I have admitted many times that I cannot make pretty cakes and cupcakes.  Cake decorating is not something I’m good at (understatement of the year!).

Liz, from Hoosier Homemade is fantastic at cupcake decorating.  And she’s written an eBook that lets all of us in on the secret to making cutie patootie sweet treats.  Even decorating challenged people like me!

Her eBook, Cupcakes! 12 Months of Happiness has ideas for every month of the year.  You’ll be set for birthday parties, holidays and everything in between.  She even gives ideas for making the box cake mix taste homemade, where to buy cake decorating supplies and more.

I’m giving away 1 copy of Cupcakes! to a lucky winner.  Just leave a comment telling me what your next cupcake baking occasion is.

There’s also a discount code you can use.  You can get $2 off the regular price, making Cupcakes! just $2.99.  Use the code EATATHOME to get the discount.  If you buy and then you win the giveaway (lucky dog!), Liz will refund your money.

 Avocado Links

There were lots of delicious things linked up on Ingredient Spotlight: Avocado this week.  There’s still time to add your links, if you like.  Here were a few things that caught my eye:

Chipotle Bean Burritos from Debbi Does Dinner looks like a great way to punch up a bean recipe.

Vegan Chocolate Avocado cake sounds interesting and so does the Blackberry Frosting that Vanderbilt Wife put on it.

Chorizo Empanadas with Avocado Cream from The Sweets Life look wonderful.

Learn how to dice an avocado from The Cutting Back Kitchen.

Crystal & Co. rocks her slow cooker again with this recipe for Tex Mex Shredded Roast Wraps.

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for Cupcakes!  Just leave a comment to enter. Giveaway closes Monday 2/20 at 9am Eastern. Winner will be announced on the Eat at Home Facebook page.

This post contains affiliate links.

This turned out to be a week of bread and jam.  Thursday, I posted a tutorial for making whole wheat bread by hand.  And Wednesday, we linked up recipes for jams and jellies.  Here are a few of your recipes that caught my eye.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars from The Sweets Life.

Split Second Cookies  from Picture Perfect Cooking sound easy and delicious.

Pear Honey from Cooking with K – amazing!

Jam Tarts from Cookin’ In Our Bubbleworld would make good use of my mini muffin pan.

Make your own Strawberry Fruit Roll Ups with this tutorial from Life Currants

Sweet and Spicy Crockpot Chicken from Amee’s Savory Dish looks like a good dinner.

Hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Animal crackers and English Breakfast tea with International Delight Southern Pecan creamer has been my snack of choice this week.  We’ve been talking about favorite snacks in the Coffee Talk community.  Pop over and join us!

Lots of sunshine goodness was shared in this week’s Ingredient Spotlight: Oranges & Orange Juice.  Here are a few that caught my eye:

Blueberry Orange Bread  from Hoosier Homemade sounds like a perfect snack with coffee or tea.

These orange bbq chicken kabobs sound like a marvelous way to chase the winter blues, from The Sweets Life.

Cranberry Orange Snack Mix would make a yummy munch with coffee or tea, from Grandma Loy’s Kitchen.

Good for you Orange Creamsicle Smoothie from The Better Baker is a snack with no guilt.  She’s got some weight loss tips listed in that post too.

Cranberry Orange Scones? Yes, please!  From The Galley Kitchen

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Disclosure: I am compensated for my role as Community Leader for the International Delight Coffee Talk Community.

Jim gave me an iPhone for my birthday in September and I love it.  He likes to make fun of me for buying apps.  He’s never paid for an app in all the time he’s had his phone.

I have paid for quite a few.  In my defense, they’ve all been cheap and I’ve used gift card money for them.  And some of my most loved apps are free.

Here are 6 of my favorite apps:

Kindle - My favoritist app of all!  It’s fantastic to always have my books with me.  I’ve been able to read so much more since getting my Kindle and the app allows me to turn those unexpected waiting times into reading times.  Perfect!

Cuptakes – See that cute background I have set as my lock screen?  It’s part of the Cuptakes app.  99 cents of fun! They update each month with more backgrounds for the lock screen and home screen.  I change it out every few days to give my phone a new look.  *happiness*

Living Earth – A beautiful weather app with a world clock and forecasts for cities all over the world.

Craigslist – So much nicer and easier than browsing craigslist online.  You can see the photo of the item, along with the description instead of having to click to see the photo.  And you can email sellers from inside the app.  Handy.

Hipstamatic – This camera app is so much fun.  It’s also the app I’ve spent the most money on.  $1.99 gets you started with several lenses, films and flashes.  But there are more available and I’ve given in and purchased several times.  Fun stuff!

1000 Gifts – This free app goes along with Ann Voskamp’s book One Thousand Gifts.   I’m only part way through the book, but it is excellent.  The app is a way to collect and record your own 1000 gifts.  1000 things in your life to be thankful for.

Winner!

Meagan has something to be thankful for!  She winner of the eBook, Plan a Fabulous Party!

Here’s Meagan’s comment:

i am always throwing a party for something and loving every minute of it. i would love to be more organized!!! To save my sanity, I need this book!

Congratulations to Meagan!

