Chipotle Peach Meatballs #SecretRecipeClub

Hello, all! Over the last year, I have realized how much I missed Secret Recipe Club and decided that although monthly reveal days with 3 or 4 groups is overwhelming, getting together and doing a reveal day every once in a while would be so much fun. For now, this will most definitely be an annual thing. I decided to do it in April because that is when the first reveal day happened many years ago. I hope you all enjoy this Reunion Reveal Day. I know it was so fun to get back with my fellow SRC bloggers and I can't wait for next year :)

I was assigned to Lauren of Sew You Think You Can Cook. I have made from Lauren's blog before back in March 2015 - I made her Cranberry Coffeecake, which I absolutely loved. This time around, I searched her more recent recipes to see if I could find the winning recipe.

This Corned Beef & Cabbage Turnovers looked so delicious. I've been craving corned beef and cabbage like crazy, probably because it was just March. I also really wanted to make this White Cheddar and Cranberry Dip but thought that it would be hard to find fresh cranberries now that it's spring. Ultimately, I decided upon the Chipotle Peach Meatballs.

This recipe was so easy to put together. We ended up eating it with leftover mashed potatoes for dinner and loved the combination. I can also see these being made each New Year's Eve. Seriously, they were so easy and so flavorful. Even my peach and chipotle hating child loved them.

Honey Butter Rolls #SecretRecipeClub

Simply set these aside to rise and brush with a delicious honey butter before baking for 15 minutes and you have the most addictive dinner rolls ever!

Today is SUCH a sad day. It is my final Secret Recipe Club reveal -- and the final SRC reveal for the club as well. Over the past 5 1/2 years, Secret Recipe Club has connected food bloggers from around the globe in a Secret Santa exchange of sorts. I joined when the original owner, Amanda, added a fourth group because of the influx of new members. Over time our numbers have diminished and although it would seem like the smaller the number the easier it is to run, it's quite the opposite. So instead of letting us dwindle down, I thought it would be best to go out with a bang! So while it is sad that the Secret Recipe Club is ending, I'm so happy to have been a part of it and to have met so many great blogging friends along the way. We're keeping the blog alive to share blogging events that our alumni may be hosting or want to share and staying connected with each other.

This month, I was assigned to Erin's blog, Table for Seven. I believe I found Erin's blog in the early years of SRC and I was hoping to get her blog, but then she did leave for a while and I was so bummed. Then she came back and I was super happy to hopefully get the chance to feature her wonderful blog! Erin is a mom of 6 (she has a blog about her angel, Eliza Hope) and has been married to her husband for over 15 years. She has a million recipes on her blog that I want to try, but I did narrow it down to some sweets: Cinnamon Sugar Popcorn, Chocolate Eclair Cake, Chocolate Rolo Cake, Pumpkin Nutella Cookie Bars, and Chocolate Chip M&M Cookie Bars. But ultimately chose to test run a recipe for Thanksgiving: Honey Butter Rolls.

I went to go make my grocery list and add the ingredients needed -- and to double check I had the essentials for the bread dough when it turns out these are 3 ingredient rolls and I had all three ingredients on hand. I love shortcut recipes and even more so, I love using frozen bread dough for different things. These were so delicious! I typically don't like honey, but mixed with the salted butter was just the right hint of sweet. And although they aren't necessarily fast, they are really low hassle to make and would be perfect for if you already have a full menu of food to make - especially on a busy holiday like Thanksgiving! You can set them aside while you cook other things. Bonus: the kitchen will be the perfect warm place for them to rise. Then when the meal is almost ready, these little rolls only take about 15 minutes to bake.

Pumpkin Cake Roll #SRCFallDishes

The perfect fall dessert that looks impressive but is so simple to make

Today is an "extra" Monday for the month, so there is a Themed Reveal Day for the Secret Recipe Club. What that means is that there is a special theme and everyone in the club can join in if they want - no group restrictions! Today's theme is FALL DISHES. I was assigned to a former Group D member, now Group member, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Wendy and her husband are retired cops who live on a slightly smaller farm than before (12 acres to 5 now). They have four children between them and have hosted foreign exchange students in their home - including Tingting who has grown up, gotten married, and given Wendy and her husband their first grandchild, Melody. Wendy is a fantastically positive person and her blog is filled with not only food, but so many good stories about her life.

