Hazelnut Tea Cookies

I don't know why, but a while back I thought it was the best idea to buy a 1 pound bag of blanched hazelnuts. Whatever the reasoning was, I'm glad I bought them. Because after staring at me for long, waiting to be used, I finally used them. And yum! I'm very happy that I used some of the hazelnuts for this recipe. These tea cookies are crisp, nutty and not overwhelming sweet. I toasted the hazelnuts in a pan and I loved how the aroma filled up the entire place. There is something comforting about the scent of hazelnuts. I just love them. 

Keep reading for the recipe.....

Kale and Mushroom Side

This is a super easy and quick side dish that you can throw together at the last minute. With just a few ingredients and items that I normally have on hand, I love this kale and mushroom side and I love pairing it with either roasted chicken or a simple seared steak. This kale and mushroom side can be made in less than 10 minutes from start to finish (depending, of course, on how good your knife skills are) and because it is very low maintenance, it can be completed while you are working on the main dish. The kale becomes super soft with just a hint of garlic that isn't too overwhelming. I'm not going to lie, but I can eat the entire skillet to myself in one sitting (Oops!).

Keep reading for this easy recipe.

Barbacoa Beef plus Corn Salsa

Cinco de Mayo is tomorrow and it is the perfect time to serve up something spicy. This barbacoa beef is way better than the stuff you find at Chipotle's and can be served over rice or as a taco. This barbacoa beef is low maintenance and can be made in either a dutch oven or a slow cooker. I went the dutch oven route and packed a lot of heat in it with chipotle peppers. Slowly cooked over low heat, this beef isn't tough and melts in your mouth. Serve up a crowd at your Cinco de Mayo party with this spicy beef topped with a corn salsa.

DIY Earring and Ring Storage

I've been looking for a way to neatly organized all of the earrings and rings that I have, but the thought of buying a ring tray didn't sound appealing to me. Why? Because there aren't lids for the trays and because those trays don't really fit in any of the smaller spaces that I have. I used a small tin box that I had and placed all my earrings and rings that I have for my Etsy Store so that they would be safe. Help diminish my insane amount of earrings by purchasing a pair for yourself here!

I had left over supplies from when I made Jewelry Tray Liners to store all my necklaces and I figured there had to be a way to use the rest of the left over felt that I had. This earring and ring storage is super quick and easy. Just don't burn yourself with the glue gun like I did. The best thing about thing this earring and ring storage is that it can be easy customized. You can use any box and you do not need anything special. If you have a jewelry box that you love, but your earrings are a mess in, you can simply add this DIY to that box.

Keep reading to see how you can make your own DIY earring and ring storage.

Avocado Deviled Eggs

I've been testing out my cake decorating skills over the past 2 weekends, which is why I haven't been updating much. I am nowhere near a professional cake decorator, but when someone challenges me in an area that I'm interested in... I'm ready to give it a shot. 

One cake was a Piñata Castle Cake that was from My Cupcake Addiction. Mine was all homemade cream cheese frosting, instead of a chocolate casing around the base and I didn't use a giant cupcake mold. I used what I had at home and used two 9-inch pans and one Pyrex bowl. This cake ended up coming out a lot bigger than I expected. 
The second cake was a Piñata Snowflake Cake that went with the theme of Disney's Frozen. It was two 9-inch rounds with white chocolate snowflakes. The cake inside was a swirl/marble cake of light blue and a kind of aqua blue

What do you think of my cakes?

As long as I can remember, I hated avocados! It wasn't until a year or so ago when I became obsessed with them. I don't know what happened, but I went from one day hating them to the next day in love. If you are obsessed with avocados then you have to make these avocado deviled eggs right now! They are super easy to make and great for sharing with your family and friends.

The one thing that I love about these avocado deviled eggs is that there is no mayo in them. The avocado makes it just as creamy, but with a healthy fat in them. The garlic and cilantro gives it the extra flavor and if you are looking for a little kick, I would suggest throwing in some finely diced serranos or jalapenos. Yum!

Hazelnut Brownies

I have had a big bag of hazelnuts staring at me for quite some time. I bought them on a whim thinking that I would use them immediately.... and of course I didn't. So instead of letting them continue to sit in my pantry and bother me every time I opened it, I decided to finally do something with them. The first thing that came to my mind were brownies. And definitely not the boxed kind. 

Instead of Baker's One Bowl Brownies, I decided to use Ina's Outrageous Brownie recipe. Ina's Brownies seemed like it would be more work than the One Bowl Brownies, 

but it wasn't so bad. After taking a bite into these rich chocolate brownies, I was glad I decided to go the extra few steps (and bowls) with Ina's recipe. These brownies are rich, and I mean very rich. But it isn't a bad thing. They're super moist and the extra chocolate chips that are in them with the combination of the hazelnuts, give these brownies a great texture and crunch. The main thing with these brownies is that you do not want to over bake them. Keep an eye on them when they're in the oven. 

Ina's reviews said that the brownies came out big, very big! So I decided to half the recipe. I also decided to half the recipe because I didn't have enough chocolate or butter than the original recipe calls for. Although I halved the recipe, I still got 20 brownies that were large enough for me. So keep reading, but beware these things are addictive!

Coconut Macaroons

Do you have guest coming over or were you told at the last minute to bring a dessert? Skip the packaged stuff and make these coconut macaroons instead. They are super fast, very little work and you need only 5 ingredients.

These coconut macaroons are toasted and crunchy on the outside, but soft and chewy on the inside. If you're in mood, you can drizzle a little melted chocolate over these sweet little coconut macaroons. Chocolate makes every better!

I brought them to the office and they were a hit. I made them smaller which meant that they can be easily shared by more people and those on a diet feel less guilty. But you can feel free to make them bigger if you aren't in a sharing mood, all you need to do is bake them a little longer.

Have a bag of shredded coconut sitting in your pantry just crying out to be used?!? Then keep reading