Friday Favorites – Week 301 – With New Year’s Foods + My Thoughts for the New Year

Happy New Year!  And welcome to our last party of 2015 and our first party of 2016.  Woohoo!  In honor of the new year, today I’ve got some foods that are perfect for your New Year’s celebrations!

But  first I have a few thoughts on the new year and what’s to come.  First off, I want to say thanks to everyone who’s linked up here at any time during 2015.  Whether you’ve come by each week or just a time or two, your visits are much appreciated!

Secondly, although I’m proud of the work I did on my blog in 2015, and I feel I accomplished a lot, I have to admit that I feel like I slacked a bit on parties this year.  My husband was in the hospital last spring, and I had to help him in his recovery time.  And then we also had a number of household projects to tackle and other things that came up.  Long story-short, even thought I managed to get a party post up each week, I felt like some of them were just “thrown together” and I didn’t get to visit you guys and comment nearly as much as I would like.  BUT I promise I will be getting back on track with that in the new year, as well as some other things that I feel I’ve “slacked on.”

Now in honor of me “not slacking” I am planning some posts for January, which will be on setting goals and getting things done in the new year.  In fact, my words for 2016 are “simplify” and “focus,” which I will be posting about this weekend.  So you can expect to see a lot of posts on my blog this year that revolve around these two things, especially “simplify” because simplicity is at the heart of my blog, hence the name “SIMPLY Sweet Home.”  So if you love simple solutions or feel you just want to get back to the basics of life and homemaking, please join me here in 2016.  And as always, I invite you to subscribe to my feeds and allow along on all my social media pages!

And last but not least, you can expect to see a bigger and better party this year!  Soon I will be posting a call for new party hostesses, and anyone who’s interested in being a Friday Favorites host will be welcome to apply.  And I’m also doing a little brainstorming with the current hostesses to see what we can do to make the party better.  If you have any ideas for me, or if you may be interested in being a hostess, feel free to email me.  Cheers! [Read more…]

16 Favorite Foods of 2015

16 Favorite Foods of 2015

At the end of each year I like to look back and revisit some of my old posts, and one thing I always like to do is share a round up of some of my favorite food posts from the year.  Everything looks delicious, if I do say so myself, so I had to hard time picking these out, but finally I came up with 16 goodies!  I have everything from breakfast to dinner, snacks, appetizers, and of course, dessert.  Hope you find something here that you’d like to try for yourself in 2016!  Cheers! [Read more…]

Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cake with Broiled Coconut Topping and an Easy Holiday Brunch

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BIGSeason #BigLots #CollectiveBias

Holiday Brunch Table

As we prepare for the holidays, the love, joy, and cheer can quickly turn in to stress, frustration, and a little bit of bah humbug, especially if you are designated cook and the hostest with mostest, but it doesn’t have to be that way! There are so many ways you can simplify during holidays the so that it’s enjoyable for everyone, including yourself! [Read more…]

Caramel Pecan Tassies and a Giveaway!

Betty Crocker Disclosure

Caramel Tassies

There’s nothing like a delicious platter of cookies and holiday sweets to get me in the Christmas spirit!  And I love baking my own, just as much as I love trying everyone else’s!  Betty Crocker has a whole host of products that make it easy for anyone to make “semi-homemade” desserts.

I’ve always loved baking with Betty Crocker cake mixes, but most recently I decided to get creative with their cookie mixes!  Today I’m going to share how I used Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix to make some delicious Caramel Pecan Tassies! [Read more…]

Mini Cannoli Pies + Easy Family Meals with Stouffer’s®

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #StouffersHoliday #CollectiveBias

Easy Family Meals with Stouffers

The holiday season is here!  It is such a fun time, but it’s also a busy time for me.  Of course, we have all the extra holiday events with family and school.  And then additionally this is the busiest time of year for my Etsy shop.  Between that and my usual blogging and other responsibilities, the month of December is a whirlwind!  Perhaps more than ever, this is the best time to have some easy family meal options!

