Best Desserts of 2013

I'm joining up with SnoWhite today in her Countdown to 2013 - Best Desserts.  

As you probably already know, desserts are my favorite food category.  Both to make and to eat. And I've made some really terrific ones this year.

So here we go, in no particular order:

Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes

Surprisingly easy and fast to throw together, yet so elegant and scrumptious, especially with a dollop of fresh whipped cream.  

Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Layer Cake

My birthday cake - simply fantastic.  I might just have to have a repeat next year. 

Brownies with Browned Butter Frosting

The ones Grant declared his FAVORITE brownies ever.  

Snickers Peanut Butter Pie

Fudge pie, peanut butter nougat, caramel, peanuts, chocolate drizzle, and chopped snickers. 

My 6 year old still talks about this pie (that I made in March) and begs me to make it again.  It was truly fabulous.  

Turtle Brownies

Because you can never go wrong with brownies stuffed with caramel, chocolate chips, and pecans.  Yum!

Strawberry Dream Cake

With strawberries in the cake and the frosting, and nary a drop of food coloring in sight, it's a perfectly delightful spring or summer cake.  And I have to add that the cream cheese frosting tastes almost like rich strawberry ice cream. It's amazing. 

Soft and Chewy Double Chocolate M&M Cookies

Quite possibly the best chocolate cookie I've ever had.  

Chocolate Chip Chocolate Cheesecake Bites

Chocolate crust, chocolate cheesecake, and a cookie dough topping.  All in a little bite-sized piece. 

Perfect. 

Chocolate Velvet Dessert

It's like having a chocolate truffle, in a slice.  Rich and completely decadent.  And worth every calorie. 

Pineapple Pie

If you've never tried pineapple pie, you just have to do it.  It's awesome.  One of my dad's very favorites. 

Triangle Delights - 

Think Hello-Dolly Bars mixed with Toffee and S'mores.  Yeah.  Utterly delicious.   

Countdown to 2013 - Best Desserts of 2012

I suppose it comes as no surprise to anyone who frequents my blog that this is my favorite, and largest by far, recipe category.

I thoroughly enjoyed looking back over all the sweets I've made this year and remembering how much we enjoyed each one.  These are listed in chronological order of when they were made during the year, by the -way.

Chocolate Layer Cake with Cheesecake Filling
This was the cake I made for my dear friend Ellen's birthday.  I created it especially for her because she loves almonds and chocolate.  Her birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks and I can't make her a cake again, since we've moved 1300 miles away. Makes me sad. I miss you, Ellen.  

Melting Snowman Cookies

These are seriously some of the most fun cookies I've ever made.  Seeing childrens' reactions to them is priceless.

Mixed Berry Pie

Even though I'm still not very good at making pie crust, this pie is beautiful and scrumptious.  Made for Grant, because it's his favorite kind of pie.

Triple Layer Fudgy Mint Cookie Brownies
These are dangerous.  Oh, so dangerous.  And perfect for St. Patrick's Day.  Or any day.  

Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
More green, minty chocolately goodness!  I adored these so much.  

Black Bean Brownies
These aren't the best brownies in the world, but they are really so tasty and people will never guess they have  beans in them.  I promise.  My family can eat a pan of them in one meal.  And we don't feel too guilty about it, because we're eating beans, after all.  

Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Cheesecake
My creation for my birthday.....it was totally amazing and just as good as I had imagined it would be.  

Oreo Cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting
I finally gave Swiss meringue buttercream frosting a try and was so delighted at how fabulous these turned out.  My friends couldn't stop talking about how good the cupcakes were, especially the frosting.  

Blackberry White Chocolate Cheesecake
One of our favorite cheesecakes.  The blackberry sauce is just a perfect complement to the creamy white chocolate cheesecake.  

Chocolate Fudge Swirl Peanut Butter Ice Cream
The ice cream that I basically hid away and ate when the kids weren't around, hoping they'd forget I had made it. They didn't. 

Chocolate Raspberry Pie
This is a fantastic pie.....Grant loves raspberries and chocolate, so this was one of his top-ranked desserts of the year.

Oreo Cheesecake Cake
Our anniversary cake.  Beyond delicious.....Grant declared it his favorite dessert ever.

Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
These were my favorite new cookies of the year.  I could.not.stop eating them.

Mallow Brownie Bars
Brownies, marshmallows, and chocolate peanut butter crispy rice topping - hard to beat that.  

Double Chocolate Beet Cake

I know, I know.....beets in a cake?  But truly, you can't taste them at all, and they add such an incredible moistness (and lots of nutrition) to the cake.  We loved it.

Fauxstess Cupcakes
Who doesn't like biting into a cupcake and discovering a luscious, creamy filling?
A remake of the classic packaged treat, but SO much better.


Head on over to Finding Joy in my Kitchen to see more incredible desserts for her Countdown!

Countdown to 2013 - Best Snacks/Appetizers of 2012

I am really enjoying participating in the Countdown - as usual.  It's so fun - and enlightening - to look back over the recipes of the year and see which ones have become family favorites, and I'm also seeing which food categories are sadly lacking in many new options. (Like the Soup/Bread category for me).  

