The Adopt a Blogger match up is almost complete. I need eight more veteran bloggers (have had an active blog for one year or more) to adopt the newbies that are still available. I would love to have a couple of veteran Vegetarian / Vegan food bloggers join us. As soon as I have 10 more volunteers, I will be able to get the matches out to you all Pass it on to your veteran blogger friends. If you are a veteran who has signed up and would be willing to adopt two bloggers, let me know. THANKS!

Written for the February issue of Her Life Magazine and for Meeta’s Monthly Mingle

It is February and the frenzied holiday season is now behind us. We may look back over the past months and remember the joyous times of giving gifts to others, celebrating the true meaning of the season, spending time with family and friends, and the food… the overflowing, endless amounts of food.

During the holiday season our kitchens are bustling with activity. Cookies, candies and baking mixes galore are leaving our homes and are being sent on as gifts to ones that we love. At the same time, similar tokens of love and appreciation are being given to us from friends and family. Come January 1^st, eating yet another cookie or popping another chocolate into our mouths is about the last thing that we want to do.

The unfortunate fact is that not everyone was spoiled with loving gifts of food and goodies over the holiday season. There are individuals displaced from their homes who felt blessed if they simply had one hot meal over the holiday season. A gift of home baked goodness is a luxury they cannot afford.

With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching we have another chance to provide those less fortunate with something home baked with love from our kitchens. Lydia Walshin founder of the organization Drop In & Decorate Cookies for Donation encourages people to bake with love throughout the year, not just during the holiday season.

Drop In & Decorate Cookies for Donation is a simple, yet novel idea. Bake some cookies. Invite friends, family, co-workers, or neighbors to help decorate. Donate your cookies to a local agency serving people in need (such as a soup kitchen, domestic abuse shelter, senior center), and "give back" while having fun.

Lydia has been touched by how her organization has taken off around the world and how the concept has blessed so many lives. Recalling the start of it all, Lydia explains. “ I did not set out to start a tradition, but that’s the thing about traditions: you do something once, and it is so much fun that you want to do it again and again. That is how Drop In & Decorate started. A friend and I wanted to try to decorate cookies with a new icing technique. Since neither of us are cookie eaters we made a plan to give the cookies to a local shelter. We started with a few dozen cookies. By the time we got the hang of the icing technique, we realized our cookies didn’t look wonderful. I decided to invite a few friends over to come and help us redecorate. Those first cookies had two layers of icing, but in the end they looked beautiful! We wrapped each cookie individually, with lots of ribbon, and delivered them to a family shelter. We had such fun doing the decorating, and everyone who saw those first cookies broke out with a huge smile.”

“Afterwards, my friends asked when we were going to do it again, and I realized that decorating cookies for donation would become an annual tradition. It was the smiles that inspired me…the smiles on the faces of the friends who helped decorate, and the smiles on the faces of those who received the cookies. Through the simple gift of cookies, people are making connections and are learning about the work of agencies in their own communities.”

Getting involved and hosting your own Drop In & Decorate event is easy. On Lydia’s website, www.ninecooks.com, there is a complete guide to getting started. This guide includes a delicious cookie recipe, a list of supplies you will need, information about how to donate the cookies once decorated, and more.

Share the love this Valentine’s Day by giving those less fortunate something to smile about. A heartfelt gift of homemade and beautifully decorated cookies from your kitchen could be just the thing to fill a tummy and a heart this Valentine’s day.

Strawberry Valentine Cookies (From Simple and Delicious Magazine not included in the HLM article)

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup strawberry drink mix
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• GLAZE:
• 1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon shortening
• FROSTING:
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons strawberry drink mix
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 3 to 5 tablespoons milk

Directions:

There are some times that I am a little embarrassed to admit that one of my hobbies is food photography. I am not as in to the hobby as some people. I only take a small handful of photos of each of the things that I make and I have yet to really get into props all that much. I do find myself, with each passing meal, visualizing what I would do with certain meals if I had the props. I pour over food magazines and blogs admiring the talent of all of the photographers out there. So, why don’t I spend more time shooting my photos? Because I like to eat hot food even more!

These cinnamon rolls are our traditional treat for Santa as well as our breakfast every Christmas morning. The thing about these cinnamon rolls is that they can’t be beat fresh out of the oven, ooeey and gooey with the filling and frosting. Taking the time to stylize the photo and continuing to take pictures would mean I would miss out on the best part of these cinnamon rolls…the hot, fresh, yumminess.

