You know how there is an entire section of birthday cards for belated birthday wishes? I feel like I need some similar sentiments to share for all these belated blog posts. I’ll blame the combination of the month of February and American Airlines. Maybe there would a new card Hallmark can create called “Sorry this blog post is late but there’s not enough Xanax in the world to fly American Airlines twice a week between BOS and PHL during the winter of 2015.” That might be too wordy for a card, but you get the idea.

Last weekend I did some baking in advance, so that I would have a few recipes in my back pocket which in theory should help me get back to a more regularly weekly blog post. I have some delicious soft baked chocolate chip cookies on the back burner for another week. They were taste tested by my cleaning guy who posted this funny pic to Twitter. Without my cookie Monday list anymore, I need all the reliable taste testers I can get! Last Sunday morning my friend Amanda was hosting brunch at her place for the two of us (and her boyfriend and his brother who didn’t sit at the table with us but did enjoy the fruits of our labor). So since I wasn’t in charge of the main event for brunch last weekend, I decided to experiment with a new baked donut recipe. The thing that is so great about baked donuts is start to finish almost all of the recipes that I have tried take less than a half hour to make, and almost always using basic ingredients I already have on hand. I perused the interweb in search of a new recipe and came across this recipe for Baked Cinnamon Donuts with a Cream Cheese Glaze from Averie Cooks.  Within her first paragraph, she had me at Cinnabon. I mean a Cinnabon in donut form in less than 30 minutes? No brainer.

Donut Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, optional
• 6 tablespoons buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze

• 1/2 cup+  confectioners’ sugar
• 1 to 2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon+ cinnamon
  
• Splash of milk or half + half

Step 1: To make the donuts, first preheat the oven to 325 degrees and lightly grease a 6-cavity donut pan with nonstick spray. If you don’t have a donut pan (which you should by now) you can also bake these in a muffin tin.

Step 2: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Vietnamese Cinnamon from King Arthur Flour will change your life … just trust me on this. 

Step 3: Add in the buttermilk, egg, vanilla and melted butter and whisk to combine. 

Step 4: Using a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off (or a pastry bag if you’re fancier than I am) pipe the batter into a 6-donut pan.

Step 5: Bake at 325 degrees for 8 to 11 minutes, or until the donuts are springy when you touch them. Let them cool for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. 

Step 6: To make the cream cheese glaze, combine the powdered sugar, cream cheese, vanilla extract, cinnamon and a small splash of milk. Whisk to combine, adding the milk as needed until you achieve the desired consistency. Dip the donuts into the glaze and enjoy!

Deadly. This reminds me of when I discovered how to make a single-serve brownie in a mug. It’s deadly to know that in less than 25 minutes you can have freshly baked Cinnabon tasting donuts. They are really delicious and cake like and the cinnamon flavor is just amazing. And probably more socially acceptable to eat at 8am than a mall-Cinnabon. (which is best paired with a large fountain Diet Coke and extra frosting.)

Amanda made this amazingly healthy brunch with a proscuitto and scallion egg bake, a kale salad, and gluten free banana peanut butter muffins. So we had zero guilt indulging in these bad boys last Sunday morning. Washed down with some mimosas while wearing sweatpants … forgetaboutit. Perfect Sunday morning

Inspired by how relaxing these stay at home Sunday brunches have been I decided to host a bigger one this Sunday, but I’ll save those photos for the end of the post. I have to cover the whole past week first that I’ve neglected to fill you in on with blog posts. I have lots of pics, so I’ll try to make it semi quick … but we know I say that every week and always end up writing a novel.

We’ve been dealing with the 100+ inches of snow and trying to get as much of it removed as possible in the past two weeks which has been … an adventure. “Vinny from Quincy” is the snow shoveler we had to hire to shovel the snow off the roof and then our alley after he did a good job clearing my car out, so that our roof doesn’t cave in and hopefully when it starts melting the basement doesn’t flood. Well Vinny likes to march to the tune of his own drum. Meaning, he likes to not show up on the days you fly home early to stay home from work .. but then shows up at 6:45am the next morning unannounced, and so on and so forth … for the past week. And you end up having to take an uber at 10pm to find him on a random sidewalk in Southie to give him cash for the job .. while repeatedly reassuring your cabbie this is not a drug deal, despite how giving a random guy in a hoodie $100 cash in the middle of a dark street at 10pm might look sketchy. And then there is of course Crazy Eddie who keeps standing on his patio trying to talk up Vinny so I have to keep going out there and shoo’ing him away like a squirrel. Vinny said that Crazy Eddie reminds him of himself .. but “when he wasn’t sobah”. In case that gives you a better idea of what we’re dealing with here …  Anyways, the snow has been semi managed and the leak and the wall seems to have subsided, so moving on.

