Tart cranberries and sweet apples are baked inside a brown sugar and oat crisp for a perfect not-to-sweet cranberry apple crisp.

Cranberry Apple Crisp

Old fashioned apple crisp has long been a stand by recipe for me. One that works for any occasion and no one seems to turn down, especially if it is warm and I add vanilla ice cream.

Take your apple crisp, add a bag of cranberries, yes an entire bag. Because who wants just a half cup of leftover berries floating around their fridge? And there you have it, a perfect cranberry apple crisp.

Well, that’s almost all there is to it. I do like tart things, but the crisp does need some sugar mixed with the fruit to help those cranberries.

I am always curious, who peels their apples for crisp? I admit I do not anymore. They cook down nicely and I am good with skipping that step. No one in my family seems to notice that I have started doing that.

I know cranberries are only available fresh in the late fall and early winter time frame but finding ways to enjoy them year-round has been my personal mission. Lucky for everyone they freeze extremely easily.

And to make it even easier, there’s nothing special to it. Just toss the bag in your freezer. I have found that frozen and fresh are quite interchangeable. There isn’t a recipe I have written yet that you can’t swap fresh for frozen and vice versa.

Apple Cranberry Crisp

Not only is cranberry apple crisp delicious to eat I am in love with the bright red festive color of the berries contrasted by the white apple slices. To assemble your crisp toss the cranberries and apple slices with your sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

In fruit crisps I don’t always use cornstarch, however, it does help

Dark Chocolate Coconut Fudge is filled with sweet, chewy bits of coconut and then topped with a generous sprinkling of coconut.

Coconut Fudge

Talk about a seriously crunchy, chewy, chocolate-y fudge that will have you coming back for just a sliver more all night long. I enjoy sweets but can usually resist, as long as I get it out of my house quickly. Until I made this coconut fudge.

Have I mentioned before that coconut is my kryptonite? It makes me weak and destroys every ounce of sense: as evidenced by The Best Ever Coconut Pound Cake that I could easily polish off single-handed.

When you combine generous amounts of coconut with creamy dark chocolate fudge, it’s guaranteed to be an irresistible holiday treat.

Coconut Candy

I can not resist the fun of melting chocolate and transforming it into holiday fudge in just minutes! When I think back on all the times I stirred and stirred and stirred with a candy thermometer at my side while I made fussy candy recipes, I just think “never again.”

I love spending time in the kitchen and I enjoy making holiday treats, but I can make 6 different kinds of fudge in the time it takes to stir together one old-fashioned batch! You don’t have to tell Grandma this isn’t her family recipe.

Want a peek at this year’s quick and easy candy making? Chocolate Pecan Fudge, White Chocolate Caramel Fudge, and Peanut Butter Oreo Fudge are all great 5 Minute Fudge recipes! 

There I go getting distracted by all the fudge again. For this recipe, I love stirring in toasted coconut. Toasting the coconut for this isn’t required, but it will add an additional bit of crunch to the fudge and to the topping.

Kara’s Christmas Cranberry Jell-o

Simple cherry jell-o full of fresh cranberries, apples and bananas makes for the best Christmas side dish on the dinner table!

Two years ago we had our cute friends over and Kara brought jell-o. Whhhhaaaaaa? When is the last time that someone brought jell-o to dinner? I was OBSESSED with it growing up, like it was one of my favorite things, but now I’m so old and it’s so sugary so I kinda ditched it, but I AM BACK!!! 

I’m so in!!

Kara’s Christmas Jell-o is one of those unexpected surprises. It’s so flavorful, the color is so bright and cheery and my goodness, it hits every good thing about life. I cannot get enough of it and I wouldn’t even share it except based on the love you all have for our raspberry pretzel jello, lemon pudding orange jello and our lemon jello cake, I’m gonna guess you all are fans of those killer jello recipes too. 

Kara is the friend that always remembers me. I don’t know how else to say it, she just is. She’s the one that pops by when I’m totally not expecting it. She’s the one that invites us over, asks about our kids and just loves us. 

And we love her, and her jell-o. Pretty sure you’re going to love it too.

Ingredients for Christmas Jell-o

You only need 5 ingredients to make this bright and festive Christmas side dish! Here is your shopping list:

• Cherry Jello
• Sugar
• Cranberries
• Apple
• Banana

The measurements for each can be found in the recipe card at the end of the post.

Almost 20 years ago, I was handed one of the most delicious cookies I had ever tasted. The Pignoli Cookie is unique in flavor and texture; completely unlike anything I had tasted before.

The restaurant where I first tasted these cookie does not share their recipe; they simply called them Pinon Cookies (a.k.a. Pine Nut Cookies). Crunchy, chewy, sweet and nutty, these cookies are a perfect match for any almond-lover.

Pine Nut Cookies

I spent three years thinking about those cookies and wondering how on earth they were made. Many of the recipes for cookies with pine nuts that I found were merely sugar cookies or shortbread topped with or rolled in pine nuts.

I’m sure those cookies are delicious, but that was not what I was searching for this time. I eventually learned that these pine nut cookies are most commonly known as Italian Pignoli Cookies or Italian Pine Nut Cookies. In New Mexico where I first tried them, they are called Pinon Cookies.

As you can guess, I was beyond excited to share the recipe with you all after I finally found this recipe.

I followed the recipe, tasted one of these cookies, and nearly shrieked out loud with joy. The hunt was over. These Italian Pine Nut Cookies are every bit as delicious as I’d remembered.

The recipe and method below have been very lightly adapted from and with an abundance of thanks to Shockingly Delicious.

Italian Pignoli Cookies

Over the past few years, I have shared these cookies with friends and family countless times, and every single person that tastes them comments on how unique and irresistible they are.

These cookies always bring people back for “just one more”

White Chocolate Cranberry Bliss Bars

Say goodbye to dry blonde brownies and sink your teeth into these chewy white chocolate cranberry bliss bars! They are loaded with cranberries and white chocolate chips and topped with a tasty cream cheese frosting.

I’ve been on a mission to create a soft and chewy blonde brownie, and this is it! I made them different than any recipe I could find and I really think this way is the BEST!

Growing up I never really cared about cranberries. They weren’t even on my radar in fact. But the older I get the more it’s creeping in as one of my can’t-live-without ingredients. They are so good in salads, rice dishes, desserts etc and so how could I not make the famous Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars recipe? Except, this one is actually delicious.

I know, I know, that seems harsh, but their bars are a bit underwhelming and dry in my opinion. When looking up and testing recipes I just kept thinking, this needs to be one of those bars that you just sink your teeth into all slow and delicious. You know what I mean? But blondies, or blonde brownies I should say, seem to be nothing but dry, especially the next day.

Cue the cream cheese. I knew with less water content and more fat than butter that I could possibly make a superior bar and that’s exactly what I did. Cade wasn’t at all convinced and now he keep