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When the oranges start appearing in all the stores (at least in Idaho) I am in heaven.  It's one of the reasons I love this time of year.   I love the smell of cutting them open and it just makes me want to sit down and contemplate life.  It also makes me want to start baking with them.  Mmmm...so yummy! We usually fight over them in our house, that's how much we all love them.  This year though I bought an entire case so no one had to worry about getting their share.  They are our go to snack and they are one of my favorite things to cook with. Our very most favorite to make with them are these beauties.  With orange peel in the filling and orange juice in the glaze, you can't go wrong.  They are absolutely heavenly! Orange Rolls ( click here for printable version ) Dough: 2 cups milk 1/2 cup butter 2 tsp. salt 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup sugar 2 Tbsp. yeast 2 eggs, beaten Grated orange rind from 1 orange 8-10 cups flour Filling: 1/2 cup butter, melted...

Oatmeal seems to be one of those foods that people either hate with a passion or absolutely love.  In my house, the 4 year old asks for oatmeal at least once a week and the rest of the kids roll their eyes and ask, "do we really have to eat it?"  I on the other hand don't mind it at all, well at least as long as it doesn't have raisins in it and is loaded with brown sugar and peanut butter.   Yep, super unhealthy but yummy! In my house growing up we had oatmeal fairly often and my dad was in heaven.  He grew up in a house that had oatmeal every morning.  Yep, you read that right, every morning! And you know what they would do with the leftovers from breakfast?  My grandma would slice it up (because it was cold and congealed) and fry it in butter and they would eat it with their lunch.  I find that quite revolting.  My dad swears it is quite tasty but I just really don't agree. After reading through Cook's Illustrated magazine one day I decided to ...

Merry Christmas from my family to yours. Hope you have an amazing holiday season and your new year will be even better.  Thanks for all your support, you guys are the best!

I love, love a good sandwich cookie.  They seem so versatile not to mention you can make them with a cake mix or you can make them completely homemade.   I love that you can make them with so many different flavors too.  Some of my favorites are peanut butter and chocolate (thanks Chris that was amazing!) and peppermint and chocolate.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Plus I  love making mini versions of these beauties because they are perfect bite size pieces of deliciousness.  And everything mini tastes better for some reason! So here's to Christmas in 2 days and wishing you all have an amazing holiday! Chocolate Peppermint Sandwich Cookie ( click here for printable version ) Dough: 1 1/2 cups flour, lightly spooned into measuring cups and leveled (don’t scoop-very important!) 3/4 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp table salt 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar 5 Tbsp real butter 1 Tbsp water 1 large egg lightly beaten Frosti...

First, the winner of the "Treat Yourself" Cookbook is "Sourkraut".  Email me your info and I will get it passed on.  Congrats! 4 days...yeah we are so excited over here! I love all the different kinds of candy that show up this time of year.  I love the variety and I love that I get to make so many delicious things all in the name of "maybe we will take this to our neighbors" or "this is a gift for so and so". Bark is so versatile and can be adjusted to whatever holiday it is, plus it is easy, which is always a good thing this time of year.   My kids wanted to give a gift to their teachers so after looking through many recipes the kiddos decided on this.  Since the bark is easy it was perfect for the kids to help with.  We were able to get it made, packaged up, and ready for their teachers all in one afternoon. After some cute red Christmas paper and some twine it was ready to go.  Hope you all are enjoying your Christmas preparations and here...

Eggnog seems like a touchy subject.  Either you love it or hate it. I have always been in the hate it category.  Nothing about it was a temptation and frankly when it was pulled out at the holidays I wanted to just puke. My hubby on the other hand loves it.  This time of year rolls around and he is always wanting to have some in the house. I came across this recipe from Martha Stewart and I thought maybe I need to retry eggnog and give it a chance.  Especially because Martha is amazing! Well let me say ladies and gentlemen...this was AMAZING!  I am now firmly in the eggnog love it camp (at least if it's homemade) and plan to make this every year.  It was delightful with just a hint of peppermint and really no egg flavor (that's where the hate part came in).  It is so creamy and delicious that my eggnog hating children have even changed their minds.  So go ahead and make some and see if you change your mind. Peppermint Eggnog ( click here for print...

See these beauties? They are little pieces of amazingness. And perfect on a cold winter night with a mug of hot chocolate. I am guest posting at Mom's Crazy Cooking and that's where you can find how to make them. Come see me!!

