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!

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!

Happy Friday!

I love November because of the food. The weather is cooler, so cozy foods are in order. And it’s Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is the best food day of the year by a long shot!

I’ve been busy at Babble pulling together all kinds of fun recipe roundups and posts this week. I have to share the list of everything because there is some mighty delicious stuff in here!

• 25 Cozy Baked Pumpkin Treats
• 25 Pumpkin + Chocolate Recipes
• 25 Fantastic Gluten-Free Side Dishes for Thanksgiving
• 8 Tips for Making Thanksgiving Food Travel Friendly
• 14 Cranberry Drinks
• 25 Pizza Recipes Without Tomato Sauce
• 25 Savory Cranberry Recipes
• 25 Stuffed Pepper Recipes
• 8 Ways to Use a Can of Cranberry Sauce
• ‘Circle of Life’ Pork Tenderloin Recipe (A healthy and scrumptious recipe with “The Lion King” as inspiration.)
• Rafiki’s Green Salad (Another healthy recipe for “The Lion King” project, and it was really good, too!)

Phew! No wonder it was a busy week!

You know the drill – it’s show and tell and everyone is allowed to share! Share anything you like, whether it’s a fun link you found, a recipe, or just something from your life!

Happy Friday! Hope you are all recovering from any sugar-induced Halloween comas!

I think it’s safe to say we have officially entered the holiday season. Before things get too crazy and the giving season is in full swing, I wanted to share two meaningful ways you could give back and help out some folks in need.

First, a story close to home. This past spring Anna’s wonderful preschool teacher Mandy gave birth to her first baby. She and her young husband were so blessed to be given this miracle baby – at just 23, Mandy was a cancer survivor and they thought they may never have children. Everyone was ecstatic for this beautiful young family with their baby’s safe arrival! Then, just weeks after the baby was born, they discovered that Mandy’s husband Ryan had a rare and aggressive form of cancer. They are both in their 20s and it breaks my heart whenever I think about what they are going through. Their faith and positivity have been truly inspiring as I’ve read their Facebook updates, but they are definitely going through some difficult times right now. I wanted to share a link to a fundraising page for their family, in case you have even $5 to share with them. I rarely write about or share these types of links because, well, I could share them all day every day, there are so many wonderful people out there who need support. But this story, well, it’s been on my mind a lot.

Moving on, I love partnering up with ONE, Bono’s non-profit campaigning and advocacy organization that aims to end extreme poverty and preventable disease. ONE is not a fundraising organization but instead achieves change through advocacy. I think they’re awesome and love the people I’ve worked with on their team. They just announced a new partnership with Heifer International which is really exciting. To find out more about the partnership and what Heifer does, click here! Plus, you can buy a goat. I know you’ve always wanted to buy a goat and that day has arrived, my friends.

Looking forward to seeing what you all have to share this week! Have a great weekend!

I can’t believe it’s already Friday and that Friday is almost over!

I spent my birthday morning on Wednesday watching lip-sync videos from Jimmy Fallon. They are pure awesome and Stephen Merchant is my new favorite person.

And if you haven’t seen this #hashtag video yet, hop to it. More pure awesome.

A few of my “Babbles” from the week:

• I pulled together a collection of miso recipes and every last one of them is beautiful. Be sure to check them out!
• And here is more snacking inspiration: 2-Minute Snacks and spooky Goblin’s Grub

Let’s talk TV for just a second:

• Do you watch Dexter? What did you think? Here are my final thoughts.
• The last episode of Breaking Bad is on Sunday. DYING to see how it all ends!
• I like Scandal, BUT…

As usual, everyone gets to share! Your turn!