• How to send cookies to Afghanistan (or Iraq… or a ship)

    As a military wife, military reporter and friend of many Marines (and a few sailors), I have done a lot of overseas shipping. I send so many baked goods that the owner of the Annapolis Post Box knows me as “The Cookie Lady.” The first time I sent cookies overseas was almost 10 years ago, […]

  • What not to wear for fall… or ever

    I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t address two trends that make me want to gnaw my limbs off. Neither is new, but unfortunately they don’t seem to be going away. First: Jeggings and/or leggings as pants. See all these women? Combined, they have about 5 grams of fat. And they STILL don’t […]

  • Fun fall fashion

    I know this is shocking, but I always LOVED shopping for back-to-school clothes. It’s really the only time of the year that I remember going and being able to get a lot of new things at once, instead of just a piece here and there. And I always had to have something new for the […]

  • Lean, green fighting machine smoothie

    I thought you could use something somewhat healthy after the cheesy grits, pie and milkshakes. This smoothie is easy and has a ton of good-for-you ingredients, but it doesn’t taste chalky or weird — it tastes like pineapple and banana. Yum. Yeah, I was a little freaked out by the spinach, too. But I swear […]

  • Tart cherry pie

    As you may know, it is virtually impossible to find fresh sour cherries in the grocery store. But Toby’s favorite pie — and annual birthday request — is cherry pie. So I usually bake pies with sweet cherries. When I can find them. This year, I got a present for my birthday (10 days before […]

  • How to avoid green hair

    When I was little, I spent just about every summer day in the pool. A lot of spring and fall days, too. That definitely wreaked havoc on my blond hair. My brother and I had to use UltraSwim shampoo like crazy to get the green out of our hair. Now that I’m older, I don’t […]

  • Cheesy grits casserole

    I know you weren’t thinking a milkshake was the only thing I made Toby for his birthday. I wanted to make a special breakfast, lunch and dinner. The milkshakes — with some Dixie Chili coneys — were for lunch. And he wanted to grill for dinner, so I made some sides and a pie (which […]

  • Toasted marshmallow milkshakes

    At my old job, lunch usually meant running downstairs at 3 p.m. to grab a grilled cheese sandwich to eat at my desk. But occasionally I did leave the building. One such jaunt was with my friend and former co-worker Heidi, to Good Stuff Eatery. Heidi always knows the best places to eat. Good Stuff […]

  • Blue Hawaii Shark Week cupcakes

    As I was sitting at a bar on Waikiki Beach, drinking a Blue Hawaii, I was thinking about… cupcakes. As in, how can I turn this drink into a cupcake? Yeah, I know. I’m a freak. But this drink seemed perfect for turning into a baked good. And it’s such a great color: the color […]

  • Watermelon slush

    Breaking news: It’s hot. In fact, last month was the hottest July on record for Baltimore and Washington D.C. And it was pretty flipping hot in the rest of the U.S., too. So, what can you do? Besides staying inside in the air conditioning or laying around on a pool float all day (lathered up […]