Happy Valentine’s Day! No matter your feelings on this oft-beloved and oft-detested holiday, I hope it’s filled with chocolate and cookies!

I have a bunch of stuff to share today. Get ready!

First, I’m now officially a member of the Netflix Stream Team (basically a bunch of bloggers who like Netflix). Our family uses Netflix ALL the time, so I am happy to be working with them! Also, I started a TV blog to help alleviate the guilt associated with my excessive TV watching because I love TV, so obviously I have no problem talking about television shows and movies! To kick off my stream teaming, just a few quick things:

• If you aren’t using Netflix already, you DO know it’s only $7.99 a month for the streaming service, right? My friend Rebecca loves TV as much as I do but hasn’t signed up yet. When I told her it was only $7.99 she was like, “That’s it? I had no idea!” and I think she might have even stopped at Best Buy to get a Roku that night. So, I’m just making sure those of you who have no idea how inexpensive Netflix streaming is now know. Totally worth it, even if the only thing you ever watch on there is Breaking Bad (please note that you should only click that link if you’ve seen the last season or you might hate me forever).
• Netflix profiles are the best. You can set up profiles for different members of the family. This, in my opinion, was the greatest improvement to the service that Netflix could have made. Now we always make sure the kids login with their account, that way Nate and my queue isn’t filled with kids’ shows and the kids never get inappropriate content (ahem, Breaking Bad) suggested to them.
• House of Cards season 2 is back today. Happy. Valentine’s. Day. To. You. WOOHOO! (Even Pres. Obama is down with Frank Underwood.)

Here’s all my Babble stuff from the week!

• A post with a little more detail about how to cut bread properly for stuffed French toast.
• 20 Chocolate + Pretzel Recipes (SO YUMMY)
• 15 Delicious Ways to Enjoy Root Vegetables for Dinner

And my posts on Cosmopolitan this week!

• 10 Copycat Fast Food Recipes That Taste Better Than the Original
• 20 Ultimate Last-Minute Party Snacks
• How To Cook Kale and 19 Fabulous Ways to Enjoy It

My kids don’t have school today, so I’m off to quickly finish work and then have some fun! We started the day with stuffed French toast and chocolate from Mimi. It should be a good day!

As always, please share anything you would like – links to funny/interesting/sad/inspiring stuff you found on the Internet this week, links to your own blogs, or just tidbits from your lives, it’s all good!

Happy Friday, everyone! I can’t tell you how happy I am the week is over. Not that it was a bad week, I’m just ready for the weekend!

Time to show and tell a few things with you all. As always, please share your own stuff in the comments! Whether it’s links to things you discovered or just a little tidbit from your own life, anything goes!

I started a new column over on Babble called 3 Kids, a Mom and a Kitchen. The kids and I are going to try out different recipes and then report back on how we like them, complete with a ranking system involving smiley and frowny faces! My first post went up this week (we made lemon pound cake) and it was a lot of fun. I’m excited to do more of these posts and my kids are loving the idea of helping me write a column!

Here on This Week for Dinner I’m finally getting my recipes all ship shape (it’s about time, right?). Pretty soon individual recipes will have a much better format, with the ability to rank and save them. I also finally created a master Recipe Index page (it’s at the very top of the site). It’s not totally updated yet, but we’re getting there. I also now have a mobile version of the site, so it will be much easier to navigate This Week for Dinner on your phone or tablet and you’ll be able to get to the recipe index lickity split.

Here are a few of my “babbles” from the week:

• A recipe for Cilantro Sour Cream Scramble – super easy, super yum!
• 12 Fun and Crazy Ways to Enjoy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
• 11 Fun Valentine’s Breakfasts to Make for the Kids (I’m going to do at least one of these ideas for sure!)

My posts on Cosmopolitan.com are in full swing, too. I haven’t done show and tell in a couple weeks, so I won’t barrage you with a bunch of links, but there are some fun posts on there. Click here and scroll down to check them out – it’s easy to see which posts are mine. (P.S. It’s still cracking me up that I’m writing for Cosmo. I think the greatest challenge yet was coming up with punchy blurbs about kale recipes because, you know, kale is super sexy.)

