From the category archives:

Starters and Drinks

Celebrate the New Year with Appetizers!

Appetizers are perfect New Year’s Eve or Day foods! They are often very make-ahead, and can be varied based on the textures and flavors involved. Try out some of our favorites at your next party or fun night! Stuffed Mushrooms Sour Cream Onion Dip Easy Jalapeno Poppers with Rice and Bacon Cactus Salsa Garlic Lime [...]

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Hospitality Reminder: Prepare a Snack Tray

Be prepared for guests and have your larder stocked with quick snacks and appetizers. Pulling together an impromptu snack tray will be quick and easy. We like fun food around here. We like snacky food. We like to eat fun, snacky food with friends and neighbors. And sometimes, especially around the holidays, friends and neighbors [...]

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Easy Jalapeno Poppers with Rice and Bacon

Enjoy jalapeno poppers, but wondering how to tame the heat? Rice and dairy cool the flames, while bacon keeps it flavorful. I love, love, LOVE jalapeno poppers. But, sometimes they can be so flaming hot that it can give me a tummy ache if I eat too many. Recently, I decided to experiment and see [...]

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Peppermint Syrup and Chocolate Mint Syrup

Recently, there was a bundle of mint in our produce box. Actually, there were two bundles of mint because unbeknownst to me, mint was part of the box that week and I had added on an extra. So, two bundles of mint? What to do? Mint syrup, of course! My friends on Facebook had suggested [...]

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Hospitality Reminder: Get Your Beverage Box Ready!

Christmas is coming…. the goose is getting fat…. I love that song, even if it really has nothing to do with my real life. We sang it every year in the Christmas pageant at Rosedell Elementary. And that has nothing to do with this hospitality reminder. What I really meant to say is Christmas is coming [...]

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Salted Caramel Affogatos: A Recipe for Coffee Floats

With the approach of Winter, longer nights, and cooler temps, my mind turns to warm and elegant desserts. What sounds more elegant than serving Salted Caramel Affogatos? Affogato is just a fancy word for coffee float. A traditionally Italian version would, of course, feature gelato, but regular ice cream can work just as well. The [...]

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Mom’s Relish Tray

Holiday appetizers can get so complicated. We fool ourselves into thinking that we need to make a big froofroo spread before the bigger froofroo spread we call Thanksgiving dinner. Times have changed. The appetizers, hors d’oeuvres, amuse-bouches, snack, whatever you want to call them, were always a pretty simple affair when I was growing up. [...]

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Malted Hot Cocoa Mix

You’ve heard the saying before: necessity is the mother of invention. It is so true. And necessity spurned this hot cocoa recipe. Not only were we out of traditional cocoa mix, but I also did not have enough powdered milk to follow this Alton Brown recipe exactly. So, I improvised. That’s code for: I used [...]

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California Girl’s Iced Sweet Tea

Tea is a regular pantry staple at our house. We aren’t big tea drinkers, but it’s a beverage that is extremely affordable, especially when you browse the clearance racks. For some reason, teas are always being marked down, despite the fact that they have several months, even years before their “best by” dates. When we [...]

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The Ice-Blended Mocha & Tips for an At-Home Date Night

Hubs and I have been married for 16 years. We met in 1992. I was a sophomore in college and thin and could eat anything. He was older, athletic, and very conscious about what he ate. I corrupted him. I’m not sure what did it first…. the bacon and avocado thrown onto a turkey sandwich, [...]

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