Cooking Classy

Growing up in my family, Christmas morning breakfast was always a big deal. Why? Because it was basically the only morning of the year my mom made a big homemade breakfast. It was one of my favorite parts of Christmas. We would usually always have pancakes, eggs, hash browns, bacon and freshly squeezed orange juice, although I'm pretty sure my mom went with a pancake mix. I don't think she loves cooking the way I do =). Because of this tradition Christmas breakfast is still important to me, it's such a highlight of Christmas. That's why I've tried to post a few breakfast recipe options you could prepare for your holiday breakfast.  This time around I wanted to create a breakfast entree that could be prepared the night before and then cooked the next morning, because I know it's not likely you want to wake up and spend the morning in the kitchen. You can prepare the waffle batter as well as the cream cheese glaze the night before.  If you wanted even more indulge

So where did these cookies originally come from? They are so amazingly good I guess that several different countries want to label them as their own =). What do you call these cookies? Some of the common names for these delicious balls of pure bliss are, Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding Cookies, Italian Wedding Cookies, snowdrops, butter balls or more specifically pecan butter balls. The name that I think is most fitting is for them is Snowball Cookies, simply put because they look like little snowballs of course. I can understand where the "wedding" and "tea" labels come from because these seem so dainty and fancy, and they'd pair nicely with a warm cup of tea. You'll want to sit in your finest chair and enjoy these cookies with you pinkie fingers up, taking the most delicate little nibbles at a time as you gently dab the excess powdered sugar that falls from the cookie onto your well kept lips with a freshly pressed linen napkin.... Nah! You'll want

What's my favorite part of the holidays? The food, family, friends and the holiday parties of course! And would there be any holiday parties without the food? The more I become acquainted with food, the more I come to realize how much it has to offer. Not only does it give us the constant nourishment we need to live our daily lives but it brings us together. It builds friendships. It also opens a world of opportunity to experiment with exciting flavors and try new recipes. That's one thing I love about food, it never has to be boring and there are limitless combinations of what can be created. Another great thing about food is its array of seasonal flavors. I like how there is a rotation of fresh seasonal produce to keep things exciting. Winter can seem to lack quite as much abundance of fresh fruit, but the one fruit I'm glad I can always count on during the Christmas season is the plethora of perfectly ripe, deliciously sweet Navel oranges—the kind that don't lead m

So when was it that peppermint became associated with the color red? Especially considering it comes from green leaves. Not sure who came up with the color choice but for some reason it's as if it were meant to be. If you ask me, the flavors of peppermint should most definitely be associated with the color red. They are vibrant, warm and bold just like the color red, and the obvious answer - the peppermint flavor always reminds me of the Christmas season. This got me thinking that their should be a peppermint red velvet dessert. I saw these  cookies on Pinterest (yes another Pinterest find, I'm an addict) and decided to make them in a peppermint version with a slightly more vibrant red for the holidays. I simply reduced the cocoa powdered (and replaced the cocoa powder reduction with flour, hence the + 2 tbsp flour) and replaced the brown sugar with granulated sugar to reduce the brown hues in the cookie and I actually used 1 less tsp of the red food coloring because I didn

Two of the most popular recipes that I've posted are my traditional Lasagna Roll Ups and the Caprese Lasgana Roll Ups , both of which are covered with a tomato sauce. This time around I wanted to do things a little different. I decided to go quite the opposite by using a white sauce and chicken. I wanted something similar to Chicken Alfredo but also different. I keep seeing this recipe on Pinterest and every time it has my mouth watering, so I decided to use it as the base recipe for these and adjust it to be created in roll up form. I changed a few ingredients as well as omitted some things. I left out the artichokes and sun dried tomatoes (if you wanted to add them to this dish you definitely could, just be sure to chop them into very small pieces so they will roll well), I replaced the fresh basil with dried basil and also reduced the amount, t hen I added fresh parsley because I think white sauce and parsley just go together . I also added in some Romano cheese and a small am

I have a confession. This is the very first time in my life I have made royal icing. It is the very first time in my life I've made iced sugar cookies. So please don't be too critical I've got a few things to learn about the tricks of icing. The reason I haven't made icing and iced sugar cookies up until now because I've tasted iced sugar cookies before and I've always liked the frosted puffy version better. But, iced sugar cookies can be decorated far prettier and they make better gifts so I decided it was the perfect season to give them a try.  The icing really wasn't hard to make thanks to Annie's wonderful tutorial (from her blog - Annie's Eats ). Before I reading that tutorial I didn't even know what flood icing was. Her blog has always been one of my favorites. She does amazing work that always looks flawless.  These cookies are so delicious and are also so fun to make. Some of you may know by know how I love art and I love food so these co