Thanks to Stouffer’s®, I am able to serve a complete Italian meal to my family, including a round of Mini Cannoli Pies, with very little prep work at all!   [Read more…]

Peanut Butter Cookies + SPLENDA® SWEET SWAPS™ and a Giveaway!

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SplendaHoliday #CollectiveBias

Peanut Butter Cookies

The holiday baking season has officially begun at my house!  I love baking everything from cakes and pies to cookies and candies, and I get a lot of enjoyment out of sharing these treats with others.  But over the years, I’ve found that more and more people in my family have diets that require them to lower their sugar intake, which means they can’t partake in all the holiday goodies.  And still others are skipping out on the dessert, because they don’t want to put on “the extra pounds.”

Since I can’t eat all the desserts all by myself,  I’ve decided to try a few recipes with SPLENDA®.

[Read more…]

Friday Favorites – Week 295 – With Pumpkin Desserts

Hello party goers! Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday Favorites. With Thanksgiving one week out, I figured this would be my last chance to share some fall recipes, so today I have another round of pumpkin recipes.  These are sure to be a hit at any Thanksgiving or Christmas dessert table!  Take a look!

Friday Favorites Link Party

Hosted by:

Simply Sweet Home
Twitter | Facebook | Google + | Pinterest | Instagram

MustLoveHome

Twitter | Facebook | Google + | Pinterest | Instagram

The Chunky Chef

Twitter | Facebook | Google + | Pinterest

Maple Pumpkin Pie

Maple Pumpkin Pie from The Gracious Housewife [Read more…]

Game Day Oreo Balls

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #OREOCookieBalls #CollectiveBias

Game Day Oreo BallsWhen the holiday season is in the air, I can hardly wait to make sweet treats like OREO Cookie Balls!  But why should these yummy treats only be made around the holidays?  I see no reason why OREO Cookie Balls shouldn’t be on our party menus year round.  Do you?

There are a number of ways you can transform OREO Balls to fit any holiday or occasion.  Last weekend I made a batch for game day.  In the past I’ve seen a lot of people mold their balls in to football shapes, and those always look so cute.  But for my recipe, I went in a slightly different direction.  I just happen to have this cute little snack stadium.  In the past I’ve used it to hold cupcakes, but I’ve been dying to use it to display homemade candies.

So I dressed my OREO Cookie Balls out with X’s and O’s, and they took the field!  Haha!  I even made a few striped ones! (Because every game needs to officials!) [Read more…]

Making Holiday Memories with Hallmark and Peanut Butter Oatmeal Drop Cookies

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SendHallmark #CollectiveBias

Making Holiday Memories with Hallmar and Peanut Butter Oatmeal Drop Cookies

We all have our favorite childhood memories and traditions, and so many of these revolve around the holiday season.  One of my favorite memories and traditions has always been decorating our Christmas tree and collecting decorative ornaments.  My mom and I started collecting Hallmark ornaments about 20 years ago.  My mom has always been a huge collector of everything from antiques to Barbie dolls.

Most of her Hallmark ornaments are either Barbie (especially Holiday Barbie and any retro Barbie) and she also loves anything with Mickey Mouse!  In fact, I often get her a Hallmark ornament for Christmas, because I know she loves them, and it’s the best gift I can get for a collector who seems to have anything. [Read more…]

Friday Favorites – Week 294 – with Apple Recipes

Welcome! Happy Friday! And Happy Belated Veteran’s Day to all the vets out there!  This week’s Friday Favorites party is another great round of delicious looking fall recipes.  The star of the show is APPLE!  Hope you enjoy!

One more quick note before we get started….Currently I’m working on a lot of holiday content, including upcoming gift guide features and giveaways.  If you have a product or business that you’d like for me to feature here, please email me.  I’d be so happy to work with you and help you to promote your business!  I also have an Etsy shop of my own, so if anyone is looking to swap ad space or do a giveaway swap, I’d be happy to talk about that.   [Read more…]