Glide Zen

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 ...

If there's one treat you must make this holiday season this is it. Okay there are a lot of treats that definitely deserve to be made this holiday season but this one should be near the top of your list. It's easy (we are talking 10 - 15 minutes total easy), it tastes like candy with a crunch, it's nutty, slightly sticky, deliciously sweet and it's the perfect gift for friends neighbors or coworkers. Simply said this stuff is highly addictive so share the wealth or you will want to eat it all =). Enjoy!   Holiday Chex Mix Ingredients: 3 cups Rice Chex cereal 3 cups Corn Chex cereal 3 cups Golden Grahams cereal 1 1/2 cups mixed nuts* 2 cups sweetened, shredded coconut 1 cup granulated sugar 1 cup light-corn syrup 3/4 cup salted butter Directions: In a large mixing bowl, toss together Rice Chex, Corn Chex, Golden Grahams, mixed nuts and coconut, set aside. In a medium saucepan combine sugar light-corn syrup and butter. Bring mixture to a boil over med...

How I love a stack of hot of the griddle, drenched in syrup, fancy pancakes! Here's a recipe you are definitely going to want to add to the weekend mornings breakfast rotation. I think I could probably eat the entire batch of pancakes by myself =). They really do taste just like fluffy, sweetly spiced carrot cake, especially when they are smothered with Vanilla Cream or Cream Cheese Syrup. My obvious inspiration for these was the real thing, and I looked to my favorite carrot cake recipe to create this one. I would say for serving, one of the two syrups listed is a must, maple syrup just doesn't cut it with these. Also, I've never liked nuts in carrot cake only sprinkled over the frosting. That's why with these I chose to sprinkle them over the top, but if you like nuts in your carrot cake then feel free to mix some into the batter with these.  If you were wondering why I decided to soak the carrots overnight with the buttermilk and sugar, it's because I wan...

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...

If you ask me, it only takes 3 ingredients (well 4 if you count the water) to prepare a perfect roasted turkey. In other words the perfect Thanksgiving turkey, the most important part of the Thanksgiving feast. We only have roasted turkey in my home about 5 times a year so I'm definitely not perfect at preparing one. That is why this time around I turned to Cook's Illustrated to follow their advice for brining and roasting turkey. I'm so glad I did as I achieved incredible results. I always thought it took plenty of fancy fresh herbs and a jumble of other ingredients to get a delicious turkey. That was definitely a misconception. If you ask me, some of those things can seemingly hide the delicious flavors of the turkey. All you need is a turkey, salt, water, a bit of butter along with a few easy steps and you'll have a turkey that is moist, flavorful and tender with a perfectly golden, crispy skin. It's likely that no one will even be reaching for the salt with ...

I'm so excited to be a part of such a fun Christmas event this year. Today and I'm posting over on I Heart Naptime for her Crazy Christmas Event (she has such a cute blog btw). So please head on over to check out my post and the delicious and easy recipe for these amazing, Christmas inspired Peppermint Brownies. P.S. they start from a boxed brownies mix! I just doctored it up a bit and no one would ever now they aren't from scratch. Recipe for Peppermint Brownies with Fluffy Peppermint Buttercream Frosting can be found HERE .

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 w...

Mall pretzels that you can now enjoy in the comfort of your home for a fraction of the price with countless dipping sauce options, yes please! I found this recipe over at one of my favorite food blogs, Yammie's Noshery. It's such a great blog to follow, so if you're not yet following I suggest you do it now =). She takes amazing photos, creates many of her own recipes and she has great taste in food. This recipe she posted is one example of her great taste in food. I mean, who doesn't love a fresh, warm Auntie Anne's pretzel? And with Yammie's homemade garlic cheese sauce you've got a match made in heaven. Save a few for dessert and you can try them with a warm glaze, caramel or chocolate sauce for dunking. How ever you dunk them I recommend you eat them warm, they just aren't the same cool. This Auntie Anne's Pretzels copycat recipe is one you are going to want to try. You get a chewy yet fluffy, perfectly tender, beautifully golden brown pretze...

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 mor...

Carmelitas will always be one of my weaknesses. Yes of course they are loaded with calories but once in a while it is so worth it. I mean how can you resist a oatmeal cookie bar that is sandwiched with a layer of two kinds of chocolate chips and a layer of silky smooth salted caramel? I know when they are around I most definitely can't resist them. I adapted this recipe slightly from Lulu the Baker  (very cute blog by the way). I made a few minor changes and of course, added in the coarse sea salt to make them a salted Carmelita. I like the balance the salt adds to all the sweetness. I thought these bars were a good post for the holidays because they are an indulgent bar fit for a celebration. If you'd like you could brown the butter for the oat cookie mixture which would give them one more gourmet touch. If doing so just allow it to cool for about 15 minutes before adding it to the dry ingredient mixture. Enjoy!  Salted Carmelitas Yields 12 Ingredients: 32...

Once again I found myself needing to use some pumpkin I had sitting in the fridge so I decided to try a new recipe and found these over at Martha Stewart   (note that if you are ever using left over pumpkin puree that you are preserving in the fridge, be sure to thaw it at room temperature until adding it to your recipe - unless of course it calls for chilled pumpkin). These cookies had my name written all over them with their pumpkin and browned butter combo, it's what I live on lately. I made several of my own adjustments to the recipe such as slightly altering the spice amounts, replacing some of the brown sugar with granulated sugar, using salted butter and reducing the amount of salt added and omitting the vanilla from the icing (because really all you need is the browned butter flavor). Then the biggest change I made was replacing the evaporated milk with a smaller amount of sour cream in the cookie dough batter and replacing the evaporated milk in the icing with...