I hope you’ve enjoyed my take on a holiday meal over the past few weeks.  I started off the Breakstone’s Holiday Showdown by sharing an appetizer of Creamy Pumpkin Soup Shooters. For the main dish, we enjoyed a savory salmon with a herb cream sauce. Our dessert was a tasty baked apple brulee.

I enjoy a traditional holiday meal as much as the next person, but I also find that by the time we are done with all the holiday entertaining, I get tired of eating the same thing over and over. By January, I’m definitely turkey’d out!

When we have our annual holiday party with friends, I like to make something different… something our friends aren’t going to be tired of by the time they get to our holiday party.

Sweet pumpkin desserts are popular during the holidays, but rarely does pumpkin get the chance to take on the starring role as an appetizer. Creamy Pumpkin Soup Shooters give pumpkin the chance to shine in a non-traditional way during the holidays.

Salmon is an elegant addition to any meal and what better time to treat your friends and family to something unexpected and delicious than during the holidays?

Baked Apple Brulee is a dessert I love. Typically when I am done with the main part of a holiday meal, I am stuffed. Apple brulee is a light, non-heavy dessert with a sweet richness and creamy texture. It’s definitely not your traditional way to end a holiday meal, but it certainly is delicious!

This is my last time to remind you all… you still have time to vote for your favorite holiday recipes over on the Better Homes and Gardens website. If you enjoyed my non-traditional take on the holiday meal, I would definitely appreciate your vote!

Head over to the Breakstone’s Better Homes & Gardens Holiday Showdown page to cast your vote. Voters will be entered to win a weekly drawing for a $50 gift card. In addition, one lucky voter will win the  $2500 grand prize. Voting on the Holiday Showdown entries on the contest page will immediately enter you into the grand prize drawing. Thanks for voting and good luck!

Thanks so much and happy holidays to you all!

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Breakstone’s Sour Cream. I was compensated for my time and ingredients and have the opportunity to win a cash prize if my menu is selected as the winner.

The post Breakstone’s Holiday Showdown – The Recap appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Part three of the Breakstone’s Holiday Showdown had us creating a delicious holiday dessert recipe featuring Breakstone’s sour cream.

I love dessert and I especially love over indulging during the holidays, but sometimes it just feels like there is too much food all the time. I kept this in mind when I created my holiday dessert recipe and decided to go with something that isn’t overly heavy and won’t weigh you down at the end of the holiday meal.

Baked Apple Brulee is a dessert with tender, sweet apples and a caramelized sugar and Breakstone’s sour cream sauce. It isn’t your traditional holiday dessert, but I think that this year can be all about starting new traditions, don’t you think?

Head over to the Breakstone’s Better Homes & Gardens Holiday Showdown page each day to cast your vote. Voters will be entered to win a weekly drawing for a $50 gift card. In addition, one lucky voter will win the  $2500 grand prize. Voting on the Holiday Showdown entries on the contest page will immediately enter you into the grand prize drawing. Thanks for voting and good luck!

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Baked Apple Brulee

A delicious, creamy, unexpected apple dessert.

Ingredients

• Recipe: Baked Apple Brulee
• 3 large Golden Delicious Apples
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup Breakstone’s Sour Cream
• 4 heaping tablespoons brown sugar

Instructions

• Peel, core and cut apples into 1/2-inch-thick slices.
• Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add apples; sauté 9 minutes or until apples are just tender.
• Stir in sugar and cinnamon. Cook for 1 minute or until sugar melts.
• Transfer apples to 4, individual 8-ounce ramekins. Top each ramekin with ¼ cup sour cream then 1 heaping tablespoon of brown sugar (evenly distributed over the top)
• Broil on high 4 inches from the heat for 5-8 minutes or until bubbly and sugar is caramelized.

This is part of a sponsored post series from Breakstone’s Sour Cream and Better Homes and Gardens. I was compensated for my time and ingredients. All opinions expressed are my own.

The post Breakstone’s Holiday Showdown {Dessert Recipe: Baked Apple Brulee} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Salmon is a mild flavored fish that even the pickiest of seafood eaters tend to like. This particular salmon recipe, featuring a rich and creamy herb sauce made with Breakstone’s sour cream, is an elegant addition to any holiday menu.

