Valentine's Day is always a fun night to experiment with new and exciting cocktails. When my husband and I were younger we always went out to a fancy dinner to celebrate Valentine's Day. Now, we avoid the crowds and make a "dinner date at home". While sometimes it is a romantic night in, usually we include the kids and do heart-shaped pizza, chocolate fondue , and cocktails for the adults. Valentine's Day is a day for love and why can't it be a family holiday!? Because we're always wanting to try new things in the kitchen, we decided to round up 10 Valentine's Day Cocktails we think sound good that you might like too! 10 Valentine's Day Cocktails These 10 cocktails are great for Valentine's Day and beyond! We included some that are popular classics that we don't always make and unique ones that sound yummy to try! Love Potion Cocktail - This bright red cocktail is flirty and romantic. It has cranberry vodka as its base and a piece of dry ice makes it look like it's smoking! Pomegranate Gin Fizz - This gin-based drink is a lovely egg white cocktail. I love the soft pink color and the fizzy component. Espresso Martini - Coffee cocktails have been a hit everywhere lately. This cocktail will help get the night started off with a pep in your step! Lavender Haze - This unique drink was inspired by the lovely Lavender Haze song from Taylor Swift. Get lost in your own lavender haze while sipping on this cocktail! Rose Champagne Cocktail - Roses and champagne are staples for Valentine's Day. Bring them together in this fun cocktail! Chocolate Strawberry Martini - This vodka-based drink has chocolate dripping down the sides. If I saw someone drinking this in a restaurant I would immediately want it. It looks like dessert in a glass! Spicy Paloma Cocktail - Add some spice to your night and you're cocktail with this hot honey and citrus drink! I already feel like I will want seconds of this drink! Old Fashioned - Keep it classic with this old-fashioned. It only takes 4 ingredients and it's a winner every time. This is a great one for warming up on a cold night. Raspberry Sorbet Bellini - This cocktail is simple but pretty to sip on! I love that instead of ice you're using sorbet to keep your drink cool and add flavor at the same time. Bloody Valentine - Blood oranges are in season right now and can be found in your local grocery stores. The blood orange juice in this cocktail perfectly balances with the elderflower liqueur.

To kick off March, I wanted to share some "Meatless March" meal ideas. These are great for meatless Mondays or any night you may want some meat-free dishes. This veggie chicken parmesan zoodles meal is the kind of meal that you can make as much or as little as you want. Making dinner for one or the whole family, this meal comes together in about the amount of time it takes to cook the chicken patties. This is a lightened-up version that is meat-free. Veggie Chicken Parmesan Zoodles Ingredients: Veggie Chicken Patties (I used Morning Star) Zucchini noodles Spaghetti noodles olive oil marinara sauce shredded mozzarella seasonings - salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning Cook your spaghetti noodles as instructed on the packaging. I cook about half of what I would normally make per person. Cook your veggie chicken patties as instructed on packing. You can either purchase your zucchini noodles from the store premade, or make your own from a zucchini and a spiralizer - I've done both ways. Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a large pan and saute your zucchini noodles until softened. Season as desired. Add in your spaghetti noodles to incorporate the zucchini and pasta together. In a small to medium saucepan heat your marinara sauce over medium heat until heated through. Plate your zucchini and noodles. Top with a scoop of marinara and a sprinkle of mozzarella. Cut your cooked vegetable chicken patty into strips and place on top of your sauce and mozzarella to melt your cheese. Serve and enjoy!

This cheesy Rotel and Sausage dip is my go-to dip for holidays, potlucks, or game nights. It's cheesy, meaty, and always a crowd-pleaser. Cheesy Rotel and Sausage Dip Ingredients: 1 lb pork sausage 16 oz pack of Velvetta cheese, cut into cubes 2 - 10 oz cans of rotel, undrained Directions: In a large pot, brown your sausage and drain any excess fat. Add in your cubed cheese and both cans of Rotel, undrained. Turn the heat down to low and let the cheese melt down, stirring occasionally until all combined. Serve warm with your favorite tortilla chips (I prefer Tostito's Scoops) or sliced up vegetables for dipping like peppers or carrot chips. Crockpot version To make this in a crockpot, brown the sausage on the stove, and then add the sausage, cubed cheese, and Rotel in a crockpot on low for 2 hours stirring occasionally until melty. This is literally the easiest and best dip for parties! I'm serving mine for the Super Bowl!

