Vanilla Cookies

It's almost Valentine's Day! I think a holiday to celebrate love is wonderful. Whether it's love for a significant other, yourself, family members or your friends, it's always important to celebrate those close to you and let them know that you appreciate them.

Valentine's is knows for all of the sweets and sugar involved. These aren't an exception, but they are small, so it makes it easier to eat one or two instead of a sugar cookie. Sugar cookies are a typical holiday treat. Even though I like them once-in-a-while, it's nice to have a break sometimes. These vanilla cookies somewhat mimic a sugar cookie, but they are a little more crumbly and not as incredibly sweet. They're a favorite of mine and they are handed down from my Grandma.

Apple Pie

I hope that everyone is ready for Thanksgiving! It's one of my favorite holidays, and I love getting together with family. Apple pie is a staple at Thanksgiving dinners, and this recipe is so easy to make! You can easily buy pie dough or a pre-made pie crust to make this even more simple. Pies take time, so make sure you start a few hours before you need it to make sure it's ready. A lot of the time is chilling in the fridge, so it's not too bad. And the measuring isn't too bad either. Just make sure that you make the pie crust correctly, not too wet from the water, but not too crumbly and dry. A pie crust should be flaky.

Dulce de Leche Cutout Cookies

I wanted to make Halloween cookies, but I wanted to try something new! So, I thought I'd try one of my favorite cookies that my sister-in-law Sarah over at High Heels and Grills makes. When I was dating my husband (her brother) we drove from Utah to her house in Fort Collins, Colorado and she made these cookies for us, I fell in love with them! And then when we got married, she made a ton of desserts and these were definitely on the table for refreshments.

Shortbread is so delicate and crumbly, and I literally carved out the faces for these cookies with a toothpick! It took longer than I'd expect it to, so unless you have a lot of time on your hands, use a Linzer Cookie Cutter and it'll be way easier. You can find different holiday ones too, but probably not pumpkin faces ;).

You can find the original recipe here from my SIL's blog. I halved it so that we didn't have cookies coming out of our ears. Best recipe for baking for two!

Amazon Prime Favorite Kitchen Items

It's Prime Day! So I thought I would share with you some of my favorite kitchen essentials that are available on Amazon Prime. This post contains affiliate links meaning that I may receive a small commission from you clicking the links and purchasing from them. But, these items are ALL in my kitchen and my thoughts are completely truthful and my own opinions. I wouldn't share anything with you that I wouldn't use myself. Happy shopping! And remember that Prime Day ends tomorrow, it's only 1 1/2 days!

Pretty and Pink Cherry Chiffon Salad

This is the perfect salad to bring to a potluck or share with your family this Valentine's Day! It takes less than 10 minutes to make and everyone absolutely loves it!

We just had my younger brothers stay with us for the weekend and my eight-year-old brother thought it was great because of the marshmallows, you can always get kids to eat stuff with marshmallows haha! I had so much fun with them down here while my parents were at meetings in Las Vegas. We went swimming, hiking and made some pizza for National Pizza Day! And we watched movies and ate lots and lots of food. I wish that I didn't live over 3 hours away from them because whenever we leave it's not super fun. But, I get to see them the beginning of March, really looking forward to that! I loved sharing this dessert with them and it actually had quite a few leftovers, so you can definitely feed a lot of people with this dessert!

Caramel Popcorn

It's National Popcorn Day and I'm over here celebrating! I love love love popcorn! I can't believe how warm and dry the weather is out here in Southern Utah this year. It's kind of scary, so hopefully we'll get some moisture soon! As much as I love the movie theater, sometimes I just prefer sitting at home and watching a movie with some popcorn in my pajamas and fuzzy socks. I'm so much more comfortable and it's way cheaper too! But, I swear that my attention span is totally lost during a full-length movie unless I have something to munch on. And that's usually (okay, always) popcorn! I love the microwave stuff, picking up a bucket from the theater and bringing it home, or even air popped corn from home. But the special treat is the rarely-made caramel popcorn.


When we were first married and I discovered how good this stuff was, I made it a ton. Bad idea, surprisingly (not really) it's not that good for you. So now, we decided to make it a special treat when we want to indulge in the goodness of it. It's a sweet caramel sauce that is made perfection with the sweetened condensed milk. My in-laws make it and it's one of the best things ever! I'd say that it's part of the reason why I married my husband, but I actually never even had it until we were engaged. I'm pretty particular about food and if I haven't liked something before, I'm not very willing to try it. When I was younger, I had caramel popcorn but but it was more of a hard coating than this and I didn't like it. So, after they told me "caramel popcorn" I was pretty much thinking no way, but I took a little so I wouldn't be rude and I was hooked. Best stuff ever.

Taquitos

Taco Tuesday is one of my very favorite things to make. They always taste amazing because you can totally cater them to what you're feeling like that day! Well, I'll be honest and tell you that Michael is usually in charge of Taco Tuesday, so he always makes them...another reason why they're the best! There's such a hype about Taco Tuesday, I'm totally making up a new day later in the week: Taquito Thursday (or Friday or Saturday....I could seriously eat these things any day)!! Here's to more salsa and tortillas because they're the best things ever.

This is another slow cooker meal, so definitely a huge winner in my book! I found these from @motivationmindy on Instagram and she raves about them too. They honestly taste so good. I dip them in a little bit of ranch. Have you tried the Greek Yogurt Ranch before? I'm a huge fan, the calories aren't high and when eating it, it doesn't make you feel like you're eating something gross. I was kind of thinking the taquitos would taste a little funny because sometimes homemade things son't taste as good as restaurants in my opinion. But, I will never buy taquitos again, not frozen or from a restaurant because these are that dang good! They're perfect for weeknight dinners for something quick. I also love them on the weekends because I like to eat "fun foods" on the weekends for dinner. Pizza, taquitos, sandwiches, burgers, etc. are so good when you make them at home and I like to have a fun, relaxing dinner on the weekends after I've cleaned the house and just want to relax and hang out.