Peanut Butter Easter Eggs

Peanut butter and chocolate. You know the combination. It's one of the best there is. And I can't get enough of it. No one needs to know the amount of Reese's products I have consumed in my lifetime. I used to eat the Fast Break bars for breakfast in college. Let's just leave it at that.

Around Easter, Reese's comes out with its signature peanut butter cups in the form of peanut butter eggs. I'm usually all over them, but this year I decided to make my own. My family has long made peanut butter squares and peanut butter balls to adorn cookie plates at Christmastime, so I took that recipe and rolled with it -- or rather, made Easter eggs with it.

Spring Petits Fours

When we moved into our house, there was a box labeled "muffin tins" that I gave Jeff a hard time about. He had done all the packing for our move, and while I appreciated everything he did, there were definitely things I would have done differently -- like not packing my iPod away. So when I saw the muffin tins box, I questioned whether an entire box was truly necessary for muffin tins. Well, apparently it was. I had an open-mouth-insert-foot moment when we opened the box and found two regular muffin tins, two mini muffin tins, a pumpkin cakelet pan, an acorn cakelet pan, mini Bundt pans, mini tube pans, a popover pan, and my petits fours pan. Who knew I had so many muffin tins? The crazy thing is that I use them all too. I love breaking out my petits fours pan in the spring. Something about the flower-shaped cakes it produces just seems perfect for this time of year.

Dark Chocolate Fudge With Cadbury Mini Eggs And Sea Salt

Cadbury Mini Eggs are my absolute favorite Easter candy. Instead of just eating them straight out the bag as I usually do, I decided to make an Easter treat with them and came up a rich dark chocolate fudge that pairs nicely with the crunchy shells and milk chocolate centers.

Whole Grain Sampling Day Giveaway

Did you know that April 3 is Whole Grain Sampling Day? What is that, you ask? It's an opportunity for consumers everywhere to try more whole grains, as supermarkets, manufacturers, restaurants, and other foodservice outlets all pitch in to lower the barriers to sampling whole grains.

Whole Grain Sampling Day was created by Oldways and the Whole Grains Council to show consumers how delicious whole grains can be, to encourage chefs to make whole grains an everyday offering, and to give manufacturers a chance to tout their whole grain goods.

Trying Joan Nathan's Brisket Recipe

My first experience with brisket (besides corned beef brisket, which I've eaten every St. Patrick's Day for as long as I can remember) was the first time Jeff brought me home to meet his family. It was Rosh Hashanah (back in 2008). This was also my first time experiencing a Jewish holiday, potato kugel, and homemade challah bread. I won't say the evening wasn't intimidating -- Jeff has two sisters and a brother, and all of them have significant others and kids, so there were a lot of people there -- but I look back on that day and remember it as the first day I met my now in-laws and am amazed at how life just happens.

But anyways, back to the brisket. My mother-in-law had made brisket as part of dinner (I've come to learn that she makes it for every holiday and it's always popular), and of course I had to try it. She makes hers with mushrooms, potatoes, carrots, and onions, and I really enjoyed it. These days, I'm right there with everyone fighting for the platter when it gets set on the table.