Fluffy, buttery, nutty, pecan pancakes topped with maple syrup make for a tasty and easy breakfast we all enjoy.

Pecan Pancakes

Pancakes are truly one of the best breakfasts. You can make them in mere minutes and my family just can’t resist them. The smell of pancakes will pull them out of bed every time.

My favorite setting on my oven is the “warm setting”. It is perfect for pancake mornings. I can get a jump start before everyone wakes up and have them made and kept hot. Simply place the pancakes on a baking sheet when they’re done on the griddle and then pop them in the oven to hold.

If your oven doesn’t have this setting. Just turn it on at 150-200 degrees. This is just enough to keep your pancakes warm but not bake or cook them.

The Secret to Fluffy Pancakes

The secrets of pancake making are ones anyone can master and I share my secrets freely! So here goes what I get asked the most:

How do you get your pancakes so fluffy? Three things, baking soda, baking powder, and patience. Yes, patience is a key ingredient. Many recipes only use soda or only use baking powder.

A combination of both helps your pancakes be super fluffy. And patience, after mixing your batter, wait until you see bubbles. Rest your batter until it is covered in bubbles. Trust me.

Why do you use real buttermilk? I know there are lots of hacks for making buttermilk. But trust me when I say nothing beats the rich, flavor of real buttermilk when making pancakes. Please, whatever you do; don’t skip on the buttermilk for the tastiest pancakes.

If you make pancakes often, nothing beats a great electric griddle for streamlining the cooking process. A few years ago, when my 15-year-old griddle finally died, I tested every single griddle I could get my hands on.

When I finally tried

20 Minute Sausage and Peppers Gnocchi

Sausage and peppers in the same dish is such a stellar combo! Toss in some crispy gnocchi and a luscious sauce, and you’ll be adding this quick and easy dinner to your menu this week!

Our 20 minute sausage and peppers gnocchi is actually a meal of forgotten things. I found myself standing at the fridge years and years ago staring into a bunch of random ingredients and nothing to pull it all together; a little chicken broth, a chunk of onion and peppers from a taco night, and these random sausages a friend had given us. Not really enough of anything to make a full meal, or so I thought. 

I’ve seen sausage and peppers stuffed into hoagie rolls enough to know that I could probably do something similar but without bread or rolls in the house at the time I needed to get creative and as a newlywed that also required cheap. I did not have enough money to go buy a bunch of stuff but I did have a lone package of pasta. 

Over the years we’ve changed up this recipe a gazillion times until a little white cooking wine and the switch from pasta to gnocchi brought it all home. This crispy gnocchi with peppers and onions recipe only takes 20 minutes though the first time may be a little longer as you get the hang of it. Once you’ve done it once it’s a breeze. 

Cook this, plate it. 

Cook that, plate it. 

Crisp the gnocchi, plate it. 

Add the first two plates and sauce ingredients back in, simmer the sauce and then throw in the gnocchi, seasoning to taste. That’s it!

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Welcome to the weekend, friends! Just a couple more weeks until Christmas and I am so ready for it all. (Okay, I may not actually be ready, but I am certainly excited!) We’ve been enjoying our advent tree and taking turns reading a few pages from A Christmas Carol each night. I’m making plans for holiday baking as soon as the boys’ holiday break begins.

ON THE BLOG this week: Soup that is filling and flavorful is a winner every time, and that puts white bean, sausage, and cabbage soup high on the request list at our house. Buttery, cheesy, flaky drop biscuits filled with shredded zucchini and carrots are a perfect match for all the soups you’re craving.

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 that day.

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

Cream Cheese Mints melt in your mouth with a sweet peppermint flavor. Kept pure white or colored however you like, pressed into molds or simply rolled and pressed with a fork, however you make these mints, they’re one of the easiest candy recipes of all time.

Creamy Corn Dip is a creamy, spicy, slightly sweet snack for any time of the year. With loads of great flavor from cilantro, lime, chili powder, and cumin, this is an irresistibly dippable version of Mexican street corn.