Now I didn't make our theme for this special reveal pumpkin...because not everyone likes pumpkin and pumpkin lovers tend to go a little bit overboard...I know because I do. So our theme was to make dishes that are perfect for the season of fall: soups and chilis, food for Thanksgiving (like pecan pie), squash recipes, apple anything, and, of course, pumpkin too.

Because I do love anything pumpkin, when I took to recipe hunting, I only looked at the pumpkin recipes on Wendy's blog. I narrowed down my list to Pumpkin Yeast Bread, Pumpkin Spice Cookie Blossoms, Pumpkin Praline Pancakes., and Pumpkin Cake Roll (which I obviously chose). I thought it was a nice variety and really what it came down to was that I have been wanting to make a cake roll for so very long. I was so nervous to do it. I didn't realize that the cake was spongey, so it doesn't tear.

I was so incredibly impressed with how easy this was to make and how well it turned out. I wish I wasn't so scared of these to begin with because I would make this weekly. It was one of the best pumpkin anythings I've ever had. I served it up for dessert for a large family gathering and everyone loved it. I only changed it up every so slightly. I chose to add 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice to the mix because I thought 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon seemed like so little spice and I wanted more. I also split the filling up so that I had some to cover the top to make it look pretty. And just an FYI, this only makes one roll, I just cut it in half to fit on a plate.

German Beef Roulades #SecretRecipeClub

These perfect little roulades hide away bacon, onions, and a pickle served with mashed potatoes and gravy.

I hit the jackpot this month with my Secret Recipe Club assignment. I received Adina's blog, Where is my spoon?, for the month of October. I dove right into her recipe index immediately and knew I was in heaven - too good to be true. Adina is from Romania but has spent the last 10 years in Germany - with her husband and two children. Adina has a ton of German cuisine on her blog and that is why I was so happy to get her blog.

My newest sister-in-law is German - born and raised - and she has got me hooked on German food. We have a German fast food restaurant in our city that we frequent - which is why I nearly made the Homemade Doner from Adina's blog. I get doners all the time at the German restaurant. Everyone else usually gets the schnitzel. And speaking of schnitzel: Hunter Schnitzel, Oven Baked Schnitzel and Schnitzel Burgers, and Chicken Schnitzel with Potato Parmesan Crust are all on the to-make-eventually list. I had to hide that information from Nick because he would have wanted all of those in one week and then repeated until the end of time. He loves schnitzel! I also have to make this German Cheesecake very very soon.

It wasn't all about the German food though. I seriously considered these lovely Albanian Spinach Rolls - I have never worked with phyllo before and would love to tackle that. I have yet to make anything with rhubarb even though I grew up eating it all the time, so these recipes are on my list too: Blackberry Rhubarb Bread and Rhubarb Strawberry Jam.

But in the end, this German Beef Roulades recipe won and with good reason. Chantal (my sister-in-law) fixed us roulades when she came into town and we have been dying to have them again ever since.

These roulades are a pickle with onion wrapped in bacon, wrapped in steak, cooked in a delicious brown gravy. So basically they are amazing. They are typically served with mashed potatoes (Nick loves the gravy over the potatoes) and we served ours with asparagus on the side as well. They were so incredible. Yes, they are a little labor of love, but they are so worth it in the end.

Copycat McDonald's Cinnamelts #SecretRecipeClub

This fast food breakfast is the perfect quick homemade meal to start out the day!

Hello, friends! It's Secret Recipe Club reveal day once again. Since it is a five Monday month, we are having another Themed Reveal Day. Today's theme: BACK TO SCHOOL. We are focusing on quick meals for breakfast or dinner, after school snacks, and lunchbox goodies! I am so excited to see what the other SRCers have to share because this mom needs all the help I can get in the back to school area. In fact, today we have a girl scout meeting after school followed by a parent meeting. I need a quick dinner for tonight!!

I was assigned Cathleen's blog, A Taste of Madness. Cathleen is a teacher, math nerd, and dessert lover. She loves to try new things in the kitchen and out. I immediately hit up Cathleen's breakfast section because I struggle a lot with making breakfast for my kids during the week - although they love cereal and poptarts - and even school breakfast. I will be honest and say I was immediately drawn to the Starbucks Pumpkin Bread, but that is because it's my favorite breakfast. I get it just about every week at my grocery store because we have a Starbucks inside it.

But this wasn't about me (and I don't have the time nor am I willing to make a recipe that cooks for an hour in the morning - I am not a morning person), it was about my kids. Matt and Cami love cinnamon rolls and I knew they would love Cathleen's Copycat McDonald's Cinnamon Melts. So I didn't search past that. I knew this would be the one (although Cathleen has tons of great recipes that I encourage y'all to check out!).

