Anticlimactic.

I hate baking a lot during the summer. My kitchen gets hot and I get cranky. But yesterday I had the itch, so to speak, so I made my family a little coffee cake. Now, I have to confess, I'm famous for adding chocolate chips to anything I possibly can. So when I found a Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake recipe, I just knew it was meant to be.

So here's the Anticlimactic part. I don't have a picture.

See, the whole thing is gone. Scarfed. My family has apparently been more deprived than I originally thought because they devoured the whole darn thing. Tears may have even streamed down my daughter's face at some point as she sighed, "This is the BEST thing I've ever put in my mouth!" By the time my camera battery was fully charged, there was nothing left but crumbs.

Anyway, try it. I definitely give it 4 stars. While I try not to adjust recipes too much, I did add 1/2 a cup of applesauce (as suggested by those intrepid reviewers!) because there's nothing worse than dried out coffee cake. Plus that makes it healthy, right?

"If you're feeling sad and lonely...

There's a service I can render...


Tell the one who loves you only...


I can be so warm and tender...

Call me. Don't be afraid. You can call me. Maybe it's late but just call me. Tell me and I'll be around."

The potstickers have landed.

You know how you see something, like a recipe or a picture or project, that gets stuck in your head and you can't get it out until you actually sit down and do it for yourself? That's what happened to me.

Ever since Ivonne at Cream Puffs in Venice posted this recipe, I haven't been able to get it out of my head. Sure, I like potstickers, but the idea to actually sit down and make them myself had never occurred to me. But the photo haunted me. Until potstickers were the only thing I could think about. So I went to the store.


And I made some dough.

And I pinched some seams.


And I took a bad picture that can't possibly accurately represent the heaven on earth that these are because I was in too much of a hurry to eat.


Heaven.

You can find an excellent recipe with super detailed instructions here (it's also linked at Cream Puffs in Venice). I used ground turkey instead of pork, and because it came in a 1.25 lb. package, I doubled the dough recipe and used the whole filling recipe. It made about 50 potstickers. I cooked off about 12 and froze the rest.

Holy cute.

If there's one thing I hate about summer (other than the heat, the electric bill, the kids getting bored and complaining and making each other scream, the lack of anything good to watch on TV, and potato salad) it's slaving over a hot stove. So I try to find fun recipes that require very little to no cooking. This recipe is a winner in several areas. A) it requires ZERO turning on of the oven; B) it contains only 3 ingredients; C) it's actually a lot of fun to prepare; D) even kids can help put it together; E) you will forever be famous for both making these and having "too much time on your hands."


The recipe for these little darlings can be found here. As you are probably aware, it is required by allrecipes.com law that one must change a minimum of one ingredient. I'm no rebel. I used herb cream cheese and they were a huge hit. Try them. You will be famous, I guarantee!