An Update on the Life of the JYs and Upcoming Recipes!

Well, it looks like my "Brief Hiatus" hasn't been so brief. Mr. JY and I have been busy, busy, busy, which makes for a boring blog. It's been a challenge just getting dinner on the table in time for us to eat before flying out the door, much less take pictures and blog about it. I have been cooking and baking a lot.

For now, Mr. JY and I have been focused on our new house. We're really excited to be moving in to our first home together (in just a couple of weeks!), putting our stamp on it, and making it truly ours. I have dreams of tile backsplashes, shiny new appliances, and Anthropologie linens dancing in my head.

I will, however, have many new recipes coming up, including:

- A flopped Nutella cookie recipe. It could've been brilliance in the making, but not-so!
- A long awaited review of one of Mr. JY and I's favorite Nashville restaurant discoveries.
- Paula Deen's Not Yo Mama's Banana Pudding. I still can't believe I'm making this super untraditional, almost sacreligious pudding recipe!
- Mr. JY's Birthday Dinner. Oh man. That should be good!

All coming soon!! Stay tuned!!

Easy, No Cook "Cheat" Desserts

Since I've been rather absent lately, I'm going to give you two recipes for the price of one! These are two "cheat" dessert recipes I came up with when I was in a pinch. As I mentioned before, Mr. JY, and I have been really busy lately house hunting and then purchasing our first home, so it's times like these I turn to super easy recipes like these. They are by no means fancy and some foodies might be appalled at them.... but, to me, they were beautiful, impressive, and delicious enough to serve to guests.

Easy Sugar Cookie Fruit Tarts

1 package of a dozen bakery sugar cookies (I got mine from Target)
1 tub of your favorite brand of cream cheese frosting (or, feel free to make your favorite homemade recipe)
An assortment of your favorite fruits


Procedure:

All you've got to do is first wash and slice up your fruit. I used fresh peaches, kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. But whatever you like and looks good in the produce section would work. Just make sure you dry the fruit well before putting it on the cookies later.Next, very liberally ice your cookies with that delicious cream cheese frosting, and decorate your cookies with the fruit any ole way you'd like. And you're done! Put 'em on a pretty plate, and no one will be the wiser. They'll think you've been baking all day. You could also do some pretty neat variations of this recipe with lemon curd or chocolate ganache.... but that's another day and another entry.

Next up, we have.....

20 Layer Chocolate Hazelnut Crepe Cake

20 basic crepes (store bought - I recommend Melissa's brand - or homemade, using your favorite recipe) 1 - 8 oz pkg cream cheese (softened) 2 - 8 oz containers mascarpone cheese 1 - 3.4 oz vanilla instant pudding mix 3/4 cup milk 1-2 tsp vanilla extract (you could also use almond or orange for a nice variation) 1 container Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread Strawberries, whipped cream, & powdered sugar for garnish (optional) First, make your vanilla mascarpone cream by mixing up the softened cream cheese, vanilla pudding mix, vanilla extract, milk, and mascarpone cheese in a mixer until well combined. Then, get out your jar of Nutella (can we say... YUM?) and start layering! Slap a crepe down on a pretty dish, and slather on a real good amount of your vanilla mascarpone cream. Top with another crepe, more cream, and then, on your third layer, spread it with a good amount of Nutella. I said a good amount, don't skimp. That stuff is heavenly. Keep repeating with this method, every third layer Nutella, until you have all 20 layers done. I topped mine with a sprinkling of powdered sugar, and decorated it with strawberries and whipped cream, but you could do anything that blows your skirt up - drizzle it with chocolate ganache, whatever you like! This dessert looks totally impressive and you can take all the credit.

Brief Hiatus

So, as you can probably tell, I have been on a brief hiatus from updating this blog. I have tons of posts just waiting in my queue to update here! Mr. JY and I have just bought our first home, so that has been taking up pretty much all of our spare time. It was quite the whirlwind, but has been a positive and exiciting experience so far. In the very near future I am looking forward to updating this blog more often and sharing more recipes and stories with you.