Food
Leprechaun Punch
I like any excuse to use food coloring. There. I said it. So, of course, St. Patrick’s Day is the perfect day for me to unleash my arsenal of green food coloring. My kids go wild for all of our green concoctions! And, I like to play it cool, but I love it too! This year I’ll be serving up a tall glass of Leprechaun Punch for the kids. It’s super easy to make. (You could definitely make this in large punch bowl if you were serving a crowd.) All I did was color a glass of Sierra Mist with green food coloring and then added a dollop of lime sherbet…
Chewy Swedish Gingersnap Cookies
I sometimes find myself sucked into the online abyss of food pictures and recipes. There are so many gifted cooks out there! They can pair ingredients like nobody’s business and they always seem have some sort of fresh herb on hand for garnish. Garnishes don’t happen here. 4 and 7-year-olds simply do not appreciate them. Kids these days! Often this online recipe hunt is a half-hearted attempt to get out of a dinner rut. I’m not really sure what’s wrong with having tacos 5 nights a week, but my family seems to want variety. The nerve! Other times I’m just wondering what I can make out of the random ingredients in my fridge…
Krispy Kreme Knock-Off: Yay or Nay?
I saw a recipe floating around Facebook for knock-off Krispy Kreme doughnuts. If that right there doesn’t convince you that Facebook is the root of all evil, I don’t know what will. 🙂 Anyway, they looked delicious. Mouth-wateringly delicious. Since Krispy Kremes are the holy grail of doughnuts, a close knock-off recipe would make you a culinary genius. The hero of the kitchen. Friend to cops everywhere. I had to see if the recipe was all it claimed to be. I felt honor-bound. I was like those nerdy, awesome dudes on MythBusters. Except my assistants were a 2nd grader and a Pre-Ker. And by assistance, I mean they did a taste…
How I Get My Kids to Eat Fruit and Vegetables
When my daughter, my firstborn, was born I followed every “mom rule” out there. I think it’s a rite of passage for every first-time parent to go a little overboard at first. We had a spreadsheet detailing her diaper business, if you catch my drift. We earned a gold medal in overboard. So when my daughter ended up being a really well-rounded eater, I definitely thought it was due to my awesome parenting. How could it not be, right? Uh, sure. Go with that thought. Then my son came along and all of the sudden I had a child that would not try new foods. What??? Peaches? Nope. Green beans? No again. Blueberries?…
My New Favorite Spice – Herbes de Provence
It’s true. I have a new favorite spice. This in no way, shape or form means that I have abandoned black pepper. No way. Black pepper is a part of me — mainly because I have consumed so much of it over the years. However, this new spice in my pantry has been the MVP of many recent dinners. Allow me to introduce you. Friends, meet Herbes de Provence. Herbes de Provence, meet friends. I first met Herbes de Provence two years ago at Friendsgiving. What is Friendsgiving? Thanksgiving with friends. It’s one of my most favorite holidays…where you celebrate with those friends that are like family. Anyway, the only spice…
Almond and Anise Biscotti
Five or six years ago I spent the weekend with my aunt at her cabin in Eastern Oregon. While there, she offered me a slice of homemade biscotti. A vision of every coffee shop’s hard, stale, flavorless stick of biscotti wrapped in plastic flashed before my eyes. Thankfully, my manners kicked in before my gag reflex and I said in my most upbeat voice, “sure, I’d love a piece.” I cautiously took my first bite, wondering how I was going to get through an entire piece of biscotti. That, my dear friends, is when the angels started singing and every bad experience I’d had with biscotti vanished in a mouth-watering instant.…
Creamy Tomato Parmesan Soup in the Slow Cooker
If I was going to pick between winter and summer, I’d pick summer. My flip flops are calling to me, people. They miss me and oh, how I miss them. Winter does have one primary perk. Okay, maybe more than one, but I’m feeling stingy today. Ha! The perk of winter is soup. Warm, delicious, filling, tastes-better-the-next-day soup. So, that’s what I bring to you today. Creamy Tomato Parmesan Soup made in your slow cooker. In all actuality, tomato soup is kind of a misnomer for this soup. It’s actually more of a creamy and slightly chunky vegetable soup with carrots, celery and tomatoes on the ingredient list. I have…
Update to Blueberry Freezer Jam Recipe using Sure Jell
Hi Folks! I’m here on a random Thursday with a quick Jam PSA. I’ll bet that’s the first time you’ve ever heard a Jam Public Service Announcement. Am I right? 🙂 I made a new batch of blueberry freezer jam a couple of weeks ago and noticed the Sure Jell company change the recipe slightly. As a reminder, I use the pink box of Sure Jell. There used to be an extra cup of water in the recipe for the blueberry freezer jam. See… Now, that extra water has been omitted. The scandal! Kidding! It’s a good thing. You can see the change on the newest recipe page included…
Apple Raisin Bread
One of my most favorite childhood culinary memories is of my mom making apple cinnamon bread from scratch. She would let us have a slice of hot bread, right out of the oven, with butter slathered over the top. I can still imagine that taste – pure heaven. Here’s the kicker: I haven’t the slightest clue how she made that bread. If there was a recipe, it was never written down. Since she’s no longer here with us for me to ask, I will just chalk her secret ingredient up to love. I have since found an Apple Bread recipe that is every bit delicious and if you are afraid of…
Sweet Potato Bread Knots
I firmly believe that everyone needs a go-to dish or side they can prepare that makes them look like a rock star. And this go-to item needs to look like you spent hours doing something complicated and all Martha Stewart-y, when in reality, it was really pretty easy. Not that you’d ever let anyone know. This, my friends, is one of those items. Now, you know I love my carbs and I really think these are my favorite type of dinner roll. They are crazy delicious. Now, if you are a sweet potato hater, don’t worry. These rolls have an incredible flavor, but don’t taste like you’re biting straight into a sweet potato.…
