Easy Cuba Libre Cocktail Recipe

Easy Cuba Libre Cocktail Recipe

Oct 28, 2019 · 4 Comments

It's amazing the difference that lime adds to a rum and coke! This Cuba Libre Cocktail use lime to balance the sweetness of the coke. It is so refreshing and so delicious!

A Rum and Coke with Lime

Let's face it, I've had plenty of rum and cokes in my day. Way back when the only cocktails I knew of were a gin and tonic and a rum and coke. The gin and tonic was my favorite, I loved the bitterness and herbiness of it. The rum and coke was sweet and didn't taste like a cocktail at all.

I had no idea there was something called a Cuba Libre cocktail. I have an old Trader Joe's cocktail book from 1972 and it actually has 3 versions of the Cuba Libre! So, the cocktail was definitely around I had just never heard of it!

A Cuba Libre is basically a rum and coke with lime. Some versions use lime juice and some versions use the lime juice and the actual spent lime shell. I liked the idea of getting as much from the lime as possible, so I went with the version using the lime shell too.

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Sweet and Tangy Roasted Mini Peppers!

Oct 27, 2019 · 16 Comments

These Roasted Sweet Mini Peppers are so delicious!

Roasted in the oven for a lovely char and then tossed in a simple vinaigrette.

They are perfect for a side dish, snacking, a charcuterie board or on salads or sandwiches!

Plate of roasted peppers with a spoon.

What Are Sweet Mini Peppers?

Lately my store has been having the bags of sweet mini peppers on sale. I buy them because they are just so darn cute. Then I discovered that they are crazy delicious.

Mini peppers are just smaller versions of bell peppers. As a bonus, they are sweeter and have less seeds. You still want to remove the seeds like you would from a regular bell pepper, but they are usually just right at the stem, so it's really easy to just remove the stem and take all of the seeds with it.

This easy roasted mini pepper recipe is sure to become a favorite - it makes a great side dish or appetizer!

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The Kitties and Their Pumpkin

Oct 25, 2019 · 15 Comments

Who's ready for Halloween? The kitty cats and I are! I keep a small tub of fall decor that I drag out at the first sign of fall. It has two ceramic pumpkins, a couple of table runners and some fall napkins. It's not much, especially when on Instagram I see how some people go all out, with fall mantels and every table covered in something fall-ish!

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How to Make Homemade Coffee Liqueur

Oct 24, 2019 · 32 Comments

No need to buy coffee liqueur when it is so easy to make your own at home with this easy Coffee Liqueur Recipe! This coffee liqueur is so delicious and tastes so much better than store bought, plus you know all the ingredients that go into it!

Why Make Your Own Coffee Flavored Liqueur

You may be wondering why you should make your own coffee liqueur. Well, for one thing it's fun and easy. You can make as much or as little as you need.

The most important reason is that you know exactly what's in it. It is not a coffee flavoring liqueur - yes, I checked at the liquor store and one of the liqueurs had coffee flavoring added. Coffee flavoring?

Who needs or wants coffee flavoring when you can make you own homemade Kahlua at home!

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The Best Slow Cooker Thai Chicken Soup!

Oct 23, 2019 · 9 Comments

This Slow Cooker Thai Chicken Curry Soup is the perfect comfort food!

Loaded with chicken and vegetables and the perfect amount of spice from the curry paste and topped with peanuts, cilantro, and a squeeze of fresh lime!

Bowl of thai chicken soup.

It's starting to get a little cool around here and I am celebrating with one of my favorite soups - a Thai Chicken Curry! It's already a fairly easy soup to make, but it's made even easier in the slow cooker!

The secret to making this Tom Kha soup even more delicious is that you add some of the ingredients right towards the end.

The coconut milk, bell pepper, mushrooms, curry paste, and cilantro are added during the last 5-10 minutes of cooking. This results in crisp tender vegetables and bright flavor!

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Easy Sheet Pan Potato Gratin

Oct 22, 2019 · 5 Comments

Use a sheet pan to get the best part of a potato gratin - that crispy cheesy crust on top! Crispy browned cheese on the top and a layer of tender creamy potatoes beneath! This is the best au gratin potatoes!

Scalloped Potatoes vs. Au Gratin

The first thing I had to decide about these potatoes was what to call them. I have been making them for years from an old out of print cookbook. The author called them "The Best Part of a Potato Gratin" which really, they are!

To keep it simple and to make it clear how these are cooked, I tossed around Sheet Pan Scalloped Potatoes or Sheet Pan au Gratin Potatoes. At that point I realized I had no idea what the difference between scalloped potatoes and au gratin potatoes is.

It turns out it's the cheese. Scalloped potatoes are cooked until creamy with a topping of bread crumbs. Au Gratin potatoes are cooked with a layer of cheese on top that gets golden brown and crispy.