When you are tired of turkey and bored with ham, bring salmon to the table – you’ll be glad you gave salmon a chance at your holiday table!

Head over to the Breakstone’s Better Homes & Gardens Holiday Showdown page to cast your vote. Voters will be entered to win a weekly drawing for a $50 gift card. In addition, one lucky voter will win the  $2500 grand prize. Voting on the Holiday Showdown entries on the contest page will immediately enter you into the grand prize drawing. Thanks for voting and good luck!

Recipe: Oven Baked Salmon with Creamy Herb Sauce

For the salmon:

• 2 pounds salmon fillets, skin removed
• 1/2 cup Breakstone’s sour cream
• 1/8 teaspoon cracked black pepper

For the sauce:

• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 Tablespoons corn starch
• 1 cup Breakstone’s Sour Cream
• ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
• 2 Tablespoons Italian Seasoning
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375° F. Lightly spray a baking dish.
2. Arrange salmon fillets in prepared baking dish. Evenly coat with sour cream. Sprinkle black pepper evenly over salmon fillets.
3. Bake for 30 minutes, or until salmon is easily flaked with a fork.
4. Meanwhile, in a separate saucepan, blend chicken broth and cornstarch. Bring to a boil, and with a whisk, stir continuously. Reduce heat and add sour cream, salt and Italian Seasoning. Continue to whisk until a smooth sauce has formed.
5. Plate cooked salmon and drizzle with creamy herb sauce. Top with one small squeeze of lemon juice, if desired.

 This is a sponsored post on behalf of Breakstone’s Sour Cream. All opinions expressed are my own.

The post Breakstone’s Sour Cream Holiday Showdown {Recipe: Salmon with Creamy Herb Sauce} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

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You may remember back in the spring when I did some work creating a tablescape and holiday recipe for Breakstone’s Sour Cream and Better Homes & Gardens. I have joined together with these two great organizations again for a fun, 4 part, holiday showdown.

You can find out about this Holiday Showdown event by visiting the Better Homes & Gardens website. In short, 2 other bloggers and I have each created a unique holiday menu using Breakstone’s sour cream. We’ve each been tasked with creating an appetizer, main dish, and dessert recipe using Breakstone’s sour cream as an ingredient. Our recipes will be judged and based on those results, and your votes, one of the bloggers will be crowned the holiday showdown winner!

For the appetizer portion of the showdown, I have created Creamy Pumpkin Soup Shooters. Creamy Pumpkin Soup Shooters are served warm in small shot glasses. This appetizer is a perfect beginning for a holiday party as you can eat them without the use of utensils.

Creamy Pumpkin Soup Shooters can also be served in large bowls as a traditional soup.

Everyone loves pumpkin this time of year. Take pumpkin to a whole new level with Creamy Pumpkin Soup Shooters!

Head over to the Breakstone’s Better Homes & Gardens Holiday Showdown page to cast your vote. You can vote each and every day during the showdown. Voters will be entered to win a weekly drawing for a $50 gift card. In addition, one lucky voter will win the  $2500 grand prize. Voting on the Holiday Showdown entries on the contest page will immediately enter you into the grand prize drawing. Thanks for voting and good luck!

Recipe: Creamy Pumpkin Soup Shooters

• 2 garlic cloves, diced
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 2 cups canned pumpkin
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 cup Breakstone’s sour cream
• 2 tablespoons freshly shredded parmesan (optional but highly recommended)
• 2 tablespoons crumbled bacon (optional but highly recommended)

1. Heat a medium-size saucepan over low heat. Add garlic and butter. Cook until softened, being careful not to burn. Add the chicken broth and pumpkin. Bring to a low boil. Turn off heat until warm.
2. Carefully pour mixture into a blender. Add milk, pumpkin pie spice, salt, pepper and sour cream. Continue blending until well combined.
3. Once blended, place mixture in a clean saucepan and heat through.
4. Serve warm in large shot glasses. Garnish with a sprinkle of crumbled bacon and shredded Parmesan.

The post Breakstone’s Holiday Showdown – Creamy Pumpkin Soup Shooters appeared first on Dine and Dish.

