Easter Idea: My (Totally Edible) Fruity Pebbles Easter Basket—OMG!

Eeks! I'm so darn excited to share this edible DIY project with you. I woke up yesterday with a crazy idea: I should totally make an edible Easter basket out of Fruity Pebbles and marshmallows—it would be the best thing ever!

Luck Charms Éclairs—Simple (Green) Saint Patrick's Day Dessert Recipe!

I love making cereal dessert recipes and I have a special weakness for marshmallow bits. So I decided to turn Lucky Charms into a few next-level treats for Saint Patrick's Day! These new Lucky Charms are sort of fancy. All of the marshmallows are green—perfect for our purposes, don't you think!? 

Easiest Ever Copy Cat Pop-Tart Recipe—Pop Hearts For Valentine's Day!

Still struggling to dream up a sweet token for your sweetie? I got it! You only need three ingredients to make my jam-filled Pop Hearts and they're perfect for breakfast or dessert. I mean, could you imagine waking up to a fresh batch of these Valentine's Day morning—sigh!—amazing.

Skinnest Ever Valentine's Day Treat—The "Lettuce" Kiss & Hug Recipe!

We're T-minus hours away from Valentine's Day but there's no judgement here if you're not ready yet! In fact, I'm going to post 3 super-quick, last-minute recipes for you. You can pull off all of these ideas before your sweetie gets home from work tomorrow, promise!

Copycat Cooking: Most Budget-Friendly Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe Ever!

So I've never actually ordered a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks—eeks! I know, I'm just not a Starbucks drinker—but I do understand the frenzy that surrounds the #PSL each fall. Pumpkins are delicious! And why not add their wonderful goodness to a warm, milky latte to make the day a little better?

Easiest Ever Desserts: Lucky Charm Pudding Pie (No-Bake Dessert)!

My post for Good Housekeeping this week may have been my favorite project ever "5 Next-Level Cereal Desserts" each one more awesome than the next! I'll post the recipes and give you a little behind-the-scenes info for each recipe over the coming days. Let's start with the easiest treat of the bunch, Lucky Charm Pudding Pie. 

180 Easy Pasta Salad Recipes—My Latest On The GHRI Blog!

I've always had a love-hate relationship with pasta salad: Done right, it's delicious (the gals in my family know how to make a pasta salad)! But every now-and-then you run into a goopy pasta salad that makes you sad about life and you swear off pasta salad for a month or two—has anyone else had that experience? I blame delis. 

Tequila-Soaked Watermelon with Basil-Salt!

Happy almost 5 o'clock, my lovely friends! I have a special after-hours treat for you: Tequila-Soaked Watermelon with Basil-Salt. Think of this as a sweet-and-salty edible cocktail of sorts. 

Edible Craft: Homemade Sparkly Sprinkles—Customize A Favorite Color!

Good morning, friends. Everyone's starting to talk about fall, have you noticed? Eeks! But I'm not ready to give up on summer—I haven't even had my annual strawberry ice cream cone with rainbow sprinkles, yet! Dig in those heels...

Grilled Corn-On-The-Cob 5 Ways—Simple Side To Sate Any Craving!

Earlier this week, I shared my 5 favorite grilled-corn toppings on the Good Housekeeping blog. They're all super easy to pull off and loaded with flavor. I mean, Bacon-Cheddar Grilled Corn...come on! If you're lucky enough to have a grill and already making dinner out there anyway, it makes sense to cook your corn alfresco, too (read: no running into the house to check on the boiling water). Here's how you do it...

On The GHRI Blog: 3 Homemade Father's Day Gift Ideas—Easy (Edible) DIYs!

Eeks! Only a few more days until Father's Day. Do you know what you're gifting to your pop and/or hubby yet? If not, I have a few thoughts for you: I just posted these 3 easy gift ideas on the Good Housekeeping blog and they're all winners (you can even download the gift tags for free)! Pick between Homemade Green Hot Sauce, Spicy Peppercorn Rub for steak and Salted Beer Caramels made with Dad's favorite beer, recipe below! Head over to the Good Housekeeping website for the other 2 recipes...

SALTED BEER CARAMELS

MAKES: about 2 dozen  

Cooking spray

1 stick salted butter

1 cup packed dark-brown sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

3/4 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup Brown Ale or other beer

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Line an 8-inch-square baking dish with parchment paper and lightly coat with cooking spray; set aside. 

