Glide Zen

One pin down 1,000 to go. I love when I finally get around to trying that pin I've been wanting to make. I found this over at The Pea Kitchen  a few months ago and have thought about making it many times since. I figured Thanksgiving season would be the perfect time. It's pie season! This dip is quick and easy and it tastes just like a delicious apple pie filling. So you get all the flavors of apple pie without the wait and without all that tedious prep work. I think this recipe has also inspired me to sprinkle my apple pie crust with cinnamon and sugar this year, yum! There are many different ways you could serve this and I've listed in the recipe a few ideas. I left them out of the picture just so you could get a good glimpse of the actual apple pie dip, but If you were to serve it with the ice cream or whipped cream it would be even more like the real thing, and the caramel sauce would just take it over the top. Also, the cinnamon sugar chips are such a simple a...

How on earth do you make a Sloppy Joe look classy? You don't =). They are just good ol' shloppy, yes sh loppy, deliciousness. Piled high and spilling over. It's impossible for any bun to fully retain all that saucy, meaty goodness. How I love a good Sloppy Joe. They may not be the fanciest meal but they are oh so scrumptiously tasty. I grew up eating them so I will always love them. These far outdo what comes in a can. Isn't everything better made fresh from scratch? Don't be scared of the long list of ingredients, other than the fresh peppers, most of them are ingredients you likely already have on hand. I kept adding a little of this and a little of that until I got this recipe just where I wanted it. If you are a cheeseburger fan, try them topped with a sprinkling of freshly grated cheddar cheese. Also, if you like a little heat feel free to add in some cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes. Enjoy! Sloppy Joes Yields about 6 servings Ingredients...

I know it may seem like I'm obsessed with Olive Garden lately. I think this is the 3rd copycat recipe I've done of their restaurant in the last month. To be honest I really don't even like Olive Garden all that much (it's just one of the only few restaurant options I have close by to where I live). We went just a few days ago and I thought my pasta was soggy and the sauce was bland but I will always love their soups, salad and breadsticks. The Zuppa Toscana is my husbands favorite soup there so I decided to order some to go to bring home to make my own copycat recipe.  I went to work adding a bit of this and a  little of that  to this very basic recipe until when tested side by side they basically tasted identical. You could make your own changes to the recipe, such as adding garlic (I didn't taste it in theirs so I didn't add it in this recipe), using hot or sweet Italian sausage (if you use sweet I'd recommend omitting the sugar as it won't be nee...

I adore red velvet. Red Velvet Cupcakes are one of my all time favorites so I think they definitely deserve to be made in breakfast form. Don't they just have Christmas written all over them? With such a vibrant and beautiful red there's not really a more fitting or festive breakfast to serve up on Christmas morning. These are such a breeze to whip up. No offense to any of you that only use pancake mix, but I still don't understand the whole pancake mix thing. It maybe takes 1 minute longer to make them from scratch versus a pancake mix. And once you do make that switch from pancake mix to made from scratch you'll have a hard time going back. Not to mention, when you make pancakes from scratch the possibilities are endless! It's so fun to create and eat so many different flavors of pancakes.  Pancakes are one of my favorite breakfast foods, if you don't believe me check out the breakfast list on my recipe page. I haven't even posted half of the pancake...

  Too often I get a huge craving for a fresh, made from scratch, warm out of the oven cinnamon roll but so often I don't want to wait the 3 - 4 hours it takes to prepare them with all those tedious and lengthy rise times. Yes, I love a good yeast based cinnamon roll, but is the yeast absolutely necessary? Well, I decided to find out for myself.  Recently, I've been reading through the "The Quick Recipe" from the Editors of Cook Illustrated Magazine and came upon their recipe for Fastest Cinnamon Buns. I knew I had to try it for a number of reasons. First off  I'm yet to be let down by Cook's Illustrated. If you are looking for a cookbook that you will likely love and cherish for life, I'd recommend any of the Cook's Illustrated cookbook collections. They are fabulous. And second I'm a cinnamon roll addict so if it can be done in anywhere under the usual 3 hours, then I'm in. Normally when I try someone else's recipe I like to make qui...

Spaghetti with meat sauce is one of my favorite Italian Classics. I grew up on it. I decided to post a second version in case you don't have 5 - 8 hours to tend my other recipe  as it simmers. I myself don't always have that much time to wait, so when I don't I often use a jar of marinara sauce and just doctor it up a bit. A jar of spaghetti sauce can definitely come in handy when needed, but to me they just lack flavor. All it takes is a few fresh ingredients along with some dried herbs and you've got a spaghetti sauce worthy of an Italian restaurant. I love a simple weeknight meal that pleases everyone and this simple sauce is sure to do just that. Enjoy! Simple Spaghetti Sauce Yields about 4 - 6 servings Ingredients: 1 (24 oz) jar marinara sauce* 3/4 lb lean ground beef 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 - 2 cloves garlic, minced (I love garlic so I use 2) 1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil, plus more for garnish 1 tsp dried parsley 1/2 tsp dried th...

So lets be   honest, Oreo truffles look like cookie tar. BUT it is the best tasting cookie tar I could ever imagine! Back when I first had them many years ago, it was when my sister made them and I was like, uh... what is that? But after one blissful bite that so perfectly melted in my mouth, I was hooked. For life. Most of you have probably already tried these and feel much the same way as I do. If you haven't tried them then you must! If you have tried them, then you can try the peppermint version I made to switch things up. It adds a fun and festive twist for the holidays. I personally prefer these coated with a white chocolate coating because it makes it more like a cookies and cream or peppermint bark truffle but of course you can use a milk or semi-sweet chocolate if you prefer. Also, you can use vanilla candy melts in place of the almond bark (they are basically the same thing as far as I know, just in a different shape and size).  My second favorite part of these ...