Holidays
New Year’s Recipes and Foods That Bring Good Luck
It’s no secret that there are many food-based traditions all over the world, including things like special birthday treats, Thanksgiving menus or New Year’s recipes. Food’s a universal need, and often at the center when family and friends gather together, whether it’s to celebrate a child’s marriage, enjoy a holiday feast, welcome someone home, or even to mourn the death of a loved one. Some even say there are certain foods and recipes that bring good luck in the new year, too! As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links. Black-Eyed Peas Growing up, my family always had black-eyed peas served on New Year’s…
Peppermint Sugar Cookie Bars
These peppermint sugar cookie bars are a breeze to make and have a fun candy *crunch* from the fresh and flavorful peppermint baking chips! This post was sponsored by Nellie’s®. Growing up, we devoted an entire Saturday in December to baking Christmas cookies. It was kind of a “girls’ day” with extended family, hosted by my grandmother, with my sister, mom, aunt and cousins. We filled cookie tins to give to friends and neighbors and also brought a healthy bounty home to enjoy ourselves. I mean, how could we not? Mmm… They were filled with chocolate and vanilla pinwheels, snowball cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and — of course — sugar…
Creamy Green Bean Casserole With a Savory Umami Twist
This creamy green bean casserole, with a savory umami twist and crunchy panko topping, will have you reaching for seconds … and thirds! Green beans are one of my favorite veggies. I love them steamed fresh out of our garden (with a little butter and salt), as part of the “Asian buffet” at Wegmans when I’m working while my oldest is at dance, and even in the traditional green bean casserole we all have fond (or not-so-fond) memories of from Thanksgivings past. Most folks know green bean casserole as “the dish made with cream of mushroom condensed soup.” Like canned cranberry jelly, that sort of thing is nostalgic, even if it isn’t…
Brie and Raspberry Crescent Roll Bites
There’s nothing better than having a fabulously simple and delicious appetizer in your back pocket. These sweet and savory brie and raspberry crescent roll bites are made with three ingredients, in under thirty minutes. Cheers — it’s baking season! As we near the end of October, we enter one of my favorite times of the year: holiday season! Sure, there are plenty of other holidays that we celebrate throughout the year, but nothing quite has the zing! of the period of time between Halloween and New Year’s Eve, with the big food-centric Thanksgiving crescendo in November. It can be an overwhelming time, cramming all the extras of holiday potlucks and…
How To Craft The Perfect Kauffman’s Gift Basket
My father owned a flower shop for over 20 years, and working in that flower shop was one of my very first jobs. I’d take orders, water plants, sweep up, inflate balloons, and other menial—but necessary—jobs around the store. Gradually I worked my way up to arranging simple bud vases out of carnations or roses, and eventually dubbed myself an actual florist when I moved to Savannah, Ga., after college and worked in a local flower shop on Wilmington Island making all kinds of floral arrangements. And, while I loved flexing my creative muscles by putting together huge, beautiful floral masterpieces, there’s another facet to most small town flower shops: gift…
Holiday Bread Pudding
This holiday bread pudding is a simple and tasty way to prepare a make-ahead festive dessert during the Christmas season! Coming off Thanksgiving, we’re eating our way through a lot of leftovers. Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and a slew of other trimmings. I also ended up with most of a loaf of hearty, rustic cranberry walnut bread. Truth be told, I realize a lot of folks don’t love bread pudding—even though you see it made on shows like Chopped all. the. time. It’s often the chefs’ go-to for the dessert round, but I’d wager not because it’s the best dessert on the planet. It’s because it’s simple to make. They can…
Sparkling Cranberry Blackcurrant Lime Cocktails
These festive sparkling cranberry blackcurrant lime cocktails are a perfect companion to your holiday spread — and good eats and drinks are always one of my favorite things about the season. One year my family decided change up Christmas dinner by creating a themed menu based on popular meals from the Dickensian era. It was complete with roast duck, Dutchess potatoes, Yorkshire pud, plum pudding and a host of other treats! (Keeping it real: I wasn’t as big of a fan of the plum pudding as I’d hoped, though it was super exciting to light it on fire!) Since then, each Christmas we’re all together, we’ll be picking a different theme.…
Easy Homemade Gravy
It’s easy to make delicious, savory, smooth homemade gravy in only fifteen minutes! Mashed potatoes and gravy can either be like heaven on a plate, or they can go horribly wrong — think college dining hall or hospital lunch plate, wrong. Generally speaking, if you’re able to find a simple recipe for either mashed potatoes or gravy, then your family will thank you profusely (in addition to licking their plates clean) for giving them those homemade gems. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links. Because, let’s be honest. Homemade, from-scratch mashed potatoes are ridiculously un-difficult to make. Boil and drain potatoes, add…