Made in the oven or in the air fryer, these Cajun Brussels Sprouts are another crispy, flavorful snack that I just can’t stop making.

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

Caramel, pecans, and dark chocolate are combined in this simple homemade caramel turtle bark candy. If you like chocolate turtles, you’re going to flip for this easy shortcut recipe!

What I’m CRAVING: Have you tried sponge candy? Until a few years ago, I’d never heard of it. But then my friend Rebecca introduced us to it and it’s become a holiday favorite. I’ve never tried making it though, so this recipe is on my must-try list this year!

My FAVORITE THING this week is the game Pun Intended. I picked this up as an advent gift for my boys and it was

Caramel, pecans, and dark chocolate are combined in this simple homemade caramel turtle bark candy. If you like chocolate turtles, you’re going to flip for this easy shortcut recipe!

Chocolate Turtles

Chewy caramel, crunchy pecans, and dark chocolate are combined in this simple homemade candy that is far better tasting than any turtle you can buy in the store.

I still can’t believe how much this tastes like store-bought chocolate turtles, only better, because well, dark chocolate makes everything better. (If dark chocolate isn’t your thing, feel free to make this with milk or semi-sweet chocolate instead.)

Chocolate Pecan Turtles

The caramel stays nice and the perfect soft and chewy, even straight out of the refrigerator, so consider yourself warned, this is going to call to you at all hours. I highly recommend making this turtle bark and immediately sharing it with some friends.

I’ve made this a couple of times now and played with the recipe a bit. If you are pressed for time, the bark is very simple, and other than the cooking time for the caramel, it comes together with just a few minutes effort.

Chocolate Pecan Turtles

While the bark is super simple to make and we love the variety of piece sizes and how easy it is to make and store. You can use this recipe for a more traditional chocolate pecan turtle.

If you’re feeling a little more ambitious, cut apart the caramel pecan layer into even size squares. Dip the individual pieces in chocolate to make bite-size turtle candies.

To dip the candies place the

Cream Cheese Mints melt in your mouth with a sweet peppermint flavor. They’re an old-fashioned holiday candy recipe that is a favorite for many people.

Kept pure white or colored however you like, pressed into molds or simply rolled and pressed with a fork, however you make these mints, they’re one of the easiest candy recipes of all time.

This recipe brings back a flood of memories for me. I remember sneaking to the dessert table more than a few times during my cousin’s wedding reception when I was a little girl and discovering these amazing little mints.

Wedding Mints

The mints I first tasted at my cousin Helene’s wedding were sweet minty delights that melted in my mouth. I was completely obsessed at first bite. I’d never had them before and they were irresistible!

After discovering cream cheese mints, I ate myself sick on them almost every time they were within reach. I grew older but my inability to control myself around these mints remained.

Years later, I discovered how easy they were to make when my friend Augusta shared her cream cheese wedding mints recipe with me.

I couldn’t believe how simple it was to make these candies! There are just three ingredients and you can dress them up however you like.

Cream Cheese Mints Recipe

Thanks to that childhood memory of gorging myself on Cream Cheese Mints at a wedding reception, this recipe for cream cheese mints is what I think of as a classic wedding mint.

Homemade mints are so much easier to make than I ever imagined. Unlike many homemade candies, cream cheese mints and old-fashioned butter mints don’t require any fancy ingredients or special equipment.

A combo of these mints on a dessert table is the perfect finishing touch for a holiday party. They’ll make a great addition to your cookie trays too.

You’ll only need three ingredients to make these cream cheese mints:

• cream cheese
• powdered sugar
• peppermint extract

That simple combination of ingredients creates a creamy sweet base that’s delicious just as is or as a canvas for adding fun extras.

Feel free to play with the recipe and find your favorite way to make them. You can press them into these silicone molds, roll them in sugar, or add food coloring if desired.

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