Slow Cooker Melt in Your Mouth BBQ Chicken

This chicken is slow cooked in homemade bbq sauce that is sweet and smokey with a little bite of vinegar!

I'm down for bbq sandwiches any time and I like to try out different recipes because there are so many styles of barbecue sauce out there. I believe this is closer to a Kansas City style bbq with its sweetness. But I do love the smokey flavor added by the molasses. I personally want coleslaw on any bbq sandwich, so I just whipped up some with prepared coleslaw dressing and premade cabbage mix.

Chocolate Gingerbread Toffee Cake #FantasticalFoodFight

Welcome to another Food Fight! Fantastical Food Fight is a group of food bloggers who will get a theme or ingredient each month and make some sort of variation for it. It could be traditional or nontraditional and can be found in a cookbook, on a blog, or be a blogger's own creation! For more details, check out this page.

This month's Fantastical Food Fight theme is GINGERBREAD. I looked ahead in the calendar and our December event will occur on the 19th and I thought that may be pushing it for doing a Gingerbread Food Fight and what better way to say goodbye to all the pumpkin things this week (just kidding, I don't say goodbye to pumpkin things). I had no earthly idea what I was going to make when I decided on our November theme, so I took to my holiday food Pinterest board, as one does when they need to pick a holiday themed recipe and found this gorgeous cake.

I'll be honest and say that at first glance I thought it would be a poke cake and I was absolutely down to make a poke cake. They are fabulous. Then upon reading the recipe discovered that this is a from scratch cake recipe AND it contains molasses. I don't make near enough things with molasses but it reminds me of my grandma and that makes me happy. The cake itself was fairly easy to make. I have gotten into the (good) habit of setting a timer 5 minutes earlier than the lowest time the recipe says to cook the food for and then check on my food in 5 minute increments. It definitely helps lower the amount of near-failure moments. The gingerbread spices shined and were complemented beautifully by rich chocolate! My favorite part of this cake was the topping though. It's gingered Cool Whip with toffee bits and chocolate chips. That alone would be a perfect dessert, in my opinion.

Homesick Texan Pot Roast

The perfect smoky pot roast that is served up with a horseradish jalapeno sauce that is to die for!

This recipe was supposed to be Homesick Texan Brisket because if my brother-in-law has conveyed anything about Texans...it's that they love their brisket. However, brisket is an expensive cut of meat, so I opted for the cheaper chuck roast. Sorry, not sorry, Texans. This is still a pretty great recipe and if you have a brisket to make, definitely use this recipe for it! I really love that there is molasses in this because it adds such a nice smoky richness to the meat. It also has a jalapeno horseradish sauce which was the most surprising part of the recipe to me. It's not pictured, but it was absolutely wonderful and I wish I always had some on hand. In fact, I'm not sure why I don't always have some on hand. I need to make some asap!

Pumpkin Molasses Cookies #SundaySupper

These chewy cookies are everything spice and nice and you won't be able to stop at one!

Today's Sunday Supper Movement event is BEST COOKIE EXCHANGE RECIPES. I jumped onto  this so quickly because I am in love with cookies and I love doing cookie exchanges. Really I love making cookies, especially at the holidays.

I originally found these cookies and they were named Pumpkin Gingersnaps. I didn't change the recipe, but I felt that they reminded me more of molasses cookies because they are thicker, crunchy on the edges, and soft and chewy in the middle. They definitely reminded me of my mom's molasses cookies that were my childhood favorite.

These pumpkin molasses cookies were so puffy and chewy and I loved every bit of them. I ate entirely too many and I'm seriously considering making another batch and hiding them, because as it turns out, Nick and Cami also really really like them.

These cookies, I feel, would be best for an in-person cookie exchange. But if you do want to send them, I suggest buying some inexpensive plastic food storage containers at a dollar store, so that there is a little protection while getting sent through the mail.

