There’s a pretty big football game this weekend. Regardless of your position on the game, you probably are planning some fun snacks to much on while you watch the game (or just the commercials). So, for this week’s Friday Favorites, I thought I’d share the game day appropriate recipes that caught my eye this week……
In my canning fury a few weeks ago, one of the new recipes I tried was a recipe for hot pepper jam. I wasn’t entirely sure what to think… Jalapeño peppers in a sweet jam? I was skeptical. But, I had tasted a few similar recipes at the farmers market a few weeks earlier, so I figured…
With summer in full swing (and lots of hot and sticky days around here), my focus has been shifting a bit from rich, decadent desserts (which you see a lot of around here!) to light and refreshing dishes that don’t require a lot of effort and heat. It seems that my fellow bloggers are feeling…
When I announced the November/December Kitchen Bootcamp challenge, I had grandiose plans for all of the lovely appetizers I would make. The holidays seemed like a wonderful time for me to finally embrace the concept of appetizers and come up with a few of my own. But, as it often does, life just got in the way.
I love to order appetizers at a restaurant, but when it comes to making them myself, I usually just can’t be bothered. I’m more of a cheese and crackers person. So, even though it sounded like a lot of fun to develop new appetizers during the holidays, when things got busy, they went right back to the bottom of my priority list. I would just much rather spend time on a fancy dessert or the main dish than worry about appetizers.
If you’re much like me, you’ve probably rushed around to finish all of your shopping and get the gifts wrapped so that you have next week to focus on food. Granted, I do make a lot of homemade gifts, so I don’t have ALL of my gifts done. But, I would much rather spend the week before Christmas in my kitchen listening to Christmas music while I cook and bake. It sure beats pushing your way through the super-crowded stores looking for last minute gifts! I suppose that it’s also a good time to clean the house if you have guests coming, but we won’t talk much about that.
Since I spent last week introducing you to more cookies than you could ever possibly bake during one holiday season (that’s a challenge… I dare you!), I thought it would good to focus this week’s Friday Favorites post on holiday entertaning! After all, we can’t live on cookies alone (or can we?).
If you’re hosting Thanksgiving dinner, hopefully you’ve already finalized your menu and are well on your way to a spectacular dinner! If not, you can always check out last week’s Friday Favorites for my collection of favorite Thanksgiving recipes.
Now that dinner’s taken care of, let’s talk about a fun snack for your guests to nibble on when they arrive. I always like to have a few bites and snacks available to keep everyone occupied while I’m cooking dinner and getting everything together.
Lately, one of my favorite snacks is roasted almonds. Almost everyone I know loves to munch on nuts (and they’re not so filling that they’ll spoil your dinner!), but I prefer to make my own than buy a can of pre-seasoned nuts. By roasting my own almonds, I have the opportunity to get a bit creative with fun flavors.
This time of the year, I can never seem to really focus on anything but the pending holidays. I absolutely love the whole “holiday season” from well before Thanksgiving until after New Years. I love cooking, baking, and entertaining… And, no other time of the year can compare! I imagine that most of you can relate.
So, with all of my holiday excitement (in addition to all of the other excitement and craziness in my life right now), I wasn’t nearly as diligent as I should have been about announcing a November Kitchen Bootcamp challenge. The more I thought about it, though, I realized that many of you are probably equally distracted at the moment and might not have the energy to do both a November and a December challenge. That’s a lot to add to the holiday season!
