Tortillas and Honey

Pear Crumble Pie I've never been a particular fan of pears. Pears bring me back to my childhood when my mom used to always buy them or put the canned pears in our lunch boxes. She'd also get so excited when she found new varieties of pears. The taste was okay, they were sweet after all. I just didn't care for the grittiness and I thought that they were just plain ugly. Another thing about pears is that they just don't seem very versatile. But that could just be my own ignorance. Very rarely do I come across a different pear recipe that has me rushing out to purchase pears. If you have a great pear recipe, please share it with me! :-) While I'm still not a huge lover of pears, I've come to appreciate them a lot more now that I'm an adult. Though you still won't find them in my shopping cart on a regular basis. Every now and then I will get some pears from work during the holidays or I will find a great recipe that calls for pears (this is one ...

Homemade pie crust Homemade pie crust. It's seriously one of my favorite things! I used to be so intimidated by homemade pie crust that it took me years to attempt. My first couple attempts weren't that great, but with a couple shortcuts and a forgiving recipe, I haven't used store-bought pie crust in a few years. When I say forgiving recipe, this recipe truly is forgiving. When I started out making this crust years ago, I wasn't able to roll it out the way I'd like, so eventually I'd end up slapping it into the pie pan and frustratingly working out the dough with my fingers to form a crust. And every time it worked out fine. Now that I have my own way of rolling out the crust, pie crust is a lot more easy for me. So, here, I offer you my pie crust recipe. All you need are the ingredients as well as a food processor (I only have a mini one and it works perfect!), saran wrap, a rolling pin, and a pie plate! I'm including step-by-step pictures ...

Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip My friend's brother is leaving soon for training with the US Army, so his family threw him a going away party. I decided to make two dishes that I knew he'd love, the oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies and hot spinach and artichoke dip. I usually make this amazing garlic artichoke dip for parties, but the first time I made it, he tried it and said it would be better with spinach. This is what their friends and family lovingly call being "Davised." :-) So instead of making my usual dip, I decided to make this recipe from Closet Cooking . The original recipe looks like it was made for 2-4 people, so I doubled the amount of ingredients called for, which is reflected below. I also had to adjust the amount of baking time because I doubled the recipe, so just make sure to keep an eye out to prevent it from being overdone. This came out very well and I even heard stories of the family scraping all the leftovers they could from the pa...

Jolly Rancher Vodka This is where I'm at today. I seriously had the worst day at work on Monday, I can't even think about food. Only alcohol. Yup, that bad. So I share with you this wonderful little concoction. Jolly Rancher Vodka! These lovely little babies make me very happy. This is a great gift to give as well. I gave them away for Christmas and people were incredibly excited to receive them. They are colorful, different, and evoke a little nostalgia. And there's alcohol! Just make sure to serve it chilled. :-) Jolly Rancher Vodka From Mix That Drink Jolly Ranchers (separated into different flavors, you'll need 12 Jolly Ranchers of each flavor) Vodka 8.5 oz flasks or other containers (I used 8 oz bottles) Drop the 12 Jolly Ranchers of the flavor of your choice into the empty containers. Fill the bottle with vodka. Let mixture sit for a couple days until the Jolly Ranchers have disintegrated, giving them a good shake every now and then. ...

Peanut Butter Cup Rice Krispies Bars My mom sent me this recipe from Baking Bites the other day and requested that I make it for Sunday dinner. Rice krispies and a layer of peanut butter sounded really interesting to me and I LOVE peanut butter, so it didn't take much convincing. I'm gonna be honest with you. This was probably the second time I've ever made rice krispie treats. The first time I made them was like 10 years ago at a roommate's request. I don't even remember if they came out good. I actually love rice krispie treats, I just never had the urge to make them. This is a simple dessert that you don't have to bake, so this would probably be a great summer recipe. Even though there's three layers, it doesn't take much time much time to prepare either... you just have to wait for the chocolate topping to cool and harden before you cut them into squares. I ended up adding about 1/8 tsp of salt to the peanut butter mixture because the pe...

Red Velvet Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting These cookies by RecipeGirl took Pinterest by storm this Valentine's Day. I had every intention of making these for my boyfriend and my family, but my boyfriend doesn't typically like things that are overly sweet. After I bought all the ingredients, I realized that these may be way too sweet for him. So I ended up making completely different ( Almond Joy Brownie Bites ). I waited to make these cookies for my family dinner the other day. These cookies were really fast to whip up... it probably took more time unwrapping all the Hershey's Hugs than it did to make the actual cookies themselves. I just realized the leftover Hugs are still in my pantry and need to be removed from my house ASAP. What's funny is that I hardly ever find things too sweet, but these cookies were a little too sweet for me. (Wow! Who would have thought.) And it was my family that completely disagreed with me. (Another wow!) ...

Almond Joy Brownie Bites These yummy little things were what I made for Valentine's Day this year. They don't look very Valentine-y, but I changed what I was going to make at the last minute because I thought my boyfriend might like these more. He loves brownies and Almond Joys, so I thought he'd appreciate these. :-) I also took the extras over to my parents' for our Sunday family dinner and they loved them too. My dad is also a huge fan of Almond Joys (maybe even more than Joe). Because the recipe calls for a boxed brownie mix, the recipe is really fast to whip up. Though I don't see why you couldn't use your own favorite homemade brownie mix? Maybe next time I'll use a homemade recipe I like just to see. These were very scrumptious! The coconut mixture on the top definitely makes the dessert for me, so that was my favorite part. Add the gooey brownie on the bottom and you've got a people-pleaser! The brownies did stick terribly to the cupc...

Arugula Salad with Truffle Oil Vinaigrette What can I possibly say about this salad to make you believe this isn't just a regular salad? Two words: truffle oil. Seriously. It's simple and it's refreshing, but the truffle oil really puts it over the top. This is instantly my new favorite salad, and I can't get enough of it! My mom made this salad a couple weeks ago for our Sunday family dinner at her house. She used a simple arugula salad recipe and changed it up a little bit. The result was mind-blowing! It's amazing what a small touch of truffle oil can do to really vamp up the flavors of this salad. I absolutely love truffles. I was introduced to them a couple years ago when I went to dinner with my mom to Zinc Wine Bar and Bistro . I didn't really know what they were, but ordered their "Truffled Chicken Paillard." Let me tell you, when they make that dish, the entire restaurant is filled with the aroma of truffles. And since the aroma an...