Calling all Pinterest Groupies! Here is an recipe worthy of being pinned!

These snowman cupcakes could not be cuter.

You’ll need to start with plain cupcakes. You could make them yourself or purchase them. The blog has a recipe for buttercream frosting. I think to get the full effect, it is probably best to pipe the frosting on, so you will need a pipe bag. The other thing that she uses that make these things so stinking cute, are the candy eyes. You could use chocolate chips, but the candy eyes really give it that “Frosty” touch.

She uses an Oreo, a marshmallow for the hat and then dips the whole thing in melted black candy melts. She sprinkles some white non-pareils on top to create the snow effect. You could also have some fun with some orange fondant or a Starburst and make a carrot nose, but I think the sour cherry candy looks perfect. Kids of all ages will love these precious treats! Click Snowman Cupcakes for this darling recipe.

Looking for more inspiration? Don’t forget to grab you free copy of Christmas Goodies for Your Inspiration

Okay the countdown has begun! There is always at least one person on my list, that I totally forget every year. Whether it is the postman, Sunday school teacher or neighbor, we are all scrambling to get that last minute gift. One of my favorite things to do,especially for the neighbors is to create something special in the kitchen.

Homemade candy is one of those things that has the ability to fool everyone into thinking that you bought it at a high end department store, especially if you do a nice job wrapping it up.

Peppermint bark is something that everyone loves.

What this Mom did with her recipe to make it extra special was to use cookie cutters. You can use any type of chocolate that is made for melting. She melted the chocolate right into cookie cutters. She froze each layer to make sure that it had set properly. Adding the crushed candy canes to the top was the piste de resistance

Make sure that the chocolate has set before removing the cookie cutters. You could put a cookie cutter with the candy, wrap it up individually in cellaphane and tie it with cute holiday ribbon. Viola! Instant gift.

Click Christmas Tree Peppermint Bark to find this adorable recipe.

Looking for more holiday treat recipes?

Don’t forget to grab Christmas Cookies and Goodies Guide.

This is a guest post sharing 3 free cooking applications that will bring out the chef in you.

Cooking can be a chore for a lot of mothers. You try to vary the menus for dinner every now and again, but you’ve read through all the various cookbooks you own time and time again… Sometimes, it’s good to get inspiration from another source. Technology is so available in our day and age, if you have a Iphone or Ipod Touch handy, you might want to check out these 4 free culinary applications that will help get your creative juices flowing in the kitchen.

Cook’s Illustrated

So you’ve tried every single recipe in your cookbook and you can honestly say you are out of ideas for dinner tonight. Well, how does “Pan –Seared Thick Cut Strip Steaks” or “Crisp Roast Chicken” sound? Is your mouth watering? Cook’s Illustrated is a handy little app that packs 50 of the best recipes provided by the magazine of the same name. Each recipe comes with a little video that will provide you with more information on how to prepare the dish. Reviews and taste tests are also provided with each recipe so you will know if the recipe you pick is fit to please the palates of your family.

How to Cook Everything

Even if you think the app’s is a great example of hyperbole, you will find most of the answers to your questions with this application. From bestselling New York Times columnist Mark Bittman’s, this app is packed with more than 2000 recipes and 400 illustrations that will teach you step by step methods to prepare food. Each recipe comes with a handy built-in timer that is placed throughout each step of the recipe, so nothing will be over or undercooked.

Classic Camping Cookbook & Meal Planner

Camping season may be over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t think of fresh cooking ideas to bring along to your next camping trip. Brought to by the camping pros over at Coleman, this application can help you whip out a meal while you’re camping by using filters like what type of cooking methods will be used, what type of meal you are looking for and what type of ingredients will be used during the preparation. It also allows you to plan meals for an entire camping trip based on the number of campers that will be coming along.

These free apps are a few amongst the many that are available for IOS devices. I only scratched the surface for you!

Valerie Gravel is a guest blogger for Cutting Boards USA. Cutting Boards USA offers a variety of high end cutting boards that are made from the finest Vermont walnut and maple. For more information on Cutting Boards USA and their products, visit their website today.

If you enjoy smoked chicken but don’t want to go to all the trouble, you might realize getting some nice, juicy smoked poultry is easier than you think. Instead of the dry, over-salted kind you tend to get in the grocery, try your hand on one at home. Remember, however, smoking is not the same as barbecuing. Barbecuing is cooking your meat close to the heat source while smoking is using indirect heat for lower temperature and slower cooking.

First of all, do not be discouraged. You don’t necessarily have to have a smoker to get smoked meats. The same cooking process can be created in a regular charcoal grill pushing the hot coals to one side while the meat cooks on the other. You may have to occasionally add more charcoal during the cooking process so working on a larger grill may render easier results. If you’re using a smoker, however, you will be adding more wood. Each grill or smoker has their own manufacturer’s references, so make sure you read the directions on how to get the optimum cooking performance of your equipment.

Now, let’s talk about the meat, and in this case, the bird.

A fresh, 3 to 4 pound chicken would be ideal in this situation.

Make sure while the charcoal or wood is heating up, you wash the chicken and pat completely dry after removing the gizzards from the inside of the bird. Now, things could go a few different ways.

Some people like to smoke the whole bird, others prefer to cut it down the backbone and lay butterflied on the grill, or simply chop into pieces.

Obviously, the later techniques would take less time to cook. Brining is the next step most people follow, and it involves soaking the bird in a salty water mixture for a few hours before cooking.

After brining, make sure you rinse the bird again. You can also put a rub of your preference on the chicken or mop with sauce during the cooking process. No matter how you choose to cook and flavor chicken, always make sure the temperature of the breast reaches 165F.

Cooking time can usually be estimated (if cooking a whole bird) to 1 hour for every pound.

Always turn the meat with tongs and not a fork. You don’t want to puncture the meat; juices will escape and your meat will turn out dry. Before carving, let rest for at least 10 minutes.

There are so many recipes that can use your moist and juicy smoked chicken. Most of the time, you can substitute smoked chicken for regular chicken; it will provide more of a robust flavor in your food. Chicken salad, chicken gumbo, and chicken soup are all great ideas to use shredded smoked chicken, or eat it as is when it comes off the grill with some barbecue sauce on the side.  Below is a great recipe for smoked chicken quesadillas.

Smoked Chicken Quesadillas

Kids especially love this recipe because it is so versatile and can contain as much or as little of whatever filling you prefer. You can either use all or one (cheese) of the following ingredients along with your smoked chicken:

• cheese
• black beans
• refried beans
• tomato
• avocado
• onions
• peppers
• spinach

Preheat a flat, nonstick skillet on medium. Fill one half of your tortilla with the shredded, smoked chicken, cheese and add any or all of the ingredients above. As long as the tortilla can be folded in half,
then you are at liberty to put as little or as much as you or your kids would like. Place folder tortilla (now a quesadilla) in the skillet and cook until lightly brown on both sides or until cheese is melted. Cut into fourths and serve with salsa, sour cream, scallions or nothing at all. Enjoy!

This guest post was written exclusively for Family Foodies by LowCountry Barbecue, proud to be a leading Atlanta caterer, serving families during the holidays for over 25 years. LowCountry specializes in events, big or small, across the country; no location is too far and no party is too much.