Baking holds a very special place in my heart. You know, the funny thing is I didn’t grow up baking, you would think right? I didn’t grow up being too involved in the kitchen at all actually. My mom actually hates cooking, she does it out of sheer necessity. You know, she has a husband and kid to feed… well not anymore, but you get the point. My mom is not a very good teacher either, she lacks tons of patience. Funny thing is, I’m quite the opposite. I LOVE to cook and bake. There’s this special feeling about creating something out of some simple ingredients that just makes me smile.

When I was about 15-17 years old, I was baking non stop. I remember that I made my dad this welcome home orange cake from scratch and his reaction when he took that first bite, was just so priceless. That made me feel so fulfilled. Soon after that I was gifted a baking mixer and muffin trays and all these baking tools. Seriously it was like Christmas morning on like mid September. I still remember that day very vividly and I smile.

I was that kid that did watch cartoons, but was mostly watching Food Network. Now thanks to that, guess who makes Thanksgiving dinner? Yep, this girl.

Anyway, last week I purchased The Magnolia Table, Joanna Gaines’ cook book, which you guys, I am OBSESSED with Fixer Upper, I mean who isn’t right? But Chip seriously makes my life better and Joanna just needs to come redecorate my house, please! But yeah, I made the purchase and I knew that I immediately wanted to dive in.

Here’s a fun fact about my daughter Leya, she is a true chocolate lover. So weird because I’m not much of a candy gal, but when I was pregnant with this kid, I was chuggin’ down chocolate milk shakes like there was no tomorrow. So crazy! So we knew we wanted to make something chocolate and saw her brownie pie recipe. You guyssss! See here is where my idea of if you like this and you like that, why not put it together totally makes sense. Do you like pie? YES! Do you like brownies? YES! Why no put them together?! Say no more Joanna, we’re in.

Leya and I have baked but, only made cookies that required only to be put in the sheet tray, no fun. This time, we went all in, and it was insanely chaotic, messy, but man so so fun! We laughed until our stomachs hurt and well.. made quite the mess. But our connection I feel I saw it grow. As a kid, I longed connections like this with my mom, I wish she would of just had the time or patience, and even though I too struggle with patience, I don’t want my daughter to long for those moments one day too.

So, we baked our pie, missed only one ingredient, but we accomplished our mission and had one heck of time doing it. Success! Thanks Joanna, because we will be recreating many more of your amazing recipes! Stay tuned folks! In the mean time, here’s these:

Till’ the next post!

Xo, Guadalupe ♡