It was brought to my attention by my longtime friend Xenia @ Raised by Culture that a lot of bloggers have chosen a one word theme for the year. It's described as being your vision, or theme for the new year. You may not know this about me, but I'm all about positive and inspiring quotations, so this is right up my alley! But just one word?? For a whole year? What would I choose?! I remember in 2007, my husband (at the time he was my boyfriend) and I decided that our theme word for 2007 ... continue reading...
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Think Outside the Blog – Weekly Blog Hop – Week 9!
Here it is folks, our first Think Outside the Blog Thursday Blog Hop for the New Year! We skipped last week due to the holidays, but now we're back and excited to share a New Year with you all and watch this little blog hop grow! I hope your holidays and New Year's celebrations were beautiful and memorable!When we first decided to put this together, it was to bring people together to meet others that may not fit the "norm". I think we're all a little different in our own ways, and that's partly ... continue reading...
New Year’s Day Black eyed Peas
Happy New Year!!! I'm planning on making 2013 the best year yet!! We have a lot of plans for our family, our home, and this blog. I'm excited to see what's to come!This New Year's Eve we spent at home with the kids. We rolled in the New Year with homemade noisemakers and pots and pans, dancing and singing. The kids stayed up, even the little ones, and I cooked my way into the New Year. Would you expect anything less?All evening this slow cooked black eyed pea soup was cooking away, and we were ... continue reading...
New Year’s Eve with Rwanda Path to Peace and Macy’s Culinary Council
A few weeks back, I was offered a chance to review a Rwanda Path to Peace basket via Everywhere Society. I jumped at the opportunity, not know just how beautiful this basket would be. Each basket is 100% handmade and one of a kind, but the quality is remarkable. I was pretty amazed at how beautiful my basket was when I received it, and right away my family was asking what it was. I explained to them about Macy's Rwanda Path to Peace and they were all amazed right along with me.What is ... continue reading...
Cranberry Crumble Coffee Cake
I have to confess that this was the post I was attempting to share with you right before Christmas. I had planned on baking this coffee cake ahead of time, and posting it on Christmas Eve while telling you all Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and wishing you love and laughter with you family and loved ones.Instead, Big G and I stayed up until 5 am, wrapping presents, cooking other things and preparing for Christmas morning. This actually didn't even get made until later Christmas morning, when ... continue reading...
Jump Start 2013 With Meal Plans from eMeals
With New Year's Eve right around the corner, many of us are thinking back to our Holiday eating habits and ready for a change. I know I am! I think I've had a dozen too many cookies this season, and it's time to get back on track! The number one New Year's Resolution from most people every year is to eat better, exercise, and lose weight. Just sometimes it seems too difficult, or meal planning with a large family seems exhausting. Or perhaps it just seems too expensive. There's so many reasons ... continue reading...
Christmas 2012
This year our Christmas was very low key. Christmas Eve we all got dressed up and spent it at my in-law's. My mother in-law cooked a lot of delicious food, and since we do have a blended family not all of our kids were with us until Christmas day. Christmas Day we woke up and opened gifts, spent most of the day in our pajamas and I leisurely cooked and enjoyed my time with my family while the kids all played with new toys, listened to music, and watch movies. It was a wonderful day. This is ... continue reading...
Easy Slow-Cooked Pork Roast
I've gone into my love for my slow-cooker a few times here, but this is one of my all time favorite "go to" recipes with my slow cooker. This is perfect for those days you have mouths to feed, but have a ton of things to do and can't slave in the kitchen for hours! Perfect for this time of year when family and friends are always visiting, people are last minute shopping or getting the last of the presents wrapped.It seems there's never enough time around this point in the season, and this is a ... continue reading...
Miniature Cranberry-Pear Cobblers
There are so many fun things you can do with ramekins, you can make little souffles, Crème brûlée, mini pot pies, mini cakes, quiche, etc. There's so much you can do, and I love to try different experiments with them. I decided to come up with a Christmas sort of dessert, and what says Christmas more than cranberries, pears, and a hint of cherry flavoring? This was very easy to throw together, many of the ingredients are staples in my pantry, and I served it with some homemade whipped cream to ... continue reading...
Think Outside the Blog – Weekly Blog Hop – Week 8!
I know I've been a bit M.I.A. lately. I do apologize for that, and I promise that I'm returning with some great dishes and desserts to share with you. With Christmas in less than a week and my kids home on Winter Break, as well as the tragedy of last week my focus has been elsewhere. During this time I've been enjoying my family, preparing for Christmas, as well as brainstorming new ideas to help make this blog even better through the coming year!To bring me back to this blog, is our weekly ... continue reading...