Well, I won't be lacking in the category for tomorrow.  Can you guess what that is???

Pizza Rolls
These are so fun for people to eat - especially for kids.  They're a perfect food for a birthday party or a game night and any leftovers reheat wonderfully.  I'm sure they'd freeze well also.  

Cinnabon Popcorn

Yeah.  It's as good as it sounds.  I could eat this stuff all day long.

White Chocolate Popcorn

A fun variation on caramel corn, it's very popular with folks and makes great gifts.

Mini-Pretzel Dogs
I can't even tell you how excited my family gets when they hear I'm making these.  Especially Grant!

Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Tortilla Chips
I love how fresh and healthy the fruit salsa is, and the homemade cinnamon chips are a great accompaniment or just a tasty snack on their own.  You can always buy some cinnamon sugar pita chips if you're short on time.


If you want to see other bloggers' favorites from this year, check out Finding Joy in my Kitchen's Countdown Series! 

Countdown to 2013 - Best Main Dishes of 2012

The Countdown continues......

These are some of the favorite new dinners that have come out of my kitchen this year.
Each of them is pretty low fuss.....simple ingredients, fairly quick prep time, and very delicious.

Interestingly, I think the one that I can rely on all of my children eating with no complaints the most often is the Mexican Bean Casserole. And it's vegetarian.  That's pretty cool.

Cheesy Bacon Lentils

Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken and Biscuits

Mexican Bean Casserole

Chicken Fajitas with Homemade Seasoning

Crockpot Fiesta Chicken

Don't forget to head over to Finding Joy in My Kitchen for more main dish favorites!

Countdown to 2013 - Best Soups/Breads of 2012

I haven't made a lot of new soups or breads this year - and one of our new favorites hasn't made it to the blog yet - but this soup is definitely a hit in our house.  It's nutritious, frugal, and the whole family loves it.

I made it a couple of weeks ago for dinner here at my parents' house and they enjoyed it also, along with my sister-in-law and nephew.

It's a winner for us.

Sausage Lentil Soup

I just realized that you can see my warped, upside-down reflection in the spoon.  Ha.

Be sure to head over to Finding Joy in my Kitchen to see more Soup and Bread favorites.

Countdown to 2013 - Best Breakfast Recipes of 2012

It's Countdown time!

Every year, my blogging friend SnoWhite hosts a Countdown to the New Year starting December 26 with a theme for each day, highlighting favorite recipes from the past year in different categories.

I love participating - hopefully I'll get at least something posted every day.

Breakfast is such an important part of my day - I always eat breakfast and just cannot function well without it.  My only problem with breakfast is that my favorite meal category, dessert, isn't served.  

My solution for that?

Make desserts that can qualify as breakfast!

Yeah.  Works for me.

So these are my favorite breakfast recipes from the past year, and yes, they all are a bit on the sweet side.  Big surprise.

Overnight Berry Coffee Cake

French Toast Casserole

Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Simple Scones - Cherry Almond Version

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

My favorite

Come back tomorrow to see the Best Soup/Bread recipes!!  

And head over to Finding Joy in my Kitchen to see other bloggers' favorites as well.  

Countdown to 2012: Best Dessert Recipes of 2011

Just like last year, I couldn't possibly choose only one dessert to highlight, but at least I managed to keep it to ten instead of fourteen.  Of course, that's probably because I just didn't get to bake as much this year.  

Cake of Roses

This cake just makes me happy.  It's feminine, beautiful, elegant, yet so simple to decorate.  And it tasted fabulous. Three layers of moist chocolate cake, with raspberry filling and chocolate mousse filling, frosted with raspberry butter cream.  It was amazing.  

Super Soft Sugar Cookies

The best. sugar. cookies. ever. 

Candy Bar Cookie Bars

Rich and decadent, chocolatey and peanutty, I found these bars impossible to resist.

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

We could not believe how awesome these were.  They inspired the Cake of Roses mentioned above.

Strawberry Ice Cream

When my chocolate-loving husband said he actually preferred this ice cream, I knew we had a winner.

Gooey Cookies and Cream Chocolate Cake Bars

Very easy to throw together and sure to gather compliments wherever you take them, these are a huge crowd pleaser with tons of chocolate and oreos.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars with Streusel Topping

I love caramel.  I love apples.  I love cheesecake.  And don't even get me started on streusel. 

All together?  Awesomeness. 

Very Chocolate Ice Cream

So so smooth and creamy.  The perfect chocolate ice cream.

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies

Yeah, we like the never-old raspberries and chocolate combination.  These bar treats are just wonderful.

Fruit Pizza

Fruit pizzas are so simple, but so delicious.  My kids have been begging me to make this for months, despite my explanation that we can't get good fresh strawberries at this time of year.  It is seriously one of the top-requested recipes around here.

Be sure to check out Finding Joy in my Kitchen for more collections of Dessert Favorites!