I was so right! I made these and my kids finished the pan lickety split and then asked for me to make another one LOL. They were so fast to make and they were so good. I loved them just as much as they did. So simple, but seriously the best!

Pumpkin Pie Peanut Butter Cups

Move over peanut butter cups, fall is almost here and that means pumpkin is taking over!

That moment of panic when you realize that you signed up for the reveal day for the month and even pinned lots of recipes to try from your assigned blog and then didn't make anything...ACK! That was me this month. As some of y'all may know, I am the head honcho for the Secret Recipe Club. I do up all the assignments and am in charge of Group C (the group I am in), so I should be paying attention to what I am doing in the club. Whoops!

I was assigned to Sarah's blog, The Pajama Chef, this month and I picked out some really good recipes that I wanted to make. Sarah is a married mom to a sweet little boy and resides in Nashville (hi, neighbor to the west!). She has three kitties and loves to run and read!

I really wanted to make her Pretzel Rolls and that was actually my plan to begin with, but because I failed at remembering that I had recipes to make that I had picked out I went with the recipe that I had all the ingredients on hand for: Pumpkin Pie Peanut Butter Cups. I'm not too bummed about this because they were amazing, easy, and I loved them. I love Reese's, but adding pumpkin is just genius.

Some other recipes I had saved on my secret Pinterest board: Aunt Charlotte's Tex Mex Corn, The Best Egg Salad I've Ever Had, The Bestest Pizza Sauce Ever (I have never made my own and she says it isn't too tomato-y which makes me hopeful!), 1970s Style Tacos, Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan Praline Sauce, Coffee Blondies, Chewy Peanut Butter Brownies, and Healthy Crumb-Topped Zucchini Bread.

Pizza Buns #SecretRecipeClub

The perfect recipe for lunch or dinner - your family will thank you for these cheesy Pizza Buns!

It's time again for Secret Recipe Club reveal day for my group, Group C! What is Secret Recipe Club? It's a bunch of food bloggers separated into three groups that post once a month on a designated Monday. Each month, we are paired with another foodie from our group secretly (hence the name). We then pick a recipe (or two or more) from that blog and make it. On our reveal day, we reveal whose blog we had and what recipe(s) we chose all at the same time. It's like a Secret Santa every month, but with food and blogs! It's a great deal of fun :)

This month I had the pleasure of being assigned to Our Eating Habits run by Jamie. Jamie is a homeschooling mom of three who loves Christmas and Disney (can't say I blame her there! Two of my favorite things) plus she also has an epic mug collection to enjoy her morning coffee in. Although I've had to switch to decaf, my mug collection is what I would call epic too. It's honestly a problem for me to refrain from picking up new mugs - my coffee "hutch" doesn't have any room left in it.

I had absolutely no problem finding a recipe I wanted to make from Jamie's blog and I had actually put 4 or 5 on my meal plan for the month of June. So let me just share what made the list! There is the Saucy Pepper Steak which is a stir fry, Italian Meatball Heroes are actually our planned dinner for tonight, and I am always saving new chocolate chip cookie recipes, like this Biscoff Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe. Then there are these yummy Shepherd's Pie Loaded Baked Potatoes, Biscoff Muffins, and Nestle Delightfull Soft Peanut Butter Cookies. Honestly, I was really on a Biscoff kick...here's a third recipe: Biscoff Granola Bars. I know it isn't time for pumpkin yet, but I still saved this Double Pumpkin Poke Cake. I need to make this Butterscotch Swirl Cake and the Raspberry Dutch Baby.

Ultimately, I went with the Pizza Buns - although coincidentally I put her Mozzarella Caprese Omelets on my meal plan and was pleasantly surprised when I opened it up on my tablet to make it. That recipe will be posted at some point, but as I've said, today is all about the Pizza Buns. I immediately was drawn to them because it reminded me of something my elementary school served up for school lunch every once in a while. It was easy to make and a huge hit with the whole family! Just look at all that ooey gooey cheese! YES!

Grilled Corn with Garlic Butter & Lime #PicnicsandBBQs

Corn on the grill is good by itself, but is even better with garlic butter and lime!

