Hot cocoa, also known as hot chocolate is an international drink. It isn’t a beverage for just winter season or cold climates, since this delicious drink made with coco powder, and hot whole milk, and sugar to sweeten it, is very soothing and fun to drink for little ones and grown ups.
I grew up drinking hot coco with my breakfast, and never ever dreamt of adding anything else to my chocolaty milk, till now. More chocolate with added flavors.
Marshmallows, salted caramel, mint chocolate, even for fun jelly beans. It is super easy to make with your entire family, and a step by step video will give you some more ideas on how to make these flavor boosters for hot drinks, and even for dressing up vanilla ice cream for a jaw dropping presentation. I hope you enjoy making them, and if you come up with more ideas please share it with me.👍😋
If you find yourself pulled in many directions and only few minutes to pull yourself together, I absolutely relate. I have many interests and being a mom, a wife, daughter and a sister I like to be involved in my families affairs, be helpful, and lend a hand when I am asked to help.
As you can tell from this blog I am also a gardener, love to bake and cook, and always look for ways to make my home beautiful and comfortable. Stepping out of my house with mud on my knees or flour or pasta sauce on my shirt is absolutely real for me. It takes time to change to a clean shirt and jeans, but I often find myself with surprised texts and phone calls that pull me out of my house with few minutes left to put myself together.
Learning from experience, knowing last minute meetings and errands to run can happen without any notice I have come up with a collection of clothes and accessories that help me in minutes to look presentable without missing a beat. I use the coat closet next to the garage door to store : cardigans, jackets, a pair of boats scarves, and several pieces of jewelry. In few minutes I create a stylish look that not only covers my casual t-shirt and jeans but it also helps me leave the house with less stress and more confidence on how I arrive to my next meeting. Following my goal in life 🤣 to keep everything simple and stress free.👍😌
Please watch my video on our YouTube channel. Please leave your comments and subscribe👍wishing all of you a stress free week😌
To bake healthy and delicious goodies sometimes can be time consuming, expensive, and frustrating. I am not shy to say I don’t enjoy spending hours baking, and waiting for anything to rise for 8hours. But I love trying new recipes, and sharing them with my family, and watching them enjoy my experiments.
Every now and then when I come across a recipe that is delicious and practical, I am beyond happy. In this case fruit bars, that are delicious to pair with tea or coffee, even top them with ice cream, and just perfect to wrap in wax paper as a thoughtful gift for a friend, teacher or the next door neighbor.
This recipe is super easy to prepare, bake, and by changing the fruit layer, you can drastically change the flavor for the next batch. I made these bars to use up my leftover cranberry sauce, and it came out absolutely delicious.
You will need👩🏻🍳.
1 cup butter room temperature 1 cup sugar 1 egg 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt. Zest of an orange ( 1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract ) 3 cups all purpose flour 2 1/2 cup cranberry sauce, apricot or cherry jam 1/2 cup almonds, or walnuts
Preheat the oven 375° bake for 40-45 using a 9×13 baking dish. Dough will be soft and buttery, using a rolling pin or your hands lay enough dough to cover the bottom of the pan about 1/4 inch thickness, a layer of jam, and a layer of nuts. Cover with the rest of the dough. Bake until slightly golden.
Layer of apricot jam, and a layer of toasted almondsCranberry sauce & walnuts, in squares.
I am planning to bake some with raspberry jam and a layer of shaved semisweet Ghirardelli chocolate. Yummy 👍can’t wait😋
My most favorite meal of the day is breakfast. I enjoy traveling mostly for the fact, that I get the chance to try something new and special from the region. Some what like, the scene in the movie “ My Cousin Vinny” when they ordered grits for the first time with their breakfast.
German pancake
And when I am home, I am always ready to try new recipes, like the German pancake, that actually looks like a giant pastry. Super easy to make, and delicious. The most important fact about making them, is that you pour the batter in one dish and bake it. There is no waiting and pouring individual pancakes for hours. And that is one main reason this pancake is a great breakfast for big family get togethers, and easy to make for special days like Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day.
You will need:👩🏻🍳
6 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
dash salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 Tablespoons butter
A 9X13 baking dish. Preheat the oven at 425°, bake for 27-30 minutes.
Please watch the video as I am preparing this beautiful pancake. I hope you enjoy baking this. Please don’t forget to leave comments and subscribe, I look forward to reading them. Don’t forget a dusting of powder sugar and good quality maple syrup.👍😋
Cooking and baking has always been a fun hobby that I have enjoyed immensely. I am an average cook that loves to experiment with cooking healthy meals. I enjoy baking, just simply because I am addicted to chocolate, and for me a lovely pastry with coffee, and tea is a trip to heaven and back☺️
Christmas peppermint bark
This year, more than ever in my life 😥 I have been cooking and baking for my family, and now for holidays I have decided to bake new goodies and find my new favorites.
