The Best Butter Cookie Recipe!

It's not until I pull out my favorite cookbook, Christmas From the Heart of the Home by Susan Branch and open it to what I promise you is the best butter cookie recipe ever, that I feel excited for the holidays. Its bright red cover, adorable Christmas illustrations, personal reflections and irresistible recipes always makes me smile, and as corny as it sounds brings warmth to my heart. Every traditional Christmas recipe you can think of is here...spiced cider, egg nog, Christmas pudding and the best of all, Annie Hall's Butter Cookies.

Salted Chocolate Caramel Crunch

Sometimes recipes comes to me in my sleep, and in this case it could very well be the best dream I've ever had. These Salted Chocolate Caramel Crunch clusters are stuffed with everything good – nuts, pretzels, crispy rice, marshmallows and caramel. They are so good, I have to hide them from myself!

Avgolemono

By now, you may have noticed that I love easy, quick meals. So when I realized I only had a few items in my refrigerator to make dinner with – eggs, chicken and lemons – and I was too lazy to run to the store, I had to get creative. I remembered the Greek, chicken lemon soup, called "avgolemono" my friend Kiki had brought over once when I had the flu, and called her for the recipe.

Cheese Popovers

I thought long and hard about what recipe I could share with you that would be life changing as far as your traditional Thanksgiving menu. One item immediately popped into my head (excuse the pun)... cheese popovers!

Hurricane Beef Chili with Beans & Whole Wheat Cornbread

We had no power or heat for an entire week thanks to Hurricane Sandy, but with a small generator, a countertop electric burner and some determination I did manage to come up with a great Hurricane beef chili with beans and whole wheat cornbread recipe!

Healthy Homemade Granola Bars

Before I came up with this healthy homemade granola bars recipe, I would spend every weekday morning yelling "you're going to miss the bus!" at the top of my lungs while my kids scrambled to find their shoes, coats and books. If they got any breakfast in at all, it was a store bought granola bar during the thirty second car ride to the bus stop. Sound familiar?

Cream of Mushroom Chicken Bake

What if I told you there was a one pot healthy meal that took five minutes of prep time to make... that would have your family clamoring for more, scraping the pot to get every last bit into their hungry mouths?

Easy Chicken Parmigiana

I'm not fancy. I like good old comfort food and lots of it. Besides, sometimes simple meals are the best. Everyone always goes crazy over this easy chicken parmigiana, and I've given out the recipe many times. My children's friends have gone home asking their mothers to make it, and I even once had an Italian grandmother ask for the recipe!

The Best Red Wine Sangria!

I became obsessed with trying to make The Best Red Wine Sangria after my family's trip to Spain last Spring.

I have never been much of a drinker, so when I enthusiastically drank glass after glass, all the way from Madrid to Sevilla my husband started to get a little worried. The problem was temporarily solved however, when I got home and was unable to find a recipe that even came close to the red sangria I had at Botin in Madrid. Frustrated, I went back to my sober ways.

Moist Yellow Cake

This is a great, moist yellow cake recipe from scratch that you will use over and over again... it is soft and moist and melts in your mouth. I've made this recipe hundreds of times and everyone always goes crazy over it. 

Grape-Nuts Ice Cream

On the way to and from Martha's Vineyard this summer, my family stopped at the famous Gray's Ice Cream in Tiverton, Rhode Island www.graysicecream.com., famed for its Grape-Nuts Ice Cream. My husband had been hearing about this ice cream for years from his boss and now, finally, we had the opportunity to try a cone from one of the top ten ice cream shops in the country.

All the flavors we tried were exceptionally good, but the New England specialty, Grape-Nuts ice cream stood out the most and sent me into a tizzy. It tasted like cereal with milk... creamy, with just the right amount of texture from the Grape-Nuts. I had to find out how to make it!

World's Best Chocolate Chip Cookie

I became obsessed with baking the world's best chocolate chip cookie after trying dozens of recipes that were "just okay". With each batch, I would carefully watch the faces of my husband and children (there is no tougher crowd!) after they took their first bite for their reaction.  At most, I got "pretty good". Many would have given up, but I became more determined than ever. Finally, after weeks of testing I got the unanimous response I was looking for... "This is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever!"

Pink Lemonade Ice Cream

Sometimes you are handed lemons in life (the bitter, rotten kind), but this Pink Lemonade ice cream recipe is the perfect example of how you can take those lemons and turn them into something amazing! Nothing's quite as satisfying as easy, homemade ice cream and kids love the pink lemonade taste because it's just the right combination of tart and sweet and oh so pretty...