I used to buy pudding mix (chocolate, usually), mix it with milk, and eat it straight from the mixing bowl. Now I buy it to use in fruit dip or chocolate chip cookies. Knowing that it is so magical in the cookies, I was curious to see if it had the same effect on blondies. I had a few nearly empty bags of baking chips (white chocolate, chocolate, and butterscotch) and decided to throw them all in.


One Year Ago: Best of 2011-Pappy's Smokehouse
Two Years Ago: Parmesan Baked Artichokes

Pudding Mix Blondies
adapted from my Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies

Have you noticed that cole slaw is hit or miss? I’ve had some downright delicious slaws (most recently at the Cardinals game, actually) and then some that I find completely gross. This one—featuring a dressing made from orange juice concentrate, rice vinegar, and oil—falls on the delicious end of the spectrum.

My sister made these cookies for the Cookies & Milk Shower that we threw a few months ago. I stuck the leftovers in the freezer with all of my other leftover cookies, with plans to serve them at church the following week. The thin mints made it to church, the chocolate chip cookies made it to church, even the peanut butter butterscotch cookies lasted the week. These? These didn’t stand a chance.

Have you noticed that community tables are all the rage in restaurants lately? A nosy, people-watcher like myself loves this. Ryan’s always embarrassed because I’m always engrossed in the conversations around me and am sometimes less than subtle about my eavesdropping ways. Such was the case recently on a business trip to Seattle, when my friend Juli and I stopped in for dinner at Serious Pie, home of some of my all-time favorite pizza.

Much as I love the thin buns for burgers, they do make a sad looking burger picture. There’s just something more appetizing about a picture of a burger sitting atop a fluffy bun. Am I right? Don’t be fooled, though, these burgers don’t need a giant bun and a drool-worthy picture to prove their worth.

This isn't the first time I've dappled in a salsa featuring fruit. There's the ever-popular fruit salsa served with cinnamon pita chips and that time I topped salmon with a tomato peach salsa. In both cases, the salsa was more sweet than savory. This blueberry salsa broke the mold a little bit. You think blueberries, you think sweet, right? Add an entire jalapeno and suddenly you've got spicy blueberry salsa! Amazingly, the original recipe called for TWO whole jalapenos. I mistakenly only picked up one from the store, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise...our mouths were fiery enough with the addition of one!

Make a buffalo chicken themed appetizer and I guarantee it'll be the first to go. Well, I take that back, if you have this spinach and artichoke dip with bacon around, it might be a toss up. Point is, people tend to go crazy for anything buffalo chicken! I made these buffalo chicken cups for my sister Renatta's graduation party a few weeks ago and sure enough, these were the first to disappear from the spread of appetizers.

This ice cream is the color of red wine and at first glance, Chocolate Raspberry probably isn’t the flavor combination you’d assume. Grape, maybe, which might have been what Ryan was anticipating when I walked into the study and stuck a spoonful of it in his mouth before he had a chance to protest (a common occurrence in our household). His initial reaction was one of great surprise because, like I said, he clearly wasn’t expecting chocolate OR raspberry. Confusion quickly turned to satisfaction when he recognized the two flavors, which already have a history of pairing together wonderfully.

This is the type of meal that you serve when you invite friends over for dinner when you don't have a ton of time to prep and cook, but ordering from the local pizza joint just won't suffice. In other words, this pasta looks and tastes fancier than it actually is...always a good thing! Last time I was home, my mom and I spent most of the day prepping for my baby sister's high school graduation party. Dinner was the last thing on our minds, but we knew come seven o'clock the rest of the family would start lingering in the kitchen, questioning what was for dinner (Six years ago, this would have been me...entering the kitchen in time for eating only, no cooking!).

On this Father's Day, I hope you have the chance to celebrate the men in your lives who are fathers (and grandfathers and father-like figures and etc, etc!). I'm lucky enough to be spending time with my own dad, my grandpa, and later today, my father-in-law. My dad is one of my very favorite people and I couldn't be more proud to call myself his daughter. Dad, thank you for living a life of faith, of generosity, and of humor. I love you so very much!