You can still get the book for 1/2 price (just $2.50!) by using the code SUPERFABPARTY.  The discount code is good through Jan. 22.

This post contains affiliate links.

Before we get to the bacon links, I wanted to tell you about a new place you can find me online.  International Delights has a wonderful Coffee Talk Community and I’m very excited to be one of the Community Leaders there.  We chat about coffee (of course!), food (always), fashion, decorating, parenting and whatever else may be on our minds.

On Tuesday January 10 at 8pm Eastern, Liz from Hoosier Homemade and I are hosting a live chat about budget friendly meals.  Pop over and join us if you’ve got some free time Tuesday evening.

Bacon-fest!

Over 75 recipes are linked up for this week’s Ingredient Spotlight: Bacon-fest.  If you like bacon, you’re going to love all of those links.

Here are some of the links that caught my eye:

These Loaded Chicken Philly Sammies from Siggy Spice look amazing!

SmokeHouse Melt Chicken from Big Bear’s Wife sounds fantastic. You can’t go wrong with bbq, bacon and cheddar.

I have no idea what Bacon Bourbon Caramel Corn would taste like, but I’d like to try it. From The Sweets Life.

Smoked Fatties from Mancave Cuisine are sausage, stuffed with onion, peppers and cheese; the whole thing wrapped in bacon and then grilled. Wow!

Andrea at The Green Backs Gal has a video tutorial on making Bacon Bundles.

Is this the ultimate in sweet/salty combos?  Maple Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies from Debbi Does Dinner.

Enjoy your first full weekend of the New Year!

Disclosure: I am compensated for my role as Community Leader for the International Delight Coffee Talk Community.

I had fun digging into Google Analytics to determine the top 10 posts for the year.  There were a few surprises and a few I predicted.  Here’s the list:

Top Posts for 2011

1.  28 Muffin Recipes You’ll Want to Try – This post went nuts on StumbleUpon.  I first noticed traffic several weeks after I posted it, but it just kept building.  Every few weeks a new burst of traffic hit again.  It just keeps stumbling along.

2.  Homemade Chicken and Dumplings. It’s Easy. Really. – Everyday people search “Chicken and Dumplings” and land on my blog.  I posted this less than a year after I started blogging.  I added it to Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen (where it’s got 5 oven mitts and 29 reviews).  A few weeks ago, the Tasty Kitchen Blog picked it up.  Pinterest loves that recipe too.

3.  Bowtie Pasta with Roasted Red Peppers and Grilled Chicken – Another that did really well on StumbleUpon.

4.  The Original Menu post (Week 1) that I posted way back in August of 2009.  With nearly 11,000 menu/grocery list downloads, this post remains the most popular of all of the menus. I guess most folks like to start at the very beginning.

5.  The No-Bake, No-Cook, No-Time Gift Solution – 4 Snack Mixes in a Jar – This has quickly shot to the top.  Everyone needs a last minute gift.  And Pinterest loves jars. Amen.

6.  36 Recipes for Restaurant-Style Meals at Home – Another that owes it’s spot on this list to StumbleUpon.

7.  Low Cost Menu/Grocery List/Recipes post from August ’09.

8.  Baked Spaghetti – I knew this would make the top 10.  People search for it every day.

9.  Printable Menu Planner – This is actually a page, not a post, but I’m including it anyway.

10.  Menu Week 5 – It’s near the top of the list on the Menus page in the Nav bar.  It just sits in a good location so it enjoys a lot of traffic.

Top Referrers in 2011

StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Facebook and Google are my top referrers, in that order.  But I want to talk about the blogs that send me traffic.

1.  The Organizing Junkie – I link to Menu Plan Monday each week.  Laura puts together an amazing linky party every Monday.  She’s got a fantastic blog all about organizing.  You’ve got to check it out.  It is nearly January, after all (resolutions and all that jazz).

2.  Disboards – It’s not a blog, but it is one of my favorite places online.  Disboards is a forum (many forums) for all things Disney.  I especially like the Budget Board.

3.  Crystal & Co. – I love Crystal.  If you haven’t checked out her blog, you should pop over there now.  Even her blog design and logo make me happy when I see them.

4.  My Life Scoop – This blog included Eat at Home in a list of “Top 10 Weeknight Dinner Blogs”.

5.  Hoosier Homemade – Liz and I have worked together on several projects over the past year.  She’s one of my best blogging friends

6.  Mommy’s Kitchen – Tina’s blog is similar to mine, in that we both cook “regular” food for families.

7.  Tasty Kitchen – This is mostly from the Chicken and Dumplings recipe, but I’ve got a few other recipes over there as well.

8.  Real Mom Kitchen – Another great blog for “regular” people food.

9.  Sprinkle Bakes – I love this blog.  She’s always making beautiful desserts.  Amazingly beautiful desserts.  And she was so gracious to add a link to my version of her Blue Velvet Cupcakes post.

10.  $5 Dinners – Erin Chase is fantastic and her blog is a wonderful resource for frugal cooking.

I love the work I do on my blog, the people I’ve met and of course all the food.  I am so thankful for all of you who read, comment, email, and share this space with me.

I pray you have a blessed New Year and I’m looking forward to sharing with you in 2012!