Spinach Apple Salad with Honey Cider Dressing

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Crisp baby spinach, spring mix lettuces, tart apples, sweet raisins, crunchy almonds, and the ultimate honey cider salad dressing are combined to create a fantastic Spinach Apple Salad.

Spinach and Apple Salad in shallow white bowl with napkin

I made this salad three times within a month the first time I made it. And in the years since then, this salad has made frequent appearances in my home.

Spinach Apple Salad

The Honey Cider Dressing is wonderfully tangy and sweet and the combination of those flavors with the rest of the Spinach Apple Salad immediately made this one of my all-time favorite salads.

And that says something because this parsley salad with oranges and the apple walnut salad with blueberries are big favorites too. There’s just something unforgettable about a fresh salad filled with fruits and tossed in a tangy sweet dressing.

I was determined to serve this with my Thanksgiving dinner a few years ago. So, I played with several different ways to make the salad in advance and still keep the apples fresh.

(Like most people I know, making as many of the Thanksgiving dishes as possible in advance keeps me the happiest!)

Everything I tried initially, changed the flavor of the salad too much. Fortunately, apple cider vinegar did the trick and after 36 hours in the fridge, the salad still had apples that were crisp, white, and tasting like fresh apples.

spinach and apple salad with honey cider dressing

Honey Apple Cider Vine

Classic Cranberry Sauce Recipe

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Classic Cranberry Sauce Recipe

We got so many requests for a cranberry sauce recipe last year that I finally wrote mine down and photographed it! It is simple and completely homemade.

Growing up was all about avoiding the cranberry sauce around the holidays. My mom wasn’t a huge fan and my dad liked it straight up from a can, so she opened one up every year to please him but none of us partook of that congealed mass of canned fruit. In other words, I never even considered that cranberry sauce could be delicious until a random sandwich shop in town served up a leftover Thanksgiving sandwich that sent me on the most wonderful journey ever. I’ve been sold ever since.

It doesn’t matter if you’re going with a smoked turkey or a roasted turkey, cranberry sauce goes with all of them and it’s a Thanksgiving must-have for our family! Forget the canned stuff and make it from scratch! We use fresh whole cranberries, orange juice and a little sugar to make the most delicious homemade cranberry sauce.

It can be made weeks ahead of time so that it’s ready for the big day.

a photo of a large white serving dish full of cranberry sauce with a silver serving spoon sitting next to the bowl and a small bowl of fresh cranberries next to it.

Ingredients for Homemade Cranberry Sauce

You only need 6 ingredients for this homemade cranberry sauce and I’ll bet you have 4 of them already in the house…maybe 5! Here is what you will need:

  • Cranberries – fresh is best, but you can use frozen
  • White Sugar – adds sweetness and cuts the tartness of the cranberries
  • Brown Sugar – I love the richness of flavor a little brown sugar adds
  • Fresh Orange Juice – this is the key to the whole recipe imho, it wakes the whole dish up!
  • Cinnamon – adds warmth and flavor
  • Cloves – just a hint of cloves adds so much flavor

The measurements for each are listed in the recipe card at the end of this post.

How to Make a Homemade Cranberry Sauce Recipe

Recipes just don’t get easier than this! Combine all the ingredien

Sweet and Spicy BBQ Sauce

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This is a sweet and spicy homemade bbq sauce with just enough heat to linger in your mouth. I’ve been slathering this sauce on darn near everything in my kitchen for a few weeks now!

Sweet and Spicy BBQ Sauce

Sweet and Spicy BBQ Sauce

This barbecue sauce is tangy and sweet, it’s perfect on chicken, as a dipping sauce for potato wedges, with steak bites, and mixed into ranch dressing for a spicy kick.

Best of all, not only can you pronounce all the ingredients, but you can whip it together in your own kitchen in less time than it would take to check out at the grocery store.

As you know, I love a great homemade barbecue sauce, so whenever I find a new one to try and it’s a winner, I have to share it with you.

This barbecue sauce is lightly adapted from Half-Baked Harvest’s Sweet Baby Ray’s Copycat Recipe. And I’ve been told by many that this Sweet and Spicy Homemade Barbecue Sauce tastes just like Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce.

However, in all fairness to Sweet Baby Ray, I think this sauce blows the store-bought version away.

I actually went out and bought a bottle of the original sauce, just to compare the flavors. The store-bought sauce was really tasty, but the flavors here are deeper and I prefer them. (Of course, I can’t think of many instances where a homemade version won’t trump store-bought!)

Ketchup is, of course, the base but the combination of brown sugar, molasses, and apple cider vinegar really brings the sweet to this sauce. Hungarian paprika, known to be sweet and mild adds depth without being overly sweet.

Sweet and Spicy Homemade BBQ SauceRead more

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Chipotle Garlic Sauce

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Crisp and salty on the outside with fluffy baked potato inside, these Roasted Fingerling Potatoes are a great way to change up the average weeknight meal.

Ah, potatoes. They do so much for us! When it comes to side dishes, some kind of potato is almost always fitting. In my house, potatoes show up on the dinner table several nights a week in every form from roasted to mashed and even smashed.

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes are immensely snackable!

I love how versatile potatoes are and how they’re equally appropriate to serve to company on a special formal occasion or on a weeknight when everyone’s in their pajamas.

This Fingerling Potatoes Recipe is like that–something about them feels a bit more “special” than your everyday Baked Potatoes (though I do still love baked potatoes), especially when paired with the chipotle garlic sauce. Yet, they’re so easy to make (and loved by my kids) that these roasted potatoes have become a permanent fixture of our everyday meals.

What are fingerling potatoes?

Fingerlings are a  small and narrow type of potato. They resemble stubby fingers in appearance, thus the name. They have a delicate and thin skin that doesn’t need to be peeled and their unique look makes them so much fun to serve!

These tubers are often confused with new potatoes, although they aren’t interchangeable. While new potatoes are potatoes that are small due to being harvested early in the season, fingerling potatoes are fully matured.

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

Oven Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

Fingerlings are much quicker to prep and roast than

Asian Steak Marinade

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Asian Steak Marinade

We love our steak fajitas marinade recipe but I couldn’t stop thinking about putting an Asian twist on it, and thus, our Asian steak marinade was born!

We have a little secret with the steak too, so keep reading to get all the dets.

a photo of thin slices of asian marinated flank steaks stopped with chopped scallions with a side of cucumber salad.

 

The Secret is in the Steak

I couldn’t find plain skirt or flank steak at the store, so I bought carne asada instead. Just the store brand raw meat but it was already flavored. Worked amazing!!! So if you’re short on time, definitely go with this option. If you want to go totally homemade, I’ll include our own spice rub recipe in the recipe card below. You’ll apply the rub before putting the steak in the marinade.

Ingredients for Asian Steak Marinade

This dry rub and marinade is so easy! All you do is combine everything together and rub it on the steak and then pour the marinade on the steak in a plastic bag.

  • Skirt or Flank Steak – either one will work, and look for a pre-seasoned one for extra easy cooking

For the Rub

For the Marinade

  • Rice Vinegar – adds acidity
  • Pineapple Juice – adds a little sweetness and tang
  • Soy Sauce – low sodium, great for tenderizing the meat because it breaks down the tough proteins
  • Garlic – freshly minced
  • Ginger – adds that signature Asian flavor
  • Light Brown Sugar – adds sweetness and richness
  • Red Chili Flakes – adds a little heat, feel free to add more if you like it spicy
  • Scallions – for garnish

The full recipe with the measurements and complete instructions can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.

 
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