It’s cold and blustery out today, but I’m snuggled under a warm blanket with a big mug of Laura Bush’s Hot Chocolate this morning. This recipe combines one of my favorite hot cocoa additions (cinnamon) with a new and unexpected flavor (orange zest). The spicy zip of cinnamon combined with the clean flavor of the…

To celebrate Winnie the Pooh Day today, I’m making honey-sweetened popovers from this sweet Winnie the Pooh Cookbook. If you’re like me, Winnie the Pooh conjures up fond memories from childhood, so any excuse to celebrate is a-ok with me! I’ve made popovers before, but they were savory. They made a great accompaniment to a…

For Christmas, the Mr blessed me with the Instant Pot I was coveting for months! Instant Pot recently collaborated with The Pioneer Woman on a special design Multi-Cooker Instant Pot and it is gorgeous! I was so excited until I started hearing people who have them say things about how hard it was to figure…

When I was a little girl, I always loved ordering the quesadilla off the appetizer menu whenever we went to Tex-Mex restaurants. You cant beat crispy tortillas stuffed with cheeeeese. I’ve upgraded since then, but the basics still remain. The real magic of this recipe is that everything is cooked in bacon grease! These Green…

A certain zesty girlfriend of mine recently had a birthday and that girl loves her some fruit salsa. Anytime I run across a yummy looking recipe for fruit salsa; I tag it for later when we have a girls night in, when I’m bringing her a treat, or when (in this case) she has a…

Since I’ve known him, the Mr’s favorite dessert has been yellow cake with chocolate icing. Something so simple and yet I’ve attempted to complicate it with various incarnations most years. One year, I even made the cake using all hazelnut meal in the place of flour to make it “healthier.” It was… “mealy” to say…

Downtown Arlington (Texas) is currently enjoying what one might call a renaissance of sorts. No longer solely relegated to the lower-class, the city has in recent years been investing in it’s downtown aiming to bring it back to its former glory. It’s even adopted the slogan as “America’s Dream City” to evoke the feelings and…

When the Mr and I got married, I think he underestimated how much I like hot chocolate. His mother did not. She once gave me a massive canister of Starbucks’ Hot Cocoa mix as part of my birthday gift. Bless her! She knew the way to this girl’s heart… I take full advantage in winter,…

It was breakfast(ish) for dinner last at the Smith Haus. Shakshuka is a dish that originated in North Africa and has been winding it’s way westward across menus Stateside. The basic idea is that eggs are poached (instead of fried) in a skillet in a fragrant tomato sauce. It’s served bubbling hot right out of…

About a month ago I was making Risotto Milanese which calls for saffron (if you missed that post, you can read about it here). Saffron is infamously pricey, but I found a great deal on it at World Market here! Since I got such a great deal, I bought two and have been looking for…