While it may seem like the holiday season is months away, in blogger world we get started on our holiday projects early (in fact, I’m busy testing some thanksgiving recipes this week to prepare!). One thing getting my in that holiday mindset is the fact that a recipe I worked on for Family Circle Magazine, featuring Torani Syrups, Domino and C&H Sugar is out on newsstands today! I’m flipping through the pages and getting inspired for the coming months. Grab a copy and check out my sweet holiday creation inside, a Chestnut Praline Frappe!
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Dinnertime can be a challenge on a good day, but add an infant or a toddler to the mix and it can be down right exhausting. Our daughter is 8 months old and diving head first into the world of solid foods right now. More than anything, she always wants to be eating what my husband and I are eating, which is great, as long as we’re eating something that’s appropriate for a toothless baby.
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There is nothing more satisfying on a cold winter day than a warm bowl of hearty soup, but we don’t always have time to wait for a stockpot to simmer for hours. Roasting root vegetables like butternut squash, carrots, onions and shallots with herbs and seasoning brings out flavor fast. Adding chopped apples to the roasted vegetable mix adds a perfect level of sweetness to the earthy soup flavors. Blending the roasted vegetables with warmed College Inn® Broth puts this soup on the table in under an hour and infuses the meal with extra bold flavors! Check out the video and full recipe below:
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We have reason to celebrate! It’s National Coffee Day! I shouldn’t just be celebrating today because there’s no way I would have survived this year as a new mom and business owner without copious amounts of coffee, let alone every Monday for the past few decades. Everyday is a coffee celebration in my book. Seeing that today is the official day for coffee though, I had to do something special, and decided to make a batch of mini-coffee cake style donuts to pair with a strong cup of coffee.
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The weather is really throwing me for a loop. My calendar says fall, my cravings say fall, but the thermometer is reading in the high 70s and I really want to pull out my boots and blanket scarves. We took Jane apple picking this weekend and while we sweated our way through the experience, I left with a big craving for autumn flavors. That is exactly where the inspiration for this recipe came from, an apple cider roasted chicken served over wild rice and asparagus.
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We rely on our grill at our house about 9 months out of the year. If it’s not snowing, we’re out on the porch grilling. I love the charred, crispy flavor you get from the heat and smoke of the grill, and I really love how fun it is to have friends over barbeque. When we host friends and family, I always like to make sure I have food options for everyone, including vegetarians! I got to brainstorming the other day about some tastier vegetarian options to add to my barbeque repertoire and this stuffed mushroom “burger” idea came to mind.
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Life with a baby can be hectic at best, but lunch with a baby may be one of the most hectic parts of the day! I realized recently that during our busy schedule, juggling work and naptimes and errands, I’ve been skipping lunches lately (or worse, choosing terribly unhealthy options on-the-go). My friends at Peapod asked me to come with some easy lunch recipes that both mom and baby can enjoy, and it felt like the perfect time to try something new for our lunch routine!
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Can I confess something? Meal planning and prep is one of my guilty pleasures, which I think stems from love of both organization and talking about food. My husband and I started the habit casually a few a years ago, talking about new recipes we might want to try for the week. Recently, we’ve got a bit more serious about it, and sit down to make a plan for the week – usually on Sunday mornings – before we purchase our groceries for the week.
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A few weeks back I had a little night-out on the town with some of my blogger buddies at Boston Magazine’s Best Fest. It was a much-needed evening of adult interaction! That evening it happened to be pouring rain, and about 95 degrees outside — I can’t fully explain how hot and humid the air felt, other than that the one saving grace of the weather was a popsicle cart serving Patron Tequila-infused frozen treats. They were amazing. I tried a few different flavors — the paloma popsicle was my favorite — and vowed to find a way to recreate them at home. Luckily the folks at Patron were kind enough to share some of their recipes with me, and I tweaked one of the, to make own batch this week!
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We have a few summer traditions that are absolute essentials in our family, and one is particularly tasty: making my grandma Ida’s homemade blueberry cobbler recipe. It’s simple and fairly quick to make. We’ve done it so many times I can almost assemble it blindfolded. Most importantly, each bite tastes like a burst of summer memories; the warm blueberries scooped out onto a plate with vanilla bean ice cream melting over the top. We had family visiting recently, and with the plethora of blueberries available this time of year it was the perfect time to pull out the weathered recipe card. It’s always such a hit, in fact, as I was taking these pictures, my sister’s boyfriend was hovering nearby wanting to know when he could snag a plate to dig-in. 
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