We're pretty basic when it comes to side dishes but during the holidays I try and step it up a little bit. Usually I take something that we normally like and just elevate it a touch. We do lots of bread and rolls so a step up would be these Easy Popovers. All you need is six ingredients, eggs, milk, butter, flour, salt and shortening. You definitely want to use whole milk and you want to let your eggs come to room temperature. I like to make the batter in a 4 cup Pyrex because it makes pouring the batter out super easy. First up, preheat the oven to 450. You want it screaming hot when you pop the pan in. Then beat the eggs. I just use my silicon whisk but you could use a hand mixer. You could actually make the whole batter in the blender if you like, just be sure not to over process it. Next up, add the milk and the melted butter and whisk them well. Add the flour and salt and whisk together. Small lumps are okay, you just don't want big clumps of unmixed dry ingredien
V is for Vanilla Bean Paste! This year I'm participating in a bi-weekly challenge with some blogging friends to post recipes using all of the letters in the alphabet. It can feature a food that begins with the letter of the week or the recipe name can contain the week's letter. When it came time to choose this week's recipe I had two things steering the way- I was craving cake and my wonderful friend had gifted me some Bourbon Vanilla Bean Paste. I didn't want the hassle of making a whole cake so I grabbed this Vanilla Mug Cake recipe from the Taste of Home site. First, spray the mug with cooking spray and then add the "wet" ingredients, milk, melted butter, and an egg yolk. My first attempt the butter was still really warm and the milk very cold so it was difficult to get it all to come together. The second try I cooled the butter slightly and used room temperature milk. Add in the room temperature egg yolk and this is the time to add the flavorin