2. Heat the butter and brown sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until melted. 

3. Stir in the corn syrup, heavy cream and beer until combined. 

4. Clip a candy thermometer onto the saucepan and continue to cook about 10 minutes or until the thermometer registers 240˚F (soft-ball stage). Immediately remove from the heat; stir in the vanilla and 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt, depending on desired saltiness. 

5. Pour caramel into the prepared pan and set aside until set but still soft, about 1 hour. Remove caramel from the baking dish using the parchment paper; transfer to a cutting board. Cut caramel into small rectangles and wrap each with parchment paper.

If any Dads out there would like to weigh in and tell us what (else) they'd really love to get for Father's Day, leave it in the comments—I'm dying to know!

Sparkly Red Raspberry Pimm's Cocktail

Hey there, lovelies! Things have been super (super) busy in the test kitchen, so I figured a cocktail post was in order... 

The Perfect Mint Julep Granita—Fabulous (Boozy) Kentucky Derby Dessert!

The Kentucky Derby is this weekend! I'm not a gambler so the race is wasted on me—I am, however, a huge Mint Julep fan. Head over to the Good Housekeeping website for the 5 Easy Mint Julep–Flavored Dessert recipes I developed with this weekend in mind. I love 'em all but I'm kind of obsessed with the fluffy Mint Julep Granita (above). If I were home, I'd totally serve it to friends in silver julep cups. (Sigh) I guess one of you will just have to do it, instead...


MINT JULEP GRANITA
SERVES: 6

Microwave 1/3 c. sugar and 1/4 c. water in med. bowl on High 20 seconds; stir until sugar dissolves. Whisk in 3 1/2 c. limeade, 1/4 c. fresh lime juice and 2 Tbsp. bourbon and 1 cup mint leaves; let sit 15 minutes. Pour into a 13-by-9-inch metal baking dish through a fine-mesh sieve; cover with plastic wrap and freeze at least 4 hr. or overnight. Scrape granita into pieces with the back of a spoon. Serve in chilled glasses.


You'll find the other 4 Mint Julep dessert recipes, like Mint Julep Cupcakes (below), Mint Julep Blondies and a boozy milkshake, on the GHRI blog! 

Salted vs. Unsalted Butter, Does It Matter?—My Lastest On The GHRI Blog!

Hello and good morning, lovely friends! Yesterday was quite a day in the test kitchen: I decided to organize a blind taste test to see if using salted butter or unsalted butter when baking really makes a difference (inevitably I always have the opposite of what a recipe calls in the fridge for at home). 

Here's how the experiment worked: I baked the Yellow Cake recipe (below), from the Good Housekeeping Great Baking book, three different ways, then had editors from the institute filled out tasting sheets to analyze the differences. The results were so surprising!! Head over to the GHRI blog to see what happened (I even made a pie chart—the GHRI scientists are rubbing off on me). Oh! And if you're in the market for an simple yellow cake recipe, give this one a try. I made it a bunch yesterday, so I can vouch for its ease :) xo Erin

YELLOW CUPCAKES

(summarized from the Good Housekeeping Great Baking cookbook)

MAKES: 24 cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 stick salted or unsalted butter (find out which we liked better, here!), at room temperature

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup half-and-half or whole milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚. Line two 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners. 

2. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. 

3. Beat the butter and sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla.

4. Beat in the flour mixture and milk, alternating, in 5 additions, until combined. Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. 

Question for you: What kind of butter do you usually bake with: Always salted? Always unsalted? Or whatever the recipe calls for? I'd love to know! (Here the link to the experiment again incase you're undecided.)

Peep Pie! Creamy, Dreamy Pie for Easter Sunday!

Good morning and happy Friday, lovely friends! I have been dying to share this pie recipe with you: A salty, crunchy crust with a not-so-secret ingredient in the fluffy filling,—my personal favorites—PEEPS! "But where are the Peeps," you say? A-ha! I will tell you. In the movie Waitress (stay with me), Keri Russel bakes a Marshmallow Mermaid Pie using piles of colorful marshmallows and shaved chocolate. The idea stuck with me, so I decided to make my own version using Peeps for marshmallows and sprinkles instead of chocolate...obviously! This recipe couldn't be easier to make and lends itself quite well to tweaks and mix-ins. It's part of the "13 Things To Do With Peeps!" post I wrote for the Good Housekeeping blog today! Click here to see the other 12 ideas. Anyway, here's how you make the pie...   