Happy Friday! Please share your own stuff!

You GUYS. I found a truly perfect recipe for salted caramel corn. It’s just, well, perfect. Each piece of popcorn is coated just right, the texture is light and crispy, the flavor is amazing. The best part? The popcorn is wicked easy to make.

I found the recipe on my friend Brenda’s food blog A Farmgirl’s Dabbles. It’s her mom’s recipe for microwave caramel popcorn. I love Brenda and her mom forever for sharing it with us. Seriously, I don’t even know how many times I’ve made it in the last two weeks. Good thing I’m not on a diet for new year’s!

Because Brenda’s recipe makes a TON of popcorn, I figured out how to adjust everything down for a half batch. I wrote a post on Babble with step-by-step photos and instructions, but the recipe is also listed below.

Whether you make a little or a lot, you need to make this stuff. You’re welcome.

Salted Caramel Corn Perfection

 

Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

5 mins

Total time

15 mins

 

I got this recipe from my friend Brenda on A Farmgirl's Dabbles. It's her mom's recipe. I've halved it and written the directions in my own words, but you can click here for the original recipe.

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

• ~ 2 qts popcorn (1/2 cup un-popped)
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup butter
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt + more for sprinkling
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda

Instructions

1. Pop ½ cup uncooked popcorn and place in a large brown paper bag. Pop your popcorn however you want, starting with ½ cup kernels, which will yield about 2 quarts.
2. Place brown sugar, butter, corn syrup and kosher salt in a microwave-safe bowl, preferably with a spout. Cook in microwave on high for 1 minute. Remove, stir to incorporate, then microwave for 1 more minute on high. Caramel should be boiling.
3. Add baking soda and vanilla to caramel. Mix well then pour over the popcorn in the back, stirring to evenly spread caramel throughout the popcorn. (It does not need to be mixed perfectly.)
4. Roll down the top of the brown paper bag and place in the microwave. Cook on high for 1 minute. Remove from microwave, keeping bag closed, and shake a LOT in every direction. Return bag to the microwave and cook on high for 1 minute. (Note: Since the bag is so big, it will not rotate while cooking. When I cook it for the first minute, I make sure the fold in the bag faces the back of the microwave. Then, for the second minute of cooking, I make sure the fold faces the opposite directly, to help distribute the cooking evenly.) Remove from microwave. Shake the bag a whole lot more.
5. Pour popcorn out onto a rimmed cookie sheet. I like to line the tray with a large piece of parchment paper to help with clean up. This size batch will fill one tray completely. Sprinkle the popcorn evenly with a bit more kosher salt, then break up the popcorn with your hands to mix it up.
6. Eat!

3.2.2310

In December I had the chance to write a few pieces for the ABC Family 25 Days of Christmas website. And then, once Christmas was over, the posts were gone! Two of the posts had some mighty fine recipes, so I just added them to the Babble website so they can still be accessible.

The first, hot cocoa as thick and rich as melted chocolate bars. You know, like in The Polar Express. The dreamy, wonderful hot cocoa we all imagined as kids!

The second is a super simple cookie recipe that is SO GOOD. You definitely want to add this one to your recipe box – Lemon Cream Cheese Cookie Sandwiches!

Double yum!

Happy Friday! Hope you are all surviving the cold!

First, I am now a food blogger for Cosmopolitan. As I’ve been gearing up, my friends and I have been coming up with all kinds of fun food article titles {wink, wink}. My first post went up yesterday and was even featured at the top of the Cosmo homepage, right next to the shirtless man. Exciting stuff! I have an awesome editor who is helping me to channel my inner 21-year-old. Wish me luck! 😉

A few of my Babbles:

• 22 Hot Jalapeño Recipes for Cold Weather Blues
• 20 Delectable Main Dishes Featuring Goat Cheese
• 20 Irresistible Broccoli Recipes
• Indian-Style Slow Cooker Chickpeas (I love this technique for cooking dried beans I learned from Babble’s director of operations)

In case you are wondering what the heck the polar vortex is and why it’s happening, this NPR article was short and to the point. I have to say, feeling kind of grateful to be in San Diego right now, but I do miss snow days!