I hope each and every one of you had a very Merry Christmas! This was a fun year for us…our kids are at a very fun age!

May you and yours enjoy the blessings of the holiday season! 

Copycat Cinnamon Rolls for the ABM (from Recipezaar) 

I have a ton of housekeeping to do around here! This post isn’t going to have a whole lot of substance, but I promise a great soft sugar cookie recipe at the if you hang in there through to the end.

Pay It Forward:

Sandi over at one of my favorite blogs, The Whistlestop Cafe, posted a little something on her blog last week about a Pay It Forward thing going on around the blogosphere. I decided to participate and with that you get the chance to participate as well!  Here’s the scoop:

 “I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a
comment on my blog requesting to join this Paying It Forward exchange.
I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it
tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, which
is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it
forward by making the same promise on your blog.”

Adopt a Blogger

Thank you all for being so patient about the Adopt a Blogger event. What was I thinking starting this right around the holidays? My goal is to have everyone matched up by the middle of this week. We are still very top heavy on the newbie bloggers. If you are a blogger who has blogged for a year or more and are interested in participating, please add your request to join in the comment section of the original adopt a blogger post.

Nick ‘n’ Soft Sugar Cookies - Recipe from the December 2007 issue of Taste of Home magazine

These cookies are perfect for cutouts. The dough is incredibly easy to work with! Santa would love this with a big old glass of milk!

DIRECTIONS

In
a large mixing bowl, cream butter and confectioners’ sugar until light
and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually add flour. Divide dough
in half. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until easy to handle.
    On a lightly floured surface, roll out one portion of dough
to 3/16-in. thickness. Cut with floured cookie cutters. Place 2 in.
apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 5-7 minutes or until
set. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool
completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

    For frosting, in a small mixing bowl, beat the confectioners’
sugar, water and meringue powder on low speed just until combined. Beat
on high for 4 minutes or until soft peaks form. Add corn syrup; beat 1
minute longer.
    Tint with food coloring of your choice. Cover frosting with
damp paper towels or plastic wrap between uses. Spread and/or pipe
frosting on cookies. Let stand until set. Yield: 3-1/2 dozen.

Editor’s Note: As a substitute for each
cup of self-rising flour, place 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2
teaspoon salt in a measuring cup. Add all-purpose flour to measure 1
cup. As a substitute for each 1/2 cup of self-rising flour,
place 3/4 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a 1/2-cup
measuring cup. Add all-purpose flour to measure 1/2 cup. Meringue
powder is available from Wilton Industries, Inc. Call 1-800/794-5866 or
visit www.tasteofhome.com for a Web site link.

We are a sophisticated group, my friends and family. Friday night we got tipsy off of boxed wine and did Karaoke…. Karaoke that we thought sounded GREAT but probably in reality was not so much. Saturday, some of us Kathy had to recover from said boxed wine. Sunday, the purchaser of the boxed wine was over hanging out while the hubbies were out watching football. I was determined to get some baking done, but got more chatting done instead.

One of the recipes I made was from a little magazine called Cook’s Country. My friend (and talented photographer) Julie had given me a couple of issues awhile back and when I saw the recipe for Quaker Bonnet Biscuits, I bookmarked it to try at a future date.

Well, that day was yesterday. As Sara and I were chatting the timer for the oven went off and I pulled out the tray of Quaker Bonnet Biscuits. Setting them on the counter, Sara and I both looked at them…not quite seeing the “bonnets”. As we continued to stare, it suddenly came to me. “Boobs! These biscuits look nothing like bonnets. They look like boobs! I am going to call this ‘boob bread’.”  Sara went on to say not just any boobs…but pregnant boobs.

Of course, when the hubbies came in, we offered them some “boob bread” and many more sophisticated comments came out of their mouths. I’ll spare you the details.

If you can get past the boobs and get on with the bonnets, this bread recipe is really a good one! It is more like a dense bread roll consistency rather than a biscuit. The recipe can be completed in about an hour, which is a great thing for those of you who like homemade bread with your dinner but don’t have the time to spend hours on it after work!

Bring a little sophistication to your table tonight. Give this boob bread… oops..I mean, Quaker Bonnet Biscuits a try! 

Quaker Bonnet Biscuits

Makes 18

To make these biscuits without a food processor, freeze the sticks of butter until hard and then grate them into the dry ingredients using the large holes of a box grater. Toss gently with your hands to evenly distribute the butter, and proceed with the recipe.

1. Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 200 degrees. Once oven reaches 200 degrees, maintain temperature for 10 minutes, then turn off oven.

2. Stir milk, egg, and yeast together in large measuring cup until combined.

3. Process flour, sugar, and salt in food processor until combined. Add chilled butter and pulse until mixture looks like coarse cornmeal, about fifteen 1-second pulses. Transfer to large bowl.

4. Stir in milk mixture until dough comes together. Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface. Briefly knead to bring dough together, about 1 minute, adding more flour if necessary. Following steps 1 through 4 below, roll, cut, and assemble biscuits on parchment-lined baking sheets. Cover with kitchen towels and place in warm oven. Let rise until doubled in size, 25 to 35 minutes.

5. Remove baking sheets with biscuits from oven and heat oven to 375 degrees; return baking sheets to oven once it is fully preheated. Bake biscuits until golden brown, about 15 minutes, rotating and switching baking sheets halfway through baking time. Serve hot or warm.

How to Assemble Quaker Bonnet Biscuits

1. Roll the dough into a 12-inch round.

2. Cut out eighteen 2 1/2-inch circles, 3/4 inch thick, and place them on parchment-lined baking sheets.

3. Lightly brush larger dough rounds with melted butter.

4. Place one smaller round slightly off center on top of each larger round.

I can be an impulsive person. I come by it honestly because my parents are very impulsive. They would go out shopping to buy a gallon of milk and would come back with a new car. When I was a teenager, it wasn’t a surprise to me to wake up on a winter Saturday morning to find a note on the table that would read "We went to find the sunshine!". We live in Kansas… usually finding the sunshine in the dead of winter would mean at least an 8-10 hour drive to Texas. When an impulse would hit, they would follow it.

Last night I was a bit impulsive. No… I didn’t buy a new car or take a jaunt to someplace sunnier. I did not even buy that iPhone that I have been so tempted to buy. Nope… at 11pm last night, I had a sudden urge to give caramel making a try. I have been wanting to make caramel for a long time. What made that want suddenly a must last night, I have no idea… but when the urge hit I went with it.

Browsing the web a bit, I stumbled upon the blog of Chez Pim (who incidentally is the one hosting Menu for Hope…have you seen all the great prize donations??). Chez Pim has a recipe for Salted Butter caramels that tempted my taste buds the very first time I read the recipe. I decided that this recipe would be the one I use for my first attempt at caramel making.

Of course, sometimes when you are impulsive, you run into obstacles.  One… I had only a half cup of honey. Two… my cream had gone bad. If you remember from any of my previous posts, one area I am not impulsive in is cooking. I am most definitely a recipe follower.  Every once in awhile I will shake things up, but NEVER on my first time of trying something out. Last night, with the strong desire to taste a salty, buttery caramel, I got crazy and became an impulsive cook. I had Bailey’s Irish Cream in the fridge… it couldn’t hurt to try that instead of heavy whipping cream. I changed the sugar amounts as well to make up for the lack of enough honey. My attitude was if it didn’t work out, no loss. I just wouldn’t get to taste a yummy caramel, but I could always try again a different day.

The result of my impulsive, crazy night? Probably one of the best tasting caramels I have ever had. I know… I am not being modest right now, but I can’t contain myself. These little chewy morsels were soooo good. My only problem was that they did not firm up very well. I think next time I make them (which very well might be today), I may read through a few more caramel recipes to see what the problem might have been.

For this wonderful recipe, head over to the blog of Chez Pim and give it a try for yourself. To give my version a try, follow the recipe exactly but substitute the Heavy Whipping Cream for Irish Cream and use 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 1/2 cup of honey. If this is what being impulsive brings, I’ll take it! 

I feel like such a traitor. We have the best little local coffee house in our suburb. It was the only little coffee house in our suburb.  The Country Club Cafe is a family friendly place that has a small play area for the kiddos to hang out at while the mom’s sit around and chat and enjoy a nice cup of coffee. The owners of the coffee house give back to the community and seriously make you feel like you are part of a family right when you walk in the door.

Well, guess who just went in right next door?  Starbucks. Seriously, they practically share the same parking lot and of all the places out here that would be ideal for another coffee shop to be, Starbucks had to go in right…next….door.

I was really upset about it when I first heard the news and saw the building as it was being constructed. I did not want my little coffee shop to be shut down by a Starbucks! I just didn’t get it.

