‘Recipes’ Articles at Sweetnicks

Recipe: Iced Gingerbread Bars

December 18, 2017 · Narrative

So simple and delicious, these Gingerbread Bars are the perfect thing to add to your Holiday Treat gift giving.

So remember how last week I said I’m not the blogger that generally has recipes and gift guides and things ready before the actual holiday? Well … that’s mostly true … except today! Sharing a recipe that would be perfect to add to holiday treat trays if you happen to do baking and sharing during the holiday season.

And yeah, I’m just as impressed as you are. This will probably not happen again any time soon.

I did a few cooking workshops this weekend with kids, and our focus was on holidays treats. I did a few tried-and-true recipes, and this recipe for Gingerbread Bars was a new one.

So simple to make, the kids actually did it all on their own. The recipe uses, for the most part, ingredients you likely have on hand already. The only ingredient I needed to purchase was the molasses … and since I rarely use molasses, if you have any recipes that use it as a ingredient, please share!

Once you mix up the ingredients, you just spread it into the baking dish and make sure it’s level. It bakes up super fast, and then once it was cooled, I drizzled it with the confectioners glaze.

It’s something completely different, but since it’s so simple to make, you can easy bang out many batches of this to add to your holiday trays. The kids have a half day on Friday, and I promised we would spend the afternoon baking up a storm.

Oh! And one more super important thing .., if you don’t like gingerbread and gingerbread-flavored things, make this anyway! Neither Nick nor I like gingerbread anything, and we loved these. And also, because it’s sort of a different flavor, I think you can safely stop after one or two bars … which means you won’t be stuffing yourself silly.

Hungry for more items for your holiday trays?
Espresso Delights are so simple and pretty.
Mexican Weddings Cakes are always a crowd pleaser.
These Cinnamon Nut Spice Cookies are one of my favorites, which means I don’t make them too often, because I will eat them all.
No Bake Cookies hit my kitchen regularly because they’re a favorite of both kids….

Favorite Cookies for the Holidays

December 16, 2016 · Narrative

That moment when you realize it’s Friday and you haven’t blogged all week.

Yep. #realife

I am running all over the place over the past few months, and the hours just seem to slip away from me.

But I offer you cookies.

Because whether you’re celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, or making it through the week, there can never be enough cookies.

I’ve made three different batches so far this week, and have several planned for this weekend. I can’t decide if we’ll be putting together cookie trays or baskets for friends and neighbors, or just winging it. I’m leaning towards the latter, but we’ll see how the weekend goes.

And since my mindset is currently “all the cookies, all the time,” I thought I’d share a few of our favorites.

These Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies are super simple to make, and there is no denying that mint flavor. Delish.

Similar to a cookie I loved as a kid, these No Bake Cookies are kid-approved by BOTH of my kids (which is a tough feat), and one of our favorites. Quick to make, and they hit our cookie jar probably at least twice a month.

Cinnamon-Nut Spice Cookies are MY favorite cookie, and neither of my kids like them. So, more for me, of course.

We went through countless recipes to find the PERFECT chocolate chip cookie recipe, per our own criteria, and this is the one. The secret is the pudding mix.

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Thanksgiving Traditions: Old and New

November 23, 2015 · Holidays and More, Narrative

Still working on planning your Thanksgiving menu? I’ve got a few ideas for you, some old and some new, to make it as delicious and stress-free as possible.

When it comes to holidays and traditions, I tend to straddle the fence between strictly keeping with tradition, and throwing tradition out the window.

Over the past few years, I have made a conscious effort to not just keep with tradition just for tradition’s sake.

“Just because we’ve always done it that way” is no longer enough.

It has to be more like “we’ve always done it that way and everyone loves it.”

Otherwise, what’s the point, right?

Although we haven’t hosted Thanksgiving the past few years, I found I missed that part of it, so a few years ago I started doing a separate Friendsgiving.

Which kind of allows me the best of both worlds.

The pressure of the “big day” is off, as my sister has the reins on that, but I still can still revisit some old favorites and discover new ones with our Friendsgiving feast.

It’s like double-dipping on Thanksgiving.

Nothing better.

Now onto food…

Let’s start with something new.

A few weeks ago, the folks at Echelon foods reached out to me to tell me about their Bacon-Wrapped, Sausage-Stuffed Turducken.

Quite honestly, they had me at bacon.

And then coupled with the fact that I’ve never had turducken before.

YOLO and all that.

And an impromptu pre-Thanksgiving feast with neighbors was suddenly planned.

If you are not looking forward to wrestling with a turkey this year…

Or calculating what time you’ll need to get up Thanksgiving morning to properly cook it…

Or want to free up your oven…

You might want to seek out this Turducken.

Originally I was daunted by the mere mention of it, thinking it was going to be all sorts of complicated.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Basically, unwrap and bake. …

Thanksgiving Planning {2014}

November 19, 2014 · Narrative

Every once in awhile, the planets align and I am organized enough ahead of schedule to share holiday ideas before the actual holiday.

This is that.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Beyond loving the reminder to be thankful, I love it for two more reasons.

One, I can fill up the table with tons of delicious dishes and not feel guilty about having gone overboard.

Because going overboard is key. A week’s worth of leftovers as we tiptoe full blast into the crazy holiday season is not a bad thing.

The second reason? Because our gratitude tree comes out.

It’s one of my favorite traditions, and every year, it’s fun to look back and see what people wrote on their leaves from previous years.

And who was at our table.

Exes. In-laws. Friends. Family.

A reminder of what was important then.

And what is important now.

Although I haven’t hosted our family Thanksgiving in a few years, I have instead had a Bloggers Thanksgiving Feast.

Which allowed me to satisfy my inner hostess just the same. (You can see those write-ups here > 2013, 2012, 2011).

But this year, because one of the bloggers is getting married, and one moved to far-flung regions (also known as Maine), that isn’t happening.

So I’m doing something else.

Changing it up.

And cannot wait.

And in the meantime?

A little round-up of Thanksgiving suggestions for you as I share some of our favorite go-tos for the holiday. You just might find YOUR newest tradition here too.

Decor
Cute little place cards I made a few years ago using scraps of paper.
The Give Thanks banner that Nick made one afternoon.

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