Back in October (actually just a few days after our wedding), I joined a group of my fellow bloggers at the Food52 test kitchen in New York as guests of Delta® Faucet. It was an amazing day of food, design and camaraderie where we got to try our hand making a few fun appetizers and check out some gorgeous faucets from Delta Faucet featuring their new ShieldSpray™ Technology. You may even remember seeing a sneak peek on Instagram while I was there! Today I am sharing a trio of easy fondue recipes that I created in partnership with Delta Faucet to (a) help inspire a little food fun at your next cocktail party and (b) to give you a look at the beautiful new faucet that now lives in my kitchen and how it has seriously elevated the game of my nearly 60 year old sink. Be sure to watch to video too, where you can see these fondues in action! (This is one of my favorite party appetizers to date, and that’s saying a lot.)
Recipes
I had a very sick two year old on my hands all of last week. High fevers, a cold, a touch of a stomach bug. It was also sub zero temperatures most of the week, with wind chills hitting -30 far more than once. It was a long week, for sure. The kind of long week that always seem to fall during the darkness of winter when you’re resisting the need to take down your holiday decor and already longing for spring. One of those. Basically, it was a “warm bowl of soup and all the wool blankets” kind of week, a week that practically begs for my favorite homemade veggie soup with vegan dumplings. This is the very best “chicken soup” recipe for those of us who don’t eat chicken, but still need that warm, yummy hug of a dish to make you feel better on crappy winter days when your kid’s fever won’t break and the air outside hurts to breathe.
When we were kids there was something about the official Christmas cookie baking day that my mom and our good family friend used to co-host every year that was absolutely magical. As an adult my holiday baking tends to happen here and there in waves throughout the season versus on one specific day, but as a kid I looked forward to cookie day all year long. The peanut butter blossoms were my favorite to make then and they still are today! I was always in charge of unwrapping the Hershey kisses, rolling the dough balls in sugar and then smushing the chocolate kisses on just right. These cookies always show up on cookie trays this time of year, but I’m going to go so far as to tell you that these are the best peanut butter blossoms you’ve ever eaten, so if you need the best peanut butter blossom recipe to add to your cookie repertoire, you’ve come to the right spot! Keep scrolling because I am also linking up below to a handful of my best blogging friends and some of their favorite Christmas cookie recipes, too, so be sure to pop over and give them all a little love.
Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, things are about to get decidedly merry around these parts! Tis the season for entertaining and I, for one, could not be happier to host family and friends as often as possible over the next several weeks. Today I’ve teamed up with 34 Degrees to share a few easy tips and inspiring ideas for hosting a simple yet super chic holiday cocktail party. I think this is truly the easiest way to entertain over the holidays and oftentimes the most fun, too! You won’t have to spend hours prepping, cooking and then cleaning the kitchen and with a stash of 34 Degrees crisps at the ready, you can serve up tasty gourmet bites in a flash. Plate them alongside a selection of delicious cocktails, crank your favorite holiday playlist and you’ve got a hip holiday party waiting to happen.
Wondering what to do with those leftovers? Make stuffing waffles from your leftover stuffing! They’re so easy to make and crazy delicious with loads of flavor and slightly crispy edges that you’ll totally love.
It’s no secret that I love a good party appetizer, and I think the best are ones that are simple to pull together that still allow guests to try out a few different things. Enter this super easy bread and oil appetizer dipping station! You know those restaurants where you get to munch on great crusty bread and delicious flavored oils while you wait for your meal? That’s totally the inspiration here. All you need is a few baguettes sliced up, olive oil and a bunch of yummy flavors to add into the mix like lemon zest, red pepper flake and minced garlic. Here I’m sharing a few of my personal favorite flavor combinations, but you should absolutely mix and match to your heart’s content using your favorite herbs and spices. To serve everything, cute little bowls for each oil concoction (I’d suggest at least two or three) and a pretty wooden board piled high with bread will do the trick.
