Pilgrims Pie

The day after Thanksgiving has become just as popular in my home as the actual event.   Instead of trying to find room for all of the leftovers and heating them up individually, how about layering them all together into a wonderful "pot pie" like dish.  Use whatever you have in the fridge (turkey, stuffing potatoes, veggies, gravy and even cranberry sauce) and no additional ingredients are needed (unless you do what I did this year and put a pie crust in between the Thanksgiving layers.  I can now see the back of my fridge again.  Thank you Jessica Collins for such a lovely idea, Indulge!

Nans Cornbread Dressing with Fresh Herbs and Smoked Oysters

My grandmother made the most amazing dressing.  Every holiday is was a staple at her house.  Now that she is gone, my beautiful Mom is keeping up the tradition of always making it for everyone to enjoy and remembering her loving spirit.  This year I decided to change it up a bit by adding smoked oysters.  I have always wanted to try Oyster dressing or stuffing and because we didn't have the kids this Thanksgiving I was going to give it a try.  I absolutely loved it and think the oysters gave it such a smokey unique flavor.   Now of course if you don't like oysters, like my Mom :), please feel free to leave them out.  My grandmother's original recipe does not include the fresh herbs, but I think it adds so much to it.  Indulge!

Bourbon Cranberry Sauce

This is such a lovely recipe and so easy to make.  I was one of those who always would be the canned cranberry sauce, but after trying this I will never buy canned again.  You can always leave the bourbon out or add it before cooking to make sure the alcohol cooks out.  Indulge!

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake

Happy Thanksgiving!  One of my favorite times of the year had come and gone.  One of my most request recipes in my Pumpkin cake.  I have made this for several years now and decided to tweak it a bit.  Normally I would use sour cream which always keeps it so moist.  This year however, I wanted to try switching the sour cream for this vanilla honey Greek yogurt that I absolutely love.  I think I made a wonderful choice.  The yogurt took it to another level.  I hope you enjoy it as much as my family.  Indulge!

Cucumber Cups with California Crab

This is another wonderful filling to use with the refreshing Cucumber Cups.  I LOVE all things sushi and thought how amazing would it be to recreate the California roll into this appetizer, minus the rice.  Indulge!

Cucumber Cups with Smoked Salmon Mousse

Summer is officially about to end and one of my favorite appetizers to serve over the summer was Cucumber Cups.  This is such a refreshing appetizer with endless possibilities of fillings.  I had some left over smoked salmon and that it would pair beautifully with the cucumber.  If you don't like cucumber you could easily pipe this on the cracker of your choice.  Indulge!

                                                       Photo courtesy of Maggie Filla

Chocolate Toffee Cupcake with Salted Caramel Frosting

Part II of Graduation Party:  Here is the chocolate cupcake I also made for the graduation party.  Indulge!

Banana Split Cupcakes

Part I Graduation Party:  This past week my baby girl graduated from 5th grade.  It was such a bittersweet moment.  On one hand I am excited for her to explore this next chapter in her life, but it saddens me that she is growing up way too fast for me.  The parents decided to throw the graduates a party and I decides to bring cupcakes.  Anyone else surprised, more and more that seems to be my go to dessert to bring.  Now mind you once I had already signed up to bring them, I soon realized that there were about 100 5th graders!!  The panic was soon to set in.  I have never made that many at once.  I knew that I had to plan plan plan.  I wanted to bring a chocolate one and a vanilla one.  For the vanilla one I thought it would be fun to create a favorite ice cream treat into cupcake form.  With this cupcake I think I pretty much captured all the flavors (except pineapple).  I put the banana flavor into the cupcake, strawberry in the cream filling, vanilla in the frosting and drizzled it with chocolate, topped with nuts and a banana split wouldn't be complete without a cherry.  I had so much fun making these and hopefully the kids enjoyed them just as much.  The Chocolate cupcake up next.  Indulge!

Nutella Cupcakes

Last week was Teacher Appreciation week.  Of course K's favorite day is "bring something sweet".  We had a hard time deciding what we were going to make.  We new it was going to be a cupcake of some sort and though she is not much of a chocolate fan, I convinced her into letting me make the Nutella cupcake.  Nutella is something I could just eat with a spoon it's so delicious.  In the past I have made Nutella cookies and Nutella molten lava, but not cupcakes.  I will definitely be adding this to my list of favorites.  Indulge!

Margarita Cupcakes

Happy Cinco de Mayo! There is a historical significance to this day and like most holidays that celebrate a heritage, people enjoy celebrating Cinco de Mayo with authentic food and beverage.  I love Mexican food and look forward to indulging in some chips, salsa and guacamole and washing it down with an ice cold classic Mexican cocktail.  But who says you can only drink your margarita.  I came across this recipe and just new it would be the perfect dessert.  Indulge!

Nutella No-Bake Cookies

The first time I ever had this cookie was when I was in junior high school and I thought it was the best thing I had ever tasted.  Every time the ladies in the cafeteria would make them I would always take one and sometimes two.  As I got older I came across a recipe for them and was thrilled to know I could continue to enjoy them.  Since becoming a fan of nutella I thought I would incorporate it into this recipe and oh my goodness I didn't think it could taste any better.  Hard to believe that such a simple cookie could be so amazing.  Indulge!

Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

I love everything about cinnamon.  I think I would put it in almost anything if I could get away with it.  I was excited when my daughter requested this recipe for her birthday.  On her actual birthday I made my triple cinnamon roll recipe and baked them in individual cupcake liners to take to her school and share with her class , but due to timing I decided to do an actual cupcake for her party.  Indulge!

