apple cider vinegar

Honey Barbecue Bacon Meatballs

January 26, 2018 by Dana

The Super Bowl is right around the corner, and these Honey Barbecue Bacon Meatballs are a crowd-pleasing appetizer worthy of bringing to the big game!

Truth: I don’t care about the Super Bowl. I don’t follow football, my husband doesn’t follow football, and well… we just aren’t a sporty family. I GUESS I’m rooting for the Eagles because my Mom is a super fan and I’m close to Philadelphia. 🙂 We usually go to a family friendly party, and I’m strictly there for the food so don’t ask me about the game or even the commercials because I could care less!

My ALL TIME favorite Super Bowl appetizer is Buffalo Chicken Dip. It is addicting, delicious, and expected to be at every party. Wings are also right up there on the list of must haves, but you will always need a few other items to fill in for the folks who aren’t into spicy foods. Shrimp, meatballs, guacamole, pizza… you know all the good stuff!

For these Honey Barbecue Bacon Meatballs, I did make my meatballs from scratch because it is super simple to do! HOWEVER…. if you happen to pick up frozen meatballs to make this recipe, no judgement here! That is what I love about this recipe, it is customizable and can be made in even less time if you are in a hurry. Getting all of my family ready and out the door for a Super Bowl party is stressful enough, so I totally get it. If you are running low on time or just don’t care…. GET THE FROZEN MEATBALLS. 🙂

Honey Barbecue Bacon Meatballs Recipe Tips

Again, this recipe is totally customizable. Don’t have time to make meatballs from scratch? Buy frozen! Want your sauce a bit sweeter? Add more honey! Really love ranch dressing? Drizzle some on there like I did!
If you are making meatballs from scratch, the meatball recipe is a basic tried and true recipe. There isn’t anything particularly different about it, because the sauce and the bacon are really making these meatballs.
The sauce is WAY better the next day. I would suggest maybe making it the day before, and letting all of the flavors come together overnight in the refrigerator. Here is the thing about homemade sauces like this…. they need time. Just like the sauce you buy in the grocery store has been sitting for a period of time, it is also good to let your homemade sauce sit and mingle together.
If you’d like to make these as a meal, they are great with a simple side like buttered egg noodles or jasmine rice. We have eaten them as a meal with rice and they were fantastic.
If your party is large, I would suggest making a double batch. If you’d like to stick with a single batch, you can always make them mini-meatballs to stretch them farther.
For the meat… I prefer to use a meatball/meatloaf mix of meats. It includes beef, pork, and veal. I know, I know. But listen, the meat matters! My local grocery stores do sell this already pre-mixed specifically for meatballs and meatloaf. If you can’t find a meatball mix at your grocery store, I would ask the butcher there to make you a mix, or just purchase 1 pound of each and make a large batch and freeze the extras.

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

September 16, 2014 by Dana

Caramel and Apples have been friends forever. I am so glad they are besties for life because let me tell you… it makes food blogging so much easier! I don’t have to spend long hours thinking about elaborate cupcake recipes. I don’t have to think up some new and crazy food combination. I just have to put two things together that were made for each other… caramel and apples!

Breaking news: I LOVE PAPER STRAWS! Yes, I saw an isle full of paper straws at Target and boy oh boy do I have about 60 more reasons to continue taking pictures of food now! Are they not just the best thing that ever happened to food blogging? Ummm yes I do believe so. I can now go to Target in all of my yoga pants and messy hair glory and wander through the paper straw isle like I don’t have a care in the world!

In other breaking news if you have a husband make sure he knows paper straws don’t mix well with wee lil’ ones who like to chew on things. Apparently mine wasn’t aware of this information because I found baby Christian chewing the top off of a paper straw my husband put in his cup. Yeah, not a good mix! Fear not, Mommy swooped in and grabbed that straw right out of his cute little mouth and saved the day. Ok, maybe it didn’t go that smoothly but somehow I finangled that crap out of his mouth. Baby Christian is ok and was not hurt in the making of these cute cupcakes!

Now let’s talk about how crafty I’ve become since blowing through the paper straw isle at Target because this is the breaking-est of breaking news. Who knew DIY cupcake toppers could be so easy and so cute. 😉 All I did to make the toppers was cut the straw on an angle, then tape a construction paper leaf onto the straw. BAM! That is it. I do believe this is officially called crafting for the non-crafty folk? Why yes, yes it is. Now please excuse me while I hand model this genius idea.

*Pro non-crafty folk tip: Fold a piece of construction paper in half to cut out the leaf to get it perfect. I do believe I learned this pro-tip in Kindergarten. Thank you Mrs. Margerum!

Maybe we should just get back to food because I’m more comfortable being a foodie then a craftie. There are a few components that go into a Caramel Apple Cupcake so let’s discuss:

The amazing, moist *hate that word*, whole wheat goodness that is the cupcake
Cinnamon buttercream
Apple pie filling
Caramel drizzle

I know, I know, that is a lot of steps! But I promise they are ohhhh soooo delish and totally worth a few extra minutes to make the filling and drizz.

On another note, I broke one of my own rules and used 10x sugar in the icing. Being a former pastry chef, this is basically the lazy way to make icing but I know some people are intimidated by cooking sugar so I wanted to provide a recipe that did contain 10x, and suggest a brand that is trustworthy and non-GMO. Here is the brand I used. This link is for 20 lbs of sugar, hence the price. You can find it at most grocery stores in the organic section.

Apple Pie Cupcake Filling

Ingredients:

2 large apples (3 small)
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp brown sugar (I used my Homemade Brown Sugar)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions: Dice apples small. Put apples and all other ingredients in a small sauté pan and cook over medium heat until apples are tender and sugar becomes syrupy.

Caramel Drizzle

Ingredients;

1/4 cup brown sugar (I used my Homemade Brown Sugar)
1/8 cup milk
1 Tbsp butter
pinch salt

Directions: Put all ingredients in a small sauté pan and cook over medium-high heat until thick and bubbly, about 5-6 minutes.

*Cake recipe adapted from my favorite baking blog Sally’s Baking Addiction using her Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Cinnamon Swirl Frosting post.

Strawberry and Poppy Seed Salad

July 2, 2014 by Dana

We’ve discussed store-bought dressings and how horrible they actually are for our health a few times before. To catch anyone who missed those posts up, turns out store bought dressings are nothing more then highly refined and cheap oils, MSG, abbreviated chemicals, and preservatives. My theory on store-bought dressings is this: If you are going to make a beautiful and nutritious salad why pour a bunch of crap on top of it? It kind of defeats the whole purpose! The other problem with store bought dressings are the unethical companies who make them. They love to pretend they are using olive oil, when in fact if you turn the bottle over you will see the main ingredient is soybean oil. Why label the front “Olive Oil” when olive oil is the 5th or 6th ingredient? Nothing makes sense about the marketing tactics they use, and I hate to see consumers who are trying to be healthy be fooled by these companies!

With that being said, I am so happy to share this recipe with you! Nothing says “summer” quite like a strawberry and poppy seed salad. My favorite season is summer simply because of the delicious local produce stands that pop up along the country roads of Central Pennsylvania. I love, love, love local strawberries that are red throughout, small, and sweet. They are vastly different then the grocery store strawberries, and so much tastier!

For the salad I used dark, nutritious, leafy spring mix along with feta cheese, strawberries, and walnuts. For the dressing, all you have to do is put a few simple ingredients into a food processor, and drizzle olive oil into it. After the oil is in, add the poppy seeds and your done! There is no reason to even use store bought dressing when making your own healthy dressing is this easy!