That puts this recipe firmly in the au gratin category, however I guess it means my Gruyere Scalloped Potatoes and my Smoked Gouda Scalloped Potatoes, might technically be a gratin. Whatever you call them, they are two of the most popular posts on the blog, so I won't be changing them anytime soon!

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Slow Cooked Pork Butt - The Best Pulled Pork!

Oct 20, 2019 · 18 Comments

Everyone loves this easy pulled pork slow cooker recipe! Turn a slow cooked pork butt into pulled pork that you can use in so many recipes! Only five ingredients and a few minutes of prep time!

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork!

I don't know if you noticed or not, but I've been going back through my old, old, recipes and remaking them. This slow cooked pork butt was originally published in July of 2008! Yes, I have been blogging that long.

The problem with being a food blogger is that you are always trying a new recipe. With all the new recipe trying, not a lot of recipes get repeated and that's a shame.

Especially when it comes to this easy pulled pork recipe! With only five ingredients (and one of them being beer) this pork butt braises all day long in the slow cooker. It becomes so tender, you just shred it with a fork and you have the basis for many, many dinners!

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Silly Kitty Luxie

Oct 18, 2019 · 12 Comments

Luxie is not sure if she was just not ready to have her photo taken or if she was telling me about how she feels about having her photo taken so much!

This post is going to be short and sweet (I think I am always saying that!)

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The Honeysuckle Cocktail

Oct 17, 2019 · 5 Comments

The Honeysuckle Cocktail is a delicious variation of a bees knees cocktail. This easy 3-ingredient rum cocktail is so good! A little bit of spice from the rum, earthy sweetness from the honey, which is all balanced perfectly with the lime!

A Bee's Knees Cocktail Variation!

You might be wandering what The Honeysuckle Cocktail is! When I googled it, I noticed that it barely comes up at all, which is a shame because it is so good!

I was sitting around reading through The New Cocktail Hour (yes, I sit around reading cocktail books for fun) and they mentioned on the Bee's Knees Recipe that if you replace the gin with rum you have a cocktail called a Honeysuckle Cocktail!

While we drink bee's knees year round, they always felt a little more spring and summer since they were so light. Adding rum sounded intriguing and sounded like the perfect way to turn a summery bee's knees into a fall or winter cocktail!

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Garlic Smashed Potatoes

Oct 16, 2019 · 7 Comments

These Garlic Smashed Potatoes are so easy and so delicious! Roasted smashed potatoes are crispy on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside.

Garlic Thyme Smashed Potatoes

Why yes, I am rather late to the whole smashed potatoes trend! Better late than never, I always say! And when it comes to Smashed Potatoes Recipes, I wanted to create one that was totally simple and would go with almost any main dish!

I can't believe I waited this long to try these, I have to admit, I've made them twice more since making them for this post. They are definitely up there in the top of my side dish potato recipes!

One of the things I love about them is that they are so easy to change up. For this recipe, I kept it very simple with an olive oil, garlic and thyme drizzle. A classic potato recipe that you'll turn to time and time again. I almost said, "thyme and thyme again" because I love a good pun.

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Sheet Pan Salmon with Cabbage and Kale

Oct 15, 2019 · 19 Comments

Salmon Roasted with Cabbage and Kale is an easy salmon dinner that you are going to love. Perfectly roasted salmon, buttery tender cabbage and crunchy kale bake up on a single sheet pan. Served with a quick lemon dill vinaigrette this healthy salmon meal can be on the table in under 30 minutes!

Easy Salmon Dinner

We try to eat salmon a few times a month, so I am always looking for easy salmon dinner recipes. If it's a healthy salmon recipe that's even better. If it's an easy, healthy, salmon recipe that cooks up all one sheet pan, than ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!

This checks off all the boxes for my weeknight recipes. Quick, easy, one pan and oh so delicious!

This recipe was inspired by Martha Stewarts baked salmon recipe in her One Pot Cookbook. I would have never thought to roast cabbage and kale together, but it's so good!

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Homemade Cranberry Liqueur

Oct 14, 2019 · 76 Comments

Fresh cranberries, vodka, sugar and water turn into this delicious Homemade Cranberry Liqueur with time doing most of the work! This makes wonderful Christmas gifts, poured into pretty bottles, it's lovely red color is gorgeous! One of my favorite liqueurs! It takes about 3 weeks so start it now!

Homemade Cranberry Liqueur

I make a lot of liqueurs, especially around the holidays because family members have learned to expect and hope for liquor Christmas gifts! They say homemade gifts are the best and I have to agree, especially when you can enjoy them for months and months.

This Cranberry Liqueur is a favorite. It is so easy to make and so pretty to look at! You can use it to make Cranberry Mixed Drinks and other cranberry alcoholic drinks. It's pretty red color turns every cocktail into a festive holiday cocktail.