So excited to be back for another Secret Recipe Club reveal day this month! What is Secret Recipe Club? It's a bunch of food bloggers separated into three groups that post once a month on a designated Monday. Each month, we are paired with another foodie from our group secretly (hence the name). We then pick a recipe (or two or more) from that blog and make it. On our reveal day, we reveal whose blog we had and what recipe(s) we chose all at the same time. It's like a Secret Santa every month, but with food and blogs! It's a great deal of fun :)

Today's reveal day is a themed reveal day since it's the 5th Monday of the month. It only happens every once in a while, so we are taking advantage of it and having a PICNICS AND BBQ reveal day today! All of the recipes will be perfect for the summer season.

I was assigned to Amy's blog: Amy's Cooking Adventures. Amy is a married mom of two boys and an angel baby girl. I didn't know this about Amy until I read her about me, but she didn't really get into cooking until her oldest boy was eating table food. She posts such amazing food all the time and is incredibly talented at cookie and cake decorating - I had no idea that she wasn't a "Susie Homemaker" from the get-go. She's also our SRC pinner and is almost always the first person to jump in and adopt an orphaned blog. I was really pumped to get her blog and knew I would have no problems finding a great recipe or two to make.

I narrowed my list down to three contenders: Grilled Corn with Garlic Butter & Lime, Lemon Cream Pie, and Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Cauliflower with Bacon. I really really really wanted to make the brussels but we ended up doing a grilling family dinner one weekend and I figured my best bet was the corn. I am disappointed that I didn't go with the lemon cream pie because that was going to be the "stepping out of my comfort zone" recipe. I don't really make lemon desserts ever. But I used to not make savory dishes with lemon either. So grilled corn happened!!

Corn on the cob on the grill is one of my all-time favorite things and I knew this recipe would be a keeper. I sent Nick to the store to grab the ingredients and when he got home, I realized there were no fresh chives. Apparently, someone thought chives and green onions were the same plant. So a google war began and I was right (duh!), green onions and chives are not the same plant. I think he was thinking scallions and green onions. We did use a little freeze-dried chives in the recipe, but I would love to try fresh chives next time we make it. The garlic butter was amazing, as was the Parmesan cheese, and the lime really just added the perfect kick of flavor to the corn. We were all in love with this recipe!

Cherry Cheesecake Frozen Yogurt #SecretRecipeClub

It's time again for Secret Recipe Club reveal day for my new group, Group C! What is Secret Recipe Club? It's a bunch of food bloggers separated into three groups that post once a month on a designated Monday. Each month, we are paired with another foodie from our group secretly (hence the name). We then pick a recipe (or two or more) from that blog and make it. On our reveal day, we reveal whose blog we had and what recipe(s) we chose all at the same time. It's like a Secret Santa every month, but with food and blogs! It's a great deal of fun :)

Group D kept getting smaller and smaller and the other groups were also starting to shrink, so we decided it was time to go back to 3 groups until we need the 4th group again. With that shift, I moved to Group C and also took over the hostess duties for Debbi, who has been very busy lately - so it worked out well for both of us! I'm very excited to get a new set of bloggers to visit and feature for reveal days.

This month, I was assigned to Group C member, Sara. She blogs at Cook With Sara - let me just say that I have had the hardest time making sure I didn't add the "h" at the end. Sara - do Saras without the "h" refer to it as the right way to spell it? Because that's what I always do - Sarah with an "h" is the right way :P I digress, Sara describes herself as a Midwestern girl with a love for food and cooking. She learned how to cook and bake from a young age from her mom and focuses on making old and new recipes with mostly every day ingredients. And I love that! I knew from the get-go that I would have no trouble finding a recipe to make on Sara's blog. I decided upon the Cherry Cheesecake Frozen Yogurt because I love frozen yogurt and have only made a few recipes. Two, if I remember correctly.

I definitely went the sweets route when looking for recipes, so before I talk about the froyo, let me discuss the other recipes I almost made. Prepare yourselves because this is about to be a lot of recipes. I saved Pineapple Sorbet, Caramel Toffee Crunch Cheesecake, Caramel Macchiato Cheesecake, White Chocolate and Macadamia Blondies, Peach Cobbler Bars, Cookie Butter Blondies with White Chocolate Chips, Butterscotch Cashew Bars, Carrot Quick Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting, Peach Cobbler Coffeecake, Blueberry Oatmeal Bread, Bananas Foster Bread, Lucky Charms Chex Mix, and Blackberry Rhubarb Bread. As you can see, I had a hard time choosing a recipe...like a really hard time. But since I had only made froyo twice, I had to make her froyo!

