Happy Holidays with Tzatziki and Mini Cheesecakes

Happy Holidays! Long time no post! There has been a lot going on in my life currently so things have been a little hectic and posts will probably continue to be sporadic for the next couple of months. I'm going to be moving to the Boston area finally and staying with one of my best friends, Lauren, until I can find my own place, and unfortunately, all of my kitchen stuff will be in storage during that time. I will definitely try to keep up the posts as frequently as possible and there may be a guest blogger here and there as well.

Christmas Idea: Salted Bourbon Caramel Sauce

Okay, so this one is more foodie than frugal, although if you had bourbon in your liquor cabinet already, it would be more frugal for you! I'm going to a Pie Whiskey Holiday Party (bring pie, bring whiskey, or bring a holiday) so I wanted to try making this Salted Bourbon Caramel Sauce to go on top of some mini chocolate cupcakes. Wanna know how I found it? I googled "Whiskey Caramel Sauce." Amazing, right? How did people cook before Google?

Comfort Food: Baked Ziti

It's December. It's cold outside. This is the time of year when I start to crave hot comfort food that comes right out of the oven and warms up the house. Comfort food looks different for different people. For me, anything that involves pasta and cheese is comfort food for me, be it macaroni and cheese, lasagna, or, today's treat, baked ziti. 

I was inspired to make baked ziti when I stumbled across a blog called Baked Bree. While browsing through the myriad of recipes of all kinds she has (including candied bacon cookies!!) I stumbled across a recipe for her Easy Baked Pasta. It looked delicious and with my insane recent cravings for garlic bread as of late, it sounded like the perfect thing to warm up my chilly house and a great excuse to eat garlic bread.

My Secret Weapon

People often ask me where I get my recipes from. I've collected some of them from friends and family over the years, but when I need a recipe for a specific thing and I don't have one that has already been time-tested and approved, I look it up on Food.com. This website is absolutely genius. It's like having a panel of regular people who are ready and willing to share their own time-tested and approved recipes. You can search by recipe or ingredient and sort by the highest ratings. I used it several times over the last week.

For Thanksgiving, I wanted to contribute but didn't have a ton of time or money to do anything too elaborate (plus my relatives and my mom have been doing it so well for years) so I wanted to bring something a little different. I searched for cranberry sauce and this was the top recipe that came up. I tweaked it a bit (used half orange juice and half water rather than all water) and it came out absolutely scrumptious. It also lead to this beauty of a creation:

Cheap and Fast: Linguine and Clam Sauce

Oh hey there! For today I made an old family classic in my house growing up. It's cheap to make and one of those recipes where I always keep the ingredients in the house for times when I want something quick, or when I haven't gone to the grocery store in a couple of weeks. Did I mention it's delicious?

Cinnamon-Sugar Apple Skillet Cake

What an interesting week this has been! Two attempts at trying not to ooze guy repellent, one stomach bug and one missing pinkie tip. Yup, that's right, I cut off the tip of my pinkie while attempting to cut apples for the recipe I made this week. Good thing it was delicious and almost worth the pain! This recipe comes courtesy of one of my favorite bloggers Joy the Baker. Joy (who is my best friend and just doesn't know it yet) posted this recipe a couple of days ago and I ran right out and bought buttermilk and apples.

Hello friends!

And welcome to my odd little world where I cook and bake my way through some of my favorite stand-by recipes as well as some new recipes I've found. All of the recipes I post will be delicious and none of them will cost you an arm and a leg.

To start, I wanted to share a recipe that holds a very special place in my heart: Bullett Brownies. I grew up on a dead end street with kids my age and more mothers than one person should ever have. One of my other mothers used to make these brownies, named for her mother who developed the recipe herself. These brownies are unlike any brownies I have ever tried before. They have a crust on top with a fudgy middle. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have for most of my life!

Any good brownie recipe should start with Hershey's Cocoa and melted butter!