South Boston or “Southie” for those of you who aren’t familiar with the area … is an absolute warzone right now. Normally the winters here are challenging because of the limited parking and the space saver tradition that is technically allowed for 48 hours after the snow emergencies. But with the back to back storms and 100+ inches of snow this winter, it’s gotten to be insane. The people who have shoveled out their cars, have kept their space savers there permanently since January 25th. And they had to make all the streets one way (without putting any signs up to actually direct people). Just to give you an idea .. this kind of wacked out stuff is ALL over Southie right now. I guarantee you no one is going to try to take that spot.

My new coworkers have been asking for cookies for a few weeks now. I brought them cookies once .. but the whole giving up my space in my carryon bag to bring cookies to these people I share a closet with for 12 hours a day but really don’t know … ehh I haven’t really made a huge effort to bring them cookies. But last Sunday night I whipped up these Nieman Marcus $250 cookies that were a big hit with the coworkers, and will be coming to a blog near you the next time I bake these.
Another week in Philly last week. Nothing too eventful. Went bowling. Worked worked and worked some more. But was super thrilled to get on the early flight home Thursday night which got me home JUST in time to make it to dinner with my friends Heather, Jacqui, Liza and Liza’s mom who was in town. We had the most INSANELY delicious dinner at Nebo Cucina + Endoteca where 4 of us all had the zucchini lasagna that was so good I can’t even explain it … you need to go there for yourself. And I’ll happily go with anyone who wants to because I can’t wait to go back. Liza had also knitted us these super comfy warm chunky ear warmers that I will definitely be putting to good use this month. She started an Etsy shop in case you want to check it out and look as fabulous as I will be rocking my new ear warmers around town.
What else … Friday night after work I met my friend Allie out at Tico downtown for dinner and drinks. And by drinks, I mean we drank ALL of the Sangria at Tico. We started with just a pitcher and some small plates, including these delicious shrimp tacos. And then continued with lots more Sangria. AND Allie asked me to be a BRIDESMAID in her wedding, which involved lots of hugging and screaming. And then more drinks (to celebrate of course). Our friend Josh met us out and continued to encourage our bad Sangria behavior. Such a fun night. Such a painful reminder of how old I am and how much Sangria hurts the morning after. So worth it though. No regrets. Saturday I recovered slowly but in time for a girl’s night out with my friend Alex for a delish dinner at Lincoln Tavern and then hit up Lucky’s for Colleen’s birthday celebrations. And then this morning was our epicly awesome girl’s brunch that I hosted at my place. We wear sweatpants, drink mimosas and relax in sweatpants for a few hours. This is a breakfast club that you want to be part of, trust me. We talk about all different kinds of important things … from work to relationships to movies to snow to Teen Mom 2. Today’s group was Ashley, Allie, Sara, Gabby, Colleen, Alex, Andrea, and Molly. And they were all good sports at waiting to dig in until I got all my photos in. 

I got up early this morning to make GimmeSomeOven’s fresh baked cinnamon rolls. Yum.

We had fresh fruit, baked bacon, candied bacon, frittata made with chicken sausage, potato, mushroom and spinach, donuts, breakfast potatoes, baked banana donuts, and Nutella-Stuffed Cinnamon Sugar muffins. This looks like a well-balanced breakfast to me.
Another shot of this beautiful brunch, which I am still pretty full from. 
So that’s it. I’m apparently becoming very popular among my friends mom’s, which is a pretty big honor in my book. My friend Caroline’s mom has been one of my dedicated instagram and early blog followers who I am excited to drink matinis with at Mooncussers this summer (Hi Jody), and apparently I’m becoming a frequent topic of conversation with my friend Molly’s mom  who follows me on Instagram now(Hi Susan). And of course, my mom who’s been my numero uno fan since 1985. Speaking of 1985 … the month is here. My birthday month. The end of my twenties. It has arrived, and I need to embrace it. I still haven’t figured out exactly how to celebrate at the end of the month, but I need to get on that because it’s going to be here before you know it. Hopefully all the snow will be melted by then. I think in the next two weeks I’m home for 2 days and that’s it. I’m heading to Philly tomorrow, pending this cruddy snow that came tonight, then Boston for 2 days, a brief appearance in Connecticut and NY for a baby shower, then Philly for 8 hours, and then Salt Lake City for a few days for work. So let’s just hope that Mother Nature and American Airlines/US Airways decides to all get their shit together for the next two weeks, because I’ve got places to go, people to see and blog posts to write! And let’s hope March comes in like a lion … in the way that Simba sang and danced his way with meerkat and a monkey, and not a blizzard dropping lion. (Also for the record .. that opening line in The Circle of Life from the Lion King is actually “Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba Sithi uhm ingonyama” which means Here comes a lion, Father, Oh yes it’s a lion … and not actually PENNSSSYLVANIIAAAA IMGONNAEAT YOU A LIVEEEEEEE. Which is what I usually sing when trying to belt out that tune.

And I’m still single because…. ?

Happy March everybody. On a 7:30 am flight tomorrow morning to  … PENNNSSYLVANIIAAAAAA.