 What's your feeling about salad on Thanksgiving?🥗 I make a salad to go along with our Thanksgiving meal almost every year and every year - I'm the only person who eats it.🤷🏻♀️😂 My father in law firmly believes that a healthy green salad shouldn't occupy any of the valuable real estate on a Thanksgiving dinner plate.😂 I, on the other hand, feel like a green salad is the perfect compliment to turkey and mashed potatoes. I'd love to know where you are on the Thanksgiving salad debate. Is it normal offer green salad with Thanksgiving dinner or am I alone in this? 😅 Should I even bother with making myself a salad?🤷🏻♀️ Am I alone in this?  Verdict is still out on whether or not I'll be making a salad this Thanksgiving but if I do, it will be this one. This is my new favorite salad. It's easy to put together and it's delicious. The simple oil and vinegar dressing is amazing but I always serve it on the side - just in case someone else decides to join me in the salad eating. Cesar and buttermilk ranch are also good options for this salad.  Simple Green Salad 2 small heads of butter lettuce 1 cucumber, thinly sliced ¼ cup shaved Parmesan cheese 2 Tablespoons pepitas 1/2 cup whole almonds, lightly salted 1 avocado, thinly sliced Dressing Persian Lime Olive Oil Lemon Balsamic Vinegar  Assemble salad in large bowl or individual bowls.  Combine oil and vinegar for dressing and drizzle over salad. Oh and don't forget to let me know your thoughts on salad on the Thanksgiving table. 😉
Ciao!
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 I feel the need to be fully transparent before I post yet another breakfast recipe for you to enjoy. I share a lot of delicious muffin, biscotti and egg recipes with you but the truth is that I hardly ever make breakfast for myself.🥞🧇🫣 Most mornings I grab a granola bar as fuel and I save the fancy breakfast preparations for mornings when we have overnight guests. 😬 Maybe I need to start thinking about turning our house into a bed and breakfast so we can eat a proper breakfast more often.🤣 Emphasis on the breakfast part.😂 I actually really enjoy breakfast food. Who doesn't? There's something wonderfully comforting about starting my day with a stack of pancakes, a fluffy Belgian waffle, a perfectly cooked egg, creamy avocado spread on a thick slice of multigrain toast, a yogurt parfait or one of the endless pastry options that I crave in the morning.😋🥐 🍳🥞🧇🥓🥑 Just listing all my favorite breakfast food now has me wondering why I'm not making those things every morning. I have lots of excuses but no answer.🤷🏻♀️
I actually enjoy making breakfast food almost as much as I like eating it. Maybe it's because I feel less rushed when I'm making omelettes or french toast in the morning than when I'm scrambling to get a meal on the table by six.😅 There's something uniquely satisfying about making homemade muffins in the morning and then sitting down to start my day with the warm, straight from the oven, still steaming muffin.😋 Thank goodness we're going to be filling up the bedrooms in our house over the Thanksgiving holiday so I have an excuse to make all my favorite breakfast treats.😂  Homemade muffins are what I would call a high reward - low effort breakfast food. They're delicious, they look fancy and elegant but they're surprisingly simple to make. You won't even need a mixer to whip up a batch of these Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins. Add these to your next breakfast or brunch buffet and you might be surprised at the number of people that gobble them up who aren't on a gluten free diet.😅 I use a homemade gluten free flour blend but you can substitute your favorite brand. Also frozen blueberries work just as well as fresh ones in this recipe so don't be afraid to make these even though it isn't blueberry season.  Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins Crumble Topping 4 Tablespoons butter, melted ½ cup brown sugar ½ cup gluten free flour blend ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum ⅛ teaspoon salt Muffins 3 eggs, room temperature ¾ cup buttermilk, room temperature 8 Tablespoons butter, melted 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups gluten free flour blend 1 teaspoon xanthan gum 1 teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon kosher salt ½ cup sugar ¼ cup brown sugar 1 cup blueberries
 Bake 30 minutes at 350.   Ciao!
