand Canyon NOT to put it on the list. Another thing? I wanted to/want to visit other National Parks because there is SO much of this country that I haven’t seen.

Back in April, I moved back to the east coast from Los Angeles [THAT WAS ALMOST A YEAR AGO?! Slow down tiiiiiime]. I had been thinking about the move for awhile, and I finally decided to do it. My mom and I spent some time debating if I would ship everything (including the car) back east or if I would drive across country. Once we crunched some numbers, price would be about the same either way but the fun factor of a cross country road trip was too good to give up! Continue reading →

Today is one of my favorite days of the year – reveal day for the Food Blogger Cookie Swap! This is my fourth year participating which just seems crazy. It honestly feels like it was maybe two days ago that I told you all about pepparkakor or like it was yesterday that I sent out my grandmother’s butter cookies. But nope. That was 3-4 YEARS ago.

But first things first. Let’s talk about these cookies. You know how there are certain foods that bring back memories? Well, pretty much anything my grandmother Eileen (or as the rest of the family calls her, Mom-Mom) has ever made brings back memories. I mean, I remember most of things I’ve eaten but I also remember the memories surrounding the food. I can remember a random day I stopped by to say hi on my way to the stables and my grandmother made me a little english muffin open faced sandwich with chicken and cheese. So simple but so good. I remember the summer we lived with my grandparents and how on special mornings we would have waffles she had made and how that summer felt like summer camp. I remember the countless dinner parties she hosted, whether just for the huge family that we have on my dad’s side or the annual Christmas party where she cooked for 50 people and made it look effortless. My favorite appetizers will always be the little chips with sour cream, salmon, and capers. I used to just stand by that platter and devour them. Sometimes I would help her serve appetizers and I remember feeling like such a grown up then, even though I was still in my teens.

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I know this is the least Halloween type thing but I’ve been sitting on this post for WAY too long and I neeeeeeeed to share this with you.

This is the breakfast I’ve been eating every morning (unless I’m not at home) since I got back from Sweden in August and started making this myself. It’s homemade, there is no added sugar (if you get coconut flakes that are unsweetened), and it’s good for you!

I’m obsessed, to say the least. I don’t want to put down in writing how many batches my mom and I have gone through. Hint: It’s a lot.

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Sooooooo I have a confession. This recipe/post has been sitting in my drafts folder basically since April 1.

I know that’s a long time to be holding out on you and I have no excuses for you, but OMG is the wait worth it. These brownies will definitely be making a more regular appearance in my party rotation. And while I’ve missed every appropriate holiday to share these for since April (Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, summer BBQs, summer birthdays, summer bonfires, etc), I thought that as the weather is starting to cool down, we could all use one last “hurrah!” for an AMAZING summer.

Speaking of summer, I can’t believe how much traveling and running around I did. It was SO needed and so lovely. I’ll be writing recaps of everything soon (including, still, my cross country roadtrip from April. insert embarrassed emoji here please). But first, I need need NEED to share these brownies.
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Welcome to the new and improved and grown up version of Confectionary Tales of a Bakeaholic!

AHHHHHHHH I HAVE A DOT COM WEBSITE!!!!!!

Ahem. Now welcome to the grown up version.

I seriously feel like it’s Christmas morning and I have been itching to show off this new website for about a month now! The only problem was that I had a lot of back editing to do, making sure links weren’t broken (and I’m sure I missed a ton anyway) and then I was off in Sweden for 2 1/2 weeks with no computer.

So, without further ado, welcome to my new site. From first glance, it’s very similar in layout and I’m sure I’ll be making various changes and tweaks here and there, as I notice things I’m missing. You’ll see the header, with my blog title, as well as a fun tag line that my Aunt Elena came up with one night at dinner. With the hundreds of pounds of sugar I’ve gone through, I’ve definitely been “Living the Sweet Life”. Continue reading →