Welcome to the weekend, my friends! This has been one of my favorite weeks of the year. I’m blessed with some amazing girlfriends who fly out every December so that we can spend several days together for Christmas. We’ve had so much fun and the icing on this perfect week is the fact that I have two of my brothers here now for the weekend. Here’s to more great food, loads of laughter, and all the Christmas memories.

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK: If you’d told me a few years ago just how delicious roasted beets could be, I wouldn’t have believed it. Now though? I absolutely love having them on hand in the fridge. Roasted golden beets are earthy, sweet, and tender. Their vibrant sunny color is intensified by roasting and the resulting beets have a slightly caramelized flavor. They’re a great side dish on their own and can be dressed up with a drizzle of balsamic or a bit of olive oil and herbs.

Those sweet roasted beets are combined with peppery arugula and then tossed with creamy goat cheese and crunchy walnuts to make the golden beet salad that I can’t stop eating. Drizzled with a vinaigrette or a balsamic glaze, it’s a vibrantly colorful and flavorful salad that I love.

Sea Salt Pecan Toffee is the answer to your snacking and sweet tooth dreams. The end. Do I exaggerate? Sometimes, yes. But right now? Not really. There aren’t a whole lot of foods that I label as “The Best Ever” or “crazy insane amazingly delicious” but this toffee recipe is exactly that. All of those things. It is EVERYTHING.

Mexican Wedding Cookies are tiny melt-in-your-mouth cookies that are known by many different names around the world. My grandmother called them Sugar Butter Balls.

Blueberry gelato is a delightful fusion of creamy, rich gelato married to an irresistible tangy fruitiness. When you combine the smooth richness of homemade ice cream with berries or a berry sauce, the result is always a refreshing, creamy treat – and this blueberry gelato doesn’t disappoint.

These mint chocolate chip cookies are an absolute dream come true for anyone who loves mint chocolate. (Both of my hands are waving in the air right now, by the way. That’s me – 100%.)

Creamy chunks of chocolate and crunchy candy canes meet up in perfectly chewy cookies with crisp edges to create these White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies. When I initially had the idea for these cookies, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but let me tell you that the results went way beyond my

Award Winning Instant Pot Chili Recipe [+VIDEO]

Instant Pot Chili that is award winning and bringing home cook-off victories across the country. You don’t want to miss diving into a bowl of our best chili!

If you want from scratch, our traditional chili is your answer. It took us 10 years to discover an award winning recipe and this is finally it, plus it’s an instant pot recipe which means it’s all done in less than 1 hour (with instructions for cooking on the stove top or crock pot as well)!! It is full of bacon, ground beef, beans, classic chili spices and all the toppings you want!

Let’s talk about how to make this homemade chili step by step, and discuss what goes well with it, and how to freeze it to eat later. So much to talk about, so let’s get going!

We attended a chili cook-off and brought this awesome Cheesy Ground Beef Enchilada Chili. It was so good, but soooo many arteries were clogged that night. It’s pretty unhealthy, but I heard a rumor that if you don’t eat it alone the calories don’t count.

Pretty sure that’s true.

If you want a healthy chili recipe, you should definitely try our award winning healthy turkey instant pot version, which uses ground turkey instead of beef. And imho, all chili, healthy or not so healthy, should be accompanied with a side of cornbread or our crazy easy 7-Up biscuits!

Chili Cook-Off Idea!

• Muffin Tin Trick

Oh! And listen to this, at the chili cook-off a couple of people brought muffin tins and then placed a sample scoop of each kind in the well so they could try them all and vote without going back or over eating. GENIUS. That’s seriously the smartest thing ever.

Next to figuring out this award winning instant pot chili recipe, right?! 😉

We hurried and made you all a video to help with the questions. Thank you for all of your love and support with making this the #1 chili out there!

Ingredients for Instant Pot Chili

• Meat: Ground Beef and Bacon
• Beans: Kidney Beans, Pinto Beans, and Black Beans
• Tomatoes: Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes and Tomato Paste
• Vegetables: Red Onion, Red Bell Pepper, Garlic, and Jalapeño
• Broth: Beef Broth and Worcestershire Sauce
• Spices: Oregano, Ground Cumin, Kosher Salt, Ground Black Pepper, Smoked Paprika, Chili Powder
• Toppings: Sour Cream,

Blueberry gelato is a delightful fusion of creamy, rich gelato married to an irresistible tangy fruitiness.

When you combine the smooth richness of homemade ice cream with berries or a berry sauce, the result is always a refreshing, creamy treat – and this blueberry gelato doesn’t disappoint.

Blueberry Ice Cream

If you’ve been making ice cream here with me for long, you may recall my long-time love affair with Rusconi’s blueberry chocolate ice cream. That was my introduction to the wonders of blueberry ice creams and gelatos.