 Thanksgiving isn't just a meal in my house. It's a week long celebration with family, friends and lots of food.😅 Some of us live hundreds of miles apart so when we do actually manage to get together for the holidays, we try and spend at least several days together. Sure we do the traditional turkey, mashed potato and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving day but we also have lots of leisurely breakfasts, easy to fix lunches and casual dinners together during the days leading up to and following Thanksgiving. This year, I've got some fun theme meals planned for Thanksgiving week. A homemade pasta night, a nacho average taco party, a pumpkin palooza breakfast, a waffle brunch bar, a burger bash, a birthday dinner for my daughter and a Thanksgiving cookie decorating party.🍝🌮🥞🧇🍔🍪 I'm still trying to figure out how to squeeze in a chili cook off too.😂  I do recognize that my Thanksgiving week menu probably sounds overly ambitious to most of you but I love big family meals. I also come from a family of cooks and our meals usually become a group effort so I don't bear the burden of doing all the cooking my myself. Cooking for family and friends is my love language so a house full of Thanksgiving guests to cook for is my dream.😅 These Olive Oil Cinnamon Rolls made their first appearance in my kitchen a couple of years ago at Thanksgiving. Unlike most cinnamon rolls these are made without butter and I know what you're thinking - How can butterless cinnamon rolls be any good?😂 The truth is I had low expectations for these olive oil based cinnamon rolls too but to my surprise - they were really delicious.😋 And as an added bonus, these rolls can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator overnight. All that's left to do is in the morning is to pull them out and bake them up hot and fresh for all my guests.  Olive Oil Cinnamon Rolls Dough 3/4 cup milk (lactose free is you prefer) 1/4 cup sugar 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast 2 eggs 3 1/2 cups flour 1/4 cup olive oil 1/2 teaspoon salt Filling 3 Tablespoons olive oil 3/4 cup brown sugar 2 Tablespoons cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon cardamom 14 teaspoon nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest 1/4 teaspoon salt Icing 4 Tablespoons milk 1 Tablespoon lemon juice 2 teaspoons vanilla 2 cups powdered sugar
 Bake rolls 25-30 minutes at 350.
 Ciao!
 When you go to the ice cream store - which flavor calls your name?🍦 Personally - I'm a chocolate and sweet cream kind of girl.🍫 Double chocolate, mint chocolate and chocolate chip are my go tos. And the chocolate has to be really good quality before I even consider indulging in a scoop. I know - I'm an ice cream snob.😂 I'm a creature of habit so it's rare that I stray away from chocolate in my ice cream but on the rare occasion that I do, it's usually for a toasted coconut or honey almond flavor. Ice cream flavors like butter pecan were never really on my radar until I made this recipe for butter pecan blondies with pecans toasted in rich, salty butter!!🧈 I'll say it again for those in the back - PECANS TOASTED IN BUTTER!!!  Clearly it took me longer than most to grasp the concept of buttered pecans - I mean it's right there in the name after all. 🤦🏻♀️😅 I know. I know. But now that I've started buttering my own pecans - I'm addicted. I've been adding them to all kinds of recipes lately - Pecan, Butterscotch, Dark Chocolate Cookies, Toasted Butter Pecan Cake, Pecan Sour Cream Coffee Cake and Pumpkin Pecan Pancakes. I've basically started toasting my pecans in butter before I adding them to any recipe with pecans in the ingredient list.😬 Safe to say buttered pecans are my newest obsession and this recipe for Butter Pecan Blondies takes that obsession to the next level. Combining browned butter, toffee bits, some of the best dark chocolate and buttered pecans is going to make these blondies the favorite at your Thanksgiving get together.
Butter Pecan Blondies Buttered Pecans 1 Tablespoon butter 1/2 cup pecans, chopped Blondies 8 Tablespoons butter 1 cup brown sugar 1 egg 1 cup flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 cup toffee bits 1 cup dark chocolate chips
 Bake 25 minutes at 350. Cool 20 minutes in pan.  Remove from pan using parchment sling.  Cut into 16 squares.  Ciao!
 For years, I've set aside at least one day every Fall for apple pie making and it usually coincides with our annual trip to the North Georgia apple orchards.🥧 Some years I've even made it a cooperative effort by inviting friends to join me for a pie baking day.🥧 Baking is always more fun with friends.👩🏻🍳🧑🏻🍳 The day goes like this: I peel and slice TONS of apples.🍎🍏 I put all of my sliced apples and spices into a big dutch oven and cook them down for 10-15 minutes so that they release some of their juices before I add them to my pie. I make my favorite buttery homemade pie crusts. I make pies, cover them with plastic wrap and foil and put them in the freezer so that I can take them out, defrost them and bake them up fresh over the holidays. Before you start to email me, I realize that pre-cooking my apples isn't a typical practice for a lot of apple pie bakers... but it's what works for me.🤷🏻♀️ It keeps my pies from getting soggy and I end up with a pot full of the most deliciously spiced apple juice that I've ever tasted.😋  I'm not one to waste any food and certainly not something as delicious as freshly extracted apple juice. I cook my leftover apple juice down until it's thick and syrupy and perfect to use in recipes like apple cider donuts, apple cider glazed chicken, apple cider caramel rolls or this baked apple cider french toast. You don't have homemade apple cider, you say? No worries. Store bought apple cider works just as well for this recipe. And as an added bonus, you will probably have some leftover cider to try one of my other delicious apple cider recipes too.  Baked Apple Cider French Toast 1 loaf French bread 6 eggs 1 cup apple cider 1 cup whole milk 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon orange zest 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon salt Cinnamon Apples 1/4 cup butter 4 medium apples, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch slices 1/4 cup apple cider 1/3 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/8 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup pecan halves Toppings Powdered sugar Maple syrup Salted caramel sauce
 Ciao!
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