Chocolate M&M Cookies

This is the time of the year when my refrigerator is full of cookie ingredients. That sounds great until I go to make dinner and realize that I only have butter and eggs to work with. Womp, womp. I always make at least one chocolate cookie every Christmas because I love chocolate and most other people do too. I’ve made double chocolate chunk cookies and peppermint chip chocolate cookies, which have the same base chocolate cookie recipe. It’s a great cookie base because it’s delicious and versatile. This year I decided to use that cookie base again and add festive …

Continue Reading

Christmas Dining Room 2019 and Tips for Easy Entertaining

This year’s dining room is probably my favorite.  I lined up a collection of trees on the buffet and most of them light up, which adds a warm ambiance at night.  When I use a lot of decorations for the buffet, I like to have a simple center piece on the dinner table.  I used my favorite table runner and lined the center with a variety of sizes of candles.  It’s so simple but I absolutely love the way it came out. I love to entertain during the holidays.  There’s something wonderful about being surrounded by friends, family, and good …

Continue Reading

Sugar Cookies

Holiday cookie baking has officially begun. Actually, I started baking cookies a few weeks ago. As soon as the cookies have cooled I store them in freezer friendly bags pop them in the freezer. Yes, you can really do that and yes, they really taste just as delicious as the day I baked them. Most people are surprised that you can freeze cookies, but it’s the only way to do it really when you make tons of cookies and obviously aren’t going to make them all in one day. The only trick is trying not to eat them before you …

Continue Reading

My Home Decorated for Christmas 2018

Christmas is less than one week away!  Holy cow December is flying by.  Here’s a peak into how I decorated my home for Christmas this year. I  kept the entry way very simple and used faux garland and greenery to give it a winter feel.  I’ve used live greenery before on the stair railing and it’s a royal pain in the tush and a total mess when I take it down.  Oddly enough, this is one of those situations where the real stuff is crazy expensive, and the fake stuff is too, but the fake stuff has the advantage that …

Continue Reading

Chocolate Crinkle Kiss Cookies

Cookie baking season has officially begun! Usually I have multiple batches of holiday cookies in the freezer by this point in the season but I’m running a bit behind.  The past month or so has been pretty busy, which is why I haven’t posted in a while.  My baby sister got married last month.  It was a beautiful day. Then my husband and I spent eight glorious days in Turks and Caicos.  We stayed Seven Stars Resort, which is the same place we went to four years ago.  Obviously we loved it enough to return and for good reasons.  The …

Continue Reading