Blueberry lemon crumble bars

Who doesn't love a delicious crumble? I mean, it's butter, flour and sugar mashed in a bowl and baked. Crumbles are delicious, and summery blueberry crumbles are even more delicious. When a friend of mine invited us to a dinner at her house tonight, I knew these bars would be a hit and given that there was a sale on blueberries at our market, it was like the stars were aligned for this dessert.

Funny story about these blueberries though. Ready for it? Okay, I decided to go pick up 4 pints of blueberries (they were $1.47 a pint. Who wouldn't want a 8 cups of blueberries at that price?) So, I got to the store ready to score a great deal on these blue beauties when I see a little printed sign that says "Correction". Now, our produce market is a solid 10 minute drive from our house and blueberries were my one and only purpose for venturing across town, lots and lots of blueberries, and I wasn't a huge fan of that correction sign at this point. Anyways, the sign went on to tell me that due to increased heat in the Midwest, the blueberries printed in the flyer were not available and a substitution was made for the 1 pint for $1.47 deal to two pints for $1.47. That's great right? No. The limit was two half-pints per customer, and for my recipe alone I needed 4 half pints and that didn't even include the blueberry muffins, ice cream and pancakes I was already making in my head on the way to the store.

The perfect cup'a Joe with whip

As some of you might know, ever since the thought of moving to a new state became a possibility I campaigned hard for the incredible city of Seattle. If you've never been there, drop what you're doing and buy a plane ticket. Now. I'm not kidding. This is the most incredible time of year to be there, and when we were there for a short five days last year on our honeymoon, that city captured my heart. I am a writer and hopeless romantic and that city has everything an overly emotional writer could need - rain, coffee shops and a bay that will make your heart stop. (So it's more like a sound or a semi-coast, but bay just rolls off the tongue doesn't it?) Not to mention the view of Mt. Rainier from the Space Needle. I could live in the needle just for that view.

Anyways, when I compromised by moving to Denver, I thought this city would capture my heart just like Seattle did, I mean everyone wants to live out here right? Apparently, I didn't get the Colorado gene. I don't like the weather; I can't lay out at the pool without getting third degree burns, and worst of all, all I smell all the time is the dump which is conveniently located 100 yards from my back deck. Hooray for the stench of rotting household garbage.

A summer's peach crisp

I love all of the fresh produce that comes with the warmer months. Peaches, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries - you get the picture. Anyways, every time I go into our fresh market I go a little crazy. I always buy bags of fresh produce (with the best of intentions of using all of it the very next day), but needless to say, it wilts before I can get to my well-intentioned recipes. So as the five peaches I bought last Wednesday slowly turned to prunes in our produce bin, I scrambled for an easy recipe to make with all of them. I thought about peach cupcakes until a friend mentioned a peach crisp. What a simple and summery solution. Using a few of my friend's instructions added to a recipe I found on AllRecipes.com, I made a delicious peach crisp.

A sugary, chocolaty kitchen flop

Confession time: I have never successfully made a moist, rich, delicious sugar cookie in my life. I actually have some horror stories for you. (Please indulge me for just a moment and continue reading). My sophomore year of college I wanted to make Christmas cookies for all of my financially impaired college friends, but sadly, I over softened the butter and the delicious batter turned to mush while cooling in a rolled mess of wax paper in the fridge. Oh me oh my. So many times my cookies have turned into rocks with my adorable husband choking them down with a smile on his face.

I'm not one to toot my own horn, but I do think that I have a considerable amount of talent in the kitchen. I mean, I can do more than boil water - that's something right? Well tonight my long-time rivalry with sugar cookies reared its ugly head. It seemed that everything in my kitchen was against me from the get-go. My father-in-law (ish...it's a long story) is flying in tomorrow to stay with us for a couple of days. My husband is picking him up at the airport while I'm at work, so I wanted a heaping plate of cookies to be my special touch on our little apartment when he got here. Apparently, my kitchen had other plans. The recipe I chose hailed itself as the best sugar cookie recipe ever, and I have been so excited to make it for about two months now and this seemed the ideal situation. However, when I realized that the entire recipe, buttercream icing and all, would take three sticks of butter, I just couldn't do it. Maybe for Christmas this year, but please not during bathing suit season. So, I decided to halve the recipe, but it called for one egg. I pondered for a while how exactly to half an egg, and finally decided to just throw it in the mix, after all I had been at work all day and all I wanted to do was lay on the couch.