Best decision ever!! I only made some slight adjustments. Instead of plain yogurt, I used vanilla yogurt and I couldn't find any fresh cherries, so I resorted to a mix of frozen, pitted cherries from Kroger's Private Selection brand. I thawed them a little bit and then chopped them. I had no problem with the recipe with those adjustments and I froze it overnight. It was so lovely. It literally tasted just like cherry cheesecake. It was super rich though, so you can't really overindulge on it even though it's a little healthier than ice cream. It got huge thumbs up from everyone in the family. You would never know it was frozen yogurt, so it could definitely trick a few folks who may think froyo sounds weird. I'm convinced it could turn a froyo hater (if that is such a thing) into a froyo lover!! :) Thanks, Sara, for the awesome recipe. I cannot wait to try more of the recipes on your blog!

Lemon Chicken Stir Fry #SecretRecipeClub

It's time again for Secret Recipe Club reveal day for my group, Group D! It will also be the last Group D reveal for a while. We have dwindled down in numbers over the past few years, so we are condensing down to three groups again until we need a fourth group again. So what is Secret Recipe Club? It's a bunch of food bloggers separated into four three groups that post once a month on a designated Monday. Each month, we are paired with another foodie from our group secretly (hence the name). We then pick a recipe (or two or more) from that blog and make it. On our reveal day, we reveal whose blog we had and what recipe(s) we chose all at the same time. It's like a Secret Santa every month, but with food and blogs! It's a great deal of fun :)

This month, my assignment was Nicola's blog: Lemon and Cheese. Nicola is a London librarian who loves simple recipes with fresh ingredients. She is brand new to Secret Recipe Club, so I was excited to get her blog before all the Group D members disperse among the other three groups. Guess what her favorite foods are? If you guessed lemon and cheese, you are SO right! When I told Nick that was her blog name, he immediately smiled and said he really liked that name. We, of course, love lemons and cheese, too.

I had quite a few recipes saved and wasn't sure what I was going to go with. Then my month escaped me and I knew I was going to have to go the main dish route. I ended up choosing her Lemon Chicken Stir Fry because I wanted to pay homage to her blog name. It was absolutely the right choice. In her blog post, Nicola mentioned that she had made the original recipe with more lemon in it. So I took her recipe and doubled the lemon juice and I would have to say that it was just the right amount for us! We just loved it. I do hope that I can try her Thai Chicken Stir Fry, Potato & Leek Gratin, and Tandoori Chicken soon too.

Garbage Plate #SecretRecipeClub

It's time again for Secret Recipe Club reveal day for my group, Group D! What is Secret Recipe Club? It's a bunch of food bloggers separated into four groups that post once a month on a designated Monday. Each month, we are paired with another foodie from our group secretly (hence the name). We then pick a recipe (or two or more) from that blog and make it. On our reveal day, we reveal whose blog we had and what recipe(s) we chose all at the same time. It's like a Secret Santa every month, but with food and blogs! It's a great deal of fun :)

This month I was assigned to Erin's blog, The Spiffy Cookie. Because I have been in Group D for so long, I'm getting blogs I have already had once before...which it totally fine by me. It's rare that I go to a blog and only pick ONE recipe. Most of the time, I have to narrow it down significantly. I followed Erin's blog long before I joined the SRC and still love her taste in foods - because it's so much like mine. I had once again had one of her recipes on my monthly meal plan already, so I didn't really have to hunt through recipes to pick one. HOWEVER, I have to share some of her more recent recipes that are on my to-try list: Shepherd's Pie Potato Skins, Breakfast Quinoa Burrito Bowls, BBQ Bacon Mango Pizza, Peach Cinnamon Rolls, and Pineapple Cranberry Zucchini Bread.

The recipe I had on my meal plan was for Homemade Garbage Plates. Years and years and years ago, while watching some sort of foodie show, we saw Garbage Plates that were in Rochester, New York. We only went to Rochester once while living in New York for 7 years...to get Nick's Grand Prix GXP. Unfortunately because it was such a long drive and the process to get the car was a few hours, we didn't go out to get a Garbage Plate while we were there.

Now that we're back down south, we really don't want to go back to New York, so a copycat will have to suffice. What is a Garbage Plate? A Garbage Plate consists of: your choice of two hamburgers, cheeseburgers, red hots (hot dogs), white hots (hot dogs), chicken tenders, haddock, fried ham, grilled cheese, or eggs. Then you choose two sides: home fries, French fries, baked beans, or macaroni salad. It's served topped with a beef sauce (dubbed "hot sauce") that has been slow-simmered plus mustard and onion - and you put two pieces of buttered Italian bread on the side.

What I learned from my experience...this is A LOT of food. You may want to half the portions. You'll never finish it. I tried so hard to do it, but I couldn't. I subbed macaroni and cheese for macaroni salad because none of us eat macaroni salad. We did cheeseburgers and home fries with ONE piece of Italian bread. The "hot sauce" totally reminds me of Skyline chili - it has some similar spices, but not all of the same ones. I will most definitely make these again - I think they would be great for a family get-together because we have a huge family and it has all sorts of wonderful things on the plate! Thank you, Erin, for posting such an awesome recipe - we really loved it :)

Waffles & Eggs with Creamy Sage Sauce #SecretRecipeClub

It's time again for Secret Recipe Club reveal day for my group, Group D! What is Secret Recipe Club? It's a bunch of food bloggers separated into four groups that post once a month on a designated Monday. Each month, we are paired with another foodie from our group secretly (hence the name). We then pick a recipe (or two or more) from that blog and make it. On our reveal day, we reveal whose blog we had and what recipe(s) we chose all at the same time. It's like a Secret Santa every month, but with food and blogs! It's a great deal of fun :)

Today, I am sharing a recipe from one of my "newer" members, Wendy. Wendy and her husband, Frank, are retired cops that moved from the big city to a farm with 12 acres of land. They raise lots of animals and participate in their local Community Sponsored Agriculture program. Wendy is a great storyteller and posts a variety of topics on her blog, not exclusive to some wonderful recipes. I love reading her posts and love having her in Group D! You can find out more about her and her family: here.

I had several recipes pinned from her blog within a matter of minutes, like this Corned Beef & Cabbage Soup, Pumpkin Praline Pancakes because pumpkin, this Milky Way Bundt Cake that looks crazy good, if I could find good rhubarb this Rhubarb Berry Coffee Cake would have been my SRC pick, and Ham Vegetable Barley Soup since I've never had barley before. I was proud of myself for finding more meal recipes rather than dessert ones and will definitely be making each and every one of these recipes from Wendy's blog at some point.

In the end, I couldn't stop thinking about Wendy's Waffles Benedict with Creamy Sage Sauce. I have never poached eggs and I rarely eat eggs with runny yolks unless I'm really craving them, so I modified the recipe and made a fried egg. I recently cleaned out my spices and tossed those that were past their "best by" date - p.s. it's a good idea to look at your dates on your spices because they lose their oomph after a while. I ended up not having ground mustard OR rubbed sage in my pantry. Thankfully, I had a pack of fresh poultry herbs that contained sage that was still in decent shape. I was going to put 1/4 a teaspoon of ground mustard with a teaspoon or so of honey in place of the honey mustard in the original recipe. I still used honey, but also did a squirt of just plain yellow mustard. My last modification was to use some ham steak that I had in my fridge instead of deli sliced ham. :)

All-in-all, this recipe turned out SO WELL! The waffles were amazing - cheese, ham, and sage in them...YES!!! I also could not get enough of that creamy sage sauce. It was hard for me to not grab the ladle and sip the sauce right out of it. I had a little leftover and I think I may fry up an egg and toast a piece of bread and serve the sauce over the top of it. My mom used to make creamed eggs and the creamy sage sauce really reminded me of that. Thank you, Wendy, for sharing such an incredible recipe!!

Butterscotch Butter Rum Pudding Cookies #SRCHolidayTreats

It's time again for Secret Recipe Club reveal day - this one is an extra reveal day with a theme! What is Secret Recipe Club? It's a bunch of food bloggers separated into four groups that post once a month on a designated Monday. Each month, we are paired with another foodie from our group secretly (hence the name). We then pick a recipe (or two or more) from that blog and make it. On our reveal day, we reveal whose blog we had and what recipe(s) we chose all at the same time. It's like a Secret Santa every month, but with food and blogs! It's a great deal of fun :)

This week is an extra week, so we are enjoying it by getting together to do a no-group-restricted, themed reveal day. The theme is HOLIDAY TREATS. I naturally decided upon cookies. Holidays to me are all about the cookies. Any kind and every kind. My assignment was Wildflour's Cottage Kitchen by Group B member, Kelly. Kelly lives in New Jersey with her husband and super adorable Snowshoe Siamese kitty, Gilbert (go see his pictures on the about me page). I am a sucker for those snowshoes - they are too precious! Kelly has run her own catering business for over 20 years now :) I tell you what, these Secret Recipe Club members never cease to amaze me. They are all such incredible people.

I had no problems narrowing down the cookie recipe I wanted to make, but be sure to stop by Kelly's blog and look at the immense wealth of recipes she has posted. There are too many good ones to choose from ordinarily. One cookie recipe stood out to me right off the bat and that was the Salted White Chocolate & Butter Rum Pudding Cookies with pecans. Nick LOVES butterscotch and he loves rum and I love pudding cookies. So it was really a no-brainer.

I only slightly adapted Kelly's recipe because I couldn't find butter rum extract. I also was so excited about getting these done that I completely forgot to salt them. But I assure you, still so tasty, cannot be beat. Perfection, y'all, perfection.

Berliners #SecretRecipeClub

It's time again for Secret Recipe Club reveal day for my group, Group D! What is Secret Recipe Club? It's a bunch of food bloggers separated into four groups that post once a month on a designated Monday. Each month, we are paired with another foodie from our group secretly (hence the name). We then pick a recipe (or two or more) from that blog and make it. On our reveal day, we reveal whose blog we had and what recipe(s) we chose all at the same time. It's like a Secret Santa every month, but with food and blogs! It's a great deal of fun :)

This month I was assigned to Tara of Tara's Multicultural Table. I have been looking forward to having Tara's blog because I wanted to be a little adventurous. Tara's blog boasts so many different cuisines from Filipino to Greek to Australian and everything in between. I suppose I could have gone and done something more out of my comfort zone, but I was definitely intrigued by the picture for European cuisine on her recipe index [see here].

I did still pick out a few others as a back up, in case I royally screwed up the European recipe. There is Gnocchi Parisienne [French], Lemon Sage Chicken, and Loco Moco [Hawaiian]. Arme Riddere [Norwegian] was almost my pick, but I wasn't sure fresh strawberries would be any good at the store. In the end, I chose the German Berliners. They are these fabulous little German doughnuts, but I must direct you to Tara's post because she talks all about the traditions of Karneval where fried foods, like Berliners, are popular.

Tara had talked about different fillings for these fried pastries, including chocolate and different jams, and that is where I put my little spin on it and used Nutella for my filling. They turned out wonderfully. I used my deep fryer, so they cooked more quickly than if I had done it in a pan..so it really just depends on your method as to how quickly they cook. I always keep an eye on food when I fry it because it's one of those things where one minute they are almost done and you turn back to them and they are way way too fried!

Nacho Cheeseburgers #SecretRecipeClub

It's time again for Secret Recipe Club reveal day for my group, Group D! What is Secret Recipe Club? It's a bunch of food bloggers separated into four groups that post once a month on a designated Monday. Each month, we are paired with another foodie from our group secretly (hence the name). We then pick a recipe (or two or more) from that blog and make it. On our reveal day, we reveal whose blog we had and what recipe(s) we chose all at the same time. It's like a Secret Santa every month, but with food and blogs! It's a great deal of fun :)

This month I was assigned to a Group D veteran, Nicole, of I Am A Honeybee. Her about me makes me a happy person. I need to do mine up with some random facts about me. It makes me feel so much more connected to Nicole - like for example, we both get anxious opening presents in front of people. Glad I'm not alone there! Nicole has an almost 2 year old daughter, Autumn, who is a cutie patootie! AND she just got married and her wedding pictures are SO BEAUTIFUL. I especially loved their cocktail hour pictures - a lot of candid shots and it looks like such a happy occasion.

Anyways...I went to Nicole's blog to look for food and I decided to either do a burger recipe or a pizza recipe. I immediately found my recipe: Nacho Cheeseburgers (but please, do stop by and see Nicole's other fabulous recipes here) - yes, NACHO CHEESEBURGERS. Then I actually looked at the recipe and was even more excited! I've been a guacamole kick lately - even though no one else in the house eats it - and I was so happy that I had an excuse to get some for a dinner recipe and no one else had to pout about having to eat it. I got to have the guac all to myself :) I noted in the instructions how my burgers stuck a little to my pan, so I will use my griddle next time. However, despite the slight sticking - these burgers were so good. Nick looked at me like I was crazy when he saw the beans in the burger mix, but he was pleasantly surprised. They add a little texture to the burger and you get a hint of a bean taste, but it's not overwhelming and doesn't take away from the burger taste. I loved the crunch of the chips in there too :) Thanks, Nicole, for a very yummy recipe that will absolutely be a regular on burger night!

Blackberry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream #SecretRecipeClub

It's time again for Secret Recipe Club reveal day for my group, Group D! What is Secret Recipe Club? It's a bunch of food bloggers separated into four groups that post once a month on a designated Monday. Each month, we are paired with another foodie from our group secretly (hence the name). We then pick a recipe (or two or more) from that blog and make it. On our reveal day, we reveal whose blog we had and what recipe(s) we chose all at the same time. It's like a Secret Santa every month, but with food and blogs! It's a great deal of fun :)

This month I was assigned to Group D (and Secret Recipe Club) newbie, Amber of Caleigh's Kitchen. Amber & her husband, Doug, live in Texas - as she states, so far east that they go to Louisiana for a good meal. Her blog name came from her very adorable Border Collie/Australian Shepherd mix pup, Caleigh, who is always in the kitchen with Amber. And everywhere else, too! Not only does Amber have an adorable pup, but also a super cute 3 year old, Kirkley. All together, the four of them are just so cute!!

I went a little broad with my recipe hunting this time and I picked out four recipes to choose my final recipe from: Smokey Poblano Salsa...errr, chili! Her post had me cracking up about the salsa. And the roasted ingredients...YUM! Then there's Honey Glazed Sweet Skillet Cornbread because I have recently had two cornbread fiascos...one was basically yellow cake with a tiny bit of that cornmeal grit and the other was raw no matter how much I cooked it :/ Deer Camp Cabbage just looked too good NOT to try and I will be trying it very soon.

In the end, the blackberry ice cream won out. I have been trying to make more ice cream this summer because last September, Nick bought me an ice cream maker attachment for my KitchenAid and I already feel guilty enough about never having used the pasta attachment he got me years ago for Christmas...or the meat grinder attachment he got me this year for Christmas. Oopsies. Lately, our berries at Kroger have been on point, so I knew I wanted to make the ice cream out of the four recipes. I tried with no success to get mine the lovely purple (even mashed the berries), but at best, it got a slight greyish purple color. I added some mini semisweet chocolate chips in there as well. Next time I make it, I want to try and make a blackberry "syrup" - basically cook down the blackberries with the sugar and lemon and refrigerate it and make this a swirl ice cream. Possibly with no chocolate chips.

Regardless of the color it turned out, it's still an incredibly tasty ice cream. It's smooth and the right amount of fruity. I also really enjoyed the mini chocolate chips. They complimented the blackberry perfectly!

Thank you, Amber, for a perfectly summer frozen treat - we cannot wait to try the chili, cornbread, and cabbage!

Fiesta Queso Burritos #SecretRecipeClub

It's time again for Secret Recipe Club reveal day for my group, Group D! What is Secret Recipe Club? It's a bunch of food bloggers separated into four groups that post once a month on a designated Monday. Each month, we are paired with another foodie from our group secretly (hence the name). We then pick a recipe (or two or more) from that blog and make it. On our reveal day, we reveal whose blog we had and what recipe(s) we chose all at the same time. It's like a Secret Santa every month, but with food and blogs! It's a great deal of fun :)

This month, I was assigned to Kate's blog, The Colbert Clan. As always, I picked out my recipes first and then read the about me, which I promptly got sucked into. Kate is, without a doubt, a strong lady. Within a year's time, she had her first child who was born 2 months early and lost her husband. Kate tells both these stories on her blog. Fast forwarding to now, she is remarried and is a mom of three. She has a beautiful family!

I pinned a few recipes to try that include: Cheesy Pesto Pull Apart Bread [pesto is life!], 3 Cheese Chicken Alfredo [hello, three cheeses?!], Doritos Taco Salad [I just think this is a good idea], Samoa Bars [because Nick loves them], and Caramelitas [I've always wanted to try them]. In the end, I chose her Fiesta Queso Burrito recipe because I needed something for Taco Tuesday!

This recipe is very filling and oh so good! I had to swap the queso Kate used for one that I could find/knew of, which is Laughing Cow's Creamy Queso Fresco Chipotle Cheese. It with the Rotel added a bit of heat to the recipe. I was also impressed with how well they reheated the next day. I typically will not eat anything soft shell reheated, but these were on point!