Braised Beef Short Rib Ragu Ingredients 2 lbs beef short ribs 2 tbsp olive oil 2 tbsp butter 2 carrots, finely diced 2 celery sticks, finely diced 1 medium onion, finely diced 16 oz mushrooms, sliced 1 tsp Italian seasoning salt and pepper to taste 6 cloves garlic, minced 3 tbsp tomato paste 2 cups dry red wine 28 oz can crushed tomatoes 1 cup beef stock (plus any more to cover meat) 2 sprigs fresh rosemary 4 sprigs fresh thyme 1 dried bay leaf Parmesan rind pappardelle pasta Fresh parmesan for the top Directions: Preheat your oven to 300. Salt and pepper your short ribs and set aside. Chop your garlic, onion, carrots, celery, and mushrooms and set aside. Heat up your olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat Sear your short ribs until browned on all sides, 1-2 mins per side. Remove from Dutch oven and set aside. In your Dutch oven , add in the butter and turn the heat to low. Add in your onions, carrots, celery, and mushrooms that you previously chopped. Season with salt and pepper and Italian seasoning. Cook until veggies are softened, about 10 minutes. Add in your minced garlic and cook for another minute until fragrant. Make a space in the middle of your cooked veggies and add in the tomato paste, stir together with vegetables and let cook for about 2 minutes. Pour in your red wine, scraping the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Let the wine simmer and reduce down for a few minutes. Pour in your beef broth and can of crushed tomatoes. Stir together and season with salt and pepper to desired taste. Add in thyme, rosemary, bay leaf and paremesan rind. Return your beef short ribs to the Dutch oven , making sure they are covered by the liquid. If not, add a little more beef broth. Cover and bake in the oven for 4 hours, gently stirring about every hour. Once the beef is tender and cooked, remove the short ribs from the pot, it may fall off the bone. Remove any bones, and roughly shred the meat. Remove and discard the thyme, rosemary, bay leaf, and parmesan rind. Add the shredded beef back into the Dutch Oven . Serve over cooked fresh pappardelle pasta and top with freshly grated parmesan cheese. This is the type of comfort meal that I enjoy making for my family on a Sunday at home. You have to make sure you have enough time to create this dish but it's so worth it. It's rich and coats the pappardelle pasta with that decadent sauce. The fresh pappardelle noodles are just the chef's kiss for this recipe.

My kids were sick recently. Like, so very sick. My husband and I made Pastina Soup aka Italian Penicillin for them. It's warm and simple and full of vegetable goodness. It's perfect for when you need a bowl of something to bring you back to life and not too heavy on your stomach. This Pastina Soup is also known as Italian pencillin. It's packed full of nutrients and chicken broth and is perfect for when you're sick. Have you ever made it? This is my version of Pastina Soup. Pastina Soup 4 carrots, peeled, chopped in chunks 3 celery, chopped in chunks 1 onion, quartered 2 cloves of garlic, whole 2 bay leaves 2 boxes of chicken broth (8 cups) 1 chicken bouillon cube 14 oz dried pastina pasta In a large dutch oven or pot, heat up your chicken broth and bouillon cube. Roughly chop your veggies and add them to the broth, simmer for about 15--20 mintues until vegetables are softened. Strain out vegetables, remove the bay leaf and add the veggies to the blender with a bit of the broth and blend until smooth. Leave the rest of the broth in your pot. Add the blended veggies back into the pot with the broth, stir to combine. Bring to a simmer, add your pastina pasta, and cook as directed on the package. Serve up in a bowl and top with parmesan cheese and salt and pepper as desired. This makes a big batch that you can store in the fridge and heat up as needed or freeze half for another time. We always add a little more water when reheating because the pasta soaks up more of the water as it sits. If you're stuck at home, you may also like our Cozy Winter Books .

Halloween may be over, but it’s still Fall and we’re still obsessed with all things pumpkin around here. I may even be drinking a homemade pumpkin cream cold brew as I type this. Pumpkin Cheese Fondue Recipe Backstory One time when we were shopping at Trader Joe's, we were buying a few pumpkins to make a big batch of my Roasted Pumpkin Soup . At the checkout, the cashier was chatting with us and being extra friendly. When she scanned our pumpkins, she asked us if we were having pumpkin fondue. Pumpkin fondue?! I told her I had never heard of that before, so she told us that all it was basically a pumpkin full of different cheeses and baked in the oven. Of course that sounds awesome to me so I decided to make one myself! These little pumpkins create a great vessel to bake and serve your cheese fondue in and it even cooks the pumpkin inside, so that when you scrap your cheese out, it sometimes gives you bits of yummy pumpkin. The spices and wine and honey give it a sweet but savory taste that’s so melt in your mouth good! We served up this Pumpkin Cheese Fondue with sliced French bread, apple slices, sweet Gherkin pickles and different types of meat like salami and made a full meal out of it. Pumpkin Cheese Fondue Ingredients 1 pie pumpkin 4 oz Emmental cheese, grated 4 oz Gruyere cheese, grated 4 oz creme fraiche 1 tsp garlic minced 1 pinch ground nutmeg drizzle honey 2 tbsp white wine 1 loaf French bread Sides Optional: Apples slices, sweet gherkin pickles, salami Instructions Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Cut and deseed your pumpkin like you are going to carve a jack-o-lantern. Grate your cheeses and mix them together with your wine, creme fraiche, nutmeg, garlic and honey. Set it aside. Cut up some of the French bread into cubes and fill your pumpkin about 1/2 way full with the bread. Top the bread with the cheese mixture. Bake for 30 minutes until bubbly and melted. You can dig into the sides of the pumkin to mix in the pumpkin with the cheesy bread. So yummy! Serve with extra sliced French bread, apple slices, sweet gerkin pickles and slices of salami.