The Best Frosting Ever

 I came across this recipe while watching one of my favorite food bloggers (The Pioneer Woman) on Food Network.  I was a little unsure considering I have never heard of 'flour' as being one of the ingredients.  I am so glad I gave it a try, it is utterly delicious.  So light and creamy, literally the best I have ever tasted.  I am more of a whipped frosting at heart so needless to say I was in heaven.  I have altered it a couple of times for different recipes.  Once adding 1/2 cup of peanut butter for a peanut butter frosting and another time adding cinnamon.  I could easily take a spoon and eat it right out of the bowl.  Indulge!

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

The end of February and the month of March are busy birthday times for me.  Every couple of weeks we are having a birthday celebration.  This year we combined our oldest daughters together.  My daughter requested her favorite Cinnamon Roll cupcakes (recipe and post coming soon) and the Mr.'s daughter requested Peanut butter cup cupcakes.  This was the first request for anything peanut butter and I have been wanting to bake with it for a while now so I was excited to give it a try.  Growing up one of my favorites was Reese's peanut butter cups (once many many years ago i bought a bag of the miniatures and ate every last one of them.. I don't think I could get away with that now).  This cupcake definitely brought back childhood memories.  Indulge!

Turkey and Veggie Meatloaf Cupcakes {aka how I get my kids to eat some veggies cupcakes}

Since Valentines is around the corner my kids have been bugging me about making cupcakes.  I don't know if I am ready for the sugar induced coma again (for goodness sake I am still recovering from the holidays!).  As I was planning out dinner and going through the fridge, I realized I had some veggies I seriously needed to cook.  A light bulb went off!  How about putting dinner in cupcake form (and throwing in some hidden veggies),  I love playing motherly pranks on my kids and thought this would be fun to watch.  When they got home from school they noticed the "cupcakes" in the oven and got so excited, until they looked a little closer as I was plating them.  But soon those frowns turned back to smiles once they dug in.  They had so much fun eating them and didn't even notice the good for you ingredients inside.  The beauty of this recipe is that you can use your favorite meatloaf and mashed potato recipe of your choice if you like and it will turn ordinary into awesomeness!  I will definitely be making these again.  Indulge!

Overnight Triple Cinnamon Rolls

Over the holidays, I surprised the kids one morning with home-made gooey cinnamon rolls.  I was searching for a recipe that wouldn't have me in the kitchen all morning and came across Alton Brown's Overnight Cinnamon Roll recipe.  Perfect!!  After tweaking it here and there, I came up with my version, Overnight Triple Cinnamons Rolls.  I LOVE cinnamon and add it any chance I get.  For this recipe it is not only in the filling, but also in the dough and icing (of course you can leave it out if you are not in love with it as much as I am).  I also doubled the filling recipe, I wanted these babies oozing with sugary goodness.  Over the years I have tried several recipes and this is by far my favorite, not to mention the kids gave it a thumbs up.  Indulge!

Stacked Shrimp Ceviche Salad

I love all things ceviche and salad.  I initially wanted to make a crab stacked salad, but I did not have any on hand, so as I was brainstorming I came up with this.  Instead of combining all ingredients like would a normal ceviche, I decided to layer them.  This salad was so fun to make and so refreshing with just a hint of spice.  Only thing missing is the margarita.  Indulge!

Fried Ravioli

I have been wanting to try this recipe ever since I came across it.  I wanted to incorporate a new appetizer in and thought this would be perfect, even the kids would dig it.  I adapted it from Giada De Laurentiis recipe, the only thing I changed was the sauce.  I didn't have marinara on hand, so I took a jar of my favorite pasta sauce and through it in the blender along with some parmesan cheese and red chili flakes for an added richness and spice.  I'm so glad I nibbled on a couple before serving, I am pretty sure the kids swallowed them whole, they were gone so fast. Indulge!

Roasted Chicken and Spinach Manicotti

This dish is probably the one I am most proud of.   Not quite 20 years ago (that would make me 9.. right?), I saw a recipe in a little book I had bought at the grocery store.  I was having friends over and really wanted to make something they would enjoy, I had only dabbled in the kitchen and was so unsure of the outcome.  Surprisingly enough they loved it.  Over the years I have tweaked and tweaked on the recipe and changed it to my own liking.  Little did I know that this very recipe would lead me to my love of cooking.  Indulge!

Rosemary Bread

Now who couldn't eat an Italian dish with out some melt in your mouth bread.  I love the aromatic rosemary married together with garlic and herbs.  Just right to sop up sauce left in your plate or dipped in a lovely oil.

Bucatini All’Amatriciana with Spicy Smoked Mozzarella Turkey Meatballs

I have been so behind in posting recipes.  Last year went by in a flash and I have so many to share, not to mention I have so many more to try.  I love a good pasta dish, especially one with smoked mozzarella.  This recipe is one I adapted from Giada (she is my go to girl when I'm looking for an awesome Italian dish). Indulge!

Smoked Turkey Crepes

This is my attempted to recreate a fabulous dish I had in a little cafe in Dallas called Cafe Brazil.  I love everything about this dish.  It's light, fresh and amazingly delicious.

I see a blog makeover in my future...

I have been looking at giving my blog a makeover for some time now.  I know it needs a little spicing up.  I have been looking at different designers and came across this awesome site, Designer Blogs.  They are having a giveaway right now towards a new blog makeover, wish me luck and check them out if you are looking at updated your blog design.