I really, really wanted to try to find a soft gingerbread cookie this year, and with a secret ingredient (cream cheese!), these fit the bill. I played around with a few different recipes to come up with this one but ended up using Shaina's spice blend. I've loved every cookie she's ever made for me,…
My step-mom, who passed away almost 9 years ago, when our oldest was just a baby, used to make these holly leaves from cornflakes every Christmas. We'd all end up with green fingers and teeth from taste testing as we went, and while I'm not a huge fan of food dye, I couldn't resist making…
My friend Jenny recently posted about these drop cookies on Facebook, and I asked her for the recipe. It's just a basic shortbread cookie she'd found in a holiday baking magazine several years ago, but different flavored extracts make them extra tasty. With just 4 ingredients, these drop cookies are easy to whip up! I…
This coming weekend, my friend Annette and I are partnering with Glad to host a Christmas Cookie Swap to benefit Cookies for Kids' Cancer, which raises money to support research for new and improved therapies for pediatric cancer. I'll share more about our cookie swap next week, but in the meantime, I wanted to share…
When the Genda family shared their advent wreath with us a few weeks ago, Barb also shared her eggnog recipe, with the promise that we would love it! I had been hoping to share a homemade eggnog recipe as part of this year's series anyway, so I asked her if I could share hers, and…
I love chocolate-walnut logs, and with their unique shape and chocolate drizzle, these are a fabulous addition to my Christmas recipe box! Chocolate-walnut logs would be great to make ahead and freeze. You can go ahead and bake them and then freeze them (but save the chocolate drizzle for after they thaw so that it…
This is a fun gift for the chocolate-and-coffee lover in your life! Chocolate-covered espresso beans are easy to make, and you can easily add a little variety by doing several batches in different types of chocolate and then mixing the beans together once dried. Note that homemade chocolate-covered espresso beans won't be perfectly round and…
Almost two months ago, my husband and I fell in love with an almost all-black Siberian Husky puppy we found while looking for Husky breeders in our area. Although we hadn't planned to actually get a puppy that weekend, we ended up driving two hours to meet her, reminding our kids the whole time that…
At the beginning of the 101 Days of Christmas series, I shared one of my favorite homemade treats -- chocolate covered pretzels and chips. Really, how can you go wrong with chocolate-covered anything? (Although I draw the line at things that move!) Here are 9 creative chocolate-covered treats to add to your last-minute holiday baking…
A couple of years ago, I decided to dress up my chocolate crinkle cookies with a candy cane kiss, and the resulting cookie, Chocolate Candy Cane Blossoms, was a hit. It's extremely rich, but the combination of chocolate and peppermint is downright addicting! Like peanut butter blossoms, these are really easy to make, although I…