Making homemade mulled cider is one of those feel good fall traditions that just feels so right this time of year. It’s such a simple thing to do, mixing cider and spices and fresh orange slices, but it elevates the whole experience. Today I’m collaborating with my friends at Truvia to share my go-to mulled cider recipe, with fewer calories and less sugar! It’s simple enough to make on the stovetop, but it can easily be made in a slow cooker, too, so you can revisit it all day and keep refilling your mug. I made mine with Truvia Brown Sugar Blend so it’s sweet, but tart, spicy but citrusy and just the very definition of delicious. For an adult twist, you can add a generous splash of good brandy or spiced rum to your mug, which I find particularly appropriate on chilly fall evenings or when you get home from trick or treating with the kids and need a little warm up from the inside out. And, because it’s made with Truvía Brown Sugar Blend, a yummy blend of Truvía Natural Sweetener and brown sugar with 75% fewer calories than traditional brown sugar, you can sip to your heart’s content with a lot less sugar.
Fall in Upstate New York is effectively synonymous with apple season. On weekends you’ll find the local apple orchards packed full of people filling baskets with their freshly picked bounty and the local cider mill with lines a mile long waiting for fresh cider and donuts. We get really crazy about the change in seasons around here and apples definitely take center stage in fall. I love these chocolate dipped apples on a stick as really fun seasonal treat that doesn’t require hours of peeling, coring and rolling of dough. If you have kids, let them pick out and sprinkle on their own toppings! I like a mix of mini chocolate chips, granola, shaved coconut and almonds, but you can switch out the toppings for whatever your crew will most enjoy.
After a seriously prolonged heat wave that felt more like summer than summer did, it finally transitioned into soup and sweater weather over the last few days. This morning the air has that special crispness that only fall can bring and my big ol mug of coffee was even more welcome than usual. As recently as last Wednesday, I had the AC cranking and this morning I had to kick on the heat to warm things up a bit. Have I mentioned how wonky our weather can be here in Upstate New York? Ha! At any rate, let’s talk soup! In particular, nine seriously scrumptious ideas for topping your soup to take it from so-so to insanely delicious. This would be a really fun idea for a party, too! Serve up a few different soups and a bunch of toppings and let friends and mix and match their favorite flavor combinations. Or just take your weeknight dinner to the next level the quick and easy way with a really over the top bowl of soup. Either way, you’re winning in either scenario.
In the little village nestled in a valley where I went to college, there was a coffee shop where we used to flock on crisp fall nights for big cups of steamy, creamy chai tea latte. In truth it was probably the first “real” coffee shop I ever frequented and it smelled of good coffee beans and freshly made espresso in a way that makes me nostalgic just thinking of the place. Not a fall season has gone by since where I haven’t longed to be there with a big mug in hand. Today I’m once again teaming up with the folks at Truvia, this time to bring you the most delicious homemade chai tea latte recipe you’re ever going to try. After a few years of attempting it, I think I’ve finally settled on the right mix of spices and tea and milk to make a seriously solid cup of chai. Because it’s sweetened with Truvia Natural Sweetener it also has delightfully less sugar and fewer calories than the chai you pick up at the drive-thru and is far more delicious.
You wouldn’t know it based on the sunshine and 80 degree days we’ve been experiencing, but in my mind it’s officially sweater weather season! Fall in Upstate New York is a serious thing of beauty. On the weekends it means apple picking and trips to our local cider mill where their apple cider donuts are famed for all the right reasons. During the week it means crisp cool mornings and extra large cups of coffee while I’m checking my morning email. Also, it means adding pumpkin to anything reasonable like donuts, cocktails and cheesecake parfaits. Or in today’s case, oatmeal energy bites! These are one of my favorite quick and easy little breakfasts these days. A couple of these, a piece of fruit and coffee makes the perfect start to the day. They’re also a great dessert, a great mid-day snack and loaded with protein and good-for-you ingredients. I make them year round without the pumpkin, but this pumpkin spice version is perfect for fall. Give them a try, I think you’ll love these!
Hi, friends! I hope everyone here in the States had a great Labor Day weekend. We spent our second weekend in a row camping with family and friends and now we’re slowly working on getting back into the groove over here. The kids are all back to school this week and on Thursday we have our first photo shoot to start shooting some great fall content and get back to the usual posting schedule. I’ve been taking a lot more time off over the last few weeks and it was a really great way to reenergize and slow down. Today I’m sharing one final summer recipe, a roasted sweet potato salad that you’ll want to make all year long. It’s really simple with just a handful of ingredients and the flavors are just so great. To take it to the next level, use leftover grilled corn instead of boiling it and your family will be begging for seconds.