Well, it took about a month of being open before I was actually tempted to stop by. It was pouring rain, freezing cold and I had all three kids in the car. I needed something to warm me up and as I passed my neighborhood coffee shop, and then passed the Starbucks, the sign reading "drive thru now open" drew me in. Before I knew it I found myself ordering an eggnog latte. I felt a bit guilty as I drove out of the parking lot and looked over at my neighborhood coffee shop. Not so guilty that I didn’t totally enjoy the coffee, but I did feel like a bit of a traitor.

Two days later…same scenario. That dang drive thru sign, the snow and ice falling in buckets and the remembrance of the tasty eggnog latte warming me up got the best of me. Once again, I was giving my hard earned money to Starbucks…and it was soooooo good! 

Now, I will tell you that the entire time I am drinking each of my tasty Starbucks drinks, I have had an immense feeling of guilt and betrayal. I went back one more time to Starbucks and ordered an eggnog latte for me and a pumpkin spice latte for my husband. As I headed to the window to pay, the friendly guy working there leaned out the window and told me that my order was on the house. Well, that does it. How the heck are you supposed to feel guilty drinking free coffee? I drank that eggnog latte without guilt, enjoyed every last drop of it, and then vowed that come rain, sleet or snow… I need to get some dang morals and support the local coffee shop so it will be around forever.  

Today my friend Jennifer and I went to the Country Club Cafe coffee shop…and it was jam packed full. By the time we left, there were groups of people waiting for seats. It made me feel so good knowing that there are plenty of supporters out there who will hopefully keep this lovely coffee shop open and thriving.

You may be wondering what the heck this story has to do with the recipe I am getting ready to post. To be honest with you, the two have hardly anything to do with each other. Basically…I ordered an eggnog latte at Starbucks and the recipe I am sharing with you is for an Eggnog dip. So…there’s my tie in. The eggnog!

Each and every year around this time, I long for a glass of eggnog. I go to the store (no… I’m not as ambitious as some of you who make your eggnog from scratch!) and I pick up a carton of eggnog. When I get home I pull out a juice glass, fill it with eggnog and drink it up. Then, as it happens every year, I remember that I really don’t like eggnog all that much. So, here I am with one little glass of eggnog gone and an almost full carton left to use. If you are like me and are needing some creative uses for your almost full carton of eggnog, there are some options out there! Eggnog cookies, eggnog pancakes, and eggnog quickbread are just some of the recipes I have used over the years to keep from wasting the remaining eggnog. This year, a recipe from a magazine insert for Eggnog Dip caught my eye. This recipe is extremely easy and has a very mild eggnog flavor… so if you don’t love eggnog, but like it a little bit, you will really enjoy the flavor of this recipe! It is the perfect use for your leftover carton of eggnog.

Eggnog Dip - Serve with cut up pound cake or fresh fruit

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups eggnog
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon rum extract, optional
• Assorted fruit and pound cake cubes

Directions:

In a saucepan, combine the eggnog and cornstarch until smooth. Bring to a boil; boil and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in sour cream. Cool completely.
    In a small mixing bowl, beat whipping cream and sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold into eggnog mixture with extract if desired. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Serve with fruit and cake cubes. Yield: about 2-1/2 cups.

Like every mother out there and every mother’s mother, I can often be found spouting off the words “There are starving kids in <enter country/city/state on the tip of your tongue at the moment> who would love to have a nice hot meal. Eat your dinner!”. Well, it is time that I put my money where my mouth is. There are starving kids all over the world. Kids who do not know when they are going to have their next meal…let alone a hot meal. Kids who have maybe lost their parents…kids who have to beg for a simple meal simply so they can survive.

How many times do we look into our overflowing pantry and still complain that there is nothing good to eat? Well, these children do not have the luxury of overflowing pantry’s or the ability to make a quick jaunt to the store to buy what they crave. They simply eat when the food is available, which in many cases, is on a rare occasion. They cannot afford to be picky… whatever they get is what they take. 

For the fourth year running, blogger Chez Pim is hosting the Menu for Hope. Last year Menu for Hope raised almost $61,000 to help fight hunger. I can tell you are intrigued. Keep reading to find out what Menu for Hope is and how you can donate as little as $10, earn the chance of winning some fantastic prizes (like the Breadman TR875 2-Pound Breadmaker, Stainless Steel I’m donating) and help a very worthy cause. What exactly is the Menu for Hope?  (Scroll down to the very bottom of this post to see how you can donate and win!) In the words of Chez Pim:

Menu for Hope is an annual fundraising event in support of the UN World Food Programme.  Five years ago, the devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia inspired me to find a way to help, and the very first Menu for Hope was born.  In 2006, Menu for Hope raised US$60,925.12 to help the UN World Food Programme feed the hungry.

