Valentine’s Day is coming up quickly. I wanted to show you some cute baskets that I put together for the kids last year to give you inspiration as you shop this year. The wire baskets are from Target, and I use them for a bunch of things year round. The acrylic tags were personalized with the kid’s names and I found them on Etsy. The seller is on a break, but I am sure that you could find something similar. I love these Kid Made Modern heart water color sets. You can find other brands on Amazon. The heart goggles aren’t available, but the same brand offers a heart style here. I picked up a fun note pad from TJ Maxx and one of those light spinners that my kid’s love. The big hit here was the unicorn chapstick and the jelly beans!

The boys are always a little harder to shop for, but I found these cute shirts at J.Crew saying “Heartbreaker”. They don’t have the same baseball shirt style this year, but here is a similar shirt. I love the Rey to Z hats, you can get them with lots of different things on them: letters, big bro, little bro, auntie, etc. You can’t have any gift basket in this house without Pokemon cards, and of course a little chocolate (and only the best, Gräem for the win!)

For the littlest, we picked up a fun art kit that the big kids could help her with, a hat – because we are into backwards hats these days, but also a few hair bows and clips that we had been saving for a while (we went though a period of not wanting to put anything in our hair) and are just getting into fun stuff now! Throw in some delicious chocolate from Gräem, a simple heart tee from target, and a fun necklace and she is one happy kid!

Are dessert boards a thing anymore? Asking for a friend. Either way, I still love them. Added in all of my favorite things and if they aren’t in anymore…well more for me I guess Homemade chocolate covered pretzel rods, macarons (and these days you can pick them up at Whole Foods if you’re in a pinch), my favorite cookies from Bisous Sweet (it doesn’t have to be Valentine’s Day for me to get these, frankly, any day that ends with a ‘y’ will do!) and some red candies to fill in the empty spaces.

Don’t forget to show your gal pals the love this Valentine’s day. I love single serve bottles of bubbly. Pop on a cute tag (these are my favorite – Little Notes from E. Frances Paper) and drop off as a little reminder of how fabulous you think they are!

One of my favorite bakeries made these cookies years ago and I had to reshare them because they are so cute! They have closed their doors for walk in retail, but you can still order cakes online!

Make sure to check out Love And Flour, their cakes are beautiful.

I love a good m&m cookie on Valentine’s Day, they make a bold pop of color!

I love a good sheet pan meal, pancakes are no exception. Use your favorite pancake recipe but make on a baking sheet. Cook at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes. They come out light and fluffy and you can cut them out into cute shapes with cookie cutters – and everyone gets warm pancakes at the same time!

Don’t want to make sheet pan pancakes, try making them in muffin tins. My second favorite way to make quick meals for the whole family – and everyone gets to eat a hot meal at the same time! My kids think that eating anything with a toothpick is more fun, so we found these cute heart food picks to use and we let them dip them in whipped cream and sprinkles! What is your favorite pancake topping?

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I usually don’t have time to make homemade brownies, so I fancy up some box brownies. (Throw in some candy or add on some home made frosting…) But I found myself with some extra time the other day and decided to make some fudge brownies from scratch. I found a recipe from Karli, cookiesfordaaays on Instagram, and hers looked amazing.

The recipe couldn’t have been easier to make and they came out delicious. Perfect for a dry run for Valentine’s Day.

You can keep the brownies plain, as is, or add frosting. Check out her recipe here.

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To celebrate the Chinese New Year, Leah invited us over to make dumplings at her house. The kids and I took over her kitchen and we got to work.

The kids liked the pork dumplings, but we also made a mushroom version for Henry and Dan.

The kids had the best time scooping and filling. They tried to pinch the dumplings, and even came up with some new shapes and ideas of their own. The “pizza” style became popular towards the end!

Leah made these dumplings, look at how well they are folded! Best part of the day, definitely the taste testing!

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I was chatting with my hairdresser and she was telling me about how she tried to make the viral chocolate chip cookies for her boyfriend, but they turned out a total bust.

I asked her if she tried to make one of the cookies home made, knowing that I had tried that too, and made the same mistake. So much for trying to be fancy. Do yourself a favor and just buy the premade cookie dough – the chocolate chip and the cut out sugar cookie hearts. Place the sugar cookie hearts on top of the chocolate chip cookie dough (I got the heart sprinkle ones, but as you can see, you couldn’t even see the cute sprinkles), and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Pillsbury cookies aren’t my jam, but boy, they are cute…and the kids loved them!

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It’s getting to be that time of year, pumpkin spiced everything! Well, I think we actually may have just skipped right over that season actually, and we are now actually in the 40 something days until Christmas season…. but I do love making pumpkin bread. I love this recipe from Once Upon a Chef and the best part is that you can open the recipe and keep it in “cook mode”, which keeps your screen from going dark. Nothing worse than being elbow deep in mixing and having to swipe up your phone. I also love that this recipe makes two loaves, because I actually make one plain, and mix chocolate chips in the other one, because of course, my kids can never like the same things!

What is your favorite pumpkin recipe?

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Savory crackers aren’t really my thing. At snack time I am more likely to go for the sweet than the salty (or savory), but here we are.

Have you ever tasted something that you just can’t stop eating? Like, I meant to eat one or two but looked down and the whole sleeve of Girl Scouts Cookies were gone…nope, that’s never happened to me before either.

I found this great recipe from How Sweet Eats and have made it at least a dozen times. Every batch comes out better than the last. First you start out with Saltine crackers. But then, you dress them up with butter and brown sugar and all sorts of delicious spices. You end up with these smoky, delicious, buttery crackers that go with just about anything but taste amazing on their own.

