I love lemons.  Love love love them!  So it should come as no surprise that lemon curd is one of my favorite treats.  Sweet and tart, rich and creamy, it’s just one of those perfect creations that I can’t imagine living without. Continue reading →

This is almost too simple to be called a recipe.  But since I know that many people don’t think to make their own croutons at home, I thought I’d give you this little reminder.  Homemade croutons are simple to make, they are a great way to use up stale bread, and they taste better than anything you can buy at the store. Continue reading →

And today we have the final recipes in the Holiday Recipes series I’ve been putting on with Amanda and Tyler of What We’re Eating.  At our pre-holiday dinner, Amanda made a delicious cranberry sauce that included persimmons and just a touch of fresh rosemary.  I would never have thought to add rosemary to cranberry sauce, but the combination was perfect! Continue reading →

And here we are back to the holiday recipe series! Today we are focusing on one of my favorite parts of a Thanksgiving meal — the stuffing!!  Some people call it stuffing, some people call it dressing, I call it heaven on a plate!  But seriously, my family calls it stuffing regardless of whether it actually gets stuffed into a bird.

This Sourdough Stuffing with Apples and Bacon was not actually stuffed into a turkey, but feel free to do that if you want.  Keep in mind though, you’ll end up with a moister bird if you bake your stuffing/dressing outside the turkey because the breast meat starts to dry out before the stuffing reaches a safe temperature.  That being said, I still have a tendency to stuff a turkey because that’s just the way we’ve always done it in my family.  It just doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving without dry turkey and moist stuffing! Continue reading →

EDIT: Due to an error with my server, the original version of this post along with all of your comments disappeared!  Talk about bad timing!!  The only choice I have is to start from the beginning and ask you to please leave a new comment if you wish to enter the the contest for the knife giveaway.  All the same rules apply, but I am extending the deadline to allow everyone to catch up to the new development!  Thank you, and sorry for the last minute change!

Remember those gorgeous knives from New West KnifeWorks that I gave away last September?  It’s happening again!  But this time, I have the pleasure of giving away a beautiful 9-inch Chef’s Knife from their Phoenix Line.  And although I’m not keeping it, I just had to test this baby out before giving it away to one of you lucky, lucky people. Continue reading →

So this is the second installment of our holiday recipe series, and I couldn’t be happier to share this dinner roll recipe with you!

In my family, the dinner rolls at our holiday meals are never homemade. For years, my grandmother would pick them up at a local bakery, but at some point we switched to the big bag of dinner rolls from Costco.  And I don’t think there’s anything wrong it.  My sister and I still love those rolls from Costco.  And really, even supermarket bakery rolls taste pretty good if you pop them in the oven for a few minutes. Continue reading →

Don’t worry, don’t worry! This recipe does NOT include peas of any kind.  But this is how I like to eat my mashed potatoes at every single holiday meal.  The more peas, the better!  But whether you like a side of peas with your meal or not, I have no doubt that you will love these mashed potatoes that are whipped with both cream cheese and sour cream!  Seriously, they are insanely delicious! Continue reading →

Well, if you saw yesterday’s recipe, you know where the idea for this side dish came from.  I ended up with leftover mixture of beans, corn, and green chiles when I made the Southwestern Style Egg Muffins yesterday.  And it’s not like I’m gonna throw something like that away!

I ended up drizzling the mixture with a bit of olive oil, added some fresh chopped cilantro, and a pinch of salt and fresh ground black pepper.  The result?  A perfect side dish made almost entirely of things I found in my pantry.  Well, the corn came from the freezer, but you know what I’m saying. Continue reading →