Each year, food bloggers from all over the world join forces to host the Menu for Hope online raffle, offering an array of delectable culinary prizes.  For every US$10, the donor receive a virtual raffle ticket toward a prize of their choice.  This year, the prizes include once in a lifetime experiences such as touring the elBulli laboratory with Ferran Adrià , dining on a historic British meal prepared by Heston Blumenthal, or joining Harold McGee on a lunch date to satisfy a lifetime’s worth of cooking curiosity.  You can also tag along with your favorite blogger on a tour of their favorite markets, restaurants, or even receive a care package fashioned especially for you from your favorite bloggers themselves.  All you need is $10 and a bit of luck.

We may never eradicate hunger from the face of the earth, but why should that stop us from trying?

Who benefits from Menu for Hope 4?

This year for the 4th annual Menu for Hope, we are again supporting the UN World Food Programme.  WFP is the world’s largest food aid agency, working with over 1,000 other organizations in over 75 countries. In addition to providing food, the World Food Program helps hungry people to become self-reliant so that they escape hunger for good.

With a special permission from the WFP, the funds raised by Menu for Hope 4 will be earmarked for the school lunch program in Lesotho, Africa.  We chose to support the school lunch program because providing food for the children not only keeps them alive, but helps them stay in school so that they learn the skills to feed themselves in the future. 

We chose to support the program in Lesotho because it is a model program in local procurement - buying food locally to support local farmers and the local economy.  Instead of shipping surplus corn across the ocean, the WFP is buying directly from local subsistent farmers who practice conservation farming methods in Lesotho to feed the children there.

We feed the kids, keep them in school, and support their parents and community farming.  This sustainable approach to aid is something we believe in and strongly support.

To help support this worthy cause, Dine and Dish will be donating a Breadman TR875 2-Pound Breadmaker, Stainless Steel (Prize number UC22). This is a great machine and it is extremely simple to use. If you have been too intimidated to make homemade bread in the past,  fear no more. Use one of over ten different cycles to make the perfect loaf of bread you desire! $100 value, and shipped only to US addresses (sorry!). If bread baking isn’t your thing, head over to Chez Pim to check out the other prizes being raffled off. You can also view the prizes by region. Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen is coordinating the prizes for the US Central region. Check ‘em out! $10 buys you one raffle ticket and you can put that $10 towards prizes of all values!

I hope that you will help provide hope for this worthy cause. Skip Starbucks twice this week and you easily have the $10 needed to help fight hunger. 

Instructions for how you can donate to enter the raffle:

Here’s How to Participate in A Menu for Hope
1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from our Menu for Hope at Chez Pim.

2. Go to the donation site at First Giving and make a donation.

3. Please specify which prize you’d like in the ‘Personal Message’ section in
the donation form (The bread machine is UC22). You must write in how many tickets per prize, and use the
prize code. (Each $10 you donate will buy one raffle ticket toward any prize.For
example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02.
Please write 2xEU01, 3xEU02.)

4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill
in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

5. Please check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we could
contact you in case you win.Your email address will not be shared with anyone.
Check back on Chez Pim on Wednesday January 9 for the results of the raffle.

I remember the Well Fed Networks Food Blog awards from last year. I was new to the food blogging world then, and recall being introduced to several fabulous food blogs through those awards.

Right now the 2007 Well Fed Networks Food Blog Awards are taking place. I knew and was surprised that I had been nominated in the category for Best Food Blog - Family/Kids category. I was even more shocked this morning when I was notified that my blog made it to the final nominations…Dine and Dish is in the top five finals in the Family/Kids category with four other amazing blogs. I am completely  humbled, and want to thank you all for your support. I started this blog to stay connected with my family. It has turned into a passionate hobby… having readers that keep coming back and that get some joy out of what I write makes it the icing on the cake. I couldn’t thank you all more.

Make sure you head over to The Well Fed Network and vote for your favorite blogs. There are a lot of great categories and to even be considered a finalist among all of these talented writers is humbling. Thank you!

