Mini Raspberry Ganache Tarts | No Bake!

Have you ever seen anything so adorable in your life?!

So these little babies need 4 ingredients and take no time at all to make and will be the best thing you have ever eaten in your life. Overreaction? Maybe. But the first two things are absolutely true.

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Grilled Honey Sriracha Chicken Skewers

On most days I say that chocolate and peppermint is my favorite flavor combo but today it is honey and sriracha... and possibly every day hereafter. 

This sauce gets all caramelized and sticky in the best way. Oh. My. God. I'm in love. It starts out sweet but not too sweet and then the heat creeps in. Oooh, that heat! I'm not one for overly spicy foods seeing how I don't like to sweat when I eat but this sauce has the perfect amount of non sweat-inducing heat. Also it can be tweaked for the individual palate so, I mean, it's basically perfect.

Sweet Brown Butter Cornbread

As far as versatility goes, corn bread transcends the seasons... Summer, Winter, those other two! It can't be stopped. Bring it to a BBQ but keep a personal stash. Make a stuffing out of it but don't expect leftovers. I could go on but I have to finish the rest of this post then eat an entire batch of cornbread!

This particular incarnation of our superhero starch has a few trick's up its unitard sleeves. First, but not hardly the most exciting, there is sour cream all mixed in there for amazing moisture and texture. The acidity of the sour cream mixed with the baking soda makes this corn bread moist and light at the same time. Secondly, and absolutely the most exciting, is the addition of that old nutty friend, brown butter!

Perfectly Chewy Chocolate Orange Brownies

This is the kind of brownie recipe that makes you want to decorate a Christmas tree but also lay on a beach but definitely eat the entire batch. What I'm tying to say is that this recipe cannot and will not be pigeonholed. These milk chocolate brownies have the perfect amount of density with subtle orange essence and get all chewy around the edges in the best way. I am in love.

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.

7 Minute Pan Seared Salmon

You heard it here first, or second, you can cook a salmon dinner in 7 minutes. I mean, if you want to, it's totally possible. I'll tell you how...

First of all, start with some salmon... obviously. I have the amazing luck of living in the Pacific Northwest and have the privilege of having a father who is quite a fisherman. He is always calling me and letting me know he has a drawer full of fresh salmon, or crab, or halibut, or some other amazing that I can help myself to. So, naturally I drive right over and grab a beautiful, caught-that-day, king salmon fillet. If you can think of something that represents the western coast of Washington better than salmon I would be shocked. I mean, I guess there's Starbucks, and Micro Soft, and Amazon... But whatever, we're talking about SALMON, people, don't get smart!
In the beginning there was a salmon fillet:

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: