If you are looking for something a bit different them your normal stuffing for the holiday season, this Rosemary Mushroom Bread Pudding is a perfect fit. It is a great flavorful the is savory and goes great with any meat option you like to serve on your holiday table.

Chicken wings are one of the most popular appetizers we have around. there is so many different ways to prepare them. These Honey-Soy Chicken Wings are a perfect balance of sweet and the little bit of heat from the chili sauce makes it so you cant just have one. The preparation is only a few minutes and the oven baking keeps them healthier by not frying but still packed with flavor.

Refrigerate for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 475F, place the chicken on a foil lined sheet pan, pour remaining marinate on top of the chicken. Bake for 25minutes and fully cooked, turning the chicken 2-3 times throughout the cooking.

This Glazed Bacon-Wrapped Chicken could not be any easier to put together with a few ingredient. The bacon keeps the chicken nice and moist that you can cut with a fork. The smokiness of the bacon and the sweet from the brown sugar gives a big and bold flavors that will have your family will be asking for more. Serve with your favorite sides and you will have a easy dinner.

Cranberries tend to be a great staple for the fall season especially around thanksgiving. The great tart flavor and the vibrate red color makes it very appealing to the eyes. This Cranberry Streusel Cake is a great addition to your thanksgiving table for a dessert option, it even makes a great breakfast cake option too. It has a great combination of sweet and tart from the cranberries and orange in the cake.

The first thing is you make the base cake, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and soda and salt. Cut in the butter to the flour mixture until a course meal like texture. Using a hand held mixer on low speed is an easy easy of doing this, you can also use a pastry blender or two knives.

Now the we are moving closer to the winter months I tend to like to have heartier dishes that make you feel warm inside when it is colder outside. This Beef and Mushroom Ragu is packed with vegetables and protein that will give you energy to get through your day and is the perfect family meal. The time to prepare the dish is short while to cooking time takes longer but its all hands free so you can spend time doing other things while your home fills with the wonderful smell of this dish.

-Making homemade soft pretzels are very simple and will have them done in no time so you don't miss any of your favorite game or spending time with your family. These simple pretzel twists only need a bowl, rubber spatula or spoon and a couple baking sheet pans to make, so preparing and clean up is simple. And the beer cheese dipping sauce is just a perfect combo with the soft pillow like pretzels that come out perfectly from your oven.

Making the dough is very easy, start by combine yeast with warm water and sugar in a bowl. Once mixture becomes foamy to top, the yeast is ready. Stir in salt and 1tablespoon of melted butter. Add flour 1 cup at a time until a dough forms and is no longer sticky. Knead the dough for 5 more minutes until smooth on a floured counter top. Form dough into a ball and place it back into the bowl to rest for 20 minutes.

Shape dough into ribbon shape and place in baking soda bath for 2 minutes, flipping over half way through. Carefully pick pretzel up either by your hand and place on prepared baking sheet. Reshape it if needed. Repeat these steps until all pretzels are prepared and on the baking sheets

Bake pretzels for 8-9 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately from the oven, brush with  remaining melted butter and top with course salt.

Beer Cheese Sauce:
 1 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup beer or hard apple cider
2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
 
Add butter and flour to a medium pot over medium heat. Whisk together to form a roux as the butter melts
 
Add garlic powder and salt, cook roux for 1-2 minutes until very light brown.
 
Add the beer/cider and milk to the mixture slowly to the roux mixture and stir until thickened to a gravy consistency. Add the cheese and Dijon mustard. Keep stirring until cheese is completely melted. Serve warm with pretzels.

One of my favorite  flavors is lemon, in my mind lemon can go with pretty much anything and can be used even to replace salt in recipes too. This easy lemon pudding cake offer a soft moist lemon cake onto of a rich lemon custard on the bottom. I am not a huge dessert fan to be honest, but i can eat one of these in mere minutes!!

Start off by preheating the oven to 350F and heat some water in a sauce pan or tea kettle until it is simmering and hot. Grease 6-6ounce ramekins with oil spray and set aside.

Combine the sugar and flour together and set aside. In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks and the softened butter until combine. Add the milk, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla extract.

Fill each of the ramekins ¾ the way full and place each ramekin in a baking pan filled with water half way up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown and puffy on top. Remove from the water bath and let cool for 20minutes.

In honor of the National Apple which is today, October 21th I made these Apple-Walnut Cream Cheese walnuts. For me, the best art of apple pie is the last bite with all the crust and the last of the apple pie filling.  These tartlets have that bit in each of the 2-3 bites these tartlets take to eat and they are quite easy to make, taking about 30-40minutes for start to finish.

Using a 2-1/2" to 3" biscuit cutter or a cup with same size, cut out 12 rounds for each of the tartlets. If you are going to use homemade dough, try to get the thicken to about an 1/8" thick for the crust. Place each of the rounds in the bottom of a greased muffin pan pressing them tight against the bottom.

Make the apple filling by cooking the apples, sugar, walnuts and spices until almost tender and the liquid has mostly evaporated into a thick syrup. Make the cream cheese filling with a spoon or a mixer if needed. Add a teaspoon of each of the filling to the pie crust rounds, I just got each portions of the apples in each of the rounds and added the cream cheese on top.

Bake the tartlets for 15-20 minutes until the crust around the edges begins to brown and the cream cheese mixture is set into the apples. let them cool for about 5mins in the pan before removing gently.

Growing up in Minnesota there is nothing like the classic soup of chicken wild rice on a day that is cold to make you feel warm inside. Why not combine two of my favorite classic soups into one with this version of creamy chicken wild rice and dumpling. soup This recipe is a bit healthier without all of the heavy cream that is normally in the chicken wild rice but replaced with nice pillow like dumplings that make up for it for sure. If you are gluten free you can easy replace the flour for a gluten free option like rice flour.

This recipe is very simple to make, this recipe can be easily made withing the 45 minutes i mention below in the recipe if needed and only needs a few ingredients that are extremely easy to find anywhere around.

Add butter and saute the onion, carrots, celery and chicken until slightly tender and the chicken is cooked . Add the flour and spices, let cook for 2-3 minutes making sure all flour is mixed in.

Stir in the chicken broth and milk. Let the soup come to a boil and thicken. Add the cooked rice to the soup, cover the pot with a lid and allow mixture to simmer.

Add the dumplings by dropping a tablespoonful on top of the simmering soup.  Cover and cook for 5 minutes,  serve the soup warm.

Fall time here in Minnesota brings one of our most favorite crops here, APPLES!!. Every year we seem to have a new variety created here and they keep getting better and better. For a main dish, there is nothing that goes better with apples then pork, they both seem to balance the flavors out just perfectly. This one pan pork chops and apples is a great family favorite that everyone will enjoy. and is  one of those great recipes which looks and tastes a LOT more complicated than it really is.. Also its a easy and healthier family meal that only uses one pan for everything so clean up is a breeze.

This recipe is simple and only uses a few ingredients. You want to start off by slicing your apples thin and seasoning your pork on both sides with the seasoning.

 Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork and cook until browned and just cooked through, remove the pork chops for the pans and saute the apples until light brown and add the cider and reduce by half. Then add the cream and mustard and heat until you have a thickened sauce, should be an additional 5 minutes. Plate and serve the pork chops with the apples and sauce on top.