I decided that since I love everything food and food related, what better way to bring in the Holiday shopping season than compiling a list of the top 30 items (in no particular order) for that special food-lover, or "foodie", in your life! You know, the one who loves to cook and bake, and lives for all the latest and greatest cooking gadgets and accessories. This list is for them, including some of the hottest kitchen tools for this Holiday season! Whether they are a gourmet chef, a young ... continue reading...
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Think Outside the Blog – Weekly Blog Hop – Week 5!
Last week we skipped our unique blog hop due to the Holiday, but you can check out week 4 here.We hope you had a fabulous Holiday and are looking forward to bringing co-hosts on with us next week so stay tuned! We also look forward to having some prizes or possibly a giveaway, so be sure to add your link each week! If you would like to co-host, leave a message on any of the hosts blogs or send an email to us here. We are offering co-hosting of our blog hop, free of charge.Eventually I'd love for ... continue reading...
Mexican Cornbread
A few years back I made a delicious Mexican Cornbread dish for Thanksgiving, but it was using boxed cornbread. I wanted to recreate the recipe, but using my own cornbread recipe. My cornbread is sweet, so I took the sugar down a notch, and removed the vanilla extract altogether. Add a few tweaks in and you have a whole other dish!This is what I love about cooking, most of the recipe's I've posted and shared on this blog are my basic recipes for things, I've posted a good deal of my base models, ... continue reading...
Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
For as long as I can remember, carrot cake has been one of my favorites cake flavors. Of course, paired with cream cheese frosting. When I was younger I would just buy the mix out of the box, and sometimes buy one from the bakery. For some reason the bakery carrot cake is always a much different texture than the boxed variety. And the frosting was always much sweeter, almost to the point where you couldn't eat it unless you scraped most of it off! These are kind of in between, it's a bit richer ... continue reading...
Turkey Noodle Soup
As far back as I can remember, I can recall my parents using the leftover turkey to make a turkey soup each year after Thanksgiving. I never got a recipe or anything from them, but it just seemed like the customary thing to do, and I've continued the tradition with my own family. Through the years I just sort of created my own technique and recipe, so if there's a faster or easier way to do any of this, by all means be my guest! After all those heavy Thanksgiving dishes, this soup seems like ... continue reading...
Thanksgiving 2012 Recap
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving here in the Harris residence!Our holiday began with almost 2 days of cooking, lots of laughs, interruptions, sleep loss, and a a few bouts of impatience.All in all I'd say it was a success, we had all the kids under one roof, my mother in law as well as my aunt and uncle in law. I'm not naming any names, but a few family members fell into a food come, and only 3 dishes didn't get made that were planned.In addition to the food pictured on the right, there were also ... continue reading...
Thanksgiving Menu Ideas
I've compiled a list of recipes I've already posted that are completely appropriate to serve with your Thanksgiving meal or bring to a Thanksgiving dinner, party, or event. I had planned to share more recipes this week, but have been so busy planning my own Thanksgiving that I ran out of time! Don't worry, I'll still share them with you, just not in time for Thanksgiving!This is one of my favorite holidays, and we don't celebrate the Thanksgiving they teach in the schools, my family is ... continue reading...
Turkey Brine
In the past I've made a few different turkeys for Thanksgiving. I've bought a turkey already smoked, so all you do is heat it up. One year I bought the basic 14 pound turkey at the supermarket, I seasoned it and cooked it, but it took FOREVER to cook! It tasted good with the seasonings, but I felt something was still missing. I was never too big of a turkey fan, the side dishes were always where the yummy goodness was at! But for leftovers I loved turkey sandwiches with stuffing, and I always ... continue reading...
Sweet Potato Pie
One of my favorite things to eat at Thanksgiving while growing up was the pumpkin pie. I always looked forward to them, and was sure to gobble up every last bite. My husband, however, grew up eating sweet potato pies. So one Thanksgiving I was determined to make him the best sweet potato pie. Personally, I never cared much for them. I have to say though, that I prefer this sweet potato pie over the pumpkin pie I made last year! I even surprised myself! So, since I'm not in love with my own ... continue reading...
An Evening in San Francisco with Macy’s Culinary Council Chef Marc Forgione
Last night I had the pleasure of being able to attend an evening in San Francisco at Macy's Union Square in their fully functioning cellar kitchen. This event was hosted by Macy's Culinary Council and the evenings guest was Next Iron Chef Season 3 Winner and Macy's Culinary Council Chef Marc Forgione. Marc did a few live cooking demonstrations, offered some cooking tips and chef secrets, and he also shared some of his early memories with his family as well as recent travel adventures. It was a ... continue reading...
