Back in my bakeshop days, I baked these pumpkin pie cupcakes on the weekly. They taste just like the pie, but they're cake. Part one of my pumpkin pie trilogy. 🎃

Biscotti. Cupcakes. Scones. And I saved the best for last. A blueberry lemon coffee cake with sour cream, lemon zest, and a glossy lemon glaze. Full recipe inside.

Lemon scones with a homemade buttermilk secret — skim milk, a splash of vinegar, and you will not miss the cream. Soft center, crisp edge, glazed and ready. Full recipe inside.

The Lemon Frost is back — the moist little lemon cupcake with lemon-vanilla buttercream I made every single morning at my bakeshop. Here's the from-scratch recipe. 🍋

Crisp, twice-baked lemon biscotti made with fresh zest — my go-to recipe from my bakeshop days, and the perfect cookie for dunking in your morning espresso.

Twelve days across southern Italy with my whole world — Sorrento, Positano, and everything we ate, climbed, and fell in love with along the way. 🍋

The granola bar that started at Frosting Bakeshop's FIT line — now fueling Brooks on the lacrosse field. Natural peanut butter, honey, oats, raisins and cinnamon. No refined sugar. No junk. No cap.

Named after the OG herself — Mamamia Ann. The banana bread that sold out daily at Frosting Bakeshop and was more often than not bought by the loaf. Double vanilla, a titch of vinegar, and a snowstorm of confectioners sugar on top. Obviously.

Eight years of doing it wrong — and one simple pruning change that gave this big leaf hydrangea over 100 blooms this season. Stop. The. Cap. The full secret is inside.

A Wednesday morning love letter to Grandma Gargiulo — an Irish grandmother who married an Italian gentleman and made the most glorious coffee cake you've ever tasted. My from-scratch version of her beloved recipe was a sell-out staple at Frosting Bakeshop every single Wednesday. Soft, tender, streusel topped, and finished with a glorious layer of confectioners sugar. Full recipe inside

At Frosting — my former bakeshop — my vanilla biscotti was a sell-out staple. The kind that makes your eyes roll back in your head good. And unlike most biscotti — you know, the kind that doubles as a weapon — mine was never too hard. When you're only 25% Italian, you make the rules. Simple ingredients. Everything straight from your pantry. No fancy equipment needed — just a mixer, silicone baking mat (j'adore Silpat) and an ultra durable baking sheet (my fave is from Sur la

After years of sun-soaked summers and tanning without fear, I’ve spent the last two decades navigating skin cancer diagnoses, surgeries, and ongoing prevention. This is my story of early detection, annual fluorouracil treatment, and the lessons I’ve learned about protecting the skin we live in.

Niagara Falls with Kids in Winter.

Ben's Bells exist to encourage intentional acts of kindness.

Some seasons don’t announce themselves — they just quietly slip by if you’re not paying attention. Lately, I’ve been holding onto the small things: drawing side by side, driveway games, bedtime stories, and the hands that still reach for mine.

The Recipe that Followed Me from My Bakeshop to My Boys. There’s a funny little overlap between my old life and my new one — the former bakeshop owner in me and the stay-at-home-mom I am now. One version of me was up before sunrise running a bakeshop, living in a cloud of flour and espresso. The other is here now, juggling all the things: homework, sports, healthful fuel, laundry overload, cleaning (THE CLEANING), chauffeur and oh, plant lady boss with a side hustle of bush t

When a school raffle basket turned out too tall for my SUV, I decided to walk it — 1.2 miles, dolly, bungee cord and all. What started as a funny “mom moment” became something more: a quiet reminder of why this stay-at-home-mom season still feels so right, even after all these years.

What the Ruck? That’s exactly what I said when Todd suggested we start walking around the neighborhood carrying weights. In a backpack? But once I learned it’s called rucking (and that it’s secretly an amazing full-body workout), I was in. After years of loyal love for my Peloton (and that obsession is still real), I found myself craving fresh air + sunshine + movement that didn’t involve my bonus room walls. Todd was looking to boost his cardio and strength, and we both wa

“Who Dey! Who Dey!” chanted my CINCY boys, Brooks and the hubs, as we made our way to our very first NFL game last fall in Charlotte, NC. Todd, a diehard Bengals fan since the age of seven(ish), passed his tiger stripes right down to our eldest, who proudly calls himself a “Bungle for life.” Beckett, our “Mary Mary Quite Contrary” guy, wasn't crazy about either team but still rocked his big brother’s CINCY tee like a champ. That first game was a total family highlight - a qui

It didn’t take long for us to catch the pickleball bug - one “game” turned into two, then suddenly weekends revolved around hard-to-snag court time. Proof that adventuring doesn’t always mean leaving your neighborhood - sometimes it’s just a quick stroll (paddles in tow) or a car ride to the nearest court. But this new obsession of ours leveled up big time when we hit our very first PPA Tour stop, the Veolia NC Open , right here in our home state and next town over. Watching