what jen does

Life, home, and a little travel

Author: JEF

  • rhubarb blueberry anytime cake
    recipes

    rhubarb blueberry anytime cake

    Fun fact? I’ve had some rhubarb in my fridge for quite some time just begging for a tasty recipe. But it wasn’t until I was on a random Zoom call this week for a consulting project that I got the right inspiration. A girl I was meeting with commented that her morning was starting off…

  • coconut cake with marshmellow frosting
    recipes

    coconut cake with marshmellow frosting

    I had the great honor recently to make a gender reveal cake. I spent a good amount of time thinking about this task. My primary goal was to make a delicious cake that didn’t immediately reveal whether it would be blue or pink inside. I didn’t want the recipient to know immediately once the knife…

  • seasonal love affair

    seasonal love affair

    I’m not sure if peony season came on schedule this year or not, but it did show up and that is frankly all that matters. My peony plants on the South side of the house had such a strong showing in their second year. Very proud of those babes. The only downside is they get…

  • so it’s been a bit

    so it’s been a bit

    I haven’t been blogging in quite some time. It is not as though there hasn’t been things to write about either. Plenty of good stuff happening. Perhaps not as many kitchen adventures – but still things to document. Blogging before used to be a healthy combination of a break from my job and a commuting…

  • italian chicken meatballs
    recipes

    italian chicken meatballs

    Feel free to file this recipe under “wonderful for Sunday meal prep”. It was a total home run and could not have been easier to pull together. I had all of these ingredients on hand which made it even better.  This recipe was made even easier by the use of my very handy cookie scooper.…

  • salted dulce de leche double chocolate cookies
    recipes

    salted dulce de leche double chocolate cookies

    I’d like to introduce you to perhaps one of the most delicious cookies ever. I honestly can’t even remember how I found it but I’m so thankful that I did. I was completely unable to exhibit self control around them and consumed four in one evening… and to be clear, there were more consumed earlier…

  • egg yolk almond pound cake
    recipes

    egg yolk almond pound cake

    While I am normally fairly decent on food waste, I do have my weak spots. Like the last 10% of a bag of arugula. I’m not quite sure what prevents me from just making the previous salad bigger… but I regularly fail at that. I’m a consistently bad at using egg yolks. So many of…

  • Shower Curtain Fashion Show
    home + reno

    Shower Curtain Fashion Show

    The hallway bathroom project is nearly done… and it felt time to splurge on a new shower curtain. When I first moved in 18 months ago, I tossed up the shower curtain from my old North End apartment. There was zero emotional attachment to this chevron shower curtain… it was free and houses are expensive.…

  • gluten free chocolate chip cookies
    recipes

    gluten free chocolate chip cookies

    In the last couple years, I’ve become more of a dessert person – but not just any dessert. I’m still not choosing a piece of pie after my dinner but I’ll rarely push away a piece of chocolate or cookie. Given my lack of self-control, I have removed all of the Reese cups from my…

  • very easy tuna cakes
    recipes

    very easy tuna cakes

    How many posts in a row can I reference quarantine cooking? The answer is probably a lot – and probably more for the next two months or so. As we prepared to eat more out of our houses and with less trips to the grocery store, I impulse bought a couple cans of tuna fish…