Absolutely no words..
If you would like to donate to Sandy Hook School Support Fund, please visit their United Way page. ... continue reading...
Hearty and Comforting Shephard’s Pie
One of a handful of the first things I made when I started really getting into cooking was a Shephard's Pie.This came at a time when money was extremely tight for us, and it cause me to get very creative in the kitchen.(You can read a little more about that here) Sometimes piecing together ingredients with a tight budget can be the times you get most creative in the kitchen! I wouldn't trade those hard times for anything, because that's when I was forced to learn to try different things when it ... continue reading...
Think Outside the Blog – Weekly Blog Hop – Week 7!
We're already on week 7 of our Think Outside the Blog Thursday Blog Hop. We've loved some of the blogs we've come across and people we've met, let's keep it going!Make sure you add your link at the bottom via the inlinkz tool, follow all the hosts via Google Friend Connect, or subscribe to their feed. Add their various social networks and mingle with some of the other folks that link up. This is a blog hop for those bloggers a little out of the norm to socialize and find other like-minded ... continue reading...
Pumpkin Spice Bread with Brown Sugar Glaze
Throughout the holiday season, I always enjoy my Pumpkin Spice Bread Muffins and so this year for Thanksgiving I decided to make a loaf instead of muffins.I mentioned in the muffin recipe post that I enjoy these so much with walnuts and raisins, so I decided to include those in the loaf as well. To dress it up a bit, I also decided to do a glaze over the bread loaf, and a brown sugar glaze seemed like the perfect way to go. It took an already delicious base to extraordinary.My husband couldn't ... continue reading...
Coconut Chicken with Thai Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce
One of the favorite and most requested meals in my home is my coconut chicken with homemade sweet chili dipping sauce. The coconut chicken is fried in panko crumbs and coconut, to give it a sweet taste, and the sauce is a perfect mix of sweet and spicy giving it a Thai inspired flair, which I absolutely love!A good friend of mine has always spoken about the coconut chicken she makes for her family and how delicious it is, so when I came across this recipe on another blog, I simply had to try ... continue reading...
Pull-Apart Sticky Buns
A few months back I discovered this delicious Sticky Bun Breakfast Ring on Pinterest. It was a pretty popular pin that was making its rounds on all of my friends boards, so of course I repinned. I had to try it, and it was so good! It's basically what most of us would recognize as Monkey Bread. This would be perfect to serve with brunch on Christmas Morning or as a snack to have just lingering on one of your serving tables. Kids and adults both go nuts over this, and they always request I make ... continue reading...
Savory "Omelet Inspired" Breakfast Casserole
Sometimes weekend mornings can be very busy for me. Even on those days on the weekend when we actually don't have a football / baseball / basketball / softball / cheer / track event. We have a big family, and sometimes making one omelet for each of my family members (or something like that) will leave me in the kitchen for way longer than I like, no matter how much I love cooking. I love to spend time with my family and eat together, enjoying one another's company.So a while back I decided to ... continue reading...
Think Outside the Blog – Weekly Blog Hop – Week 6!
I'm so excited about week 6 of our Think Outside the Blog Thursday Blog Hop. This is the first week that we bring you CO-HOSTS! And may I mention our co-hosts are fabulous?Make sure you add your link at the bottom via the inlinkz tool, follow all the hosts and co-hosts via Google Friend Connect, or subscribe to their feed. Add their various social networks and mingle with some of the other folks that link up. This is a blog hop for those bloggers a little out of the norm to socialize and find ... continue reading...
White Chocolate Cranberry Nut Cookies
I'm so excited to share this cookie recipe with you. During the Christmas season, a lot of people love to give (and receive) cookies as gifts. All the stores have various cookie tins and platters, with a wide variety of size, color, and shape. These are wonderful to fill with a variety of cookies for your neighbor, boss, teachers, or host/hostess.This particular cookies screams "Holiday Season" to me. They have Cranberries, macadamia nuts, white chocolate chips and Brandy in them! Leave these ... continue reading...
Homemade Traditional Lasagna
Lasagna always reminds me of one thing. My Aunt. When I was a kid, every Halloween we would go to my Aunt's house and go trick or treating. During that time, she'd be making her delicious lasagna so after our night of trick-or-treating we would come back and have a delicious plate of lasagna. I don't think I had anyone else's until many years later, and hers is the basis that I compare any to.Now, I know it's well past Halloween, but this is definitely the season for cuddle weather and comfort ... continue reading...
