Pumpkin pie is great, but sometimes we want to step outside the box and figure out another way to serve pumpkin for dessert. Never fear, I have just the recipe! (Stolen, with permission, from my mom.)

I can almost guarantee that 99% of the people you serve this to will love it. (There’s always that 1% that we hate inviting over for a meal because they’ll find a reason to not like anything.) [Read more...]

My friend Michelle is one of those people who does everything beautifully, from making crafts to cooking. She has a whimsical sense of style in her crafts and a finely-tuned sense of what goes together to make a delicious dish.

And I can’t even hate her because she’s too nice. Go figure.

Below is one of her salad recipes. This has a great little kick to it, and I have never been able to not go back for seconds! [Read more...]

When it comes to serving soup for the holidays, it just doesn’t get any more authentic than pumpkin soup. At first thought this may sound kind of weird to people. Pumpkin pie is how we’re usually used to eating this large member of the squash family. Sometimes we get a little fancy and have pumpkin milkshakes, pumpkin lattes, or pumpkin bread. But pumpkin soup?

Actually, it’s an elegant and delicious lead-in to a nice Christmas dinner. Seriously, you’ll impress the heck out of people with this. [Read more...]

When I open the menu at a restaurant I immediately look for the hors d’oeuvres. I am a huge fan of finger foods and “little” foods, and I’ll mix anything together on one plate. When it comes to hors d’oeuvres I have no sense of propriety. Mini tacos will sit happily next to won tons, and deep fried mushrooms have no qualms about sharing space with barbecued polish sausage chunks.

There is one hors d’oeuvre that my sister makes on special occasions that I have no problem calling a meal. Trust me when I say this is delicious. [Read more...]