Let’s not kid ourselves. I can just sit here and eat the 8 chocolate croissants and call it a day. But I needed a dish to SHARE. This one works really well.

ingredients:
6 large egg yolks
2 cups milk
1 cup half and half
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
8 chocolate croissants, cut into small pieces

Heat oven to 375° F. Grease an 8-inch square baking dish with butter. You can buy croissants, or make them, I did a combo and used Trader Joe’s frozen bake yer own, and MAN, those things are just as good as the real thing!

They are amazing! And to be quite honest I only used 7 croissants in this cause I ate one….oops. Anyway, you prep them over night, then bake them in the oven. I used 2 boxes, once they were cooled I cut them into 1″ pieces.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, milk, half and half, sugar, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon. Add the croissants and stir to coat.

Transfer the mixture to the prepped baking dish. Place on a baking sheet just in case of spillage, and bake approx 40 minutes.

The top of the croissants get nice and toasty and the chocolate combines with the custard for an amazing taste. I made this for christmas but it’d be great for any time of the year.

I am not a fan of leftovers but after a HUGE holiday meal, you can’t really help it. My tradition has always been to make a day-after-the-holiday breakfast.

ingredients (leftovers):
garlic mashed potatoes
butter
ham, chopped
one egg
dash of milk
garlic salt
pepper
rolls
cheese

Take your leftover mashed potatoes and shape them into small patties, about the size of the palm of your hand. Heat some butter in a skillet on medium high heat. Place the patties in the pan and don’t move until the underside has browned. Then flip them over and brown the other side. Remove to a plate and set aside.

In a small bowl crack your egg, add a dash of milk and some garlic salt and little pepper. Add the chopped ham and scramble up with a fork. Add a little more butter to the pan, then scramble the egg. It will sit a little better on your roll if the egg is more firm.

Place the egg scramble on the roll, top with a small slice of cheese and serve with your potato pancake. A lovely homey holiday breakfast.

These cookies look festive with white chocolate swirled chips around the holidays, but regular chocolate chips would taste just as good.

ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2-1/2 teaspoons peppermint
2 cups chocolate chips (for the holidays I use swirled white chips)

dip ingredients:
1 cup mini chocolate chips
1 teaspoon peppermint

I found these Nestle swirled white chocolate chips for the holiday, which was great for the kid who has a chocolate allergy. Of course I omitted the ‘dipping’ part for his…

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a mixer cream the butter with the sugars until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating and scraping down the bowl as needed. Add the peppermint, then on low speed add in the flour mixture slowly. Take the bowl off the mixer and stir in the chips.

On prepped cookie sheet, drop teaspoonfuls of batter about 2 inches apart. Bake about 8 to10 minutes, depending on your oven. Cool on a wire rack.

You can leave them as is, or go for the gusto and dip them in a peppermint flavored chocolate. Just put the mini chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl, heating it up in 20 second intervals, stirring at the end of each. Careful you don’t burn it, once the chocolate is completely melted, stir in the peppermint extract.

Take each cookie and dip halfway into the chocolate. Let dry on a wire rack.

I really couldn’t think of a name for this thing. I make this recipe a lot…but in the oven. Lately, I just haven’t had time. So I thought, what if I threw it all in a crock pot til I got home from work? Hm…I was worried, frankly. But it turned out so amazing that the kids declared it ‘THE BEST CHICKEN EVER.’ What. That in itself was totally worth it. Guess I won’t be going back to oven cooking.

ingredients:
1 whole chicken, cut up
1/2 cup soy sauce (shoyu)
1/2 cup water*
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup mirin (sweet cooking wine)
1 teaspoon pepper

Well, there aren’t really any steps to this. In a bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, water, honey, mirin and pepper. *When I make this in the oven I DON’T use the water, but here in the crock pot I figured it needed a little more liquid.

Nothing like raw chicken staring at you. Ew.

Put the chicken in the crock pot, pour the sauce on top, turn it on low. I am not a fan of the ‘high’ setting, things don’t always come out the same – but it’s all up to the amount of time you have. If you only have a few hours, you can also put it on high for 4 hours instead.

At the end of the eight hours, you should have a nice, juicy, amazingly good piece of chicken. Hopefully the kids will agree.

I ran out of eggs. And butter. I had to improvise on the fly. Now don’t get me wrong, I bow down to the altar of Paula Deen, (entirely made of butter, btw) but it IS possible to cook without animal products if need be, even if it’s not my first choice. These are REALLY good, moist and you won’t even miss the butter…

ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup light molasses
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons applesauce

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake pan with liners.

