Last week I hosted an event and needed to bring an easy dessert to feed a crowd, so I pulled out this fool-proof and extremely easy lemon shortbread cookie recipe from my cookbook: New England Invite: Fresh Feasts to Savor the Seasons. The citrus brightens up the sweet and buttery flavors and cookie dough has just 5 ingredients. I added in some food coloring to tint it in different ombre pink, red and purple tones for Valentine’s Day (you could adapt the color for any holiday, I’ve done green for St. Patrick’s Day shamrock cookies too!).  This recipe also makes a fun, buttery, sticky dough and is a great way to get kids involved in the kitchen—have them help shape the dough into a ball and roll it out before you stamp out the cookies with cookie cutters – get the adapted recipe below!  read more

This granola bar recipe is an old favorite from my blog archives, and I pulled it out this weekend for a little experiment with my new heart tray I picked up at Target! Instead of slicing the granola bars into bars, I pressed into the heart molds and added a few heart sprinkles onto the top and bottom, and they were a BIG hit. My one tip is to make sure you press them into the molds really hard so they compact down tight and stick together!  This recipe contains peanuts and peanut butter, so leave out the nuts and swap for a nut-free if you’re planning to make them for a lunchbox snack. Get the recipe and the supplies below! read more

Meatballs are a weeknight staple at our house, because they’re easy to make ahead, great to freeze and use for leftovers, and they’re pretty much always a crowd pleaser! So I’m always trying to find new ways to add different flavor spins on the classic meatball mixture. I was recently craving my favorite chicken piccata dish from a restaurant in my hometown. It’s  traditionally a dish of chicken cutlets dredged in flour and browned, and served with a sauce of butter, lemon juice, capers, and stock or white wine. So I decided to take all of those flavors and bring them to my turkey meatball recipe for a quick weeknight dinner! read more

I’ve been toiling away at this recap of our wintry Christmas road trip up to Quebec City all week because I have so many fun details to share (and because I got so many questions about it while we were there)! This trip was a bit of a full circle moment for my husband and I, because we had started this tradition of spending a few days in Quebec to take in all the festive holiday decorations back when first were dating. Then 12 years ago on a frigid snowy night a few days before Christmas we got engaged in front of the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec. This was our first trip back since that engagement weekend, and it felt so special to be visiting after all these years and experiencing this magical winter city as a family. read more

I am partnering with my friends at RiceSelect today to cook up the most fragrant, savory holiday risotto dish today with their classic Arborio rice — it’s my go-to for risotto dishes! I made this risotto dish with browned sausage, sauteed onions and mushrooms, and pops of flavor from the finely chopped dried cranberries, fresh sage, and orange zest sprinkled on top. It’s bursting with of seasonal flavors that will fill your kitchen with delicious notes if you’re entertaining for the holidays.  read more

My friends at Bertolino Foods shared some of their delicious ingredients with me, and their Certified Angus Beef Shaved Ribeye was calling me to make one of my favorite sandwiches: a garlic bread steak and cheese! This melty, buttery, garlic steak and cheese sandwich is the ultimate weekend snack and works great for football snacks if you make it on a large loaf of French Bread and then slice it into handheld sized strips. read more

Now that we’re settled into the routine of fall, I have finally have a bit of time to sit down and recap all our awesome summer adventures, including our super fun trip to Legoland New York!  Jane was hooked on the idea of going to Legoland after watching our favorite travel vloggers, the Top Flight Family,  review their stay at the theme park and hotel (we have watched that video more than I should probably admit!). After months of begging to go, we decided to make a last minute detour to check out the Lego-themed amusement park on our way back from a family visit in nearby New York. After I shared a reel of our fun day at the park, I got TONS of messages from followers asking us for all the details on what we did, where we stayed, how long you could spend there, and I’m hoping that this post answers all of those and more! read more

I’m currently on the train to New York for a quick work trip, and I’m using it catch up on some blog post I’ve wanted to write since the summer. A few kid-free hours on the Amtrak to NYC feels like the apt time to share a few pics and tricks from my last visit to New York with a kid-in-tow! We are very lucky that my sister and brother-in-law live in Brooklyn and give us a reason to visit every few months. On our most recent trip, my sister planned tons of kid-friendly New York City activities that made it a magical experience, and the reason that Jane loves visiting the Big Apple! Sharing a few of the fun things we did below, in case it helps plan your next NYC family trip! read more

I am partnering with my friends at RiceSelect today to mix up some tasty back to school snack mixes and storing them in repurposed rice jars. These easy, no-cook snack mixes are a great way to use up leftover snacks, the last scoop of dry cereal, a few nuts that are left over from a recipe, and other end-of-the-box ingredients. read more

I hosted some friends on a recent summer night and there was the teeniest chill in the air that hinted at the change of the seasons. I set out to experiment on a dish that still had the bright, fresh flavors of summer, but with a hearty twist. The result: this lentil and quinoa salad, full of crisp spinach, delicately sliced slivers of red onions, crumbles of goat cheese and crunchy almonds, and topped with the tastiest, juicy peaches. Add the lentils and quinoa while they’re still warm to the bowl to help wilt down the spinach and red onions, and soften the almonds a bit. The goat cheese will also blend into the mixture, but save a little to add on top too! The celery seeds give the salad extra flavor, and I kept the dressing super simple with some fresh citrusy lemon juice and a light drizzle of oil and vinegar. Add the fresh peaches to the bowl right before serving to keep them from getting mushy, the sweet flavor of summer peaches is the highlight of this dish!
read more

 
 
Verified by MonsterInsights