MARSHMALLOW PEEP PIE

SERVES: 8 to 10

FOR THE CRUST

1 sleeve graham crackers (9 cookies)

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

FOR THE FILLING

8 ounces marshmallow Peeps

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

Sprinkles, for topping

1. Make the crust: Preheat the oven to 350˚. Pulse the graham crackers in a food processor until coarsely ground Add the butter, sugar and salt and pulse until the mixture resembles wet sand. Press into a 9-inch pie plate and bake until golden and set, about 10 minutes. Cool completely. 

2. Make the filling: Heat the Peeps, milk and vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until melted; cool completely. 

3. Beat the heavy cream with a mixer on medium-high speed just until stiff peaks form. Fold marshmallow mixture into the whipped cream using a rubber spatula. Spoon into the prepared crust and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Garnish with sprinkles. Chill 3 hours or overnight until set. 

Note: To customize the flavor, spread 1/3 to 1/2 cup raspberry jam, lemon curd, dulce de leche or hot fudge on crust before adding the filling (pop crust in the freezer 5 minutes if using a warm/hot ingredient to chill). 

On The GHRI Blog: Easy Four Leaf Clover Pancakes for Saint Patty's Day!

I'm always so impressed by other bloggers' pancake art but the reality is, anything I freehand on a griddle turns into a shapeless blob. So I came up with a solution: Instead of fussing with squeeze bottles and expensive (read: impractical) pancake molds, I make plain-jane round pancakes and then use cookie cutters to cut out the shapes I need—fast and easy! I posted the full step-by-step instructions for how to make these Four Leaf Clover Pancakes on the Good Housekeeping blog—click here to take a look! Do you make pancake shapes for your family!? My mom used to make me Minnie Mouse...(spoiler alert, she looked just like Mickey but I loved it)! xo Erin

On The GHRI Blog: 9 Easy Green Desserts For Saint Patrick's Day!

Happy Friday, lovely friends! My latest post for Good Housekeeping just popped up on the blog—here's the link! It's a roundup of 9 green desserts for Saint Patrick's day that are all super easy and festive (think mint chocolate chip cookies and such). Here are a few of my favorites, if you're interested...

Miniature kiwi tartlets—inspired by my beautiful Nanny (she loves mini phyllo tart shells)!

The perfect hue of green frosting. Use it to coat plain store-bought doughnuts, cupcakes or brownies. For even more colors, check out the frosting chart I made for Food Network Magazine last year!

Lucky Leprechaun Pudding Parfaits—brownie or cookies n' cream flavored!

And finally, chocolate dipped apples...

I'm so lame when it comes to Saint Patrick's Day. I don't even wear green! Do you do anything to celebrate? I think a lifetime of people says "Erin go baugh...less!" has done me in but I'd love to know what you do. Leave it in the comments xo Erin

6 Non-Chocolate Valentine's Day Treats!

Hello, hello! If you're interested, I just posted 6 Valentine's Day treat ideas for sweethearts who don't like chocolate on the Good Housekeeping blog—head on over for some easy, homemade Valentine's Day gift ideas.

On The GHRI Blog: 11 Ways To Doctor-Up Hot Chocolate Mix!

I hope you all had such a lovely holiday with your friends, family, whomever! If you're tucked in for the afternoon, like we are, head over to the Good Housekeeping blog and check out my 11 favorite ways to doctor-up hot chocolate mix! It's easy to mix up flavors like dulce de leche, pumpkin spice (or bourbon-pecan, for the adults) and it definitely feels like a night for cocoa, don't you think?! xo

On The GHRI Blog: 31 No-Cook Appetizer Ideas!

Incase you missed it, here's a link to my latest post for the Good Housekeeping blog: 31 No-Cook Appetizer Ideas! I've been completely obsessed with flipping through our magazines and cookbooks from the 50s, 60s and 70s (they're all archived in the test kitchen office). You'll never guess what crazy (and surprisingly delicious!) appetizer recipes I dug up! Take a look, here. 

xo
Erin