Sift together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, cloves, nutmeg and salt.

Whisk together wet ingredients – oil, molasses, syrup, water and applesauce.

Stir the wet into the dry until nicely combined.

Fill your baking cups about 2/3 full. Bake 15 – 19 minutes, depending on your oven, until a toothpick comes out clean.

I used a chocolate frosting, but any combination will do!

This started out as a Giada recipe, but I changed it to make it a little more doable with familiar ingredients. Plus I don’t really like working with ground chicken. However, even changing it to turkey did NOT fool the pork-loving Baby who refused to eat them. EVERYONE ELSE thought it was fantastic. Hmpf. Carnivores.

ingredients:
1 pound penne rigate pasta (or any other small sized pasta)
1/4 cup plain breadcrumbs
1 Tablespoon dried parsley
2 large eggs
1 Tablespoon whole milk
1 Tablespoon ketchup
3/4 Parmesean cheese
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 ground pepper
1 pound ground turkey (or use pork if you are like my kid)

1/4 olive oil* (if frying, see below)
1-1/2 cups chicken broth
4 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
8 ounces bocconcini (tiny mozzarella balls, halved)
1 cup chopped fresh basil

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until tender, according to timing on package. Drain the pasta saving 1 cup of pasta water (very important). Set aside.

I am big on prepping ahead. So now’s when I’d wash and cut the tomatoes in half and set them aside in a bowl. Same with the bocconicini, cut them in half, set them aside as well. Then you can just throw it all together later. Trust me.

In a medium bowl, stir together the bread crumbs, parsley, eggs, milk, ketchup, cheese, salt and pepper. Add the ground turkey until well combined. Make tiny 3/4 mini meatballs. You can do this by hand, I prefer to use a mini ice cream scoop.


Now, you can cook these meatballs on the stove OR in the oven. (*IF you want to do it in the oven, put the meatballs on a lined baking sheet and cook in a 350 degree oven for 30mins) If you don’t, and want to slave over a stove top (always fun) then heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the meatballs – you’ll probably have to do three batches, see what I mean about standing around? – don’t be tempted to move the meatballs until they are brown on the bottom, around 2-3 mins. Turn them and brown the tops, 2-3 mins more. Add the chicken broth and tomatoes and bring it to a boil.

Reduce heat to low and simmer until the tomatoes are soft and the meatballs are cooked through, about 5-10 mins.

Transfer the pasta to a large serving bowl, add 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese, toss to coat. Add some of the reserved pasta water you saved – you may not need all of it – to make a sauce. Add the meatball mixture, bocconcini, and 1/2 cup of the basil. Garnish the top with the remaining basil and Parmesan. I also like to sprinkle some cracked pepper on top.

This is a GREAT dish. The combination of flavors and textures works really really well. I was thinking of making it at Christmas just because of the lovely green and red colors.

Decorating gingerbread houses is the best part. You’d be surprised at how creative you can get with candy. First, make assemble your houses…

Now that your houses have dried overnight, they are ready to take on the heavy decorating! Start by making a new batch of royal icing. These can be put into parchment cones or bag with piping tips. If you don’t have either of these just use a ziploc bag and cut the tip off one corner. Beware, these are not the sturdiest of contraptions, so don’t squeeze the bag too hard!

Now the fun part, CANDY. And lots of it. In the next sequence of pictures I will show you what we used, so that you can get a better idea of what candy works best for your decor.

On this house we used marshmallows around the window. It is nice and soft like snow and gifts alot of depth to the window.

I made a bridge by curving licorice and laying down pieces of pretzel down for planks. Black Crows were used to anchor the bridge.

On this roof we used licorice and candy canes. See how the candy canes hide the seams from when we put the house together? Also mini M&M’s work great as faux Christmas lights.

Sliced almonds make and attractive roof but take a darn long time to lay out.

A little pond can be made by spreading icing on the base and dusting with blue sanding sugar. Baby goldfish crackers are just the right size for this little pond.

This little snowman is made entirely out of fondant.

Mike & Ikes, along with jelly lifesavers make a simple and colorful roof.

A “stone” wall is made of chocolate covered raisins. The grassy knoll below is made of shrek swamp colored mini m&ms…

Necco wafers are the classic gingerbread house roofing material. They are pretty and make sturdy shingles. Like the almonds, layout takes a while, but the result is worth it.

The candy canes on the eaves and roofline add alot of color as well keep the house stuck together.