A glistening summer loaf

Okay, you got me. My original mission in starting this blog with Lydia was to discuss my experience at a mile high in a 6x5 kitchen. You and I both know, this hasn't really been happening. Lately, I've pretty much been baking/cooking whatever tickles my fancy and posting it on here for all of you to enjoy. But no more! I will now go back to my original mission: my life (both baking and personal) at 5,389 feet.

Colin and I got our first taste of this different life when we went to the pool the other day. For some reason, neither of us did the math that being higher up in the air means less atmosphere between your pasty white, winter skin and the blazing surface of the sun. Needless to say, I couldn't sleep for four days and my poor husband has been walking around without a shirt on groaning because his stomach is the shade of a late summer cherry. Poor kid. Did I mention this was the second time we were blazed out in the sun? Yeah, the Joneses don't learn very quickly, I suppose.

A return for a reluctant domestic

Lydia here.

I know I have been absent for some time. But Sarah has been baking up a storm.

I have lots of excuses for not posting. I am pregnant and the smell of cooking meat made me run for the garbage can. My long work hours left little time for cooking. But really I just didn't feel like it. But now I am forcing myself back in to the kitchen.

A few nights ago I made this one skillet chicken parmesan. Single skillet meals are, by far, the greatest.

What you will need:
2 chicken breasts (flattened by a skillet)
One jar of really good pasta sauce. - I recommend Bertolli.
A small onion
Flour
One egg
Olive oil if you have a specialty store with Kalamata Olive oil that is even better.
Parmesan cheese
Angel hair pasta

In a skillet warm up your olive oil and chop that onion. Toss the onion in the skillet to brown.
Give the chicken an egg bath and run it through the flour then place it in the skillet with the cooked onion and oil. Brown on both sides until cooked all the way through. Then pour your sauce over the chicken and sprinkle on the cheese and throw in some angel hair pasta and then let simmer for about 10 minutes.

Enjoy! Next time taco skillet

Ode to sundried tomato bliss

Ahhh the taste of summer. There is nothing better than all of the fresh eats that come with these warm summer months. Although, living in a state with very little humidity has given me a completely different outlook on the season. Want to know something I never thought I would be able to say? I can get out of the shower and let my hair air dry, as in no heated hair tools, and it looks fabulous. No blow dryer, no straightener or curling iron and most of all, NO FRIZZ! Who would have ever thought that a girl with way too much hair from the South could walk out in public without doing so much heat damage to their hair that it looked like straw. What freedom I have now.

Coconut ice cream - a little bite of heaven

I had my first bite of homemade ice cream the other night at a friend of friend's house, so this week I broke out my Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment that I got for Christmas and stuck it in the freezer. My first ice cream attempt of the year- coconut ice cream, and it couldn't have been more right. It was unstoppable.

Needless to say, today began in tears; tears at home, tears on the way to work, tears at work, and then complete and utter bottom of the barrel awful on they way home from work. It was one of those days that you just want to go to your mama's house and have her tell you everything is going to be okay. But instead, tonight the hubby and I grabbed dinner after I got off at 7:30 and I enjoyed a nice Blue Moon with a freshly sliced orange courtesy of two new, dear friends who brought over 8 brewskies today while I was at work and my husband got to play. (Yes, this was part of the crying fit I found myself in all day. I started work and lost my life. That's an awful feeling when you just moved to a new town in a new state, way too many hours away from the precious comfort of my mama's house.)

Sweetly tart fresh key lime bars

Since moving to the great state of Colorado (pronounced Cal-or-A-doe by natives) I have fallen in love with a farmers market called Sunflower Market. Sunflower is the type of place where you can get 5 lemons for $1. Fresh, organic fruit for $1. How could I stay away? When we visited the other day limes were on sale. Clearly I have to purchase a good deal on produce, but when I got them home I was stumped as to how I would use them. The next day I received this tasty recipe from Real Simple in my inbox. It was serendipitous.

