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Get ready to WOW your guests! This churro ice cream was such a HIT this past weekend. It starts with a traditional custard infused with cinnamon and ends with store bought churros served warm right on top. It is chef’s kiss!

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This past weekend, we hosted a small cinco de mayo-inspired dinner party. The meal came together so beautifully and I really loved the details in the tablescape! It was simple, but felt elevated and not cheesy.

One of my favorite details were the tomatillos on each setting! I found these Hearth & Hand plates (dinner size, salad size) from Target and paired with some napkins from the H&H collection last year. I loved the way the blue combined with the terracotta hue dishes. Here is a similar option from this season’s collection and another, as well as sets from Williams Sonoma and Anthropologie I love.

And for the menu!

Appetizer: Blue chips with pineapple salsa, restaurant-style salsa, and a dressed up store bought guacamole

Mains:

Marinated seared flank steak and lime cilantro shrimp tacos with various toppings

Black bean salad and a salad with sliced tomatoes, avocado, pickled onions, salt and olive oil

Pan con Tomate

Arroz con verde

Dessert: homemade churro ice cream topped with freshly baked churros

Can I just tell you this recipe has been on the list to make for the blog for literally almost 5 years? It’s inspired by the French toast we had on the Tahitian leg of our honeymoon, which will have been 5 years ago come September!

This French toast recipe uses French bread instead of a more transitional bread choice, which is just how we had it on our honeymoon. The combination of vanilla and cinnamon melting into the custardy goodness that soaks into the bread is just a *slice* of heaven.

Every year, I look forward to picking out a Christmas tree and decorating it – preferably the day after Thanksgiving. This year, I convinced hubby it was completely acceptable to get and decorate a tree a week early – Thanksgiving was late, right?!

I love the tradition of hanging up Christmas ornaments, especially the ones that have become sentimental. Some of my first ones from childhood, some that I purchase each year since we’ve had our home, and ones that we’ve collected from trips. Ornaments are my favorite way to commemorate a vacation – it’s a great way to bring something home that doesn’t add to clutter, but still gives you the chance to reminisce. We now have one whole section of the tree dedicated just to ornaments from our favorite places!

I tend to gravitate towards ball ornaments, and usually a metallic, clear or white bauble. I love the way they sparkle! But I am 100% a sucker for food ornaments, too!

Here are my top ten favorite ornaments for all the food-lovers in your life!

If you asked me to pick one drink for the rest of my life, I think I’d have to go with margaritas. I mean, they’re so versatile so if you chose margaritas you’d have basically endless possibilities. As solid as picking tacos or pizza for your one food, right?

For cinco de mayo, I obviously couldn’t not serve margaritas, right? Plus, margaritas are a perfect cocktail for a crowd. You can whip up a pitcher so easily, taste and adjust as necessary and guests can serve themselves. I’ll be honest, I set out to make a good ol’ skinny margarita using OJ instead of triple sec or cointreau. Then, I really just went for that orange-forward flavor. They were deeeeelish!

Oh, guys. Get ready. This is the easiest dessert EVER. Okay, maybe not really as easy as this one from Christmas, but really. This is crazy easy and you can totally say you made it all if you wanted to. These no-bake chocolate covered shortbread cookies are a go-to of mine when I need to get something together quickly.

These cookies are dipped in chocolate and then in nuts on the edges – cute right?! Any chopped nut will work, but for St. Paddy’s I went with pistachios, ya know, to be a little more festive.

You need just three ingredients for these:

• Shortbread cookies
• Chocolate shell
• Pistachios

Yes – you use premade, store bought shortbread cookies! I prefer the Kebler ones, tbh, if I’m trying to pass them off as homemade. The ones that are perfect rectangles with the holes are too obviously store bought. But, I’m a terrible liar so if someone says, “I can’t believe you made these!” I cave and tell them I bought the cookies and dunked them in chocolate.

You know when you are so sick and you want to do certain things but just cannot muster up the energy? Yeah, that’s how I’ve been feeling since last week! And I have less energy today than I did over the weekend when I made these beignets. But don’t worry, I’m crawling right back into bed after this.

I really was going to make beignets from scratch, I swear. And as often as I won’t let a recipe intimidate me, making a yeasted dough while sick was just too much!