Sometimes a girl just needs some comfort food! You know the kind that's warm and gooey and reminds you of childhood when everything was lovely and perfect.  I have been in need of that lately...why you might ask (and even if you're not asking I am going to tell you anyway :)? Well because sometimes it's just hard to be happy.  Not that anything bad is going on over here (the hubs is great and so supportive and the kids are just being kids) it's just that I have hypothyroidism that makes it difficult on some days to find the energy it takes to be the woman, mom, and wife I want to be. Most days are awesome especially now that I have been on medication but sometimes that thyroid just starts acting up and boom! not so happy day happens. Usually I can feel it coming on so I try to find things that don't stress me out and one of them is making comfort food.  This deliciousness hit the spot.  It was so warm and gooey and it reminded me of better days which I know will com...

I am excited to share this recipe with you today. I don't know about you and your family but I worry about giving my kids too much sugar, which doesn't mean I am opposed to it but I don't think they need gobs of candy bars, pop, and desserts all the time. It might seem like we are always eating desserts over here because I post a lot of those kinds of recipes but we try to share them with lots of people so we are not eating the whole thing.  Anyway...back to this healthy cake. We do try to eat fairly healthy over here.  We hardly ever eat fast food, I make whole wheat bread for us, I add wheat flour to many food items, I put flax seeds in almost everything I make, and make pretty much everything from scratch.  My motto is "Moderation in All Things". Many times I hesitate to make desserts healthy because I am scarred about substituting "healthy" things in them and wasting all those ingredients.  So when Kate from Modern Alternative Mama contacted me abou...

I love the flavor of peppermint. Not the overpowering kind like in mouthwash or toothpaste but just a hint.  Almost to the point that you have to concentrate on the flavor to figure out what you are tasting. After Thanksgiving is over I immediately start trying to find new recipes for peppermint desserts (thank you pinterest !).  There is just something about them that says "Christmas" all over it. I have tried several this month that were amazing and some that were not.  This was one of the amazing ones.  The peppermint is so slight that it's absolutely perfect.  The cookie is soft and delicious and the chocolate adds a whole other dimension.  Not to mention that I think my cookie skills are getting much better.  Yeah! Chocolate Dipped Peppermint Cookies ( click here for printable version ) 1 cup butter, softened to room temperature 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 2 eggs 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 2 drops pure peppermint extract (about 1/8 tsp...

I hate it when I am sick.  It's like the whole world shuts down. The hubs does as best as he can, bless his soul, but...it's just not the same as Mom.   He always tells me that I should lower my expectations (and I probably should) but I am just so use to multitasking that it's hard to chill out and let him do the best he can while I mope on the couch. I think it's a Mom thing.  We are able to work on homework with two different children, while making dinner and sweeping the floor, and entertaining the baby.  Most men aren't blessed with that talent but I know they try hard, especially the hubs while I trying not to throw up from the dizziness in my head! In honor of him taking care of me, I thought I would post one of his favorites. I have mentioned before how much he loves enchiladas.  These Honey Lime ones were amazing and these didn't disappoint either.  I love a good, homemade red sauce and the flavor of cilantro was perfect!  Add some spanish ri...

 I LOVE weekends.   I love the slow pace, sleeping in, leisurely days that they bring.   Especially in the winter.  It's cold outside so we hunker down in the house and enjoy doing nothing. My weeks are filled with doing everything so it is so nice to do nothing sometimes.   Which is quite misleading because if you are doing nothing then you are still doing something right?  So I guess technically I am not doing nothing.  I am reading the newspaper, I am sitting in front of the fire place enjoying the heat, I am playing games with my kids or taking a long shower.  But hey, it's different than the usual routine for the week so I love it! And....speaking of doing nothing, I think I should get off the computer and start doing nothing again.  Enjoy this delicious trifle.  There is just a hint of peppermint which is a perfect combination with a delicious white chocolate mousse and some yummy brownies. Brownie Peppermint Trifle ( click here fo...

As you can see I am working with a wonderful lady, Allison, from Green Tangerine Design on updating this little blog of mine. I would love your patience as we get everything in order. And if you need anything remodeled (on your blog anyway) get a hold of Allison .  She is amazing and wonderful to work with!

 We are on a cookie kick at our house. Usually they are made, maybe once a month and that is by the hubs.  I'm not very good at making cookies--for some reason we just don't mix.  I haven't been able to figure it out completely but I came to one conclusion the other day: I'm not good at them because I am not a patient person by nature. You know I just can't stick them in the oven one time and they are done, I have to do it several times and then I am bored, so I forget about them and they are hard and crunchy.  Who wants to eat hard and crunchy cookies--no one at this house. So I have been on a mission to get over my lack of cookie makingness and be a better cookie baker. I made these all by myself, no help from the hubs here because he is already very good at being a cookie baker, and they were fantastic.  They are our new go to cookie.  They are soft, chewy, and the chocolate to peanut butter ratio was AAAHHHMAZING!!   The whole family was in heaven ...