Stylist. Photographer. Artist. Graphic Designer. Foodie. Fancy Pants.
Posts in Food and Recipes
Breakfast on Christmas morning is such a fun tradition. Last year I loved getting up and eating sausage pinwheels and hot chocolate while opening gifts. My in-laws made waffles and I took sausage cheese balls. This year, in honor of the 12 Days of Christmas line "6 geese a-laying," I'm making an egg frittata (with chicken eggs, naturally).
Upon doing my research for my "12 Days of Christmas" blog feature, I quickly found out that a colly bird from the line "4 colly birds" is just a common black bird. Who wants a common black bird for Christmas!? Good thing my true love gives me five golden rings in the next line …
Nothing screams the holidays more than iced sugar cookies. We've been making this recipe since I was a kid and decorating them all kinds of ways. Last year I made giant snowflakes and delivered them to our neighbors, Christmas trees for the guys at the Christmas tree lot and ornaments with guests' names piped on them for a holiday party.
Over the next twelve days I am going to take the Christmas carol "The 12 Days of Christmas" to inspire some magical holiday entertaining. From food to fashion, decor to design, it's going to be twelve days of creative ideas of how to brighten your holiday or throw your very own "12 Days of Christmas" themed party.
3 weeks of planning, 30 minutes of eating, 2 hours of washing dishes, a fridge full of left overs and Thanksgiving is officially over.
I'm in full-on Thanksgiving mode! I've completed my grocery shopping, picked up our turkey and ham, am making pies and setting the table today and cooking ALL day tomorrow. I can't hardy wait for Thursday! I've been so thrilled to have gotten such a great response from my Thanksgiving Preparations: The Complete Week Before Checklist and Thanksgiving Week Cooking Schedule blog posts. Several of you have asked for my Mom's Yeast Rolls recipe.
I'm not biased when it comes to pie. I've never met a pie I didn't like. That's why when I decided to throw a PIE PARTY with my good friends at StyleBlueprint.com, I wanted it to be all kinds of rustic chic. And, boy was it! Just think—a farm table in the middle of the woods covered in all different kinds of pies, wine and cider, and rustic winter decor surrounded by your favorite friends. Are you are starting to picture the wonderfulness a Pie Party can bring? Stroll over to StyleBlueprint.com today and check out all the beautiful photos and how-to's.
Now that you have your Thanksgiving Week Before Checklist completed, it's time for the short week leading up to the big day! In order to have everything prepared for Thursday, I have made a to-do list broken down by the day for the week leading up to Thursday and broken down by the minute on Thanksgiving Day to make sure that I get everything cooked properly.
Thanksgiving is just over one week away! I am especially excited (and nervous) this year because I am hosting for the very first time. I have always helped my mom cook Thanksgiving dinner but this is the very first year that I will be hosting the in-laws at my house.
With Thanksgiving less than two weeks away, preparations have begun. If you read this blog often, you know I'm a sucker for sweets. So why not start off my Thanksgiving preparations with dessert?
We recently celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday and since I always volunteer to bake everyone's birthday cake—I made her favorite: Caramel Cake. Well, actually a Butter Yellow Cake with Caramel Buttercream.
As this blog showcases, I have a HUGE sweet tooth. I get asked all the time how I stay slim when I am baking almost everyday. First, it's all about moderation: A little bit of everything and a lot of nothing. Taste everything, eat nothing! I love to try everything but usually just a couple bites satisfies.
I recently spoke at the Keen Digital Summit about Food Styling (check out my 10 Food Styling Tips to Make Your Food Photographs Delicious). I really wanted to make something for the attendees of my session. Because most of the bloggers, small business owners and publisists that came to the conference were from out of town, I decided to make a "Nashville Cookie" to showcase some of Nashville's best ingredients.
My friend Eve is addicted to Williams-Sonoma's Spiced Pecan Pumpkin Quick Bread. She texted me last week to see if I had a home-made recipe for the cult favorite because she is tired of paying a whopping $11.95 for a mix that makes one loaf. $12 (plus the cost of 2 eggs and a stick of butter) and you have to spend an hour making it? Why not just make it from scratch?! I have really never understood why people use mixes? Generally it is just as easy (and CHEAPER) to make it from scratch—plus, it's fresher, has less artificial ingredients and preservatives and you can alter for dietary restrictions.
A couple of weeks ago we went to my friend Jessica's house for a barbecue for her husbands birthday. She made these soft pretzels and I have been dreaming about them ever since.
I have been dying to make homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies. I have been doing a lot of research to find the perfect recipe. I did not want them to be two crispy oatmeal cookies with a marshmallow filling—which there are thousands of recipes out there for. I wanted a recipe that had the texture and taste of the original Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies. Chewy, soft and perfectly sweet.
When williamsonsource.com asked me to guest blog a fall recipe, I jumped at the chance to create something sweet and totally irresistible.
This past weekend we celebrated Jacobs' grandmother's birthday (my grandmother-in-law). When she requested banana pudding in lieu of a birthday cake we were all thrilled because everyone loves this recipe!
I am continuing my "Martha Challenge" this week with two amazing dinner recipes (check out my Martha Challenge favorites including Spiderweb Florentines and the September issue's Chicken and Broccoli Mac-and-Cheese).
I had the in-laws over for dinner last night and I wanted to make something simple but hearty and delicious. This Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe & Sausage dish is from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Foolproof cookbook was the perfect solution. It was easy to make and I made a couple of edits (ok, several) that better suited the ingredients that I had at home (sometimes Ina gets uppity with her ingredients—what is broccoli rabe anyway?).
