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I have a board on Pinterest titled "Pure Evil Food." It contains the most decadent, nutritionally void recipes I find to separate them from recipes with average or exceptional nutritional value. Whenever I make and share one of these recipes, my friends gush and also tease me about being evil. My 9-year-old daughter is in the running for the Evil title. One night this week when she had no homework and no extracurricular activities, she looked through a cookbook and found a recipe for from-scratch Cupcake Sliders. There's a whole stick of butter in the batter. She made them with only a little help from me. And though she is still learning how to follow directions to the letter, they still turned out just fine. You can fill them with Nutella or another chocolate-hazelnut spread or canned or homemade chocolate frosting. We used Nutella. I apologize for not taking photos of her creative process. I was making pumpkin chili at the same time. CUPCAKE SLIDERS 2 cups ...

On Christmas morning at my house, I want some easy but special nibbles to enjoy while we open presents. This is probably the most relaxed I'll be all day. As soon as we clean up wrapping paper, we change out of our PJs and start packing the car to go to my mom's house across the county for lunch. Not only do I take presents, I find myself taking more and more of the meal -- either dishes I've made ahead or the ingredients, recipes and kitchen equipment to prepare them. This year I'll be doing everything at her house. But that's another post. I make these easy rolls to treat myself and others throughout the year. They are just different fillings for crescent roll dough. CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT BRUNCH ROLLS 3 tubes of crescent rolls dough (If it's the traditional triangle cut, you'll have to push the perforations together. For this recipe, try to get the new variation where the dough is in strips or one big sheet.) Jar of Nutella chocolate-hazelnut spread (look f...

Well, I don't cheat at all cookies, but close readers will see my Chocolate Peppermint Sandwich cookies from an early post start with a boxed cake mix. And this Christmas cookie, rugelach, which I have never attempted to make from scratch, starts with a storebought pie crust. I saw it on the Rachael Ray TV show and had to try it. If I ever make it again, I'll try different jams for the filling or use Nutella chocolate-hazelnut spread instead of fooling with the melted butter and cocoa. This isn't bad tasting but it's not spectacular either. But it's a good way to get a little visual variety on your cookie tray, which is what I was going for. For Rachael Ray's recipe and a video demonstration, click here .