End of Year Round-Up 2017

Happy holidays friends! I'm taking a little break this week, by which I mean I'll be working on finishing loose ends, catching up on paperwork and doing lots of planning for 2018. Yeah, I know, but I have a hard time letting go completely. Regardless, it's a peaceful week around here and I'm getting some much needed rest.

Raspberry Champagne Cocktail (and Apartment Tour)

Happy holidays, friends! I'll have an end of the year recap for you next week but this cocktail is my last recipe for 2017. Clearly it needed to be a festive one. Drink it at Christmas, on New Year's Eve or every night in between so that we can properly close out this year and get a fresh, if slightly hung over, start on the new one.

Smoky Beer Battered Cauliflower

In between batches of holiday cookies, I thought I would take a quick veggie break and indulge my love of cauliflower. I'll eat it pretty much every way there is but I have to admit that my mother's crispy breaded and fried cauliflower was and still is my favorite. So, so good but maybe not so good for me if I'm trying to minimize the cookie damage.

Gingerbread Shortbread Cookies

Wait, is it gingerbread or shortbread? What did you make us here, Anita? Well, the answer is a combination of both. Since it's mid-December, I'm definitely feeling the gingerbread vibe. But I have a soft spot in my heart for shortbread. I found a bunch of recipes for ginger shortbread and even some packaged versions from cookie companies I really like. But they taste like ginger, not gingerbread. I needed a better marriage of the two.

How to Build a Dessert Treat Board

One of my favorite things about the holiday season is the visits and get-togethers with friends. There's just something about that whole time between Thanksgiving and New Year that's perfect for gathering. And it's the time of year when I find myself creating a lot of cheese boards and various fun appetizers but somehow I get stuck thinking dessert has to be more formal. Why? I love eating lots of little tid-bits so why should the end of the meal not be as fun as the start?

Cheesy White and Sweet Potato Latkes

Hannukah is about a week away so my mind has been drifting to classic holiday favorites like latkes and doughnuts. It's a celebration of oil, after all. But you don't have to be Jewish to appreciate fried potato pancakes anymore than you need to be Christian to eat Christmas cookies.

Honey Apple Gingerbread Cake

I'm normally a fan of easy desserts and I stay away from anything that looks too fussy or elaborate. I want you all to actually try making my recipes so I keep it simple. But the holidays deserve at least a little bit of a fuss. And it's hard not to want to wow your guests. Best of all is when I can create a wow looking dish that's actually not hard to make.