Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Rice Crispy Treats

 This is a delicious rice crispy treat I concocted. It combines the wonderful flavors of rice cripy treats and cookie dough...so good!

Sun Dried Tomato Chicken

I never really liked sun dried tomatoes until recently, which is mainly because most sun dried tomatoes I have had have come from jars and have been soaked in oil. Recently, I have found some amazing sun dried tomatoes at Trader Joe's that are in a sealed bag, more like raisins and they are a hundred times better than jarred ones. Anyway, I have been buying them on a regular basis now and I have been sticking them in all kinds of regular recipes and they have been quite tasty. This is a recipe I found on Pinterest that incorporates the sun dried tomatoes as a main component, this was delicious!

Beef and Broccoli (Slow Cooker Recipe)

 One of my most favorite Chinese sides growing up was beef and broccoli. I was unlike most children because I loved broccoli and I still do. I found this recipe for beef broccoli and after making it, I found that it was an exact replica of Chinese restaurant quality of Beef broccoli. It's an easy recipe and it is great to eat restaurant like food in the comfort of our own home and with knowing the exact ingredients in the recipe. 

Oplatek/Oplatki/Christmas Wafer

For as long as I can remember, my family has honored our Czechoslovakian roots by keeping certain traditions alive. For example, at our wedding, my Babbi sang a traditional Czech wedding song called Redovy (A.K.A. The Bridal Money Dance) while I wore the traditional apron and bonnet, although honestly I did not wear the bonnet because my hair was too nice to mess with. Another tradition that my family has maintained as long as I can remember occurs every Christmas. Every year, we begin our Christmas meal with a prayer and some traditional Christmas wafers called Oplatki topped with honey and walnuts, followed by some sauerkraut and mushroom soup (which is disgusting to most but has grown on me over the years). Although my Babbi is the main reason we have these traditions, now that she is gone it is our duty to keep them going. Although I do not think I will continue the sauerkraut and mushroom soup tradition (especially since Nick does not like sauerkraut at all, it is an acquired taste), I will forever continue to have Oplatki at our Christmas dinners. Oplatki is not something you can pick up in a local grocery store and so my mother or her sisters (depending on who is hosting Christmas that year) special orders it. This year since we were not home, my mother sent us some Oplatki along with our gifts so that we were able to enjoy this tradition in Indiana.