Home, Furniture & Kitchen

Tis the season to be jolly and that includes attending or hosting holiday parties, and it doesn’t hurt when you’re hosting if you serve some great traditional and no-so-traditional Christmas drinks. If you’re hosting a special holiday party or you’re wondering what to bring to a small get-together, here are some great drink recipes for the holidays.

I don’t know about you, but for me, one of the best things about the holidays is selecting gifts for my family that I know will bring a smile to their faces on Christmas morning. But being the daughter-aunt-sister-sister-in-law that always picks the perfect gifts is getting increasingly difficult as the years go by. My parents don’t need anything, and when they want something they just go and buy it. My nieces and nephews are at the age where anything “cool” on their list is likely something Auntie hasn’t heard of. And my brother and sister-in-law, well all they want is to take their four kids to Disneyland, and that’s entirely out of the question. So after a considerable amount of thought, here’s what I chose for them this year – five fantastic gifts that are sure to get anyone excited on Christmas morning.

Can I just start by saying how much I love Christmas cakes? I love how, when these types of cakes are baking, they make my house smell like the holidays, and I love how they look as pretty as they smell. Whether you dress these types of cakes up or serve them plain with just a drizzle of white icing, they’ll still be the first thing people grab from the table. Here are my absolute favourite Christmas cake recipes.  

One of the most challenging things about Holiday shopping is how one gift does not fit all, but if you have a chef on your list this year, you’re in luck. There are tons of great gifts for the budding chef, enthusiastic foodie, or someone you know who takes cooking to a new art form.  

Although I’ve opted for an artificial tree this year, I’m sticking to my plan to make all of my Holiday treats from scratch, and this week I’ve been baking Christmas tarts. Tarts of any type don’t last long in my house, so this year I’ve branched out a bit and made all of the tart recipes I normally do.

She’s cute isn’t she? Polly is a dachshund/Chihuahua cross, also known as a Doxie. Polly’s safety is the reason why I was pretty excited to test out the Motorola Scout Trainer 100. After using it for a few weeks, I’m pretty sure busy pet owners are going to like it over traditional training classes. Why? In a nutshell, it works.    

Today on Shelly’s Friday Favourites, I’m going to share my favourite sugar cookie recipe with you and show you how easy it is to decorate these cookies. If you get overwhelmed by roll out cookies because they’re too sticky or they don’t turn out right, you’ll love this recipe. The dough is light, fluffy, and rolls out like a dream.

Why make homemade soup when it’s so easy to open up a can and eat within minutes? Really, it all comes down to taste. If you go through the effort of making your own soup base and you let your soup simmer on your stove or in your slow cooker for hours, the flavours of what you’re cooking will practically explode when you eat it. 

Last week we said an official goodbye to summer and hello to cool weather, bundling up, and fall recipes. One week of fall favourites isn’t enough, so this week we’re going to check out a few fall recipes that make for easy weeknight dinners.

  Baby, it’s getting cold outside, and it’s safe to say the warm weather has hit the road and it’s time to bundle up and turn on the fire. When the cold weather hits, it’s also time to warm up the range and see what type of fall dishes we can cook up.