As always, show and tell is for everyone! Please share whatever you like! (Carolina shared some great tips for baking sweet breads last week that I am totally going to use!)

Today’s Show and Tell is short and sweet because I haven’t been on my computer much at all the last two weeks. It’s been glorious!

Last week on Babble I put together a post of favorite holiday memory foods from a lovely group of food bloggers. It’s a really cute post and you might even have some of the same holiday food memories!

And, yes, that’s me on the right with the little blonde bowl cut. Think I should go back to that do?

Show and tell time! I skipped it last week because I didn’t have much to share, but this week I have tons!

Photo credit: Restless Collective

Random awesome stuff:

• I put all of our favorite Christmas music into a handy Spotify playlist. Click here to listen!
• New York Magazine featured our cousin Morrigan and her project Restless Collective this week, with good reason. Click here to see the NY Mag feature. Mo and Alan have amazing photography and storytelling skills.
• Nate’s brother is in a band called Sam Cooper & Friends and they are GOOD. Jake is second from the right in this video. Love the Internet so we can hear his band play even from far away.
• This is just plain FUNNY.

A few of my “Babbles”:

• Not Your Grandma’s Cookies – 15 Holiday Cookies with a Twist!
• 25 Cozy Gluten-Free Holiday Desserts
• The 25 Best Chocolate Desserts for the Holidays
• 13 Delicious and Creative Meatloaf Recipes
• Top 10 Beer-Battered Recipes
• 15 Scrumptious and Creative Biscuit Recipes

Phew! I think today’s Show and Tell could keep you busy for a few hours!

As usual, would love to see anything you would like to share!

HOW IS IT FRIDAY ALREADY? I still haven’t cleaned the house post-Thanksgiving. Someone stop the clock. Please!

Here are a few of my “Babbles” from the week:

• 25 Peppermint and Chocolate Recipes (sooooo yummy)
• 25 Caramel and Chocolate Recipes (also sooooo yummy, and do you think I might like chocolate?)
• I share a recipe for Lemon Cream Cheese Cookie Sandwiches on the ABC Family website. They are beyond easy to make and super delicious!
• A recipe for Turkey Croissants on the ABC Family website – perfect for when you find yourself with extra holiday turkey!
• 15 Best Comfort Foods Waiting at the End of Your Travels
• 12 Seasonal Drinks That Taste Like Home

As always, please feel free to share anything like! Just a tidbit from your life, a link to something funny/inspiring/delicious, anything at all.

Happy Friday!

Just a few Babbles to share!

• I am so happy this post with my recipe for chicken mole finally published over on Babble – I’m really proud of it! We call it Timon and Pumbaa’s Mud Chicken for fun. The mole is deeeelicious, easy to throw together (uses the crock pot) and healthy. And it’s not too hot, so kids can eat it too.
• Zazu’s Tropical Fruit Salad, with a really tasty light dressing
• If you want to order dessert for Thanksgiving, here is a list of gourmet retailers with some delicious looking items! And you still have time to order from most of them for Thanksgiving!

That’s all I’ve got. I’m furiously trying to get everything ready for our house guests and to kick off a week of FUN!

As always, please share whatever you like!

Wow! Friday is almost over. Where did the day go?

Quick show and tell today. A few “Babbles” for you:

• Why frying at home doesn’t have to be a guilty pleasure plus 20 fried food recipes
• Mufasa’s Mane Butternut Squash Spaghetti (another recipe I created for “The Lion King” – the sauce is scrumptious!)
• Safari Snacks (another creation for “The Lion King,” this trail mix is so delicious you won’t even know it’s healthy!)

And, if you watch The Vampire Diaries (don’t judge), I just want to make sure you are following Price Peterson’s photo recaps on tv.com. Because it is almost worth watching the show JUST to be able to read his recaps. Such a perfect combination of sarcasm and admiration. Okay, mostly sarcasm, but it’s 100% awesomesauce.

Have a happy weekend! And don’t forget to “show and tell” your own stuff. Anything goes!