Need a last minute gift idea for teachers, co-workers, neighbors or friends? Need an irresistible snack for the party table? Then you need to make a batch of these oh, so addictive ranch pretzels!

Rudy’s Rockin’ Pretzels

• 12 oz. of Orville Redenbacher’s butter flavored popcorn oil (or olive oil)
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. onion powder
• 2 TBS dill weed
• 1 envelope of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix
• 2 bags (16 oz each) of pretzels

(We made chunky ones with broken sourdough pretzels and we made them with Christmas shaped mini pretzels. We definitely liked the mini pretzels best.)

1. Whisk first five ingredients together in a large bowl and then transfer to a large ziploc bag.
2. Add pretzels to ziploc bag, seal and shake so all pretzels are covered.
3. Place in 300 degree oven for 30 minutes or so, stirring every 10 minutes until all oil is absorbed.

Once the pretzels were made and tested (oh yeah, they are yummy) we packaged them up in treat bags with our own recipe tags. My son made the cutest reindeer graphic for me so it had to be on the tag. You can actually get the coloring page version of this silly reindeer on my Printables4Kids.com site.

Click on image below to view and print full size or you can download the tags as a PDF file.

These are so quick and easy to make and they will disappear just as fast!!

Last Thanksgiving I made these adorable Pilgrim Hat cookies that I found at the Scribbit web site. You simply take homemade or store bought ginger snaps and place an unwrapped mini Reese’s peanut butter cup wide side down in the center of each cookie. Attach the peanut butter cups to the cookies with a small bit of icing. Using decorator icing, pipe a white band around the base of each candy and then make gold buckles with yellow decorator icing.

These are easy enough for the kids to help with and yummy enough that even the grown ups will love them!

Tip: Some of our family has a gluten/wheat intolerance so we use the Mi-Del Gluten-Free Ginger Snaps. They are actually softer and better tasting than their standard counterparts!

Photo: Scribbit

Ireland is by far one my favorite places on earth! Lucky for me, my grandparents live there and we have made quite a few trips there over the years. When we go we usually stay at Oysterhaven which is a very family friendly resort near Kinsale with one of the most breathtaking views ever.

Growing up, my Mom would make classic Irish dishes year round, but the week of St. Patrick’s Day was always guaranteed to be special. Some of my favorite Irish dishes are:

Potato Leek Soup – This smooth and creamy soup is absolutely perfect for cold, dreary days. The leeks (from the onion family) are truly the secret ingredient. Thin sliced and tender the leeks add so much flavor to the soup.

Colcannon sounds exotic but it isn’t. Basically Colcannon is mashed potatoes with cabbage and sausage, plenty of butter and a bit of milk. Comfort food at its finest! This is also known as Bubble and Squeak.

Shepherd’s Pie was one of my childhood favorites. It is the ultimate one dish meal consisting of layers of ground meat (beef, lamb, or a combination), mixed vegetables, tomatoes, and a topping made of mashed potatoes and cheese. Yummy!

Irish Lamb Stew is made from amazingly simple ingredients, yet tastes so rich. I think the reason is that it cooks for 8 hours and those flavors just meld so well. Serve with Irish Soda Bread and you will feel like you are dining on the Emerald Isle.

Corned Beef & Cabbage is another simple yet delicious Irish recipe that is good any day of the year. The corned beef brisket will absolutely melt in your mouth after it spends all day cooking in the slow cooker.

For more great Irish recipes check out:

• Irish Traditional Cooking: Over 300 Recipes from Ireland’s Heritage
• The New Irish Table: 70 Contemporary Recipes
• The Irish Spirit: Recipes Inspired by the Legendary Drinks of Ireland
• The Irish Pub Cookbook
• McGuire’s Irish Pub Cookbook

Food photos from Food Network

Keep the kids busy while you cook with fun St. Patrick’s Day printable activities and coloring sheets.

Remember the Seinfeld episode where Elaine goes on and on about the muffin tops and how they should just sell those, because after all they are the best part of the muffin? I don’t know if I am just slow or what, but I just found a Muffin Top baking pan that lets you make just the best part of the muffin, or cupcake, or cookie creation. These would be a lot of fun at a birthday party, a nice change of pace at a baby shower and perfect for every day baking, too.

One of my favorite sites, Picky Palate, has a recipe for making Snickers Caramel Cheesecake cookies in the muffin top pan that looks absolutely amazing.  Those would be such a hit at any gathering. Diana’s Blueberry Muffin Tops recipe is another one on my “to-make” list, as are the Giant Smores Cookies from My Baking Addiction.

Happy Baking!

Cupcakes are the darling of the baking world these days. Not only are they perfect single serving treats that kids and grown ups alike just can’t resist, each cupcake is the perfect canvas for decorations from the simple to the extreme.

With a little imagination cupcakes can be crafted to be the perfect party table accessory, no matter what the theme. At a recent visit to Pelican Hill Resort in Newport Beach, CA, the cupcakes (above) were simple, elegant and oh, so delicious. My favorite, the carrot cake cupcakes, were topped with a cream cheese frosting and an orange swirled chocolate shaving.

My favorite online resources for Cupcake Inspiration are:

• Bakerella
• The Cupcake search on Flickr
• Cupcakes Take the Cake
• Martha Stewart Cupcake Recipes

And then my daughters and I could look at Cupcake Cookbooks all day long! Click on image for ordering information.

