apple crumb muffins
apple crumb muffins

Say hello to your new favourite muffin. They’re a breeze to whip up…and have the chunkiest crumb topping EVER. I’m seriously so in love, and ate wayyyy too many of these while shooting their photos. Ha!

They taste like Fall even before I drizzled them with caramel (an optional, but totally not optional addition), and they make your house smell like HEAVEN. Since they have apple chunks in them, I find that they’re at their best on the same day you bake them, but they do freeze well if you manage not to devour them all in one sitting. My family’s been in full on apple mode for a whole month now on our apple farm! So you could say that apples have been on my mind A LOT lately. I’m pretty sure that picking apples on a foggy morning in Fall is one of my very favourite things to do in the world. Seriously magic. Now, go find a local apple farm, and go pick some apples…and then make these magical muffins. Just do it!

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food, muffins, fall, applesKelsey Siemensfall, apples, muffins, 2018, caramel Comment
roasted strawberry cake with roasted strawberry frosting (and frosting flowers!)
roasted strawberry cake with roasted strawberry frosting (and frosting flowers!)

Heyyyy!!!  I'm trying something a bit outside my comfort zone!  Piping flowers!!

I'm obsessed with Molly Yeh (WHO ISN'T?!!), and finally felt brave enough to try my hand at piping a few of my own flowers out of frosting.  Honestly, it was easier than I thought, although it is time consuming!  I love that there is really no risk here besides wasting your own time.  Ha!  And I'm obviously not scared of that!  Now, I'm not offering a full flower tutorial here (yet!!), since I'm still such a newbie.  But I watched a lot of youtube videos, practiced a lot, and just scraped the ones I didn't like back into the bowl of frosting.  Win!  Seriously, pipe a bunch onto parchment, and just redo them as you find a technique that works for you.  The hardest part is keeping your frosting at the right consistency, so doing this on a super hot day is a no no unless you have A/C!  (Or unless you're a late night baker like I am...haha!).  If you're frosting starts losing shape, then simply pop it back in the fridge to firm up a bit.  

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cake, dessert, food, summerKelsey Siemensfood, dessert, cake, cupcakes, strawberries, roasted strawberries Comment
strawberry rhubarb tart
strawberry rhubarb tart

Helloooo Summer tart!  Sweet strawberries, tart rhubarb, and the butteriest short bread crust come together in a heavenly combo to make your tastebuds so so happy.  It's a melt in your mouth crust with a sweet tart curd filling.  Definitely recommend!

And yes, if it isn't 100% obvious by now, strawberry rhubarb continues to be my ultimate favourite flavour combo. 

See this cheesecake, this ice cream, or this pie for proof.

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dessert, food, tartKelsey Siemensdessert, tart, strawberry rhubarb, strawberries, rhubarb, summer, shortbread, crustComment
peach blackberry pie
peach blackberry pie

Say hello to your new favourite Summer pie!  Peaches and blackberries are a match made in heaven.  Sweet peaches are made even better by the pop of flavour that tart blackberries bring (I'm a huge fan of tart things!), and be sure to add a scoop of ice cream on top to really take this pie to the next level.

Now, social media is sometimes the worst....but sometimes it's the absolute best.  I had followed Kristie from The Sweet and Simple Kitchen on instagram for a while now, and a couple weeks ago she messaged me asking to have a baking date!  It was reminiscent of my very first insta-friend meet-up with my now good friend Amy, minus the sleepover that Amy and I had. Ha!

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dessert, pie, foodKelsey Siemenspie, dessert, peaches, peach, blackberry, berry, summer, pastry, latticeComment
roasted strawberry rhubarb ice cream
roasted strawberry rhubarb ice cream

Can you tell that strawberry rhubarb is a big deal over here?  Seriously one of the best flavour combos of all time, especially when they're roasted together to really bring out their flavours.  Although I must say that I'm not a huge fan of roasting strawberries unless they're local ones....the California ones the grocery stores carry the rest of the year just aren't the same!  Honestly they just taste like disappointment.  Ha!  Which is why I go a bit strawberry crazy for a very short period of time.

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dessert, ice creamKelsey Siemensroasted strawberries, roasted rhubarb, rhubarb, strawberries, summer, ice cream, dessertComment
saskatoon rhubarb pie
saskatoon rhubarb pie

Hello!  Today we have such a wonderful (and maybe unusual?) Summer pie to talk about.  If you're unfamiliar with saskatoons, they're kind of like a smaller blueberry, with almost a nutty taste.  Hard to describe!  But they make amazing pies, even if they are a pain in the butt to pick!  Ha!  They tend to ripen individually, versus blueberries which often ripen in clusters.  Soooo.....when you're picking them for money, the saskatoons are much harder!  I was always a terrible berry picker when my family had more berries (we used to grow a ton of raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries), and I didn't even bother to attempt to make money picking saskatoons.  Hahaha. 

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farm life, pieKelsey Siemenspie, saskatoons, rhubarb, summer, dessertComment