In My Kitchen with Amy Christie

"We love desserts in our house, all kinds. My husband and children have enjoyed many a treat, all for the sake of the blog. Tough stuff, huh? :) But sometimes we don't have the time (or patience) to wait through long bake times. That's when we turn to this recipe for No-Bake Cookies. A combination of chocolate and peanut butter, which is always good, and is ready to eat in a flash. Our favorite is eating them while they are still warm and soft. So delicious!"

Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies

from Amy Christie of this heart of mine

1 stick of butter 

2 cups sugar 

1/2 cup milk 

2 Tbsp cocoa powder

3/4 cup peanut butter

3 cups rolled oats

In a pot over medium-high heat, melt the butter. Add sugar, milk, and cocoa powder. Boil together for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and add peanut butter, stirring until well combined. Lastly, add oats. Spoon out onto wax paper to harden.

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Amy Christie is the maker behind the blog this heart of mine, a place where there is a little bit of everything from recipes and DIYs to stories about the craziness of real life. She is also the editor and main contributor to the DIY column on Design Mom. Amy lives in the Twin Cities of Minnesota with her husband and two young children.

Easy Guacamole (2 ways)

Since I've dedicated a whole month to Mexican food, you've probably figured out that I love it. I think one of the reasons I am so enamored of Mexican food is the toppings factor. I can really get on board with a cuisine that has so many tempting ways to dress up delicious food. Salsas, sauces, sour cream, thinly shredded lettuce, chunks of juicy tomato, salty cheese, a squirt of lime. And the king of condiments, guacamole! Good guacamole is a beautiful thing. It has a fresh, green color and the mild, creamy flavor to match. You can use it as a topping for your favorite burrito or quesadilla (which is exactly what I did after taking these pictures), or you can cozy up to a big bag of chips and just dig in!

I'm not super picky when it comes to guacamole; as long as the avocados are fresh and you go easy on the spices, I'm a happy girl. But my absolute favorite way to make it takes less than 5 minutes and only calls for 4 ingredients: avocados, lime, garlic salt, and pepper. That's it! It's so fast and so fresh and so delicious that I don't know why I ever bother to make guacamole any other way. But just in case you like it chunky, I've included a few optional ingredients below that add to the flavor without adding to the fuss.

Recipe Redux: Brazilian Lemonade

When I was in college, a restaurant named Tucanos opened up in town. It was kind of a big deal. It was the kind of place that was expensive for college students, didn't take reservations, and made you wait for ridiculous amounts of time before you could be seated. When your parents came to town for Homecoming weekend or graduation, of course you made them take you (and your very luckiest friends) out to dinner there, and if a boy took you to Tucanos on a date, you knew he was really trying to impress you. They served what seemed like a million different kinds of delicious grilled meats on dangerously long skewers, and little carafes of this intoxicating brazilian lemonade. It was sweet and tart and creamy and refreshing--delicious enough to make those hefty prices, long waits, and awkward first dates worth it.

Farmstagram

clockwise from top left: adorable cows; bossy Lavender Orpingtons; pretty eggs for sale; Spring is here!; baby boy meets baby pigs; jumping in the sprinklers; stripes this year instead of polka dots; a bumper crop of carrots; the sweetest little piggy (center photo)

The Best Spanish Rice

Isn't it strange how Mexican restaurants all over the country consistently make delicious spanish rice, and yet we lay-folk who try to make it at home can't ever seem to get it right? Over the years, I've tried lots of different recipes for this popular side dish--rice with salsa stirred in, rice with cilantro and green enchilada sauce stirred in, rice from a rice-a-roni box--but they always turn out really wet and gloopy, and not at all like restaurant rice. I'm usually the only one who eats these sticky concoctions, and that's mostly out of a sense of duty to myself. But hallelujah the search is over! It's all blue skies and sunshine and dry, fluffy rice speckled with bits of tomato and cilantro from here on out because I have found a winner!

The secret's in the starch--or rather, the lack of starch. By rinsing the rice in cold water, you wash away all of that lovely, potentially sticky starch, and you get nice fluffy rice just like the restaurants make. I've made this recipe lots of times since I discovered it at the beginning of the year, and it's a hit every time. I made it for our big family Cinco de Mayo dinner a few weekends ago, and the rice was the star of the show. I would have cried tears of joy if I hadn't been so busy helping myself to another serving of rice.

Pretty Printables for Mother's Day

Are you in the same boat as me? Between Earth Day, Cinco de Mayo, and Teacher Appreciation Week, did Mother's Day sort of sneak up on you? Never fear! Thanks to creative and talented souls all over the blogosphere, there are plenty of beautiful Mother's Day cards, prints, gift tags, and more that you can print up at home in a pinch. Some of my favorites...

1. Print by Diana of Livy Love for 6th Street Design School and...

2. Matching Tags on Love Stitched

3. Breakfast in Bed Printables by Kate of Striped Cat Studio for Studio DIY

4. Watercolor Cards by Yao Cheng for The Alison Show

5. Monogram Illustration from The Painted Arrow

6. Matryoshka Tags by Sybille of Fun.kyti.me for Today's Creative Blog

7. Vintage Bottle Labels by Nikki of papergravy for The Graphics Fairy

8. Turquoise Banner Card from Oh So Lovely

9. "Happy Anything" Cards from Design Eat Repeat

10. Mother/Son Print from Diaper Style Memoirs and Mother/Daughter version from Colour Me There

11. Hot Pink Watercolor Card from How About Orange

12. Wall Art from the Botanical Paperworks blog

13. best mom card from Ciera Design

14. Sliced Bread card with recipe by Pitbulls and Posies for On To Baby

Happy Mother's Day!!

In Our Kitchen with Chelsea Costa & Ryan Foy

"When we moved into our last apartment, a dear friend brought us these Jonathan Adler salt and pepper shakers as a housewarming gift. We fell in love with them and wanted to use them right away, but we had a better idea--we hid them away until our wedding day and used them as our cake toppers! It was so lovely to include our friend's gift that way, and now we get a daily reminder of not just him, but the day we got married. Salt and pepper were never so sweet.

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Ryan Foy and Chelsea Costa recently relocated to sunny Los Angeles from NYC. Both stage actors, they also are designers and bloggers and spend their time being creative in any way they can. Chelsea blogs about the DIY lifestyle and all of the happiness that comes with it at Lovely Indeed, and Ryan is one half of the design team at Roundhouse Designs. But mostly, they just like to have a good time.