Does your sister in law love your pecan pie? Does your childhood best friend miss your “to die for” chestnut stuffing? Print out a few of your favorite recipes on a pretty recipe card stock, gather the non-perishable ingredients and a celebration specific serving and assemble them into a gift basket – the recipient will be touched by your thoughtfulness! Here are a few printable recipe cards we have created – feel free to print as many as you need. They do best when printed on a heavier paper or lightweight card stock. Click on image to view and print full size.

Free Printable Recipe Card - Silverware Theme

Free Printable Recipe Card - Sunny Dishes Theme

An essential part of any game day gathering is the food! Whether its just you and a friend or two or a larger group of friends, food is going to be a hot topic!

Two recipes my family always requests are my super easy sweet and savory meatballs and pepperoni bread.

Must-have More Meatballs

• 5 lb. bag of pre-made Italian style meatballs (Costco/BJs/Sam’s Club)
• 1 large jar of grape jelly
• 2 bottles of Heinz Chili Sauce (sold near the cocktail sauce)

Place all ingredients in the slow cooker for 4-6 hours, then serve.

Pepperoni Bread

• 1 loaf of Rich’s Frozen Dinner Bread Dough (it’s uncooked – in the freezer case) thawed to room temperature
• Small package of pepperoni
• 1 Cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease flat working surface and roll out bread dough until flat and thin. Cover surface of dough with pepperoni and then cheese. Roll the entire thing up like a jelly roll and seal the seam with a bit of water. Place on cookie sheet and bake on 350 for 30 minutes. Slice and serve with marinara sauce for dipping. I highly recommend making at least two loaves – they will go FAST!

Other recipes I personally love include:

• My sister-in-law’s Avacado Salsa (aka Ugly Dip) with tortilla chips
• Texas Firecrackers
• Apple Pie Spread is a nice change of pace – perfect for fall, too
• Layered Black Bean Dip
• Potato Skins
• Buffalo Chicken Party Sandwiches
• And finish it off with a super cute Touchdown Cake

And serve it all up in a fun serving dish – in your favorite team, of course!!

Lobster is always an elegant ingredient to add to even your most basic recipes. And, right now lobster prices are at an all time low! What that means for you is you can add this high end ingredient to your dishes – your guests will be amazed and think you spent a lot – when in reality, you didn’t. Check out this video recipe for Lobster Coconut Curry Rice from FineLobster.com – it would be a perfect dish to serve at a baby shower, holiday open house or just about any gathering.

The Lobster Coconut Curry Rice requires only a few ingredients (rice, coconut milk, curry powder, green onions, and lobster meat) and as the video shows, it is really simple to make, too. Serve with a tossed salad and some fresh bread for a fantastic meal! Visit FineLobster.com for more lobster recipes, deals on lobster shipped fresh to your home, and lobster accessories.

You’ve probably heard the terms hard-shell crab and soft-shell crab bandied about, and might even have thought they were different species of our many-legged friends. Actually, the terms just indicate different stages in the crustaceans’ life cycle. Crabs are invertebrates that sport a rigid exoskeleton that grows in stages between the animal’s molting. The organs and internal tissues don’t stop growing, so if the crab is going to get bigger, it has to shed its old armor for something a little roomier.

It’s this process of molting that holds the key between hard-shell and soft-shell crab.  Right after a crab has molted and burst out of its old, hard shell, the animal is vulnerable, with no protection other than a tender shell that quickly hardens. Crab’s captured during this brief period is what we call the soft-shell crabs. Females molt 18 to 20 times in the course of an average lifetime, and males are believed to go through the process 21 to 23 times. The time between molts grows longer the older the crab gets, starting at 10 to 15 days between molts for the little one-inchers, to 30 to 50 days between molts for the bigger guys.

In the culinary world, the difference between soft-shell crabs and hard-shell crabs, is one of flavor and texture. Crabs fatten before molting, which means the meat is salty, sweet, and flavorful. And because the shell is soft, the whole thing is edible. These crabs are much anticipated restaurant favorites, and part of that is because harvesting them is so tricky – timing is everything.

A soft-shell crab must be nabbed right after molting, and only a few hours means the difference between delicacy and lost opportunity. The crabs must be caught just prior to molting (watermen call a crab just a few hours prior to molting a “Rank Peeler” and a crab in the process of molting a “Buster”), and monitored while they molt.

All this waiting and monitoring means a hefty mark-up when they hit the restaurant table, but soft-shell crabs are super easy to prepare, and much cheaper to purchase from an outlet like CrabPlace.com where they ship from dock to door. Traditionally, soft-shell crabs are either fried or sautéed, and served up whole between two slices of bread, but they can also be grilled or broiled — your inner chef’s imagination is the limit!

Visit CrabPlace.com for more preparation tips, facts and recipes for your fresh seafood choices.

Fresh crabs remind me of summer at the beach, but I have always been a little hesitant to make them at home. After watching the video recipe below, even the kids will want to get involved with making this super easy Garlic Crab dish for Dad this Father’s Day or any special occasion. The video, courtesy of the The Crab Shop, shows just how simple it is to create this tasty dish.

The Garlic Crab recipe only requires a few simple ingredients: hardshell crabs, garlic, cabbage, olive oil and water. The whole thing take minutes to prepare and about 15 minutes to cook. Add some fresh corn on the cob, maybe some baked beans and you have a perfect Father’s Day or summer evening at the beach kind of a meal!

Need more seafood recipes or tips for your next get together? The Crab Place provides preparation tips, facts and recipes for your fresh seafood choices. Shop The Crab Place now.