Egyptian Ghorayebah Cookies #eattheworld

It’s time for our taste buds to travel the world with the Eat the World Recipe Challenge and today we’re heading to Egypt!

Funny story…

I’ve actually had this recipe sitting in the “to be blogged” pile for almost two years!  Yes, you read that correctly.

So back in December 2017, Dude had to do a Christmas around the World report.  Plus he decided that he needed to being cookies when he gave his report (and why not?)  Dude had chosen Egypt as his Christmas around the world country, so it was up to me to find an Egyptian Christmas cookie to make.

So why didn’t I post them?  Well, that year I made then right before Christmas and Christmastime is insanely busy, so I never got to it.  Then last year, it slipped my mind.  And now we’re at today when we’re traveling to Egypt and I totally have a recipe that I never blogged!

Back to School Pencil Cupcakes

Who starts school tomorrow??

Now that I have one in middle school (omg – middle school – how the heck did that happen?!?) and one in elementary, we have different start times!

Elementary started before Labor Day and middle starts after, so I’m on both sides!  Lately I’ve been inundated with school open houses (meet the teacher), back to school potlucks, orientations, and registrations!  This is the first time my kiddoes have been on two different schools, and let me to tell you – it’s intense!  Last week, we had middle school open house and elementary back to school picnic/potluck on consecutive nights.  Being the baker I am, it is expected that I bring cupcakes to the potluck.

I was nine kinds of exhausted, and kinda wanted to phone it in and just bake some cupcakes and squeeze some frosting on top, but I just couldn’t do it!

So I spent open house at one school googling easy back to school cupcakes.  Instead of getting creative with the cupcake flavor, I went with a creative cupcake topper instead!

Cantina Special

A couple days ago, I shared a Food n Flix Star Wars themed “Bantha Milk” Blue Milk Tea hosted by Kelley at Simply Inspired Meals,

As stunning as those colors were, it wasn’t a hit with my family (including me).  However, I have another blue drink in the wings…for readers 21 and older, please.

Last during that vacation that I never posted about (seriously – it’s this week’s goal!) we had a belated wedding reception/celebration for my brother-in-law and new sister-in-law.  During the celebration, a delightful blue drink appeared in my hand. 

Blue Milk Tea aka Bantha Milk

It’s Food n’ Flix time again and this time Kelley from Simply Inspired Recipes chose an entire franchise!  And it’s my favorite!  STAR WARS!!!!

I’ve made numerous Star Wars themed treats over the years (like Galaxy & Nebula Cookies or May the Fourth Mix) and hosted Star Wars parties (featuring Leia's Pizza Buns and Han Shot First Hummus), but this time I wanted to stretch myself and make something not just inspired by Star Wars, but actually appearing in Star Wars, which limits one greatly, since foods appearing in Star Wars are pretty much blue bantha milk and green ration bread.  Hmmm…

I decided to go with the bantha milk since it appears right away in A New Hope – the very first of the Star Wars movies.

Deconstructed Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole #FantasticalFoodFight

It’s time for Fantastical Food Fight hosted by Sarah from aFantastical Sharing of Recipes.  Just in time for the start of school, we’re sharing 30-minute meals.

Okay, real talk.  All week long, I’ve been in professional development meetings PLUS middle school orientation, PLUS, baseball practice, PLUS back to school night PLUS Hubs is out of town.  The struggle is real you guys and this is a 30 minute meal I was able to whip out with the ingredients I could find in my pantry.

Arroz con Tocino (Puerto Rican Rice with Bacon)

Here we are at the Eat the World Recipe challenge again and we’re headed to Puerto Rico!

You guys – the struggle was real this month and I really didn’t think it would be!

What really did me in was that we had just gotten back from out 2-week long vacation before the country was announced (and I *still* haven’t shared about that! AAHHH!!  Summer brain!  I’ll get there, I promise!)

It took me a while to get back in the groove of things and then Hubs went out of town for 3 (yes, THREE) back to back trips, leaving him gone for 2 ½ weeks.  And it is always so much more difficult to cook when it’s just me and the kids.  They’re adventurous eaters, but there’s only so far I can go without reinforcement.  Then, a week after Hubs left, Dude went away to boy scout camp for a week, leaving just me and Spud!  Cooking was almost nil.  One batch of taco meat lasted us the entire week!

Twice Baked Potato Potato Pie

It’s #FoodnFlix time and this month Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla chose The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  The title seemed vaguely familiar.  I hunted down a copy and got to watching and it was a delightful movie!

It is set post-World War II in England and follows a medley of characters as the reminisce about the war, hardships, and friendships that evolved – and of course potato peel pie was mentioned!  With rationed food, the only offering one member had to bring to the book club (or literary society) was potato peel pie with potato peel crust, potato filling, and potato topping! 

There was other food in the movie to be sure, but before I set out to cooking, I remembered where I heard the title – it is the book of the same name, which I thought an odd name, so I passed on it without finding out what the book was about.  After watching the movie, and liking it, I knew I had to try the book before creating a recipe!