It's easy to make, but takes 3 weeks of aging, so get started now!

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40 Instant Pot Healthy Breakfast Recipes

Oct 13, 2019 · 3 Comments

40 of the best Instant Pot Healthy Breakfast Recipes! Everything from Instant Pot Steel Cut Oats to copycat Starbuck's Egg Bites! Put your pressure cooker to good use and make these easy, healthy breakfasts!

40 Healthy Instant Pot Breakfast Recipes!

I was looking through my Instant Pot recipes and realized that I have quite a few breakfast recipes. It's one of my favorite ways to use my Instant Pot. Steel cut oats, quinoa, porridge, it all cooks so easily, quickly and the best part - unattended - in the Instant Pot.

Reaching out to my fellow food bloggers, I saw that they also loved easy, healthy pressure cooker breakfast recipes. So, today I am bringing you 40 Healthy Instant Pot breakfast recipes from me and your favorite food bloggers!

There is something for everyone, from steel cut oats to egg bites to jams! I've tried to break them down into sort of cohesive groupings!

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Hanging Out with Luxie Kitty

Oct 11, 2019 · 18 Comments

Luxie Kitty

We are back this week with a few photos of Luxie kitty! I don't know what it's like where you are, but we finally have a break from the heat! It feels so good! I've been leaving the door open to the screened in back porch and letting Luxie come and go as she wants, when I am working in the kitchen.

I can't leave her when I go downstairs to work on the computer, because I just have something pulled in front of the cat door leading to outside and she is smart enough to figure out how to move it out of the way. Though, she doesn't seem interested in trying to get out any more, she just lays out there and watches the birdies and the squirrels, I still don't feel comfortable leaving her out there if I'm not close to check on her.

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Apple Elderflower Martini

Oct 10, 2019 · 15 Comments

This Apple Elderflower Martini is the perfect transition from summer to fall cocktail! A hint of floral from the elderflower liqueur and the sweetness of fall apples.

Summer or Fall Cocktails

What cocktails to drink as we transition from summer to fall, that is the question on all of our minds, I'm sure! While I'm not quite ready for pumpkin cocktails yet, I am so ready for apple cocktails!

Speaking of apples, you are going to love this Apple Elderflower Martini.

It is the perfect summer to fall cocktail. Floral notes from the elderflower liqueur and sweet fruitiness from the apple juice and a little vodka to let all the flavors shine through.

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Healthy Pumpkin Muffins with Oats and Chocolate Chips

Oct 9, 2019 · 14 Comments

These Healthy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins are the perfect healthy treat! They are gluten free, made with oats, and made entirely in the blender! So easy! They are moist and a bit chewy with delicious bits of chocolate chips.

Gluten Free Muffins

As someone who hardly ever baked in the past, I am turning into quite the muffin baker. These Healthy Pumpkin Muffins from Eating Well, were an eye opener for me. I had no idea that you could make flourless muffins!

Instead of flour, these muffins use oats. You simply pulse the oats in a blender until you have a fine flour like consistency! As long as you buy oats that haven't been processed in a factory with wheat, these are gluten free!

We don't strive to be gluten free, but we do love oats and love how healthy they are, so these oat muffins are a big winner for us!

It also doesn't hurt a bit that they have chocolate chips! Pumpkin and chocolate are a favorite combination in the Sidewalk Shoes household.

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Harissa Roasted Squash

Oct 8, 2019 · 18 Comments

Harissa Roasted Acorn Squash makes the perfect side dish! Tender, spicy squash is drizzled with honey after roasting for the perfect balance of sweet and spicy!

What is Harissa Paste?

Before I start gushing about how amazing this roasted acorn squash is, I need to make sure you know about harissa paste!

Harissa paste is a North African chili paste. It's made up of roasted peppers, tomatoes, spices and herbs. It typically includes coriander, cumin and mint. The paste varies from region to region.

If you've cooked Southeast Asian and used a chili paste with garlic, think of it as similar to that.

I love it. It adds so much depth to a recipe and just the right level of heat!

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One Hour! DIY Apple Pie Moonshine

Oct 7, 2019 · 34 Comments

This Homemade Apple Pie Moonshine is your dessert and after dinner cocktail all in one!

This easy moonshine recipe is ready in about an hour, it also makes a great Christmas gift!

Jar of homemade apple pie moonshine with apples in the background

Everyone knows I love making my own liqueurs.

Some of your favorites have been my Vanilla Infused Rum and Chamomile Pear Infused Vodka. I love something where time does all the work.

I've done lots of summer and winter type liqueurs, but hadn't dabbled that much in fall liqueurs or in this case fall moonshine.

But once you make this Homemade Apple Pie Moonshine Recipe, you will return to it every fall!

Click here to pin this now!

