203 Yumlington Place: Chocolate

Mrs. Lacy's Magnolia House is my family's go-to place to have lunch anytime we visit my Nana in Sanford, NC. I could probably count on one hand how many visits we've had there and Mrs. Lacy's wasn't on the agenda. You just can't go wrong with her tea room!

It's also one of the few places we'll order dessert at lunchtime...

...okay, that part may be a lie--dessert is always a necessary to conclusion to any meal!

Anywho, after interviewing a couple other recipes for Chocolate Chess Pie, none came close to Mrs. Lacy's!

What I love about her recipe, is its simplicity. You most likely already have all the necessary ingredients in your kitchen, so this is one you could whip up in a pinch!

Despite its (super) small town feel, I truly love driving down the road from Greensboro for a visit. For the most part, everything is the same each time I go back, and I think that's what I love most about it. It's where we do Christmas each year, it's where I first loved to ride my bike, it's where I learned how to make all of my favorite recipes, and when I go back I'm reminded of all those things.

My Nana was a schoolteacher for most of her adult life, and as a little girl, when my mom and I would visit during the summers or when her students were on break, we would always take a trip to her classroom and I would have a field day playing with all her school supplies, chalkboard, and dry erase board! If you read my Georgia post then you know I can't resist a good dry erase! With that in mind, it probably wouldn't surprise you that I asked for school/office supplies for various birthdays and Christmases...

Sanford is also where I learned to play all the card games. Nana and I would play on her foyer floor for hours.

After that we'd most likely move on to battleship, or my mom's Barbies that she played with as a kid.

And in just a few short weeks I'll be back to visit so Nana and I can get all of our holiday baking done. A tradition we started when I turned 16 and got my driver's license!

I'm sure we'll have time to lunch at Mrs. Lacy's and fit in a couple card games while I'm there! :)

**And for my gluten-free peeps, swap out regular pie crusts for GF ones and you've got yourself a gluten-free dessert!**

This past week was just one of those weeks where I thought to myself, “There are just not enough hours in a day to do all the things I need and want to!” I had so much going on—all good things—and yesterday I finally got to sit still in the sunshine for a minute and reflect on it all.

If you asked me to describe the week in a nutshell, then I would call it the week of “firsts” - first time experimenting with gluten-free-ness, first time putting a piece of furniture together all by my lonesome, and first time catering the dessert for an event!

Let’s start with the gluten-free cake. My best friend Carlee (who you will see me refer to as Carl more often than not) went gluten-free a while back, which also means whenever we’re together I, too, am gluten-free. And honestly, I don’t mind it! I’ve actually enjoyed most, if not all, the gluten-free foods I’ve come across including, GF desserts like GF cookies (sometimes just the dough), GF brownies, etc.

If you couldn’t have guessed, I like to be in charge of desserts for get-togethers! I knew that for Carl's birthday anything I made would have to be gluten-free. Well, challenge accepted! I first asked her what she wanted for dessert, and her response was “anything dark chocolate.” Yum.

So, I did my research on what exactly gluten-free meant because I pretty much had always told myself it was mostly just a no carb thing. I’ll go ahead and spare y’all my findings—I feel fairly certain you can find a better explanation elsewhere. Anywho, I digress! Naturally, me doing research included a whole lot of Pinterest-ing, which I was a bit surprised as to how little I found for dark chocolate gluten-free cakes. Most of the recipes I did come across called for either a xatham gum or guar gum, which is basically a thickener for sauces, gravies, and I guess gluten-free stuff. I had no problem buying this, so I put it on my grocery list along with the other ingredients and headed to the store. Well, let me tell you what! Xantham gum is no friend of mine after looking at that price tag! For the little amount my recipe called for, there was no way in heaven I was buying that, and I felt confident my recipe could do without. Spoiler alert: I was right—didn’t need it!

I know sour cream sounds like a weird ingredient to add, but you'd be surprised as to how many different recipes call for it--it's kinda like a not-so-secret secret weapon in the baking/sweets world! :)

Now, I will be the first to admit that I love the batter of pretty much any dessert just as much if not more as the next person, so I was looking forward to trying the batter for this recipe. So when all my ingredients were all combined in my Kitchenaid I spooned my little sample. I was certainly intrigued, for lack of a better word, by what I had just tasted…

I also had a mini panic attack, but it’s fine! Y’all, gluten-free cake batter IS NOT as good as regular batter, so don’t be fooled. When telling Carl of my batter experience, she confirmed this, too.

Well it was pretty much smooth sailing from there on, and for my gluten-free stuff lovers and/or needers, I hope you will consider trying this recipe yourselves! The finished product tasted a whole lot better than the batter, and I have lots of peeps who can attest to this. My friends thought it was so good that they began to question whether or not it was actually gluten-free…I pinky promise that it was!

Y'all. How precious is this cake closet?! It was used to cool cakes wayyyyy back when. My grandpa recently moved and him and my mom found this when packing everything up!

I just can't get enough it!

So, cheers to you Carl, my GF gf, whose friendship I appreciate more and more the older we get!

…I also appreciate your boyfriend Kevin, who has embraced the fact that we are a packaged deal!

Thanks for being my person for the past 17 years...holy heck that's a long time! We're old peep!

Sorry Kev...no room for ya in this pic :)

Eating GF is definitely not the first time Carl and the rest of my friends have played a part in me trying something new. They love yoga, so I figured I'd try it out--turns out "child's pose" and I get along great! And sometimes there's beer after.

Keep scrolling for the entire recipe! If you are ready for the next “first,” then click HERE to read about my surprisingly not disastrous attempt at putting together my Crosley kitchen Island!