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Here are the best of the best for 2014. Enjoy!

Almond lovers, cookie lovers, lovers of sweets that taste amazing, let me introduce you to the Soft Almond Pillow Cookies.


This one is for sure going to my top 25 recipes of 2014 list. It is hard to tell from the pictures but they are stuffed full of an almond paste mixture which tastes divine. If you love almond bear claw pastries, it is a similar sort of filling. Many thanks to The Noshery for this recipe.

My only issue came down to the dough, which I think was my own fault. I added the flour too quickly as I was mixing it, and in too large of an amount than I should've. This led to parts of the dough being too dry and other parts feeling too sticky/wet.  Learn from my mistakes and add the flour in small increments.

For all recipes that call for almond extract, I use Almond Bakery Emulsion by LorAnn. I love this stuff! I've seen them sold at Michael's craft store and I'm sure other stores carry them as well. Lastly, as long as you properly chill the dough, these cookies don't spread and should not have any filling leak out. Enjoy!

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This month I am taking part in a blogging challenge, Get Your Chef On. It is hosted by White Lights on Wednesday and Four Marrs One Venus. The secret ingredient for this round is shrimp and I have
probably the best shrimp recipe I have ever tasted in my life, Spicy Creole Shrimp Dip.

I made this for a birthday dinner and everyone loved it. To be honest, everyone freaked out about how great it was. This one is going in the top recipes for 2014 for sure. Many thanks to Creole Contessa for this recipe. I tweaked it just barely, subbing red onion for her shallots as well as skipping the celery only because I realized at the last moment that we'd already used it earlier in the week.


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Goodness these are some incredibly delicious muffins! These may be my first top recipe of 2014 and we are only a few weeks in. This recipe comes from Creations by Kara. Kara has lots of amazing recipes on her blog so be sure to check it out.

What I love about this recipe is that you can store the unused batter in the fridge until you are ready to make a fresh batch for the day. These muffins are best eaten within two days after you bake them. Heating them up in the microwave makes them over the top delicious. After they bake, I wouldn't let them sit around any longer than two days. Freeze them if they are already baked, or better yet, only bake enough for what you will eat on a daily basis.

They are absolutely delicious. I cut the recipe in half since I wasn't sure if I would like the end result and that amount is shown below in the recipe. If you want a larger batch, simply double the amounts. I may actually make a double amount the next time I make these since everyone loved them so much.


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