Blogging Tips: 4 Easy Ways to Improve SEO in Blogger

There are A LOT of tips out there for bloggers and how to improve SEO! This post is designed to be an absolute basic tutorial on how to improve a few post settings to increase visibility. If you do not know what SEO is, it stands for Search Engine Optimization and can be your best friend. It is an easy way to increase traffic for free and should be utilized by everybody!

Blogging Tips: Ten and a Half Tips for New Bloggers

Blogging Tips: How to Create Better Graphics for your Blog

I have gotten a few emails about how I create the graphics for my blog so I decided to make a post about my favorite online resources!

Graphics are an important part of blogging, especially if you are a Pinterest user. Luckily, there are like, a crazy amount of resources out there to create awesome graphics for your blog! The sites listed are basic photo editing or graphic creating sites. If you want a more professional tool there are some great downloadable software programs... like Photoshop!

Blogging Tips: Starting a Blog in 3 easy Steps!

OK- So obviously your blog needs a name, it seems simple but you should definitely put some though into it! Be creative to set yourself aside from other blogs but don't get too complicated. People should be able to remember it but not be confused by it- so complicated puns are out, sorry! Readers appreciate a good name- trust!

12 (hot) Holiday Cocktails

Do you love having warm hands and also drinking alcohol? Then this collection is for you! It has 12 warm and seasonal drinks that will make you want to snuggle up by a fire and sip all night long!

16 Appetizers with 5 Ingredients or Less!

The thing about appetizers is that they should be as easy to make as they are to eat. Each and every one of these amazing appetizers has only 5 ingredients or less! How is that even possible?!

Any one of these would be the perfect addition to any holiday, birthday, or dinner party no matter the season! There is something for everyone in this collection.

Garlic Roasted Asparagus

Now, I don't say this lightly because it's an idea I am still trying to fully convince myself to believe, but, sides are the showcase of any meal. I mean, they should not be hiding in the shadow of a main course, they each need their own distinct voice, while still becoming part of a fuller complex melody... Too much of a choir reference? Not sorry! Obviously this concept is becoming truer as we convert into the new and vastly improved notion that our protein should make up only 25% of our plates at any given meal. I know I can't be the only one who grew up in a house where the chicken got 50% and the mashed potatoes got the other half! Talk about a hard habit to break. A delicious, buttery, habit...

Creamy Caramel Sauce

Um, yeah, it's from a can but not in the way you think. Like, honestly this might be magic. I'm all for "from scratch" recipes but if there's an awesome never-heard-of-it-before trick to try, I'm obviously going to try it. This is the trick: boil a can of sweetened condensed milk for 3 hours and voila! Sweet, sticky, magic!

Cake Batter Cheesecake!

Reasons I think you'll love this cheesecake: 1- You are a human being with a mouth and 2- You are not a monster.
First thing's first, you neeeed a springform pan for this recipe. I would love to be like "Hey, it'll probably be fine in a round cake pan!" but, no, the world is not a perfectly beautiful place... Unless you make this cheesecake then your troubles will melt like lemon drops. You can find a springform pan pretty much anywhere they sell cooking stuff. I'm pretty positive they even have them at Safeway! If you don't know what a springform pan is it's your lucky day because we live in a modern world and there is a Wikipedia page for EVERYTHING, even different types of baking pans! Here it is!
Once you have that one little gadget you are pretty much set to start baking this silky, dense, celebratory, beauty of a confection.

One Pan Prep: Orzo with Pancetta and Peas

One pan prep is probably one of the best things to hear for a short-cut type of cook. It's right up there with "don't worry, the potatoes are already peeled" and "I think we'll just order pizza instead." It's the kind of thing that only produces a good meal every so often, but when it does magic happens. The kind of thing that dreams are made of.

This dish has a simple charm and is filled with kinda sweet and crunchy, salty bites that make you hope the bowl is bottomless. It starts with like, 3 or 4 ingredients and only one pan and will probably make your week a little/a lot better. Trust.

Fizzy Raspberry Lemonade Cocktail

First of all, I would like to say that I am so happy to finally be posting again! I was out of town for 2 weeks then really busy when I got back to real life. So, here I am, posting a cocktail recipe in the middle of the day on a Tuesday- just as it should be.

Stuffed Red Velvet Poppers

This is the kind of day I'm having. The kind of day that isn't a bad day but a day that could be made better by the perfect li'l snack. With just the right amount of cream cheese frosting in the middle, these Stuffed Red Velvet Poppers make for a nice treat for a red velvet cake lover like myself.

Each popper is about the size of a 50 cent piece and a great excuse to indulge in a rich red velvet experience without digging into an entire cake... Which I obviously have never done... 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cannoli

So... I'll leave that right there for you to look at...

To say that this is a simple recipe would be a lie. Well, sort of a lie, the recipe is easy but the execution takes patience and probably a full afternoon but these are so incredibly worth the time and energy you put into them. These are so good, the dough makes an amazing crunchy on the outside while chewy on the inside cookie and the whipped cream filling perfectly offsets the sweetness of the cookie in a "cookies and milk" sort of partnership!

Mini No Bake Apple Pie Bites

So I have to say that this recipe was totally made up on the fly today because I had a wicked craving for apple pie but did not want to labor over an entire pie because I have other important things to get done, like browsing Netflix! Since it was made up on the spot there aren't any photos of the prep process, sorry... But there are pictures of these cuties all done and ready to be snacked on.

6 Ingredient Drop Biscuits

I have been trying to find more recipes recently that will become staples in my kitchen and this is a perfect example of that! These are super easy drop biscuits which are not the type of baking project that you look at and think they are something to "tackle". These only take a few minutes to mix and plop on a baking sheet, then you're good to go. I would say they take about the same amount of time that it takes me to pluck up the courage to pop open those terrifying canned biscuits, plus they're ten times better because they're homemade! The six ingredients in this recipe mix together to create some of the lightest, fluffiest, and most delicious biscuits I have ever eaten (which is something I never thought I'd say about some simple biscuits).
Here is how to make them:

Apple Pie Moonshine Recipe

Okay, so this last holiday season I made gift baskets with a bunch of homemade goodies in them but the star of the show was the apple pie moonshine (of course)! If you've never had apple pie moonshine before it is exactly like drinking apple pie and even the pickiest cocktail drinker will love it, but it will sneak up on you pretty quick if you don't watch out. What most people don't realize about this delicious drink is that it is super easy to make and I have had A LOT of people ask me for the recipe so I decided to post it here! I also decorated the mason jars that I used to package the hooch and I will include the information for that project as well.