Gingerbread Cheesecake

This extraordinary holiday dessert has a gingersnap bottom, a creamy gingerbread and molasses cheesecake base, and is topped with a light and fluffy rum topping.

I'm not sure why, but I've found that lately I've been making cheesecake for holiday desserts. Typically, I am the one who brings dessert for any family function and I just keep latching onto cheesecake for some unknown reason. Last Christmas (yes...2016), I whipped up this gingerbread cheesecake and it was unbelievably amazing. The molasses in it was perfection and I loved the lightly rum flavored whipped topping. Plus the gingersnap bottom  - to die for! It turned out so beautifully and I was so happy with it. It was hard for me to not make it again this year, but alas, too many recipes hoarded to have repeats. But I'm very tempted to make it again and throw all caution to the wind :)

Gingerbread Thumbprint Cookies #FBLCookieExchange

These seasonal spiced cookies have a dollop of white chocolate in the middle - seriously wonderful cookies for Christmas!

After the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap ended, Allison of The PinterTest Kitchen and I decided we wanted to host a cookie exchange because it just didn't feel right to not have our yearly cookie exchange! And the Food Blogger Love Cookie Exchange was born.

The premise is that you are matched with 3 bloggers and send each a dozen cookies (and they don't know who has them until they receive their cookies!). In turn, you also receive a dozen cookies from 3 different bloggers. I received Triple Chocolate Biscotti from Fix Me A Little Lunch, shortbread sugar cookies with anise in them (I'll update the recipe title) from That Recipe, and Chocolate Peppermint Crinkle Cookies from Strawberry Blondie Kitchen. I will update later today with the links to the recipes of the cookies I received. I loved each and every one of them. Thank you to everyone who joined in!

I sent a dozen each of these gingerbread thumbprint cookies to Hetal, Megan, and Colleen. I picked out the recipe at the end of October, knowing that I really wanted to make something more holiday-esque. Last year I finally figured out that I wanted all the gingerbread things at Christmas time, so I am making as many gingerbread recipes as I can fit in during the holiday season this year! Originally these cookies were stuffed with dark chocolate, but I went the white chocolate route because I just felt gingerbread and white chocolate go together better.

If you would like to be notified of blogging events like this cookie exchange, please check out the Food Blogger Love group: here.

Grandma Jane's Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies #FantasticalFoodFight

Welcome to another Food Fight! Fantastical Food Fight is a group of food bloggers who will get a theme or ingredient each month and make some sort of variation for it. It could be traditional or nontraditional and can be found in a cookbook, on a blog, or be a blogger's own creation! For more details, check out this page.

It's time again for another Food Fight and this month's theme is HONEY because September is National Honey Month! The Food Fighters were not given any particular type of dish so long as it contains honey.

I knew immediately what I wanted to make because I have meant to since my grandma gave me the recipe years ago: my Grandma Jane's Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies! I have made her honey M&M cookies, but to be honest, I think I always liked the regular chocolate chip cookies a little more. My grandma told me she put honey in her cookies to help them keep longer. She always had her cookie jar stocked when I came over and I remember her pulling out big gallon zipper bags of cookies from her deep freezer in the basement if they got low.

You get a little bit of texture difference if you use shortening versus butter. I like them both ways, but I feel they are softer with butter. My grandma made them with shortening and they were firmer - not crunchy, but not soft either. They don't last long in my house...just as they never lasted long in my grandma's house either!

Gingerbread Cookie Bars

Chewy spiced gingerbread cookies in bar form topped with cream cheese frosting - perfect for the winter months!

Gingerbread is quintessential for Christmas and I don't make anything gingerbread...ever. What's wrong with me? So last year, I decided to change that and I picked something gingerbread from my Pinterest boards. I picked out a beautiful first gingerbread dessert recipe and would love to have them again soon. The base is chewy and spiced and wonderful. The frosting is creamy and finger-licking good. The combination of the two is magical and seriously perfect for Christmas. I topped mine with a little homemade gingerbread spice mix.