FavoritePinShare I hope you all had an enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday! We had a great time at my Grandma’s and spending time with family. It was nice to sit and relax this weekend. But I am pretty excited to get started with the Christmas baking and recipes. Especially recipes with mint! I wanted to start it off right with this pretty amazing mint cheesecake bars. I absolutely love my recipe here for Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Bars....
FavoritePinShare A classic Southern condiment, this Nashville hot sauce is the best for coating chicken in flavorful spice! It mixes up with just a few simple ingredients. You’re going to love having it on hand! You probably know by now that I LOVE making sauces and seasonings from scratch. Not only do they taste better, but they’re free of preservatives and artificial flavoring! You’ve got to try this homemade buffalo sauce!...
FavoritePinShare Throw a fun party and ring in the new year with this fantastic New Year’s charcuterie board! Endless options of sweet and savory finger foods will keep your guests awake until midnight. The end of the year is a great time to host a get-together with friends and family in town. I have so many favorite appetizers and recipes that are perfect for entertaining. You can even leave a spot on your board for some of these delicious appetizers....
FavoritePinShare Orange Pomegranate Salad is a delicious mix of greens with fresh oranges, pomegranates and topped with feta cheese and an amazing orange vinaigrette dressing. If you are looking for an awesome salad that is fresh and full of tempting and unique flavors, then this salad is for you! When it comes to serving this salad the possibilities are also endless. This will pair beautifully with pork, chicken, beef or seafood....
If I ignored the dishes, I’d feel a little like I had a personal breakfast chef. I discovered this method for cooking steel-cut oats in the crock pot the year a series of unfortunate events left us without a stove for almost three months. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice to say that without a proper cooktop or oven, I embraced my slow cooker with a passion I didn’t realize I could muster for an appliance....
Hence my surprise when an old roommate (who in our past life could barely microwave her way out of a popcorn bag) invited me over for dinner and served pan fried salmon. I lifted my fork, steadied my face to disguise any negative reaction, took a bite, and oh my goodness what is this delicious fish? As with many dishes that intimated me in the past—namely anything stuffed (Stuffed Salmon, Stuffed Chicken Breast, Stuffed Pork Tenderloin, Stuffed Pork Chops), grilled (Grilled Salmon in Foil), or involving proteins I thought were fancy (Red Wine Braised Short Ribs)—pan seared salmon is shockingly straightforward to make and the results are superb....
FavoritePinShare I love pancakes but really stink at making them! I either burn the outside, they are too thick, or they just look plain funny! I envy perfect pancake makers. I never make them but I love them. I found this recipe and I instantly fell in love. I was in search of a breakfast for the picky 5 year old’s birthday. The best part is that I had all of the ingredients and they were almost too easy!...
Crostini is one of the most straightforward, yet brilliant appetizer concepts (as Whipped Feta Crostini already knows). It’s a radically simple idea—small slices of toasted bread heaped with yummy toppings.It’s an appetizer that’s somehow equally appropriate for a bare feet, backyard affair as it is for a black-tie bash. It’s universally appealing—carbs + tasty toppings = food love for all (basically a cold, miniature variation of Ricotta Pizza). AND it’s endlessly adaptable....
Made with whey protein and covered in promises to be low carb, high fiber, and delicious, these protein cookies sounded too good to be true. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that not only did most of these protein cookies contain nearly as many calories as a full meal (well beyond my needs for a cookie), they cost almost $3 each and the ingredient list left quite a bit to be desired....
Let me share something very special to me today, a traditional Russian pelmeni recipe. This recipe has been in my family for generations. With a few tips along you can make pelmeni that are very flavorful and explode with tasty juices as you bite into them. That’s how they are supposed to be: plump, meaty, flavorful and filled with tender and juicy meat filling. Making pelmeni is a bit laborious, that’s why I haven’t been making them that often… rarely, actually....
FavoritePinShare Peppermint Meringue Kisses are crunchy on the outside with a soft and chewy middle, and a peppermint flavor that is sweet and refreshing. They are the cutest little candies and are perfect for gifting this holiday season! Every once in a while, it is really fun to make a unique candy that isn’t super chocolatey. Every Christmas I make the effort to get my kids in the kitchen and make a Christmas candy....
Can you believe it’s been 100 posts? I feel like I started this blog just yesterday! It has been such an amazing journey, with lots of delicious food, amazing blogger friends and a little sweat and tears. Most people have no idea how much hard work goes into a food blog. We food bloggers are food writers, photographers, recipe developers, social media managers, marketing executives, and the list goes on and on....
To make potato pancakes, shredded potatoes are mixed with flour and seasonings, bound together with an egg, shaped into patties, and then pan fried to perfection. Potato pancakes are versatile and make a tasty side with hearty soups and stews and meaty mains, or alongside a hot breakfast.Like homemade Tater Tots, potato pancakes provide a fun, individual potato serving.While this recipe is easy, if you are looking for more of a shortcut, Hash Brown Casserole utilizes pre-shredded, frozen hash browns, cooked in one go in a casserole dish....
Friends, meet my favourite pumpkin soup recipe - my Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Soup. Or Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup, as it’s known to my American friends. This soup is creamy without any cream (magic). It’s filled with good-for-you ingredients. And thanks to the roasted vegetables, it’s full of flavour. Sure, one-pot recipes are nice and all, but taking the extra step to throw the veggies in the oven for 30 minutes before pulling this soup together gives it more depth and flavour....
Broccolini, also called “baby broccoli” is similar to broccoli but with smaller florets and a milder taste. Broccolini has long, thin stalks that, unlike mature broccoli stalks, are tender all the way through. That means that you can eat the stems right along with the florets. You do need to trim off the very end of broccolini before cooking, which takes all of 20 seconds (I line up the stems and trim the whole bunch at once)....
Does that freak you out a little? ‘Cause it’s definitely freaking ME out! Where is the year going? Didn’t we just pop open bottles of champagne to celebrate New Year’s Eve? Now the big football day is getting closer, friends will start arriving (and inevitably making you wonder WHY OH WHY did you decide to host the party this year?) and you have nothing prepared. SO MUCH STRESS! Gaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!! ?...
FavoritePinShare Prepare for the best salsa of your life! This roasted tomato salsa is the best combination of smoky, sweet, and spicy! You’ll be hooked after one dip. There’s nothing I love snacking on more than chips and dip. And out of the bunch, salsa and guacamole are easily my favorites! Once you try this roasted tomato salsa, you’ve got to try out my classic guacamole, slow cooker salsa, and peach salsa too!...
Thanksgiving is a BIG DEAL in my family. We pull out the good china, agonize over which pumpkin dessert to make (my vote is Pumpkin Pecan Pie), and disagree over whether to serve Homemade Scalloped Potatoes or Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes (we usually make peace by preparing both). One recipe that never ever changes is the stuffing. While I’m all for stuffing creativity (Cornbread Stuffing, Stuffing Muffins, etc.), this is THE one, true homemade stuffing recipe my family comes back to again and again....
FavoritePinShare Rating: 4 stars Difficulty of Recipe: 3 stars Review: To save on some time you can always skip the dipping the bottom of the cookie part in the chocolate, and just drizzle the chocolate on top. Either way these will taste amazing! All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods and portion sizes per household....
FavoritePinShare We have had a great summer here so far in North Carolina. We recently returned from Myrtle Beach and had a blast. My hubby’s company makes the summer a lot of fun while we are here. I return home to Utah in two weeks! This time here has flown by. Then it is time to get the kids ready for school. And my youngest will be starting kindergarten. I am getting excited for school to start, and to have normal bedtimes around here!...