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Pasta with Sweet Potatoes and Bacon

Oct 6, 2019 · 39 Comments

Pasta with roasted sweet potatoes and bacon! This easy pasta recipe is so delicious! Sweet potatoes and onions roasted until they are meltingly tender, then tossed with pasta for an easy weeknight pasta dinner!

Two bowls of pasta with sweet potatoes and sprinkled with parsley.

In the middle of summer, when zucchini and yellow squash were at their peaks, I made bowls of bowls of a Simple Roasted Vegetable Pasta. It became a regular at our house, using whatever veggies we had.

Now that fall is slowly, very slowly attempting to arrive, I've taken the idea and given it a little bit of a fall twist. Even though sweet potatoes are available year round, I always think of them as fall. The inspiration for this recipe came from a recipe from Mark Bittman - the master of simple and easy recipes!

While I love simple sheet pan suppers, pasta is a close favorite for creating easy weeknight pasta recipes.

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Luxie and the Rosemary

Oct 4, 2019 · 20 Comments

Luxie Kitty the Photobomber!

As you may imagine, sometimes it is quite difficult to get my food photos with Luxie's help. The photos today show her helping me with my rosemary photos.

She is closely inspecting it to make sure that there are no flaws in the rosemary. She wants to make sure that my photos come out perfect.

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How to Make Homemade DIY Chocolate Liqueur

Oct 3, 2019 · 56 Comments

This homemade chocolate liqueur is so easy to make and so delicious! Rich and decadent, it's perfect for sipping and it makes a great gift! Time does all of the work!

Why Make Homemade Chocolate Liqueur?

If you've checked out my Infusions Category, you know that this is nothing I like more than infusing some alcohol.

It's because, for the most part, time does all the work! There might be a little prep work at the beginning and maybe some straining at the end, but the hardest part is the waiting for the infusion.

Not only are homemade infusions not that much work, they taste so much better than store bought! The flavors are rich and fresh and you know the ingredients that you are using.

So, yes, you can go out and buy chocolate liqueur, but with only 4 ingredients and a little time, you can have the best chocolate liqueur that you've ever tasted!

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Overnight Berry French Toast Bake

Oct 1, 2019 · 8 Comments

This Easy Overnight French Toast Bake is so delicious! Rich buttery brioche soak up all the eggy goodness over night.

Strawberries and blackberries add their sweet fruitiness to it and the crunchy cinnamon and sugar topping is to die for.

Red casserole filled with baked french toast with blackberries and raspberries.

I was checking out the breakfast category here on Sidewalk Shoes and noticed that it was heavily skewed in the healthy direction. I realized I had no special breakfasts.

You know those recipes that you wouldn't make every day, but that are perfect for company, a holiday breakfast or anytime you needed a little bit of a splurge at breakfast.

When my stepson and his family decided to come up for visit, I knew it was the perfect time to try a special breakfast.

French toast is my go to breakfast out when I am not eating healthy. I didn't want to have to try and make French toast for 4 people on a Sunday morning, knowing that we would be staying up late Saturday night catching up.

A French Toast Bake sounded perfect, I even had fresh berries in the fridge.

OMG. This was amazing! It 8 people, but the four of us could not stop eating it. We kept talking and going back for a little more, until it was all gone!

Click here to pin this now!

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15 Apple Cocktails to Make Right Now!

Sep 23, 2019 · 14 Comments

15 Amazing Apple Cocktails!! Everything from an Apple Martini to easy Whiskey Cocktails. Perfect for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas or tasty football cocktails! There is something for everyone with these fall cocktails!

15 Apple Cocktails You Must Make Right Now!

I don't know about you, but I am ready for fall. Pumpkin this and pumpkin that. Falling leaves. Cool mornings. Apple cocktails. Wait...what? That's right - apple cocktails. Nothing says fall like a few apple cocktails.

I've get better than a few I've got 15 Apple Cocktails You Must Make this fall from some of my favorite bloggers! These are perfect for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas or tailgating.

So, without further ado, I give you some amazing apple cocktails.

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Slow Cooker Chicken Vesuvio

Sep 22, 2019 · 23 Comments

This Slow Cooker Chicken Vesuvio is hearty, comfort food at it's finest. Juicy tender chicken, perfectly cooked potatoes and peas all in a rich, flavorful sauce! Don't be surprised if people lift up their bowls to get every drop of the delicious white wine and garlic sauce!

What is Chicken Vesuvio

Chicken Vesuvio is an Italian American dish that actually originated in Chicago. It is basically chicken and potatoes cooked with white wine, oregano, garlic and olive oil. All the good stuff!

This version is actually a riff on a Giada recipe that I've been making for years. She adds artichoke hearts to hers, I add peas because I can usually find them easier. I also cook mine in the slow cooker where all that garlic and oregano can infuse the chicken and potatoes all day long!

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