Nest Eggs (Eggs in Potato-Carrot Nests) | French Kiss #FoodnFlix

This month's Food 'n Flix club pick is the 1995 Romantic-Comedy French Kiss, starring Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline. I'm hosting over at the Food 'n Flix site this month is you want to join in the fun! So, I chose this flick because it's one of my all-time faves. What can I say, I'm a cheeseball and a sucker for a good chick-flick.

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Thai Fish Soup

This soup came about on a clean out the pantry and fridge night. I used a can of peas and a can of corn (I know - gasp!), along with the end of a bag of julienne carrots. But really, any frozen or fresh veggies will work here. Throw in some ribbons of greens, some snow peas cut on the bias, or some beautiful carrot coins. Switch up the herbs, or use only one kind.

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Ginger Peach Milk Tea (Bubble Tea) | #Nyanuary

This month, the Fandom Foodies are exploring a fun theme that is all about kitty cats! Katharina from Pretty Cake Machine challenged us to come up with recipes inspired by cats in fiction or fandoms, inspired by (or made for) real-life cats, or even food shaped like a cat. The possibilities are endless and there are already so many creative recipes linked up that you can check out here!

I have a long list of cats in fiction that I love, so although I've made homemade cat treats in the past and have been toying with creating a new recipe, I decided to grab onto one of my fiction favorites today—the trouble-making duo of Si and Am from Lady and the Tramp.

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Bacon Rosemary Einkorn-Cornmeal Biscuits | #EinkornExperiment

The experiment in einkorn continues! I've been in the mood for biscuits lately, so I thought that was the perfect excuse to do further experimenting with the all-purpose einkorn flour that I mentioned last month. I started with a base recipe that I'd saved from the November issue of Cooking Light magazine, when best intentions of adding it to my Thanksgiving menu fell through.

The original recipe used spelt flour, and I thought since spelt and einkorn were so similar (and sometimes used interchangeably), that maybe this recipe would translate well. I did change things up a bit by adding fresh rosemary and that elusive thing known as leftover bacon to the mix.

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100 Turmeric Recipes

I go through phases where a certain type of food or ingredient sits first and foremost in my mind. Something grabs on and won't let go until I've explored it further by learning more about it and using it in several recipes or applications. Lately, it's been turmeric—specifically the fresh root, which is part of the ginger family.

I think it started when I saw a bin of the fresh root at the market, stared at it for a few minutes, then left without buying any. I didn't buy it because I didn't want it to go to waste. I have a tendency to pick up cool "new" ingredients, only to let them go to waste while looking for the perfect way to use them.

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Chocolate Chip Walnut Streusel Coffee Cake

Are you ready to make the most insane, over-the-top coffee cake in the history of ever? We're talking a super thick layer of streusel sitting boldy atop a sour cream cake swirled with a spiced cocoa and walnut mixture and dotted with chocolate bits. You'll have no less than 5 dirty bowls staring you in the face once you slide the pan in the oven, but every single one is worth it.

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Ginger Nuts | Sherlock

Okay, so you know what a TBR pile is, right? It stands for "to be read", referring to a person's literal or figurative ever-growing reading list. I have a huge one. I also have a list of television shows that, while not as long, is starting to rival it. So, I figured maybe that would be called a TBW list, you know, "to be watched"...except I googled TBW and decided I couldn't call it that.

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Rosemary and Sundried Tomato Meatloaf Sandwiches | Fudge and Jury

Welcome to the tlc book tours stop for Fudge and Jury! Fudge and Jury is book 5 in the Bakeshop Mystery series by Ellie Alexander—and it's a cozy mystery, which you might know is one of my favorite ways to escape when I have a little time to myself (fun, quick, easy reads).

The logical thinker in me cringes at the thought of starting a series anywhere but at the beginning, but there's not enough time in the day or days in the week for me to read everything I'd like, so I threw caution to the wind and went into this book blind. And while I know there are background and character-building elements of the story that I missed, it still made sense as a stand-alone book.

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Slow Cooker Turmeric Turkey Noodle Soup

I know I've said this numerous times, but I'm a soup-year-round kinda gal. But that doesn't stop me from appreciating, eating, and making even more soup during January, which has been designated National Soup Month.

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Slow Cooker Turkey Stock

Yesterday I mentioned the massive homemade turkey soup craving that had taken control of my household, and today I'm sharing part two of the process for bringing that turkey soup to life. I started with a whole, bone-in, skin-on turkey breast that I made in the slow cooker, and I'll chop up that meat to use in the soup.

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Slow Cooker Herbes de Provence Turkey Breast

This recipe is so easy that I hadn't originally planned on sharing it. I mean, with only turkey and herbs plus salt and pepper, it can hardly be called a recipe. Since I didn't host Thanksgiving or Christmas at my house this year, we didn't have any leftover turkey like we often do...and always look forward to. And because of that, my family (yeah, every last one of them) has been craving some sort turkey soup, since I usually make a batch from the leftovers and carcass.

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10 Most Popular Recipes of 2016

In just over a month's time, this little space of the web will be celebrating its eighth anniversary. It's been so much fun sharing recipes with you, learning a little more about writing and photographing food as the years have gone by. I also love checking out which posts were your favorites each year, since it helps me decide what I should create more of the next year!

When I scoured my analytics to see which recipes that I shared in 2016 were the most popular, I thought it very cool that of the top 10, half of those were recipes that I created to accompany a work of fiction (like a movie or television show - no books in the top 10 slots this year). Since that's a pretty accurate representation of the recipes I love to create and share with you, it brought a huge smile to my face.

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Paprika Roast Chicken over Mamaliga | Bram Stoker's Dracula

Welcome to the final installment of the All Vampire Book and a Movie Challenge for 2016. Our December challenge was what could probably be considered THE vampire story of vampire stories, Dracula. While there have been many retellings of Bram Stoker's tale, the movie we watched this month was the '92 Francis Ford Coppola version starring Gary Oldman, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, and Winona Ryder.

The movie - Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992):

Oh, the movie...the dreaded movie. I'm just going to go ahead and say it—I hate this movie. I didn't like it the first time I saw it so many years ago, but decided to give it a chance after I'd finished the book. That just made me think even less of the over-sexed, over-boobed, bastardization of Bram Stoker's original work. I thought the acting was horrible (sorry Keanu, you're pretty and all, but) and the screenplay was so far off from the original story that I don't know how they could still get away with calling it "Bram Stoker's" Dracula.

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Tortilla Española | Gilmore Girls

Welcome to another edition of the Wednesday coffee klatch, where I discuss and create recipes inspired Gilmore Girls. Last time I talked about A Year in the Life, episode one (Winter), and today I'm talking, unsurprisingly, about episode two (Spring). So, without further ado, here are my thoughts. I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode in the comments below.

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