I started with :
Pizzelle
Pizzelle 👩🏻🍳 every Christmas we enjoy eating these lovely lightly sweet giant snow flakes all day long when we travel to see grandparents. This Christmas I had to bake our own batch 😳 I pulled out my pizzelle maker which I had received years ago as a Christmas gift, and used grandmas’s recipe. After a couple of tries they came out perfect snow flakes 😋
Italian wedding cookies
Italian wedding cookies 👩🏻🍳 they are made with crushed almonds, and coated with powder sugar, and look like small snow balls. They are beautiful to look at, and are lightly sweet, and believe me when I say 🤣 you can’t stop at just one.
Cranberry bars
Cranberry bars 👩🏻🍳 using leftover cranberry sauce from thanksgiving meal, I baked these thick delicious bars with two flaky layers of dough, cushioning a layer of my chunky cranberry sauce, and a layer of walnuts. I am already thinking of making more of these bars with almonds. This is my absolute new favorite 👍
Peppermint barks
Peppermint bars 👩🏻🍳 I have always bought them as gifts for friends, and loved having them during holidays. This year never found the time to purchase them on time, so I decided to make some. Couldn’t perfectly layer the white chocolate over the dark chocolate, but the result was a swirl of dark and white with crushed peppermints that made little ones very happy to crush and spread over the baking dish. Easy, fun to make, and very delicious. Next time I will make it thinner, so it would be easier to cut, and I have more to eat👍
I wish you all happy cooking and baking💕please check out our YouTube channel. And please subscribe and leave your comments. I love reading them and sharing more videos with you. https://youtu.be/Qb8lgNMk8AY
I can list many things we are not doing this Christmas, but I realize I will be only whining, and not respecting the facts that this has been a historic year. The events of this year has changed many lives, and will change the way we used to entertain for many years to come. Special days like birthdays, anniversaries will be remembered as not so memorable, and our photos will be good evidence of that, but we also know family get togethers during Halloween, thanksgiving and Christmas will never be the same again.
In my Family events that get us together include our grandparents, and close relatives. Their presence is necessary and important to us, and their visits has always left an impression on our children. Every occasion matters, and they are memorable. This Christmas family visits are not possible, and to keep grandma, and grandpa part of our fast growing family (one day they are toddlers, next day they are teenagers) we are staying in touch using everything accessible to all of us.
Sending pictures while trimming the tree, baking, and decorating the yard has kept our family close and involved. Trying to create memories together while not being in the same space. Keeping it together until things are back to normal !! “after all tomorrow is another day”❤️
During the holiday season, decorating has become an important note on our todo list, right after shopping and baking cookies. For my family holidays always called for traveling, and cooking. And this year unfortunately traveling is out, entertaining is out and we are left with cooking, baking, and keeping our family busy, happy, and healthy.
During holidays making ornaments to decorate the Christmas tree became a way to also entertained our guests, specially the younger ones. Nieces and nephews, grandparents, and classmates, will spend time putting together a ginger bread house, or get crafty and make ornaments, to keep or give as gifts. This year with a smaller number (no guests ) we are still planning on making paper garlands, and ornaments, decorating, baking, thinking of our family, friends, and just be thankful and grateful during the holiday season.💕
To see step by step instructions on how to cut a perfect angel and a Christmas tree garland Please click on this video 🎄 https://youtu.be/nJDlqF70Z_I we love to read your comments💕 so please watch, leave a comment, and subscribe👍
Two amazingly beautiful fall fruits that not many of us have enjoyed eating them.
They are both covered in a thick outer skin that protects the beautiful seeds in the pomegranate,and the sweet some what chewy inside of a persimmon, making them some what puzzling as to how to cut into one. Both fruits are packed with nutrients, and are used in making sauces or are dried for use in cooking.
Fuyu persimmons Fall fruitsPomegranate & persimmon
I have made a video on how to cut and enjoy these beautiful fruits. Please click to watch, and subscribe for more videos 👍😁and please leave your comments, I love to read your feedbacks. https://youtu.be/6ILzotaZbPo
Cranberry sauce is delicious, super easy to make, and so good for us. these small red berries loaded with vitamins, add more flavor, and amazing color to our holiday table.
How to cook cranberries👍
Please click on my video link to see step by step directions on how to make a delicious, simple cranberry sauce for your thanksgiving meal.
