Tag: celebrate celebrations

Stacey Valley: Swedish Meatballs {Foodie Friday}

Celebrate Celebrations

swedishmeatballs My philosophy is that every meal should be a celebration. Food is life-giving. It is the fuel for our bodies. And it’s pretty awesome that our fuel can be beautiful and yummy too.

I recently made a traditional Nordic meal for my family including Swedish Meatballs and Potato Herb Gratin with Pepparkakor (Nordic Ginger Cookies) for dessert. These were all new recipes for me, so I was pleased when they turned out not just edible, but delicious. The entire meal was a hit with the Valley bunch.

I found the Swedish Meatball recipe on the food blog Damn Delicious. Meatballs look fancy, but are easy to make. You can substitute ground chicken or turkey for the ground pork if you would like cut some calories from the recipe (but I wouldn’t suggest it). It’s perfect just as it is.

I served the meatballs over cooked egg noodles. My sauce wasn’t quite as thick as I hoped, but the leftovers the following day were perfect. Based on that new information, I will make these a day in advance next time.

Don’t be afraid to try new recipes for your next food celebration. Experimentation and discovery are part of the fun. And believe me: your family will love slurping up these creamy, meatbally, sauce-covered noodles.

StaceyValley

Stacey is a wife, mom of four girls, and public health professional. She adores her interracial, real-life modern family, and is thankful that her husband Anthony loves her kind of crazy. Cooking is her therapy. She dreams of moving to Italy one day, so you can often find her binging on House Hunters International. Stacey’s life motto is “Live big. Love deep.” You can find her online at…

Blog: http://www.staceyvalley.com/

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Keisha Pittman: Confetti Celebration Cookies {Foodie Friday}

Celebrate Celebrations

I don’t have much memorized about cooking, but if you were to ask me the 2 things I know off the top of my head, it’s that most cookies bake at 350 for 10 minutes and the ingredients for Cake Mix Cookies are 1/3 cup of oil and 2 eggs. Something else my mama always taught me was that everything was worth celebrating. The end of a big project, cleaning the whole house on a Saturday, making it to the end of a hard work week, getting straight A’s on your report card, anniversaries, promotions, and even half birthdays if you were my sister.

The big and the small, it’s all worth celebrating. My parents sometimes feel bad when they get ready to pull a party together and invite their friends because we realize we have had much in life to celebrate. Heck, one year, not that long ago, we had 5 years cancer-free, a teacher of the year, a graduation, a big move and a retirement all in the same year. Not all of them had a party, but each one called for its own special celebration!

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When I first lived on my own, I didn’t have much surplus in my budget, but I still loved to celebrate. I wanted to carry on this tradition I had learned from my parents to make every moment count and to celebrate all the small victories along the way. So, playing on my memory of baking growing up, and my often “famous” style of cooking, I decided to start experimenting with something I knew well.

Cake-Mix-Cookies. They were one of my favorite treats growing up. Always perfectly chewy, sometimes not too sweet and ever the easy go-to quick fix for just an afternoon toast with a cup of milk.

I’ll admit there are many varieties (and I’ll share them at the bottom), but the ones that always taste the best are the Confetti Celebration Cookies. Maybe it’s the sprinkles. Maybe it’s the fact that they taste like ice cream. Or, maybe nostalgia wins every time!

A homemade cookie with a cup of milk or a pot of coffee really is the best way to celebrate almost anything.

Keisha

Keisha Pittman can be found over at bigpittstop (bigpittstop.com), a blog started when she was brushing up on her superpowers kicking cancer’s butt. Eight years later, it’s a chapter book of a 30 something navigating life and learning lessons along the way. She is a self-proclaimed nerd and every once in a while lets us have a little glimpse into her recipes-for disaster, Saturday scenic drives, “big sister chats” and thoughts about living the good life in Northwest Arkansas. In the meantime, she is busy planning her wedding to her fun loving chicken man and planning her new life in South Arkansas.

Blog –bigpittstop: new journey, new normal, new you – http://www.bigpittstop.com/

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Ricci Ellis: Dot Cookies {Foodie Friday}

Celebrate Celebrations

There are just certain foods you expect at every family gathering, am I right? Certain standby recipes, if you will. At Thanksgiving there will always be turkey, dressing and pumpkin pie. At Christmas there will always be ham and homemade candy. I could go on and on but I think you get the picture.

In my family, something we have always come to expect is my sister’s Dot Cookies. My sister is the baker in our family. I love to cook but baking is just not my thing. The taste is always there but the presentation, not so much! Oops!

DotCookies

Dot Cookies are tiny sugar cookies with just a “dot” of icing on top and are just the perfect size to pop in your mouth and eat! Or, if you are my niece Paycen, you lick the icing off and give the cookie to your Aunt Ricci to eat. HA!

I believe the Dot Cookies came about when my aunt worked at a local bakery that made them. She started making them for our family get-togethers and then my sister started making them when my aunt didn’t want to any more.

Dot Cookie Dough

The recipe has been tweaked a few times throughout the years but I love them no matter how they are made, HA!

Dot Cookie Mixer

I think these cookies are just adorable and I love these cookies are completely customizable in that you can make the icing whatever color you want to match your event. These cookies are perfect for holidays, birthday parties, baby showers, wedding showers, potlucks, really just whatever! They also travel well which is always a plus in my book!

These cookies give a whole new meaning to #dot2dot. @riccialexis #ARWB #FoodieFriday

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While they may be a little time consuming, only in that they have to chill for a few hours, I think Dot Cookies are the perfect addition to any celebration!

Rhonda Bramell: Ding Dong Cake {Foodie Friday}

Celebrate Celebrations

The Foodie Friday 2016 theme is #Celebrate. Come join us as we focus on a different way to #Celebrate each month. In January we are all about “Celebrate Celebrations.” I can’t think of a better way to kick off a brand new year than with this Ding Dong Cake from Rhonda Bramell of Bramell: Party of Five.

Ding Dong Cake whole

Should you find yourself in need of an easy (yet impressive) dessert for a special occasion, check this one out. My friends, this is the dessert that will woo your enemies and win you admirers for life. This is my go-to recipe when I need a birthday cake, office potluck dessert or just for the “lots of people coming over” occasion.

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The beauty of the Ding Dong Cake is that it looks like it was completely labor intensive and difficult to make. Alas, it’s not! There are only a few ingredients and it doesn’t require a culinary degree to pull off. And, I might add, there’s nothing better than homemade whipped cream

The downside to making this cake is simply the temptation of having it in your house. As a result, I don’t make it as often as I’d like…because I would totally eat it myself. As my kindergartener demanded as I removed it from the fridge, “Give me the cake now!”

Ding Dong Cake from Rhonda Bramell
I definitely suggest making this your next celebration dessert, too. Or, at the very least, go grab a gallon of milk and a fork and celebrate your baking victory!

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Rhonda Bramell is a blogger in Northwest Arkansas. She is the ringleader of a circus that includes her husband, three kids and a rambunctious Boston Terrier. Rhonda has been blogging at Bramell, Party of Five for eight years; her blog is a collection of stories about the real life joys and challenges of parenting.

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