Friday Favorites - Sugar Plum!

I've followed Sugar Plum for quite awhile now and let me tell you...Emily can bake like no other. She can cook too, but this particular blog is all about the baking. Every recipe I've tried, has been deliciously amazing!

I'm sure this recipe will be no different. I have it on my list to make this weekend! Sweet Potato's in cookies...who would have thought. Brilliant! Thanks Emily for sharing your awesome talent!

SASSY MAPLE SWEET POTATO SANDIES

Click HERE for the recipe!

Friday Favorites - Grandma's Desserts

I've always been a fan of sticky buns, but I think I've been converted to this recipe instead. I found it on Grandma's Desserts and it looked so bright and tasty, I knew I had to try. I'm a sucker for anything citrus in desserts.

All I have to say is...be ware...you could easily eat a whole pan all by yourself! Luckily or un-luckily, however you choose to look at it, I had to share with my family. So I didn't eat the whole pan...but I wanted to.

Click here for the recipe!

ZEST TIP

On another note, I have a little tip for you about orange or lemon zest. Do you ever find yourself needing zest for a recipe but not juice, so you feel bad wasting the fruit? (or visa versa) When a recipe calls for one or the other, I take the other and freeze it for future use. i.e. this recipe calls for orange zest, so after I zest the orange, I'll juice it and freeze the juice in ice cube trays for my recipe that only call for juice.

Also, when ever I or any member of my family eat an orange for pleasure, I zest it first and freeze the zest by wrapping small amounts in plastic wrap then putting into a larger freezer safe bag. It will stay fresh for up to 3 months. I love having zest on hand whenever you need it.

Friday Favorites - Meet Me in the Kitchen

I came across this simple and tasty recipe the other day at Meet Me in the Kitchen! It's an awesome blog I've been following lately.

I don't know why I never thought of doing this. I've been roasting my brussel sprouts for as long as I can remember, and isn't cabbage just one really big brussel sprout? Well maybe not...but kind of. Anyway, it is absolutely worth a try! I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much cabbage I ate in one sitting.

ROASTED GREEN CABBAGE WEDGES

Click HERE for the recipe. Thanks Mary for sharing!

Friday Favorites - The Dish on Delish

This is the second time I've featured this blog...what can I say, Elizabeth at The Dish on Delish has great recipes. We tried this one last night and it's definitely going on my "favorites" list!

Pork Chops with Golden Applesauce

click here for the recipe!

Friday Favorites - Love at first look!

If you know me very well, you know that I'm a sucker for Apple Pie! I happen to think that I make the worlds best apple pie; I can't remember if I've ever posted my recipe...I'll have to look into that and if not...get on it!

But in the mean time...as I was blog surfing last night, I came across this amazing looking deep dish dutch apple pie recipe. It's a good thing it was close to midnight, because it looked so good I wanted to make one immediately! Obviously sleep got the best of me. Not to mention the fact that I only have 1 apple in the house; today is grocery day! But I will be making this very soon...very soon!

The whole post and recipe directions are amazing at CityHomeCountryHome.blogspot.com!

Friday Favorites - Toasted Sesame Candied Goodness!

When I saw this recommendation on Tangled and True...I knew I had to try it...

...and it was sooooo good!


Thanks White Lotus Cooks! This recipe is a keeper!

If at first you don't succeed...

Several years ago when my husband and I were dating, he had to go out of town for a couple weeks. It was the first time we'd been apart for more than a day, since we'd started dating. I missed him so much while he was gone. That's when I first new that I really loved him. It's funny how sometimes people have to leave before you realize how much you don't want them to leave again.

The day before he was coming home I decided I wanted to do something to surprise him. Something that would let him know just how much I had missed him. I got the idea to give him personalized fortune cookies. I knew a place in Salt Lake where you could order them. You give them the fortunes and they put them in the cookies. Unfortunately I didn't have time for that. It took at least a week for the order.

That's when I decided...I should make them myself. Sure I've never made fortune cookies before, but I had seen a demo on the Food Network and it didn't look like rocket science. So, I went to work. I searched online for a recipe and got to baking.

Well it wasn't exactly rocket science, but it was pretty darn close. After two failed batches, I finally got the technique down and managed to salvage 14 half way decent fortune cookies out of the third batch, each one of them stuffed with a different reason I'd missed my man. I wrapped them up all cute, and couldn't wait to surprised him with my ingenious creation. Long story short, he was surprised, probably not to the degree my effort truly warranted, but excited and surprised non the less.

I haven't thought about attempting fortune cookies again, until I came across this post on one of my favorite sites Our Best Bites. She makes this look so easy. It got me thinking...this would be a fun and unexpected surprise for Valentine's day. I must say, homemade fortune cookies taste 100% better than the store bought kind. They melt in your mouth. And who doesn't love a secret little message, written just for them, wrapped in a buttery cookie!

So...this just may be what I'll be working on all day tomorrow. Hopefully it will turn out much better than last time. I'll keep you posted. Wish me luck!

UPDATE: I unfortunately didn't get a chance to make these. I spent Friday cuddling a sick baby girl who wouldn't let me put her down for more than 5 minutes. My poor husband had the most unfortunate Valentines day, nursing the two women in his life back to health. We'll have to have a make-up Valentines day...maybe next weekend.

Friday Favorites - We could all use a little less grease...

I got this great recipe idea here, for an ungreasy taco shell. After a little experimintation, it worked great and they were crunchy good! Thanks Elizabeth. I hope you're enjoying your cute new little guy.