Taylor Swift announced her new album The Life of a Showgirl, recently on the New Heights podcast. We know that the album will be "orange" themed and more of a pop vibe. During the podcast with Travis and Jason, she also talked about how much she loved to bake, both sourdough and pop tarts. During that conversation about pop tarts, we were inspired to bake our own orange pop tarts. Orange Poptarts Ingredients Crust and filling 2 pre-made rolled pie crusts star cookie cutter 1 cup orange marmalade 1 egg 1 tablespoon of milk Icing 1.5 cups powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 tablespoon light corn syrup 2 tablespoons milk Sprinkles *optional (but not really optional) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Unroll your pie crust. This is easier if you leave it out at room temperature for about 15 minutes beforehand to help soften it so it doesn't crack. Cut out stars with your cookie cutter. You can also make regular-sized pop tarts using an index card as a guide. Scoop about 1 tablespoon of the orange marmalade in the center of your star and cover with another star. Use a fork to crimp the edges. I do both sides of mine to keep it sealed. Once you've made all your stars, in a small bowl, add the egg and milk to make an egg wash and brush on the stars. Bake for 10-13 minutes (If you want rectangles, bake for a minute or two longer) Cool completely on a cooling rack. In a small bowl, mix together your icing ingredients, adding more milk or powdered sugar until it's a thick but slightly drizzly texture. You want it to pour off the spoon, creating ribbons for a few seconds before combining back with the rest of the icing. Adorn with sprinkles and let the icing harden before storing in an airtight container for a few days. This makes about 12 star poptarts. No more, no less, like The Life of a Showgirl, right?! If you want some more Taylor Swift-inspired baking, check out her Chai Cookies recipe that we love to bake in the Fall!

Edited: There was an explanation; there will be no Reputation. (Taylor's version, that is. ) Ms Taylor Allison Swift bought back all of her music, and we are here for it! To celebrate, let's eat donuts! Reputation is coming. You know it! I know it! The question is, are we ready for it? I think her re-record of her Reputation album is going to be amazing and I'm hoping it drops later this month. In honor of our Reputation Era being on the horizon (fingers crossed) I made some Taylor Swift Reputation Donuts that look like they have friendship bracelets on them. Taylor Swift Reputation Donuts Ingredients: Donuts - chocolate because it's dark for Reputation. I got mine from Dunkin but feel free to get whatever kind you want. Candy eyeballs edible pen markers Mini star sprinkles - I used the red and white ones rainbow chip crunch sprinkles - I used red and black white pearl sprinkles silver pearl sprinkles Writing icing - black or white Directions: Once you have all your supplies, you can start assembling your Reputation Donuts. I decided what word I wanted to write on my friendship bracelet before I started creating each donut. Using your edible food maker, flip the candy eyeballs over and write out your phrase letter by letter on each eyeball. Here is a list of Reputation inspired lyrics/phrases you can use. I put stars by the ones I used: *Big Rep *LWYMMD (Look what you made me do) *End Game *A Team *Ready 4 It *King of my "heart" *123, LGB (chant from the Eras tour) *Rep Era Ocean blue eyes Daisy Poison Ivy Be my jailer Light me up Dress Getaway Car Go, go, go I fancy you Best of times Golden tattoo Don't blame me Let the games begin "games begin" Love made me crazy In my dreams Island Breeze American Queen New Years Day CIWYW (Call it what you want) So it goes IDSB (I did something bad) Gorgeous TIWWCHNT (This is why we can't have nice things) Rep Cuz she's dead Delicate There are so many good phrases you could use. The shorter ones work better for bracelets and donuts so keep that in mind. On your donut, draw a circle on the top to be the outline of your "friendship bracelet" design. Carefully stick each letter on the spell out your word. Once you've created your word continue filling in the bracelet with different sprinkles. I kept to the red, black, white, and silver color scheme. This would be fun at a Taylor Swift-themed party or even for the Superbowl because we know Swifties are representing this year! The phrases - End game, Big rep, A team.... all work great for this Superbowl! These are fun to make and to eat! Be sure to check out our other Taylor Swift page for more Taylor-inspired posts and if you're making these for the Superbowl, why not make some friendship bracelet glasses to go with them? We are going to be wearing our red King of My Heart glasses during the game as we cheer on the Chiefs and Travis. I don't even feel bad about it.

