Powernap: Quick Recipes For When Time is Limited!

One of things we’ve been a LOT of this winter is baking. Baking is one of those activities that is universally enjoyed by everyone in my house. My daughter and I could spend hours in the kitchen mixing up batters and doughs if given the opportunity. In February we had a lot of fun participating in King Arthur Flour’s Family Fun month by getting in the kitchen and making donuts. It will probably come as no surprise to learn that my daughter is a donut fanatic. Isn’t every kid?!

For Christmas I gave my husband a Moscow mule mug. I collect all things copper for my kitchen and couldn’t wait to add it to our collection. I also know how much he loves trying new cocktails, especially in the deep-dark days of winter. On Sunday night was started the second season of Breaking Bad (yes, we are behind, but it is so much easier to watch in one fell swoop) and mixed our first Moscow mule. I am not one for heavy cocktails on a regular basis but this is one we’ll definitely be breaking out again in the near future.

These days my cooking routine has to fit into two categories: cold-weather cooking and busy school night-friendly. The temperature continues to drop every night which means I want something hot and nourishing on the dinner table. However, my days are spent shuttling my daughter to and from school and running around the house after a little boy on a Y bike. (He loves that thing and can ride like the wind!) So, other than naptime, I don’t have a lot of time to cook. When I saw Aimee’s slow-cooker chicken recipe last month I knew it would be on my recipe list in short order. It is ideal for cold winter days filled with school runs and active toddlers.

I’ll be back full-time on January 6th, but today I am stopping in with a little holiday treat fun. I know Christmas cookie season has past, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up on the sweets entirely. In fact, not at all! New Year’s Eve is around the corner so why not think about a few luscious goodies you can make to share with friends.

These chewy sandwich cookies were a recent baking project of mine. We were invited to go to a friend’s house and I decided to make these using some leftover Gevalia coffee we had in the coffee maker. I had already made the cookies so all I had to do was whip up some soft coffee-flavored buttercream and sandwich it between them.The coffee filling made this otherwise regular chewy chocolate sugar cookies taste like the most insanely good mocha dessert. We loved how the soft coffee filling almost tasted like an afternoon sip of cappuccino!

I hope you all are with me when I say this week is crazy with a capital “C”! Raise your hands if you have so much left to do before Christmas and seemingly no time to do it. (Me! Me!) It has been a great year but between the baby, move, and book, I’ve pretty much lost all of my free time. This Christmas I’ve parred down my baking ambitions in order to keep up with daily life. This means I’ve concentrated on a few cookies and desserts and we’re sticking with a great Christmas dinner menu of tried-and-trues. One of the few new recipes I’ve tried recently are these eggnog oatmeal cookies. They are rich and spicy but still chewy like the classic oatmeal cookie everyone loves.

To cap off my year of exploring flavor trends with Sargento I am writing about my latest favorite winter dish involving mushrooms: Slow-Cooker Mushroom Bolognese. I’ve been eating mushrooms for nearly every season and this month I wanted to try them in a heavier dish. I also wanted to make this to prove that mushrooms can indeed withstand the slow-cooker and be the basis of a hearty winter meal. I made this on a particularly blustery evening which made it even that more special. It was a great cozy meal for one of the first chilly weeks of winter.

Last weekend with kicked off the Christmas season with a little holiday celebration. Our good friends came over for dinner. We lit our first fire in the fireplace, and cooked up a whole bunch of our favorite treats including a delicious treat with peppermint. One of the things we made was this awesome peppermint pudding pie. Even in winter my daughter is a chilled dessert fanatic and I knew it would the perfect dessert to serve after dinner.

The year is flying by so quickly I can hardly believe I am already talking about Christmas recipes. But, here I am touting a great holiday dessert so it appears that the season has truly arrived. Today I am starting off with a great recipe for fake truffles, or as they are more officially called, Oreo Cookie Balls. I have been making variations of these for years and today I am going to share my family’s favorite flavor. Once you read how totally insanely easy these our to make you’ll be floored. They really do taste like real truffles and are always a hit at a party!

Now that we are finally getting settled in we are talking about hosting our first party in our new house. I imagine it will be sometime this winter and we’ll serve up cold-weather comfort food, wine, and a great cocktail. Maybe we’ll have a chili party or something fun like that! One thing that is without a doubt is that we’ll be serving this simple dip. I love making it for all sorts of occasions and I expect I’ll even be making it later this month for Thanksgiving. It is that good.

Today I am stopping in with a quick, healthy fall snack I think you will love. In keeping with pumpkin obsession this month, the other day I made this delicious fall flavored hummus. It was a great new twist on our regular homemade hummus and paired beautifully with salty cracker and crudite. We loved the overtones of pumpkin in the silky smooth dip. I added a little extra olive oil on top for an extra-decadent touch, but you can decide if you want to do that once you’ve made it. While I can’t exactly hand this out on Halloween night, I can definitely pack it in my daughter’s lunchboxl. It will be terrific paired with some salty pepitas and her favorite carrot sticks in a fall snack.

It is finally (finally!) pumpkin season and I am having a blast baking up sweet treats. First up, I made two batches of pumpkin bars back-to-back last weekend. The recipe is in the book. Honestly, it is such a great recipe it is worth buying the book just for that! Then, over the weekend, my daughter and I baked up this sweet loaf and added a generous swath of cream cheese frosting for good measure.

Earlier this summer I reviewed my new Magimix Vision Toaster. I immediately fell in love the way it toasted bread to perfection in just minutes. Truly, I have never seen a toaster that so perfectly makes the toast warm and soft on the interior and perfectly crispy on the exterior. There is no other toaster quite like it!