Instead of sharing a new recipe with you today, I'm highlighting some of my restaurant reviews I've done for the University City Patch. I typically visit one new to me U City restaurant a month and write a review for the Patch. (Disclaimer, I'm no expert restaurant reviewer...I simply share my thoughts and experiences based on one visit! Take or leave my opinion!) This post is geared more toward my St. Louis readers, in the hopes that you'll check out some of the great restaurants St. Louis (University City in particular) has to offer. As for those of you who plan to visit St. Louis...and you should, we have much more to offer in addition to great food!, hopefully this post and my collection of restaurant reviews all around St. Louis will be helpful!

I hear from a tiny fraction of the people reading The Sweets Life on a daily basis. Thanks to things like Google Analytics and Feedburner, I have a pretty good idea of how many people are visiting each day or receiving my daily email...and very very few of those people leave comments or contact me via Twitter/Facebook/Email, etc. I don't mind--I don't often comment on blogs that I read simply because I'm too busy and if I were to comment on every blog post I enjoyed, I wouldn't ever have time to do my own blogging! That being said, it's always a treat to hear from readers...and so it was recently, when I finally met my mom's friend Chris.

There’s nothing like watching your husband eat a salad called The Thin Man while you chow down on a two scoop sundae completely with hot fudge and whipped cream to make you feel a little gluttonous. Such was the case a few weeks ago, when we spent the evening at The Fountain on Locust with our church community group. To be fair, Ryan helped eat my sundae after he polished off The Thin Man and I promise I ate a healthyish dinner before I arrived, not just the ice cream!

One year after buying my donut pan, I finally used it! Granted, I pulled it out to make these muffin tops, but for the better part of the year, it’s been clogging up space in my cupboard. The thing is, I’m not a huge donut fan. I think the occasional donut is enjoyable, but I find muffins and coffee cakes much more appealing when it comes to breakfast sweets. Donuts were all the rage around the blogosphere, which is what convinced me to buy the pan last summer. After finally using the pan, I’m starting to see why!

Sometimes our pizza combinations, like that awesome BLT pizza, are the result of recreating something I had in a restaurant. Sometimes it’s a matter of taking whatever ingredients we can find in the fridge and throwing it on a pizza that we then stick in the grill. This pizza went a little something like this:

Every time I plan to get on an airplane, I’m forced with a choice: do I refrain from all liquids before and during the flight, resulting in dehydration, or do I come to terms with being “that girl” that gets up every hour to use the airplane restroom? More often than not, I do my best to secure an aisle seat, make those frequent trips to the restroom, and try not to think about how gross airplane bathrooms are.

I struggled to photograph these little guys, but don't judge a food by how photogenic it is! In this case, let's blame the photographer, and trust me when I say these one-bite morsels are a new favorite side dish! My coworker passed the recipe along to me in an email, mentioning that she reads the blog daily and has come to pick up on two of my favorite foods (sweet potatoes and kale) and that she thought of me when she came across the recipe.

As I've mentioned recently, Ryan's been out of town for a number of reasons over the past couple of months. Typically when he's gone I don't mind a day or two to myself. I watch marathons of Glee on Hulu while baking for hours in the kitchen. I sprawl across our bed, and don't worry about stealing the covers. I eat ice cream for dinner. After so many hours with me, myself, and I, there comes a point where I start to get tired of talking to myself. Last time Ryan was gone, our friends Mike and Maggie took pity on me and invited me over for dinner.

I love what buttermilk does to muffins, breads, even cookies (!), so I was very intrigued when I was flipping through the pages of my Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home book and saw that this ice cream included buttermilk. I had already made strawberry cheesecake ice cream, as part of my peanut butter and jelly ice cream cheesecakes, but this was a completely different version, and with strawberries begging to be purchased every time I visit the grocery store, I couldn't resist!