Let your kids get their hands dirty! Flip through these recipe ideas that will amp up family fun in the kitchen.


Maple Belgian Waffles

After you've made this sweet recipe, kids can add sprinkles, chocolate chips, fruit, or strawberry jelly to their breakfast.

Recipe: Maple Belgian Waffles
















Cranberry Turnovers

Use leftover cranberry sauce to create these special breakfast pastries. Kids can help with piping the icing after they're finished baking.

Recipe: Cranberry Turnovers













Plus: 68 easy brunch recipes »



Homemade Bagels

Morning pleasures this alluring make it easy for kids to throw back the bedcovers and race to the breakfast table, especially when they get to pitch in.

Recipe: Homemade Bagels















Salami & Cheese Panini

Reminiscent of a grilled cheese, a panini is filled with combos of meat, cheese, and vegetables, which means you and your kids can have fun combining several different ingredients.

Recipe: Salami & Cheese Panini














Pilgrim and Clubhouse Sandwiches

Let your kids make their

No need to hit up IHOP for your fix. You'll be flipping flawless flapjacks in no time if you follow these tips. Whip some up for Mother's Day brunch -- or anytime!

1. Before you ladle on the batter, wipe the excess butter from the hot griddle using a folded paper towel. This will ensure perfectly browned pancakes.

2. Use all-purpose flour in the batter. Bread flour yields tough, chewy pancakes; pancakes made with cake flour turn soggy when crowned with syrup. You can experiment with flours that don't affect the structure of the pancakes, such as cornmeal, buckwheat flour, or whole-wheat flour. Substitute half of the all-purpose flour for any one of these.

Related: Bacon, 46 Ways to Cook and Eat It

3. Never whisk the batter until smooth; leaving lumps of unmoistened dry ingredients will result in fluffier pancakes.

4. Flip the pancakes just as the surface bubbles begin to burst. Flipping them after all the bubbles are gone produces a flatter pancake.

5. If you are adding ingredients

The Great American Pie Festival
The Great American Pie Festival in Celebration, Florida is two days of fun, games, and a whole lot of pie. It is also home to the National Pie Championships, where people come from all over to submit pies for judging, hoping to win "Best in Show" and the title of "Best Pie in America". And the blue ribbon goes to…

Sittin' on a Sandbar Key Lime Pie by Amy Freeze

Sittin' on a Sandbar Key Lime Pie
2013 APC Crisco National Pie Championships
Amateur Division
Best of Show and 1st Place Citrus
Amy Freeze, Avon Park, FL

Crust
2 cups crushed vanilla wafers
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
5 tablespoons melted butter

Filling
8 ounces Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1-15 ounce can Eagle Brand condensed milk
¾ cup Coco Lopez (Cream of Coconut)
¾ cup key lime juice

Whipped Cream Layer
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup powdered sugar

Garnish
Lime slices & white chocolate sea shells

Directions:
1. In a bowl, combine vanilla wafer crumbs, sugar and melted butter. Press

Mommas across the universe are waiting for Mother's Day. Some are wanting fancy handbags and others are looking forward to the day at the spa. Some Moms want a day to squeeze their children tight and have a nice meal. If this is the case, a group of friends and I put together a free bi-lingual (English and Spanish) Mother's Day E-book with a collection of different recipes you can make for Momma. I decided to post one of my recipes I have in the book here. Every Mom loves scones…. This Mom just happens to like them savory and spicy.

Related: 10 surprising ways to eat bacon
Corn scones Ingredients for Corn Jalapeno Bacon Cheddar Scones:

1 1/2 - cups yellow corn meal
2 - cups flour
1/2 - teaspoon baking soda
1 - tablespoon baking powder
1/4 - cup sugar
1/2 - teaspoon kosher salt
2 - sticks butter (cold, and cut into tablespoons)
1 1/2 - cups cheddar cheese (grated)
9 - strips of bacon (cooked and crumbled)
1 - cup buttermilk
1 - jalapeno (cut into thin strips)
peach jam and butter

Weeknight Dinners

After a day of work, we all run into the dinner conundrum: We don't want the same quick standbys we always eat, but we really don't want to expend the mental energy to scheme up something fabulous. Soon, this back and forth turns us from hungry to famished, and we end up scarfing down whatever's in the fridge or reverting to takeout.

But it doesn't have to be this way! We're obsessed with quick dinners, and, with a little bit of creative thinking, we've come up with some surprisingly simple dinners that will transform the weeknight meal from a hassle to a pleasure.

Whip up these recipes, and you'll still have plenty of time to relax after work, preferably with a glass of wine in hand.

1. Rigatoni With Easy Pork Ragu
Rigatoni with Pork Ragu

If you've never had a real ragu before (no, we're not talking Chef Boyardee), you're missing out. A rich, slow-simmered, meat-based sauce is served with pasta for a decadent-feeling meal. In our simple take on the classic, the finishing touch of salty

by Sara Bonisteel


Throw a Great Gatsby party.Host a Roaring Twenties Champagne-fueled bacchanal inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic, now a new movie directed by Baz Luhrmann

"He gives large parties. And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy." -Socialite Jordan Baker, The Great Gatsby

Ingredients:
Fireworks. Methuselahs of Champagne. A band. Everyone you know and many more that you don't.

Preparation:
Put all your furniture in the bedroom. Pull out your New Year's Eve finery. Stock up on confetti. Learn the Charleston.

Yield:
A soiree so good it will leave revelers with no other recollections aside from that warm feeling of having attended the greatest party of their life. (No pressure on your part.)

The Menu:
A catered affair is ideal, but if you don't have the means of the great Jay Gatsby, then fully stock your bar with reserves in waiting, prepare a flotilla of hors d'oeuvres, whip up two suppers (one for early

by Esther Sung

The Prophets of Smoked MeatGrilling and barbecue season's "official" start date is still a few weeks away, but this year's batch of grilling and bbq cookbooks are trickling in. Daniel Vaughn's The Prophets of Smoked Meat: A Journey Through Texas Barbecue (Ecco/An Anthony Bourdain Book) kicks off this year's coverage. It's a bit of an odd choice given that it's not a cookbook, per se (though the book does contain a number of choice pitmaster recipes from the Lone Star State). But if there was ever a paean for barbecue written for the common man who just happens to love barbecue, this book might have to be it. Vaughn's career trajectory wasn't exactly straightforward--exactly how does one plan on becoming "Barbecue Editor" for Texas Monthly magazine?--but the trained architect's insatiable zeal for barbecue pays off handsomely in this book. Part travelogue and part food reviews, the book is entertaining as well as sometimes maddening, thanks to Vaughn's subjectivity (there's a lot of

Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes

Here's a little secret: I'm known by my co-workers as Bubbly Muse. What can I say-I have a penchant for champagne!

Of course, my favorite way to consume champagne is straight up in a frosted flute, but I've been known to throw a little in pasta sauce or use a bit to deglaze a pan. It just gives any dish an extra boost of yum.

I've never baked with champagne, though. I wasn't even sure if it would work. But I wanted to make something extra special for all the moms (or in my case, mum) out there, so I figured I'd give it a go.

I decided to make a batch of deliciously fluffy, ever so airy cupcakes. But not just any cupcakes-these cupcakes are made with champagne, filled with a fresh strawberry buttercream, and then topped with even more buttercream on top. Yum! The champagne added an extra airiness to the batter, and the surprise pink filling took the cupcakes to the next level.

The best part? I made this recipe with a boxed cake mix, so you can whip up a batch in no