I’m grateful to Chef Michael for sharing his recipe with me when we were preparing to move to Ohio. Because once I made my own batch of Blueberry Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream at home, there was no turning back. Blueberry ice creams make regular appearances in our freezer now.

When I’m craving the restaurant’s ice cream and have never time nor motivation to make that custard base, this Blueberries and Cream Ice Cream has become a go-to. With no stovetop time at all and just a blender to whir it all together, you can have that one ready to churn in just minutes.

Blueberry Gelato

This blueberry gelato recipe is a cross between both of those blueberry ice creams. With a simple blueberry sauce reduc

French Dip Sliders [+ Video]

French dip sliders are perfect for a quick and easy family dinner or for the next big game day! These are buttery with caramelized onions and a luscious aus jus!

French dip sliders are not at all something I grew up with but occasionally when life was busy, the weather chilly and mom was tired she’d gather up simple ingredients for French dip sandwiches. Just sliced roast beef, hoagie rolls, and flavorful aus jus was all she needed to get dinner in the table for five hungry kids.

We have our own French dip recipe on the blog but knowing how mouth watering our ham and cheese sliders are, I have been itching to make a new sliders recipe. You guys, forget the ham ones, these are out of this world. The best thing I’ve made in months!

Why Make Sliders?

Not that sliders need to be justified, but just in case you wondering why you should make them, let me tell you! Sandwiches are like the best things ever! They are like a whole meal all in one perfect little package. Sliders are just mini sandwiches, so you can eat more than one and not feel guilty! The bread to meat ratio is even better than in a full sized sandwich, and they can be eaten for dinner or for an appetizer. It’s just all around winning!

How to Make French Dip Sliders?

These french dip sliders come together in three different steps…the caramelized onions, the sandwiches, and the aus jus. First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×13 baking pan.

Caramelized Onions

Let’s start with the caramelized onions so that they are ready to go when you assemble the sliders. Slice a medium yellow onion and then melt a couple tablespoons of butter in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the onions to the butter with two sprigs of fresh time and water. Stir the onions occasionally and add salt and pepper. The onions will begin to turn golden and soften. They will cook for about 20-25 minutes.

Sandwiches

Now it is time to start assembling the sliders! These are so easy! Start by slicing your rolls in half and place them side by side in your greased 9×13 pan cut side up as shown below.

Then you want to lather the top of each roll with stone ground dijon mustard. A different kind of mustard can be used, but we really recommend a stone ground dijon mustard. It just gives it best flavor and extra texture.

Then add a layer of thinly sliced roast beef. We like to go to the deli counter and ask them for a half pound of their best roast beef. Then we just evenly layer it all over the mustard buns.

Next comes the cheese!! We love these sliders with provolone, so we pick up 9-12 slices at the deli counter when we get the roast beef. You can’t have too much

Mexican Wedding Cookies are tiny melt-in-your-mouth cookies that are known by many different names around the world. My grandmother called them Sugar Butter Balls.

The first time I shared this recipe online, I was overwhelmed by the response, it felt like everyone had a different name for these cookies!

Russian Tea Cakes, Polvorones, Snowball Cookies, Egyptian Feast Cookies, Nut Butter Balls, Norwegian Snowballs, Kourambie, Walnut Delights, Pecan Petites, Holiday Nuggets, Swedish Heirloom Cookies, the list goes on and on. If I’ve missed your favorite name for them, please leave a comment here to let me know!

Wedding Cookies

Every time I bite into a wedding cookie, I’m transported to a time when I watched my grandmother roll them between her hands. She was the source of so many delicious foods in my childhood.

She would set the finished cookies on a platter and everything looked so elegant to my young eyes. More than any other holiday treat, these Mexican cookies taste like Christmas to me.

I’d try sneaking them from the tray before it was time but I’m fairly certain that the powdered sugar always left a ring of evidence around my mouth. No matter, Grandmother always made plenty of these cookies to go around.

Mexican Wedding Cookies

The first time I tried making these cookies on my own, I was 18 years old and living in my first apartment. I had my grandmother’s Mexican wedding cookies recipe, but I figured I knew best.

Instead of rolling the warm cookies gently through the powdered sugar, I placed them in a Ziploc bag and poured sugar over them. When I shook the bag to coat them with sugar, at least half the cookies broke apart.

The cookies were still delicious, but they were a mess to eat. In the years since I’ve learned that Grandmother knew best. If you follow her directions for rolling the cookies in the sugar, yours will turn out every bit as perfect as hers always did.

The easiest method I’ve found for coating the cookies in powdered sugar is to put about a cup of powdered sugar in a bowl and roll the warm cookies, a few at a time, through the sugar.

Yes, rolling each ball in powdered sugar might take a little more time but the results are so very worth it. These classic cookies are crisp when you bite into them and then they melt in your mouth.

That first bite delivers sweetness from the powdered sugar on both the inside and outside. This light buttery cookie always brings a smile to my face as I think about my grandmother and all those childhood holidays.