I love having a garden full of birds, always have. Hummingbirds feel especially magical to me. Today, I'm going to share how easy it is to make your own DIY Hummingbird Food. Hummingbird food is four parts water to one part sugar. I usually make a smaller batch for my feeder. The sugary nectar can mold which makes the birds sick and can also attract ants, so I always change out my hummingbird food every few days and make a fresh batch. I usually do 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup sugar. Hummingbird Food Ingredients: Tap water (boiled) - 2 cups White granulated sugar - 1/2 cup Small pot and whisk hummingbird feeder I've seen conflicting information about boiling it first, but our local Desert Museum staff once told me it's best to boil it first, so I do. Directions: In the small pot bring your water just to a boil. Remove from the heat and whisk in the sugar. Let cool on the stove to room temperature. Once cooled, pour into hummingbird feeder and enjoy bird watching! Tip -- You do not need red food dye to attract hummingbirds. I love these purple hummingbirds that visit our yard! I took this photo of this pretty one in our backyard. If you're an avid hummingbird lover, this Birdfy Hummingbird Feeder with Camera is a great addition to your backyard. You can take pictures and videos of the hummingbirds that visit your yard. If you're looking for gifts for gardeners, check out this Gifts for Mom - Gardener post.

These mini bagel bites feel so nostalgic to my millennial heart. They are perfect for an easy summer lunch or anytime snacks. Bonus, they only take a couple of minutes to throw together and cook perfectly in the air fryer. Oh, and kids love them too! Ingredients: Mini bagels pizza sauce shredded mozzarella mini pepperonis Tools needed: air fryer. Our family has this specific Cosori air fryer, which we love! (On sale as of July 1, 2025, for 20% off!) Directions: Slice your bagels in half Add sauce, cheese, and mini pepperoni to each bagel half Place in the basket (ours holds 6 halves at a time) Air fry at 370 for 4-6 minutes, depending on how many you are making and how toasty you want them to be. No preheating needed. These pizza bagel bites in the air fryer are a perfect fun lunch, easy snack, or game day appetizer!

These pretty little flower jars are a perfect way to keep those little flowers that kids like to collect. This is a fun craft to do after a nature walk, for Mom on Mother's Day or just because if you have flowers blooming nearby. It's super easy to make, but older kids will be able to lay their flowers down better without petals getting smooshed or fingers sticking to the tape as much. Here's how you can make your own Flower Jar Craft! Supplies: Jar printable Scissors Packing tape Flowers and leaves Get the free printable here Directions: Cut out your jar printable (I used cardstock) so that you have the outline of the jar with blank space in the middle. Flip your jar over and gently (so it doesn't stick to the table too much) add tape on the back, overlapping slightly within the jar and around the edges. You're going to cut those edges later so don't worry about them. 3. Flip your jar back over and fill with flowers and/or leaves arranged however you like them. 4. Tear off a piece of tape and lay across the biggest section of flowers. Press down to seal. Just like you taped the back, continue to layer the packing tape across the front of the jar "sealing" your flowers in. Remember to overlap it at the sides and between pieces of tape. 5. Trim up the outer edges of your jar with scissors. These are pretty displayed in a window. They are like nature suncatchers! * Please note, this craft does not preserve your flowers, most flowers keep their color for a few days. Pressed flowers could also work for this craft and would last longer. You may also like our: DIY wildflower seed bombs DIY Fairy Gardens

When the weather is nice, we always want to spend all our free time outdoors. Our patio becomes our second living room/kitchen. It's fun to spruce up the patio with these cute and easy DIY fairy gardens that bring a lot of joy to look at. It's a great activity for kids of all ages to get involved, create something "magical" and get their hands dirty in the garden a little bit. It's a great activity to let kids express their different personalities by letting them choose their own fairy house and flowers for the pot. The first thing you will need is a big flower pot. I personally like these 22 inch pots that look like stone but are made of plastic so they aren't as fragile and can be easily moved around the patio. Once you've got your pot, you need some fun fairy decor. A fairy house is a must! It is exciting to see what kids choose. One of my kids chose a strawberry fairy house (here is a similar strawberry house) and the other chose an acorn fairy house. Here are some other fairy houses that would look darling in a fairy garden. Teapot Fairy House // Mushroom Fairy House // Flower Fairy House Once you've decided on a fairy house, hit up your local nursery to shop for some pretty flowers! I suggest getting 2 or 3 small flowers to put around your fairy house. Once you've got your flowers planted and houses placed where you want them, time to make it even more personalized. Kids will enjoy making little stone pathways up to their fairy houses and can even make it more fun with fairy garden accessories like a bridge, chairs and tables, little animals, signs, fairies, flower umbrellas, and more! You may also like our: Flower Garden Parfaits DIY Wildflower Seed Bombs Flower Jar Craft This post may contain affiliate links.