To vote in the category for best Family/Kids blog, head here (click on the highlighted section):

Well Fed Network Best Food Blog - Family/Kids

To see the entire list of food blogs nominated for different categories, click below:

Well Fed Network Best Food Blog Awards 

I love traditions. My husband cracks up at me because if we do something once, and enjoy it, then I make it a tradition to do that same thing every year! It seems like this time of year we have my made up traditions coming out of the woodwork. One tradition that got its start last year in our home, and will continue for as long as I can pull it off with my children, is that of the missing gingerbread man cookie. You may (or may not) recall last year that in this post (It’s 2pm…Do You Know Where Your Gingerbread Man is?) I documented the start of this fun tradition. Based on an experience I had and remember vividly from Kindergarten and based on the story about the "run run as fast as you can" gingerbread man, we once again made gingerbread men cookies. In the oven they went… eight at a time. Out of the oven, much to my short attention spanned children’s dismay(which in short means that they couldn’t sit in front of the oven for the entire baking time), came 7 little gingerbread men. One gingerbread man from each batch got loose, and my kids went on a massive gingerbread man hunt to find them.

It happened to snow on the day of the gingerbread man adventure and Jacob swore that he saw itsy bitty footprints in the snow, resembling the gingerbread man’s footprint. Kelly was convinced that the gingerbread man somehow got flushed down the toilet. Either way, the hunt went on and on for several hours. The kids called Grandma so she could be involved in the hunt, because you never know… the gingerbread men could have easily left our house in Kansas City and make it all the way down to the southern tip of Texas in just a couple of hours. What takes humans two days by car is apparently just a short jaunt for gingerbread men.

Two days later, Kelly found a crumb on the floor that she is confident came from the missing gingerbread man. Her discovery started the hunt all over again! 

What I love about this tradition is the imagination and the sense of wonder that it brings out in my kids. That magic is often dismantled after a few years in elementary school. My goal is to keep it alive as long as possible. Children need and thrive on traditions. My five year old is now at an age where he remembers things we did last year and longs to do them again this year. It is a fun time…a fun age… and a magical moment captured in my memory forever.

If you want to start your own Gingerbread Man tradition, head over to Sandi’s blog from the Whistlestop Cafe. In my opinion, she has the best recipe ever for Gingerbread men cookies.

This post is meant to serve as my entry for Susan from Food Blogga’s "Eat Christmas Cookies" event. Cookies are flying in from all over the world at Susan’s place. Make sure to stop in over there to get some inspiration and then to cook up some goodness of your own. Happy memory making!

I have to give a HUGE thank you to everyone who has signed up for the adopt a food blogger event. The deadline to participate is today, but if any veteran bloggers out there want to jump in past the deadline, please feel free! We are a little heavy on the newbie side and could use some experienced food bloggers. I won’t beg… just hopefully you will consider it!

You know when you have a party of some kind and you get a little nervous that it is going to be a flop? I kind of felt that way about the Adopt a Food Blogger event. I have had the idea brewing in my mind for a bit and did not post about it for fear that people would not be interested. Well, 60+ participants later, I would say it is anything but a flop. Thank you participants! I will have the list of adoptees and their "mentors" up very soon.

I had a Premier Jewelry party for my friend Jennifer last week. I invited quite a few people, but my timing was off because everyone had very good excuses as to why they couldn’t come. My two friends Kathy and Julieann showed up… thank you both. Jennifer - I’m sorry the party was such a flop. I enjoyed hanging out with you though, as always, and of course the longer I sat there surrounded by all that great jewelry, the more I wanted to buy!

All this talk of flops and non-flops brings me to one breakfast cake called a flop, but in reality is anything but. Cinnamon Flop is one of my standard go to recipes for breakfast when we have company staying over or a brunch to go to. It is incredibly easy to make and the result is a recipe that everyone who tastes it asks for. If you are fearful of recipe flops, give this non-flop flop a try. It is a flop well worth experiencing!

Cinnamon Flop (from Recipezaar.com)

1. Set oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Prepare a greased 13 x 9-inch baking dish, or two 8 or 9-inch round cake pans (although the batter will seem like it will fit into only one 8 or-inch pan, this flop rises very high and will run over the sides if baked in just one pan).
3. In a bowl mix the 2 cups flour, 1-1/4 cups white sugar, milk, vanilla or almond extract, baking powder, pinch of salt and egg (if using) until just combined careful not to overmix.
4. Pour into prepared baking pan/s.
5. Generously spread dark brown sugar and cinnamon on top.
6. If desired sprinkle chopped walnuts or pecans over top.
7. Drizzle melted butter over top.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes.