It’s time for another edition of Reader Love featuring YOU, my lovely readers. I couldn’t resist starting out this time with these totally adorable pics from reader birthday celebrations! Stephstella celebrated the big 3-0 with the chocolate raspberry truffle layer cake. Pretty much a perfect cake choice for a special birthday! Jesskhinson made the dark chocolate salted caramel layer cake for this celebration which is just bursting with cuteness.
Fall = baking, and many of you have been baking up some of my favorite pumpkin and apple treats. Here we have cinnamon sugar apple doughnut muffins from scarter611 and pumpkin cream cheese muffins from indigoscones, hannahwaid, and lipsticknlollies. (Clockwise from left from here on down, unless otherwise noted.)
Reader Melissa used the spiced pumpkin cupcake recipe to make this stunningly gorgeous wedding cake. How awesome is that?!
More wonderful baking! Plum ginger crumb bars from essenaufdentisch, seasonal royal iced sugar cookies from aswade, caramel apple crumb bars from labellevictoria, peach pie from beaandme, cookie dough pie from swenglish78, and triple chocolate brownie a la mode with homemade caramel sauce from olypaw. I’m drooling now, it’s cool.
Love seeing all the yummy comfort foods being cooked up! The ever popular skillet eggplant parmesan by hoosier_baker, elise_gahann, and ashleyeatsdinner. (Next row) Cheesy baked pasta with roasted red pepper and eggplant by jonesinfortaste, chicken pot pie with biscuit crumble topping by rissykaycupcake and baked chicken parmesan meatballs by gmdametz. (Bottom row) Chicken enchiladas by alisonjs7, chicken paprikash by fatuglyrhino, and more chicken enchiladas from caraterese. This seriously makes me wish we could all have a giant potluck of comfort foods. Can we make that happen?
Also, baked ziti by aniggibson. My ultimate weakness.
I can’t overlook these other excellent dishes from back when summery things were still in season. ::tear:: Oh well, I’ll just have another helping of chicken pot pie which is sure to make me feel better. Grilled chicken with garlicky green sauce by fatuglyrhino (still easily made, just maybe not on an outdoor grill), roasted zucchini and ricotta sandwiches by megjstudios, tomato ricotta pie by lindsayeverets and scorpionbythesea, and corn cakes with tomato avocado relish by jaimeszajna.
Pizza party! I want to face plant in these awesome looking pies. All these awesome combos on perfect pizza dough: roasted tomato and kale pizza by labelle84, two awesome pies from mightyinthemitten (top and bottom right), and BBQ chicken pizza by jessicalburnell.
Gotta love seeing all the yeast breads being baked up. Definitely the perfect way to warm up a chilly fall or winter kitchen! Hoagie rolls from the brioche bun recipe by frenchymms, the best white bread by gluegunannie, whole grain ciabatta by tashasartisanfoods, homemade brioche buns (with an insane looking burger!) by stephstella, oatmeal buttermilk wheat bread by gmdametz, and english muffins in progress by lettucefeast.
It wouldn’t be Reader Love without an abundance of cupcakes, would it? Lots of lovely treats! Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting by codealina, cheesecake cupcakes with strawberry topping by sgrady09, chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes by msmegquinn and nfree107, pumpkin spice cupcakes by spollack5, chocolate cupcakes by whenbrewermetbaker, and more chocolate cupcakes topped with buttercream by realhousewifeofsantamonica.
Oh cookies, how I love thee. These pics just make me want to get to the kitchen right now! Classic thick and chewy chocolate chip cookies by brookemackey and fheitman, iced oatmeal cookies by cat014, pumpkin snickerdoodles by scarter611, apple pie cookies by josiespain (for this adorable baby shower she threw!) and strawberry sprinkle ice cream sandwiches by jdvalette.
Lots of celebration cakes in the house! Mudslide brownie layer cake by alithesun, pumpkin cheesecake with candied pecans by alicolussi, yellow cake with chocolate frosting by megjstudios, peach blueberry cake by patience_amanda, and the dark chocolate salted caramel layer cake by fatuglyrhino.
Okay, with all that dessert, let’s balance out with some healthier meals! We’ve got garlic ginger salmon with cabbage salad by gumdropcookies , harvest chicken apple salad by essenaufdentisch, quinoa cakes with poached eggs by heitmanga, and eggplant parmesan burgers by ashleyeatsdinner. Yum yum yum!
Also, lemony kale mango smoothie. Have you tried it yet? Kelseynf1 did and it looks great!
Reader Ashley shared this adorable pic of her son enjoying the harvest apple chicken salad. So sweet! My kids also love this meal, so this is extra awesome.
Okay, this is amazing. This is my awesome reader Annie. She was recently featured in Fitness magazine for her weight loss success. Her story is so awesome and inspiring! And, I am humbled and honored that she gave a shout out to me in her feature. Annie – you rock! All the high fives, thumbs ups, and fist bumps on your hard work and success.
(Want your photos to be included next time? If you share them on Instagram and your photos are public, be sure to tag them @annieseats or use #annieseats. Otherwise, feel free to send them to annieseats at gmail dot com. Thanks!) Also, if you tagged or shared a pic that wasn’t included, I apologize! I receive so many photos and these posts take a while to organize. I always seem to miss one or two inadvertently, so if there was one you shared that you really wanted to be included, feel free to resend!