Caramel Cheesecake

Light Caramel Cheesecake

A light and tasty caramel cheese cake

The girls and I were cooped up in the house recently with a snowstorm and decided what better time to bake than a snow day? We had all of the ingredients on hand from aspirations of baking over the holidays that just never happened with everything else going on. We used dark brown sugar for the caramel sauce which gave it the rich color. This version we had a pre-made graham cracker crust on hand. Making crust is super easy however and you can get creative with adding crushed pretzels or nuts. I have included instruction for making the crust homemade here. (read more)

10 Warming and Comforting Soups and Stews

Cabbage, Potato and Sausage Soup

This hearty soup became a hit with the kids after the addition of kielbasa sausage. You can find the recipe here on the blog.

Soup is one of those dishes that you can endlessly experiment with, creating it from what is on hand in the cupboard and fridge.

Pumpkin Stew

This vegetarian soup is perfect for crisp fall evenings. Via giverecipe.com

When looking for inspiration to cook, I often look to cooking blogs, apps and my cookbook collection. I thought I would share a few recipes that I found to get the creative cooking juices flowing. Many times I take a recipe, and change it to suit my taste, ingredients on hand and make a creation of my own from an existing recipe. These 10 soup and stew recipes should give food for thought on some fall and winter meals to warm and comfort the soul. (read more)

White Chocolate Cranberry Fudge

No Bake White Chocolate Cranberry Fudge for Christmas or Yule

Festive for the holidays, this Christmas fudge is so easy!

My style of baking are the no-bake kind of recipes! Don’t get me wrong, I have aspirations of being a baker of lovely confections that make everyone’s eyes roll when they bite into them. For some reason it has been a challenge for me, possibly my ancient oven or living in high altitude…whatever it is a no-bake recipe around the holidays is a go to for me. This recipe for white chocolate cranberry fudge is pretty and delish to give as a gift.  

1 package of white chocolate chips (read more)

Vanilla Cinnamon French Toast

Vanilla Cinnamon French Toast

Vanilla Cinnamon French Toast with Star Fruit

For breakfast me and mom made french toast together.We both made different types of french toast . I made Vanilla Cinnamon french toast. We wanted to do something together so mom went to the store and got the stuff to make it . Mom just HAD to buy me a star fruit. I begged her for about 5 minutes till she said yes. And now star fruit is my new favorite fruit there is!

Here is how I made it:

Milk 1 cup “psst … we used half and half!”

1 egg

1 dash of Vanilla extract

1 pinch of cinnamon (read more)

Christmas Breakfast. Bacon and Gruyere Stuffed French Toast

Sweet and Savoury French Toast

Sweet and Savoury are achieved with the combination of bacon, gruyere and maple syrup.

When my youngest daughter, Coda and I set out to find a breakfast recipe to make for Sunday morning, we wanted to make something special to enjoy our one on one time together. As you saw a couple weeks ago in Coda’s post, she went a more traditional route with the French Toast recipe but added her own bohemian flair with her star fruit garnish. My recipe had the experimentation with the flavors and the unexpected addition of cheese. Cheese on French toast you might be asking yourself? Try it you may be pleasantly surprised. Look out Monte Christo! Maybe I should have titled this post as “Monte Cristo has a tough little brother!” (read more)

Caramel Apple has a Sexy Sister!

Caramel Dipped Pear

Caramel Apple has a sexy sister

With the excessive prodding by my youngest daughter Coda to pleeeease make caramel apples, I finally caved. In my mind it was going to be a sticky mess of gooey caramel to clean off of every surface in my kitchen. And since I don’t have a dishwasher (Gasp!) clean up is a consideration always. Coda has a way of linking cooking to quality time with Mom (where did she develop that notion?) so I did agree to give it a go. As usual I was also wanting to get creative and experimental with the traditional recipe. When shopping for all of the ingredients, I came upon these precious tiny pears, and thought they too might make a lovely companion to melted caramel. So begun the creation of caramel apple’s sexy sister! We also had various toppings that we experimented with such as sprinkles, chopped pecans, and to get a little risque, chopped smoked almonds. My good friend Cat has a recipe to make the caramel, but for a weeknight project, we used wrapped candies for these. I will be making her caramel recipe and sharing another treat in a later post. (read more)