These would be a great addition to any cheese plate, a nice garnish in your soup or even crushed up as a Mac and cheese topping. I can’t wait to try making these with the mini saltines!

Check out the recipe on How Sweet Eats here. Try the recipe out and let me know what you think!

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Lately I’ve been a home-body. I’ve been cooking up big batch meals so I don’t have to cook every night, and to be honest, we have been eating out a lot too – I’m just tired by the end of the day, aren’t you?

In my head, winter should be over – I mean, we have had the big snow, it has been a frozen tundra, and just recently I was able to see grass again. Isn’t February the longest month? It’s around this time when I get a little stir crazy and need a vacation. Hopefully all this snow we just got will melt on Tuesday when it’s 60 degrees out.

I’m all about quick and easy – so these cute little single serve Key lime pies have been pretty popular in my house these days.  They are sweet and tart, and just bring a little brightness to this winter. I like Key Lime pies because they are 3 ingredients and take no time at all to make. I use Nelly and Joe’s Key West Lime juice (I may have even picked it up at Bed Bath and Beyond with my 20% off coupon). Here’s the recipe, super easy:

14oz can of sweetened condensed milk

3 egg yolks (don’t use the whites)

1/2 cup of Key West lime juice

Directions: Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Pour filling into pre-made graham cracker pie shells. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before placing in refrigerating.

Viola! Done. Take out and top with whipped cream and sprinkle with a little lime zest and you have yourself one fancy looking, it looks like I spent all day in the kitchen, dessert.

Enjoy!

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I’ve had cranberries on the brain lately, so Leah and I got together and made some tasty Cranberry Corn muffins, adapted from Ina Garten’s Raspberry Corn Muffin recipe. So first you will need Leah’s cranberry sauce recipe. If this were just me making cranberry sauce, I’d do the water, sugar and cranberry recipe, but Leah is way more fancy than that. She swears the recipe is super simple, and to be honest, I just made a batch and it really is (except I didn’t have the port, or the cloves, or the orange zest at my house, but hey, minor details…) Also, disclosure that I didn’t use flavored sugar, I just used regular old white granulated sugar.

Next you’ll need the recipe from Ina for her corn muffins, which you can find here. For our cranberry corn muffins, just swap out Ina’s 3/4 cup of good raspberry preserves for Leah’s cranberry sauce.

Leah had some fancy cornmeal from Plymouth or something like that. I had to go out and buy some from the market since I’m making these for Thanksgiving this year (yup, I steal most of Leah’s good ideas!) We whipped up the muffins in no time, even with the little hands in the kitchen slowing us down a bit…

Pop those muffins in the oven for 30 minutes and then you get these! They look beautiful as is, but we took to filling them with the delicious cranberry sauce.

If you’re like me and don’t have an apple corer at home, you can just fill a ziplock bag with the preserves and push the tip into the top of each muffin. Verdict, they’re delicious. Leah sent me home with a few and I have to admit, I didn’t share (oops)!

What is your favorite dish at Thanksgiving?

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While Leah and I were in the kitchen making the risotto that was on the blog yesterday, we also made Thanksgiving croutons with Bell’s Seasoning. Does this fit into my every day lifestyle, not really, but Leah said it was so easy. I played along, and yes, it did end up being very easy (if you don’t have little kids running around – which I do). Maybe in 10 years I’ll have time to make these, until then, croutons from the bag it is (or maybe even no croutons at all)

So what do you need? Stale bread, Bell’s Seasoning and a little oil. THAT’S IT! Leah whipped up a really beautiful fall salad to go with our Bell’s Seasoning croutons, made with roasted delicata squash.

Cube up stale bread (4 cups). Pour 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil into a cast iron skilled and warm in pan over medium heat. Add in cubed bread and coat with oil from pan. Sprinkle bread with Bell’s Seasoning (to taste) and cook for 20 minutes. Let cool in pan and enjoy!

How beautiful does this fall salad look?

Disclaimer: I was sent a box of Bell’s Seasoning to make this recipe. All opinions are my own.

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I feel like the holidays are just sneaking up on me. I needed to start thinking about Thanksgiving like…. three months ago, and am just getting started, talk about cutting it close. Good thing I have Leah from Boston City Living. We got together and made some really simple holiday recipes – which I need these days because of the kiddos. We teamed up with Bell’s Seasoning, and made a delicious risotto. Really tasty, made in about 10 minutes, and is the perfect gluten free side that you need on your table.

Here’s the recipe:
INGREDIENTS
3 Tablespoons of olive oil
3 Tablespoons  butter, divided
1 medium  onion, diced
2 shallot or 1 small onion, minced
2 carrots, sliced
1 1⁄2cups  arborio rice or 1 1⁄2 cups  risotto rice
4 cups  chicken broth
1 -1 1⁄2cup fresh grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
2 TBSP of Bell’s Seasoning

In a presssure cooker, heat 3 Tbs Olive oil and 1 Tbs Butter.
Add shallot or onion and carrots. Saute until shallots or onions are translucent.
Add rice. Stir until rice is coated with oil.
Add Chicken broth and 2 Tbsp of Bell’s Seasoning.
Cover and cook under high pressure for 7 minutes.
Release pressure and add remaining 2 Tbsp of butter. Stir in Parmesan cheese and serve.

Disclaimer: I was sent a sample of Bell’s Seasoning to make this recipe. All opinions are my own.

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