I’ve had such a great time preparing for Easter with Breakstone’s sour cream and Better Homes and Gardens. The tablescape is ready, the Pepper Crusted Pork Loin with Sour Cream and Onion Sauce has been tried and tested and we have our normal Easter traditions planned out for the weekend.

When I was little, I remember my parents having a big group of people from our church out to our farm on Easter morning for an outdoor sunrise service. I’m sure I complained about getting up at the crack of dawn back then, but looking back, it seems like a perfect way to start Easter Sunday, don’t you think?

I’ve been following the traditions you’ve left over at the Breakstone’s sour cream and Better Homes and Gardens site. Remember, you can enter into the giveaway for the $2500 Grand Prize by taking one minute to share your Easter traditions. Some of my favorites have been:

• Krystal from Tampa, Florida wrote: “Family beach day with Easter egg hunt in the sand.”
• Donna from Walnut Grove, MO “Church, family dinner and egg hunt”
• Tommy from Lonoke, Arkansas “Spend as much time with family and friends as possible.”

However you choose to spend your Easter holiday, I hope you will get to spend it with friends and family. Check out some of the delicious recipes over at the Breakstone’s sour cream site and don’t forget to enter to win the fabulous $2500 Grand Prize giveaway!

I’ve been talking all about the main dish but have failed to mention what side dish I think we are going to try. I noticed this recipe for Breakstone’s Creamy Potatoes over on their site and it will definitely be making an appearance on our Easter dinner table! Click on over for the recipe!

Disclosure:  This is a sponsored post for Breakstone’s Sour Cream.  All ideas, thoughts, experiences, photos are my own.

The post Easter Holiday Wrap Up with Breakstone’s Sour Cream appeared first on Dine and Dish.

When it comes to creating a tablescape for a dinner party, I try to keep things simple. I do like to create some sort of place holders that will stand out as well as will serve as a souvenir of sorts that the guest can take home with them.

When Breakstone’s Sour Cream and Better Homes and Gardens challenged me to create an Easter tablescape, I knew I wanted the main focus to be on the place holders. I decided that my Easter tablescape theme was going to be “flowers and candy”…flowers because it is Spring and candy because my kids gave up candy for Lent and by the time Easter rolls around they are going to want to devour as much sugary goodness as they can! I thought “flowers and candy” would be whimsical, fun, family friendly and would make a beautiful combination for our special Easter feast.

For the place holders I simply painted the inside and outside of a small, 2-inch Terra Cotta pot using acrylic paint in a variety of spring colors. Once painted, I added the guest name on the rim of the pot. To reduce waste, I took the stem of an artificial Gerber Daisy (which I used in another part of the tablescape) and created a handle for the pot, hot gluing it to the inside. I filled the pot with Spanish Moss, then topped with a handful of jelly beans. Can you imagine how excited your guests will be when they take these spring like mementos home from your celebration?

Those artificial Gerber Daisies I mentioned above? I snipped those off of their stems and hot glued them to a Styrofoam wreath I had painted yellow using acrylic paint. What a gorgeous punch of color these beautiful flowers added to the table! Once our celebration is over, I’m going to add a thick ribbon to the top and hang this up as a wreath on my door. The great thing about artificial flowers as well as a hot glue gun is you can adorn just about anything you want to match the look you are going for. Our bread basket, napkin holders, etc. all got a hot glued Gerber Daisy to make them match our theme.

Thank you to Breakstone’s Sour Cream and Better Homes and Gardens for inspiring me to get creative in my kitchen this Easter. The Pepper-Crusted Pork Loin with Sour Cream and Onion Sauce is seriously one of the tastiest pork loin dishes I’ve had and I don’t get crafty enough around here. It was fun to trade in my spatula for a hot glue gun for a bit. I can’t wait to do it some more.

Don’t forget, Breakstone’s Sour Cream and Better Homes and Gardens are giving you the chance to win $2500 plus the opportunity for daily prizes as well! Make sure to share your favorite holiday traditions on their site (takes less than a minute) and you could possibly win the money to create your ultimate Easter celebration! Good luck!

Disclosure:  This is a sponsored post for Breakstone’s Sour Cream.  All ideas, thoughts, experiences, photos are my own.

The post Easter Celebration Tablescape with Breakstone’s Sour Cream appeared first on Dine and Dish.