Broken Necco wafers are still usable. Just arrange them on some icing for a mosaic effect.

I have been making gingerbread houses for years, so much that people were asking for business cards and how to place orders. Only…I didn’t have a business. My mom and I just did it for fun.

I am not a fan of the glue the graham cracker to the milk container, only because we all know someone is going to eat that thing, so – bad idea. Maybe it’s the architect in me but I demand that my walls be stable and able to withstand a high psi load of candy. Meaning – an a$$ ton of candy. But more on that later. For now, here’s a little ‘how-to’ on gingerbread house assembly.

Gingerbread houses are great gifts. They are a lot of work, and the fun part is definitely the decorating. But before you can get there you have to make the dough and bake the house components. Start by mixing the dough and then kneading it on a floured board.

Once it’s workable, roll out the dough, usually 1/4 of an inch is the best for baking evenly and building a sturdy house. Now cut out he sides and roof of the house. My mom likes to use small cutters, but you can always design your own or freehand it. I personally like to cut out my own shapes, but either way works.

Peel away the excess and transfer the cutouts to a silpat lined cookie sheet. At this point you can cut out doors and windows, or add embellishments.

Some recipes tell you to cut right onto the cookie sheet but I prefer to do it this way.

Now make your royal icing. This will be the edible “cement” that binds and holds the houses, as well as the decor. This batch is ONLY for assembling houses.

Use a heavy can to hold up the first side as you “glue” it down, then add the two remaining sides, making sure that there is enough icing to make the house completely sturdy.

Use plenty of icing. Most of the flaws will be covered up in the decor part.

Here’s where you can get funktified. The open doors and windows are just calling out for fun. Here we added the baked door that was cut out, and inside is a little gingerbread man cookie.

Here we did the same thing with a window. You can also put fruit leather on the inside – making a colorful stained glass window.

This house shows an added heart embellishment, as well as a porotico. What did I tell you, funky as you wanna be.

Here are all nine houses we did. Now these things have to dry overnight, to make sure they are nice and secure before we add all that candy decor.

Now how do you decorate it? Well…(to be cont’d…)

This is a kid food recipe for ‘vegetarian croquettes’. I prefer to call them by their God given name, POTATO BALLS. Who doesn’t like potato rolled in more potato? Yes, I’ve got my hand raised…

Ingredients:
2 large baking potatoes
1 Tablespoon butter
salt
1 medium carrot
1/4 cup frozen,chopped broccoli
1/3 cup frozen corn
some cubes of cheddar cheese (if you so desire)
potato chips!! (crushed)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Let me start by telling you, the frozen food thing is a huge factor here as far as time saving. The veggies are cooked and simply need to be defrosted. As far as the carrot, let me give you a secret tip for steaming a carrot without any effort at all. Chop the carrot into itsy bitsy pieces. Put in a bowl with water covering about half of the carrot pieces. Cover with plastic wrap, leaving a little bit open as a vent. Now microwave for about 1 minute. There you go. Steamed carrots.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cut the potato into chunks, boil for about 10 minutes – drain.

Transfer to a bowl, mash with a masher or fork, add butter and salt.

Add in the defrosted corn, broccoli and “steamed” *wink wink* carrots. Mix up into a nice mash.

Now the fun. Form little balls and put a small square of cheese in the middle. (If you are going vegan, leave that out obviously). Cover it up and roll into crushed potato chips.

Place on a baking sheet, and bake for 15 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes. The potato chips will be crispy and the cheese will be…cheesey.

Sure these are ‘kid’ food, but they are tasty and I’m sure if you spiced them up a bit they’d be even tastier. Also if you have an aversion to potato chips (you heathen) then I guess you could try breadcrumbs, but I guarantee it won’t taste quite as yummy.

This is my go-to side dish. Quick easy, and loved by all. Well. Except for people who hate squash and/or mushrooms. Oh well.

ingredients:
2 TB olive oil
1 clove crushed garlic
1 italian squash
1 yellow squash
1 carton of whole mushrooms
1 TB butter
salt
pepper

Wash the squash and the mushrooms well. I like to take a peeler and take off stripes of the squash, but you don’t have to, it just looks nice.

Slice the squash into rounds, set aside. In a pan over medium high heat, warm the olive oil and garlic, then add the squash. Keep turning and watching them until they get a little soft, keep ‘em moving.

Once they start to brown a tiny bit, add the mushrooms and the butter. The mushrooms will act like little sponges and soak up all the flavorful goodness. Season with salt and pepper.