Never again will you be buying an expensive store-bought Honey Baked Ham - once you have discovered how amazingly simple it is to make one at home!  The sweet honey glaze is perfect on a hickory-smoked spiral-cut ham, slow-cooked and so moist - perfect for a special holiday!

​Not only will you save time and money, but you'll have the BEST honey glazed baked ham that you have ever had - so moist and flavorful!  Wanna know my secret? 

How can it possibly be the end of the year already?  Each year seems to fly by faster and faster, and I really need to slow down and enjoy each day for the opportunity it gives me and the memories it leaves me! 

​The kiddos are on their last week of winter break, so we'll try and sneak one more slow and lazy, wonderful breakfast before the new year begins.  One of our favorite breakfast casseroles is Eggnog French Toast Casserole, which has a wonderful little surprise!  Unlike traditional Eggnog French Toast or other breakfast casseroles, this little beauty bakes with caramel on the bottom - and after taking it hot out of the oven, I flip it over so that the caramel soaks down through every layer of the rich eggnog custard French toast.  Perfect for a special day or just for celebrating a quiet morning together.

Merry Christmas!  Wishing you peace and love to warm your heart this blessed holiday season, and days filled with magic, laughter, good health, good memories and cheer!

Today we'll be celebrating with our favorite Christmas brunch - this Holiday Ham & Cheese Quiche is insanely rich and delicious, and just perfect with our family-favorite holiday breads (fresh Banana Bread, Chocolate Chip Banana Bread and Date Nut Bread) and fresh raspberries and strawberries.  With a flaky crust, a rich and creamy custard filling that is bursting with ham and melted cheese, it's quiche perfection, and the best you'll ever have!

And this is a morning to linger, savor and enjoy every single minute with our family!

Ahhhhhh.....the delightful little Holiday Meatball!  Never has something so bite-sized been so perfect!  A holiday tradition for generations, and no one will allow me to deviate from the original recipe.  I guess when you have perfection, why try to reinvent the wheel?  Perfectly sized, perfectly simple, and perfectly saucy - just the way we like it!

​There are absolutely hundreds of sauce recipes out there for meatballs, but the combination of Welch's Grape Jelly and our favorite barbeque sauce is the one we go back to time after time.  On our trips back to Minneapolis, one of our favorite restaurants is Rudolph's Barbeque & Grill, and we always bring back a dozen or so bottles of their wonderful barbeque sauce to hideaway and save for special occasions.  That means Christmas, New Years and Holiday Meatballs!

I don't use the word "ultimate" frequently, so when I do, you know it's something special!  For those of us that grew up loving traditional Magic Seven Layer Bars, we've taken these to a new level!  Several of my kiddos request these every holiday season, and I never liked the way the crust was so dry and crumbly - and let's face it, they are just plain messy to eat - graham cracker crumbs EVERYWHERE!

​The creative solution to that was to bake up a tender, soft-baked brown sugar and graham cracker cookie crust!  No more crumbly graham cracker and butter crust for us, And once you try this soft, thick and chewy bar, you'll be swooning too!

Just imagine a bite-sized Chocolate Meringue Star...dipped in dark chocolate!  If you're looking for something fabulous for Christmas, and you love chocolate, these may be your new favorite!  With less than 35 calories each, you'll be reaching for them after the New Year too!  Chocolate lovers unite!

​And for an extra-decadent treat, drop one on top of a hot steaming cup of creamy cocoa...it will melt away slowly....you can even add to a cup of hot coffee for a fabulous mocha coffee flavor! 

Simple.  And so wonderful!  Marshmallow Meringue Stars are everything you want a meringue cookie to be - fluffy, light, crunchy on the outside, soft and the tiniest bit chewy on the inside, and filled with pure vanilla flavor!

​These little treats have a little secret - we added some mini-chocolate chips to the meringue just before we baked them.  You can leave them out of course, but they are sure a nice little surprise when you take your first bite!