Traditional Cranberry Relish
I know there's so many of us that grew up eating the can shaped cranberry sauce with our Thanksgiving meal, and maybe even our Christmas one too. It's become such a custom for so many, and the shape of the can even makes it easy to slice, or is that just me? Anyhow, a few years ago I began hosting Thanksgiving at my house. I have to admit that the very first year was stressful. You have to have time management skills, and be sure to shower, dress, and do your makeup and hair early. Also do ... continue reading...
Think Outside the Blog – Weekly Blog Hop – Week 4!
Last week was week 3 of our unique blog hop, and we enjoyed seeing some of our "regulars" as well as some fun new blogs again!!*** PLEASE NOTE *** next week we will be taking a one week hiatus from the blog hop due to the Thanksgiving holiday, and we will return for week 5 on November 29th.If you would like to co-host, leave a message on any of the hosts blogs or send an email to us here. We are offering co-hosting of our blog hop, free of charge.Eventually I'd love for us to get to 50 links ... continue reading...
Buttery Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes
There's one thing that always makes my family happy, and that is good old mashed potatoes. In these photos I paired them with my savory boneless pork chops and my garlic Parmesan asparagus, but mashed potatoes are really great with anything. Mashed potatoes are always a staple around the dinner table for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, and this version is sure to please! The great thing about them is you can make them up to 24 hours in advance, refrigerate them, then pop them in the ... continue reading...
Savory Slow Cooker Stuffing
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite Holidays of the year. Family getting together, delicious food, all during my favorite season, Autumn. All of my favorite things come together perfectly during this time of year, and now I get to share that love with you! Over the next week I'll be doing things a little different around here. I plan on posting many recipes that relate to the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday, but many don't have pictures just yet. Of course these are my favorite recipes that I do ... continue reading...
Join Macy’s Culinary Council Chef Marc Forgione in SF!
I am so excited to attend this event. I am a huge fan of Iron Chef and remember watching Marc Forgione participate in the competition. I love his style of cooking and look forward to seeing him in action live and in person. I am also a big fan of Macy's and Macy's Culinary Council and love that they have put together these type of events for their customers to be a part of! What a wonderful opportunity to be a part of this! If you are interested, be sure to RSVP!Feast your eyes on ... continue reading...
Candied Cookie Bars
We love making these little treats, they are a favorite around the holidays and the kids love "building" them. There's many different variations and combinations you can play with, but this is definitely our favorite mixture of flavors. These are perfect for your dessert display during the Holidays, or even to package up and give as a gift to co-workers, neighbors, or even your child's teacher! They are rich and decadent, so you want to be sure you cut them in smaller rectangles, but they are ... continue reading...
Southern Creamy Cauliflower-Broccoli Bake
My family eats our vegetables in numerous forms. Of course I like a good salad, I love roasted veggies, sauteed, boiled etc. This, however, is a different take on your average broccoli or cauliflower dish.The photos don't do it justice; sorry, I tried! I promise it's delicious though!This dish has some pretty definitive southern roots, and you can find many variations of it online. My family loves it, in these photos I served it with my Deviled Chicken in White Wine Sauce and my Pull-Apart ... continue reading...
Think Outside the Blog – Weekly Blog Hop – Week 3!
Last week was week 2 of our all new blog hop, and it was fun to meet some fun new blogs once again!! The purpose of our blog hop is to meet some new blogging friends that you may otherwise have not come across. We are offering co-hosting of our blog hop, free of charge. We are all about socializing and helping our fellow blogging friends.That's great news for you, if you're interested. If you would like to cohost, send a message to any of the hosts or send an email to us here.Last week we we ... continue reading...
Pull-Apart Garlic Cheesy Bread
Pinterest is a wonderful collective to peruse in order to find inspiration and ideas about things you never would have known existed. I love to see various ideas about just about anything, some of my favorites being ideas for the home, DIY, refinishing old items into something fresh and new. Of course, food and recipes are a huge interest to me when it comes to Pinterest, and there is so much to see!This particular idea came from a pin that led to this recipe. I did change just a few things from ... continue reading...
Creamy Beef Stroganoff over Buttery Egg Noodles
When I was a youngster both my parents worked full time.Since they were so busy, many nights we had quick weeknight meals of the boxed variety. One of my favorites for years and years was Beef Stroganoff. I loved the meat flavors with the egg noodles, and that creamy gravy. Although it was out of a box, it was one of the meals I always looked forward to.A few weeks back I had bought some boneless top sirloin roast steak and I've already posted one recipe that I made them with, this is the other. ... continue reading...