A green thumb triumph

This spring I was so excited to finally have a balcony on which to grow herbs and a few other plants. Now I have never had a green thumb mind you, but I love fresh tomatoes on a hot summer day and fresh herbs to cut into pretty much everything I cook in the summer. So, at the first sign of warmer weather (which was about mid-May) the hubby and I raced over to Lowes and used the rest of our leftover Christmas gift card from my amazing aunt and uncle and bought two pepper plants, an early girl tomato plant, oregano and basil. I also had organic seeds for oregano, basil and thyme since my freshman year of college (I told you balcony gardening has been a dream of mine for quite a while now) and planted those in some potting soil that we bought.

Photo by Amber Bailey Duncan 

At our wedding I loved the idea of decorating with herbs that could be used again after the wonderful day, however, after a few weeks out in the southern sun at my mother-in-law's house all my herbs died. What I gained from this? All of the adorable pots I used to decorate at my wedding! Those were then used for my 4 year old seeds and newly purchased potting soil.

Whole wheat roasted pepper and cream cheese pizza

Ok, so I am now counting anything/everything that comes out of my oven as baking. No, it doesn't have a tub of butter or a bucket of sugar, but homemade pizza must technically be baked - let's just say I use the term "baking" loosely. This was my second attempt at mile high pizza dough, and this recipe was much lighter and airier than the last. It's a keeper for sure. This pizza was divine. Let's face it, anytime you put cream cheese on a pizza, it is incredible. Thank you Big Pie in the Sky and Lydia for introducing me to this experience I was missing out on. Just trust me on this one, go to your kitchen, get out these ingredients and make this pizza.

Tomato basil soup

I know what you're probably thinking right now, soup isn't baking-it's cooking, and Lydia does all the cooking. Well, you are correct, BUT this soup was just too yummy to keep to myself, and I baked another French loaf with it (whole wheat this time), so does that count? Anyways, I hope you'll forgive my slight blog faux pas of stepping into my co-bloggers territory and get out your slow cooker to indulge in this recipe. 

It was a cold, rainy day in the Jones household, and I woke up with a hankerin' for some homemade tomato soup. Funny thing is, I had about...seven recipes ready to try for a tomato basil soup or a tomato bisque, etc., and I didn't have all the ingredients to make any of them. Bummer, I know. So, instead of making boxed macaroni in defeat, I decided to combine little parts of all the recipes into one giant tomato soup and of course, pair it with the delicious french loaf recipe I discovered the other day (reference May 19 for the recipe). 

Imitator peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

Okay, so maybe I cheated a little bit. I wanted to make cookies, but I'm still on shaky ground with the whole flour/baking soda combination at this altitude. So, I made flourless peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Baby steps here people. Baby steps.

I must say I'm a smidge annoyed with these cookies because I burned myself on three of my right hand fingers and on the backside of my left hand while making them. Perhaps it's my fault, but I blame the cookies.

Missin' that good ol' Southern comfort

I miss my little townhouse. Not only my townhouse, but my giant kitchen. I must say I took it for granted for sure. I miss my life down South every day when I look out the window and it's raining...again...and it's 36 degress outside...in the middle of MAY. May. Does that mean anything to anyone?

I miss being able to sleep with the windows open (for about 2 seconds until the humidity makes you suffocate) or wear shorts when it's summer. Here I'm in sweatpants and a sweatshirt every day in May-did I mention that?

Blondies really do have more fun

That's right. This is a post about the most perfect white version of a brownie ever! I must say this is the recipe that I've had the most trouble with, not because of the elevation, but because our apartment didn't come with a microwave and clearly my Kitchen Aid stand mixer had to take up the only remaining counter space. Needless to say, a 5 minute recipe turned into a 20 minute ordeal while trying to melt butter in a toaster oven. Yeah, you're telling me.