My husband and I just celebrated our tenth anniversary. I know! Ten years! And I haven’t killed him yet!

Or, maybe it should be: Ten years! And he hasn’t killed me yet!

Or how about: Ten years! And we’re both still alive!

Yeah. I think that last one sounds about right.

How about a little engagement story? Oh, I know, you don’t care how I got engaged, but this is quick and it involves food. Kinda.

You see, my husband and I started dating when I was 16 and, well, I was pregnant not too long after I turned 17. A month or so after our sweet baby boy was born, my husband proposed.

We were driving home from somewhere and he just drove right past our apartment.

“Uh, honey? I think you missed your turn,” I said, ever so politely to him. And, okay, maybe I was irritated. How did he forget where we lived? Also, I was barely 18 with a newborn baby. Everything irritated me.

“I’m just heading to the store for some ice cream,” he replied in a weird tone of voice.

“We don’t have room in the freezer for anymore ice cream! We have lots of ice cream at home!”

“But we don’t have Butter Pecan ice cream! I want Butter Pecan!” he whined. And, okay, so maybe he didn’t whine. Maybe he just stated this in his manly voice.

I proceeded to go on about how Butter Pecan was the worst ice cream flavor ever. In the midst of my rant about ice cream flavors that were not chocolate based, he turned into the parking lot of a golf course that I had worked at the previous summer and parked right where I had told him I loved him for the first time.

“Uh, honey, what the heck are you doing?”

“I think we’ve got a flat tire.” he said in that weird tone of voice that I would one day come to realize was his LYING VOICE.

We both got out, he dropped to one knee, and he proposed.

The end!

I’m sorry. That was long and boring, wasn’t it? Well, let me make it up to you with these amazing Butter Pecan Squares. See? See how I tied it all together?

I have since matured a wee bit (both in terms of food and just in general) and I’ve come to realize that anything with the name Butter Pecan is pretty darn delicious. These bars are no exception. They are so buttery, so rich, so sweet, so full of delicious flavor that they will just blow your mind.

They might even have you running around sharing your engagement story with the internet! They’re powerful, is what I’m sayin’.

The original recipe called for a box of yellow cake mix, but while I was standing in front of hundreds of box mixes, the Golden Butter cake mix jumped right off the shelf and begged me to take it home. I think it knew that it would fit right in at my house full o’ butter.

Enjoy these at room temperature with a fork or eat ‘em with your hands right out of the fridge. Either way, they’re amazing.

Butter Pecan Squares
adapted from Taste of Home

• 1 box (18.25 ounces) Butter cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups chopped pecans
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, 1 egg, butter, and pecans. Mix well. (I found it easiest to use my hands and just moosh it all together a bunch.) Press into a geased 9×13 pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the cream cheese, 2 remaining eggs, and the powdered sugar until well combined. Pour over the crust.

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the center is set. It should be gooey, but not runny. Cool completely before cutting, 1-2 hours. Store in the refrigerator.

Yeah, yeah, I know you’re all still running around in swimsuits and snorkels, but y’all, it’s time to start preparing for Christmas. This year is the Year of the Handmade Christmas which means lovely gifts to give, less money to spend, more love given, and a bit more time spent planning, crafting, sewing, and baking. Start now, y’all. Christmas will sneak up on you faster than you believe!

So, if you would like to hear about my fabulous edible gift idea, head on over to Rachel’s blog where she is sharing lots of delicious recipes for a happy, handmade Christmas. Please ignore the totally non-Christmasy photos included in my recipe! My Christmas stuff is still boxed up in storage and my husband refused to get it out for me. He knows my habit of setting up the Christmas tree before Thanksgiving and he was worried I’d set it up one day this week while he was at work. He was probably right.

Happy Holidays, guys!

Mom? Dad? I’ll get my Christmas list to you ASAP.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided that I was going to make my Daddy a cherry pie for Father’s Day. And so I did. I’d never made a cherry pie before. I’d never actually done anything at all with fresh cherries before. “How hard can it be?” I thought to myself as I grabbed a couple containers of fresh cherries from the grocery store.

I told my mama my plans and she laughed at me. She told me I was crazy and that the canned stuff would work just fine. She told me that pitting cherries would take forever and be a pain in the butt. She tried to crush my dreams, y’all.

I perservered though. First I went to Wal-Mart to see if they had a cherry pitter (they did not), then I turned to my good buddy the Internet and asked him for help with pitting cherries by hand. There are a lot of methods for pitting cherries by hand, but I just kind of went with the flow and did what seemed to work best for me. I found that using a toothpick to cut the cherry in half worked better than a knife, because it was small and easier for me to hold as I was digging out the pit. I could just reach my thumb in the center of the cherry and pop the pit out without having to stop and set down a knife. The toothpick really worked well for me. All in all, pitting cherries was not that bad of a job.

Also? I was able to declare myself the winner of Father’s Day. After all, I pitted two pounds of cherries. By hand. For my daddy. I win! Best kid ever. Just don’t tell my brother.

This pie was definitely better than the canned stuff, although my only other experience with cherry pie was in 7th grade. I, the super shy nerdy girl, decided to sign myself up for a pie eating contest during some sort of spirit week thing at school. It was me against three boys, hands tied behind our backs, face down in a cherry pie in front of the entire middle school. I came in third place.

I used a Pillsbury pie crust for the bottom (don’t hate) and then sprinkled the top with a delicious crumb topping. Crumb toppings are quite possibly my most favorite invention ever. They make me smile.

Go make someone this pie. They’ll love ya forever.

Sweet Cherry Pie
recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

• 2 pounds Bing cherries, pitted and halved
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• single pie crust (homemade or store bought, I won’t judge you if you don’t judge me)
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 8 tbsp butter, cubed