Since we are on the topic of homemade gifts I want to share another one of my favorite small batch gift recipes: White Chocolate Bark with Fruit & Granola. This sweet, crunchy bark first came about when I was attempting Ina Garten’s recipe for White Chocolate Bark and realized I was out of walnuts. Instead, I tossed on some homemade Dried Cherry Granola followed by a handful of toasted sliced almonds and a new holiday recipe was born!

It is finally the time of year when we start thinking about homemade holiday gifts. Yes, I did make my big batch gifts like Homemade Vanilla Extract and Peppermint Hot Fudge Sauce earlier this year, but my smaller batch gifts are just getting started. This is the food that is easy and fun to make in small batches as needed throughout the season. One of my favorite things to make in this category are fresh, crunchy biscotti in an assortment of flavors. Not only are these sophisticated coffee-dipping cookies a welcome departure from the onslaught of super-sweet Christmas cookies this time of year, they are also perfect for a wide variety of gift-giving situations. For example, when I hear the moms in my daughter’s class are assembling the teacher gift bags I always whip up a quick batch of Lemon Ginger Biscotti to add as my contribution. Or, when I know I have a meeting with a client or editor coming up I bag a fresh batch of Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti to bring along. Sometimes I even make two or three batches at once and ship an assortment to friends around the country to spread a little holiday cheer.

This is the latest installment of my Powernap column. The series where I share quick, easy food that can be made for all kinds of situations. Powernaps are short and sweet, and so are these recipes. These are the things I make in a jiffy when I need a quick snack, am in the mood for a recipe experiment, or simply need to clean out the pantry.

Today’s post is in honor of my daughter who is celebrating her birthday this month. She is at such a fun age and this year I am going a little overboard with the whole occasion. This week she’ll be having two small parties. The first will be at school where I will bring in a little art project for all the kids to make together. The second will be outside of school with some of her closest friends. Finally, at the end of the week I’ve promised her a flower manicure at our favorite nail place followed by special snack of peppermint hot chocolate and a donut (her favorite treat) at home with Mom.

I’ve been posting some of my Thanksgiving favorites over the past week because we’ve been enjoying them all month long. That is really one of the hidden beauties of skipping the mega family feast every few years – you can just enjoy what you want when you want! To leave you with a truly wonderful dish, today I am sharing one of my favorite Thanksgiving desserts. Obviously, I love pumpkin pie but sometimes I need a break. I mean, who doesn’t love it when the pumpkin flavor comes from the ice cream (!) and there is a graham cracker crust involved.

Last week I got the new Barefoot Contessa cookbook, Barefoot Contessa Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust. As I always do with her books, after only a couple of quick passes I tabbed dozens of recipes to try and kicked off with this one last weekend. I am slipping this into my week of Thanksgiving food because, although I have never served it for Thanksgiving, I can honestly say it would be a great addition to any Thanksgiving table. While creamed spinach may be more traditional at Thanksgiving, this lightened up version with salty feta and crunchy pine nuts would be welcome break from the tried and true.  I’ll be reviewing the book more in the new year but I promise this one is a great place to start!

This is the latest installment of my Powernap column. The series where I share quick, easy food that can be made for all kinds of situations. Powernaps are short and sweet, and so are these recipes. These are the things I make in a jiffy when I need a quick snack, am in the mood for a recipe experiment, or simply need to clean out the pantry.

We have a bit of a cranberry sauce divide in our house. My husband insists that it should be served straight out a can, preferably still in the shape of a can with the rings from the actual can visible on the jiggly tower of sauce. For nearly ten years I’ve tried my best to understand why he thinks this is the most desirable way to eat cranberry sauce and still haven’t figured it out. I, on the other hand, find the gelatinous canned stuff completely unappealing and prefer a simple scratch recipe. I love this because it is so good on the dinner table and is even better on turkey sandwiches the day after. Who doesn’t love a condiment that performs double-duty?!

Even though our postponed Halloween celebration just took place on Saturday I am in Thanksgiving mode. This year we’ll have a small family celebration in Boston. It will be nice and easy which is just what I’m in the mood for since I am definitely slowing down a bit. Next year I am sure we’ll happily host a huge family bash, but this year I need a little break. In light of this I’ve had some fun spacing out some of our Thanksgiving favorites over the past week. Just because we aren’t having a huge feast doesn’t mean we should skip our favorites for an entire year. Last week I made some of Gwyneth’s Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with Lemon & Olive Oil and they were as delicious as ever. Over the weekend I made a classic Roast Chicken and paired them with these Scalloped Potatoes with Thyme. Next week I plan to indulge in our favorite Thanksgiving dessert so stay tuned!

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Well, Sandy has come and gone and I am getting back into the swing of things with cooking and posting. As most of you on Facebook know, our property managed to stay safe during the hurricane despite our close proximity to the beach. But we lost power for nearly a week. While I wanted to stay put and help my less fortunate neighbors it simply didn’t make sense for me to stick around in frigid temps with a young child while pregnant. So, we fled to Cooperstown for a week of electricity and grandparent TLC and just returned to Connecticut earlier this week. While we were in Cooperstown we did our best to lift our spirits with some fun activities. We helped my daughter master her new Razor scooter, made several trips to the Fly Creek Cider Mill, and celebrated my Dad’s birthday with this awesome Moist Carrot Cake.

Feeding my family from Whole Foods Market for $100 a week was not easy but we managed to do it. After my tour of our local store I learned all the ways to save while shopping and devised a menu plan to fit the deals that were available that week. I also had to make a few assumptions in order to make the budget work. I did not buy basic staples like olive oil, salt, pepper, basic spices, and flour since we already had them on hand. I generally don’t shop for them weekly anyway. I did not include lots of beverages in our budget since we usually drink water, iced tea (made from scratch), milk, and hot tea. My daughter does not like juice therefore I rarely, if ever, buy it. Finally, my husband eats his lunches at work and was on a business trip one night so I did not include his meal costs on the nights he didn’t eat with us.

Last week I revealed a little bit about on my recent collaboration with Whole Foods Market. In mid-October, pre-Sandy, I spent one whole week feeding my family exclusively from Whole Foods on a strict budget of $100. It was not easy considering the “whole paycheck” reputation of Whole Foods Market but I found it surprisingly doable. One of the keys to the challenge was changing my Whole Foods Market shopping habits. I’ll admit, I’ve never been a super-strategic shopper at Whole Foods Market. I was surprised at how much money I could save when I actually applied myself to learning the signage and zeroing in on a set meal plan. Today I am going to share my new favorite tips for shopping Whole Foods Market and tomorrow I will share the menu we enjoyed for the week.

This is the latest installment of my Powernap column. The series where I share quick, easy food that can be made for all kinds of situations. Powernaps are short and sweet, and so are these recipes. These are the things I make in a jiffy when I need a quick snack, am in the mood for a recipe experiment, or simply need to clean out the pantry.

Next week I’ll be unveiling an awesome project I’ve been working on with Whole Foods. This fall they challenged me to feed our family exclusively from their store for one whole week on a $100 budget. I was so excited to take on this task since I’ve always loved Whole Foods but have in the past admittedly been wary of their reputation as a place to spend the “whole paycheck.” However, that all changed last week when, with some strategic shopping and the use of coupons, I was able to squeeze out a week’s worth of healthy meals on an incredibly limited budget. Starting next Tuesday I’ll report on all the details but today I am going to give you a sneak peak at a simple soup I made toward the end of the week to use up some of our tasty leftovers.