Every Christmas and Valentine's Day we would always look forward to my Mom's old-fashioned sugar cookies.  She made DOZENS of these every year and they have always been a family favorite!  My Dad loved them, my brothers and sister loved them, EVERYONE raved about how wonderful her sugar cookies tasted!

​From the time that they were little my kiddos have loved these soft and tender sugar cookies better than any other!  Probably because it was the first cookie for each of them...

​I was one of those crazy moms that didn't give my little ones any refined sugar until their first birthday.  And Mom would always make it a special event by baking up a batch of these and giving them a simple sprinkle of sparkling sugar on top.  Perfectly simple, perfectly wonderful!

Is there anything more old-fashioned and fun than biting the head off of a gingerbread man?  And when they are as thick, soft and chewy as these wonderful little gingerbread people, you'll see why these have been a family favorite for generations! 

​Filled with every flavor that makes gingerbread cookies wonderful - butter, brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and LOTS of ginger!  And whether you like these plain or happily frosted with Easy Royal Icing, these little guys are ALWAYS fun to eat! 

Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling my name....inside it's the perfect time for a little Ultimate Grasshopper Cookie!  This is the cookie-version of our family-favorite Mint Brownies (often fondly referred to as "Starbucks Brownies"), a very special treat usually made only for Christmas and St. Patrick's Day! 

​A soft and chewy brownie cookie base, topped with Mint Buttercream Frosting, drizzled with Chocolate Ganache and topped with chunks of Andes Mints? SO MINTY GOOD!

Oh. My. Heavens.  Snowflake Meltaway Cookies are tiny, little bite-sized snowflakes that melt in your mouth!  And as much fun as trying to catch snowflakes with your tongue! 

​Now that the holiday baking season is in full swing, I wanted to share a perfect little cookie with you!  This is the third of three fabulous recipes that I've created for Rodelle Kitchen for their month long holiday cookie celebration Cookies By The Dozens - the best of 2017 holiday cookies.  You'll want to click on the link to make sure that you see and discover all of the wonderful recipes that the Rodelle Brand Ambassadors are sharing this year!

It seems like there has been a lot of chocolate and caramel going on, and I wanted to give you a special little something filled with a touch of pure vanilla and almond flavor that will just melt your heart...

Every now and then there is a new cookie that just takes over the universe by storm...and the newest are these wonderful Rainbow Kiss Cookies!  And if you have a hard time choosing between Peanut Butter Blossoms and Chewy Fudge Brownies, or even Peppermint Bark Brownie Bites, your life just got a whole lot more difficult. Are they a brownie, or a cookie?  I guess it really doesn't matter what you want to call them, because they are just simply fabulous and a real crowd-pleaser!

​A thick chocolatey brownie, rolled in the most colorful rainbow nonpareils you can find, and a milk chocolate kiss in the middle - what's not to love?  And while you might be thinking that Christmas nonpareils were just made for this - the bright red, white and green colors just don't pop as much as the colorful circus colors you find in traditional nonpareils.  And everyone knows its all about getting noticed on the cookie tray, right?  (Or are you one of those people that hide the really good cookies in the hopes that they will survive the initial rush at the cookie platter?)

I don't know what possessed me, but I mixed up five batches of cookie dough yesterday, and today I am a baking fool!  It seemed like such a great idea at the time, but even for us, that's a lot of cookie baking!

​These Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies are totally worth the time and effort - but I should have called them "Goldilocks Cookies", because they can be made to your perfect minty taste!  Thick and chewy, and so good warm from the oven with a tall glass of cold milk!

From one cookie lover to another, the only thing better than a classic Snickerdoodle Cookie is a Chocolate Snickerdoodle!  Chewy, fudgy and a delicious twist on the traditional snickerdoodle.  And warm from the oven?  I'm in heaven!

​These are totally addictive, and another family favorite that we hope you will love as much as we do!

​This is the second of three fabulous recipes that I'll be creating for Rodelle Kitchen to share their month long holiday cookie celebration Cookies By The Dozens - the best of 2017 holiday cookies!  You'll want to click on the link below to make sure that you see and discover all of the wonderful recipes that the Rodelle Brand Ambassadors are sharing this year!