Hey, guys. I have some great recipes coming up in the next few days, so I figured I would give you a heads up.

Tonight: Homemade Garlic Croutons – Shawn didn’t know that I knew how to make croutons until I whipped up a batch to use up some past-its-prime bread recently. Now he’s plotting to make sure that more bread goes past its prime so that I will make more.

Tomorrow: Quick and Easy Roasted Cheddar Bacon Potatoes – These are similar to potato skins, except you use the whole potato. These are great for a quick dinner — less than 25 minutes in prep and cooking.

Friday: How to . . . cooking fresh English peas, storing fresh garlic and onions and more.

Ever since my birthday about two weeks ago, I have been mildly obsessed. Okay. Completely obsessed. With what? Buttercream frosting. The name itself just rolls from the tongue in sweet harmony.

It all started with the beautiful marble cake that Shawn bought for me. It had this delicious creamy frosting and was decorated with a firm, rich buttercream that melted in my mouth. I loved it. Loved every part of it. It was so sensuously smooth that it made my tongue dance with glee . . . Except when I went to eat the last sliver of cake, something was missing: the scalloped buttercream edging from the bottom of the cake.

Yes, folks, my last bit of buttercream was stolen out from under me. Surely you can understand my devastation. It’s been all I could think about since then. I’ve been driving Shawn crazy with my musing about the delectable taste of that buttery buttercream . . . Like a jilted lover, it haunted me with conviction and certainty until he finally went and bought a little more for me to enjoy . . .

Oh, the sweet sensation of buttercream on tongue . . .

That’s why when I read this post on Smitten Kitchen about making Swiss buttercream, I just knew . . . I had to do it. I haven’t yet, but it’s coming . . . perhaps even for the birthday Will shares with his grandmother.

In the meantime, I did what any sensible person would do: I sent Shawn back to the store for a little more cake.

Do you have a favorite frosting?

For a few years now, I’ve had this fascination with frittatas. Convinced that they would be too thick, too dense, too eggy and so on, I swore I would never make one. Yet, I coveted every photo that my fellow food bloggers snapped of the interesting egg dish.

Finally, in search of an easy breakfast recently, I decided to just make one. It would use up the eggs in the house so that I wouldn’t feel guilty buying a dozen at the farmer’s market and it would get this unhealthy frittata obsession out of my system. Read the rest of this entry…

I might be a little obsessed with the word “staycation.” It’s so inventive. And it perfectly describes what we are doing this summer. As much as I would love to whisk the kids away to a house on the Jersey shore or drive up to visit my husband’s family, it’s just not in the cards with two small kids, two dogs and one big mortgage . . . and the breath-taking bill from my dog’s recent wellness checkup at the vet didn’t help anything either.

So, I am pulling together all my resources and planning at-home trips. (Psst! I just wrote about staycation ideas for families with toddlers at SheKnows, where I am a columnist. Check it out.)

Here are a few local ideas (in Connecticut) that I’ve come up with:

• The Connecticut Children’s Museum: This is a great hands-on place for kids three and up. They have all sorts of activities geared toward the younger set.
• Stepping Stones Museum for Children: This has activities both for toddlers and older kids. They can play with water, learn about rain forests, make bubbles and more.
• Walking with Dinosaurs: This is an awesome and breathtaking show that will be at the Arena at Harbor Yard later this month (it’s also going to be at Madison Square Garden in New York). Realistic looking dinosaurs take center stage . . . (In the interest of full disclosure, I learned about this one after being offered tickets to check it out . . .).
• Mystic Seaport: If you are in Connecticut, you can’t miss Mystic Seaport. There are tall ships, a museum, an aquarium and more to have a fun day . . . And rumor has it one of the ships is very haunted (but don’t tell my husband . . . he won’t want to check it out then).
• Discovery Museum: This one is more for older kids. There’s a planetarium and lots of space geared activities. Lots of fun — I went there as a kid and loved it.
• Earthplace: A coworker told me about this place in Westport. Apparently they do bonfires on Fridays and have lots of fun activities. It’s all geared toward nature education.
• Stamford Museum: With animals galore, this is a great place for kids. There’s even storytelling on Saturday’s at the museum farm.